Welcome to Inside the Mind where we here at The Faerie Review interview authors and creators.
Our guest today is Mark N Drake, the author behind The Gathering of Shadows

Lily:  Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview Mark I really enjoyed reading The Gathering of Shadows. This is set in 1920s Britain. How much research did you have to do?

Mark:  A lot! When I first discovered HP Lovecraft (and his contemporaries, such August Derleth), I became fascinated in that era and immersed myself in it. That was a long time before Google, so I browsed old book shops and found things like encyclopedias, map books and so on from the time. Most of which I still have. So, I suppose you could say I had a good background knowledge of the era, plus I had read pretty much every story from the time that built up the ‘Cthulhu Mythos’ that my novel draws upon. But on top of that; yes, I still needed to do a lot of research. I’m a bit obsessive about getting things historically right if I can. The police station Jack starts his career in, the pubs he drinks in, the Manchester streets he walks down – they were all there in 1921. In a way, it was a relief when he caught the steamer to Darkisle. That’s my fictitious island, so my rules apply; there’s just the one hotel in Darkilby ‘cos I damn well say so, so there! Even then, I needed to keep things like use of language consistent with the era. I was going to have Jack dismiss a policeman as a ‘plod’, but then I checked and found that word wasn’t used as slang for a policeman until the 1950s!

Lily:  That’s awesome! It sounds like it was a lot of fun to do the research too. What inspired you to write this?

Mark:  I mean, I’ve ALWAYS wanted to write a novel. And tried and failed several times over the years. I suppose the trigger for this one was finding all my old notes from the 1980s – bits of research, scenarios for the Call of Cthulhu RPG, abandoned plot lines and so on. I decided it would be a shame to waste all that effort, so I used it as my source material for one last try.

Lily:  I’m glad you decided to write it! Would you want to spend a day with Jack in his 1920s world or our modern one?

Mark:  Oh, I think the 1920s, for sure! The world seemed so much bigger then. And I’d like to check on how good my research has been! Plus, there would be a chance I’d get to hang out with Josine – as they would say at the time, she’s a doll!

Lily:  I think it would be a lot of fun and I’d definitely want to meet Josine. If this was made into a movie, who could you see playing Jack?

Mark:  Heck, that’s a good question. It would need to be someone with a bit of intensity to them. Cillian Murphy, maybe? He’s on the short side, though. Still, that didn’t stop Tom Cruise playing Jack Reacher, did it?

Lily:  That’s a brilliant casting I think. Now we’d like to talk about you as a writer. What does your ideal writing space look like?

Mark:  The pandemic has changed that! I’m a ‘get things down in my notebook’ sort of writer – and by notebook, I mean lined paper pages with a cover around them. Most of this novel was written in 30 minute or so slots in cafés, or in art galleries, or in the Mean Eyed Cat pub! At the moment, I mostly write in my shed at home. All the editing happens in there too. Also, holidays seem to inspire me to write; a couple of chapters of The Gathering of Shadows were written in an apartment in Reykjavik, while three chapters of the follow-up novel were done in a cottage up on the Northumberland coast.

Lily:  Sounds like you can write just about anywhere. How do you get out of a writing slump?

Mark:  Really, I think of the previous 40 or so years of my life as a writing slump! The trite answer is to write SOMETHING. Anything. Even if it’s rubbish. A lined C5 notebook holds about 150-200 words of my handwriting on a page. So, if I make myself get one page done a day during a difficult week – hey, that’s over 1,000 words! Sometimes that’s easier said then done, so I’ll allow myself to do writing-related stuff like some research or a re-read and re-edit of what I’ve done so far. What I DON’T do is say ‘oh I’ll take a break, come back to it fresh next week’. I suppose I’m scared that week off will turn into a month, a year, a decade….

Lily: That’s great advice! It’s really easy to just keep putting it off once you start. Do you think writing the first draft or editing it is harder?

