The most imminent event is the
release of her first horror novel:
MELT, supernatural horror
novel: http://janinewood2012.wix.com/melt---horror-novel
The MELT book
release is on December 11th 2014
for ebooks, January 2015 for hard copies.
Over the past few years there
have been several anthology appearances, but since gaining a place in The
Screaming Book of Horror alongside greats like John Burke (original screenplay
- The Sorcerers) and Charlie Higson (The Enemy series & Young James Bond
author), plus her first horror novel MELT having achieved a runner-up
position in the international ‘Rogue-Writing Contest’ and a contract with US
publisher, Assent, Janine-Langley Wood is now firmly set on course as an author
of the macabre; something of a contrast for an animal loving, bird rescuing
pacifist.
Your real name and pen name?
As
with my pen-name, my real name is Janine-Langley Wood, though I often drop the
Langley for secular work.
Please share some of the best memories of your
childhood
My
dad always had the crappest car in the neighbourhood. When everybody else’s
dads were driving Escorts and Avengers my dad had an old Ford Popular, which he
affectionately nicknamed ‘the Pop’, with seats that tipped forward in their
entirety to allow passenger to clamber into the back. One time when he turned
up unannounced in it to pick me up from school, I jumped into a ditch until
he’d gone.
And
yet, on sunny days, or when the new Bond film came out at the pictures, it was
the crap old Ford Pop that all the kids on our street were queuing up to pile
into – this was in the days before seat-belts became compulsory, of course –
because my mum and dad took me and my sisters out as often as they could manage:
to the beach, to Ilkley Moors and river, or the old cinemas in Headingly. Any
time they had to spare, they spent it with us.
Early
memories of reading experiences take me back to my grandma and great auntie’s
council flat in Swinnow, where I’d stay quite often. I didn’t read that many
children’s books, more comics, but once I’d caught a glimpse of the
worm-riddled skeletons and bloodied corpses on the covers of my Aunt Greta’s
collection of Pan Books of Horror, I was hooked on the genre for life. It was
probably at around age nine that I first started reading the quite complex
stories inside. I heard Charlie Higson on Radio 4 recently, talking about how
fascinated kids are with death. That was certainly true for me and was an early
influence on what I write today.
About your education
Call
it working class modesty but I don’t apply the letters I’ve earned after my
name. I have an MA in Literature / Creative Writing, plus two diplomas, one in
teaching and another in teaching English. Quietly I am quite proud about it,
considering all I came out of secondary school with was one bouncing baby boy,
now in his thirties. I remember one time at secondary school going to see the
careers officer for some advice and him suggesting I go get a job as a shelf
stacker at Asda, the most common vocation for Pudsey women at that time; the
first Asda in the UK having been built slap-bang at the bottom of our street.
Not that there’s anything wrong with shelf stacking; in fact by the time he suggested
it, I’d already tried it out as a part-timer, it’s just, all my life a strong
part of me leaned towards the creative, and the frustration at having no outlet
to vent that manifested itself in different ways. I certainly never considered
university, nor was it suggested to me. It wasn’t something anybody on either
side of my family had ever done, and seemed at that time to be the privilege of
a higher class of people.
One
of my stories, A New Life, in the anthology ‘Even The Ants Have Names’,
although not factually about me, reflects the frustration of working-class teenage
girls in Leeds in the 1970s.
The
first actual qualification I gained was my Masters Degree, when I was forty one.
I had no first degree, A-Levels or GCSEs, just the strength of my writing and
the passion I felt for it, plus the threat from my course leaders that if I
didn’t read more I could take a hike. I read more than I ever had, and loved
it.
 |
More
recently, with 2 colleagues at my own Creative Writing students’ graduation.
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What career did you plan during your educational days?
From
the age of sixteen I did various jobs: shop assistant, petrol pump attendant,
modelling and promotions work, but I didn’t have a plan, as such. I did write a
few books before I was twenty but didn’t know what to do with it all. I knew my
grammar wasn’t up to scratch, and in the end I just threw the manuscripts away,
something I still don’t like to think about, although I’d probably be
embarrassed to look at them now.
