3 Te book features the competing forces of sexual-
ity, race, class and money: why did you choose to explore these themes?
I think if you’re writing about love, if you’re writing about people’s lives, if you’re writing about London, then these themes are unavoidable. I don’t know that I set out to explicitly explore these forces. I wanted to write a story that feels real with characters that are believable and so those things naturally came to the fore. As a queer Black writer it feels important to reflect a version of my own experience in my writing. I’ve tried to shy away from drawing a moral conclusion in the novel. I more want to hold up a mirror and say “this is what’s happening here” and let people come to their own conclusions.
4 Who are your literary inspirations?
Growing up, one of my favourite books was Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh, which, given his views on race and sexualit, may be surprising. I like the way the novel holds together a number of contradictory truths depending on which characters are present. Other influences are On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong and Memorial by Bryan Washington. I think both books deal brilliantly with the delicate sadness of male queerness and how the unsaid things are oſten the most important.
5 I noticed the book’s title changed from People like Us
to Sunstruck.What was the reasoning behind this? We wanted something that beter reflected the competing themes of beaut and destruction in the novel. I think the word invokes those things wonderfully. The hazy yellow of an old house lit by the last rays of summer sun, the light dancing in a lover’s eyes but also a sense of sickness and violence, the blindness that results from gazing at a beautiful thing for too long.
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6 Has your book changed in any significant way since
the first draft?
About halfway through I made a big change to the plot but then got stuck. I couldn’t tell what was wrong, but I had a feeling I wasn’t writing the story I wanted to. I went right back to my original plan, which was scrawled on a slip of paper and ticked into my laptop case. I ended up deleting about 5,000 words and starting again from my original plan. So yes, the book changed significantly, but then I changed it back. I lesson in trusting my instincts I suppose.
7 What is your writing process? This is something I’m still
trying to nail down. I think I write best when I am completely away from my day-to-day life. A lot of this novel has been writen on holidays and writers’ retreats, though I’m not entirely sure that is a sustainable writing practice. I wish I could say I was one of those writers who gets up at six a.m. and writes for three hours then goes about my day, but I am not. I will go for weeks thinking I’ll never write another sentence then sit down and write 10,000 words without coming up for air. I’m
working on finding more balance, but I believe that my best writing happens when it feels urgent, as if the words need to be commited to paper then and there.
8 What impact has winning the #Merky Books New
Writers’ Prize had on you? Winning the prize has completely changed my life. I’ve wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember, but always felt like I was fiting it in around my medi- cal career. The prize has meant that I’ve been able to focus my time on my writing and explore my creativit. At the New Writers’ Camp (a day of talks and feed- back for the shortlisted #Merky Prize entrants), Lemara [Lindsay- Prince, senior commissioning editor at #Merky Books] told me I had a story worth telling and that I should keep writing. It was the first time I’d actually believed that. I think that is central to the mission of everyone at #Merky Books, not only to publish stories from diverse perspectives but also to show people that those stories are worth telling.
9 You’re a junior doctor. Does your medical background
23
LEMARA LINDSAY-PRINCE, SENIOR COMMISSIONING EDITOR, #MERKY BOOKS
inform your writing at all? I think the common thread between writing and medicine is the people. I am fascinated by people and their stories. Working as a doctor is a huge privilege. People let you into their lives in a unique and intimate way. You get to see people at their lowest, you get to hear about their fears and insecurities. It is a very human job and a very emotional one. I think all of that informs the way I view the world and the way I view people and narrative. Sometimes I fear it makes my writing quite pessimistic, but then again, another commonalit between medicine and my writing is hope: hope that people will get beter, hope that things will turn out okay. I think hope is oſten what drives people, what drives stories. It’s what makes us human. I want to be able to capture all of that, the fears, the anxiet, the complexit and the hope.
Sunstruck was published by #Merky Books on 15th May
© Mark Guest
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