Andrew Salmon interview
Hello Andrew and welcome to Ralphs Rants does interviews,
How are you doing?
I'm doing all right! Busy over here with projects coming out
of my ears but I wouldn't have it any other way.
Andrew you have a new novel out, tell us a bit about it.
SHERLOCK HOLMES: BLOOD TO THE BONE from Fight Card Books.
You can guess from the title who the hero of the story is. In it, Holmes and
Watson are helping a woman bare knuckle boxer who is part of a tag-team boxing
duo working summer carnivals. Her husband has disappeared, which threatens the
contract they have with a local carnival and she's out on the street unless he
can be found. The Victorian dynamic duo investigate. When her husband turns up
dead, supposedly from an accident at the carnival, the fun begins. Holmes,
Watson and the female boxer, Eby Stokes, join together to find answers and
those answers threaten the very foundation of the Empire.
This is not the first time you have written this
character, correct? How many times does this make?
SHERLOCK HOLMES: BLOOD TO THE BONE is my 8th go-round with
the dynamic duo. Seven of which are in print and for Kindle, one is in the can
but hasn't been released yet and I'm currently writing my third Holmes tale for
FIGHT CARD BOOKS.
Is Sherlock Holmes your favorite character to write?
At the moment he is. After snagging a Best Pulp Short Story
award with my very first Holmes tale, it was a no-brainer to write more. That
initial acceptance has lead to another award win, multiple nominations and
great reviews. Over the years writing Holmes, these milestones have shown me
that I'm on the right track with my Holmes and Watson stories. And my Holmes
work has received the highest accolade any Sherlockian scribe can ever receive:
on more than one occasion, my work has been considered on par with Doyle's by
some readers! That floors me every time I think about it. What a tremendous,
humbling honor.
Thing is, I enjoy writing the tales. I ADORE the research.
Watson's voice is cemented into my consciousness and it's not out of the
ordinary for Holmes and Watson to have discussions in my head out of the blue.
Then it just falls to me to write down what they say. It's scary sometimes. I
consider myself extraordinarily lucky that the tales have been my most
rewarding work - both personally with awards and accolades but also financially
- and that I love writing them. No plans to stop any time soon.
So ‘Blood to the Bone’ is another ‘Fight Card’ novel,
which I believe is the second you’ve written about Sherlock. How is this one
different than the first?
The first one, SHERLOCK HOLMES: WORK CAPITOL, was really
about creating something that had never been done with Holmes in his
illustrious career. Building it from the ground up with in-depth research into
bare knuckle boxing in Victorian times. Once steeped in the research, I had to
figure out how Watson would describe a boxing match and what technique would
Holmes use in the ring. Once the heavy lifting was done, all I needed was an
engaging plot to keep things moving. The results were some great reviews,
satisfied readers, another award nomination and great sales. Not bad for
uncharted territory.
Sitting down to write the second one, I realized I could
pull it off now that the groundwork had been laid with the first one, but,
really, a straight boxing tale would, ultimately, just be more of the same. And
that's never good.
Digging around in my research files, I found a small chunk
of stuff on women's Victorian boxing I had tucked away. Right on the heels of
this, the floodgates opened and I stumbled into a vast wealth of information
about the fighters of the time - everything I needed to know, including the
first batch of these women being inducted into the Bare Knuckle Boxing Museum's
Hall of Fame at the same time I was fleshing out this idea. Being unaware there
even were female fighters at that time, it occurred to me that I wasn't alone
in my ignorance of these great championesses as they were called back then.
Thus BLOOD TO THE BONE was born. Here was a chance to do another Holmes boxing
tale yet keep it fresh, new and interesting to readers of the first while
shining a light on a forgotten chapter of history.
What is your favorite aspect of writing a ‘Fight Card’
novel?
As I've only written Holmes tales for Fight Card as yet, I'd
have to say the research. I so love digging into the past for nuggets of
interest, I can't get enough of it. Also, with WORK CAPITOL, it was a chance to
do something no one had ever done with Holmes before, something fresh that
still read like Doyle. Working with Fight Card's editor, Paul Bishop, has also
been a lot of fun. He's a great guy and his enthusiasm for pulp and writing in
general is palpable. And I'm looking forward to working with him on more Fight
Card projects in the near future.
Andrew, let’s talk about you for a little bit. What is
your writing background? How long have you been writing?
I began writing the day I came out of the theater after
seeing Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan back in June of 1982. That movie changed
my life. I went into the theater a reader. I came out a writer. With no reading
background outside of comics back then, I've been wallowing in words ever
since. I earned a BA in Creative Writing at university, moved out here to
Vancouver twenty years ago to get serious, then bounced around collecting
rejection slips until finding Airship 27 on the eve of the e-publishing
revolution. Still honing my craft, working hard, but my efforts over the
decades are paying off. Earning money, winning awards, hearing from satisfied
readers, things are great these days after years of struggle. Still a long way
to go but at least I'm on my way now. The train isn't sitting in the station
anymore.
How many books do you have out?
Lumping everything together, novels, anthologies and
e-shorts, I've published or been part of 26 books to date, most of which are
still available in print and for Kindle. And there are more coming. I'm just
getting warmed up here.
What is your favorite genre to write?
Historical stuff! I've written numerous genres - sci-fi,
sword and sorcery, mystery, hero yarns, horror, hard boiled, I've got a western
tale coming out later this year - but, to be specific, it's got to be any of
the historical genres. Anything that involves research and shining a light on
the world of yesterday gets my juices flowing.
What is the one thing you hate about writing?
Promotion. Don't get me wrong, I love doing it, it's just
the results that can sometimes be frustrating. You whip a tale into shape, get
a great cover, great back cover blurb, price it reasonably, hit all the
promotional places you can and... nothing! There are no guarantees and readers
can seem so arbitrary sometimes, it's frustrating. But you've got to keep
plugging away in search of that magic formula. Sometimes it works, sometimes it
doesn't.
What is the one thing you love? (Notice I wrote the hate
question first?)
Everything! Getting the idea, fleshing it out, research,
first draft, revisions, seeing that cover art for the first time, putting the
whole thing together or watching the publisher do it, then seeing the book get
thrown out into the world to sink or swim. Best job in the world! Wouldn't
trade it for anything!
How many books do you put out in a year?
One - three though I'm going to increase that starting next
year. These last three years I've been doing the Holmes books for Fight Card
and those are time consuming. Fun, but time consuming. As a result other
projects I've been cooking up have slowed down and I'd like to get to them
sooner rather than later.
What is next for you?
Well, this December will see the release of my last Fight
Card Sherlock Holmes book. Not because I'm not having a blast writing them,
but, at present, I simply don't have an idea for another one. As I mentioned
earlier, I don't want to do just more of the same and the three books will
cover every aspect of Victorian boxing I see. The first dealt with the men. The
second dealt with women and the third will be something of a free for all
covering all of the physical abilities Holmes can bring to bear on a problem.
That said, if a killer idea comes to me, I'll be back at Baker Street ready to
rumble.
I'm not done with Fight Card however. I've got two projects
I'm going to work on for them that are not Holmes related. I'm also putting
together an omnibus of my shorter Holmes tales from Airship 27. I've just
released a Black Bat e-story and want to do more of that. I've been working on
a novel now for almost 5 years and plan to finish that up next year as well.
I'd like to write more Moon Man stories. Of course, more traditional Holmes
tales. I'm also putting together a series with an adventure team I've created.
And I want to write a James Bond novella now that the character is public
domain here in Canada. I'm always on the lookout for projects from publishers
so if anyone out there thinks I'd be a good fit for something they are putting
together, please get in touch with me.
Andrew it was great having you here on Ralph’s Rants,
feel free to leave links to your website, your twitter feed, your Facebook page
and whatever else you may have.
Amazon : http://www.amazon.com/AndrewSalmon/e/B002NS5KR0/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_2
Twitter: @ASalmauthor
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/andrew.salmon.94
Blog: http://berlin-noir.blogspot.ca/
Thank you for joining us, Andrew, it was a real pleasure,
best of luck and until next time take care!
Thanks for inviting me! I very much appreciate it! Best of
luck to you in all your endeavors. And, hey, readers out there, keep those
pages flipping!
As always all of my own books are available at http://RLAngeloJr.com or http://tinyurl.com/ralphsamazon
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