An Interview With Gillian F Taylor
Gillian Taylor is the author of a number of Black Horse Westerns, including "The Paducah War", "The Rocking W", "Darrow's Law" and "Darrow's Word". She shares some thoughts on writing, and the process she goes through to produce her Westerns.
TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOURSELF
I came to Sheffield in 1985 to do a degree in Ancient History and Archaeology and stayed. Almost everyone I know came to Sheffield to do their degree and stayed.Or just came to Sheffield and stayed. A few have escaped, but they tend to come back for parties.I live in the damp and dingy attic of a once lovely late Victorian house,
that Sheffield Council is forcing my landlord to improve. Yes, I really am a writer starving in a garret. I should have a new roof soon (Hurrah for 'minded to take action notices' -The council is forcing my landlord to spend around £40,000 on fixing the house up). I have a job with the Jobecentre+ bit of the Department for Welfare to Work and Pensions (ES, BA, CSA and Pensions all in one). I work in a budget team, but I've been on sick leave longer than I've actually worked. This means I get to stay home and write books, sew, read books, play roleplay games and play with the cats (Skiffle & Diesel).
WHEN DID YOU START WRITING?
I wrote a few fan-fiction stories about the BBC sci-fi series Blakes 7 when I was about 14. My first teenage novels were written in schoolbooks. There was a semi-fantasy one set in roughly Saxon times, and a sci-fi one about a Heavy Metal band who get kidnapped by humans from another planet who want to use them as propaganda in a civil war. I had characters and outline for a dozen more books in another school book. I still have all of these. I went to University because it looked like fun, and it put off any decisions about what the hell I was going to do for the rest of my life, for another three years. I was damned sure I didn't want to work in an office, or be a manager, or an accountant. I didn't want to be anything remotely sensible, to my poor Dad's disappointment. I just wanted to write stories. And at University I met someone who had dropped off his course, gone on the dole. and started writing books. After graduation.I wasted a year with a loser boyfriend, then ditched him for his best friend, who got a job and supported me in my ambition to write. Thanks to Iain Fielden, I really sat down and started writing in about 1989.
WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO WRITE WESTERNS? 
I knew from the start that Westerns are horribly uncommercial in Britain, but I had recently seen 'Young Guns' and I loved it. I really wanted to tell the story about what happened to the 3 surviving characters afterwards. I decided to make my own characters, and created Paul, Josh and Sandy as the three young men who become outlaws. It was my first attempt at writing a full-length novel and I thought it was better to make a start with a story I was really excited about. I wanted their story to be told whether or not anyone else ever read it. I loved watching Westerns on the telly as a kid, and I had a set of Lone Ranger figures and horses, then went on to own dozens of J T Edson's westerns. It was a genre I felt right at home with.
THE FIRST NOVEL YOU WROTE, RIO DE SANGRE, WAS REJECTED BECAUSE OF ITS LENGTH AND YOU HAD TWO OTHERS DECLINED BETWEEN ROCKING W AND THE PADUCAH WAR. HOW IMPORTANT DO YOU THINK PERSERVERANCE IS TO ANYONE WANTING TO WRITE NOVELS?
It's as important as talent. Everyone knows of best-sellers that were rejected by dozens of publishers first. The friend who inspired me to become a writer has never had a book published himself, because he lacks perserverance. He has dozens of first chapters in his files. I read a fantasy novel of his and thought that it had potential but wasn't ready for publication. I discussed the problems with him, and he saw my point of view. The novel went into a file and was never looked at again. The published version of 'Navajo Rock' has about a dozen scenes in common with the version that was rejected six years earlier. Writers have to perservere at getting a book right, as well as getting a publisher to read it.
WHAT WORKING METHODS DO YOU USE TO GET FROM INITIAL IDEA TO FINISHED MANUSCRIPT?
I get lots of scrap paper and start designing my main characters. I daydream about the first thoughts, and try to think of something like a great location or situation I can fit in. The villian is usually fun to do. I tend to have a few ideas for scenes, and a general idea of a plot, which I then wrestle into a story before I start writing. I like to have a fairly complete story outline before I start, although the characters can move in different directions when I'm part-way through, and new characters may pop up suddenly. I then go back and fix things. Research may take a lot of time before I can start. I needed to know about silver mining in 1869 for 'Hyde's Honour' and that took some work. When I've been unemployed, I usually work to a target of 2 pages a day, five days out of seven. When I'm working, I aim to manage two, 2-page sessions a week. Once the first draft is finished, I leave it a few days, re-read it, and then spend 2-6 hours a day, most days, revising.
YOU WROTE THE HORSESHOE FEUD IN TWO MONTHS. IS THAT YOUR USUAL TIME-SPAN PER BOOK NOW?
They seem to take longer now. I started a home-learning computer course which has taken up time, and my life seems to be messier than it was.
WHICH OF YOUR BOOKS ARE YOUR FAVOURITES AND WHY?
'Cullen's Quest' because it was based on a role-playing adventure I ran for four friends. The characters they played are named after them in the book. 'San Felipe Guns', because it finished the story started in 'Rio De Sangre' and the 'Darrow' westerns, because Darrow and Keating are fun to write and I can sneak in Blakes 7 references. They've given me an excuse to meet Paul Darrow, who played Avon in Blakes 7, and who was my first crush.
WHICH OF YOUR COVERS ARE YOUR FAVOURITES AND WHY?
