Ask the Author: David Flin
Answered Questions (8)
David Flin
Sorry about the long delay in replying.
Yes, I was.
Yes, I was.
David Flin
Not so much a mystery, but I've had several things happen in my life that could easily form the basis of a book. For example, how I met Alison, my late wife.
It was 1982, and I was a Royal Marine. April came and Argentina invaded the Falklands. As a consequence, I went Down South, along with my troop and a whole bunch of other people.
Things happened, which are not germane to the story. However, on the night of 11/12 June, 42 Commando (of which I was a part, commanding No 2 Troop of K Company) had to attack Mt Harriet. So far, so normal. We attacked and took the position. It was at this point that we recognised that, having taken the position, the Argentine forces would soon be shelling it, and would have the position down to the inch. Consequently, I rushed about making sure all my boys were well in cover before the shelling started.
It so happened that the Argentine forces started shelling while I was still checking on my boys, and a shell landed and exploded rather too close for comfort. I was badly injured and, as a result, got a nice helicopter ride back to the Casualty Clearing Station back in San Carlos, while I held the bits of me that should be inside and stopped them from falling on the floor. I'm no medical expert, but I thought this wouldn't be good for me.
When I arrived at San Carlos, a nurse patched me up, stitched the major wounds shut to stop bits falling on the floor. Then she got detailed off to accompany me on another helicopter ride to the hospital ship Uganda, where there were proper medical facilities. "Keep that bugger alive" was the instructions she was given. By now, I was so doped up on morphine as a painkiller that I wasn't making much sense, but apparently I kept telling everyone that I had dry socks for my boys in my pack and they had to make sure they got these socks. One focuses on the most trivial of details in such situations. Mind you, dry socks were a vital feature of this little war. I digress.
She flew with me to the Uganda, and stayed with me until I went under the knife. As you can tell by the fact that I'm around to write this, the operation was a success.
Uganda sailed back to Britain with me on it. The nurse was also on the ship.
By the time the ship arrived at Britain, Alison (the nurse, my grubby-faced angel of the aid station) and I were engaged.
Which is, by anyone's reckoning, one hell of a first date. I'm not sure anyone else can claim a two-month long first date on a luxury liner with an engagement before the end.
I proposed the plot as the basis of a story to Mills & Boon, who rejected the idea as being "too implausible". My real-life meeting with the lady who became my wife was too implausible for M&B. Never mind.
I still say it could be used as the plot for a book. I just need to work out a suitable publisher for it.
It was 1982, and I was a Royal Marine. April came and Argentina invaded the Falklands. As a consequence, I went Down South, along with my troop and a whole bunch of other people.
Things happened, which are not germane to the story. However, on the night of 11/12 June, 42 Commando (of which I was a part, commanding No 2 Troop of K Company) had to attack Mt Harriet. So far, so normal. We attacked and took the position. It was at this point that we recognised that, having taken the position, the Argentine forces would soon be shelling it, and would have the position down to the inch. Consequently, I rushed about making sure all my boys were well in cover before the shelling started.
It so happened that the Argentine forces started shelling while I was still checking on my boys, and a shell landed and exploded rather too close for comfort. I was badly injured and, as a result, got a nice helicopter ride back to the Casualty Clearing Station back in San Carlos, while I held the bits of me that should be inside and stopped them from falling on the floor. I'm no medical expert, but I thought this wouldn't be good for me.
When I arrived at San Carlos, a nurse patched me up, stitched the major wounds shut to stop bits falling on the floor. Then she got detailed off to accompany me on another helicopter ride to the hospital ship Uganda, where there were proper medical facilities. "Keep that bugger alive" was the instructions she was given. By now, I was so doped up on morphine as a painkiller that I wasn't making much sense, but apparently I kept telling everyone that I had dry socks for my boys in my pack and they had to make sure they got these socks. One focuses on the most trivial of details in such situations. Mind you, dry socks were a vital feature of this little war. I digress.
She flew with me to the Uganda, and stayed with me until I went under the knife. As you can tell by the fact that I'm around to write this, the operation was a success.
