Where do you come up with your ideas? Do you have a specific muse or do you draw your inspiration from things you see in your daily life?
I never know how to answer that question without sounding sarcastic. One writer once said that he heard a voice in his head, but it spoke in a foreign language he couldn't understand, so instead he sat down and wrote for hours until everything was done.
I see you've done some comedy work. Is it very different, writing comedy for the screen rather than writing for a book?
They are different disciplines for sure, but they both rely on strong dramatic structure. Prose gives you more breathing space to explore ideas though, while on screen you have to be quick, concise and have many more ideas in a shorter space of time. I think Rotten Apple is paced more like a screenplay than a book - it probably needs to be when it comes to comedy.
Comedy is serious business. Have you ever worked on a scene or joke for so long that it just isn't funny to you anymore?
Yes. It needs to stop being funny before you can assess it critically. It's usually the things that make you laugh when you write them which are the things that soon get dropped and re-worked.
Are any of the events in your books based upon real people or situations? If so, how much of it is real & how much is from your own imagination?
There's a moment when Vic Malone jumps out of a tenth storey window naked and uses the body of a cop to dampen his fall. That happened to me.
Do you have any news that I can dish for you?
I'm currently working on a few ideas for British TV and a new Kindle book is coming soon.
What do you do when writer's block hits you? Any advice for other authors out there?
There's no such thing as writers' block, it's pretentious nonsense. No other field of work hides behind such twaddle. You don't see coal miners taking the day off because they aren't feeling creative. If your writing is running out of steam, it's due to lack of planning and thought. Always have several projects on the go, and switch to another and let your mind ponder things for a while.
What drives you to write & do comedy work? What made you look at these fields & decide "this is the life for me"? Was there a big moment or did you just always know this is what you were meant for?
Bills.
Coke or Pepsi?
Bills.
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A noir-crime-suspense-thriller parody.
Seven interwoven comic stories from the underbelly of a sinful city. The hard-boiled detective, the down-to-earth stripper, the embittered hack, the psycho killer, the sultry brief, the gentleman thief - they all live in the Rotten Apple.
Curious about Simon's book? You can pick it up via Amazon.com for the kindle!
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