What languages can you speak and write?
In
my twenties and thirties I became a rep then sales manager, and learned ‘German
for Business’ for a big expo I never attended in the end, so not having
practised it, I only remember the basics; mostly I remember how to order a
beer. I also learned a little French at school and a little more from going
there on business and for holidays, but again only remember the basics. I know
how to say, ‘Shut your mouth’, because that seemed important at school.
What is your biggest source of inspiration in life
I
could say all kinds of authors, certainly Alice Walker and Irvine Welsh, who’d
penned the first great books I read and loved as a student at Uni, or Stephen
King as my favourite horror writer, but in all honestly, my children have been
my greatest inspiration. Your kids make you want to do better, to be better;
and the act of giving birth, for me, released a mass of creative energy each
time. Finding time to write all the ideas down around being a mum was the
trick. My kids are both creative too. My son is a film-maker and my daughter a
musician.
What hurts you most in this world
That
a select few people have so much while so many have squat; while children are
starving and dying of unnecessary diseases. In his criticism of American
Foreign Policy, the late comedian Bill Hicks reminded us that the world is
round; thousands of years before him the Bible described the earth as circular.
When will we get it?
What is the biggest challenge you have faced? How did
you overcome it?
Bringing
up two kids on my own, for the most part, convincing them that they were better
off having me around some of the time, rather than having that £100 pair of
trainers or latest mobile phone that I’d have to take two jobs to be able to
afford. In order to overcome the obvious difficulties and strike the right balance,
I had to care less about my own status in life and how others might judge me
and just get on with it, basically have less. Now I understand why my dad drove
a Ford Pop, not an Escort.
If you had to live a day of your life as one of the
living or dead personality, who would it be and why?
It’d
have to be Billie Holiday because I love her work and think about her all the
time. Oh, to sing like that even just for twenty four hours. I’d throw an all
day party and be on-mike right through, inviting requests from all the people
who’ve ever had to put up with my off-key caterwauling.
What is your favourite genre and why?
I’ve
always read more horror than anything else, not splatter-gore particularly,
though I don’t mind some as part of a good plot. I’ve tried a lot of writers
but prefer the well written stuff like Shirley Jackson, Stephen King and James
Herbert. I also like the ghost stories of MR James and their adaptations by the
BBC for a great Christmas scare. I’ve recently been collecting some of the old
Pan Books, revisiting those. And here’s a coincidence: Screaming Dreams’ editor
Johnny Mains, who compiled The Screaming Book of Horror, also wrote the
introduction to the recently rereleased 1st Pan Book of Horror Stories,
and the biography of their late editor Herbert Van Thal.
When did you start writing? What is the purpose of
your writing?
My
first attempts at original writing, rather than something that was set in a
school lesson, were in comic strip form. I picked up that genre from the
teenaged-anxt comics I was reading prematurely at the time. I suppose I was
about ten or eleven. I did the artwork too. I really hope they never turn up –
cringe-worthy. Whenever I tried an original writing exercises at school I
always got commended for my efforts. I lived for those lessons, but they were
few and far between.
The
main purpose of my writing is to express my own ideas. Audience is more
important to me than it used to be. Although there’s a pile of work I’ve
written, especially poetry, that’s never seen the light of day, let alone
reached an audience, I do want people to read my work. And I want to entertain
those who bother to read it. So I strive to make every word count. At
university I was told I had the gift of finding the comedy in horror. If I have
a motto it’s Never write in a bad mood;
it’ll find a way through the text. Horror needs a little humour more than
anything.
Which of your work has been published so far?
