Writing was a ‘wake up call’ following a successful, if difficult, professional life. I had no literary reputation to rely on so had to start from scratch. Following scores of rejections, at least from those who bothered to respond, I decided to self publish. I kept going because I loved writing and hoped readers would like and identify with the books. My advice to aspiring writers is; write because you love it not for money or success, both are elusive. After a couple of years and poor sales I began to attract a readership and New Generation kindly offered me a publishing contract and the film followed.
Nick Brown
The ‘Film Festival Doctor’, Rebekah Smith, has engaged producer Alexa Waugh and cult director Stephen Brooks to film my supernatural ‘Ancient Gramarye’ series beginning with ‘Skendleby’. I think society is ready for a new way of making films which challenges the current power structure and I’m very excited to be part of that. It’s been interesting co-writing the script with my youngest son Gaius from Frame North. Letting your son criticise and change your ideas is a challenging experience.
I’m writing two series of books, of which six are already published, based on my academic background as an archaeologist. The Luck Bringer series is based in Ancient Greece during the Persian wars and attempts to fill in the gaps in the evidence, particularly about the role of women. I became interested in this on re-reading the plays of the first great modern dramatist Aeschylus who fought at the battle of Marathon. Women, particularly strong ones, are virtually absent from the ancient histories but are prominent in his plays. I began to wonder why.
The idea for the Ancient Gramarye books stemmed from some strange experiences I couldn’t explain. Skendleby is an old style horror, based on unease and the build up of atmosphere rather than gratuitous violence and jump scares. The later books develop ideas about what hauntings might actually be. To my surprise, it wasn’t intentional, the Skendleby books ended up being populated with strong women and weak men.
Both books were a way of writing out some of the trauma I collected during having to deal with the aftermath of two racial murders and I was able to transfer some of my negative experiences on to my protagonists. After writing a particularly bleak experience for Mandrocles, the young hero of the Luck Bringer books, I wondered where the inspiration came from. Later I realised Mandrocles was expressing how I’d felt after some of the violence and rioting following the murders.
The racial tension and violence resulted in me opening and leading a multi racial sixth form college in Oldham, an educationally segregated town. I was the college principal for eighteen years; its success is what I’m proudest of. The OBE was as much for the college as for me.
I live in a house regarded as haunted and in which some people won’t spend the night, with my wife and sons.