Many of you will know that I'm compiling a catalogue for the Independent Paperback Gift Shop, and during the compilation process I met a number of authors including up and coming Steampunk author.Rae Gee, who, I discover, lives just down the road from me, the next county along in Leicestershire.
Naturally, I thought it would be a good idea to introduce myself and Rae agreed to take time away from her busy schedule to talk to us.
You can also see how the catalogue is developing, as I am going to display Rae's catalogue page on the Gift Shop blog.
Its a Steampunk double bill.
Tell us a bit about yourself? Who are you?
Where are you from? Do you write full time? Do you work?
Hi Wiz! Thanks for giving me time on your
blog. I really appreciate it!
My name's Rae, and I hail from a small town just
outside of Leicester. I wish I could write full time! That's my ultimate dream.
That and make documentaries and take a huge, Easy Rider style road trip across
America.
During the day I work as an events manager for a care home. No two
days are ever the same, which is just the way I like it. But one day I hope to
walk out of there and to permanently in front of my computer.
Wiz Notes: Leicester is home to the National Space Centre. Walkers Stadium and for American readers, is the birthplace of cruise crooner, romantic balladeer and notorious used panties collector, Englebert Humperdinck.
My mother loves Englebert Humperdinck, Rae.
Does she?
Do you know what his real name is?
Is it Arnold Dorsey, Wiz?
That's right, it is. He has a pool outside his house with a big inflatable dome over it. Near Oadby.
Oh.
Okay. Anything else about you Wizardwatchers ought to know?
I have a tattoo of a Boeing 747 on
my back haha.
Fantastic stuff! On to writing. How do you write? 2500 a day? Straight
onto WP? Notepads? Lost Weekend style word binges?
I aim for a thousand words a day. Sometimes
that happens, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes I manage 5,000. Sometimes it's
lucky to make it a hundred. It depends what else is there to distract me, like
someone jumping out of a pod from 24 miles above the earth. Now that was worth taking 3 hours out of
writing for. I'd quite happily watch something like that every day over the
multitude of reality shows we now have.
Notebooks - There are notebooks everywhere. By the bed, in my work bag, by
the computer, under the bed, under the sofa, by the TV. Scattered through them
all are a multitude of ideas which, at some point, have to be pieced together.
Only most of the time I seem to forget what I've written in them and go on a
completely different tangent. And no, I don't plan at all! I'm a real “fly by
the seat of your pants” writer.
 |
| Ray Milland - the everyday life of a writer. Lost Weekend 1945 |
You know, I haven't been on a Lost Weekend
style word binge for a very long time. I did it about 10 years ago. The results
still linger on a hard drive somewhere...
Tell us about Mars On The Rise, Rae: Mars on the Rise started as a paragraph while
I was sitting on a train.
Originally it was supposed to be for a friend to
illustrate but, while sitting at one of the train stations, I looked at the
bricked up arches. It went from there really. It follows Cedo Reilly, who's a
storyteller on the pier. He finds himself being propositioned by Erus Veetu,
who promises to make Cedo a star of the stages.
Erus owns the country's largest
weapons company and Cedo doesn't like what he does. He spends a lot of time
trying to talk Erus out of what he does. There's a lot of twists and turns,
dark alleyways and government conspiracies,
Steampunk oddities, fearsome
weapons and a man who has nothing to lose. A lot of people enjoyed it for the
exploration of gay relationships in the Victorian era. I never set out to write
it with gay relationships but, as we know, anything can happen when it comes to
writing! You never know where the muses will take you.
You have a distinctive look. What do you
wear when you write? Do you wear the top hat?
Haha, actually I do! Especially if it's cold!
It depends what mood I'm in.
Sometimes I just wear jeans and a t-shirt,
sometimes I'll wear full Victorian clothing. You can imagine the looks when I
have to answer the door to someone!
Moriarty out of League of Extraordinary
Gentlemen wants you silenced and sends his gremlins to Leicester. You are
captured while walking down the High Street and incarcerated in an Antarctic
dungeon. Your gaoler, Faustus, is a kindly gremlin and allows you three books,
two CDs and one DVD to pass away the time. What would you choose.
Books
“War of the Worlds” - H.G. Wells
“Anno Dracula” - Kim Newman
 |
| Brilliant horrorist, anthologist, archivist and fantasy fiction/Steampunk guru Kim Newman |
“Contact” - Carl Sagan
CD's
“Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?” - Megadeth
“Appetite For Destruction” - Guns N' Roses
DVD
“Firefly box set”
That's a bit cheeky!
Well it all comes in one box, doesn't it!
I'll let you off! What are your personal ambitions. Do you
want to write full time? How feasible is that in today's crowded market place.
I'd love to write full time. It really is the
dream and I'm hoping to achieve it one day. I think it is still feasible in
today's market place. Yes, the market is more crowded but with e-readers
becoming more popular and self publishing not being seen as merely a vanity
press, I think it's a growing market. And if you can make a niche for yourself
then the world really can become your oyster.
I'm also hoping to go back to documentary
film-making. It was my first love when I was younger and not so confident in my
writing. I want to go and make happy films rather than ones which show the
harsher side to life. The world really is a dark place right now and it needs
something to help lift it. Books help a lot of people to escape the drudgery
but we do need something to help people feel better about themselves and to
remind them that they're not just a number in a very big system.
At some point I'd also like to own a
Spitfire.
You can buy flyable kits from several places and I'm half tempted to
give Rolls Royce a call to see if they'd build me a Merlin engine.
I'd love to
fly it for charity and to make people happy.
That's the aim of my life; make
people smile and think!
A writer and a musician arrive at your
door with a bottle of vino collapso and a bag of Walkers. Who would you like
them to be and what food would you prepare/go and eat.
David Ellefson (Bassist for Megadeth) and
Carl Sagan. I'd love to just spend an evening geeking out with them about life,
the universe and everything. As for what I've cook... Apparently I can do a
mean curry when the mood takes me.
 |
| One of Rae's amazing curries, potentially. |
Rumour has it that my homemade meatballs are
also fairly good.
haha! What
do fans of Rae Gee have to look forward to in 2013.
We're holding the book launch for Book 2 of
the Veetu Industries series in April. It's going to be an evening of Steampunk
splendidness. Everyone's welcome to come and join us, so feel free to check out
the website:
Rae, thanks very much for an entertaining interview. I'm sure our readers will really enjoy it if the writing in Mars is as good as the way you come across!
Thank you, Wiz. That's really kind. Best of luck.
You can contact Rae here.
Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/
ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8
 |
| Late addition: Rae's novel and innovative Boeing tattoo! Lyrics: "And you know all the long while, It's the journey that you seek, It's the miles of movin' forward With the wind beneath your wings." ('River' - Izzy Stradlin) |
I ran into Englebert Humperdinck in Manhattan on my lunch hour - and yes, he did say hello. Also love Carl Sagan's Cosmos. Great interview guys.
ReplyDeleteSuper interview with Rae Gee ... love her fun, up beat approach ... thanks for sharing. n x
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