Author Interview Gary William Murning

This week I interviewed one of the other Legend Press authors, Gary William Murning. Gary is a novelist living in the northeast of England. His work focuses on themes that touch us all – love, death, loss and aspiration – but always with an eye to finding an unusual angle or viewpoint. Quirky and highly readable, his writing aims to entertain first and foremost. If I Never is Gary’s debut novel. For more information on Gary and his novels, and a free sample chapter, visit Gary William Murning Online.

What sorts of books do you read? Are they similar to the ones you write?

I read fairly widely, actually. In my teens and early twenties, I was heavily into horror fiction. Very much cut my teeth on it as a writer. Then I went through the fairly common phase of reading allegedly more “serious” writers, reading the likes of Joyce’s Ulysses purely for the thrill of being able to say, “Yup, I’ve read that one.” The fact that I detested many of these books was, of course, irrelevant! Or so I then thought…. Eventually, though, I started to favour writers who could make me think as well as entertain. John Irving was an early discovery, and from there I explored Joseph Heller, Garrison Keillor, Ken Kesey and a whole host of other (largely, though not exclusively, American) writers.

Over the past few months I’ve read, among others, Truman Capote, Ron Hansen, Edmund White, Robertson Davies, Peter Carey and Stephen Fry – a pretty diverse bunch but, I suppose, the one I would consider myself most like, stylistically, would be Robertson Davies. At least as far as my current work in progress is concerned. Very large canvas, stuff.

Each book I write tends to be rather different to the one that went before, but I think there’s probably some of John Irving’s character eccentricity in most of the people that populate my novels. I remember reading The Hotel New Hampshire for the first time and suddenly realising that the peculiarities in the people I saw around me (and myself, for that matter!) were what made them intrinsically human. I suppose until that point I’d shied away from writing it completely as I saw it, and Irving helped me get over that. I think that’s probably evident in If I Never — especially with George’s legless mother!

How long have you been a writer (or seen yourself as a writer)?

I suppose I’ve seen myself as a writer for the past twenty odd years. I started trying to write novels in my early twenties and it very quickly became a solid part of who I was. I wrote before that, on and off, of course – the usual kids’ stuff of unfinished short stories and poetry – but I didn’t get serious until my twenties.

Did you study creative writing or English, or are you a self-starter writer?

No, I didn’t study it formally. Not really in my nature, I suppose. If I’d followed the creative writing course path I probably would have quit after a year or two. I like to do things my way, I guess. And, if I’m honest, I sometimes think that creative writing courses – as good as they can be – can occasionally foster a kind of uniformity that concerns me. Even incredible books like The Kite Runner – in places you can just see that it is in part a product of the writing course/workshop climate.

That sounds like I have a huge downer on writing courses, but I haven’t. Not really. They can be fantastic for many people. I tried an informal writing group for a while and that didn’t work very well for me. The responses were pretty good – generally very good, in fact – but still I found myself trying to write for everyone in the group, and pretty soon the comments, understandably, started to become less positive. I left very quickly, once I realised what was happening. Too much input/feedback confuses me. It detracts from what I’m trying to achieve and I have a feeling that it probably would have been the same with a creative writing course – especially when I was just starting out. But that’s just me. For some people it provides the necessary spur and provides many of the answers that I had to spend years discovering for myself, through trial and error

Have you always used the speech recognition software to write or did you ever write by hand?

Yes, I used to write by keyboard – one fingered, but quick enough for what I then needed. These days, though, I need to type a lot more and I’m just not capable of that physically. If I Never and my next novel to be published, Children of the Resolution, however, were both written on PDAs using handwriting recognition. I like to try different ways of working, at times, and this had the benefit of feeling like writing longhand without requiring too much left to right movement (you actually write each letter in pretty much the same place on the screen – difficult to get used to, initially, but once you do pretty impressive.)

How long have you been using the software, and have you found it improved recently?

I’ve used voice recognition software on and off for quite a few years. The early versions were pretty poor but still faster for me than typing manually. These days, though, they’re pretty impressive. And I’m finding that, with my current work in progress, especially, it really helps me achieve a nice lyrical flow.

Do you have lots of other gadgets? I love gadgets so do tell if there are any cool ones!

