Interview with Author Martin Millar

Martin Millar is a Scottish novelist who has lived in London since around the age of 20, after finishing library college and moving there with his then girlfriend. He has remained there ever since, and in fact hasn't left the city in many years, since he developed recurring problems with agoraphobia.

His first book, Milk, Sulphate and Alby Starvation, was published in 1987, and gained immediate support from the weekly music press and monthly style magazines, which, at that time, was a relatively unusual method for a new author to be introduced to the public. Martin even wrote some live music reviews for the NME around that time, before deciding it wasn't for him.

I read his first book immediately on publication, and have been following his career ever since. His books are always a pleasure to read: immediately engaging, funny and entertaining. There have been many occasions over the years when he's seemed to be on the brink of a major commercial breakthrough, but circumstances have conspired to prevent it, either through bad luck (eg the UK division of a film production company being shut down by the main company after his film script had been 'greenlit'), or other projects simply being lost in tv and film 'development hell'.

He continues to produce good work though, and has just published his latest book, Supercute Futures (published August 30th). If we include his novelisation of the film Tank Girl, the graphic novel Lux and Alby Sign On and Save the Universe (with the main characters from his first 2 books), and his adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma for the theatre (in collaboration with the actress Doon Mackichan), this is his 16th book.

He also writes the Thraxas series of fantasy books under the name Martin Scott. The first book won the World Fantasy Award in 2000. 10 Thraxas books have been published so far, with an 11th in progress.

Martin with his World Fantasy Award.

He has had consistent critical acclaim from the start, had his books translated into several languages, and sold film rights many times. None of this has translated into huge sales, even though I continue to believe his work has mass appeal. He's my 16 year old daughter's favourite writer, and my dad (in his 80s) has enjoyed his work too. A former work colleague, who was a serious literature fan (refused to ever watch film adaptations of any of her favourite books, for fear of having them spoiled; favourite book - Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude), said Martin's Lux the Poet was one of her favourite books.

So, I was happy when Martin agreed to being interviewed (by email) - which is new territory for this blog. He was also kind enough to send me an advance PDF copy of his new book, Supercute Futures, to allow me to ask questions related to that.

The interview is copied below. I sent Martin a lot of questions, to give him a choice of which to answer. He has answered most of them. Of the unanswered questions, I have deleted some, but left some others which may illuminate parts of what is being discussed, or provide some more general information.

At what age did you start writing fiction? And when was your first attempt at writing a book?

I used to write long essays in school, compositions as they were called at the time. We were given a subject to write a story about, and mine were always longer than they needed to be. I think I wrote my first full length novel when I was 21. That was no good, and neither was the next one. I first wrote something decent when I was about 25, though it took a long time to get it published.

Do you write every day?

Yes, I've written every day for many years. However, I don't write as much now as I used to. I'm slower to complete things.

Your first book, Milk, Sulphate and Alby Starvation, was published in 1987, but when did you actually write it, and do you have any stories about the difficulties of finding a publisher for your first book as an unknown novelist?

I wrote it in 1983-4, on a typewriter that had a broken carriage return, so it wasn't a very convenient process. I was working as a clerk at the time, and writing in the evening. It didn't take me long to write, just over a month. I had a lot of energy then.

I was fortunate in finding a literary agent who liked it. I'd sent it to her at random after finding her name in the Writer's and Artists Yearbook. At that time, I had never met any writers, or any person in the literary world. Nor had anyone at school or at home ever encouraged me to write. It was not something that was on the agenda. It took the agent three years to find a publisher. I think it must have been rejected by every publisher in Britain. None of them were interested at all, until 4th Estate appeared on the scene.

Your first publisher was 4^th Estate, at a time when they were a very small company. Your book was amongst the first 3 or 4 fiction books they published. As I recall, your book was their biggest seller amongst those first titles? What did it feel like achieving that success?

I felt great to be published but in terms of sales, it wasn't really a success. Maybe a success in small publisher terms, but nothing that any major publisher would have been excited about.

