Back in the ’90s Adrian Baldwin wrote for various TV shows/personalities: Hale & Pace, Clive Anderson, Brian Conley, Paul McKenna, Smith & Jones, and Rory Bremner to name a few. Wooo, get him!
After that he wrote three screenplays, one of which received generous financial backing from the Film Agency for Wales. Then along came the global recession to firmly kick the UK Film industry in the nuts. What a bummer!
Not to be outdone, he turned to novel writing – which had always been his real dream – and, in particular, a genre he feels is often overlooked; a genre he has always been a fan of: Dark Comedy (Horror’s weird cousin).
Adrian’s first novel, Barnacle Brat won Underground Books Reviews’ Indie Novel of the Year 2016 (Readers’ Choice) and Stanley McCloud Must Die!, his second novel, scooped First Runner Up for the exact same award in Indie Novel of the Year 2018.
KR: Coffee?
KR: Could you tell me a little about yourself please?
ADRIAN BALDWIN: Sure, and thanks for having me. Where to start: I am Adrian Baldwin, an author and designer from Manchester who now lives and works in Wales. (That’s right; I moved from rainy Manchester to rainy Wales.) I write dark comedy novels, short stories and screenplays for grown-ups. I have always enjoyed quirky, surreal, and unusual comedy. For someone who grew up reading Kurt Vonnegut Jr. and watching Monty Python perhaps it was always meant to be.
KR: What do you like to do when not writing?
AB: I spend a lot of time creating book and magazine covers; from branding to designing: I’ve worked for various publishers such as Demain Publishing, TK Pulp, and Phantasmagoria. I spent four years at art college studying layout and typography so it feels good to put those skills to use; makes me feel my time spent studying wasn’t a waste. For play, I like to read, watch movies, listen to music, and play computer games – I must have slain zillions of zombies over the years!
KR: What is your favourite childhood book?
AB: I was a very strange child looking back; I didn’t really read age-appropriate books – I was more interested in Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Philip K. Dick, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and believe it or not, I spent a lot of time reading the Oxford English dictionary – one of those mammoth editions in two volumes! Yes, quite the nerdy kid really. I believe Eminem also read the dictionary as a child though so I’m in good company, I guess.
KR: What is your favourite album, and does music play any role in your writing?
AB: I am a huge Bowie fan – have been since 1972 – and my all-time favourite album is Diamond Dogs. I listen to it on a regular basis. I always listen to music when I’m working (writing or designing) and it’s usually Bowie’s instrumental tracks – about 20 tracks on a continuous loop. I can’t play tracks with him singing because I’d get distracted and start singing along. His death hit me very hard but I did get to see him in concert many times so I’m one of the lucky ones. On a side note: quite often in my stories, I slip in ‘hidden’ references to Bowie songs which fellow fans might well spot.
KR: Do you have a favourite horror movie/director?
AB: There are so many great movie directors out there it would be hard to pick one as a favourite. I tend to prefer dark comedies to straight-up horror – so I’d probably go down that route if I had to choose. I loved what Bruce Robinson did with Withnail & I. The other night I watched a repeat of Sightseers – which is definitely my kind of thing – so the director Ben Wheatley certainly deserves a mention. Oh, and I’m a huge fan of Julia Davis; I really enjoyed her TV series Camping and Sally4Ever – so I’d love to see her directing movies.
KR: What are you reading now?
AB: I’m currently reading sleazy pulp novels from the 50s and 60s; it’s research but also fascinating – I’d quite like to do something dark and trashy – perhaps set in London’s Soho area during the 60s.
KR: What was the last great book you read?
AB: I recently reread They All Love Jack: Busting the Ripper by Bruce Robinson. That’s a great book. Very different to his semi-autobiographical The Peculiar Memories of Thomas Penman of course – another great book – I enjoyed them both immensely.
KR: E-Book, Paperback or Hardback?
AB: All three have their place so yeah, it’s all good. I’m not out in hardback yet but my stuff is in print and on kindle.
