I was lucky to get an interview with Carol Carman, the author of Twicetime, and a semifinalist in this year’s #SPFBO9.

Please, tell us a bit about yourself…
I’m originally from Doncaster in the north of England but moved south many years ago as an economic migrant and I now live with my musician husband, Martin, north of Cambridge (UK).
I’m a former many things – shop assistant, data entry clerk, computer programmer, systems analyst, business improvement co-ordinator, house doer-upper, BBC journalist, radio presenter, producer and sound effects person – but now I’m an author, poet, editor, illustration wrangler and very small-scale publisher.

Why should I buy your SPFBO9 entry?

Q: What if Frankenstein had been a woman? Why would she need to build a monster?

A: To protect her from another monster…

If you want to read that story, which has ‘a great deal of imagination, a merry old pace, witching, death, resurrection, dwarves, mercenaries and plenty of shenanigans … heart and soul, family, found family and love all told in a delightfully funny style with lashings of tea [and] moments of pure genius in terms of the fantasy elements’ (thank you Lynn’s Book Blog), then Twicetime is the book for you.

It's also been described as ‘everything you want from a fairytale for grown-ups’ (thank you Jennifer De Bie) and readers have compared it to the work of Sir Terry Pratchett, which I’m blown away by.

 Plus, no lambs or werewolves were harmed during the making of the book.

What got you into writing? And how long have you been doing it?
Probably like everybody else, I started by writing essays at school, but I have to admit that I found poetry much easier to write than prose because I’ve always had a good ear for rhythm and rhyme. Then I ventured into short stories and plays, and eventually wanted to find out if I could sustain a story over a longer form, and I’m happy to say that I could.  So I’ve been writing, on and off, for over half a century! Eek!

Have you participated in the SPFBO before and where did you hear about the competition?
I first heard about the competition on Twitter (as it was then). I participated last year and found it invaluable to get feedback on my book Gingerbread Children from one of the reviewers and, although I didn’t win, I did get some satisfaction from not being rejected immediately (you have to take what you can in this game!).

Why did you choose to write fantasy?
Primarily because I have a very low giggle threshold and I’m always on the lookout for a laugh. So much comedy comes from extremes – whether that’s extreme characters, situations or just taking an idea to its logical extreme – and you can’t get much more extreme than a world where anything can happen because magic exists in it.

Also, on the first writing course I ever did, the tutor advised us to look at well-known stories from the point of view of a lesser character within those stories, and that simple piece of advice was the key to unlocking a whole new world for me. I discovered that I loved thinking about fairy tales and other well-known stories from a different angle and I’ve had so much joy in creating my own stories from some element of an established work which already has an element of fantasy and myth about it.

So, just as Twicetime carries elements of the Frankenstein story in it, my first novel, Gingerbread Children, was partly a mystery and partly a look at Hansel and Gretel from the witch’s point of view. Were those children the little angels they were made out to be? I think not. Here is a woman who has magical powers and could summon up a feast for herself every day if she wanted – and she even lives in an edible house, for heaven’s sake – so why would she want to eat children? It makes no sense at all. I felt she was the victim of some very bad PR by the people who just wanted rid of her and so I had to set the record straight.

Which other author has had the biggest influence on your writing?
Terry Pratchett, without a doubt. He really opened my eyes to the possibility of writing characters who live in a world which, on the surface, is vastly different from our own, yet truly it isn’t, and doing it with humour – and I’m very much about the humour. Also, he showed me that books didn’t have to be written in strict chapters, but more like a film where you cut from scene to scene. Without Terry Pratchett, I wouldn’t have written my books.

If you were to win the SPFBO, what impact do you think this would have on your writing career?
Just getting to the semi-final stage has given me a great fillip, so winning the SPFBO – which I would trumpet from the rooftops, believe me – would have a massive impact. It’d be an independent validation of my writing which I could brandish with pride and confidently show to people – including agents – and say, ‘See? I told you I could write!’

What challenges did you face during the writing or publishing process, and how did you overcome them?
One of the biggest challenges is managing your time and expectations. The book won’t get written unless you give time to it, but it’ll do your health no good to sit on your backside for twelve hours a day slogging away at a keyboard. Similarly, it’s in nobody’s best interest if you devote all your time to your masterwork and one day emerge blinking into the daylight to present it to your family and friends and find out they’re not there anymore because they’ve either grown up or gone on to pastures new because you’ve neglected them.  Luckily I have a very understanding husband who will drag me away from the screen to go for a walk in the fresh air.

Then there’s marketing your book, which doesn’t come naturally to some of us and the time you have to spend marketing seems out of proportion when you’d rather be writing.  I don’t know what the answer to that one is – unless it’s to somehow come into a bundle of money and pay someone to do it for you!

Do you have any tips or an author app, tool, or resource that you can really recommend we try?
You want the book to be the best it can be, but because you’ve written it, you’re often too close to it to see where it needs reshaping, tweaking, deepening or cutting. But it has to be done if the book’s going to be the best it can be, so, IF YOU CAN AFFORD IT, get an editorial assessment of it from a reputable agency. I did that and – although expensive – it was invaluable in pointing out things that, as the writer, I was too close to the book to see. Having followed their advice, mine are much better books as a result.

And now it's time to yank out your Palantir! Let’s talk about the future. What new projects are you working on?
At the moment, I’m writing a new novel which is a twist on Sleeping Beauty, I’m trying to put together a book of short stories plus a book of parody poems, and I’m collaborating on a dystopian novel with a cartoonist. And of course, writing poetry when the ideas come to me!

Apps that are based on artificial intelligence (AI), such as ChatGTP and Midjourney, along with apps aimed specifically at authors, have caused quite a stir. Do you expect these new technologies will make your life as a self-published author easier or harder, and do you expect that they’ll mean you’ll earn more or less?
Personally, I don’t see AI affecting my writing life very much at the moment, as I bash away using Microsoft Word (that’s about as fancy as it gets with me). I suspect that the biggest worry for authors is the danger of the market being flooded with AI-generated books, which means it’s going to be harder for our own books to be noticed when they’re lost in an even bigger sea of other books, and consequently that will drive earnings down. On the other hand, if AI ushers in easier adaptive technologies for those who might not otherwise have the facility to tell their stories, that’s a bonus. Similarly, If you can’t afford to hire a cover designer or artist, then I understand AI can be very handy in that respect but, then again, that’s going to take business away from the designers and artists. It’s swings and roundabouts with all these things.

Do you have any dreams you’d like to share?
Obviously I’d like to see my books as best-sellers that are made into films; I think that’s a given. In a fantasy world, what I would really like is for there to be two of me so that one could be doing all the day-to-day admin of life and the other could just keep writing.

Outside the writing sphere, my husband, his sister and I created a board game which would be wonderful to get into production but I’ve no idea how to go about it!

Anything else you would like to say before we close?
This could be like an Oscar acceptance speech but I’d like to say a big thank-you to you, Rune, for generously giving me this opportunity to present my books and myself to a wider audience, and thank you to all the bloggers and reviewers who have read and reviewed my books – it is truly appreciated. And, of course, many thanks to Mark Lawrence for running the SPFBO competitions, without which so many of us wouldn’t have had a chance not only to bring our books to other people’s attention, but to connect with so many other authors, reviewers and bloggers around the world in such a supportive community.

And the crowd gives Carol Carman a standing ovation!!!

For my tiny part, you’re so welcome :-) I wish you the very best in the SPFBO. I hope a lot of readers discover your writing.
Thanks for doing the interview.