Once published, you seemed to achieve a fairly immediate level of success, but my impression was that it wasn’t the traditional route. Your early champions were more the weekly music press and monthly style magazines like The Face and Arena – who presumably recognised something which had genuinely emerged from youth/ rock culture. A refreshing change from books by Oxbridge Eng Lit graduates, with no experience of living in a squat. Did that feel ground breaking at the time?

My first reviews were in music papers and style magazines. I appreciated them at the time. But this is too long ago for me to feel anything about now.

Trainspotting wasn’t published until 1993. Does it feel like you paved the way for Irvine Welsh to an extent?

Don’t know. No answer.

Do you have other outlets for writing, aside from your books?

I've written several film scripts. With no success so far, though I did once sell a screenplay which was greenlit and made it quite a long way through development before the company pulled the plug. That's quite a normal thing to happen, but it was a disappointment at the time. Also, I wrote a serial on my website for a while, that was good for including things that didn't fit in anywhere else.

I know you have written some short stories. A couple for Skin Two magazine? Was there one for The Big Issue? Perhaps others I don’t know about? Some used to be on your website, but don’t seem to be there now? Are there enough to compile into a book?

I did write short stories for various small magazines. Nine or ten, I think. I don't like any of them enough to publish them. Like much of my earlier work, they just weren't that good. I don't hold any of my early writing in much regard. I should have learned to write better before I was published. The Skin Two stories were probably the best.

How did your association with Skin Two magazine begin? And is it a continuing association?

There was no real association, I just wrote two stories for them. It happened because a friend of mine became a commissioning editor there. She asked me to write something and I was interested in the idea of something set in the fetish world. I had a good idea for a different sort of take on fetish. I didn't quite manage to encapsulate it in these two stories, but I did in the novel, Kink Me Honey.

Presumably it’s that association which eventually led to your Kink Me Honey book. Is that a lifestyle you have any experience of?

I have little experience of the lifestyle but I have been to fetish clubs, when I was younger. I liked them.

In Kink Me Honey you managed to write a book about the world of fetish and kinky sex which isn’t remotely sordid, and is actually rather sweet. I have read your blog about writing the book, so I know that was part of your intention, and, as you said:  ‘I wanted to avoid two very common cliches, or tropes, that often appear in writings about fetish. One of these being angst, the other coercion.’ That’s quite an achievement. Do you know if the book reached the intended audience? And who were the intended audience? Anything else you can tell us about, either your motivation in writing the book, or what sort of reception it got?

I did feel I had something to say about the fetish world, largely that a lot of people get on with their kink very cheerfully together. They don't feel guilt, misery or angst about it. They enjoy it, and, providing they can find a partner - not always easy - successfully incorporate it into their lives. Fetish fiction and fetish pornography does seem to rely very heavily on notions of people being punished and abused against their will. I kind of understand why fetish pornography might be that way, but the real fetish world is not like that. It's generally consensual couples, and if someone's getting punished, it's normally because they enjoy it, or at least enjoy something that they get from the experience. So it seemed to me at fetish clubs, anyway, and so it also seemed during my research, which was quite extensive for Kink Me Honey. Virtually everything in the book had a basis in reality, the result of me delving deep into the history of BDSM on the internet. The old newsgroups and forums were a huge mine of experiences and information. More so than the fetish sites of today, which don't seem to have as much about people's everyday experience of their fetish lives.

I was pleased with the way the book turned out. It did say what I wanted to say. Also, I thought it was entertaining. Also, it had a lot of sex, not something I've written much about in detail before.  However, the book wasn't particularly successful so no, I don't think it did find its intended audience. I did think I had something worthwhile to say about the fetish world, but I’m not sure if anyone else agreed with me. I was disappointed it wasn't more successful.  There again these days, books don't disappear, they hang around on Amazon, and it does still sell in small quantities. Perhaps one day it will reach more of an audience.

Your books have a lot of strong female characters. Is that a deliberate campaign to be supportive of women, or is that just how you view women in general?

