Author, Steven Jensen, Interviewed.

 Steven Jensen is an author from South Wales, UK. His first book, The Poison of a Smile, will be published by Night Publishing, late 2010.

SA:  Tell us about The Poison of a Smile.

SJ: For many years, I was intrigued by what I view as the ambiguous mindset of male artists, particularly those within the Pre-Raphaelite circle of the Nineteenth Century. I was struck at how idealistic, yet callous, some of these men were in their attitudes towards women. An example: the artist Dante Gabriel Rosssetti buried his finest poems with the wife who killed herself because of his infidelities. Some time later, in need of money, he had her body exhumed and then published the poems to great fanfare and commercial success. This disconnect between Rossetti's supposedly broken heart and the 'desecration' of his wife's tomb for personal gain is as incredible to me as I'm sure it would be to most people. But then, artists are rarely 'most people'. Not surprisingly, Rossetti suffered a mental breakdown before too long – he even claimed that  Elizabeth haunted him. Rossetti, poet and painter (as is my character Daniele Navarro), slowly fell apart.

Initially, I planned to write a nonfiction title but finally decided to pour heart and soul into a fictional treatment of that decadent world. As it stands, this is a story of revenge, but an ambiguous vengeance which is devoid of basic human instincts - when a dead soul takes revenge, it is both dispassionate and intellectualised; such malice is a mere entertainment to them. The Poison of a Smile is effectively a ghost story in which the living haunt themselves...

Many of Poison's chapter titles were inspired by the work of the surrealist René Magritte. I love the chosen titles of his paintings...I find them enigmatic and interesting. Sometimes I've used these titles directly – The Scars of Memory, The Enchanted Domain, The Treachery of Images, for example – and, on occasion, I've invented my own or combined Magritte's titles: The Poison of a Smile is one such combination. The book's title suggests deception, a lure to snare the unwary, a contradiction and a fractured persona; all these things are the very essence of The Poison of a Smile.

SA:  What qualities do you need to be a successful writer?

SJ: Patience, perseverance and determination. This is an industry unlike any other and, as such, patience is not merely a virtue but a vital component of a writer's psychological make-up. James Levine said: "I thought I'd write one book and the world would change overnight," but such instant success is rare indeed and often brings its own problems; better to hone your craft in the time spent waiting for 'overnight success' to arrive.

SA:  What is the single biggest mistake made by beginners to writing?

SJ: Confusing brutal but supposedly 'honest' criticism with objective truth and good advice; technical excellence is all very well but a singular writing style is of more importance. Story is all.

SA:  How did you come to write this particular book?

SJ: In addition to my other source of inspiration - the Pre-Raphelite Brotherhood - I was inspired by the legendary life of the Surrealist artist Salvador Dali. Half-genius, half-madman, Dali was the quintessential charlatan, particularly towards the end of his career. Although not as malicious as my character Cristian Salazar, Dali nonetheless possessed many strange and dubious traits. He expected his followers and patrons to treat him as a king, and his whims became identical to royal commands, at least in the mind of the self-named 'Great Dali'. Along with his wife Gala - who behaved more like his muse or familiar - the man had a definite penchant for malice, and an affinity with madness.

SA:  What are your writing habits?

SJ: I'm very much a 'mood' writer - I have to feel it. The creation of atmosphere plays a major part in the quality of my writing, so I obey the whims of inspiration and never treat writing as a mere occupation.

SA:  Do you have support, either from family and friends or a writing group?

SJ: Practically everyone I know has been supportive, and the long but rewarding learning curve (thanks to guidance from new and established authors from My Writers Circle, Authonomy, and Inkpop) has really helped me.

SA:  Do you think writing is a natural gift or an acquired skill?

SJ: I can only speak from my own experience: one improves over time, and through the guidance and support of those one admires and respects.

SA:  What are you writing now?

SJ: My second book, titled The Passion Bearer, a project which is close to my heart. This is a more traditional Victorian-style ghost story:

'As a child, Daniel Grant stumbled across Kelreigh, an abandoned manor house, while lost in the woods near his grandmother’s home. For years afterwards, he was unable to find the house again. 

Now aged twenty-five, Daniel discovers the house anew, refurbished and occupied. Soon, he befriends the resident family, Joseph Fontaine and his daughter Celeste. The house is filled with memorabilia of Joseph’s youngest daughter Ariele; Celeste claims Ariele was murdered by a stranger who entered their home through the forest yet, curiously, 

Joseph believes she will return to Kelreigh one day. In time, Daniel finds himself in love with Ariele, or at least, the flawless Ariele of his imagination. But Celeste tells him a very different tale of her sister… 

Daniel discovers that the Fontaine family have never sought Ariele’s killer. But is she really dead? And if not, who is haunting Kelreigh?'

I also plan to write a prequel and sequel to The Poison of a Smile.

SA:  How can people buy your book?

SJ: The Poison of a Smile will be published around October/November this year, and will be available from Amazon, CreateSpace and other online outlets. Pre-order enquiries should be directed to:

stevejensen@hotmail.co.uk

timroux@nightpublishing.com

SA:  Do you have a website or a blog that readers can visit?

SJ: Shadows & Illusions: http://spauljensen.wordpress.com/

SA:  Given unlimited resources, what would be your ideal writing environment?

SJ: A quiet hotel in a coastal town. Or better still...a haunted house!

Word of the Day is divorced from the post that precedes it and produced in response to a request from a follower to provide just such a service.

