Gill Hoffs is my fifth guest. Gill currently lives in Ayr, not far from the fishing village she grew up in. Her second novel, In her skin, was recommended for shortlisting for the 2011 Virginia Prize, and her collection of short fiction and nonfiction, Wild, is available to buy from http://www.lulu.com/shop/gill-hoffs/wild/paperback/product-20190137.html.
JANE: What sort of things do you write?
GILL: As the blurb on Wild (published by Pure Slush) says, ‘fact, fiction, and the half-truths in between’. Books, flash fiction, articles, blog posts, the occasional poem, short stories – gritty noir, horror, magical realism, poetic fiction, ghost stories… whatever pops into my head and shouts over the rest of the stories quarreling in there.
JANE: What made you start writing?
GILL: Having my son. I’d really enjoyed creative writing at school, and did well in children’s competitions and class, but I thought writing for a living was something other people could do, not me. I read for pleasure, knowledge, education and escape, and always enjoyed interview pieces with writers, pictures of their workspaces, and glimpses of their correspondence with publishers, agents, and other writers. Sometimes I’d have ideas of stories I’d like to read but hadn’t come across, and I’d jot them down but nothing really clicked on the page. Then I had my son, Angus, and something about the hormones and stress of pregnancy, labour, and breastfeeding made my brain switch tracks. It meant I was suddenly swamped with odd symptoms which turned out to be unusual migraines, and a desperate yearning to write. The neurologist thought this was possibly a symptom but since I wasn’t just writing and rewriting lists or the names from the phonebook, and it didn’t interfere with my life – it improved it – it wasn’t a problem.
JANE: What does writing mean to you?
GILL: The pixels and ink are the antidote to certain insanity. All these stories shout for attention in my head, and my attention is only in the here and now in the most grudging of ways. I love being with my family and cat, and wandering in the woods and along the beach, but there’s always a part of me excusing itself from reality. Writing is near enough everything. Writing is the only way I can embrace real life and remain whole. It allows me a distance and opportunity to reframe events and issues which are just a bit overwhelming, otherwise.
JANE: How did/do you teach yourself to write?
GILL: It feels like it just happens – but I think really it’s an accumulation of reading voraciously and seeing patterns in things that has helped me write as I do. My family has always been very keen on books, and at weekends I used to read three or four novels a day, so the written word has always been integral to my life. It’s something my husband and I hope to pass on to our son. I studied English Literature for a couple of years at the University of Glasgow, but I (very stupidly) resented being told what to read and how politics, which I find intensely, soul-sappingly, boring, was seemingly integral to everything we read. Now I write myself, I read for pleasure but also take note of what works and what falls short. I’m a sucker for literary quotes, interviews, and craft articles, too.
JANE: What aspect of the craft do you think is most difficult to learn?
GILL: Hmm. The ability to read your work as a reader, not the writer. I’m still learning about that, but working with Matt Potter, editor of Pure Slush, has helped me view my work (and that of others) in a different way to how I did before. And patience. It’s hard to balance the patience you require as a writer with the hunger you need to progress in your career as an author. Hard, but necessary.
JANE: What situations/environments inspire you?
GILL: Everything inspires, everything. But I don’t like city life for anything other than the briefest of visits, I’d much rather be in the countryside near some water – a pond, lake or river, or preferably the sea. This is where I like to go in my head, too, which I think tends to be reflected in my writing. Quite a few of the fiction pieces in Wild are water or coast related, and all of the nonfiction pieces are to do with it. Matt told me when we were discussing possible titles for my collection, and I was querying whether my work would live up to Wild, that my work has ‘an almost Byronic wildness’ which pleased me greatly. Perhaps that’s because I’m easily bored and would rather escape into the outdoors in my head when I’m trapped in a town or building than be present in the grey sterility of concrete, pavements, and bins.
JANE: What has been the most encouraging comment someone has made about your writing?
GILL: I’ve been very lucky so far and received words of encouragement from a lot of great people, all of which I’m very grateful for. I usually call my Nana and read her the comments on pieces which attract feedback, it pleases her greatly (and me). Mike Joyce, one of the editors at the hauntingly beautiful new site Literary Orphans, said to me this morning on facebook “Gill, I just got home to see my copy of Wild: a collection delivered. What can I say? I'm stunned. I'm only 3 stories in, and already I feel that this is probably some of the best material I've ever read from you, which is saying A LOT, considering how consistently fantastic a writer you are. You really put a lot of heart and soul into this…” It made my day!
JANE: What has been your lowest moment writing-wise?
