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Michael J Malone, Quicksand of Memory

Michael J Malone, Quicksand of Memory

1. The J in my name is fictional. When my (first) agent was submitting my debut novel to publishers I became aware of an American author called Michael Malone. My debut novel – Blood Tears – had a serial killer in it who was staging his kills to mimic the death scenes of Catholic saints. The US version of me had a novel out in the UK at this time – and his serial killer was staging his kills to mimic the death scenes of Catholic saints. How spooky is that?! So I changed the death scene thing and added a J to my name.

2. When I was a pre-teen I used to do Highland Dancing. I remember dancing at Burns’ Suppers and St Andrew’s Nights – and my claim to fame was dancing on the back of a flat-bed lorry in my wee kilt etc as it was driven through the town of Irvine in Ayrshire.

The nuns (long story) were terrified about the whole what does a Scotsman wear under his kilt thing and had a pair of underpants made from the same tartan and heavy wool as the kilt. You have no idea how scratchy this was on my tender under-parts. Excruciating.

3. The year before the pandemic I trained as a Clinical Hypnotherapist. I’ve always been interested in alternative therapy and when the opportunity came to train in this modality I jumped at the chance. Most of my work, currently is with people dealing with anxiety. For many people the world is a terrifying place right now and with my work my aim is to help them recover some sort of equilibrium and re-engage in a meaningful way with their lives.
4. I am an avid reader –Enid Blyton was my first love, and I graduated from there to C.S. Lewis, and Ursula Le Guin and from there to writers like Stephen King, Wilbur Smith, and Catherine Cookson. I’m sure the writing of people like Cookson is why I write the way I do – stories about real people in trying circumstances, albeit with vehicle of the crime novel as a way to carry my characters’ experiences.

5. I was about eight when I attempted writing my first novel – “all” those years of reading and I had ambitions of seeing my name on the cover of a book. They say the best way to learn when you’re young is by imitation – but perhaps my first was a little too on the nose, given that it was my version of Tarka the Otter. My next attempt came when I was in my early teens. This was around the time of Love Story and similar movies where impossibly beautiful people were dying of cancer. Again, imitation was my go – to, and I came up with a premise where a young boy was determined to bring his parents back together before he died from leukaemia. Despite what this might suggest I was a cheery wee boy. Honest.