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So, Dean and Ritchie Valentine Smith met at Fantasycon 2017 and chewed the cud over a few drinks – they talked about collaborating in the future so it was great news when Ritchie agreed to be part of the Short Sharp Shocks! Series – Monster Beach is Book 4 in the series. Dean and Ritchie hadn’t been able to meet in the flesh since that original (and historic!) first meeting and have been very much ‘passing ships’ ever since at various events. But just prior to publication they sat down and talked Monster Beach.
DEMAIN PUBLISHING: Ritchie hi – great to speak to you – you are very determined and focused gentlemen, something I was able to see right from the first time we met…thank you so much for sending me Monster Beach – I thoroughly enjoyed it – can you tell our readers a little more about it. RITCHIE VALENTINE SMITH: Monster Beach is a kind of off-cut from my fantasy series Words Of Power. On the level of fiction, it is about characters in a fantasy world following mythic archetypes. On a directly personal level, it is about fiercely aggressive crabs on a Cuban beach! Finally, it’s about the horrible power beauty can exert over us. DP: And you’ve been very successful in that…I’ve always wanted to visit Cuba but then I read your story and I think I might have changed my mind ha ha – was writing the story challenging / hard in any way? RVS: It’s not easy to make a big alternate world clear in just a few thousand words. I hope I’ve succeeded! DP: In my opinion you definitely have – I was totally immersed in the story / world within only a few lines so hats off to you my friend. I don’t think I particularly do when I create but when you were writing Monster Beach did you see / feel yourself as any of the characters? RVS: I suppose I identify most with Man (Emmanuel-John Kinross) who is prickly and somewhat insecure – but also good-hearted. I have been lucky enough to see all sorts of fantastic locations and things in my travels, so I use them, shamelessly. Example: one day I want to use the walled Old City of Jerusalem. DP: That would be amazing, I’ve toyed a couple of times with writing something in the Middle East but could never find the right angle so to speak, so good luck with that and would love to read it when its finished. Ritchie do you have a particular writing style… RVS: I tend to write quite complex prose about complex, off-the-wall ideas. I do sometimes struggle for maximum clarity and hope I achieve it. DP: In what I’ve read of your work so far I would say that you have achieved it so well done because I know it isn’t always easy…let’s talk about your influences… RVS: In horror, Stephen King is the master, don’t you think? Salem’s Lot is truly, truly frightening. For other things (love, the exotic alien background) I’ve always admired the greatest science-fiction / fantasy novel there is, James Clavell’s Shogun. DP: I’ll admit I’m not the greatest King fan but totally buy into what you’re saying. The Dark Half is in my opinion one of the best he’s written and I really enjoyed the film version too. Timothy Hutton is an amazing actor in that and was brilliant also in the recent adaptation of The Haunting Of Hill House – starring one of my very favourite actors Henry Thomas who is now a ‘genre’ author – so welcome to the family Henry!!!! Myself and my previous writing partner did have the rights to a King short story – we moved the setting to the South of France and came up with some interesting ideas if we ever get the money…anyway, anyway, enough about that – what next for you, what do you have in the pipe-line? RVS: I am currently working on a fantasy sequence set in a variant of samurai Japan. The next book is Words of Darkness (where bad things happen to good people), which is preceded by Words of Power and then Words of Fury. We then go on, I hope, to Great Albion itself, and then to other lands round the corner from this world, including Hindia and T’zina (China). DP: That’s pretty amazing – I love the idea of writing stories about different cultures etc – a lot of my work, particularly the last few years, has been based / set in France so perhaps it’s time to widen the net a little…you’re always busy (and focused!) are there any days when the words just don’t flow the way you’d like? RVS: I have good days and bad days, like anyone else working creatively. I have never had long-term writer’s block – and hope I never do! DP: I hope so too – so to help / assist you do write an outline before you start or just go for it? RVS: I don’t work from formal written outlines, but the arc of the story has to be clear in my head. (Though even I am surprised by how the story changes...) DP: That’s what I love about creating – once you start writing, the plot and / or the characters end up telling YOU where they should be headed rather than the other way around…it can be frustrating at times but it’s their life, not yours! Is there a particular theme or two that runs through your work? RVS: I like to write about the power of people in unusual and exotic locations. I like to think I celebrate the human spirit. But, yes, in my writing dark things do happen. DP: That they do, that they do. Okay, so pitch me Monster Beach. RVS: In horror films we already know ugly things can kill us. In this story it’s actually the beautiful things that destroy... DP: That’s clever…and if you were writing a short synopsis? RVS: In a fantastic land (based on samurai Japan as new world powers, such as Great Albion, arrive) there is a myth about ‘The One Who Will Change’, who will be a liberating force. This person, Emmanuel (call him Man) lands along with his friends on what may be the ‘midnight beach’ of Prophecy. They must cross it – or their world, and then our world too, will perish... DP: Finally, Ritchie can you tell us something about you we don’t know or which might surprise us? RVS: As well as being an award-winning playwright, way back in the hippyish/punk mists of time I was a minor poet. DP: Thank you so much Ritchie, I enjoyed that chat – see you soon and of course all the best with Monster Beach. For more information about Ritchie Valentine Smith, please check out: www.ritchievalentinesmith.com TWITTER: @ RitchieVSmith
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CategoriesArchives
November 2023
AuthorDean M. Drinkel |