Today, I am delighted to welcome Bob Stone, who doesn't only write books, he sells them. In his own shop, right at the heart of his local community. I sat him down with a couple of glasses of wine and this is what happened:
Cat:
Welcome, Bob and congratulations on your new book, Missing Beat, which kept me reading into the wee, small hours. This is being marketed as a Young Adult
novel, but how would you categorise it?
Bob:
Thank you very much. I’m very glad you enjoyed it. Young Adult is a funny
category in many ways. I have only recently discovered it and have come across
a great many amazing authors. The books can be as powerful and well-written as
any adult fiction, but the only real difference is the age of the protagonist.
I’ve called Missing Beat Young Adult
because some of the content would not be suitable for younger readers, but I
like to think that Young Adult is the starting point for the age of the target
audience. There is no upper limit!
Cat:
Well, I haven’t been a young adult for more years than I care to remember and I
was hooked from page one. It’s a great adventure and I found the characters
totally engaging. Go on, spill, was the difficult-to-love Emma Winrush based on
anyone? Promise I won’t tell!
Bob:
No-one specific. She’s a bit of a composite, but mainly she’s just drawn from
imagination. She was great fun to write though, and I hope the readers like her
a little more by the end.
Cat:
I felt the two main characters – Joey Cale and Emma Winrush - as total
opposites, sparked really well off each other. Was it your intention to make
them so different, or did they simply evolve that way?
Bob: A bit of both, really. I wanted to provide some
balance to Joey’s rather more clean-cut personality, but I think the
relationship between Joey and Emma changes both of them. Emma makes Joey braver
and Joey allows Emma to show a softer side.
Cat:
Do you have any interesting writing rituals – a writing room, candles, music
that you play?
Bob:
I wish I could say I had, but I’m afraid I don’t. I just write wherever and
whenever I can. An author friend of mine has a writing hut in her garden,
rather like Roald Dahl, and that would be very cool, but I have to be content
with my living room at the moment. And coffee. Lots of coffee.
Cat:
You’re not only a writer but you also own a bookshop – Write Blend. I happen to
know that this is no ordinary book retailer, tell us about your vision for it
and how Write Blend came into being.
Bob:
I’ve always wanted to run a bookshop/coffee shop. The two go really well
together and when the opportunity arose I jumped at it. These days, though,
it’s very hard to be successful if you limit yourself to selling books – there’s
too much competition in the supermarkets and online. I see the shop more as an
essential community resource. I also work with a number of independent authors,
providing a venue for book signings and events, and also as an outlet for their
wonderful books, which many other bookshops are sadly reluctant to do.
Cat:
With all the work this must entail, when do you find time for writing?
Bob:
As and when I can! There are quiet times in the shop when I can do a bit,
although I do it feeling guilty that perhaps I should be doing something else.
Sunday mornings are also a good time.
Cat:
You were born, grew up and have lived almost your entire life in Waterloo - a
suburb to the north of Liverpool - and you clearly feel inspired by it, as does
another Liverpool writer – a certain Ramsey Campbell –who has used Waterloo as
a setting (for example in The Seven Days of Cain). In your opinion, what is it
about Waterloo that inspires writers?
Bob:
Ah yes, The Seven Days of Cain, which is set partly in South Road, where Write
Blend is. I’ve also had Ramsey here a few times for talks and it’s really
strange to be on first-name terms with an author I have long admired. Waterloo
is a funny mix. It was once a thriving shopping area, but is less so now. There
is also a lot of history – it takes its name from the Battle of Waterloo, there
are strong Titanic connections, and I recently found out that there is a strong
likelihood that Siegfried Sassoon may well have marched right past where my
shop is now on the way to War. Being right on the coast helps and of course now
we have Antony Gormley’s Another Place installation, with its one hundred Iron
Men all staring out to sea. That has been the backdrop for a number of books
and the Iron Men appear in Missing Beat too.
Cat:
You also chose Pendle Hill as a significant location in the story. This
resonated with me as I centred an entire novel there (The Pendle Curse). My lure was the Lancashire Witch Trials, what
drew you to that particular spot?
Bob:
I love that part of Lancashire. My wife and I honeymooned in Clitheroe and
Pendle Hill dominates that area. I was looking for a location which was within
reasonable walking distance of Liverpool and Pendle, with its mystical
connotations was too good to resist.
Cat:
Which book first inspired you to write and what spurs you on now?
Bob:
When I was I my teens and started binge-reading Agatha Christie and writing my
own rather derivative whodunnits. I hadn’t really thought about writing for
Young Adults until I read a brilliant book called More of Me by Kathryn Evans.
That started me reading YA fiction and then I discovered how many superb books
there are out there. The idea I had for Missing
Beat just seemed to lend itself to the genre. Now I’m spurred on by the
very positive reactions there have been to my book, and the support and
encouragement of my publishers, Beaten Track Publishing.
Cat:
Missing Beat is the first in a
trilogy. Can you give us any hints as to what we can expect from Books Two and
Three and will Joey and Emma be involved?
Bob:
Now that would be telling! Anyone who has read Missing Beat will know that there are certain challenges involved
in who will be in Book Two, which is likely to be called Beat Surrender, and who won’t. All I can say is that there are
questions which remain unanswered by the end of Missing Beat and some will be answered in Book Two. Some, however,
may not be answered until Book Three…
Cat:
Now, let’s find out a bit more about Missing
Beat
Listen to your heart...'
When Joey Cale is almost knocked down by a car, he finds himself alone in a
world which is familiar but also ominously different.
Can he overcome the odds and the threat of the terrifying Screamers to find his
way home, or is he doomed to be lost forever amongst The Missing?
The first book in an exciting new trilogy.
Available from:
My review of Missing Beat
Imagine you are seventeen years old, you
wake up to all the familiar sights, sounds and people you have known all your
life. Today's the day you need to go and get your exam results. You tread the
route you have taken to school hundreds of times in your life, see your best
friend on the other side of the road. The lights are about to change and you
can just make it if you hurry. You dash into the road just as a car jumps the
lights. It brakes equal. You fall. Your heart stops. When you come to, you are
still lying on the road. It's the rest of the world that has changed.
This is the story of Joey Cale - born with a hole in
his heart, later repaired by surgery. The world he has now entered looks on the
surface identical to the one he knows. It's the small details that are wrong.
The newsagent has a different name. There's a different president in the White
House. A new Dr Who is male, not female. And then there are the Screamers - and
a girl called Emma Winrush.
This novel is being marketed as Young Adult. Well, this
much older adult loved it so much she can't wait for the sequel (this is the
first in a trilogy). It is a Sci-Fi adventure that will appeal to all ages and
genders. The author racks up the tension, creates characters to care about,
with all their flaws which make them truly human. Bob Stone may be a new name
in fiction but with work of this quality, he is here to stay.
About the author
Liverpool
born Bob Stone is an author and bookshop owner. He has been writing for as long
as he could hold a pen and some would say his handwriting has never improved.
He is the author of two self-published children's books, A Bushy Tale
and A Bushy Tale: The Brush Off. Missing Beat, the first in a
trilogy for Young Adults, is his first full-length novel.
Bob still lives in Liverpool with his wife and cat and sees no reason to change
any of that.
You can contact Bob at:
