Author! Author!

Innerview
With John Bourne

In your essay, Law & Grace, you said that you don’t really have a “particular system of writing”, but do you have a particular time of day or a set amount of hours that you adhere to, or do you simply write when the spirit moves you?

I have a leisurely breakfast and try to sharpen my mind with a Su doku quiz. Then I go to my study and begin work. Sometimes the writing flows, and sometimes it is a real struggle. If I can’t work, I go for a walk along the seafront, always good for the mind and the body. I stop for lunch, a quick lunch if the writing is working or a longer one if it isn’t. At one time, I would work on through the evening and into the early hours. Now I discipline myself to stop by 6 pm. I write 6 days a week. I have just finished writing another novel, ‘The Depths Within’, and will start the next book very shortly.

Which makes this next question “iffy” – contingent on the first: What do you do when you aren’t feeling inspired or motivated to write?

As the previous question really. I do have a good imagination and live the stories as I write them, that does help in avoiding ‘writers block’, at least it does, so far. It also makes me change the plot as I go on, because sometimes I become so upset as I am about to kill off a character, that I change it!

What is your ideal writing environment?

I use a laptop computer so I can be flexible. However, I am most comfortable in my study, the cat alongside me and a radio playing quietly in the background.

What authors inspire you most?

I guess my favourite author is Bernard Cornwell. He writes historical fiction and is very talented in bringing to life whatever he tackles, from Alfred the Great to the Napoleonic Wars and the American Civil War. I read as much history and historical fiction as I can find. I will read any author who deals with the subject. I love history and it has so much to teach us.

What I really appreciated about The Death of Innocence was that I never felt conked over the head with what was morally “right”…it was left to Mark Green, the protagonist, and me the reader to decide. I’m wondering if you conduct your sermons the same way…?

One of the first things I learned as a Prison Chaplain was “There but for the grace of God, go I”. If I approached people from a position of assumed superiority, I would never be able to relate to them. We all make mistakes, and have no cause for smugness. In the parish, I quickly learned not to talk at people but with them. To preach to myself as much as to anyone else. So I guess that I want people to reach their own decisions, I try to put up metaphorical sign posts pointing to the right decisions and hope and pray that people will arrive there by themselves.

Temptation is a fascinating subject. Do you plan to explore it again in future books? Any ideas you can/would like to share with us?

Temptation is a fascinating subject that I will undoubtedly return to. I have a plot in mind when one of the hero’s of ‘Death of Innocence’, succumbs to the temptation to employ illegal violence, resulting in far-reaching consequences. The more I think about temptation, the more far-reaching it is. Every day is full of temptations, big and small. Their effect on us varies, for we are all open to some temptations more than others. For the effect of succumbing, look at the quote I offer in answer to the last question.

Is there ever a temptation that is worth succumbing to?

I don’t think it would be a good idea to answer that one? If I was forced to I would say no. That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t succumb, but I would try not to.

Favorite quote?

I don’t know where it comes from, but it is a good pointer to think before we speak or act!

Sow a thought, reap an action.
Sow an action, reap a habit.
Sow a habit, reap a character.
Sow a character, reap a destiny.

John Bourne was born in 1949 in Brighton, on the south coast of England. In 1970 he and his wife settled in Kent where John joined the Kent Police. In 1990, Bourne resigned to study for the Christian Ministry. He was ordained at Canterbury Cathedral in 1991 and became Vicar of Marden, Kent, and Chaplain of Her Majesty’s Prison Blantyre House. He retired in 2003 and has taken up writing, a long held ambition. In the last two years he has published one book, “Coppering the Cannon”, and two short stories. His novel, The Death of Innocence, is available at the DPPstore (www.dppstore.com).