Andy, What Do You Do?

Out in the desert in Algeria, Andy Tilley is finding it a creative endeavor to promote his first book. So he turned to the Internet and bloggers for support. We held a conversation via email about the challenge that posed. Andy has become a friend an penpal . . . as you’ll see the conversation is really about the author and the new blogger known as Andy Tilley and how he found the blogosphere a disappointment . . . Could that be a good thing?

Hi Andy! What do you think of as your profession?

I think I’d have to go with oil field engineering at this stage in my life Liz. That isn’t to say that this won’t change some day and my ambition is to be a full time novelist. My first novel Recycling Jimmy is the beginning of this transition. The truth is, I’m forty now and simply put I don’t want to spend the rest of my life getting on planes every month to go and spend time somewhere that I don’t really want to be. I’d much rather be at home putting fictional characters in to places and situations that I don’t want to be.

What did you write that makes you an author?

A novel. It was the first manuscript that I wrote and surprisingly the submission process went really well. As I mentioned before, the book is called Recycling Jimmy. It’s fiction and it’s darkly comic. The premise of the book is one of ‘suicide for profit’ but that’s only the headline. In reality the book deals with the relationship between two best mates, a couple of likely lads from Manchester who stumble across an outrageous idea to make money on the internet from the DVD sale of ‘spectacular’ suicide attempts. It’s very funny and has a lot of soul. The reviewers seem to agree so far too, which I am pleased about because I had no idea how the book would be received.

“Recycling Jimmy is energetic, imaginative, relentlessly and unabashedly vulgar, and at times, funny enough to make a cranky reviewer laugh out loud. This belongs on every eccentric fiction fan’s short list of oddball black comedies…” Booklist

How is authorship like and not like what you thought it would be?

Difficult question this, mainly because at no stage did I hold a preconception as to how it might feel to be an author. I think the main reason for this is that the whole process is so prolonged that the thing creeps up on you. Once you start writing the milestones are there but they’re small ones and spaced well apart (multiple drafts, edit after edit, rejection letters etc etc) so by the time that I finally did get that contract through the post, I guess had become a little blasé about the whole affair! By the way, I’m not denying here that it felt good. It felt great and I was elated when I secured the publishing deal but by that time I think I had already become an author in my own mind without realising it. As for what it’s not like, well that’s easy. Published authors simply don’t have time to write. I am so hoping that this will change but at the moment all my effort has to go into supporting my book release.

As a reluctant blogger, what unexpected values have you found in blogging?

The blogging community has really disappointed me. I expected cold, socially inept, manipulative geeks and instead I got real people who are warm, funny, friendly, intelligent…need I go on? In summary the bloggers are bloody marvellous! As for unexpected values it’s a toss up between frankness and dedication. In fact, thinking about this I’m not even going to try and split them because these two values go hand in hand and I’ve found them in every blogger I’ve contacted to date. And how do I know that this isn’t just my good luck and that the evil bloggers are out there somewhere? Simple, because blog culture is so strong and vibrant that it simply couldn’t thrive the way it does if it had a cancer.

How do you suppose becoming a blogger will change who you are as a person?

I am now honest and….
well small steps eh?

Thanks, Andy! Also check out the video of Andy’s book. It’s quite cool.

Another reluctant blogger is won over . . . YEA!!

–ME “Liz” Strauss