Ask the Author: Nico Lee
Answered Questions (6)
Nico Lee
It fell out of me head, mister. I just woke up typing... reams and reams of it, with no idea where it was going. I just had the narrator, the initial locale and the idea he was going in a certain direction and I just kept following him. Then once it was complete, then I went back and realised that some of the people he was travelling with had different paths. Finally I added in some sequences that allowed me to go off track, let the thing breathe- so I could keep the end point far enough down the line to make sense in terms of the overall arc.
Nico Lee
It has the working title 'Tokyo-yo'. I hate titles. Perhaps I should have considered that when talking about writer's block. It's about a young Japanese girl in 2035 and follows her life up until she's in her sixties. It's more Big Lebowski than science fiction though. It's a detective story where the detective isn't a detective and does very little detection. It's slightly more whimsical than my last book- but that's what happens when characters get murdered, it brings out my inner silliness.
Nico Lee
Make sure your last name is Faber? I got very lucky. A friend of a friend, who publishes music biographies was looking to branch out into fiction. I submitted my work and he thought it was hilarious, so... This is the only stroke of luck I've had in... my entire life? Of course if I was really lucky, my friend of a friend would have owned a major publishing house. Other advice. It's all about creating networks, bla, blah, blah... except the skill set you need to schmooze may quite, probably be diametrically opposite to what you need to be a good writer.
Nico Lee
The paychecks. Thomas Pynchon makes millions from chat show appearances, alone... Or it could be that it doesn't matter what is the best thing. If you are 'a writer' it's not like you chose to be. It's like asking what's the best thing about being a monkey. It's essential monkey-ness probably precludes... no, wait, a minute, it's bananas. Is the answer to both, bananas?
Nico Lee
I only write when I want to. My novel 'A Good Lie Ain't Easy' is standard novel length. 63,000 words. It took quite a while to edit, but I wrote it in one and a half weeks. When I get the desire to write it pours out of me. Can't stop it. I could lie, and say I can't imagine sitting at a desk everyday, saying I must write x amount of words by midday, but I can imagine that, as I've done that. Just not for a novel. But that's not neccesarily art. Or rather you can get art from it, but the very best feeling is when you can't stop yourself, when you're compelled to produce. If I had to write prose when I wasn't interested in writing prose? My answer would be do other stuff, eventually something will make you think, will set off the spark again. If it doesn't, then maybe it's just that part of your life is, at least for the time being, over. I work part-time doing other stuff, so I'm not relying on having to write- I'd imagine if you are, and you have deadlines, that's a whole other set of problems. Don't get me wrong, it's a set I'd gladly give up my current job for.
Nico Lee
An odd mix. John Collier's 'His Monkey Wife, Or, Married to a Chimp' as I really enjoyed getting to re-read his 'Fancies and Goodnights' recently. I'd leant the 'Fancies' book to a friend when at University. Never got it back. Then forgot about it. Every few years I'd think, 'What was that book and who was the author? You know, the one with the short story that they very, very, very loosely based the film Mannequin on..?' Then the wonders of the internet finally enabled it to be tracked down, even with me forgetting the author's name. So, anyway, I thought I'd try his monkey novel which for years I'd conflated with the film 'Max Mon Amour'- where Charlotte Rampling falls in love with a chimp. Next up, 'The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist'- which my, now Daily Mail reading, mother has been banging on at me to read for many years. I suspect I will not be dazzled by it's prose, but will end up blubbing because of it's subject matter. Followed by Joseph Heller's 'Something Happened', which I'm fairly convinced I must have read as a young teenager, but now, for the life of me, I cannot remember anything about. I think if I did I might not bother. Yet it's that vague suspicion I might be dissapointed that compels me to persist, somehow... and there is a 'Catch 22' in here somewhere, but I haven't quite teased it out of this mess. Oh and, kid you not, 'War and Peace', as I'm sick of just using it as a yardstick for length and actually want to find out what all the fuss is about, especially as I really enjoyed, if that's the right word, 'Resurrection'. Besides it's no use using it as a byword for very long if you've already read Proust.
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