Tell us about Plum.
Plum is a contemporary fantasy adventure at its heart but it splices sci-fi, fantasy and horror together in a (hopefully) enjoyable way. It starts out as a simple story about a young twenty something, finding his way in the world, dealing with his artistic frustrations and his mother’s illness before going full blown fantasy.

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?
Contemporary fantasy.

What kind of readers will it appeal to?
I’ve had great feedback from all sorts so far but I think fans of films like Pans Labyrinth or even old school 80’s fantasy like Never Ending Story or the old BBC Narnia show, books by China Melville and Joe Haldeman, Comics by Grant Morrison and Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman and Video Games like Bioshock. Then hopefully you wont be disappointed.

Complete this sentence for us: if you like _________________, you’ll love my book.
some twisted fantasy with your action adventures

How would you like the reader to feel as they read the last word of Plum?
Ready and excited for whats coming next. I’m pretty confident nobody is going to expect how volume 2 starts. I also want them to feel confident that I know exactly where the story is going and that any questions left open will be answered. Answers are coming, I promise.

Tell us a bit about yourself.
I’m Paul. I’m 30 years old and I’ve just had a little boy with my wife of two years. I’ve always loved the arts, I’ve tried it all. I’ve been in films as an actor, I’ve recorded albums as a performer and I’ve written short movie scripts all my life. I’ve always felt restricted until now. Always felt like I never had total control over what I was doing. When I was an actor I felt restricted by the script and director. When I was a musician I felt restricted by the instruments and the medium of song writing. I realised that I just wanted to tell stories, more importantly I wanted to exist in them. With writing I finally feel like I can get whats in my head onto the page and into someone else’s.

Do you have a website where we can keep up with your work?
With Plum I kept a Tumblr updated with little things that inspired me throughout the process nothingisfinishedonlyabandoned.tumblr.com. I’ll be keeping this updated.

How can we follow you on Twitter and/or Facebook?
@twhr on twitter. Come chat about Plum or anything else. I\’m also TWHR on XBLA and PSN if you want to play some borderland or something.

What’s next?
Volume 2! And after that I’ve got a few ideas for another genre.