I love the Black Horse cover of 'Cullen's Quest', with its desert colours and sense of drought. The Black Horse cover of 'Hyde's Honour', which is a bold painting with wonderful detail; the artist really knows the West. The Black Horse cover of 'Navajo Rock', for it's fantastic use of colour. And the Linford Western Library cover of 'Darrow's Word', which has a mounted gunfight in the snow, very well painted.
HOW IMPORTANT IS RESEARCH TO YOUR WORK?
Extremely. I have a shelf-full of books and use both public and university libraries as well as the internet. There's nothing more jarring for a reader than coming across a detail in a book that you know is wrong. In 'Scarlett', the heroine is in Ireland and pulls up a nettle with her bare hand. The nettle scratches her and she bleeds. Wrong. Nettles sting, they don't scratch. I really want my readers to get the feel of a place, so I like to know exactly what kind of a tree my hero is hiding behind, and that it should be growing there. I like to throw in some variety; I try to use guns other than just Colts and Winchesters. There was a lot of change during the days of the west and it's important to get dates right; I don't want to be caught mentioning barbed wire ten years before it was available.
SOME OF YOUR CHARACTERS APPEAR IN MORE THAN ONE BOOK. (THE ROCKING W CHARACTERS, SHERIFF DARROW, DEPUTY KEATING, ETC.) HAVE YOU FOUND THIS APPROACH HELPFUL TO YOU AS AN AUTHOR?
The characters reappear, simply because they have more stories waiting to be told. It is helpful, because I already know a lot about them. Not only have they appeared in the books you read, they have appeared in various daydreams, looking into their future or past. Some characters don't have any more interesting stories in their lives, like the hero of 'The Horseshoe Feud', but as soon as I'd read the published version of 'Cullen's Quest', I knew that there was a story about what happens now Cullen has got his mine. That story was 'Hyde's Honour', but in thinking about that, I knew a lot more about the characters. I know who Hyde marries (you'll be surprised, but not as much as Hyde, or Cullen).
WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MOST ABOUT BEING A WRITER?
Getting to invent lots of geat characters. Being regarded as something special by people who can't write. Having Paul Darrow buy me a cup of coffee.
TELL US ABOUT YOUR UPCOMING PROJECTS.
I did start a Western set in a brothel, where all the ladies were friends of mine (they all agreed when I asked to use their names- tells you something about my friends). There was somebody killing the girls, and the problem would be solved by Jonah Durrall, the vain bounty hunter in 'Navajo Rock'. Unfortunately, I worked out who was doing the killings, and why, and he turned out to be a run-of-the-mill, religiously obsessed, socially awkward serial killer. Gosh, never seen one of those before. 'Durrell's Doves' got put aside while I got excited about the next Darrow novel. Hugh's Wedding ! Hugh's brother comes to town. So does carnival. And so do jewelry thieves. (Thanks, Sarah. I had a great setting, and no damn plot).
I went to Blackpool with my family this summer and saw the Tower (non-animal) Circus. So I wanted to put a circus, or something similar, in the book with Hugh's wedding. I needed to research circuses. I tried the internet and all I got was Picadilly Circus and the World Circus Museum, in America (No damn help over here), lots on Barnum and Bailey, and a truly frightening amount of stuff on freakshows. Luckily, I remembered that the National Fairground Archive happens to be five minutes walk away from my house. The Assistant Curator, who deal with researchers, is an old acquaintance of mine, from student years My research got right back on track. 'Darrow's Badge' was pretty much set to go, when....
A friend at a party told me she was on call. On call ? Didn't seem likely in her job. She explained, and all of a sudden I had the most fantastic premise for a contemporary thriller, set right here in Sheffield. All I needed, was to learn about computer hacking, microbiology, and hi-tech military and secret agent stuff. It was easier than researching silver mining in the 1860's. I just needed to ask three or four of my friends. My friends know the wierdest shit. You should be grateful that we're a peace-loving bunch of head-bangers, Goths, hippies, geeks, re-enactors, beardie-wierdies, role-players and CAMRA members.
We've conquered worlds in role-playing and computer games. If we wanted to take over the real world, you wouldn't stand a chance. But we'd rather be down the pub.
ANY ADVICE TO ASPIRING WRITERS?
Keep trying. Work regularly and remember the phrase: 'Writers write'. They don't sit and talk about it. A writer's group might help at first, and it might help you feel that you're not the only one out there trying. On the other hand, you might be better off spending those two hours at your computer, getting words down, rather than listening to someone else's poetry. Don't set off with half an idea, you won't get anywhere. Be clear about your characters and what they have to achieve but be prepared to be flexible. If your character develops a life of his own and suddenly falls in love with the wrong woman, consider whether this might make the story better, even if she was supposed to move to Swindon.(I'm not necessarily talking about Westerns here).
Once you've finished, look at your whole book and then start editing. Then read it again and edit it again. Do this until you've got it right. I've cut out everything from single lines of dialogue to entire chapters. I wrote 'The Paducah War', tinkered with it for a bit, then understood why it wasn't working. I deleted the entire thing and started again from scratch. The second version was published.
Read good writers. Don't be afraid to take a look at the classics, but be careful. You couldn't get away with using such thick dialect as Emily Bronte does in 'Wuthering Heights' and I find Henry James' later books unreadable. You might never be Jane Austen or even Dick Francis ( I find his books very difficult to put down), but reading good writers, in whatever field, will give you an idea of what can be done. If you only read trash, you will write trash.
Write because you really want to, work at it, and be prepared to get rejected. Lots.
ANYTHING ELSE YOU WOULD LIKE TO ADD?
I wish you all the best of luck. Oh, and please buy or borrow my books. Pretty please ?
THANKS, GILLIAN
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