There's no thought behind that. It's not deliberate. The characters just come out whatever way they come out. I'm not very good at planning things in advance and characters and events just seem to come out they way they come out while I'm writing. However, during my life, I do seem to have had many more female friends than male friends, so perhaps that has something to do with it.

And should we balance your good intentions against the fact most of your female characters are gorgeous, with fabulous hair?

Yes, that's probably a failing of mine. I have no excuse.

In comparison, most of your male characters are flawed in some way. Other than those who are actually villainous, they’re generally decent, loyal to their friends, brave if required, but perhaps also arrogant, vain, pompous, hypochondriac, or an incorrigible drunk. Again, are you deliberately portraying men in this way, or is that simply how you see them?

You're giving me too much credit for thinking things through. I really have no agenda in writing, other than to be entertaining. So I don't give much thought to how the characters ought to be. In fact, I don't go out of my way to write realistic characters. More often, I think, the characters reflect the magic realism of the books, and are the way they are in the reality set out in the book, not necessarily in the way they might be in real life.

Another reason for the flawed characters, both male and female, might be that they're humorous. My books always do contain humour, rooted in characters actions. I don't tend to make anyone too villainous, they're more likely to be well-meaning, just incompetent, incomplete, and probably out of their depth. In general, I sympathise with most characters in my books.

You often have prominent male characters who are perhaps a bit feckless, clumsy, lacking in self-confidence or whatever. Usually essentially nice, honest, loyal to their friends, decent human beings though. Albie; Lux/ Luxos; Daniel in Lonely Werewolf Girl; Ark in Kink Me Honey; Martin in Suzy, Led Zeppelin And Me etc Are those the closest to having yourself as a character in your books?

Alby was like me, because that was my first book, and it's not unusual for an author to put himself or herself into their first book. I haven't done that since then. I don't generally appear in my books. Well, some people would say that an author always appears in their books. That would be another way of looking at it. But I don't consciously put myself there. Suzy, Led Zeppelin and Me would be an exception, as that was a deliberately autobiographical novel, with the young me as the central character. However, even he was changed to suit the plot, it wasn't a straight autobiography, it was all re-arranged to make it into a novel. Lux/Luxos is very unlike me; Lux was sort of the opposite to Alby. Incidentally, in The Goddess of Buttercups and Daisies, I retrospectively saved Lux, who'd met a sad fate in Lux The Poet.  There is no character resembling me in the world of Lonely Werewolf Girl, or at least, there's not meant to be.

    Thraxas Questions

With Thraxas, The Guardian said you had ‘invented a new genre: pulp fantasy noir’. However, Locus magazine described Thraxas as ‘an entertaining addition to the fantasy PI bookshelf’. Which is it: is Thraxas unique, or are there other private investigators in the fantasy genre?

My assumptions about the concept of Thraxas are that it’s Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe in Ancient Greece, with added elves, wizards and orcs, and, in Makri, a teenage Red Sonja as an accomplice. Is that accurate, or was the derivation more complicated than that?

My original thought was of a private detective in the world of Lord of the Rings. Obviously, I hadn't thought that through properly. In fact, I didn't give it enough thought at all, and simply imagined I could steal all of Tolkien's character types. But this wasn't really such a good idea, and as I was writing the first book the society did change into something more like an ancient Greece or Rome, with the addition of magic.

The detective element would be based solidly on Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. Thraxas was originally meant to be more hard-boiled, rather more noir than it is. But it became funnier as I was writing it, for some reason. Thraxas and Makri turned into something of a comedy double act. I hadn't intended that, but I liked it when it happened.  It remains humourous, I hope. Makri does probably owe something to Red Sonja. Thraxas isn't really based on anyone else. He is something of a Falstaff-like figure, being a drunkard, glutton and braggart, but unlike Falstaff, he's actually brave, and prepared to do the right thing when necessary.

The first Thraxas book won the World Fantasy Award in 2000. Considering some of the books which have been runners up for that prize (Philip Pullman’s The Amber Spyglass in 2001; Neil Gaiman’s American Gods in 2002; books by Stephen King, Bret Easton Ellis, George R. R. Martin etc), and other winners (Susanna Clark; Haruki Murakami; David Mitchell etc), did you appreciate how much of a big deal that was at the time? Debut novel (as Martin Scott anyway) by an unknown writer.