KR: Who were the authors that inspired you to write?
AB: Well, probably the people I have already mentioned: Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Philip K. Dick, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Bruce Robinson. I also like Christopher Moore, David Mitchell, Robert Rankin, Colin Bateman, Irvine Welsh, Charles Dickens, Jasper Fforde – I’m sure they’ve all had an influence. That and Monty Python.
KR: Do you work to an outline or plot or do you prefer to just see where an idea takes you?
AB: Oh I map, plot, and outline everything – scene by scene – quite obsessively. I keep a colour-coded Excel spreadsheet for every novel I write. My stories can be quite tangled and unconventional so I need to be able, as I work, to refer back and see at a glance where certain events took place. As a novel can take me two or three years it’s a very handy self-reference tool. Not so much for short stories; I can pretty much retain all that in my head at one time.
KR: What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?
AB: I tend to research before and during working on a story; I believe in getting all the details right – whether it be the time it takes a frozen body to defrost, how much an American hooker charges, or the weight of a human head. You’ve got to get the little details right.
KR: How would you describe your writing style?
AB: Off the top of my head: dark, quirky, surreal, disturbing, funny, entertaining, thought-provoking, different, and unpredictable.
KR: Describe your usual writing day?
AB: I’m usually writing (or designing book covers) by 10 am – I tend to be a night-owl and normally up until the early hours. On a typical day, I’ll be sitting at my pc typing in my own particular brand of nonsense whilst listening to Bowie instrumentals – and I’ll keep on until my eyes or back demand I stop for the day – usually about tea time. Evenings I tend not to do any actual writing but I will often be thinking about whichever story I’m working on, and make notes if I have an idea that I think might be useful.
KR: Do you have a favourite story/short that you’ve written (published or not)?
AB: I’ve published three novels and several short stories so far but do I have a favourite? … I’d probably have to go with Stanley McCloud Must Die! – Of all my stories this seems to be the one that the majority of my readers say they found the most amusing. It’s about (here comes the blurb) an ancient and inveterate gambler who finds out he hasn’t long to live; refusing to believe his prognosis, though, Stan puts a massive bet on that he will reach his next birthday. Unfortunately for Stan the independent bookie he uses grows nervous as the big day approaches and decides to bump him off with one of her many fun, but ever-so-slightly fatal, high-odds proposition bets. – I believe it would make for an interesting film. Indeed, I have a producer/director who has expressed a keen interest in the project so who knows, watch this space!
KR: Do you read your book reviews?
AB: From time to time I do go back and check up on what people have had to say. It can be interesting to hear people’s opinions on the work. I have some who seem to love my books and others who seem to hate them. I think that’s fair enough. I’d probably prefer that than to have everyone be neither one way nor the other.
KR: How do you think you’ve developed as an author?
AB: I’ve finally become fluent writing in my own voice – funny how that can take a while.
KR: What is the best piece of advice you’ve received regarding your writing?
AB: Write for yourself. Write what amuses or entertains you, primarily. Some will ‘get it’ and some won’t – and that’s perfectly fine. And then there’s this by Bowie: “If you feel safe in the area you’re working in, you’re not working in the right area. Always go a little further into the water than you feel you’re capable of being in. Go a little bit out of your depth. And when you don’t feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you’re just about in the right place to do something exciting.”
KR: What scares you?
AB: Not clowns if that’s what you’re thinking; I just don’t like them – there’s a difference. What scares me? I’m not sure – that this current lockdown will go on for years? That I’ve cracked a tooth and it might get worse, break apart, and I can’t see a dentist – for however long this goes on. Yep, that’s probably what scares me the most right now; being in pain, unable to sort the problem, possibly for months – that and dying alone. But other than that, I’m fine.
KR: Can you tell me about your latest release please?
