Author Interview – Leyland Perree

1) Do you write books as a career, or are you currently still juggling your author time with a full or part time job?
a. Oh I definitely juggle most unsuccessfully! With a full-time job and a full-time family, I find myself relegated to late evening writing, and all-too often, the small hours of the morning. Having said that I’ve not been so much writing of late than what I call “adminning” – that is to say, self-promotion and other tasks relating to works I have written, but which don’t actually contribute to the word count of works I have written.
Establishing a routine is very important, I think. To my shame I slipped out of one for a while, but I have recommenced working to a weekly timetable of family nights and “writing nights”, which works quite well. Still, I’m nearing the end of the current phase of adminning now, so I’ll be cracking on with something new (and fulfilling) very soon.

2) Have you always wanted to be an author, or did some time or event in your life set you on the path?
a. Looking back now the clues are quite plain to see. I wrote stories when I was young (eight or ten or so) and enjoyed English at school. I wrote a bit, on and off, throughout my early teens, but it wasn’t until my twenties that I really had built up the stamina and confidence to write full stories – with beginnings, middles and ends, no less.
It was around this time that I used to write scenarios for roleplaying games. I soon discovered that I enjoyed the act of creation more than I did the games, so the very next project I started was a novel that would take me six years to complete. Many more stories (and years) later, I’m still enjoying that act of creation.

3) Do you always write in the same genre, or do you sometimes like a change of theme? If you haven’t already, is there another genre you would like to write?
a. I consider myself an adult writer. That is to say, I write fiction for adults. Urban fantasy, and thrillers that border on psychological (or actual) horror.
But I have always had a great appreciation for children’s books, particularly those written in verse. By the time my son was a couple of years old he already had a bookshelf that was bowing under the weight of the books we had crammed into it. Many of them were rhyming picturebooks. So one day, after reading him his bedtime story, I thought I’d try to write one myself. Not to sell, but just for him. I imagine most parents who read to their children will at some point have fallen under the delusion that they too can write good children’s stories – and that theory goes some way to explaining why the children’s picturebook market is flooded with clunky arrhythmic dross. I gave it a shot nonetheless. I was genuinely surprised by the result. I thought it had something so I sent it off to a number of publishers, triggering an initial wave of rejections – and one acception!
“Frog on the Log” was published in 2009. Shortly after that, in the same year, my second picturebook “The Goat That Gloats” was published by the same imprint. A year later, and my third book “Toad’s Road Code” hit the shelves. Ironic that writing for children started as something of a sideline for me, and now it seems my adult fiction has become the sideline.

4) As a writer, what is the best thing that has happened to you, and what is that most exciting thing that could happen to you?
a. If I may edit the question slightly; the most exciting thing that has happened to me would probably be receiving the news from a neighbour that my first book “Frog on the Log” was spotted on Sky News in the grubby mitt of the then-soon-to-be Prime Minister, David Cameron. I watched the clip shortly afterwards, open-mouthed as I watched him stroll into a bookshop in Romsey, thumb through a copy and hand the till vendor his cash.
And yes, there’s still some mileage in that story yet. Go me!
The best thing that could happen would of course be that essential, but elusive multi-book deal from the bigwigs at Hodder, HarperCollins or Bloomsbury. I had a near miss with Bloomsbury, you know, with that six-years-in-the-making debut novel of mine. One person really liked it and wanted to put it forward for publication. Another person didn’t. The rejection slip stated “Sorry, but we don’t publish fantasy.”
No fantasy? Really? I’d bet good Gringotts currency that they do. Muggles.

5) How do you view the promotion, book signings etc. Is it something you enjoy, or do you prefer the writing stage?
a. The writing. One-hundred percent I prefer the writing. Promotion it is a necessary annoyance to me, like form filling, or taxing the car, or having to get out of bed to pee. I fully appreciate the value of it though, but it doesn’t make it any the more pleasurable, and it takes up much more of my time than I’d like. The book signings I do enjoy and I approach them with my tongue lodged firmly in my cheek. I find it amusing when people mistake you for some kind of celebrity. I visited a school recently and was asked by one child, “Do people recognise you when you walk down the street?”
My answer was “Only my friends and family – and even they pretend they haven’t seen me.”

6) Could you tell us something about your published books, and let us know what they are about?

a. “Frog on the Log” is about a proud and stubborn frog that refuses to leave his log home, even when it gets washed away down a river. Refusing the help of the animals he meets as he passes on by, he looks set to meet a messy end when the river terminates at some sharp, jagged rocks. Leaping from his log and landing on the back of a nearby crocodile, he thinks he’s met his end regardless – but all is not what it seems. The story has a number of moral threads, such as don’t be too proud to accept help, and don’t be quick to judge by appearances.

“The Goat that Gloats” is about a goat that lives alone at the top of a tower, and tries to make friends with the people below by bragging about his wonderful effects and qualities. The moral of this one is summed up in the repetition of the line “Who’d want to be friends with a gloating goat?”

“Toad’s Road Code” is all about road safety, and is structured around the green-cross code. Move over Tufty!

“The Great Reef Race” is my first book to be published by Ghostly Publishing. It focuses on two central characters Eel and Ock, who take part in an annual undersea race around a reef. It features many other memorable sea-creatures; all brought to life by the talents of artist Stuart McGhee. Like my other books it contains a moral, this one being that fair play and friendship are more important than winning.

And I’d best sneak this one in too (as a spot of pre-promotion):

“Which Witch is Which” will be my second book for Ghostly Publishing. Once again I teamed up with Stuart McGhee to create this interactive exercise in listening and observation. What it lacks in storyline and moral, it makes up for in fun, fun, fun, as the reader tries to identify the witches within the pages from the descriptions in the verse.

“Which Witch is Which” will be released in September 2013 and is available to pre-order now at www.ghostlypublishing.com

Gosh, Leyland, and I think I’m busy! Have you found a Harry Potter spell to double your hours in a day? Best of luck with all your writing!