Were you aware of the World Fantasy Award giving your career a boost?

I was aware of it being a big deal. I was delighted to win the award. However, it didn't really give my career much of a boost. Neither my publisher in Britain nor the publisher in the US were any good at promoting me. It was an opportunity wasted. I remember it took them about a year after the award to get the books published in the USA, which was ridiculous, and helped waste any momentum the books might have had.  These days, I continue the series myself, and it does have its own momentum. The books sell, and I get a fair amount of correspondence about Thraxas.

You’re working on book 11. When can we expect to see that? And, can Thraxas continue indefinitely, or do you have a conclusion in mind?

For some reason I can't explain, Thraxas book eleven has taken me a long time to write. Much longer than before. It's not exactly writer's block, more just inexplicably slow progress. However, it should be ready soon.  Definitely within the next six months.

Drug use in Thraxas. Does that reflect anything from the combined influences which have merged to create Thraxas, or is it taken more from your own experiences living in South London?

I think the drug use in Thraxas really grew from the fact that Thraxas drinks so much alcohol. Really, I needed some other things to balance that. I couldn't have every character drunk all the time. Also, with other main characters being expert fighters and expert sorcerers, their drug problems do help to give them flaws, and make them more interesting than they might otherwise be. Thraxas's drinking makes him funny in the books, which is unlike real life, where drinking doesn't really make you funny at all.

Simulation Bleed

You’re planning to publish Simulation Bleed in book form. Will it be just as it is on your website, or have you adapted it to be more suitable to book form?

I'm planning to publish it just as it was, without revision. It will work as a book, more or less. Having been written as a serial there are some loose ends and a few inconsistencies, but on re-reading it, it still hangs together well. And with the continually shifting realities, some inconsistencies don't really matter that much.

Considering it was published in weekly episodes, was the way it was written significantly different than your other books? Basically, did you make it up as you went along, or was plot development conceived from the start?

Yes, I more or less made it up as I went along. I had a vague idea of what was happening but it often occurred that I was rushing against a deadline. Though the only real deadline was the one I'd set myself, to do it every week. Before writing it, I had two reference points to hang the serial on, two things I had personal experience of. Those were all the punk gigs I saw in London when young, and therapy I'd attended later in life, for anxiety and agoraphobia. Punk gigs and therapy, these were the two starting points for Simulation Bleed.

What does ‘Simulation Bleed’ mean, and why have you used that as the title?

The possibility that we are living in a simulation, and that other simulations might seep into ours.

 Rainith the Red is your first fairy character since Heather and Morag in The Good Fairies of New York. Where did the original inspiration come from to use fairies? And are you on a mission to reimagine fairies away from their twee image?

I don't think I thought about fairies much as a child. My interest came later, I remember wanting to write about fairies after seeing a Flower Fairy picture book. That itself might be considered twee, though that would be unfair to Cicely Mary Barker, who was a very good artist. (I still like her fairy pictures.) Cicely Mary Barker's fairy pictures are mentioned in Supercute Futures.

Did you personally attend any of the seminal punk gigs depicted in the story?

Yes, though I don't think there are that many gigs actually mentioned in the book, perhaps not as many as I intended when I started the serial. One of my ideas when starting Simulation Bleed was to write about these punk gigs, from my own memories. In the book there's a description of an X-Ray Spex gig from very early in their career, at a small pub in Putney, before they'd recorded anything. (supported by the Killjoys, whose singer was Kevin Rowland.) I was at that gig. It was great, and I was very affected by it. I was so close to the band, there was so much energy, it was quite unlike the rock bands I'd seen before while I was at school. Like many other people at the time, it changed my views on music overnight, and, also like others at the time, the do-it-yourself ethic of the punk movement, led by the Sex Pistols, had a very big effect on me. In particularly it taught me to rely on my own talent and my own ideas, without looking to others for approval. I've never forgotten that.

