Long and Short Reviews welcomes Shaun Baines who is celebrating the print release of his debut novel Woodcutter.
Shaun is from the coastal town of South Shields, in the north-east of England, but is now living in rural Scotland. I asked him to tell us a little about it.
“It has a fairground (mentioned briefly in Woodcutter), beautiful beaches and hard-faced, but welcoming people. It has had enormous investment recently, developing the market place and creating community hubs for the residents. I have lots of memories of it, some good and some bad, but it’s my home town. I was formed there and it’s no surprise I’d base my first novel on its streets.”
He has a strong feminist streak and credit his mother for that.
“My mam is an incredibly strong woman. She is equal, probably tougher, than most men I’ve met,” he explained. “I was once force fed fishcake by a dinner lady at school. I hate fish. They should stay in the sea as far as I’m concerned and I was ill in the afternoon. Of course, my mam caught wind of this and raised hell. Who knows what language she employed, but the dinner lady and headmistress apologised in person and I never saw a fishcake in my young life again.
“While I’m grateful for mam’s intervention, it made me centre of attention. I don’t do well in the spotlight and my cheeks were red for a week.”
Shaun told me he was part of the “Terry Pratchett reading, never kissed a girl, computer geek club.” He didn’t actually fully fit in with them, though.
“They were middle class. I came from a council estate. They played musical instruments. I had trouble rattling a tambourine,” he explained. “I tended to drift from group to group. I was a skateboarder, knew some of the cool kids and more importantly, they knew me. I even had a friend in the school bully, who I can only assume is now in prison.
“I fretted about my identity at school and still do, but my roots are in top flight geekery.”
I asked him what he had wanted to be when he grew up.
“I had my life planned out up to the point where I finished university. If I’d been smart enough or had the money to take my studies further, I may have stayed in the comfort of academia. As it happens, I had neither so I was turfed out into the world with no direction. So, I did what I thought all grown-ups did. I put on a shirt and tie and went to work in the office. I hated it. I felt too confined and although my bosses were nice enough, I was irked by being told what to do.
“Being a writer is the ultimate freedom. I choose when I work and what project I work on. It’s a difficult career, filled with rejections and pitfalls, but I couldn’t do anything else. Unless there’s a job being President of the World. I’d take that role on, then probably delegate it while I went to the beach.”
Shaun’s books are set in a fast-paced city where gangsters lurk around every corner. One of his favorite authors is the bestseller Martina Cole. Like him, she writes about gangsters and criminal lifestyles.
“I admire how she takes a generational view. It adds depth to the narrative. Her main characters can be a daughter whose mother was a criminal, whose mother before her did the same thing. It’s interesting to see how they are linked by a common thread. My writing is a little more stylistic, a touch more poetic, but her clarity of prose is something to be admired and not easy to achieve,” he explained.
When Shaun is not immersed in his writing and its world, he lives a rural life. He’s very interested in gardening, growing his own fruit and vegetables. He and his wife also adopt ex-battery farmed chickens.
One of the important factors to conquering bulimia is taking action on it as order tadalafil soon as possible. Men report penis enlargement, stronger, longer lasting erections – pop a handful of blueberries into a fruit smoothie a couple pfizer viagra uk of times a week. The frequency of positive common spinal clinical examination findings in viagra order uk a sample of premenstrual syndrome sufferers. Apart from strengthening erection, regular use of pump can combat premature ejaculation and erectile dysfunction. acquisition de viagra “We currently have a group of six, which we’ve nicknamed the Ever-Readys,” he told me. “We also keep bees, despite me being extremely allergic to them. I was once stung on the ankle and my foot swelled to the extent I couldn’t wear a shoe for a three days. God bless those bees.”
He doesn’t have a dedicated space to write, instead he has more of a dedicated time.
“I do most of my writing in the sitting room where the sofa has shaped itself around my behind. The television is off and it’s a no talking zone. As a result, I’m not very popular through the day. Most of my writing is done first thing in the morning. I rise early – crazy early – around 4am. After coffee, the laptop opens and I race to get as many words down before my wife wakes. It might not be for everyone, but I can get a thousand words done before breakfast. It makes the rest of the day easier, but don’t ask me out for an evening meal. I’ll fall asleep in the middle of my carbonara.”
Before Shawn started writing, he heard authors say things like “My characters tell me what to do” or “My characters show me what the story is.” He admitted thinking that it was “pretentious tosh” but has changed his mind since becoming a writer himself.
“It’s absolutely true. If your characters are strong enough, all you can do is point them where you want them to go and hold on tight. The conclusion to Woodcutter changed dramatically because of the main protagonist. He wouldn’t do what I wanted, which was annoying because I didn’t have an alternative.
“Maybe I need to get out more, but I think of my characters as real people and just like real people, you can’t make them do what they don’t want to.”
Finally I asked, “What advice would you give a new writer just starting out?”
“Two things. Do whatever you can to find your own voice. There are millions of writers out there, but there is only one you. That’s what will make you stand out. Of course, it’s easier said than done. My advice is to write a variety of short stories. They don’t take long, but they might trigger something in you; something you might recognise as your own.
“Secondly, grow a thick skin. There is an art to receiving criticism. When I started out, I saw it as an opportunity to learn, but it can feel personal at times. Shrug it off. The world of writing and publishing is full of people who want you to reach your full potential. It’s a friendly place, celebrating the written word, but leave your ego at the door.”
About the Author: 
Shaun Baines didn’t always live in a damp cottage in Scotland. He once lived in a flat that permanently smelled of pizza. He wasn’t always a writer, either. He worked in a factory, a government institution, as a manager in a purchasing department and later as a gardener.
He has had a gun levelled at him and been threatened by a man with ‘Bad Joe’ tattooed on his neck. He doesn’t knowingly associate with criminals.
Shaun comes from the north east of England where his novels are set. He is represented by David Haviland of the Andrew Lownie Literary Agency.
Woodcutter is his debut novel published by Thistle Publishing. It is based on the criminal underworld of his native home, available as an ebook on Amazon. The paperback will be published 7th June 2018.
These days, he keeps chickens and bees, grows his own fruit and vegetables and wonders where it all went so right.
Speak Your Mind