Ask the Author: Shane Harrison
Answered Questions (10)
Shane Harrison
It’s a scenario that every writer, or would-be writer, must consider. What mystery, or event, in your life could be a plot for a book? Like most writers, I have culled from personal experience. Some do it more than others. There’s always the danger of falling into that less admired genre: a writer writing about a writer writing. But that is just the autobiographical watermark that haunts every page.
Is such writing the equivalent of the self portrait, with the author gazing at their own reflection? Or even a string of reflections stretching back in time. It’s a bit like those infinity mirror set ups. Flann O’Brien’s fictional philosopher, De Selby, proposed that each reflection was like a snapshot in time. He claimed that he could, with a telescope, make out a distant reflection of himself as a child, but couldn’t see further owing to the limitations of the telescope and the curvature of the earth.
I see Sally Rooney, having scored two bestsellers with musings on her own life, writes a third bestseller about a writer who has written two bestsellers. I’m something of the opposite. I may have written two novels but very few have read them. Perhaps that’s the mystery I should write about.
I have been writing non-fiction for most of the last few years. It gives me the chance to complete, or begin the jigsaw, or even glimpse the illustration on the box. But every so often I’m compelled to make something up. Will it be the resolution of some great mystery from my past? Who can tell? I certainly won’t.
Is such writing the equivalent of the self portrait, with the author gazing at their own reflection? Or even a string of reflections stretching back in time. It’s a bit like those infinity mirror set ups. Flann O’Brien’s fictional philosopher, De Selby, proposed that each reflection was like a snapshot in time. He claimed that he could, with a telescope, make out a distant reflection of himself as a child, but couldn’t see further owing to the limitations of the telescope and the curvature of the earth.
I see Sally Rooney, having scored two bestsellers with musings on her own life, writes a third bestseller about a writer who has written two bestsellers. I’m something of the opposite. I may have written two novels but very few have read them. Perhaps that’s the mystery I should write about.
I have been writing non-fiction for most of the last few years. It gives me the chance to complete, or begin the jigsaw, or even glimpse the illustration on the box. But every so often I’m compelled to make something up. Will it be the resolution of some great mystery from my past? Who can tell? I certainly won’t.
Shane Harrison
Without being too terse, I would say: write. Then (deep breath) edit. And, as it says of the bottle of pills: repeat as necessary. The important thing is to enjoy the writing and to do it in your own way. Reading is something I am enjoying immensely at the moment, more so than writing; but these things come in cycles. Welcome both, but don't confuse them. When you read your own work you are editing. When you read another's work, you may be critical, or relaxing, or searching for inspiration. But, when you sit down to write, it's just yourself and your quill. I've just been thinking that my first 'quill' was a portable typewriter that I bought in Liverpool. I took the early morning ferry from Dublin and arrived on the Mersey waterfront at dawn. This is how writing begins ...
Shane Harrison
The short answer is: life. Whenever I step outside the door, all the images that crowd me suggest a story of some sort. Over the last couple of years I've been writing a lot of non-fiction. The places I visit, from my home town of Bray to further afield in Dublin, in Ireland or overseas, have so many facets of interest that I am compelled to write about them. Sometimes this is simply an account of me moving around in the environment, and of course this leads to me tunnelling into the history of a particular place or artefact. These might often resonate with previous experiences, with my personal dreams and memories and all the varied histories that have been important to me. And stories are always happening. A chance meeting, an observed event, an overheard conversation; each or all of these can combine to create a story in my head. It is not lack of inspiration that bedevils me, but too much at times. I jot down written notes and visual sketches. Some of these come to fruition as stories, non-fiction accounts or paintings. Sometimes all three. I look forward to post-covid days when I can explore again. In the meantime, there's plenty of interest in my hometown, looking out my back door, or within my memories and imagination. The recent launch of my third collection, Kings on the Roof, has sent some of these stories out into the world where hopefully they will lodge in some readers minds. There will be more to follow.
