My favourite authors when I was a child were Enid Blyton, C.S Lewis and W.E Johns (Biggles).
2. Favourite books: Watership Down, The Lost World (original).
3. Favourite authors as a grown-up are Clive Cussler, Hammond Innes, Desmond Bagley & Jack Higgins.
4. First story I wrote that made me want to be a writer was aged 11 years, a short story for English class – sci-fi, based on Battlestar Galactica.
5. Started writing poetry at 15 for first ‘love’ girlfriend.
6. As an author I begin with a few key elements and themes, and then I see where the characters take me – they often surprise me!
7. I don’t like to put too much flesh onto the bones of supporting characters, especially when I know they are going to be killed off fairly quickly – I want readers to expend their emotional energy on the bigger characters.
8. I do a lot of research about everything because I want anyone reading my books to experience accurate detailing and have a sense of realism.
9. I don’t give myself targets e.g. two pages a day or a chapter a week. I write in ‘waves’ – often writing several full chapters over a couple of days and then tweaking them for another week or so before writing more.
10. I enjoy starting a new book the most – the middle is more of a slog but then I enjoy drawing the threads together at the end but have to force myself not to rush those last few chapters because I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
11. My books usually have a couple of fits and starts with plots and sub-plots before I see a way to bring in all the elements I want…together with others dictated by character development as the story progresses.
12. I dislike the over-use of swearing in books but do use it when a character demands it. If I read too much swearing in a book, I end up putting it down and never going back to it.
13. I often create sexual relationships/tensions between characters – just like real life but try not to be overly graphic – sensual rather than porn!
14. I always write in too much detail and end up having to reduce volume ruthlessly at the editing stage.
15. I will always consider myself a novelist first and foremost – I write poetry but only when the mood takes me, which isn’t very often.
16. I hate editing with a passion but do it carefully. I have to force myself to stop after a couple of complete edits, front to back, otherwise I’d edit forever and never publish anything.
17. I feel that I have more control over description; I often feel like an observer when characters start having conversations – these tend to take on a life of their own!
18. I write everything on a word processor – don’t like writing by hand, even notes.
19. My main female characters are usually based on women I have known intimately i.e. physical appearance and spirit.
20. I design my own book covers and logos, usually on WORD!
21. I enjoy writing main characters who are human i.e. have flaws, feel fear, make mistakes etc. Anti-hero rather than superman.
22. I believe writers are born, like painters and other artists – I don’t hold with ‘How to…’ books on the writing process; for me it isn’t a numbers game and creativity can’t be taught; the spark has to be inside you already ; grammar and sentence construction can be taught but that’s different.
23. I am genuinely grateful for anyone who takes the time to read something I have written, whatever the verdict. They have given my work a chance to be part of their life, which is humbling.
24. I love my Kindle and feel that e-books are the future, even though I love the feel and smell of a paperback in my hands.
25. I write for me – to tell the stories in my head to others – but I also want to leave something behind for my children; an important part of me that they can keep when I am long gone from this world.
BIOGRAPHY
I have lived and breathed adventure stories since I was a child, from the exploits of wandering rabbits in Watership Down, through the Narnia books and Biggles, I have always been captivated by the wonderful worlds that great writers conjure.
As I grew up, I developed a taste for several authors but hit the jackpot the day I stumbled, quite by accident, on my first Dirk Pitt adventure. Nobody recommended Clive Cussler to me - I just spotted a good looking paperback cover one day whilst browsing in my local bookshop. Then to find that there were numerous other stories....and that Clive was still alive and writing more...wonderful! Added to the likes of Hammond Innes and Jack Higgins, I realised just how good adult fiction could be.
My first serious writing attempt came in my late teens, and took 2 years...fantasy adventure I called 'Champion Heart'...looking back now it had some nice touches but generally wasn't very good. I learned a lot about the process of writing, which meant it wasn't a complete failure.
By then I'd left school, gone to work in London for a large bank, got very, very bored and quit to go to university, where I studied scriptwriting for stage and screen. Novels on hold and a few years of producing movie scripts, television serial ideas and samples....again bounced back by countless agents and coming to nothing, although I remember getting a few stages through a selection process with a movie script and having a telephone conversation with someone from one of the large US film studios, who was kind enough to spot my potential and bother to arrange a call that basically said,'not there yet...but keep going.' In hindsight, it was a wonderful gesture although at the time I remember thinking that it was just another brush off.
Love, marriage, work, kids and my next novel, 'Underworld' took up the next 10 years. This book was much better but I ran out of steam at the end and never finished it; couldn't, still no idea why. Even now, I am unable to think of a way to tie the ends together properly - so I let it die a dignified death.
Another ten years passed, with a large chunk of this time being spend providing for a growing family and moving through several jobs, including a spell as a corporate video writer/director. By this time I had pretty much given up on the dream of becoming a published author....I could have papered a wall with the number of standard rejection letters I had received from literary agents by then, and for many of these years I gave no thought to writing anything else. I worked for the probation service, dealing with all types of offender before moving on to working with the victims of serious crime, or their relatives in cases of murder or manslaughter. I learned some valuable lessons about human frailty, and courage. Working with young offenders, and victims, led me eventually into teaching. I came to understand that catching children young enough to change behaviour was the key to keeping a lot of youngsters out of prison. I was always busy, at work or at home with my kids, but the writer inside me would just not lay down and give up the ghost. The truth is simple....I am a writer....anything else just pays the bills!
Anyway, to cut a long story short (incase you are growing very bored of reading this by now) in this 10 year period I wrote my first decent, complete adventure/thriller novel called RACE AMAZON. It was self-published in January 2010 as a paperback and I have just been able to make it available as a Kindle version on Amazon. I am really pleased with it, and the next book in the series is well underway, provisionally titled, SKELETON GOLD. It will be available this summer (2012).
I enjoy writing, as well as need it; it is a compulsion and I am grateful for anybody who gives their time and money to read my work. I intend to write at least one new James Pace novel each year from now on and I will do my best to make each new book better than the ones before.
As for me personally, I love riding horses and motorcycles, can strum a guitar not too badly, enjoy being near water (but not particularly in it, which is apparently odd for a Pisces!), have kept German Shepherd dogs for years and I am a huge fan of a decently chilled Pinot Grigio to accompany fresh prawns and crab on a hot summer day....especially happy if it can be sampled while aboard a boat!