Other than my smart phone and a drawer full of PDAs, not really. I do love gadgets but usually only bother with ones that can really help with my work and communication. Wouldn’t be without my HTC Touch HD smart phone, though! It’s black and shiny and makes wonderful bird sounds whenever someone wants me on Twitter! What more can you ask for?!

As a ‘disabled writer’ do you find that people try to pigeon-hole you into a particular genre of political writing? (I get this being a ‘lesbian writer’)

Well, that hasn’t happened quite yet – though I must admit I’ve always been rather conscious of such expectations. I’m rarely political (at least where disability is concerned) in my writing, and in the early days very deliberately avoided writing disabled characters. I was just discussing this with a fellow writer recently and I was telling him how I initially wanted to write fiction featuring able-bodied characters convincingly – the idea being that this would reflect better than anything how meaningless the perceived differences actually are. But I never wanted that to be at the forefront of what I was doing, you know? Story and character first.

These days… well, my characters tend to be “disabled” in every imaginable way, though I do define the term very broadly, and rarely think in such terms. George in If I Never, for example, has no discernible “disability”, but he definitely is disabled by his attitude, at times.

I think we’re pretty fortunate, though, being with Legend Press; whatever pressure there may be from activists and political writers, however hard they may try to pigeon-hole us, we at least have the creative freedom we need to write fiction closest to our hearts. Very rare in this day and age, I’m sure you’ll agree.

I’m interested in what you said about the integration of disabled students into mainstream school. I wonder how this experience has shaped you as a person and an author. My overriding memories of the seventies and eighties are of being bullied and this comes out a lot in my book. I wonder if this is similar for you?

Yes, Children of the Resolution is a semi-autobiographical novel I’ve been trying to “get right” for close on twenty years. There have been two or three manifestations but with this one, I think I’ve finally got it just how I want it — or will have once this editorial pass is complete.

It’s set in the north-east of England during the late 1970s/early1980s – a period when educationalists were just starting to address the whole issue of integration/inclusion. The schools I went to (a so-called “special school” situated between a mainstream primary school and a mainstream comprehensive school) were among the first to try this new approach and in the early days it was extremely exciting. There was a sense of something important happening. The three schools had, initially, open door policies. Everyone would mingle – which I loved because all the girls from the primary school next door used to argue over who got to push me in my wheelchair! – and those who were capable academically and physically were gradually integrated more and more into the mainstream schools. A fantastic idea that was, ultimately, not very well implemented (the open door policy, for example, had to be quickly revised when thefts started to occur.)

I think that period did shape me significantly as an individual and a writer. Within a very short time I was integrated – first into the primary school and then the comprehensive – and for a while I wasn’t entirely sure quite what I was. Neither fish nor fowl! That didn’t last long, however, and I soon found that I felt more a member of the mainstream comprehensive than anything else. I had friends in both schools, though, so tended to flit between the two – and when I think about it, that definitely contributed to my writer-personality; I had the benefit of, quite literally, looking at the whole setup from both sides, and I think that’s something that features quite heavily in my writing. I always want to have a look at it, whatever it may be, from a different angle.

With regard bullying – you know, I was incredibly lucky. I had very little trouble of that kind. This is something I address in Children in quite a bit of detail, but I just never had to contend with that relentless bullying that many, sadly, experience. Yes, I had conflicts but they were usually fairly brief and not exactly one-sided. Like I say, incredibly lucky. (Funnily enough, when I look back – and this is addressed in Children in more detail – the bullying I did see was largely directed at able-bodied pupils. You’d expect more bullying of the disabled kids, wouldn’t you? But that – in my experience – wasn’t how it was… maybe the teachers were especially vigilant?)

It wasn’t all sunshine and skittles, though. It was far from easy and, it being a new approach, there were a lot of failings. I did make some wonderful friends, however – and I think that’s the main driving force behind Children; one friend in particular died whilst we were both still at school, and Children was an opportunity to revisit my friendship with him and pay tribute to his indomitable character.

Now available from all good bookstores, online and High Street – If I Never, the debut novel by Gary William Murning. Buy online from Amazon by clicking here. Electronic version for Kindle and other e-readers also available here. For more information and a free sample chapter, visit Gary William Murning Online.