GILL: I’ve been trying to remember – generally I prefer to focus on the positive where I can, and I have a terrible memory, so nothing immediately springs to mind. It’s probably when I was trying to write Black Fish (winner of the 2011 Spilling Ink Nonfiction Competition, and included in Wild). I really worried about doing the subject matter justice, and how some of my friends and family would react when they read it. It’s about the fishing industry in Scotland and the risks the workers take, how people are capable of extraordinary acts to survive, and grief. Without giving too much away, somebody I had a crush on drowned while poaching one summer and it haunted me for years though I barely knew him. It was so very sad, and it’s important with nonfiction to respect the facts and the people involved, and I knew for weeks that this was something I had to write but worried it wouldn’t translate from my head to the page adequately. The prize money went straight to the RNLI. We were flat broke at the time, but it only seemed right.
JANE: Do you have a routine where your writing is concerned?
GILL: No, I love routine and function better when I know what’s about to happen, but with a four year old in the house it’s just not possible to have a proper routine for something that’s just for me. I have a battered old bureau I like to sit at for longer pieces, novels, and research, and a rocking chair with armrests at just the right height to stop my elbows getting sore from hours of typing. My cat, Coraline, has a hot pink fake fur cushion on the research table beside it, and she likes to sit with me when I’m in the glorified cupboard which constitutes my designated writing space. I always have some kind of snack as soon as I sit down to write there, I suppose that would count as a routine. If I’m revisiting a particular subject time and again, writing a novel or a longer piece, then I find it useful to light a scented candle at the beginning of my sessions at the bureau, just to help my mind’s eye reconnect with that particular wordscape. I like to think that when my son is older I’ll be able to have a daily routine rather than snatched moments and late nights, one where I swim and garden and launder while I think, then sit down as the clock strikes something o’clock and let the words flow from my fingertips to the screen of my laptop. I like to think that, but it’s quite improbable.
JANE: What advice would you give someone wanting to become a writer?
GILL: To read what thrills you, and to write. Write anything and everything, diaries, blogs, social updates, recipes interweaved with family memories, whatever you’re drawn to. Whatever jumps in your head and won’t let go. But I have to point out, I think there’s a big difference between someone who wants to become a writer, and someone who wants to write (though of course there’s some overlap there, and one tends to lead to the other). Take a pen and paper with you everywhere, jot down notes and snippets of overheard conversations, odd medleys of words which please you or jangle your nerves, potential titles and plots. Don’t let a blank page intimidate you. Let your imaginings spill out.
JANE: Which published/unpublished writers have inspired you most and why?
GILL: Jeremy Scott, author of Fast & Louche, Dancing on Ice, and The Irresistible Mr Wrong and several other works, is my literary hero. His prose sings on the page, it educates and enchants and carries me along wonderfully. I’m delighted beyond measure that he took the time to write the introduction to my collection, and is working with me on my third novel, An Unusual Darkness.
Len Kuntz, possibly the most prolific writer I know as well as one of the most gifted, somehow finds unique ways of describing the most mundane things and has a talent for capturing rare moments of simultaneous kindness and darkness in poignant, unexpected ways. A lot of his work is threaded with poetry, for example “That night I paint a new galaxy. I color the stars pink and lavender and lemon meringue. I sand down their sharp edges. From a collection of the palest ones, I make metal ropes and crystal coffins.” [The Day The Universe Learned How To Lean (http://matterpress.com/journal/2012/01/16/the-day-the-universe-learned-how-to-lean/) ] He has a book coming out in 2013 and I’m looking forward to it already. I think he’s going to become very well-known soon, and deservedly so. He’s also a sweetheart. I read his work and every time I think ‘damn, I wish I’d written that’.
JANE: What are the drawbacks of asking someone to read your work?
GILL: Asking someone to read your work needs a delicate balance of expectation, responsibility, feelings, and reason. And I’m not a delicate person, though I do try.
At first, I was uncomfortable about asking people to read my work in case it wasn’t what they were hoping for or expecting, and they were in the unenviable position of saying so or lying to save me pain. Now I’m uncomfortable about the time it takes from their own work, and also about how to handle it if they say they dislike something and I disagree with their thoughts on changing it – it seems churlish and immature to do so, and I do think that as with reviews if you’re accepting the praise you should also take the crappy ones on the chin. There’s an emotional discomfort for all concerned when time is taken, intellect is engaged, words and structure are dissected, and opinions considered and delivered… and then discarded or rejected. It’s ungrateful to do it, but I think it’s important to listen to opinions you respect and opinions you don’t – and then trust your gut. I trust Matt and he’s great at saying when he thinks something does or doesn’t work, and why. So when I have doubts, as all writers do, I tend to bounce them off him. If you find another writer or editor who you ‘click’ with and whose advice improves your work rather than just changes it, then treasure that relationship – and be sure to give as well as take.
