Ask the Author: David Hodges
Answered Questions (10)
David Hodges
Hi Kevin,
Yes, I lived there, at Mark, for around eleven years and. prior to that, at Cheddar. I deliberately use local references when I can to make my novels more geographically 'personal'. I no longer live on the Levels, but it is a place that has certainly fired my imagination. Thanks for contacting me. I hope you like my other novels in the series.
Best Wishes
Davide
Yes, I lived there, at Mark, for around eleven years and. prior to that, at Cheddar. I deliberately use local references when I can to make my novels more geographically 'personal'. I no longer live on the Levels, but it is a place that has certainly fired my imagination. Thanks for contacting me. I hope you like my other novels in the series.
Best Wishes
Davide
David Hodges
The hand that held the knife was already dripping with the blood of his previous victim and she waited with baited breath in the closet for her turn!
David Hodges
Probably Sherlock Holmes' Victorian London, if I could stand the poverty and the smells. There is something so atmospheric and all-consuming about Conan Doyle's masterpieces; you are there with Holmes and Watson all the way and though the plots are a little light and fanciful, the atmosphere is absoutely superb and I would love to experience it.
David Hodges
Summer is nearly over this year and I am looking forward toLee Child's next novel, which I believe is Blue Moon??? (October 2019???)
So far this summer I have been reading the crime novels of Jo Nesbo, with mixed success. His novel, The Leopard, was excellent, but I am still trying to struggle through The Redbreast, which seems over long and very confusing. I am also retracing my reading steps to look at some old books on my bookshelf by Sapper (Bulldog Drummond) and Sax Rohmer (Fu Manchu) You can't beat the old ones.
So far this summer I have been reading the crime novels of Jo Nesbo, with mixed success. His novel, The Leopard, was excellent, but I am still trying to struggle through The Redbreast, which seems over long and very confusing. I am also retracing my reading steps to look at some old books on my bookshelf by Sapper (Bulldog Drummond) and Sax Rohmer (Fu Manchu) You can't beat the old ones.
David Hodges
The idea for my last book, 'Target', which was a controversial political thriller set mainly in Northern Ireland, was an idea I had been toying with for some time. I wanted to focus more attention on a key character, rather than just a plot, and to show how a single horrific tragic event can change someone almost overnight and send them on a downward spiral of self-destruction from which there is no escape. As a former policeman, I had seen this happen to people so many times and in the case of my key character here - a vulnerable teenage girl - environment played an integral part in it all, destroying her innocence and turning her into a cold-blooded killer.
David Hodges
Inspiration is a funny old word and over used, in my opinion. In reality, writing is a compulsion, which you can't leave alone; a bit like an itch you can't stop scratching. I was 'inspired', I suppose you'd call it, after reading Sax Rohmer's Fu Manchu stories and dreaming about doing something similar in the middle of dreary maths or science lessons at school. Since then, plots just come out of the blue. I see or hear something and think, 'that might make a good story', and just go with it. It might be an old dark house I see on the roadside or just something someone says. It's difficult to explain what motivates me. The problem is discipline - staying with the idea and not deviating to something else on the way.
David Hodges
I've written gritty police style thrillers for most of my 'writing life', but after my last two stand-alone thrillers, 'Blast' and 'Target', I decided to go back to the very beginning and resurrect a manuscript I abandoned and stuck in a drawer when I was 15! It is a Gothic style mystery, so something completely different, and I have thoroughly enjoyed the change, particularly the research into the Victorian era, which is part of the fun. It is now two-thirds completed, but that is only the beginning even when the MS is finished, for then begins the worst part about writing - reviewing, editing, editing and editing. Wish me luck!
David Hodges
My advice to aspiring writers is to stick at it. There is no such thing as failure. Novels are accepted or rejected largely on someone else's opinion; it doesn't necessarily mean when they are rejected that they are no good or, if they are accepted, that they are the best thing since sliced bread. Writing is largely a lottery. But though rejection is bruising - I have had it many times - you just have to pick yourself up and get on with it again. So, stickability, that's the most important thing and be ultra critical of your own work, so that you can learn from your mistakes.
David Hodges
Quite simply, for me the best thing about being a writer is escape. Whatever is going on in the world, you can just forget it, buckle down to a new manuscript and create a world of your own, where you can control everything that happens. I just love the creative aspects of writing, the challenge of putting a plot together and seeing the finished product after all the sweat and toil - whether it is published or not. And when the book is published and someone actually says they enjoyed it, that is the best thing of all - not from an egotistical point of view, but because you have given someone else pleasure.
David Hodges
This is the most frustrating thing about writing. I deal with it by leaving my manuscript on my desk and doing something totally different, like gardening, going for a walk or relaxing with friends. You need to clear your mind of the problem and in due course the answer will come to you through the fog. Sometimes writer's block is caused by stress, too much concentration or just plain exhaustion. Hope this helps???
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more
Oct 29, 2020 08:55AM · flag