I was interviewed last year about my book Echoes of Dawn. It has previously been published as a limited edition booklet and was also included in Lazy Gramophone's The Book of Apertures project. The latest development concerning this journeyman of a tale, is a proposal for it to be turned into a full length graphic novel... I have both fingers and toes crossed! You can read my interview below:
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| Revolution No.1, Illustrated by Matt Black |
Q: 'How would you describe Echoes of Dawn?'
A: 'Echoes of Dawn is a horror story, though it could also be considered a romance of sorts - a 'zombie romance' if you like. It is the tale of what happens when a young couple suddenly find their world disintegrating. With no other option but to run, the story is essentially what remains of the lead character's journals, a compilation of his writings and drawings. Echoes of Dawn is an attempt to make sense of what actually happened to the lead character and to those people around him, it is a fragmented history of a horrific period in time. It has been compiled in retrospect, with each section reflecting the different stages of his journey.'
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| Revolution No.2, Illustrated by Matt Black |
Q: 'What were your influences when writing this story?'
A: 'More than anything else, this story has been influenced by film. While I was writing it I saw it as a very visual piece and pictured each 'revolution' as representing a scene from a much larger story. Essentially, I wanted to offer readers the spine of the story, therefore giving them the opportunity to use their own imaginations to colour in the rest. At the time I was watching a lot of westerns and horror films. The two horror films that particularly inspired this story were The Hills Have Eyes remake and Switchblade Romance, both directed by Alexandre Aja. However, more importantly, Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven and Dead Man by Jim Jarmusch, were really inspirational and very much the catalyst for the style of my story. '
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| Revolution No.5, Illustrated by Matt Black |
Q: 'What would you like to convey through this story?'
A: 'In reading this story I hope that people will use their own frames of reference, their own opinions and perceptions when interpreting the story. In accordance with the themes that I was writing about, I didn't want to prescribe a story. Instead, I wanted to write something that engaged the reader, challenged them, the answer will not fall at your feet, it must be pursued.'
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| Revolution No.9, Illustrated by Matt Black |
Q: 'What are the themes of the story?'
A: 'Echoes of Dawn is a kind of social commentary; it is a warning of what might happen if hope and love continue to be prescribed. If 'we' continue to tell people in such certain terms and in such unforgiving ways how they should behave, what they should aspire to, if we continue to prescribe lifestyles like we are doing, forcing pegs into holes, eventually something is going to give. Or maybe we have already gone..? Maybe, instead of rising up and striking out, we have already, quietly succumbed? Maybe we are already like the creatures in my story, wandering the earth, fuelled only by an empty consumerism, by the hollow desires of a past and a future that we have never been inspired to truly comprehend. Yet, even scarier still, what if one day we wake from this unprepared, unarmed and alone, the world still intent on consumption. What would you do then? When suddenly you realise that all of the things you thought you had chosen to love (even the one person you had chosen to love), had in fact, now, unrelentingly, chosen you.
'He who binds to himself a joy
Does the winged life destroy;
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity's sunrise.'
(William Blake, 1757-1827)
This is the poem that inspired my story. In writing Echoes of Dawn, my aim was to turn Blake's idea on its head. The lead character in my story need not worry about binding himself to the joys of life, for it is actually he who finds himself terminally bound to them.'
Links:
- Follow this link for a preview
