Kit Holmes is a singer-songwriter and virtuoso guitarist. This is an interview I did with her in February 2011, for Acoustic Magazine, when she had just released her third studio album, Driving Into The Blue.
How does this new album differ from your previous two?
On this new album we’ve still got the same band, and we’ve still got the wonderful Danny Thompson on bass, Pat Illingworth on drums and Allan Greenwood on other guitars. We recorded at home and at a local studio called The Chairworks, and then we took it to Abbey Road to be mastered. All three albums were mastered at Abbey Road, but this time around we did experiment a little more. The first track, ‘Kitty’s Blues’, was recorded in mono, which is a little bit different than anything we’ve done before. We were trying to get a more old-fashioned feel to it. Also, we experimented with reverb. Usually you put the reverb on afterwards. You listen to the song and decide what reverb you would like. But we decided we’d record ‘Blues For Muse’ with the reverb on it, to give more of a live sound.
I’d like Driving Into The Blue to be received well. Obviously it’s the third album, so I’m a little bit further down the line. The thing that differs about this one is that it has a little more of an aspect of fun to it. A few of the songs on there, like ‘Kinda Girl’, ‘Roundabout’ and ‘Arriving At The Station’ have a fun, tongue-in-cheek quality to them. So although we follow the same general format and have the same band, this one’s a little lighter in mood.
This is a short interview I did for Exposure TV, the TV channel of the University of Glamorgan, run and operated by media students. They interviewed me as a novelist and graduate of the university.
The new free supplement from Morpheus Tales contains and interview with me, and a review of Ack-Ack Macaque.
“I wouldn’t be a writer if I didn’t love the process of writing. Some days it can be slow and frustrating, but on other days the words seem to fly onto the page almost faster than I can type them, and it feels like riding a tall and beautiful wave. It can be exhilarating.”
Over the past couple of years, a new generation of writers has started to make its presence felt in science fiction and fantasy, wielding a new approach to the genres that seems set to invigorate both. Today’s edition of The Irish Times contains an article I wrote about them.
“The key characteristics of this non-movement are that it consists of a loose grouping of new, thirty and fortysomething authors all coming to prominence at the same time, and all writing non-traditional, genre-blending fiction, united by a willingness to transgress traditional genre boundaries, and an individualism that balks at being conscripted into anybody else’s idea of what genre writing should or should not be .”
Some books change the world. Read at the right time, they have the power to change our thinking, to inspire us, and to change our lives. When we put them down, we are no longer the same people we were when we picked them up.
The books listed below are the books that have had the greatest impact on my life and my development as a writer. I’m not claiming that they’re the best books ever written (that’s a topic for a different article); but each holds a special place in my heart, and each has contributed something to the way I now see my relationship with the world around me. If I hadn’t read them when I did, I wouldn’t be the same person I am today.
Some books change the world; and these are the books that changed mine.
In March, my great friend, Emma Newman, will be launching her latest novel, Between Two Thorns. This book will be the first of a series called The Split Worlds, and she’s running a special competition to promote it.
Pre-order a copy of Between Two Thorns for a chance to win a great prize!
Pre-order a copy of Between Two Thorns and you’ll be entered into a prize draw. If you win, you’ll have a character named after you in “All Is Fair” – the third Split Worlds novel (released October 2013) – and a special mention at the end of the book.
How to Enter
Pre-order a copy of the book from your favourite retailer (if you pre-order from Forbidden Planet you’ll get a signed copy). If you order from Forbidden Planet or robottradingcompany.com (for ebooks) you don’t need to do anything else – Angry Robot will take care of your entry for you. If you pre-order from anywhere else you’ll need to email a copy of your order confirmation to: thorns AT angryrobotbooks.com and they’ll assign a number to you.
Here are links to all the places you can pre-order:
Emma really is an entertaining writer, so if you get the chance, please check out her book, and consider supporting her at one of her book launches. (I’ll be at the Bristol one).
With the launch of Ack-Ack Macaque at the beginning of January, I’ve been very busy over the past couple of months. Here’s a quick round-up of interviews I’ve given in support of the book, arranged in reverse chronological order (most recent first):
Ben Cooper’s posted a long interview with me on his blog, where we discuss my work and my approach to writing. Topics covered include: fitting writing into a busy schedule; knowing when you shouldn’t write; the importance of keeping a notebook; and the reasons I get confused when interviewers compliment me on my female characters.
In several interviews, I’ve been asked which actor I would cast as the character of Ack-Ack Macaque – a cynical, cigar-smoking, one-eyed monkey pilot – in a film adaptation of the book. And each time I hear the question, I can’t help thinking of the following film clip, of John Belushi in 1941:
If I had a working time machine, I would definitely cast Belushi as the monkey.
How does this new album differ from your previous two?