Other gigs I remember mentioning in the book - Raped, which I still remember mainly because it was hard to believe any band could choose such a bad name for themselves. (They put out a good EP, not that that excuses the name. Although, as described in Simulation Bleed, Raped did have a coterie of enthusiastic and quite glamorous female fans.) That gig was at the Moonlight Club but I can't remember why I ended up there.

Delta 5 - slightly post punk, another good gig, and they were a good band too, still have their early singles tucked away in a box somewhere.

Dr Feelgood - I saw them too, but due to the time-scale of the book, the pub gig as described was at an earlier period than the times I saw them.

Rainith in Simulation Bleed talks about seeing the Buzzcocks at the Marquee, supported by The Fall. I was at that gig, early in both bands careers. Rainith likes Joy Division too, who I saw play in London, before their first LP came out. They were strikingly good for a band I'd never heard before.

The Damned at the Roxy - No, I wasn't at that gig, though, as described in Simulation Bleed, Led Zeppelin were in the audience. I have plenty of other good memories of gigs around that time too, like The Clash, The Damned, Gang of Four, The Mekons, The Adverts, The Slits, The Prefects, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Raincoats, and plenty more, all in their earliest incarnations, but I didn't get round to putting them all in Simulation Bleed.

Which do you prefer: punk rock or glam rock?

That's a difficult question. Punk rock had a profound effect on me at the time, which glam didn't. But in later years I've undoubtedly listened to more glam. I very often listen to Bowie, Slade, T Rex and The Sweet, and associated acts like Mott the Hoople.

In the (highly complimentary) Guardian review of The Goddess of Buttercups and Daisies, the reviewer welcomed the book as the first ‘proper “Martin Millar novel”’ for several years, and was slightly dismissive of your ‘genre novels’: Thraxas, and the Lonely Werewolf Girl books. Have you found this to be a common attitude towards Lonely Werewolf Girl in particular? (Thraxas was marketed as fantasy from the start, so that’s more understandable.)

Guardian review of The Goddess of Buttercups and Daisies here.

I'm not reviewed that often, for any of my books. Really, I have no feelings about this. My werewolf books did reach quite a large audience, and did well for me. I was pleased with the world I created in them. I don't know if that would make reviewers dismissive of them or not. I really don't know if genre novels are looked down on by reviewers. I wouldn't care either way. It's good to be reviewed, but not being reviewed is not the end of the world, particularly in today's world. It's possible to make people aware of your own work, with or without other people's help.

Lonely Werewolf Girl

Most of your books have some element of magic/ fantasy/ gods and goddesses/ ghosts etc, which has presumably always been viewed as ‘magical realism’, and therefore acceptable within a literary novel. Do you view the Lonely Werewolf Girl/ Kalix books as genre fiction or ‘proper Martin Millar novels’?

Do you intend to continue the Kalix (Lonely Werewolf Girl) books at some point in the future?

I would like to, but I have other things to write. I'm not certain if I'll write a fourth book.

How do sales of your ‘genre’ books and ‘proper’ books compare? Are they appealing to a different audience, or do the people who buy them think they’re all ‘proper Martin Millar novels’?

The genre books sold more. My most popular novel, in terms of saes, was The Good Fairies of New York. After that, the werewolf books have been most popular. However, I don't think my audience would regard these genre books as very different from my other books. I think they all probably have the same sort of voice.

 Favourite character(s) from the Lonely Werewolf Girl books, and why?

I like Kalix because she's so messed up. Despite her problems, she has a lot of determination, and I admire that.

 A few years ago, when Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer announced their production company had signed a development deal with HBO, Lonely Werewolf Girl was one of the planned projects listed in the announcement. Has that deal lapsed, or could it still happen? 

That is still under option and could happen.

Anna Paquin wanted to play the part of Thrix, Kalix’s fashion designer sister, as I recall?

At least they know about your work in Hollywood.

