Author Interview: Gregory Alexander Sharp

 

1. Please introduce yourself (who are you, what genre/s do you write in, what books do you have out)

Hi, I’m Gregory Alexander Sharp, although most people call me Greg (or Sharpy). I’m a full time executive at a global business services company, and part-time writer and podcaster. So far my creative work has all been in the genre of the supernatural thriller, with occasional dalliances into horror. I’ve published four stories to this point, two short-stories of about four thousand words, and two novels stretching out tow one hundred and sixty thousand words in the case of IL LUPO. The short-stories have each been published on Halloween the first of which was in 2023. That was THE BRIDGE, and it told the story of Johnny, a popular boy whose life is thrown into disarray by decisions his parents are forced to take. The second short-story, THE TRAPDOOR is set in post-war Britain, and centres on a bomb-site that holds a dark secret!

My novels, IL LUPO and its sequel, KILL AND CURE, both follow the story of old friends, Charlie Mortimer and Nick Frobisher, and the misfortune that befalls them when they encounter a man named Telemaco Russo, who stands accused of being a werewolf. Definitely more supernatural thriller than out and out gore-fest, these are stories told in the style of classic horror, but in a contemporary setting.

As a writer I am also a regular contributor to A SERIAL [KILLER] DRAMA: WEREWOLF THE PODCAST, which is a weekly audio drama that goes out on podcasting platforms, telling the story of Wil The Werewolf and various other characters. This does get into true horror, but also delves deeply into both pathos and dark comedy. I am also fortunate enough that both myself and now my wife have been invited to voice act a number of the characters by the show’s owner, Fenrir Thorvaldsen, so I’m a contributor on more than one level. You’ll hear me in the voices of Simon The Professor and William Marshal among others.

2. What are your favourite books?

I’m a very big fan of the books of Glyn Iliffe, particularly the series based around the siege of Troy and the Odyssey which followed it, as well as the retelling of the stories of Heracles. I’d also have to say that Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, and Dracula by Bram Stoker are among the best works of fiction I have ever read, they are so dark and dramatic, and so emotionally evocative.

A story many people are familiar with from the movie adaptations, but I am a huge fan of from its original literary format is The Day Of The Jackal by Frederick Forsythe. I remember that being on my parents’ bookshelf throughout my childhood, and then one day as a young man I finally picked it up and started to read. I got lost in that book for days!

More recently I have also listened to a number of works in audiobook format, and my baptism of fire was the entire Harry Potter series, which I guzzled in a couple of weeks over the Christmas period at the and of 2020. Prisoner of Azkaban is one of my favourite book of all time.

3. When did you know you wanted to be an author?

I’ve always been something of a storyteller, and as a child, even when rebelling for all I was worth at school, I could be found in a private moment writing my own take on classic horrors, or Marvel superhero stories (particularly The Hulk). I had my first crack at writing properly in my early thirties, that story is still a WIP that I intend to complete one day. It is set against the London nightclub scene of the 1990s, and weaves personal experiences of mine through a cautionary fable. But I became so busy with work, that book just got parked when I was no more than a couple of chapters in (they are not bad, actually, and I might keep them).

Some years later, my wife, Dee, said to me, “why don’t you write about something you’re really into? You know, werewolves and all that rubbish?” Once the hurt had worn off, I found that as usual she had a good idea there, and I started to think about what a modern classic werewolf story might look like. When my father passed away I found I needed a break, and we took a trip to Rome, ultimately travelling south to the Amalfi Coast, the Bay of Naples, and the ancient city of Pompeii. At the end of that trip I said to Dee that I knew exactly what was going to happen and where I was going to set it, the rest, I asserted, should be simple enough. Well, it was, but it took me nearly ten years to find the darned time!

4. What are your favourite and least favourite parts of the writing process?

I love, just love backing myself and my characters into a corner that I haven’t planned a way out of… and then finding one! So many time in IL LUPO did I find myself blinking at the screen of my laptop wondering if I would need to delete the half-chapter that had led my into this dead-end, only to find myself punching the air in triumph when I’d figured out ‘the way’. Nailing a well-hidden plot twist is another favourite aspect for me. If you read my novels a second time (as some people tell me they have), the clues I have left become lightbulb moments, and knowing what my readers will find out is such fun.

Less fun is proofreading, not because I don’t enjoy reading my own stories, I do (they are, after all, quite brilliant… >insert genuine modesty here<), but it is so difficult to spot minor grammatical errors in your own writing. The voice in my head is highly skilled at reading what I intended to write, and not what my fumbly fingers may have inadvertently converted that to. Of course, there are other people who proofread my work before I finalise it, both of whom are editors in their own right, but I don’t like to pass drafts to them that cause frustration by being poorly polished.

5. What is your writing routine?

It’s early-doors for me. Before the Covid pandemic I was a commuter, spending between three and four hours on trains and walking each day as I plunged into and out of The City of London with all the other rats in the race, but that has changed now. My working days are now almost exclusively spend in my office at home, working in a virtual environment, and that has provided me with some work-life balance by being able to eat dinner with my wife in the evenings, and also gives me an hour in the morning where I can indulge my creative passions, and still get more time in bed before the alarm goes off. I call that win-win-win!

So, for me, the early bird does indeed catch the worm, or in this case, the creative bug.

A typical week will include recording my parts for Werewolf The Podcast, engaging with Fenrir and discussing upcoming plotlines (something we usually do via WhatsApp voice messages), and ideally some time dedicated to writing.

