Paul Meloy Interview

Paul Meloy’s The Night Clock has just been released in the UK and is due to be released in the US tomorrow. We have talked to him about the new book.

First of all can you tell us a bit about your new book, The Night Clock?

It’s about a psychiatric nurse who suffers a run of catastrophic clinical fatalities. He is in shock, because he knows he wasn’t at fault, and has the sense that something is out to get him. He is introduced to other characters who have the answers he needs, and who in turn, need his help to ground them in their search for each other and their combined, supernatural purpose. It’s good versus evil on an epic but deliberately elusive, dream-like scale.

You have many POVs in your story, but maybe Phil Trevena can be seen as the main character. Can you give us some insight into your main characters?

I’ve been a psychiatric nurse for twenty years and have worked in adult acute crisis work for years. Phil Trevena is very like me, with many of my hopes, fears, insecurities, strengths and weaknesses. He emerged as the POV that would anchor the others and provide a grounding in a reality the reader would hopefully engage with and recognise, while allowing all the really mad stuff to go on around him.

How do you feel the many POVs have helped to bring the story along?

I had fun with the POVs, and wanted the book to be slightly disorienting, jolting the reader about and making them fill in some gaps by themselves. I also wanted to let the story tell itself without a lot of info-dumps, exposition or awful explanatory dialogue. The POVs gave me a chance to show and not tell as often as I could.

From you first got the idea for The Night Clock, how did you work with the idea?

I let the story tell itself as much as possible, ran with the characters and let them communicate with each other without my consciousness interfering too much. There are so many things in this book I had no idea were going to happen when I started it. Most of the fun of writing for me is the element of surprise.

You have been writing shorter fiction for many years, but this is your debut novel. What are you hopes and expectations now that your first novel is being released?

I hope it doesn’t bomb. I hope it does well enough for the publishers that they’re happy they took a punt. I hope some people enjoy it.

How different do you find writing a novel rather than short stories and shorter fiction? Do you have a preference?

The novel took a long time to write. It started out as a novella but I reached 30,000 words with no end in sight. I nearly bottled it, but struck on through the wall and found the process easier than I had imagined. I had always hoped to tie up the stories I had written previously in a novel but struggled to find the time and momentum. Now I’ve written a novel I think I actually enjoy the longer form more; I can really get into the characters and let them run off the leash.

What has been most surprising to you in your writing and publishing career?

That people seem to like what I write. A lot of people have said very kind and encouraging things over the years and have stuck with me. I’ve had a lot of love and loyalty.

How would you describe what you write? Would Horror-Fantasy be a good label?

Yeah, that’s as good as any label. I could also describe it as dark fantasy, magic realism or fractured realism.

How has your background as a psychiatric nurse influenced your writing?

It seems impossible to imagine not having created Phil Trevena. He is very real to me, very genuine. I love writing about him and he allows me to explore many of my perceptions, conflicts and experiences that have come through my work. Also, there’s the opportunity to write in a reflective and often humorous way, often cynical and very dark, which I have found to be the default MO of most of the psychiatric nurses I’ve worked with over the years.

What kind of books do you read, any favourite authors?

I read widely, always have, and don’t have a favourite genre, really. I love John Connolly, Adam Nevill, Martin Amis, Harlan Ellison, Stephen King, Gerald Kersh, Grahan Joyce, John Kennedy Toole…the list is endless.

Most writers have some other thing they’re passionate about, what’s yours?

Family, friends, my job. Living by the sea.

What’s next? Do you have more exciting new projects you’re working on?

I’ve nearly finished the sequel to The Night Clock, and it’s been great getting the characters back together and seeing where they go and what they do again. I’ve also been asked to contribute a story to a very exciting-sounding anthology next year, so I’ll be making that my next project once the novel is finished.

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