The page on your website listing early inspirations for your writing is a great mix of high and low culture: Sex Pistols to Cicero and Aristophanes; Buffy The Vampire Slayer to Jane Austen and P.G. Wodehouse. Do you make any distinction between high and low culture, or are they all just things you like, and equally important as inspirations?

They all seem to merge together. Difficult to know what to say about the differences between high culture and low culture. All things filter through as influences; some temporary, some permanent. The Sex Pistols energy and self-belief, Jane Austen's beautiful prose, P G Wodehouse's genius for comedy, the elegance and brilliance of the Ancient Greeks, the great companionship and story-telling of Buffy, the sharp observation of Clueless, the long Celtic traditions of the fairy world - I absorb parts of my interests, and they emerge in different ways, and it would be hard to make any sort of distinction between what comes from things that might be referred to as high culture, and what might be referred to as low culture.

Has there been any tv show since Buffy you have liked as much? How important was that as an influence for you?

I can't remember any TV I liked as much. Not nearly as much. However, I don't spend a lot of time watching TV, I never binge watch anything and sometimes even with programmes I like, I struggle to get through them. It's the same with films, I see very few films these days.

The only other programme I can recall having great affection for would be the anime Ghost in the Shell. There have been various incarnations of this - the original film, a long anime series, another film, and a prequel series. I'm always fascinated by it. I particularly love Major Motoko Kusanagi. There was a more recent live action Hollywood movie, I thought that was OK, it wasn't great. Scarlett Johansson did make a good Major.

Buffy was an influence on me, it led directly to me writing Lonely Werewolf Girl. I wasn't looking to copy anything from the TV series but I was attempting to write something with a similar tone.

At one time you were an avid collection of Marvel comics. Do you still retain that interest to any extent, or has it been overtaken by your interest in manga and anime? And, am I right in thinking you don’t like the Marvel films? Any exceptions to that?

I did love Marvel comics when I was younger, but I lost interest later. Maybe I just got too old. Back then I would have loved all the films but not now. I couldn't even venture an opinion on how good they are, I don't watch them. I'm just not attracted to the American superhero idea.  Though I did see Guardians of the Galaxy, I enjoyed that. I do prefer manga and anime, I watch quite a lot of that. As well as Ghost in the Shell, Cowboy Bebop was a big favourite. Things I can recall watching or reading more recently would include Psycho-Pass, Claymore, Blame, Bungo Stray Dogs, Lucky Star, K-ON, and Shakugan no Shana (of which Vex in Lonely Werewolf Girl is a fan) I tend to pick these at random, there is so much manga and anime I could never have a comprehensive knowledge of it.

Music has been a big influence for you, especially Led Zeppelin, punk rock, glam rock, Runaways etc – all of whom have featured prominently in your work. What is your current favourite music? Anything modern?

Well…only if modern is a relative term. The most modern thing I'd feel any real affection for would probably be Radiohead's OK Computer, so that's 1998, not very modern. I do hear songs I like these days, there are good bands, but being older it's difficult to really feel the same sort of visceral attraction you feel when you're young. I still vividly remember the Led Zeppelin gig I saw at school, and the effect it had on me. Likewise with the punk gigs I talked about in Simulation Bleed. It all has such an effect on you when you're young, it probably can't be replicated when you get older.

You have a deceptively simple, immediately engaging writing style, which has often been compared to Kurt Vonnegut (an acknowledged early influence). From memory, I think there is some description of that writing process in the modern day sections of Suzy, Led Zeppelin And Me (?): basically, taking a lot of stuff out, and changing big words to simple words. Does it take a lot of work to simplify your prose, or have you become better at writing like that on the first draft?

I have worked to simplify my prose style, to clarify it, to make it read simply and easily. I like the effect of this, though it's not universally popular.

Your literary influences are mainly quite old (Ancient Greece; Shakespeare; Jane Austen; P. G. Wodehouse; Raymond Chandler?), with Kurt Vonnegut the most recent acknowledged inspiration. Do you like any modern writers?

You were an early adopter of computer games, and continue to play them now. What type of games do you prefer? Current favourites? They’re probably featured most prominently in Simulation Bleed, which has a lengthy sequence set inside a game, but have they influenced your work more widely than that?

