Hi there Mr. Rose, welcome to the blog, please tell us about yourself. 

Every night, at midnight, moonshine or snow, I walk Frank down to the end of Hedgehog Row …… and back again. I call it Hedgehog Row. It’s actually Queen Elizabeth Walk, but I have never seen Queen Elizabeth walking there, at any time of the day or night, whereas hedgehogs do make not infrequent appearances and, when they do, it’s always a cheery sight. Why did the hedgehog cross the road? To get to the other side, of course. I am partial to very old and silly jokes. If a small scampering hedgehog is intercepted by Frank, who is bouncy and large, it really will roll itself up into a prickly ball and patiently wait to be sniffed. If Frank gets too close, he gets a prickle up the hooter and never fails to look surprised. 

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A while back, I kid you not, Frank encountered a large crab, sitting on a sleeping policeman. Naturally, he immediately went to sniff this surreal apparition, which proceeded to pinch him on the nose. It was like a scene from a Guy N. Smith horror novel – man walking dog along leafy London lane adjacent to the Thames encounters improbable shellfish and the next thing you know gigantic killer crustaceans are devouring the population. It turns out that this was a Chinese Mitten Crab, one of the world’s most annoying invasive species. You can find out all about these pestiferous blighters at http://mittencrabs.org.uk/. So, why did the Chinese Mitten Crab cross the road? I’ll leave that one with you.

What inspired you to write The Conspiracy Kid?

That’s a good question, because this book, The Conspiracy Kid, starts off with the poet, Edwin Mars, wondering about exactly that. Where do ideas come from? Why has he written this sonnet about The Conspiracy Kid Fan Club, with which the novel kicks off? To what extent am I responsible for what I write? To what extent do ideas come from somewhere else? In other words, it’s the old egotistical sublime versus negative capability discussion. Did I create this whole damn thing myself? Or did someone else or something else, as in the Conspiracy Kid, drip-feed these thoughts into my head? It’s great fun playing with ideas like this.

Then I was once at a dinner party, where most of the attendees were in the arts in one way or another, but the host was a full-on, rampant businessman, and several gallons of pinot noir into the proceedings, he began expressing the opinion that he was just as creative as everyone else around the table and how dare they suggest that he wasn’t? Well, I thought he had a point. So that’s sort of where Joe Claude comes from. What? Oh yes, the Joe Claude/Joke Lord thing is not a coincidence – or, on the other hand, maybe it is. It’s hard to say. And then there’s the whole bereavement and forgiving thing. I mean, this book is a comedy - I dip my quill in comedic ink - but I think that all the best comedy is underpinned by Death and Disaster and Darkness and Doom – the Four D’s. Oh, and here’s four more: Dare to Defeat Depression by Dancing. A bit Reader’s Digest, admitted, but still that’s the sort of impetus that gets me out of bed and sends me to my writing station.

What authors have inspired you or your work?

A.A.Milne. Lewis Carol. Daniel Defoe. Laurence Sterne. Charles Dickens. Wilkie Collins. Damon Runyon. Gustave Flaubert. Franz Kafka. Kurt Vonnegut. Richard Brautigan. Joseph Heller. Agatha Christie. Oscar Wilde. T.S.Eliot, Raymond Greene. John Donne. Hunter Thompson. George Orwell. There’s a few to be getting on with. Oh, and special thanks to Jack Kirby and Stan Lee for everything Marvel-ous and in particular The Silver Surfer.

If you could pick a song that encapsulated your book what would it be and why?

Now, that is a very curious question. One song? I think it’s more of a play list, if anything. The book is a kind of a collage of characters. They come and go. It’s like a soap opera. That’s how I think of it. I think you probably get most out of it, if you approach it like that, as a soap. So does the Conspiracy Kid have a theme- song/tune/music? There is music in the story, which is divided into three parts: Fan Club, Hamburger and String. One chapter in Part One, Fan Club, is entitled Up On The Roof, so let’s have Up On The Roof by The (fabulous) Drifters for that (http://youtu.be/puM1k-S86nE). Part Two, Hamburger, well, much of the action takes place in Red, White and Blues, which is a restaurant where the blues is always playing. I’m going to choose All My Love In Vain by Sonny Boy Williamson, which is a lovely lolloping song (http://youtu.be/vQAjQjfXRrA). And in the big set-piece scene in Part Three, String, which is an art show at the Blue Square Gallery, the crowd is being serenaded by The Incredible String Band, so here’s Log Cabin Home In The Sky from Big Tam and the Wee Huge (http://youtu.be/4N5XXTL6z6M). Then there’s “Puttin’ On The Ritz”. Not only does Joe Claude end up living in The Ritz, but while I was writing the book, whenever I was out walking Frank, in between paragraphs, I could not get that song out of my head. Have you ever seen the amazing Moscow flash mob version of Puttin’ On The Ritz? No? Check it out. It’s terrific. (http://youtu.be/KgoapkOo4vg). There is hope for the world.

Alright, OK, if I have to choose one song, it’s going to be this: Sh-Boom (Life Could Be A Dream) by The Chords – (http://youtu.be/SBgQezOF8kY). That’s The Conspiracy Kid’s theme song. Having said all that, of course, it’s probably worth pointing out that on the whole the Conspiracy Kid tends to operate according to the Three S’s – Secret, Stealthy and Silent. And me, when I read, I turn the music off. Also when I write. I can’t think when music plays. Writing has a rhythm of its own.

What do you want readers to walk away with after reading your book?

I would like my readers to walk away with a smile. I would like my readers to think about The Conspiracy Kid’s slogan: “You don’t have to be kiddish, but it helps.” I would like my readers to consider seriously the suggestion that it is easy to forgive the forgivable, it is forgiving the unforgivable that is so very hard. And I would like my readers to walk away with a sense of time pleasurably spent.

What’s in store for the future?

I am writing a new novel, working title: Mee and I, which is inspired, somewhat, by the time I once spent with Lionel Bart, the composer, trying to write his biography. I don’t think that will be ready before 2015. In the meantime, next year, if all goes according to plan, I want to publish November, Ralph Conway’s Immortal Diary – which is the diary Ralph Conway wrote, during the month of November, when he kept on killing himself and coming back to life again.

GIVEAWAY

Today I have one eBook (Kindle or other format) of The Conspiracy Kid to giveaway. To enter please just fill in the copter. This open to everyone.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A sonnet is penned and, lo, the Conspiracy Kid Fan Club is born. Beware. To read this sonnet is to join the Club. Membership is automatic and irreversible.

This is the story of the earliest unwitting Conspiracy Kid Fan Club members: Edwin Mars (poet), Joe Claude (billionaire), Walter Cornelius (werewolf), Muriel Cohen (chef), Ewan Hoozarmi (artist), to name but a few.

Thanks E.P Rose for being on the spotlight today!! Loved reading your answers. Find out more about this author at:

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