JANE: Your first book has just been published. (Congratulations!) Can you describe the process you went through in terms of finding an agent/publisher?
GILL: I was approached by Pure Slush last summer regarding submissions to the site – it’s primarily a litzine. Matt worked through one of my early stories with me, taking care to explain why bits didn’t work, or words needed replaced. It was like a crash course MFA and his advice and help altered the path of my writing for good. We got on well and I sent a piece to him every month when he sent out a call for submissions of flash fiction for the site and its associated anthologies. Most were accepted, and the ones which weren’t were rejected with reasons (mainly to do with subject matter) so I knew better what to send next. When I was thinking of putting out a showcase collection of my work, I sent him a courtesy email to check he was fine with my including some of the Pure Slush pieces (I still had all rights to my pieces, but it felt like the polite thing to do). He was very supportive of the idea, and we got talking online, and a little while later he emailed to suggest Pure Slush put together a collection of my fiction and nonfiction and publish it. That was a couple of months ago, and the book has now been released – and I couldn’t be happier with it.
JANE: Were there any unexpectedly pleasant/scary moments during this process?
GILL: Taking the picture for the cover was lovely. We’d chosen the contents for the collection, and the title, and I knew roughly the colour palette and subject matter I’d like for it but didn’t know what the actual picture or composition would be, or whether I’d be able to capture it – or if Matt would like it too. I took my little boy for a long walk along the shore, past tractors and swans and white deer, till we got to Greenan Castle. We built sandcastles, played with driftwood and seaweed and found stones to plop in the water (he’s too young to skim), then meandered back to Ayr. On the way, we found a dried plant still standing tall on the sand dunes. Something had made a cobwebby nest in it, and it reminded me of the ‘candyfloss’ Fiona makes in Shrek. Angus was pulling at me to come see something while the wind blew the plant about, so in the end I held it still, snapped a couple of shots, then took him for icecream. Matt and my husband liked it, and that was that. I’m so glad to have Angus-related memories for my book, and the bonus of my name next to the cover credits.
JANE: With regard to the options of approaching agencies for representation or bypassing that stage and contacting publishers direct, do you have advice for other unpublished writers?
GILL: I think each writer has to make the most of the opportunities that will inevitably present themselves at each stage of their writing career, recognize them as such, and look for the positives around them. As the American poet W.F. (Bill) Lantry once told me, people are drawn to the positive, they love success. I was advised early on by the lovely Amy Burns of Spilling Ink Review to seek credible representation, and I’ve approached three agencies so far. Another agency approached me and requested sample chapters, but my work wasn’t quite right for them. One of the other three was enthusiastic and keen to see the completed draft, and once I’ve finished my current novel, I’ll be sure to send them it. Of the other two, one sent a personal rejection encouraging me to carry on, and the other never replied. With the excitement of self publishing and print on demand sites, e-books, and independent publishers mixing more easily with the usual big publishers, I think there are more options for authors than ever. But it also means the writer seeking publication should be careful to choose well to ensure their work has the credibility and production values it deserves.
JANE: What is your next writing project?
GILL: Well, I have several on the go at the moment. Apart from promoting Wild, I’m also writing my third novel, An Unusual Darkness which I’ve been pitching as Lord of the Flies meets Jonah and the Whale, with a liberal dash of Jaws. Jeremy Scott is editing it, and the first chapter is included in ‘Wild’. It’s requiring more concentration and research than either of my previous two novels, partly because they were both set in contemporary times and locations I’m very familiar with whereas this book is set long before I was born and deals with situations way beyond my own experiences, and partly because this is The Book, the one that lays me bare and haunts my waking thoughts. So far, reactions to the completed chapters have been favourable, which is always encouraging!
Apart from that, I’m researching a nonfiction book which explores further the events in the nonfiction piece Prospects, also included in my collection, for a leading publisher of nonfiction and historical fiction; plotting the next in the series of Warrington crime thrillers, and writing some guest blog posts, online articles, and short stories as well as co-editing an anthology or two.
Visit Gill's website: http://gillhoffs.wordpress.com/
Gill, thank you for providing so much insight into your writing life. Best wishes for all your writing projects.
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