Author Spotlight - Cameron Grace
- leannerathboneauth
- Mar 10, 2016
- 8 min read
I am incredibly lucky to be surrounded by and friends with some immense talent, from YA authors, to mystery writers to poets. One of these fabulous people just happens to be Cameron Grace, who is not only an incredibly talented writer, but also a performer, an editor in chief and a kick ass air guitarist. I have been fortunate enough this past week to interview him, so keep reading to get a little insight into this up and coming poet.
LR: Thank you for taking the time to answer a few questions Cameron, it’s very much appreciated. When did you first start writing?
CG: I first started writing I think when I was about seven or eight. I remember writing this story called "Ian" when I was in junior school. I can't remember the exact plot of it, but it was kind of a junior secret agent who made guns out of pegs wood and paper clips, crawled through the vents of the school fighting "baddies" who were trying to disrupt assemblies and lessons. I always loved stories, and used to read a lot when I was a kid so writing was always fun for me. I think I was about ten when I had my first poem published in a local anthology called "Poetry Now". It was about five lines long and called "Hatred".
LR: That's really cool, I was around the same age when I had a poem published too, and the short story sounds like a winner! I checked out your bio, looks like you cross over lots of creative platforms, what made you go with a poetry collection for your release with GenZ?
CG: That isn't an easy question. The simplest answer is simply, it is the only thing I had ready and completed. I have a lot of short stories, two half-finished novels, but nothing that I could feel comfortable sending and saying is complete. Wood to Burn as a manuscript was sat there waiting for its next rejection, so when I submitted to GenZ, it was quite honestly either send the poetry in now, wait for a novel to be ready, or take a risk on an anthology of short stories.
There is a bit of irony about the fact that my first publication is poetry. I never really saw myself as a poet at all. I started my English/Creative Writing degree three years ago and I was forced as part of a module to write poetry. It took me a while to engage, it took my mentor Susan Sheridan to pull me into her office and thrust a poetry book into my hand and demand that I read it before I got comfortable with the idea I might be able to write poems. Even then, I think the fact that I didn't easily engage has helped me in a way. Poetry is like that stray animal you feed and keeps coming back, you look at it, think it is a scruffy wretch, but it won't leave you alone. At least that is how it has been for me, and it has made me a more careful poet I suppose.
LR: Did you find it hard then to do performance pieces with it being difficult to engage with at first? Or was that side of things a little easier?
CG: Weirdly, that was the easiest part. Performance has always been in my nature. I have been a musician; I did a lot of amateur dramatics, performed on stage many times, so I took to that easier. But there is a massive difference between writing for performance and writing for reading. There is so much more you can get away with as a performance poet, you don't need to worry so much about line breaks, form of the poem, punctuation etc. That isn't intended to demean performance poets, in some senses they have the harder job in delivery. A white page can't be anything else. A performer has to be that page, judge the audience. I like the challenge of both forms. I love performance, and when I write for it I don't seem to think of it as poetry. More like literary monologues.
LR: So now that you have a published poetry book with GenZ will you continue down the poetry path or would you like to try something different, short stories or a nice novel next perhaps?
CG: I'm doing all three actually. I have been writing a postmodern science fiction novel for a while called 'The Novum', and I have collected about thirty short stories from the last three years, but my next poetry project is the more interesting. It is a Dystopia science fiction story I have designed that will be written in poetry form, drawing from 1984 and the predictions that Orwell made, updating them and analysing the same things but in 2084.
LR: I think that sounds amazing! Love science fiction and the idea of doing it in poetry form sounds like a winner, I think it will appeal to a lot of people. Now, you have a lot of achievements under your belt, from being published in a few places to being Editor in chief and writing for a radio drama, do you have a particular favourite that you are most proud of?
CG: I think the first story I ever had published by my student style holds a special place, because it started a journey. It was called 'the abattoir' and it won a competition with the website, Ave received a great response. The website hired me as a contributor, then a sub editor, then editor and then editor in chief throughout eighteen months. Recently me and two friends procured the website and we own it. But I wouldn't have got this far if not for the short story, written in my real name and not my pseudonym.
LR: So that really was a sort of springboard for you! Here's hoping your success continues snowballing! Ideally, where would you like to see yourself in five years?
CG: Thank you, that is nice of you to say. In five years I want to be writing and I would love to be editing. I'm probably a better editor than a writer and it is the ideal job for me. I would love to own my own publishing company as well as the magazine's that we have at Lost & Found media. I like to believe that the creative industry has space for me and would love to find a home there. Writing is always my first passion, but it is difficult to make anything with it, so in five years I will still be writing, but I hope I will be editing and publishing.
