Trilby Kent has written for the Canadian national press and publications in Europe and America; her short stories have appeared in Mslexia and The African American Review, among others. She currently lives in London, where she is about to embark on an English PhD with a focus on Creative Writing. Her first novel for children, Medina Hill, is published by Tundra Books (McClelland & Stewart) on October 13.

Which 3 writers, living or dead, would you invite to dinner?
Unfortunately, most of my favourite writers are (or were) highly neurotic and unsociable creatures and would no doubt make rather terrifying company! Having said that…Truman Capote would be a hoot. Wendy Cope, too. Dulcie Deamer, simply because she’d probably turn up wearing a leopard skin, Stone Age-style.

Favourite writing snack?
Dried pineapple or edamame. A sneaky butter tart when I’m feeling homesick for Canada.

Longhand or computer?
Computer – although I do sometimes wonder if it makes the process rather too easy. Longhand probably produces more considered writing. I keep telling myself I’m going to try it some time.

As a child I read…
Quite a few books that I wasn’t supposed to, or that were too old for me at the time. I discovered Lord of the Flies when I was ten, and it terrified me. I loved anything that featured hapless orphans being shoved up chimneys and forced to eat gruel. My boyfriend still jokes that I was the freaky kid who knew a bit too much about bubonic plague and wanted nothing more than to be a nineteenth-century street urchin.


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Roger’s plog is no more. I’m moving on and moving up. Now I have a blog. A bloody blog. Perhaps I should call it a blod (a blog with blood on). Or a bloog. No, I think I’ll stick with Bloody Blog. I’m sure that’s what I will come to call it in the future. So welcome to Roger’s Bloody Blog. Somehow befitting for a crime writer, and that seems to be what I am these days.

Yes indeed, because yesterday I was officially commissioned to write the fourth novel in my historical crime series featuring Porfiry Petrovich. Yes, that Porfiry Petrovich, the investigating magistrate from Dostoevsky’s masterpiece Crime and Punishment.

I’m looking forward to starting work. But first I have to faff around on my new blog and website a bit longer. Once a displacement activist, always a displacement activist. Is that even a term?

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Anyone else forget things all the time? Due to the fact that I’m a woman of a certain age, (more than forty, less than fifty), my memory cells aren’t what they used to be. In fact, they’re really quite awful. I fight it, of course, like I fight my alarmingly grey roots with a popular brand that tells me I’m worth it. The gaps in my memory, however, need a different tool, so I have notebooks placed all over the house. The idea, and it does work, is that if/when what I’ve forgotten creeps back into my head, I can write it down. I then recommit it to memory by repeating it aloud ten times, whilst tapping my head with my right forefinger. Mad as a box of frogs, I know, but as I said – it works.


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Interesting, isn’t it? How as writers we rarely talk about our readers. Do we think about them enough? I’m not sure. Do I? Let’s see.


Of course in one sense I’ve always thought about my reader. I’ve imagined the thrill of having my words read by a stranger. I’ve craved an audience for my words, reading aloud to my little sister when we were children and lately falling into the thrall of internet writing, beguiled by the illusion (only sometimes a reality) of a ready-made audience waiting on my every word. But it’s only now, writing for business in my new job, that I’m really aware of giving the reader the attention he/she deserves. Because there is no way around it in copywriting. No hiding behind the words. No ‘this is just for me’ comfort-zone. I have to focus 100% on my audience, from start to finish.


Funny, though. That it should be as a copywriter I am most keenly reminded of the essence of storytelling: to create a dialogue, a conversation, and to keep it going. Understanding the reader’s hopes and fears. Manipulating the same.


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Two posts in one day? I know. I spoil you. As though a link to my short story over at the wonderful Metazen wasn't enough, here's an interview with the equally wonderful Megan Taylor, author of How We Were Lost.

So Megan, ‘How We Were Lost’ – who’s it for and what’s it about?

‘How We Were Lost’ is a dark coming of age story. It begins with 14-year-old Janie’s obsession with two young girls who have disappeared from her small coastal town. But Janie’s compulsion to find the missing girls masks a deeper need to unravel the secrets of her own dysfunctional family, and to face the truth about herself . . .

The novel wasn’t written with any particular reader in mind, it just wanted to be written! But because it has a teenage protagonist it gained a couple of Young Adult reviews along with the others.

To be honest, I don’t mind who reads it – I’m just very happy it’s being read.



It’s been out for a little while now, what’s the reaction to it been?

I’ve been very, very lucky. I had some really warm reviews (including mentions in Mslexia and Time Out) and then over a year later, it received a fresh boost when it was selected as one of the first titles to be promoted with ‘Exclusively Independent’ (Legend Press’s Arts Council funded initiative, which seeks to bring together independent publishers and bookshops to champion new writing). I’ve also had some wonderful feedback from readers. I’m very grateful.



Does writing it feel like something you did a long, long time ago?

Yes! ‘How We Were Lost’ was written before my Creative Writing MA, when I wasn’t brave enough to even admit I was a writer and when my youngest was still very young. Much of that novel was written sitting at the edge of sandpits and during nap-time.


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I've a very short story over at the fabulous Metazen today. It's called Pacifier. It contains one or two naughty words. I hope you like it.

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A book is a metaphor for the life of its writer. As it stands on the bookshelf, its contents are private, hidden - just as the writer spends months, years even, hidden away in the dark womb of her writing.
Later, if you're really lucky, there's a cover. Instant visibility. Here I am, the cover shouts or whispers or giggles or cries. See me. Buy me. Read me. Once the book moves from manuscript to bound copy, it - and its writer - become public property. Just as we all need our daily half hour of sunlight, so too does each book need its time in the sun.

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More and more writers are using editorial services - hardly surprising when in any one year there are apparently one million manuscripts trying to find a publisher in the UK and two million in the US - but a full editorial report is very expensive, and I'm always anxious that writers should know what they're getting, and get what they need. So here are some thoughts, garnered from my own and other editors' experience, and from the many friends and students who've told me about the reports they've had.

First, it's never, ever essential to get one of these reports. All that's essential for you to write a publishable novel is you and a stack of paper and a pen. And I'd always suggest that you take your work as far as you can on your own, and only seek feedback when you're stuck. I do understand the desire for an early 'Is this worth pursuing?' kind of feedback, but if you're still unsure what kind of a beast it is yourself, then you're not in such a good position to decide what to do with the feedback you get.

And no, an editorial report can't get you published. But then nothing can, except writing a book which a commercial publishing company thinks will earn enough money to make it worth it, and then finding an agent who thinks that and knows which publishers will too. Editorial reports are one way to help you write that book, while talent, hard work, perseverance and luck have even more to do with it.

SOME GENERAL THINGS TO THINK ABOUT, when you're considering a particular editorial agency. If you can't find the information on the website, then ring them up.

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Fiona Robyn is going to blog her next novel, Thaw, starting on the 1st of March next year. The novel follows 32 year old Ruth’s diary over three months as she decides whether or not to carry on living.

To help spread the word she’s organising a Blogsplash, where blogs will publish the first page of Ruth’s diary simultaneously (and a link to the blog).

She’s aiming to get 1000 blogs involved – if you’d be interested in joining in, email her at fiona@fionarobyn.com or find out more information here.


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