I'm Michael Cargill, and I like to write stuff. My day job is working in IT, which means I get to fix stuff that other people have broken. Sometimes I even get a 'thank you', but mostly I just get moaned at. The rest of the time I'm praying that my HR Payroll department don't screw up my wages again.
What first inspired you to start writing?
In all honesty, I have no idea. At all. It's not something I ever had an interest in at school, as I found it really boring back then. When I got my first office job, I was often sending out silly emails to people. Some of them told me I should write a book, and ten years later I did!
If you could write anyone's biography, whose would it be?
Engleburt Humperdink's, if only so I can make every paragraph end with something that rhymes with 'dink'.
Is there another author you'd love to work with?
Erm... no, I reckon it would be annoying, and akin to sharing a pair of trousers with your favourite fashion designer. Stephen King is my favourite author, but if I met him I would be too in awe of him to actually do anything. I'd probably try to hump his leg, or something.
What do you enjoy most about writing?
Creating stuff out of nothing! It's a great feeling when you finally finish a chapter, or come up with something nifty.
And the leaast?
It takes so bloody long. And the editing... my God, the editing is torture. When I'm finished, I'm utterly fed up with the damn thing.
What advice would you give new and aspiring authors?
Just go for it. If you're just starting out, don't bother with all the writing guides that are all over the place - they'll just fill your head with stuff that'll confuse you. It's like learning to ride a bike, and a bulletpoint list is largely useless.
Write a story of some kind, and don't worry about the length. Shove it in a drawer for a day, then look at it again. If you cringe at how bad it is, then congratulations! That's how proper writers work. Make the corrections, then shove it in the drawer for a day again. Take it out, cringe, correct it. And so on. Even the best writer has an army of proofreaders and editors helping out.
What are you working on at the moment?
I'm not entirely sure what it is, but it's annoying me. It was originally going to be a thriller, but it didn't turn out that way. It's about 45k words at the moment, but I'm still not entirely sure where it's going.
Tell us about your latest work and how we can find out more.
My latest book is called Underneath, and it's a thrilly thriller with thrilly bits. There's a sociopath doing 'path things, and some police officers who end up getting involved. I've had people say they like the humour in it, along with the fact that the officers are portrayed as being actual people, rather than mindless drones.
You can find out more on my website, on Amazon, and even certain torrent sites that I uploaded my work onto...!
Website: http://michaelcargill.wordpress.com/
Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=michael+cargill&x=0&y=0
Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/michael-cargill?cm_mmc=AFFILIATES-_-Linkshare-_-TnL5HPStwNw-_-10:1&r=1
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/mcargill
Thanks to Michael for sharing his time with us, on Tuesday we welcome Victoria Pearson to the hot seat.
Yay, is me!
ReplyDeleteThanks for hosting me, 'twas a pleasure.
Good to have you!
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