Tom Anderson's Blog

Two events, one planned and one a complete surprise, marked Spring 2015 as an exciting time for Tom Anderson. March saw the launch of his latest title, Code Black, while Mayday brought with it something Tom had considered so improbable he’d even written a book about it: a win at the Welsh Surfing Championships! It was the Senior division (28 and over), of course, but Tom was delighted nonetheless.

The Pierhead Building, in Cardiff Bay, was the venue for the launch of the 2015 ‘Quick Reads’ series – a national literacy project to promote reading for pleasure. Among the titles launched was Tom’s newest non-fiction project, Code Black. The book tells the tale of two popular characters in Welsh surfing, as they come together to ride and photograph the wave of the winter. Tom was particularly excited by the chance to write about one of his heroes, the photographer Claire Beach.

‘Claire is one of the most inspirational people I’ve ever met,’ says Tom. ‘Her life story is incredible, and her love of the ocean makes her an amazing person. As soon as I saw the shot she had taken of Ezra Hames at the Point last winter I knew the wave could make up the central narrative of a book. The Quick Reads contract was just the opportunity to do it.’

Code Black is published by Accent Press, and is available through most regular outlets.

Tom’s return to the writing desk was then disrupted in early May by a particularly welcome twist of fate. After sixteen appearances at the Welsh National Surfing Championships, Tom found himself in the Seniors final after a good wave during the semis had helped him dispose of the event favourite, Llantwit’s Mark Vaughan. Bank Holiday Monday brought with it an epic swell, and with it a once in a lifetime opportunity. Luck went his way, and Tom was crowned Welsh Champion for the first time. Tom was especially stoked, having actually written a book about his inability to do well at the Welsh in the past:

‘Lots of people were laughing about that,’ says Tom. ‘Yes, Grey Skies Green Waves was actually written as a response to the years of frustration I’d felt attending and bombing out of the Welsh. Vaughanie even joked that I need to add an extra chapter now! Winning an event like that makes me feel as if all the hundreds of hours I’ve spent forcing myself to enjoy freezing, awful waves around Wales and the UK has finally paid off. Plus, it means I’ll do the Welsh again now.’

As summer builds, Tom will be finishing his YA novel, which is tentatively scheduled for a Spring 2016 release, before heading to Indonesia and then working on another top-secret biography project, details of which will be released soon…

#Supportyourlocalsurfshop

Ahead of a Christmas book stall at the family-run surf shop Flow Surf and Skate, Tom Anderson was delighted last week to announce a new role as a brand ambassador for Elusive clothing. The Newport-based label has a tradition of supporting surf and arts scenes at a local and organic level. This was a message Tom was keen to get on song with:

‘As the surf industry’s biggest companies race towards blandness the true identity of surf culture and surf fashion has come right back to the grass roots companies,’ says Tom. ‘With guest designers, sustainable materials and a real desire to support creative arts and hard core surfing, Elusive stand for everything we need to preserve.

‘With Nick running this company out of Newport, and selling through family-run outlets across Devon, Cornwall and of course Flow Surf and Skate in Porthcawl, this is a partnership I’m absolutely stoked to be able to make.’

This news comes on the back of a busy autumn for Tom. On top of his debut thriller The Actaeon Tide hitting the stands in October, Tom has completed a manuscript for Accent Press’s ‘Quick Reads’ scheme due for release in March 2015.

You can read more about the Elusive brand values Tom will be helping to support, and browse clothing ranges via the Elusive website, or their Twitter, Facebook and Instagram feeds.

What has been will be again,

what has been done will be done again;

there is nothing new under the sun…

Fancy reading something Slovakian this autumn? The nights may be drawing in but, before you decide which books to hibernate with, why not join us for a pop-up international literary festival in Cardiff this October and discover new playwrights, novelists, works in translation and more? Will you find your new favourite drama king or queen or meet new local and global talents? Is anything new under the sun possible as ‘a generation goes, and a generation comes’ and the books they write may or may not remain forever?