Uganda sailed back to Britain with me on it. The nurse was also on the ship.
By the time the ship arrived at Britain, Alison (the nurse, my grubby-faced angel of the aid station) and I were engaged.
Which is, by anyone's reckoning, one hell of a first date. I'm not sure anyone else can claim a two-month long first date on a luxury liner with an engagement before the end.
I proposed the plot as the basis of a story to Mills & Boon, who rejected the idea as being "too implausible". My real-life meeting with the lady who became my wife was too implausible for M&B. Never mind.
I still say it could be used as the plot for a book. I just need to work out a suitable publisher for it.
David Flin
My most recent book, the Complete Tales of Sergeant Frosty, has been over 40 years in development.
It all started in 1972, when a group of Royal Marines were on exercise in north Norway in winter. It was cold, dark, and we were on top of a hill with just empty packing crates and snow for company. As far as we could tell, we had been forgotten. The packing crates quickly became sleds, and the snow rapidly became snowmen. Thus were born the snowboarding snowmen. One snowman survived two trips down the hill, and we christened him Sergeant Frosty. Clearly surviving two trips meant he was an NCO among snowmen.
The matter would have ended there, had not many years later, I had young children, and young children need bedtime stories. "Tell us a story about a snowman."
From somewhere, I dredged up the memory of Sergeant Frosty, and told the story of how he came to life. It was a tale that included concrete dinosaurs, King Arthur, a Presidential election, and a whole bunch of other stuff that made sense in the context of a bedtime story.
"Tell us another story about Sergeant Frosty,"
And so it went on.
The book is simply a collection of bedtime stories, more or less. If there's anything in life more satisfying than telling a bedtime story to a child, or in this case, twins, I've yet to find it.
It all started in 1972, when a group of Royal Marines were on exercise in north Norway in winter. It was cold, dark, and we were on top of a hill with just empty packing crates and snow for company. As far as we could tell, we had been forgotten. The packing crates quickly became sleds, and the snow rapidly became snowmen. Thus were born the snowboarding snowmen. One snowman survived two trips down the hill, and we christened him Sergeant Frosty. Clearly surviving two trips meant he was an NCO among snowmen.
The matter would have ended there, had not many years later, I had young children, and young children need bedtime stories. "Tell us a story about a snowman."
From somewhere, I dredged up the memory of Sergeant Frosty, and told the story of how he came to life. It was a tale that included concrete dinosaurs, King Arthur, a Presidential election, and a whole bunch of other stuff that made sense in the context of a bedtime story.
"Tell us another story about Sergeant Frosty,"
And so it went on.
The book is simply a collection of bedtime stories, more or less. If there's anything in life more satisfying than telling a bedtime story to a child, or in this case, twins, I've yet to find it.
David Flin
This is probably not the answer people want to hear, but nonetheless, it's true for me.
I don't really get writer's block. Ideas and ways those ideas can be developed come easily, far more than I could ever write in a dozen lifetimes. Getting those ideas formulated into words can be harder, although I've found a good walk gets things flowing if it starts to become tricky.
My problem lies in the being able to sift between good ideas, ideas that would be good if done differently, and ideas that plain aren't going to work. I need less of an unblocker, and more of a filter.
I don't really get writer's block. Ideas and ways those ideas can be developed come easily, far more than I could ever write in a dozen lifetimes. Getting those ideas formulated into words can be harder, although I've found a good walk gets things flowing if it starts to become tricky.
My problem lies in the being able to sift between good ideas, ideas that would be good if done differently, and ideas that plain aren't going to work. I need less of an unblocker, and more of a filter.
David Flin
He had finally managed to throw off the pursuit, by hiding inside a cabinet in the morgue, and he was now safe.
The dead body next to him started to move.
The dead body next to him started to move.
David Flin
When the characters suddenly take on a life of their own, and I no longer need to think how they will react in the situation, because they just respond without an apparent intervention from me. That's when I know that the character has become 3-dimensional.