LR: I hope you get there, maybe one day I will be submitting my work to you! Ok, so now for some not so serious questions, just because I like to be a bit silly. What’s the weirdest thing you like to do when you're alone?
CG: Air guitar. When my housemate goes to bed I put music in my headphones and I often crack out the air guitar, often with an air microphone and sync away. Usually when procrastinating I am making music videos in my head
LR: I love that; I can just imagine it now. That has to be one of the best answers to that question I’ve had! Ok next, are you a cat or a dog person?
CG: Ha ha. Glad you think so. I'm a cat man. I am owned by a cat called Loki. The little git steals my prawn cocktail and thinks my curtains are a climbing frame. Every time I have a friend over the cat decides this is the time to be an acrobat, and if I am playing the Xbox he has worked out that the middle button turns the console off, hits it, and runs away.
LR: Loving the name! Ok, here's a strange one, if you could be a human/animal hybrid what would you be and why?
CG: Couldn't be a better name ha ha. That is a weird one. I think I would be part goat, because they just crack me up. And part duckbilled platypus, just because they seem like real life cartoons to me. They look so made up of is unreal. A beaver with a beak.
LR: hahaha with a deadly horny foot too! I always just think of Phineas and Ferb when I think of platypus! Moving swiftly on…do you have a nickname?
CG: Ha ha ha my son likes that cartoon. So tongue in cheek you can't help but laugh. Weirdly enough no, I don’t have a nickname. People call me by my name; it is usually me that crafts the nicknames for people. I call fellow GenZ Author Jeffery M Thomson Uncle Bob thanks to our first conversation about me being British, he said 'Bob' your Uncle' and since then I just call him that. My Editor and best friend Bethany McTrustery goes affectionately by the name of McShrubbery thanks to a facebook bloop
LR: I'll have to remember Uncle bob hahaha Do you have any particular pet peeves?
CG: Yeah he loves it lol. Good man is uncle Bob. Oh yes. "Wouldn't of" or "Shouldn't of" wind me up massively. Arrogance too. I get that people are skilled, but there is a limit to how much up their own arse they can be. I'm of the mind that if you have skills they should be used in conjunction with others and to help others. Not as a strong self-imposed trophy.
LR: I could not agree MORE with both of those peeves, one of mine is text speak, I understand people using it, but when it becomes a chore to try and understand what they are saying then they've taken it too far! Ok, if you could have any superpower what would it be?
CG: Oh yeah, get a friend drunk who uses text speak. That is a linguistic adventure and a half. My mum does that and I have to get it decoded. Superpower wise, I would be able to read minds. Think of the stories, people thinking the opposite to what they are saying. Oh the honesty and characterisation would be awesome. Plus then you would know who to trust.
LR: That's a good choice, wouldn't it be so much simpler to know what people really think rather than half-truths and people who dance around truths! So last one before I ask you to plug your book for me, what's your all-time favourite joke?
CG: Knock knock
LR: who's there?
CG: Granny
LR: Granny who?
CG: Wait... Knock knock
LR: Who's there?
CG: Dammit hold on... Knock knock
LR: Who's there?
CG: Granny
LR: Granny who?
CG: This is embarrassing... Knock knock
LR: O_O Who's there?
CG: Aunt
LR: Aunt who?
CG: Aunt you glad those grannies have gone?
LR: doh! Lol That's a pretty good one, I'll have to add that to my repertoire lol. Well thank you for your time over these past couple of weeks lol sorry it took so long!! It's been a pleasure and I've really enjoyed getting an insight into you and your work. So go ahead and plug your book for me!!
CG: Well, my poetry collection had been written over a couple of years and it just sees the world through my eyes. My view on feminism, a look at my local area, plus the human connections I made, including the title poem which is an elegy for my Grandad. It is a collection of the poetry that really describes what it is like to live in my mind. Sometimes witty, sometimes deep, otherwise introspective works that color my world. I like to think it unique, specifically my faery tale poems. I hope it can be enjoyed by even the least literary of people.
LR: Thank you Cameron, you've been a star!
CG: Thank you for your time, I have enjoyed it
You can head on over to Amazon now and order your copy of Wood to Burn, and don't forget, do all authors a favour, leave a review! Two minutes of your time means the whole world to an author!
