Suzi Quatro, musician and poet
What are you performing at Archway With Words?
I will be reading excerpts from my poetry book, Through My Eyes.
To the reader who’s unfamiliar with your work, where should they start, and why?
Well, I made my name in rock and roll. The hits started in 1973 with Can The Can. I’ve sold 55 million records, I tour the world. So you could start with a box set released in 2014 celebrating 50 years in business. I’ve been a DJ on Radio 2 since 1999, there were three years as Leather Tuscadero in the show Happy Days, not to mention various other shows in the West End like Annie Get Your Gun. Blah blah blah…just google me.
What tips would you give to wannabe writers or musicians?
Go out and learn your craft. Success won’t come to you.
Suzi Quatro appears Fri 21st Oct, Archway Tavern Nightclub 7.15pm
Jonathan Harvey, playwright and author
What are you speaking about?
I will be reading from my new book The History of Us, and talking about writing it. Hopefully I’ll also be doing a Q&A. It’s the story of three friends who first meet when they’re teenagers living on the same street in Liverpool in the 80s, and tracks their evolving relationships to the present day. Adam wants to be a writer, Jocelyn wants to be a famous singer and Kathleen wants to be an embalmer. Thirty years later, Kathleen’s an alcoholic, Adam is hiding a shocking secret and Jocelyn is dead. So it’s about how life doesn’t always work out the way you think it will.
To the reader who’s unfamiliar with your work, where should they start, and why?
Start with the first book I wrote, All She Wants and carry on in the order they came out. Why? To see if I’ve got any better.
What three tips would you give to wannabes?
Write. Read. Write.
Jonathan Harvey appears Fri 14th, Archway Methodist Church, at 845pm
Louise Doughty, novelist
So, what book are you promoting then?
I’ll be talking about my latest novel, Black Water, which is set in Indonesia, across three decades of that country’s troubled history. As it opens, you find a man called John Harper lying awake in the middle of the night in a hut in rural Bali. He’s listening to the rain on the roof and mortally afraid: he thinks men with machetes are going to come and kill him, but as the book progresses, you find out that what he is really afraid of is not something that is going to happen, but something he himself has done, a very dark secret in his past. When he meets a woman in a bar the next day, he forms a liaison with her and hopes for a sort of redemption, but can he ever have that without being honest about what he’s done? It’s a book about personal and political betrayal.
Where should I start?
My most successful novel to date is my seventh book, Apple Tree Yard, which is about a woman scientist who has a catastrophic affair and ends up on trial for murder. In many ways, it’s my most accessible book because it takes the form of a thriller: the last third of it is courtroom drama. It’s just been adapted for TV with Emily Watson in the lead role and it sold in 28 languages worldwide.
What tips would you give to new writers?
There are three words which all new writers should have tattooed on their foreheads. KEEP. YOUR. NERVE. Writing a novel takes forever, and getting it published does too. You have to have a kind of blind faith in yourself and your abilities, not to mention your ability to be lucky. Writers are not people who want to write so much as people who can’t not-write. It’s a very long process.
Study the industry: go into bookshops, browse online, read the books pages in the newspapers. Offer yourself as a reviewer; go to literary festivals. If you want to be a professional writer then treat it seriously as a profession and research your market.
Most importantly: read. I’m constantly amazed by the number of people who want to write who never read. It’s your most important learning tool. Read contemporary fiction: both the stuff that is like your writing and the stuff that is completely different from yours – be an omnivore and consume as much as you can.
Louise Doherty appears on Fri 14th October at Archway Methodist Church 7.15pm
Jake Arnott, novelist
What can we expect this week?
I’ll be in conversation with Paul Morley, whose wonderful book The Age of Bowie came out this year. I guess we’ll be talking about the cultural impact of Mr Bowie. I wrote a piece in The Guardian about his literary influences, so I’ll probably concentrate on that. Among so many other things he was a great writer and a massive influence on me and the writers of my generation.
Where should Jake virgins start?
I suppose my first, The Long Firm, still the book I’m most associated with. The story of a charismatic homosexual gangster told from the perspective of five different characters. I started writing it 20 years ago but it contains all the themes I’m still obsessed with: hidden histories, sexuality, cheap glamour, that strange dynamic between high and low culture – and that behind every fortune there lies a great crime.
My only really certain piece of advice is: don’t take anyone’s advice. I’m serious. Everyone has an opinion about writing (particularly those who don’t actually live by it). There are so many ‘gems’ of advice that I have come across over the years that if I had taken I would never had made it as a writer. So beware and follow your own instincts. With that in mind tip number two is to learn the difference between desperation and despair. You really need to be desperate to be a writer (and this feeling doesn’t stop just because you’ve been published either). Despair is another matter and must be warded off at all costs. Tip number three (and the only one that makes any sense) is be lucky.
Jake Arnott appears Thurs 20th October at Archway Methodist Church, 745pm.
Salena Godden, poet
What are you doing at AWWW?
I’m releasing a live spoken word album on October 7th with Nymphs and Thugs called LIVEwire, and so I’ll be reading the new poetry from that. I’ll also read bits from my memoir Springfield Road, poems from Fishing in The Aftermath and an extract from The Good Immigrant, a heady mix of love and laughter.
To anyone unfamiliar with your work, where should they start?
I would probably start with watching Can’t Be Bovvered on Youtube. My rant poem about apathy, anti-apathy, it’s something I enjoy performing and I still stick by every word. Even though it’s one of my oldest poems, it kinda still makes sense now.
I have a piece titled Shade published in The Good Immigrant anthology this month. The book is 21 essays by 21 BAME writers about what it means to grow up ‘ticking other’ in the UK. This book is essential, my latest published work. It was crowdfunded in record time on Unbound, and I’m proud to be a contributor of such a wonderful collection.
What three tips would you give to wannabe writers?
Read! Read! Read!
Salena Godden appears Fri 21st Oct, Archway Tavern Nightclub 7.15pm, on the same bill as Suzi Quatro
