Paul Kane: Thank you!
GG: Can you tell our readers where you living?
Paul Kane: We are in Derbyshire, UK.
GG: What is the name of your story in Gaslight Arcanum?
Paul Kane: ‘The Greatest Mystery’.
GG: Without providing a spoiler, please give us a summary of your story?
Paul Kane: In 'The Greatest Mystery', a young woman comes to Holmes and Watson for help when her cousin is accused of a murder he says he didn’t commit – though all the evidence points to him; he was even found with the murder weapon in his hand. After encountering more of these mysterious killings, where the person who committed them swears they didn’t – Holmes finds himself struggling to solve the crimes. Until, finally, he realizes exactly who he is facing: his greatest ever enemy!
GG: What do you like the most about this anthology?
Paul Kane: I love the mixture of genre elements with the traditional Holmes type of tales. I’ve always loved the darker side of Holmes’ universe.
GG: In a recent interview with Bitten by Books, the authors from Gaslight Arcanum provided questions for the other authors to answer. Can you please share your favorite questions and your answers with us?
Paul Kane: My favorites were from Joan Spicci Saberhagen and Tom English.
Joan Spicci Saberhagen: What aspect of the original Holmes’ character do you find most fascinating?
Paul Kane: The logical deduction, I think. The way Holmes can figure things out and you say ‘how the hell did he work that out?’, then when he explains it all you go, ‘ah, now I get it’. It’s a bit like a magic act being explained.
Tom English: Is there a passage or line(s) of dialogue in your story of which you’re particularly fond?
Paul Kane: In mine, it’s probably when Holmes turns to Watson and says seriously: ‘Tomorrow evening I would ask that you kill me.’ It comes totally out of left field and should have the reader going: what?
GG: What is the most "uncanny" thing that has happened to you personally? Please take the opportunity to tell the strangest tale you want.
Paul Kane: Probably my strangest experience was the time I was involved in a book launch for an anthology at Craig-y-Nos Castle in Wales, which also plays host to all kinds of ghost hunts and psychic evenings. Marie was also in the anthology, but this was back when we were just friends – so she was staying in the castle itself, and I was out in the isolated old nurses’ quarters which were a bit like student rooms off from the main part of the castle. I was in there completely alone, and yet all night I could hear footsteps outside my door – and when I’d check there would be nobody there. All kinds of other weird stuff happened that weekend, like photos taken that showed spears of light going through people – some of the experts there reckoned it was ghosts trying to enter residents. Marie also told me later that she thought someone was sitting on the bed beside her when she was in her room, but there was no-one there – and she’d come back into the room and all the drawers were open. Stuff like that. The perfect location for the launch of a horror book, and we lapped it up! We even went back there to launch my novella Signs of Life a couple of years later.
GG: Excellent story, thanks for sharing it with us! My final question for you is, what is the best piece of writing advice that you have either received, or given?
Paul Kane: The best piece of writing advice given to me in my early days was by fellow GA contributor Simon Clark, who – when my first deal with a publisher for a collection fell through – told me: keep on taking little steps, chipping away. Because then, when you look back, you’ll be able to see how far all those steps have actually taken you. He was absolutely right; you have to be prepared for the long game in writing, and for disappointments. But the successes, when they come, more than make up for this. The best advice I’ve given myself, and continue to give, is the rule of the three P’s in writing: patience, persistence and perspiration. Basically work hard, bide your time, and never, ever give up.
GG: Thanks Paul for being with us today!
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PAUL KANE is the award-winning author of the novels The Gemini Factor and Of Darkness and Light, plus the post-apocalyptic Robin Hood trilogy Arrowhead, Broken Arrow and Arrowland. His non-fiction books are The Hellraiser Films and Their Legacy and Voices in the Dark, and he is the co-editor of anthologies like Hellbound Hearts and Terror Tales. His work has been optioned for film and in 2008 his story ‘Dead Time’ was turned into an episode of the NBC/LionsGate TV series Fear Itself, adapted by Steve (30 Days of Night) Niles, directed by Darren (SAW II-IV) Lynn Bousman. Paul also scripted a film version of his story ‘The Opportunity’, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.
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