Todays interview is, for a change, not with a horror author but rather a man of many skills and talents; drummer, rpg creator, author, and owner of one of the most impressive beards this side of the Dartford Crossing. I have been extremely fortunate to know Max Bantleman for what must be 17 years now, after first meeting him on the RPG convention scene. But that’s a story for another day. Ladies and Gentleman…its Max…
Something Wicked This Way Comes - When did you know you wanted to be an author?
MB – In the early eighties. It all started with gaming / running role-playing games and constructing stories. I was writing so much material it felt like I was working towards a book! I knew I wanted to write to share stories, but I was afraid of getting stuff out there in non-game form as in those days there was no such thing as ‘self-publishing.’ I was mostly focused on ‘Fantasy,’ with a view to writing a fantasy novel around the world I was creating, that kind of morphed in to some connected short stories. I’m still working on a fantasy novel!
SW - What has your life been like so far?
MB – A very complex question! I wrote a brief ‘bio’ for ‘Spirituality Without The Bullshit’ (a book wot I wrote) as some people asked me to: when I wrote down what my life was like up to that point, it read like a rejected script for a surreal tragedy… Monty Python meets Eastenders! I have led a very full and varied life that has touched on transcendental highs as well as the depths of Hell. I think most people have hugely interesting lives with highs and lows that leave their mark and in that respect I’m fairly average, it’s just the nature of my experiences have been somewhat extreme.
SW - Where are you from and where are you now?
MB – I’m a mixed-race working class dude from a poor North London background and I’m currently living in middle-England in the beautiful countryside. That’s if you meant physically. Sometimes it feels like the old saying, ‘I came in to this world bloody, broke and alone and it feels like I’m gonna go out the same way!’ Humour. Blood washes off.
SW - What other jobs have you had?
MB – An absolute plethora of jobs! I’ve been a real wanderer, working at whatever I could get paid for in the early days, then settling in to warehousing once I noticed they wanted to pay me more. Work has always just been for the money to pay bills, long as it does that I’m really not fussed what I do. Some of my early jobs included bar work, grave digging, working in a fresh-fish shop, despatch riding, building sites, really anything and everything!
SW - Tell us about your personal favourite novel of yours. Brag a little.
MB – It’s got to be ‘SoulDice.’ It was an idea born from the early 80’s love of sci-fi and the understanding that you could get serious points across with humour. It only took me 30 years to get round to writing, so yay! Go me! SoulDice is purposefully long and a bit of a slow-burn, there’s no way it would get out there through traditional publishing, it’s just too long and a bit rambling. It’s a ‘passion project’ that has a lot of ‘me’ in it, and as is the case with ‘me,’ that’s not everyone’s cup of tea.
SW - Does writing energize or exhaust you?
MB – It energizes me. I don’t write horror or really disturbing stuff, which if I did I’d imagine would drain me. Sometimes writing an emotional scene in a screenplay can take it out of me. I’m assuming most writers are the same, that writing the emotionally intense stuff has an effect on the writer? Maybe that’s why I can’t write horror! I wrote a scene for a screenplay based on the idea of vengeance and a supernatural element that so disturbed me I shelved the whole idea – I just couldn’t face the horror I’d created on the page.
SW - What are common traps for aspiring writers?
MB – Flippin’ ‘eck, there are a few! Not writing is the biggest. There’s only so much research and learning you can do before you have to actually write, put words on the page and get the ideas out. I think this is born from a fear of judgement and a feeling that the story isn’t good enough: there’s a lot tied up in it. Trying to write too ‘technically’ well is another: get the words down! Get the story and ideas out there! Don’t worry about sentence structure, word selection and the prose, just get a first draft done – nearly every writer I know is rubbish at letting themselves write badly for the first draft. And of course the thing is, the more you write the better you get so there is a natural progression anyway. Not planning the story is a big one: some writers don’t plan, and good luck to them, if that’s there process then more power to them. But you need to know the story, that’s the minimum planning: who’s it about, what are they trying to achieve, who’s trying to stop them and who will help them, how will they have to change to get what they want? After that there is a lot of planning you can do to prepare for writing, but most beginning writers don’t do any of it and then they run out of steam and get disheartened. I’ll stop banging on now or we’ll have a whole nother article!
SW - What is your writing Kryptonite?
MB – In the sense that I don’t get how to write them, it’s ‘sex scenes.’ In the sense of what stops me being productive as a writer, it’s having multiple projects on the go at once. A fantastic piece of advice I got that I sometimes use (!) is, ‘do the work that’s in front of you.’ Once you start: commit and get it done.
SW - Have you ever gotten reader’s block?