AB: I’m working on turning three short stories I wrote (for a series I called Strange Shorts) into three thirty-minute films to be presented together in a ninety-minute anthology film. The first is called Pied! (- inspired by Stephen King’s Misery and It.) The second is Egor’s Emporium, a story of a man who becomes obsessed with winning a particular prize that ‘speaks to him’ from an amusement arcade claw-grab machine, and the third and final story, which was my actual ‘latest release’ is Blown – a cautionary tale of hookers, truckers and unsuspecting suckers.
KR: What are you working on now?
AB: I’ve just finished the screenplay for Pied! (see above) and will be starting the script for Egor’s Emporium next – any day now.
KR: You find yourself on a desert island, which three people would you wish to be deserted with you and why?
You can choose… a) One fictional character from your writing. b) One fictional character from any other book. c) One real-life person that is not a family member or friend.
I guess I would pick
a) Leon Blank from my debut novel, Barnacle Brat; we could have long discussions about whether he’s really a figment of my imagination or just or fairly realistic autobiographical representation of me as a young man.
As for b) I’d probably choose Doctor Watson; he can regale me with his wonderful stories of Sherlock Holmes and attend me should I fall ill – where is this desert island by the way? And how long are we likely to be stranded – any idea?
Anyway, for c) I’m going with Lady Gaga; I think she’d be a very interesting person to get to know – and if nothing else, at least we’d have our shared love of David Bowie and his work to talk about into the small hours.
KR: Thank you very much Adrian
Adrian Baldwin
Back in the ’90s Adrian Baldwin wrote for various TV shows/personalities: Hale & Pace, Clive Anderson, Brian Conley, Paul McKenna, Smith & Jones, and Rory Bremner to name a few. Wooo, get him!
After that he wrote three screenplays, one of which received generous financial backing from the Film Agency for Wales. Then along came the global recession to firmly kick the UK Film industry in the nuts. What a bummer!
Not to be outdone, he turned to novel writing – which had always been his real dream – and, in particular, a genre he feels is often overlooked; a genre he has always been a fan of: Dark Comedy (Horror’s weird cousin).
Adrian’s first novel, Barnacle Brat won Underground Books Reviews’ Indie Novel of the Year 2016 (Readers’ Choice) and Stanley McCloud Must Die!, his second novel, scooped First Runner Up for the exact same award in Indie Novel of the Year 2018.
You can find out more about Adrian by visiting his Official Website www.adrianbaldwin.info
Follow Adrian on Twitter @AdrianBaldwin
Check out Adrian’s author page HERE
Blown: (A Dark Comedy Short For Grown-Ups)
A cautionary tale of Hookers, Truckers, and unsuspecting Suckers.
Daisy would rather survive on minimum wage (plus tips) at her waitressing job in the local diner – after all, it’s only until ‘the others’ arrive – but she will service truckers if she has to; when she’s short of cash and needs to eat. Normally she’s okay just bumping along, waiting out her time and drinking beer in her trailer – but when her TV dies and she can no longer watch her beloved soap operas, she decides it’s time to join the other ‘lot lizards’ and earn some extra dollars. Watch out, though, guys … Daisy is not your typical call-girl.
Definitely not for the squeamish or easily offended!
You can buy Blown from Amazon UK & Amazon US
Barnacle Brat
Losing your grip on reality is a real bummer. Just ask Leon Blank. Not that he’d know. Seems those losing their marbles are always the last to find out.
Until recently, Leon would have argued that a tendency to become easily sidetracked on a regular basis wasn’t that odd. And what’s so unusual about hearing a voice inside your head? Doesn’t everyone? Isn’t that just thinking?
But his recent visions aren’t so freely dismissed; especially the angry-looking clown who’s following him around with a baseball bat.
Time to act, Leon decides: perhaps keeping a log will shed light on the mystery.
Then again, could ‘seeing-things’ just be sexual frustration? It’s been a while! If only he had a girlfriend to take his mind off stuff.
Prepare to enter the normally hidden world of delusions, paranoia, and … ahem … ‘unusual interests’: Voyeurism; Feederism; Shoes – that kind of thing.
You can buy Barnacle Brat from Amazon UK & Amazon US
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