·
Due out: short story
‘Relentless’ in the December 2014 issue of Malevolent Magazine: http://emoryslone.wix.com/malevolentmagazine
- Currently
shortlisted: short story ‘The Deepest Point’ with Midnight Echo: http://midnightechomagazine.com/2014/11/22/midnight-echo-11-short-list-announced/
- Former publications
include Even the Ants Have Names, Diamond Twig Press, Lyrical Laboratory, Forward Press, Under the Bridge, A Centre for
Northern Studies Publication, Braqemard,
Hasty and Krax magazines.
Most recently my stories have appeared in The Screaming Book of Horror, a Noose and Gibbet Press
anthology, in the 2nd edition of Corvus, and in the 5th edition of Horror Library anthologies, Cutting Block Press.
- Horror
Library vol 5 was shortlisted
for a Bram Stoker Award for Excellence in an Anthology.
- Baby-Trap,
which featured in Screaming Book of Horror alongside John Burke, Charlie Higson and Robin Ince, also made it onto Ellen Datlow's longlist for Best Horror of the Year.
- In 2003 I gained a
Northern Promise Award (Northern
Arts) and Mentoring by renowned author Sara
Maitland.
Script
- 2009 - short play,
What’s in a Name?, read at The
Courtyard Theatre, West Yorkshire Playhouse.
- First play, A Minor Catastrophe, shortlisted
for BBC’s comedy-script competition Falling
About.
What are your forthcoming writings?
I’m
currently adapting my Northern Promise
Award novel, Perfecting Beverly, which
was a work in progress at the time, into a horror novel. I have also started a
horror ‘who-done-it’ novel. Both of these works incorporate UK mythology, a
long-time fascination of mine.
What keeps you motivating towards writing?
I’ll
quote the intro to my website, which goes like this:
‘As a writer I'm constantly plagued by ideas that need to find their way onto
paper or screen lest my brain should explode in Aldi or Farm-Foods, showering
unwitting shoppers with untold visions of dark and sinister places, of hideous
crimes and befitting punishments, along with some unsavoury characters they'd
rather not introduce their grandmothers to.’
Basically, I’m driven to write, and if I
don’t make time to do it the ideas pile up and drive me nuts.
How do you plan, schedule and monitor your writing
commitments?
I
make time to write or work on upcoming publications every day now. Having a
publisher this last year has helped a lot, because I no longer have just myself
to answer to.
What are your future plans?
I’d
like to have three horror novels in circulation by 2018.
What four top most things do you take care of while writing
a book?
Character
development (believability), convincing dialogue, humour and constant editing.
How much real life goes into your fiction writing?
Most
of my character voices begin in real life. But then on paper they go off and do
their own thing, develop into something unique and at some point become essentially
fictional.
Is a high level of imagination important to have as an
Author?
I
believe so. Even if what you’re writing is a factual account of something, you
must entertain your reader on some level. Even a shopping list would be
imaginative in the hands of a great writer like Shakespeare.
Your dream destination on Earth?
I
do like France, and I know there are plenty of warmer places than Yorkshire,
but when I’m up at the top of Ilkley Moors, I think even if I fell out of the
sky this land couldn’t hurt me, I love it so much, and it’s mine.
Your origin of birth and other countries you have
visited/ stayed. What best things you liked in these countries around the
globe?
I
was born in Leeds, England. I’ve lived in the North East of England for over
twelve years and that’s where I got my first round of adult education. It’s
still my second home. Places I’ve visited abroad include, France, Spain,
Belgium, Holland, Greece and Corsica in Europe, Tangiers in North Africa and Chicago
in The States.
Your favourite time of the day?
Weekdays,
whatever time is right to cork a bottle of wine. Of the week, Saturday morning;
two lazy cups of coffee and the weekend ahead.
Your zodiac/ sunsign?
Capricorn.
Your favourite color and why?
Purple.
I love the novel, The Color Purple, plus as a redhead I always avoided wearing
it thinking it would drown me out, but as it turns out it livens me up a bit. I
have a lot of purple and lilac flowers in my garden. I like bees and bees like lavender.
