Stan Nicholls is the author of over 20 books, most of them in the fantasy, science fiction and horror genres, and he has written for both adult and young readers. His books have been published in more than 20 countries. The Orcs: First Blood trilogy – Bodyguard of Lightning, Legion of Thunder and Warriors of the Tempest – are probably his best known titles, and are worldwide bestsellers.


Before taking up writing full-time in 1981, Stan worked in specialist sf bookshops, including Dark They Were & Golden Eyed and Forbidden Planet. A journalist for national and specialist publications, and the Internet, he was for six years the science fiction and fantasy book reviewer for London listings magazineTime Out.


His current project is a return to the Orcs universe with a new trilogy entitled Orcs: Bad Blood, and the first volume, Weapons of Magical Destruction, is due for publication later this year.


1. What drives you to write?

I’m not sure I know. Actually, I’m not sure I want to know. When I was a journalist and interviewing lots of people, I found that creative types were often reluctant to look too closely at what you might call the spark. This was particularly true of comedians for some reason, who seemed to think that if they scrutinised the radioactive heart of their talent they’d lose whatever it was that made them funny. I can understand that. As a writer you think you’re consciously in control of what you’re doing. Mostly you are, but there’s a small secret place, some part of your id or whatever, that contributes to the process. It’s the intuitive centre, the well where the ideas come from and where the associative leaps take place. The last thing you want to do is poke it with a stick.


2. What do you consider to be your most significant accomplishment?

Professionally, I suppose it was becoming a published author. Maybe more importantly, it’s staying published. That’s the hardest trick. Publishing’s a volatile business, and every writer knows that even if they’re doing well today they could be out on their arses tomorrow. You have to regard it as being possibly transient. There was a time when publishers stuck with an author until they built a following. The world’s changed. Now there are all sorts of commercial pressures on the industry that mean an author has to make a mark much quicker, and to be viable financially. That’s particularly tough on newcomers. Who knows, I might be hitting you for the price of a cup of coffee the next time we speak. There are areas of my personal life, to do with family and others close to me, where I hope I’ve accomplished something. Just the usual stuff really, the sort of things that might approximate to you appearing to be a decent human being. But accomplishments should be thought about once you’ve stopped trying for them. I hate it when people say “In my day … ” It’s your day until you die. I think you should keep trying to achieve your dreams up to that point. So it’s a premature question. At least, I hope it is …


3. Outside of writing, what are your other passions/interests?

There’s a life outside writing? Like most writers I probably do too much of it. If that’s possible. Just recently I made a pact with my wife, Anne, who’s also a writer and knows what it can be like, that I’d try to achieve a better work/life balance. In practical terms that means taking off the odd Sunday and having something resembling a social life. One problem is that it’s not really work if it doesn’t feel like work. When it’s going well, writing’s more of a joy than a chore. The other thing is that writers are by nature solitary, in their own heads people, who tend to prefer living in imaginary worlds and conversing with their made-up characters to interacting with the living. The correct term is sociopaths.


What do I do when I’m not writing? I like walking, particularly in lush English countryside, and I’ve a bit of an attraction to trying to capture it honestly through photography. I’m interested in history, and can usually be lured into a museum or historic pile. I enjoy art, partly because it’s a talent I wasn’t issued with and I admire anybody who can draw a straight line freehand, let alone paint a masterpiece. I read, of course, though hardly ever fiction when I’m writing my own. So not much fiction getting read these days.


4. What is your advice to young writers/first time authors?

The most honest advice is probably “Don’t do it.” Unless you like rejection, uncertainty, complete financial insecurity and a workload that’s likely to be heavier than anything else you’ve ever done. But of course aspiring writers don’t want to take advice like that. I didn’t. So assuming that you want it bad, and you do have to want it very badly indeed to get over the hurdles, you’ll discover that there really is no magic bullet. If you want to be a writer, write as much as you can. Couple that with reading greedily, to learn from others. The old adage about “One per cent inspiration, ninety-nine per cent perspiration” must have come from a writer, because it’s so true. So work hard, grow a skin as thick as a rhino for the incoming slings and arrows that’ll inevitably be flung at you, and if you make it through and see that first book published, don’t expect the Earth to move.


5. What do you want the world to remember you for the most?

I suppose being remembered at all would be a small triumph. As somebody who tried to do his best, perhaps, as a writer and as a man.


More information about Stan Nicholls and his work can be found on MySpace at http://www.myspace.com/stannicholls or on his personal website www.stannicholls.com.

Tags: fantasy, fiction, Interviews, literature, novels, Orcs, Stan Nicholls

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