Word of the Day; gothic – a word with many meanings, but, for writers – a style of writing which relies on complex plotting and supernatural or horrifying content. ‘Gerald tried to emulate the gothic style of “Dracula” only to produce a novel so derivative, inconsistent and overblown as to be risible.’

Review of Little Fingers by Tim Roux.

Tim Roux writes with imagination, style and aplomb. The characters who people his books do so as if they were real men and women, sharing their intimate secrets, their darkest desires, their deepest emotions, their dreams and hopes and thoughts. In Little Fingers, the story unfolds mostly through the words of Julia, a character unique in fiction. Clever, manipulative, hedonistic, obtuse, consistently inconsistent, courageous, beautiful and elusive, Julia lies, exposes injustices, avenges, loves and hates as she takes the reader through the series of events that lead to a series of murders. Accused of murder by the world weary and sympathetic Inspector John Frampton, she sets about discovering and explaining what really happened. But the twists and turns of the plot, fascinating and intriguing as they are, take secondary place to the fascinating characters revealed by her enquiries. This is not a crime novel, though it deals with murder, rape and paedophilia. This is not a romance, though love, sex, seduction and fancy play their parts. It is a literary novel, but not in the inaccessible way of so many such labelled works.

There is courage in this writing. Ideas are aired. Emotions are explored and justice is examined. Some of the characters are wicked, some basically good, some indifferent and others passionate but all have their flaws and all have their reasons for who and what they are. There are no stereotypes here, no cardboard cut-outs. Flesh and blood populate these pages and will make the attentive reader smile, laugh and cry, agree and deny, gasp and hope, and turn the pages till the end is reached.

I heartily recommend this novel. A damned good read.

For other reviews and information visit Tim Roux at Nightpublishing.

You can buy Little Fingers here.

Word of the Day is divorced from the post that precedes it and produced in response to a request from a follower to provide just such a service.

Word of the Day; zambuk – an Australian member of the St. John’s Ambulance Brigade, a first aider attending an event. ‘After Sheila and Bruce collided on an urgent run for the dunny, they had to call a zambuk to sort out their various injuries and slight concussion.’

The Dance of the Pheasodile, by Tim Roux.

Sometimes a book is so unusual it defies categorisation. The Dance of the Pheasodile, ISBN 9781436357647, is such a novel. Tim Roux has merged the reality of life in parts of England, with a fantasy that allows the writer to explore deep human conflicts in revealing ways. Hull is not a glamorous city and this refreshingly raw depiction of how environment can impact on moral, social and personal values is a great antidote to the modern obsession with the superficial. Here we have real people, people with flaws as well as courage, struggling in real lives to make sense of a world that seems determined to beat them down.

The plot of this novel twists and turns surprisingly so that the reader is jolted out of complacent assurance that he knows where the action will take him next. The premise, depending on how open minded you are, requires a small leap of faith but is handled so adroitly that even the most sceptical will find it hard to put the book down when the unexpected happens to the hero; if, indeed, the male lead can be so designated. Set in areas that contrast the north-south divide still flourishing in England, the novel gives insight into the lives of the comfortable middle class of the south set against the disadvantaged and ill-educated of the modern northern slum.

Keith is at once a moral and immoral character, giving life to the hypothesis that all of us, faced with difficult moral choices, will follow our true natures to resolve issues we never expected to face. His struggles, both physical and ethical, are dictated by his extraordinary background as much as by his solid relationship with his wife in the present. The anti-hero, Harry, known by all as ‘arry, could so easily have been a one dimensional villain but Tim Roux rounds him out to give reasons for his appalling behaviour whilst resisting the temptation to make excuses for him.

Some will read this book as a crime novel, and it can easily be seen in that light. But, as with all good novels, the story is capable of appreciation on more than one level. Although much of the language is literary in style, it is not obtuse or off-putting to the casual reader. As is generally the case with any good novel, this one has a number of themes running through it. For me, the most important is that, ‘faced with danger to loved-ones, the modern family man will take any action necessary to protect them, even if it is contrary to his most strongly held beliefs’. Others may find any of the other themes paramount, of course.

The dialogue is quite instructive and used to enhance the differences between the two ‘classes’ of characters depicted. Some may find the missing ‘h’ and other sloppy speech a little overdone and others may find the ‘correctness’ of a few characters a little stilted, but I suspect the extremes were employed to point out how communication can reflect the inner discipline, or its lack, of the individual. Certainly, this aspect of the writing is insufficient to prevent enjoyment of the novel, though ‘enjoyment’ might be a misplaced term here. The book is certainly entertaining but its depiction of gangland brutality, criminal deception, official expediency and individual duplicity lends the book a bleak and sometimes harrowing air. There are moments of light and laughter, however, and the general message is uplifting, with a satisfying conclusion that nevertheless manages to continue the running thread of questions to be answered by the reader.

Fascinated by the Pheasodile of title, I Googled, searched my many reference books, and found no answer. Curiosity led me to ask the author. It came as no surprise that the Pheasodile is a chimera formed in a dream; a construct of a seductively persuasive pheasant which, denied success, transforms into a sort of crocodile, getting its way by more brutal action.

I read this book over a couple of days and found the narrative intriguing, making me eager to discover the outcome. I empathised with the main character more than I expected and felt some pity for all but the most irredeemable characters. I happily recommend this book to all readers who enjoy a novel worthy of the name.

http://www.nightpublishing.com/id13.html

Word of the Day: haiku – a verse form, from Japan, using three lines and up to seventeen syllables.  

‘Poetry is

 Whatever a poet

 Can make you believe it is.’