Yes, I am quite a keen gamer. I'm not sure that they've influenced my writing that much, but some things do seep through. In Supercute Futures, the two protagonists run through radioactive tunnels underground, and while writing that I did have in mind the radioactive tunnels in Fallout 3 and 4. I'd like to set more writing in the gaming world, though as it's been quite well covered already, I would need to think how to do it in an original manner.

Other games I've enjoyed recently - Nier Automata, Final Fantasy 15, and the Witness. Game I was very disappointed with, Mass Effect Andromeda.

Supercute Futures

What led to your ideas for this book?

It's hard to say exactly what leads to the ideas for a book. There are influences, but influences won't write a book. The main part comes from my own imagination. That's what Supercute Futures mainly is, my own imagination. For a long time I've wanted to write something that reflects the pleasure I've received from manga and anime, and this partly does that. There are things that have influenced it, for instance the extraordinarily Kawaii outfits of some young people on Twitter, the Fallout video games, and Ghost in the Shell. And there is always Neuromancer. Such a good book, re-reading that in recent years it holds up really well. Like other things I've written, Supercute Futures had a few false starts but then, having found the right tone for the first few pages, it flowed quite easily from there.

The concept of ‘kawaii’ seems like something which would have a niche appeal in the U.K., and also be aimed at a very young audience. Are those assumptions correct, or is it more popular than I suspect?

Kawaii seems to be well known these days. There is, for instance a kawaii shop in Covent Garden. I’m not certain how popular it is in Britain. I did notice that the recent British space mission to land on a comet did use a very cute logo, which seemed to be directly copying the sort of cute logos used by Japanese businesses and institutions.

Do you think this book will appeal to your audience, or do you expect anyone who likes your work will happily go along with whatever you choose to write about?

I can't say. I've never known what would be popular. I've never tried to write anything because I thought it would be popular.  I might be fortunate to have managed to get as many books published as I have.

More than any of your other books, this one includes a number of zeitgeisty subjects and inspirations: AI, virtual reality, extreme body enhancements, manga, anime, computer hacking, hostile corporate takeovers, YouTube stars who have become phenomenally successful. It’s like a mash up of Snow Crash, Ready Player One, The Big Short, and Pokémon. Is this an attempt to reach a wider audience, or do you not think in terms of marketing, growing audience share etc when planning a new book?

Like most of my books, it concerns friendship. Friendship is important in my writing. The main things in Supercute Futures is the relationship between Mox and Mitsu. If it coincides with the zeitgeist, well - that might be good or bad. Actually, I could see that being a negative. Artists might well be better off going against the zeitgeist. But never mind, it either sells or it doesn't, people like it or they don’t. I'd rather write something that was popular but if I don't, I won't be upset. (as for Snow Crash, Ready Player One, The Big Short, and Pokémon, I haven't read any of these, or played Pokémon. Though I do know what they are) My knowledge of current, modern literature is always very bad. I almost never manage to read anything recent. I've always rather shied away from modern literature, not wanting to be influenced by it.

Perhaps you should be doing appearances at all the Comic-Cons to promote it?

You’ve suffered from agoraphobia to varying extents for many years now. To what extent is that affecting you at the moment?

It's better than it used to be, though it hasn't entirely gone away. I have no problems with being outside, and making short journeys. Longer journeys can still be a problem. The anxiety which was associated with it has mostly gone too. It was all quite a strange and unpleasant experience. Career-wise, it's been a little inconvenient. There have been some events I've been unable to travel to. But it's not like I get invited to a lot of literary festivals anyway, so it probably hasn't made that much difference.

 Since attending literary festivals, making appearances at book shops for readings and signings etc, are amongst the main promotional tools for the modern writer, your inability, or unwillingness, to do that to any great extent must have been very detrimental to the progress of your career. Do you get a lot of pressure from your agent and publisher to do public appearances? Is there any chance you may find a way to do it in future? (i.e. further afield than occasional appearances at small literary events near your home in London)

When was the last time you travelled outside of London?