Organised by Parthian in association with Seren Books, Istros, Literature Across Frontiers, Wales PEN Cymru, the Welsh Books Council, Literature Wales, the Library of Wales series, National Theatre Wales, Poetry Wales, the Rhys Davies Trust, Welsh Literature Exchange, Made in Roath, Porter’s and Cameo Club

Thursday 16th October 2014 @Porter’s, Harlech Court, Cardiff

www.porterscardiff.com

OUR NEW START TIME: 7.45pm New Fiction: Swimming in the Actaeon Tide

Join us for the launch of travel writer Tom Anderson’s debut novel The Actaeon Tide (Parthian, October 2014) – a supernatural thriller telling a tale of ancient myth meeting new money, set at the shoreline of an all conquering sea. Tom will be joined by the young Welsh writers David Llewellyn (Ibrahim & Reenie, Seren), Georgia Carys Williams (Second-hand Rain, Parthian) and Dan Tyte (Half Plus Seven, Parthian).

₤3 entry, payable on the door.

Tom is appearing at this weekend’s London Surf Film Festival with several other surf writers. New book will be on sale! Swing by if you’re in the city

Tom Anderson reveals his guilty pleasure and his secret love for maths ahead of the publication of The Actaeon Tide next month…

Which writers, books or ideas have inspired you?

My favourite book of all time is either Moby-Dick or Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore, because I love the way symbols and metaphors are used to make the characters lives seem relevant to all of humanity when in fact both are essentially stories about single people with odd obsessions. I love some of the earlier magical realism of Salman Rushdie and Gabriel Garcia Marquez and am a huge fan of a lot of American literature because I think it helped free up the cods of language used by narrators. Like it or not, America’s influence on English is immense.

What influences your writing aside from other writers?

I live on the coast and a lot of my travels and lifestyle are based on being near or in the ocean, so that has a huge bearing on the mood and style of my writing. Characters I meet, places I go and experiences I have in and around the sea also inspire a lot of the material for my writing.

Could you describe your writing room?

An Ercol desk with a steel lamp faces straight out of a window which looks over my garden and a huge copper-beech tree in my neighbour’s place. Two walls either side of the desk are lined with bookshelves and there’s a sofa against a dark-red wall at the back of the room. It gets hot in there during sunny afternoons, which is why I write best in mornings and evenings or in winter. I wanted it that way though. Of course, I do also sometimes write on the sofa! And I go to libraries as well if I need to shake out storylines that home isn’t letting me see.

What do you think are the basic ingredients of a story?

I heard Ken Follett say that you have to invent a character, get the reader to like them or be invested in them and then place that character in danger or uncertainty. Apparently if you get that right your reader will read until the danger is over. That’s the best piece of advice I’ve ever had apart from ‘finish the draft right through instead of just talking about it and re-reading bits over’. However, for my travel writing to date I think the element that keeps a book going is some sort of personal quest that matches the physical journey. You need humour too, and clear prose.

Tell us something about you that not many people know about you.

I absolutely love mathematics even though I had very little to do with it in school. I read books on maths all the time. It’s one of the most beautiful things on this planet and the thing that gets me about it is the way mathematical rules have to have existed before anything else, so in a way learning about numbers and their patterns is like discovering the one language common to the whole universe. There’s maths to storytelling too if you free yourself up enough to see it. Sorry if that answer sounds all hokey and annoying.

What book is your guilty pleasure?

Sports biographies. I’m on Craig Bellamy’s right now. It’s pure ghostwritten gold.

About Tom:

Tom Anderson was born in Watford and grew up in Porthcawl. He worked as a private investigator for a range of clients after studying at the University of Glamorgan, before developing a travel writing career using journeys taken as a surfer. The Actaeon Tide is his fictional debut.

About The Actaeon Tide:

Noah, a debt collector and investigator in his late twenties, is slowly putting away enough money to get out of the murky world of solicitors, bankers, bent coppers and cheating wives for good. All he’s ever wanted is to make a wedge so he can emigrate some place where the surf is good and the weather warm, but then comes the job that changes everything. A mysterious woman thinks her huge house in the Vale is hiding the darkest of secrets. Drawn to the money and aided by the advice of occult-specialist Alys, Noah lifts the lid on a bizarre world in which depravity and deceit are in charge, where night time covers the inexplicable and where the dream of escaping to ride a few waves is soon growing further out of reach. The Actaeon Tide is a tale of ancient myth meeting new money, set at the shoreline of an all conquering sea.

Tom’s debut novel The Actaeon Tide is out through Parthian next month (Oct 2014). Come along to the launch as part of our new under the sun pop-up festival (7.45pm, Thurs 16th October, Porter’s, Cardiff). Tom will also be in conversation with award-winning travel writer John Harrison as part of Made in Roath festival (11.15am, Sat 18th October, Wellfield Road Bookshop, Roath, Cardiff).