Mark: For me, it’s the writing. Something strange seems to happen between me getting my first words down on paper and when I come to type them up a few days later. I find I can edit as I type, pretty much in real time. What I type into my laptop is often quite different to what’s on the page of my notebook. It’s almost like that first draft becomes a prompt to be expanded upon, rather than something to be copied out. So, yeah, it’s the act of getting that first iteration out that is harder for me.

Lily:  That’s wonderful, and sounds like it makes draft two much easier. Let’s finish up with some fun questions and get inside your mind. What’s your favorite movie?

Mark:  Oh, that’s hard! There are the usual suspects; The Shawshank Redemption, It’s a Wonderful Life… The Usual Suspects, come to think of it. I’m going to cheat and give a few. For vision and spectacle; Inception. For humour; Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz. Or maybe This Is Spinal Tap. For supernatural horror; The Haunting – but only the 1963 original. Accept no modern substitutes!

Lily:  Hehe I loved Inception and Shaun of the Dead. Would you rather ride a camel or a giraffe as your only form of transportation?

Mark:  If it’s possible, a giraffe. I mean, you’d always arrive in style, wouldn’t you? I suppose I’d have to set Google Maps to find routes avoiding low bridges, mind.

Lily:  You would definitely be making a grand entrance no matter where you went! Do you have a favorite author?

Mark:  On balance, I think I would go with Iain (M) Banks – both for his non-genre novels and his science fiction. I was lucky enough to meet him once. Losing him so young was a huge blow. I guess – in terms of a single work rather than everything he wrote – I’d also say Richard Adams – that work being Watership Down. Coincidentally, he’s another author I once met. In a pub quiz, would you believe! When I describe the weather, the woodlands, the look of raindrops on ferns – that’s me trying to get just a little of Adams’ ability to evoke the countryside into my writing.

Lily:  That’s great that you got to meet two of your favorite authors, I can’t say that I have. What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done?

Mark:  I was once run over by a helicopter, during my days doing defence research. We were manhandling a Westland Wessex into place when I thought it would be a great idea to pull from the front rather than push from behind. Which is fine until you fall over and find yourself looking up at a couple of tons of aircraft bearing down on you. Luckily, I got clear of the wheels and just let it roll over me. I got up on the other side feeling like a right idiot.

Lily:  I’m sitting here blinking at my computer screen. That’s probably one of the craziest things I’ve heard, but I’m glad you made it out just fine! Do you have a favorite late-night snack?

Mark:  Does single malt Scotch whisky count? I mean, it has calories in it….

Lily:  It definitely does. What TV show do you like to binge?

Mark:  I don’t get to watch much TV to be honest. I’m not saying that to sound all ‘literary’; there is some really good stuff on TV, I just don’t have the time. If it counts, I’m working my way through Twin Peaks: The Return at the moment. That came out in 2017, which shows just how quickly I get around to watching stuff….

Lily:  That’s on my watch list, but I have to admit I haven’t gotten around to it yet. Is there anything else you would like to add that I haven’t included?

Mark:  Just to mention that if your subscribers would like to get a feel of my Darkisle setting for free, I have a short story collection called Hobb’s Top and Other Horrors, available at https://dl.bookfunnel.com/cemv4f55uc. You will need to give a valid email address to get it, but I promise not to spam you and you’ll get information about freebies and sneak previews. Besides, it’s easy to unsubscribe, if you want! Did I mention it’s free? Also, the follow-up to The Gathering of Shadows is progressing well and will hopefully be out in the early spring of 2021. The working title is Those Under The Hill… but don’t hold me to that, it may change!

Lily:  I can’t wait to read book two! How can readers discover more about you and you work?

Mark:  I love to hear from readers, and you can contact me through my website:

Twitter | Website

Book Links
Amazon | Amazon UK | Barnes & Noble
Goodreads
Free: Hobb’s Top and Other Horrors by Mark N Drake