Quite a few years. My parents both moved to England, and when both of them fell sick, I did have some difficulties visiting them in hospital, because I found traveling difficult. So that wasn't great.

You spent time in New York researching The Good Fairies of New York. As I recall, you stayed in an apartment which belonged to The Mekons? What did you do while you were there? Would you do something like that again, given the opportunity?

That was around 1991. I walked around the city, I took notes, I saw that there were readings at the Knitting Factory so I went and asked if I could read there. I did, and it went well, and I got asked to read again, and I also read on some university radio station, and I had a brief affair with a New York poet, and I met some friendly people around St Mark's place, and then I came home and wrote The Good Fairies of New York. Actually, I probably hadn't done enough research to actually write a book set in New York, but then again, novelists can always fake things, there's no need to be fanatical about your research. All in all, it was a good trip.

I don’t really see myself doing something like that again. I've had problems travelling for a while now. Also, I'm older now, and comfy at home. I like to play my PlayStation in the morning and then write. And then have a nap, and then write some more.

I read once that Kurt Vonnegut used to plan the plots for his novels on rolls of wallpaper. Also, I recently saw a picture of what Joseph Heller did to plan the plot for Catch 22 (which looks like a big, handwritten version of an Excel spreadsheet). Do you have a technique for planning the plots of your books?

Joseph Heller's handwritten outline for Catch 22 here.

I'm very haphazard. It's a fault, I could do with planning better. Sometimes failing to plan properly has caused me problems. Though it has also happened to me that planning things in advance killed them, somehow. Even thinking about things too much in advance can have an adverse effect. Or affect. I've never been able to remember the difference between 'affect' and 'effect' and I expect I never will.

Too much planning is a bit like talking about your work while you're engaged in it. You shouldn't talk about it. It will dissipate your energy. I'm dubious about all writing groups where people talk about their writing. Just keep it to yourself, and do it. Don't talk about it till it's finished.

From the start you’ve had regular issues with publishers saying they don’t know how to market your work, since it doesn’t fit neatly into any genre. Do you find that the publishing industry remains conservative, and is reluctant to take many risks?

No, I wouldn't say that. I've done reasonably well with publishers over the course of my career. There have been some problems, but I expect most authors have problems at some time. I've managed to find publishers to publish my books, so I've no complaints. Piatkus have published my werewolf books, and The Goddess of Buttercups and Daisies, and now Supercute Futures, so I'd say they've done well for me.

Surely Kurt Vonnegut demonstrated years ago that modern writers should feel free to incorporate elements of science fiction, fantasy, horror, anything they like into their books without having the appeal narrowed down into a specific genre. If Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Orwell’s 1984, Edgar Allan Poe or Jane Austen were publishing today, would they be marketed exclusively towards fans of science fiction/ horror/ romance?

The Lonely Werewolf Girl books are really no different than your other books. Longer, more characters, perhaps more complicated plots. Many of the characters happen to be werewolves, but they’re far from being traditional horror. Despite that, did they attract a different audience? How well did they sell in comparison with your other books?

They've been quite popular. The Good Fairies of New York is my bestselling book, and the werewolf books next after that. They did bring me something of a new audience, and quite an enthusiastic one. There were some translations into other languages too, which is always good.

You seem to have become an enthusiastic football fan. Is that relatively recent, or has the interest always been there, and just grown in recent years? What you write about generally emerges, eventually, from your interests and obsessions. Is there any chance your passion for football could lead to something too?

I did like football when I was young in Scotland, without being fanatical about it. Most kids used to play football in those days. I completely lost interest as a teenager, when music took over. I had no interest for quite a long time but unexpectedly I got sucked back into it in England. Same as happened with a lot of people, around the time of Italia 90. Football gradually changed from something which had not been of much interest to millions of people, to a national obsession, with the advent of the Premier League. My 25 years of supporting of Arsenal has brought me some happiness and probably more unhappiness. It does give me something to complain about, which is always welcome.

But no, I can't see myself writing about it. I can't extract any glamour from football.