6. How do you balance writing (and everything else to do with it) with the rest of your life?

I have a very demanding job and I lead a team of people in quite senior positions, each with a large portfolio of responsibility, so when the demands of work demand my time, they take priority. It’s quite possible for me to have zero time to devote to the creative side of things in any given week, so I just have to suck that up and recognise the importance of my career. Beyond that, I obviously have my home life, too, and in the great scheme of things that will always come first. I love the time I spend with my wife, Dee, and I take great pleasure in the time I spend out walking with Branston, our cocker spaniel. And I’m a golfer, too, I have a 07:30am tee-time every Sunday morning. Gosh, I’m exhausted just writing all of that stuff out, how do I ever find the time? Well, the truth is that I have to be very strict, and just accept that there is more to life than telling my stories, and yet if I am to be true to my soul, I do need to find that creative outlet. So it’s a juggling act, and a work in constant process, and for now (at least) it seems to be working just fine.

7. What inspires you? How do you beat writers block?

I am inspired on a daily basis by other Indie Authors. I spend a solid amount of my ‘creative’ time marketing my wares on X, and other social platforms, and soe of the people I spend the most time with are hugely successful. I try to learn what I can from them whilst still retaining my own sense of self.

In a more general sense, I was inspired by the classic horror movies of the 1930s and 1940s and that’s something that’s been with me since childhood. Those old Hollywood films were shown on television in the UK when I was around twelve years of age and I just loved them. Something that always struck me about those iconic versions of Dracula, Frankenstein, and The Wolf Man, was that there did not need to be any blood or gore in order to shake you, it was the threat of violence rather than the depiction of it that horrified the viewer. I’ve tried my hardest to replicate that in my own work in a way a contemporary readership can connect with, especially in my novels.

Now, in terms of writers’ block, I have not yet bumped into that frustrating phenomenon, but part of the reason for that may be related to the rather staccato way in which my time is made available to me. It could very well be the case that, if I was to be a full time writer, that might be something that I would have to deal with, but for now I’m very pleased to say, when I have time to write, I write.

8. How do you keep consistent/write a lot?

IN terms of consistency within the sound and feel of my narrative, I read my work back to myself, but not necessarily in my own voice. There is typically a tone or a style I’m trying to achieve, and that will usually make it easy enough for me to tune in to that sense, that feeling. With my characters, they have their own personalities and there own way of expressing themselves, which I just allow to happen. Ernest Wainwright, for instance, who is one of the main characters in my novels, doesn’t quite pronounce his ‘R’s as ‘W’s but he very nearly does, and I have a lot of fun with that aspect. Connie, who is another character from IL LUPO and KILL AND CURE, speaks in a very different way (she is a very contemporary medical professional from the Harley Street in London), and she speaks in an entirely different idiom. It’s always been quite easy for me to rely on the personality of my characters to keep me on the straight and narrow as their chronicler.

9. Does anyone read or edit your work before publication? If so, how did you find them?

I’m very fortunate that a dear friend of ours is a publishing professional with many years as an editor on her resumé. She also happens to be a fan of my genre, so she gets to read the latest stuff before anyone else, and I get an opinion, and access to some guidance and some editorial skills that are completely invaluable.

Fenrir Thorvaldsen of Werewolf The Podcast is another editor whom I’m fortunate enough to say enjoys my work, and I just love getting his feedback, which is always absolutely on-point. And my final proofreader is my mother-in-law, Alison, who might just be my number one fan!

10. Can we have a sneaky look at your future plans?

You can indeed!

I currently have two WIPs and two WIW (that Works In Waiting). Fenrir and I collaborated on a significant storyline on Werewolf The Podcast that ran for over thirty episodes, and alongside everything else, we are currently converting the scripts to a readable format to be published in the form of a novel. It really was a great story and it’s so much fun reading those scripts back as we go through the process. Watch out for that later this year or early next).

I’m also writing a novel which is set in the 1970s, somewhere in the United States, and it based around love, loss, rivalry, and revenge! No werewolves of vampires there, but guns, booze, and disco-balls aplenty! That story I’m hoping to tell in about ninety thousand words, so a but more punchy than the grand tour of IL LUPO, more of a novella.

Next year I will embark on a third IL LUPO novel, and I also plan to write a spiritual piece about a man in an asylum who claims to be God.

11. Finally, what advice would you give to other writers (inspiring, those publishing and those published)?

First of all, writers gonna write, so you must do that, obviously. Please, don’t enter into this with any expectations of being the next Rowling or Tolkien, chances are you won’t be. It’s a lot like taking up golf and hoping to be the next Tiger Woods, ain’t gonna happen! So do it for you, or for those close to you, and do it because you love it, not because you want it to pay your mortgage.

Now, that said, you do want to be good at it, so do make sure you’re knowledge of grammar and structuring are OK, those are easy skills to brush up on, and please don’t rely on your editor, or worse, AI, to cover that off for you. You’re the writer, you do the writing.

Final bit of advice, if you attempt the traditional publishing route and find you can’t make it happen, don’t let that stop you. These days there are numerous ways to get your work published, and it’s not an either/or situation, there is a sliding scale. Part of the trick is to identify the return you’ll get on any investment you intend to make, whether that be your own time or in money you may plan to spend with individuals or companies who offer you publishing or marketing services. Whatever you are being promised, there are people who can deliver, but many more who just want your money, so be really selective and do your own research.

Above all else, throw yourself into it, be you, and have fun, I know I am!