Author Sarah Pinborough
Sarah Pinborough has penned six horror novels, a thriller (A Matter of Blood, the first installment of The Dog Faced Gods Trilogy),and her very first fantasy novel for young adults (The Double Edged Sword) was released under the name of Sarah Silverwood. She has been short listed for a World Fantasy Award and a Shirley Jackson Award. Sarah won the 2010 British Fantasy Award(Best Novella), after winning Best Short Story in 2009. A Matter of Blood is set to be released in paperback in February 2010, with the second installment due in hardcover in April.
Q: Have you always had a love of written word? What led you to pursue a career as a writer?
A: My mother is a really avid reader and really encouraged reading in us when we were small. We lived in the middle east until I was eight and so we had no TV and books were essential entertainment. Luckily, I loved reading. I started writing stories very young as well, but I can only imagine how bad they were. I loved stories, whether it was film or book.
Q: What was the first story you ever wrote?
A: I don’t remember! I remember writing something when I was about five…and then when I was at boarding school I wrote a lot of plays and bits and pieces. I started a novel when I was about 12 that fizzled out at about page 42. I do remember writing a short story when I was about fifteen about a man who had an irritating wife and he killed her, cut her up, and burned her in a tin incinerator in his garden. As she burned so did all his and everyone else’s memories of her. It was a cheery tale!
Q: What do you think you’d of became if not an author?
A: Well, I was a teacher for six year (between 30 and 36), but I think I’d have liked to be an actress if I couldn’t be a writer. I think I’d always write though.
Q: Your work has been likened to Bentley Little, Richard Laymon and Dean Koontz.What does that feel like? Are you fans of their work? Who are your favorite writers?
A: Ha! Those comparisons were made after my second horror novel – that’s quite a few books ago now. Of the three, I’d say I was only a fan of Dean Koontz. Since then I’ve been happy to be compared with John Connolly with my new thriller A MATTER OF BLOOD, and my YA novel THE DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD has been compared to Neil Gaiman, Philip Pullman and China Mieville – those are comparisons that really make me smile! I have a lot of favourite writers, including Stephen King (the early years), John Wyndham, Philip Pullman, John Connolly, I loved Dan Simmons’ the Terror and Justin Cronin’s the Passage, and when I’m not reading crime or supernatural fiction, I quite like historical fiction.
Q: What was that like to live in the Middle East? What is your fondest memory from that time?
A: Looking back it was great to grow up in a different culture. I went to an American School there and I loved that. I have lots of good memories of that whole period up until I was eight. After that my parents moved to the Sudan and Moscow for four years in each and then South Africa for two years. All of those places were really interesting to see, Moscow was still communist at that time , and I do believe that seeing so much of the world while I was growing up has fed into my writing.
Q: What is it like working as a teacher to pass your knowledge on to the younger generation? Did that have a part in influencing you to write fantasy for young adults?
A: Ha! I’m not sure how much of my knowledge I passed on! Kids, especially teenagers, are great. They have so much energy and are optimistic about the world and have a real sense of right and wrong, that I did enjoy being around them. There is so much energy in schools its hard to not have that rub off on you. If you go into school in a bad mood then the kids normally cheer you up at some point -,although I did work in quite a rough school for 3 years, and I loved
those kids but some were very challenging. Working in schools did influence me to write for kids, and I also wanted to try something different. When you’re young books are really magical .I wanted to write a book like the books I’d loved when I was younger.
Q: Can you tell us a little about your work in that?
A: The Double-Edged Sword (written under the name Sarah Silverwood) is the first of a trilogy called The Nowhere Chronicles. It’s about a 16yr old boy called Finmere Tingewick Smith who was abandoned as a baby in a cardboard box on the steps of the Old Bailey. The day after his birthday, his guardian is stabbed to death and Fin and his two best friends are suddenly launched into a dangerous adventure where they have to battle evil in this world and an alternate London in order to save the existence of both. As the trilogy moves on, it really gets quite dark, but I’m very proud of it. It’s not about magic, but I think it’s quite magical.
Q: What can readers expect to find in The Dog-Faced Gods Triology?
A: The Dog-Faced Gods starts out as a procedural crime, especially in A Matter of Blood, but quickly morphs into something far more than that. The trilogy is set in the near-future and the world is in the grip of a recession and one financial institution, The Bank, runs pretty much everything. The protagonist is a policeman called Cass Jones who is hunting a serial killer, and then finds that his own life and family are drawn into the various strange events that are occurring. I think of the trilogy as a dark fantasy or sci-fi story (depending on your beliefs), but it’s really my homage to Paradise Lost.
Q: Have you always enjoyed a good tale of terror? Why do you think fear has been such a popular subject in literature.
A: I don’t actually read a lot of straight horror novels, if I’m reading horror I prefer short stories in the main, but yes, I’ve always liked scary stuff. I think it’s popular in literature because it allows all our fears a voice, and you know the old addage, better out than in!
Q: What subject have you yet to cover that you would most like to?
A: Gosh, so many. I’m working on two book proposals that cover two current interests so I can’t say much more on that!
Q: What did it feel like to sell your first story?
A: As any writer will tell you, there’s nothing like that first acceptance letter. I drove all the way to work with the boot of my car open I was so happy!
Q: Anything you’d like to say to your readers?
A: Buy my books! Lots of them! (Reading them isn’t compulsory.)