Saturday 7 June 2014

Author Interview ~ J.B. Morrison.

I'm delighted to be taking part in the blog tour for The Extra Ordinary Life of Frank Derrick, Age 81. You can read my review of the book here and today I'll be hosting a Q&A with the author, J.B. Morrison. I'll also be giving away a copy of the book to one UK reader!




Born in London ages ago to his two parents, Frank and Jenny, J.B. Morrison is a musician and already the author of two novels - Storage Stories and Driving Jarvis Ham. Goodnight Jim Bob is an autobiographical account of his ten years as singer with punk-pop band Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine.

With Carter USM J. B. Morrison had 14 top 40 singles and a number one album. He played all over the world, headlined Glastonbury and was sued by The Rolling Stones. He's also made a ton of solo albums and written the screenplay for a film. Plus he was in a musical, in 2010 at the Edinburgh Fringe.

Is there no end to his talents? Yes. Everything not mentioned here. Don't ask him to put up a shelf or cook you dinner. The shelf will fall off the wall and you won't like the food.



Who is the inspiration for Kelly Christmas?

She’s entirely fictional, although because Kelly is the same age as my daughter, that hopefully helped me not make her completely unbelievable.


What would you say the themes of the book are?

Friendship and loneliness. A fear of mortality. I don’t think of it as a book about an old man but a book about a man who just happens to be old. The forty-year-old Frank Derrick wouldn’t have been a lot different to the Frank Derrick aged 81.


Do you have a favourite moment in the book?

Maybe when Frank goes swimming towards the end of the story, and the whole beach trip with Kelly chapter. I also like the epilogue. I’ve always loved epilogues in films where they tie up any loose ends and let the viewer know what happened to everyone in the story. ‘Jeff never did go back to college, Jimmy died in the Vietnam War saving his best friend’ etc. And then there’s all the Bill stuff of course. I enjoyed writing about Bill the most, even though he doesn’t really do anything.


How did you become an author?

It was an accident. I had a fairly long career in pop music and wrote an autobiographical account of that. Having the book published was such a genuine thrill that I wanted to write more. I’ve been very lucky being able to somehow follow one pretty dream occupation with another.


What do you enjoy most about being an author?

When I really get into a writing flow and I can’t get things down quick enough. With my way of writing it doesn’t happen too often. It will usually be in a long section of dialogue when the conversation between two characters just takes over and it’s like they’re actually having a real conversation and I’m just writing down what they say. I also love it when I think of something that in a moment makes the whole story suddenly make sense.




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9 comments:

  1. Great interview! I really liked it! Too bad I can't win the book, I'm going to check it out on amazon though :)

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  2. Anonymous7/6/14 16:38

    Read your review-this sounds so good!!

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  3. Sounds like an interesting book

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  4. Think I would enjoy reading this

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  5. I've been hearing lots about this book, it sounds fun, thanks for the interview!

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