Shane Harrison
I'm glad your enjoying Virginia, Aidan. It's my only published novel (so far) and it is a Western, but I'd have to say it's a vein I haven't mined extensively in my short stories. However, Kings on the Roof actually includes a Western Story: Cloud City. This is something of a time travel tale, or perhaps Slipstream is a better genre description. Cloud City begins in contemporary times, somewhere in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, then tunnels back to post Goldrush days. A western within a western also occurs. The dime western the sheriff reads includes Kit Carson, a real life character, and a couple who feature in Virginia. The other stories in Kings are a varied bunch, but I'm hoping you give it a go. The Western theme, and the American continent, are places I want to return to in prose and in person.
Shane Harrison
I am also a painter and the best thing is when the painting clicks and I have a finished work in my hand that sends a surge through me. Although the writing process is radically different, the thrill is similar. A short story is something like a painting, being a finite piece that is relatively quickly assimilated. Stories, however, take up lodgings within, rather than being something to observe. There is a long term satisfaction with the realisation of a story. The process itself can be both heaven and hell, and all things in between. Longer writing pieces, such as a novel, take up a lot of time and internal space. I love it, most of the time, but it's a long and winding road. As a writer, it's difficult to separate the journey from the destination. One way or another; I can't stop doing it. So, perhaps there is no best thing, only the thing itself.
Shane Harrison
Great question; I could do a lot with that concept. That's the whole joy of reading, and writing; being in that particular book world. I am planning a trip to Edinburgh in September. I was there once before, a birthday treat by my divine M, back in the nineties. Always wanted to return and reading Ian Rankin's Rebus series gave me the extra impetus. Ian Rankin has been good enough to give me the outline of a feasible Rebus crawl and, all going well, I hope to attempt that in the Autumn. There are plenty of literary highlights in Edinburgh, and the city itself is a wonderful manifestation of Gothic fantasy. From the Confessions of a Justified Sinner to Harry Potter, there's a world of imaginings within Edinburgh. As a city you couldn't make it up, although I might try. Meanwhile, I am creating a Gothic Dublin in a work I've been attempting for the last couple of years. With foreign, and even local travel so curtailed, the best place to travel, the only place to travel, is inside my own head. This is often the case for a writer. As we know, Bram Stoker never actually visited Transylvania. For me, it is some consolation, and I am sure, like many, when the walls come down I will want to be somewhere, anywhere, else but here.
Shane Harrison
I suppose that in answering this question I am dealing with the dreaded Writer's Block. In a way WB is like the affliction of perfectionism. Either nothing you write is good enough, or nothing you consider writing about is worthy enough. This question, for instance, has been lurking on my screen for weeks. Should I admit to the wretched thing by writing about it? Am I so vain that I think I have the answer? Neither, but at least I've written something and, hey, who knows but I might start writing more.
Shane Harrison
hmmm ...... I'll get back to you on that.
Shane Harrison
I have just finished a collection of short stories, to be called: Kings on the Roof. There are eleven stories in the collection, set variously in Dublin, rural Ireland, the American West and an unnamed Latin, or Latin American city. Some landscapes, and cityscapes, owe more to the imagination than actual topography. The story, Cloud City, slips between modern times and the old Wild West. A couple of characters from my last novel, The Testimony of Virginia McCabe, have cameo roles. Hey, it's fiction!
Shane Harrison
My most recent novel, The Testimony of Virginia McCabe was published in 2013. I suppose, having spent a childhood enthralled by cinema Westerns, the idea is practically hard-wired to my system. A fly-drive holiday to the American west, Denver to California, brought it to the surface. I stayed in Leadville (Colorado), Durango and Monument Valley. My photograph for Goodreads is taken in Leadville, by the way. Meanwhile, my alter ego and narrator, Virginia McCabe, is, like me, a visual artist. In other ways, I am quite unlike Virginia.
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