What is the last book you finished reading? What is
the current book you are reading?
Dark
Matter by Michael Paver. I’m currently rereading Edgar Allan Poe and Roald
Dhal.
Your favourite book and why?
The
Color Purple by Alice Walker. It opened up a whole new world for me. Writing in
a voice that felt real and, at times, unaware of itself. Stunning prose.
Your favourite movie and why?
The
one I keep pulling out of the cupboard is the box-set of Mad Men. It’s not a
film as such but the script is superb and the cast are an absolute dream (1950s
talk). I tend to follow good producers / directors rather than specific films.
Shane Meadows is a great English film-maker; my favourite of his is A Room for
Romeo Brass. From Scotland, I love the Danny Boyle / John Hodge collaborations.
The USA, Martin Scorsese. From Mexican (also in Spanish), Guillermo Del Toro;
The Orphanage being my favourite. Sorry, I can’t pick one.
Your favourite celebrity and why?
The
comedian Stewart Lee. He tells it like it is, and even when he’s totally making
it up to press a point he is utterly convincing. Oh, and he’s very funny. You
just have to hear his take on the ‘Big-Brother racism scandal’.
Your favourite food?
I
like good old British winter-warmer stodge like stew and dumplings and steak
and kidney pie, but I also love fruit and veg. I pile the sprouts on at
Christmas. I’ve dabbled with vegetarianism on and off and don’t find it that
hard to go meat-free most days, especially not now there’s quarn, but I
wouldn’t put it in a stew.
Your favourite sports?
To
do: horse-riding, and I swim and walk quite long distances. To watch: nothing
really; I’m not sporty. When I was a sales promoter I got a free trip down to
the Grande-Prix at Silverstone. I loved the raucus atmosphere of the live event
but have never liked watching it on TV.
What is the force that drives you?
Creativity
and a hint of self loathing (I must do better but I’m a bit lazy at heart).
What comes to your mind when you think of India?
A
vast unexplored landscape, for me. Iconic buildings. Mountains – a friend of
mine who spent half her life in India named her son Kailash. I’ve seen pictures
of Kailash; it looks like a huge golden nugget in the sun. An unhealthy union
with old England, captured brilliantly in Salman Rushdi’s short story, Free
Radio. Heart-warming music and the art of dance. Colourful weddings with lush
food – I’ve been to one, but only in the UK.
What three words come to your mind for each –
Technology, Life, God, Humanity.
Freedom,
infinity, slavery. Beauty, love, loss. Brotherhood, belief, oppression. Struggle,
imagination, growth.
First thing you do in the morning after waking up?
Flex
my spine, let the dog out, make coffee, switch on Classic FM, my morning
station.
Last thing you do before sleep?
Read.
If one fine morning you wake up and find your sex
changed to the opposite, what will be your first reaction?
If life
were a 12A film, I’d check the size of my penis, of course. In reality, I’d
search my thoughts and feelings on women and try to understand the differences
and age-old conflicts.
State your signature line/ tagline/ best quote
What
with my tendency towards solitude, a strong taste for independence, and having hand-reared
the odd carrion crow, five hundred years back I probably would’ve been burned
as a witch.
The last line of your autobiography would be…
I’m
not done yet.
The title of your autobiography would be…
One
more try.
Links & other relevant details:
Author
website with books: http://janinewood2012.wix.com/janine-langleywood
Book
website (MELT): http://janinewood2012.wix.com/melt---horror-novel
Publisher:
http://www.assentpublishing.com/Authors.aspx
Twitter
handle: https://twitter.com/wood_melt
Facebook
page: https://www.facebook.com/janinelangley.wood
Author
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Janine-Langley-Wood-Author/1502648733335767?fref=ts
Facebook
– Fans of Gothic Horror group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1489578137973891/?pnref=story
Goodreads
author page: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/12375727-janine-langley-wood
Even
the Ants Have Names: http://www.diamondtwig.co.uk/books/ants.html
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