Flip, by Martyn Bedford, is out in bookstores this week - the book trailer is coming soon, but check out this short interview with Martyn for the time being...
You can buy Flip at WHSmith stores or at Amazon
1. How would you summarize your new book in one sentence?
Fourteen-year-old Alex wakes up to find his soul (spirit, essence, consciousness) has switched to another boy’s body and he has to find out why . . . and how to get back to his true self.
2. How long did it take you to write this book?
About 16 months.
3. How did you choose your characters’ names?
Most of them are modified versions of the names of footballers from the Leeds United team of the 1970s.
4. If your book were to become a movie, who would you like to see star in it?
I’m not really up on the current crop of teenage actors. It would be tough role, given that he’d have to play the body of one boy and the mind of another, all wrapped up in one performance.
5. Did you always want to be a writer?
Kind of, although for a few years it got mixed up with wanting to be a journalist.
6. What was your very first story about? When did you write it?
It was about a guy who murdered his wife by stabbing her through the eye with a shard of ice. I was about 11. Nice kid.
7. What was your favourite book as a child?
The Wizard of Oz, by L.Frank Baum. And Enid Blyton’s Famous Five series.
Fourteen-year-old Alex wakes up to find his soul (spirit, essence, consciousness) has switched to another boy’s body and he has to find out why . . . and how to get back to his true self.
2. How long did it take you to write this book?
About 16 months.
3. How did you choose your characters’ names?
Most of them are modified versions of the names of footballers from the Leeds United team of the 1970s.
4. If your book were to become a movie, who would you like to see star in it?
I’m not really up on the current crop of teenage actors. It would be tough role, given that he’d have to play the body of one boy and the mind of another, all wrapped up in one performance.
5. Did you always want to be a writer?
Kind of, although for a few years it got mixed up with wanting to be a journalist.
6. What was your very first story about? When did you write it?
It was about a guy who murdered his wife by stabbing her through the eye with a shard of ice. I was about 11. Nice kid.
7. What was your favourite book as a child?
The Wizard of Oz, by L.Frank Baum. And Enid Blyton’s Famous Five series.
8. If you could be any character from any book, who would you be?
Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye.
9. If there was one book you wish you had written what would it be?
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut – to be so funny, and inventive, about such a serious subject . . . and to pull it off. Brilliant.
10. If you could talk to any writer living or dead who would it be, and what would you ask?
Franz Kafka. Are you glad Max Brod didn’t carry out your dying wish to burn your manuscripts?
Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye.
9. If there was one book you wish you had written what would it be?
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut – to be so funny, and inventive, about such a serious subject . . . and to pull it off. Brilliant.
10. If you could talk to any writer living or dead who would it be, and what would you ask?
Franz Kafka. Are you glad Max Brod didn’t carry out your dying wish to burn your manuscripts?
11. Where is your favourite place to write?
At the desk in the corner of my attic bedroom. I also quite like the Caffe Nero coffee shop in my home town, if I can find a discreet corner table. So, I like to write in corners, basically.
12. Do you have any writing rituals?
No. I sit down and I write. I have 13 years as a newspaper journalist to thank for that.
13. When do you write best, morning or night?
Morning. I’m useless by the end of the afternoon.
14. What is the best gift someone could give a writer?
Time. And quiet. Oh, and a corner.
At the desk in the corner of my attic bedroom. I also quite like the Caffe Nero coffee shop in my home town, if I can find a discreet corner table. So, I like to write in corners, basically.
12. Do you have any writing rituals?
No. I sit down and I write. I have 13 years as a newspaper journalist to thank for that.
13. When do you write best, morning or night?
Morning. I’m useless by the end of the afternoon.
14. What is the best gift someone could give a writer?
Time. And quiet. Oh, and a corner.
15. What is the best advice someone could give a writer?
Write. As much as you can as regularly as you can.
Comments - 1 so far...
Michelle Fluttering Butterflies
Oh I love the sound of this one. Body swap books aren't something I've read a great deal of, but they still fascinate me.Post a Comment