Queenie D: Your book Paris Bound is based around an age-old concept - man is tricked and spurned by woman. You spin this common drama by putting the two lovers on a shared journey to Paris. What was your inspiration for doing this?
Author David James: Something a little like this happened to me when I was teaching at the Faculty of Arts in Rabat, Morocco. That is, I was about to throw in the sponge at the University, but had one further teaching commitment - to give Spoken English orals to those who had somehow managed to pass the written exams. Some kind of magic happened when this student appeared - I was impressed. She had charm, intelligence. She had what it takes, know what I mean?
Queenie D: If she's anything like Nadia, I can only imagine...This actually leads me right into one of the most intriguing questions about this story in my mind - Let’s talk about Roy a little bit. I felt sorry for him but also kind of felt that he was pathetic at the same time. Why is he so desperate to believe that Nadia loves him?
Author David James: Roy, c'est moi. Nadia, c'etait elle. The rest is a tragi-comic farce with Roy as victim. Yes, like most of us I suppose he is flattered by her attention and she being young, volatile and available he is charmed and, in something like desperation - he's un homme d'un certain age, remember, he makes her an offer - of a ride in the first instance to Paris. Of course, in the end, it's she who ends things.
Queenie D: Wow Dave! I have to say, my whole perception of the book is changing and I'm loving it! So how about Nadia? Not knowing much of the Moroccan culture, I was fascinated by her easy deceit and guile from tricking Roy into taking her to Paris, to the strange scene with Amin and his old father, and “buying” things on her husbands credit everywhere they went. And now you‘ve revealed to me that she is loosely based on a girl you know! Did that fact make it easier for you to so convincingly write a female character?
Author David James: Great! Yes, it's easier to write from personal experience, but you need to twist and exaggerate of course. Come to think of it there was surprisingly little of the latter.
Queenie D: I think the genius of this story is that as Roy and Nadia are traveling to Paris, there is a slow tension mounting. For Roy, it’s sexual. For Nadia, it’s anticipatory. For the reader, it’s the desire to find out what will happen to these two once they arrive. Was this intentional when you began writing because that's how it really was or did the story take it's own shape as you began to put it on paper?
Author David James: Not quite how it really was. In fact I went back to Morocco for 2 more years and . . . but I mustn't tell too much. Best stick to the fiction, always more interesting than fact.
Queenie D: In the back of the book in your Acknowledgements you thank John Murray “who did not accept for Panurge the short (now penultimate chapter) that became the novel.” Can you give us a little more detail about this intriguing comment?
Author David James: I'd forgotten that. Yes, I met John at an Arvon Course - he was the tutor this time. We kept loosely in touch and I submitted an early version of PB to him. He did the usual - nice, but . . . why not try London Magazine? I did with similar results. Forgot the story for a few years - as one does. Then it began to grow on me - this is the real story I should be telling - from the beginning.
Queenie D: And so it became a novel? Just out of curiosity - did you ever talk back to John after the book was published?
Author David James: No, I thought he'd seen enough of it.
Queenie D: Let’s talk about some of your other writing projects. In your newest novel, Punching Judy, Judy is a boxer with an attitude. She’s very crude and at times hard to like. Where did the idea for her character come from?
Author David James: Judy, yes. Another predator, but this time a butch. Hard to like, Yes, she's unpleasant, in your face, self-seeking and rude to all. I'd written several stories about adolescent girls in the 1970s - I mean when I was teaching in the 1970s. No joy in the marketplace. Even Longman with whom I'd published before didn't want to know. But influenced by the Women's Lib thing I wanted to give a voice to the outsider, the uneducated and underprivileged - ghastly notion, ghastly word, I know. I heard Jane Couch interviewed - she was UKs first female world champ. Got her autobiography. Read around this and Judy came alive and took over.
Queenie D: Fantastic! I really like how you draw inspiration from real life - your experiences or that of others. These two novels are night and day to each other. Which is your favorite? Which was easier for you to write?
Author David James: Paris Bound germinated slowly. I had to write it. Judy began with a notion and entailed quite a bit of research. By the time I wrote it I felt confident enough not to need any literary consultants. I just sat down and wrote it over maybe 2 years. Judy, being non-autobiographic is possibly the better novel, but PB is everybody's favorite, being about a dream that fell apart.
Queenie D: True, indeed. Well, just one last question for you today Dave - I’m really excited to find out more about your upcoming novel, The Confessions of Becky Sharp which is described on your site as “prequel, sequel and alternative version of Thackeray's Vanity Fair.” Can you give our readers a little info or tidbit about this book which is slated for release in 2011?
Author David James: You want to know what I'm writing at present. That's good Desiree. There's always something on the boil. I don't believe in writers block. My next, to be published by Hook or by Crook (quite a good name for a publishing firm - but it's not one - yet!) is The Confessions of Becky Sharp, a reworking of Vanity Fair, but a prequel and sequel as well, told from Becky's point of view. To be published in Thackeray's Bicentennial year, 2011. I did my PHD thesis on WMT yonks back now.
Hope you'll be able to interview me for that one!
Queenie D: Well I'll certainly be picking up a copy of the book once it's released. Thanks so much David! Take Care.
Author David James: Keep the site going, Desiree! You're doing a great job. Thanks again.