MB – I’m a very fussy and dismissive reader: I only read what I like and in that respect I’m sure I’ve missed a load of great books. If I don’t get in to something in the first chapter I can’t ‘push on’ and just read it. For me it’s about the writers’ tone and voice, if I don’t hear and like that, I can’t read the book. I absolutely can’t read something just because I ‘should.’ Moorcock is a great example: do I know he’s a great writer with loads of good stories to tell and some epic characters? Yes. Can I read his stuff? No.
SW - Did you ever consider writing under a pseudonym?
MB – Briefly, yeah. With ‘Spirituality Without The Bullshit’ I had a couple of beta-readers / editor friends say it would be better with a pseudonym, possibly a woman’s name as it might lend some credibility. That seemed weird to me as the book was about being honest about spirituality! Other than that no: I think an author should build their name as their brand. Unless you get a book contract with a publishing house and they suggest it, it’s not really worth considering. Kind of feels like hiding.
SW - What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer?
MB – I run a writers’ group and am a member of a few online groups, so I have a lot of contact with other authors and I’ve known Kelv (Scoobs) for years: it’s really useful to be able to talk openly about writing and know there’s any underlying understanding of some of the issues and challenges. It’s good for honest feedback: once you get to know writers you know that it’s not about the egos it’s about the stories and we all face very similar challenges and demons. Support with that is awesome. Also, seeing other writers produce stuff is a great incentive to do the work. I guess the biggest help is in being nudged to actually write, to produce stuff, get the work done.
SW - What authors did you dislike at first but grew into?
MB – Yeah, I’m not good at that. I dislike someone and then tend to not go back to check-in and try again. One writer I actively disliked but then ‘got’ to a great degree is Stephen King. The way he seems to churn out books and some of the fluff on the page just irritates me, but there’s no denying that there are some great core stories in there and he really knows his craft. I read a couple of books as a ‘what’s all the fuss about’ exercise and just couldn’t get it, but there was no denying that he is a great writer.
SW - What was an early experience where you learned that language had power?
MB - Being bullied at school. I was bullied a lot when I was ‘little’ and soon learned that I could talk my way out of a lot of kickings, especially with humour! I learned language was important to both bullies and grown-ups: if I learned to use it effectively I could get what I want and people would leave me alone, so I listened, read and learned. After that is was fascinating to me that there was so much stuff written down in books, like if you wanted to know something there was a book for it, and then I found out about fiction and the worlds that could be created just with written words. By the time I was 11 I was convinced language was the key to the Universe!
SW - What’s your favourite under-appreciated novel?
MB – ‘The Left Hand of Darkness’ by Ursula K Le Guin. It was hugely popular at the time so it might seem odd that I think it’s ‘under-appreciated,’ but I think it’s been largely forgotten about since. All writing (like most art) suffers from the notion that as time moves on so we need to look for the ‘next thing,’ and that things that have gone before are largely consigned to a forgotten past: we are always looking for the ‘next’ Lord of the Rings for example, rather than taking things for what they are. There’s also the point of context, of things being ‘of their time.’ ‘Left Hand…’ was ahead of its time in terms of the themes within the story, but times have changed and we may think of it as a bit ‘so what’ in today’s terms.
SW - What authors did you dislike at first but grew into?
MB – This one’s in here twice or else I messed up a copy and paste somewhere J
SW - As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal?
MB – Either an Owl or a Rat. I’m much more a night animal than a day one and I’m very much a scavenger of ideas. Of the two, the Owl if it’s for public image: got that whole ‘wisdom’ connection going on, but if it’s about survival and practicality (both of which I believe are important for a writer, I’m a Rat!
SW - How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have?
MB – I couldn’t possibly say! But in files awaiting either further work of the final ‘scrap it’ decision, currently eight. I also have three screenplays more than half-done and I’m pretty sure they will all get finished this year. That’s not counting ‘game books’ of which there are three, including a revised ‘Edge of Darkness’ which I’m hoping to get some more input from Kelv on.
SW - What does literary success look like to you?
MB – People engaging with my work. That’s what literary success, is in my opinion, for every author. Sometimes that brings money (if it’s via a publishing house or self-published books that sell) and sometimes it doesn’t. But if people are reading your work, you’re winning as an author. With ‘Spirituality Without The Bullshit,’ I’ve sold less than three hundred copies, but some of the feedback has been priceless.
SW - What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?
MB – Depends on the project and the book, but usually it’s minimal before I start and then it piles in once I’ve started. This is heavily related to the level of planning an author needs before they start and the genre they are writing in: if it’s a period piece for example, then you need a broad familiarity before you start so you can lay the foundations, which takes some time. If it’s contemporary, then you have a lot of knowledge and just need specifics, most of which can be roughed out in the first draft then looked in to in edits. Some writers will be horrified by that approach but I’ve seen so many writers paralysed by a need for over-preparation.
SW - What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters from the opposite sex?