Once that has happened, they respond better to the plot, and quite often, the plot itself becomes more interesting to me. They find hidden elements within it, and the writing process becomes more of a voyage of discovery for me as author. It can be frustrating when I've a plot line worked out, and I get to the lead-in to it, and realise that the character would do something completely different, and I need to reconsider the whole thing. The really annoying part is when the reworked plot that they've set-up usually works a lot better than my original plan.
I guess this is partly through years of experience of telling bed-time stories, where the answer to: "Daddy, is Pwff y Ddraig Hud going to appear?" is "Funny you should mention that ..."
Put good characters into an interesting situation, and the plot generally - I find - writes itself. And the satisfying part is when the character suddenly clicks, and they become real.
Once that has happened, they respond better to the plot, and quite often, the plot itself becomes more interesting to me. They find hidden elements within it, and the writing process becomes more of a voyage of discovery for me as author. It can be frustrating when I've a plot line worked out, and I get to the lead-in to it, and realise that the character would do something completely different, and I need to reconsider the whole thing. The really annoying part is when the reworked plot that they've set-up usually works a lot better than my original plan.
I guess this is partly through years of experience of telling bed-time stories, where the answer to: "Daddy, is Pwff y Ddraig Hud going to appear?" is "Funny you should mention that ..."
Put good characters into an interesting situation, and the plot generally - I find - writes itself. And the satisfying part is when the character suddenly clicks, and they become real.
David Flin
It's quite simple. Write. You may start off rough and it might not be great, but the quickest and most effective way of improving is through practise, and that means writing.
Read widely. That lets you see how other people write, what techniques they use, how they develop things, how they pace. When you've read something, write, and try and put into practice what ideas you've gleaned from reading. Maybe it'll work for you, maybe not. You won't know until you've tried.
Listen to readers who comment on your writing. They may have a point (or not, as the case may be - they might not be the target audience). Reflect on what has been said, and try it out. Write.
The easiest thing in the world for an aspiring writer to do is "just a little more research before I start." Research is fine and good and rather necessary, but until you've written, you're not a writer.
Don't be afraid to change things if what you've written in first draft hasn't worked, but the requirement for being able to change something you've written is that you've written something to change.
Practise makes, if not perfect, at least better.
My advice to an aspiring writer is to find something you want to write, and write. Then you'll go from being an aspiring writer to being a starting writer.
Read widely. That lets you see how other people write, what techniques they use, how they develop things, how they pace. When you've read something, write, and try and put into practice what ideas you've gleaned from reading. Maybe it'll work for you, maybe not. You won't know until you've tried.
Listen to readers who comment on your writing. They may have a point (or not, as the case may be - they might not be the target audience). Reflect on what has been said, and try it out. Write.
The easiest thing in the world for an aspiring writer to do is "just a little more research before I start." Research is fine and good and rather necessary, but until you've written, you're not a writer.
Don't be afraid to change things if what you've written in first draft hasn't worked, but the requirement for being able to change something you've written is that you've written something to change.
Practise makes, if not perfect, at least better.
My advice to an aspiring writer is to find something you want to write, and write. Then you'll go from being an aspiring writer to being a starting writer.
David Flin
That's a surprisingly difficult question for me to answer. I usually have several projects on the go at any one time. I find that when I hit a blockage in one, and need time to think, I can switch to another project.
I've just finished the first draft of book 4 in the Bring Me My Bow series (books 2 and 3 - Burning Gold and Arrows of Desire are with the publisher), and I'm tidying it up; I'm also working on a spin-off to the series, a detective/spy collection set in the same world.
I'm also putting together another series of Myths for a sequel to Return of King Arthur; this one is provisional entitled The Return of King Martha. The Myth says that King Arthur will return, but there's nothing in the myth that says what form Arthur will take when returning.
I've just finished the first draft of book 4 in the Bring Me My Bow series (books 2 and 3 - Burning Gold and Arrows of Desire are with the publisher), and I'm tidying it up; I'm also working on a spin-off to the series, a detective/spy collection set in the same world.
I'm also putting together another series of Myths for a sequel to Return of King Arthur; this one is provisional entitled The Return of King Martha. The Myth says that King Arthur will return, but there's nothing in the myth that says what form Arthur will take when returning.
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