SPINETINGLERS:
Before we start we would just like to offer our sincerest
congratulations on The
Wannabes, we thoroughly enjoyed it, and it is a
truly excellent debut novel which we are delighted you
are going to be selling in our Spinetinglers shop when
it goes live.
Ok, so where did the idea for The Wannabes come from?
F.R. Jameson:
Which is the question I’m most often asked (laughs).
To be honest I can’t give you a simple answer
as there was no eureka moment where it all just popped
into my mind. It all came to me gradually, built up
until there was just such a weight of ideas I knew I
had to write it. You know, the book is about people
just past their twenties aspiring for fame, and I had
been an aspiring writer in my twenties and so knew a
lot of these people, and that environment – once
you threw in the horror elements – just seemed
ripe for a story.
SPINETINGLERS:
That’s interesting, as in our review we especially
picked out how vapid and self-obsessed the characters
were, they weren’t based on real people were they?
F.R. Jameson:
Well no, none of them were actually based on real people,
but I knew the types. I’d met your self-obsessed
actresses and your talentless musicians who talked endlessly
about playing Wembley. And I was there too, so I guess
I was one of them. And none of them were as bad as the
characters in the book, but I knew that if I turned
their traits up to 11 I could have a lot of fun. That’s
why the two central characters, the detectives as it
were, are slightly apart from them. Clay is the unambitious
innocent returned to London who needs to be brought
up to speed, while Toby is the cynic. They see through
the delusions of all the others.
SPINETINGLERS:
When you were an aspiring author in your twenties were
you vapid and self-obsessed?
F.R. Jameson:
(Laughs) Probably. I hope I kept a lid on it better
than the characters in the book.
SPINETINGLERS:
How do you write?
F.R. Jameson:
Intensely. Once I have an idea I want to run with, I
just have to get it down as fast as possible. I actually
write at night, which I suppose is suitably spooky for
someone in the ‘supernatural thriller’ or
‘horror’ field. On an average night I’ll
go to bed at about ten and then get up again at two
and write for a few hours before having a nap and then
heading out to whatever job I’m currently doing.
That nap can actually be really intense, as I’m
so buzzing with ideas it can turn into something like
a fever dream, where all my characters are alive and
I’m interacting with them. Frequently my commute
can see me scribbling down ideas from these dreams which
I’ll try to use the next night.
SPINETINGLERS:
And do you have a different process for writing a short
story to writing a novel?
F.R. Jameson:
No, not at all. Some ideas are just better suited to
being short stories. Like The
White Room, for example, that’s just got a
great shape for a short story. Or Fyte, I can’t
see any way you could extend that into a longer piece.
Some ideas just work in short story form and you can
start and finish them within 5000 words and get across
all you want to say.
SPINETINGLERS:
The first story you had published on this site was Adultery,
which received some comment for not seeming to have
a proper ending. Were you surprised by that?
F.R. Jameson:
I was actually, because I thought it was the classic
fireside ghost story – you know, ‘then they
realised the hitchhiker only had a hook for a hand’
type ending. That’s what I was aiming for. And
I guess there are some people who would rather have
everything wrapped up neatly, but I prefer sometimes
to just leave things hanging unresolved. It’s
that old Hollywood maxim isn’t it? Always leave
them wanting more.
SPINETINGLERS:
So what’s next for you? Is there a ‘Wannabes’
sequel?
F.R. Jameson:
No, I don’t think there will be a sequel to that.
I am just finishing off a new book though, which at
the moment I’m quite happy with. And beyond that,
well, I have a constant stream of ideas.
SPINETINGLERS:
Once again thank you so much for taking the time to
do this for us - we really appreciate - myself especially
as I think it was me who roped you into to it so to
speak. My hope is that your second novel is as fantastic
as The Wannabes and also I hope your constant stream
of ideas includes some more short stories for Spinetinglers
- I think it's time we had you back in our winners circle!