MB – For me it’s their voice, their choice of language and the changes in character when they get angry or extreme. I find it hard to not fall back on tropes and clichés. For mind-set and character I don’t worry about it: I simply start out with basing female characters loosely on females I know or am familiar with from fiction and then tweak after first draft. I believe in the adage: ‘story creates characters, characters create plot.’ So depending what the story is and what the characters want, is how I write them. I never try and shoe-horn in a ‘character type’ to fit a story.
SW - How do you select the names of your characters?
MB – Usually names have to have meaning: they have to be a nod to either an inspiration for the story or the character. After that I draw on people I know or know of, or give a nod to characters in fiction / movies I like. I rarely get hung up on names.
SW - Do you read your book reviews? How do you deal with bad or good ones?
MB – Yes, always. If people are taking the time to leave reviews you should take the time to read them. Reviews are the opinions of readers, as such they are always valid *to that reader.* What they are not are a judgement of your talent / personality / validity as a writer. Reviews are about the work, not about the author – those reviews that attack an author are not reviews, they are garbage.
SW - Do you hide any secrets in your books that only a few people will find?
MB – Yes, absolutely. Mostly it’s through references to books and movies I love. People with similar likes (and dislikes) sometimes pick up on them. It’s another way to have some fun and sometimes it can be a way to add some weight or commentary to a character or scene. But mostly it’s just fun.
SW - What was your hardest scene to write?
MB – The opening scene and the closing scene. People put a lot of stock in them and as a reader I know they can either make me feel good or leave a bad taste, so I spend a lot of time reworking them. If you mean by theme or content, it’s usually scenes with vitriol in, where one character is trying to hurt another: I find those hard because it means getting in to what matters for the characters and telling some truths, at least from one character’s perspective. Finding a character’s truth is what a lot of writers miss, giving the character a core that can be believable even if it’s not always good.
SW - Do you Google yourself?
MB – At first I thought you meant, ‘do you have people who use Google for you?’ like staff or something… but that doesn’t really make sense… J Sometimes I do, especially when I’ve just put something out there: it never hurts to see if links are working and if word is getting about. Also, as I’ve touched on before, an author should be their own brand and it’s important to know how that’s doing in the world.
SW - What is your favourite childhood book?
MB – This is an easy one for me, ‘The King Of The Copper Mountains’ by ‘ Paul Biegel.’ It’s wonderful. A great read for children and a great book to read to children. Massively underrated too, it could easily have been mentioned before in the other category.
SW - What is the most difficult part of your artistic process?
MB – Selling stuff. There is a ton of baggage that goes with selling work and it all piles in to make selling a painful process. Part of that is the understanding that you’re trying to get people to part with hard-earned dosh for something you’ve done – the arrogance! The self-doubt creeps in and it starts to gnaw away. Plus there is so much stuff out there these days, the net is full of it, and so much free stuff that it can seem really presumptuous to try and sell work. I’m pretty sure that’s not what you meant by the question though, but I wanted to mention it as it is an important part of the process. The other hard part is coming up with the core concept, the core idea that the whole thing hangs off: the story. Once I have that, the rest is relatively easy as it comes from the process and craft, which is as much perspiration as inspiration.
SW - Does your family support your career as a writer?
MB – Not really, but I don’t think that’s their job and a writer shouldn’t expect it. Families should be supportive of any choice one of their own makes, so in that respect writers should get some support. But from the point of view of non-writers understanding what writing is, or how someone can make a career out of it, you shouldn’t expect any support beyond the smiling nod and the, ‘that’s nice dear’ comment. From most people’s perspective, writing is no more a tenable career than mountain climbing, vole breeding or acting.
SW - How long on average does it take you to write a book?
MB – ‘SoulDice’ took two years, ‘Spirituality Without The Bullshit’ took a year. ‘Dark Garden’ (a screenplay that’s doing the rounds) took a year. I work on other projects at the same time, mostly game stuff and short stories. Every writer writes at a different pace and has different time available to write: if you can commit 300 words a day to paper then you’re doing well. (That’ll give you 100,000 in a year, a sizeable novel!)
SW - Do you believe in writer’s block?
MB – Yes. I’ve seen some really good and productive writers struck with it. It usually comes with either a disruption in the life / process of the writer or from a sudden and drastic lack of belief in the worthwhile nature of the craft.
SW - What are you planning next?
MB – I’ve got two games projects that are launching this year and another two I want to get done for my own satisfaction. I want to get the screenplays done too. The fantasy novel is about thirty per-cent through the first draft and I’m getting back in to it so I want to progress that. The second volume of ‘SoulDice’ has been planned / mapped out and the bug has bit again with the characters, so I’m itching to get stuck in. The writers’ group is back in full-swing, so I’ll be writing short stories for that (for the next compilation!) and I have a children’s book finished and one outlined that I’m really keen on. But first… a nice cup of tea!
SW; Thank you again for the opportunity to do this interview
Souldice
Spirituality without the BS