Interview with Paul Whyte, author of Plum
Tell us about Plum. I really don’t want to spoil anything as it goes to some very interesting places. Well interesting in that it was interesting to write. Instead of going into the plot maybe if I tell you about the themes and influences I’ve ended up with. One of the main themes of the book is the idea of nothing ending. There were two quotes that stuck with me throughout the writing process. One was Da Vinci – ‘art is never finished only abandoned’ – and the other was a lyric from a Neutral Milk Hotel song: ‘God is a place’. I really liked the idea of that. God being a place and not a person, so I decided to play with that. Does a place care about anything that’s in it? Does a Wi-Fi cloud care about the data that passes through it? No but it has processes that define where that data goes. So if I apply that to mythology and wrap it all together in a biological process instead of a technological one ( not that a biological process can’t be seen as technology mind) what would that look like? How would death look in this process, how would the universe fit in that….what if someone wanted to f**k with one of these processes. What would be that universe version of a Demi-God look like or an Angel? These are just some of the things that sit deep in the background of Plum while a simple straight forward action adventure plays out up front. Going into Plum I really just had a set of sensibilities and ideas, a vague idea of plotting and a stack of novels and subjects I wanted to devour as I went along. It’s the first Volume of a two part story and I’m very happy with how it’s shaping up going into Volume 2. What genre is it? What kind of readers will it appeal to? Complete this sentence for us: if you like _________________, you’ll love my book. How would you like the reader to feel as they read the last word of Plum? Tell us a bit about yourself. Do you have a website where we can keep up with your work? How can we follow you on Twitter and/or Facebook? What’s next? |
Thanks a million guys.