Guest Author Interview - Jonathan Hill

Last week's feature where I interviewed fellow Eurogamer author Mark Underwood proved very popular. It's already acted as a way for me to get to know some of my fellow authors and I'm looking forward to developing this as a weekly feature.

This week we meet Jonathon Hill, but I'll let him introduce himself.

Introduce yourself, who are you? And what do you write?

I'm Jonathan Hill and I have just published my first book of short stories on the Kindle.  My day job is in the medical profession and it can be quite intensive and stressful so I see writing as a welcoming contrast to all that.  Although I have started with short stories, I intend to write longer stories as stand alone pieces.

If you could meet any one person, alive or dead - who would it be?

That's a tough one!  Well, I read Roald Dahl when I was little and, as an adult, I read his 'Completed Unexpected Tales'.  So, I'll say Roald Dahl purely because it would be fascinating to meet someone with such a great imagination...and, if he were still alive, I might try to get into one of his tales!

What piece of advice would you give to new authors? Or those thinking of becoming authors?

Well, it's great now you can self-publish ebooks as it has become possible to get your writing 'out there' relatively easily.  (Although, getting noticed is the hard part). I would advise new authors not to give up the day job as, unless you become very successful, you simply cannot rely on it as a sole income.  Also, you have to write about something you are interested in and characters you care about.  If the author themselves isn't interested or involved in what they are writing, this will come across and put off readers.

What first inspired you to write?

I've always enjoyed reading and, since the Kindle, my reading has increased ten-fold.  I only started writing earlier this year.  The triggers were reading Susan Hill's 'The Woman In Black' and Roald Dahl's 'Tales of the Unexpected'.  'The Woman In Black' was so atmospheric and well-written, that I wanted to see if I could write a ghost story.  The result is in my book, 'Eclectic', but I'm not telling you which one so as not to spoil the surprise!  Roald Dahl's stories were totally engaging and surprising and I loved the fact he could wrong-foot the reader at the last minute.  His book of adult tales inspired me to write some short stories and I found I really enjoyed it!

Your collection of short stories covers a range of subjects - do you have a favourite genre of subject you like to write?

It's hard to say, really, as I enjoy writing so many different genres.  I love to write something dramatic or creepy that has a twist at the end, but I also enjoying writing to get emotion from the reader.  If the reader empathises with a character or feels something for them, I am delighted.  The comic stories in my collection were probably hardest to write as comedy is hard to get right.

What are you working on at the moment?

I'm working on my first book's follow-up 'More Eclectic Tales' which will again display a range of genres all within the same book.  Alongside this, I am also writing a longer piece, about which my lips are sealed!  It's a thriller though.

Tell us about your latest work

I named my latest (and first!) book 'Eclectic: Ten Very Different Tales' as the book contains many genres.  My aim was to give readers a book where they may be laughing at one story and shocked, surprised or saddened by the next.  Many of my stories have twists or reveals near the end; I like to surprise my readers!

So thanks to Jonathon for sharing his time and thoughts with us. You can find his book on Amazon: ECLECTIC: TEN VERY DIFFERENT TALES You can check out his blog as well: jhillwriter.blogspot.co.uk

If you're an author and would like to feature then just leave a comment and I'll get in touch.