I had the pleasure of interviewing author Christian Saunders about his upcoming book: Apartment F: An Oriental Ghost Story. We talked about travel, cultural differences, and how the juxtaposition of East meets West makes for a chilling atmosphere in his new work.
LT: Tell our readers about your new book.
CS: My new book book is called Apartment 14F: An Oriental Ghost Story. It’s a traditional ghost story published by a new American company called Damnation Books (http://www.damnationbooks.com”>www.damnationbooks.com) about a guy who travels to Beijing to take up a teaching position. After his arrival he learns of the mysterious disappearance of his predecessor, and then things start going bump in the night…
LT: What part does isolation and culture shock play in this story?
CS: Both these elements are essential to the story. I would say around 30% of the book actually happened, though none of the supernatural stuff, thankfully! But I really did move to Beijing to teach English, and being a smalltown boy I found Chinese culture so far removed from Western culture that at first I spent a lot of time either walking around with a dazed expression on my face or stuck in my apartment. Its funny what isolation and upheaval does to the psyche. The idea for the book came from a dream I had shortly after I arrived, and the dream sequence in the book is a direct transcription of another nightmare I had which I was able to work into the plot.
LT: How did the Chinese culture influence the character’s actions, and the outcome of your story?
CS: Eastern and Western Culture are worlds apart, literally. We just do things differently, and live by different moral and social codes. To try and illustrate this one of the main characters in Apartment 14F is a young Chinese guy, the teacher’s assistant, who is the archetypal Chinese national while the main character, Jerry, is the archetypal British guy. After some experimentation, I found the best way to highlight the cultural differences was to show how differently they react to the same situation.
Also, it is sometimes frustrating living in China. As warm and kind as Chinese people are, foreigners will always be considered outsiders. Having to deal with all the red tape and things like media censoreship is very difficult because it is not what westerners are used to and some of this frustration definitely comes through in the story.
LT: How have your travels influenced your writing in general?
CS: In general I think travel is very good for any person, regardless of their chosen career, as it opens you up to different ideas and concepts. It forces you to address problems you never thought you would have to address, and think about things in different ways. You become more empathetic, and get more of a sense of how the world works. People often get unwittingly smothered by their surroundings, and travel gives you that sense of freedom that is so essential to the human spirit.
LT: Is there a particular place you haven’t been before that you feel would make a good setting for one of your books? If so, why?
CS: Good question. I think Venice, Italy. I don’t know that much about the place, but from a distance it seems enchanting. The kind of place where anything is possible.
LT: Have you written ghost stories before?
CS: Yes, I cut my teeth writing for small press titles in the mid-late 1990’s, before the internet more-or-less rendered small press magazines obsolete. Horror fiction has always been a very respected genre with a huge following. I had 4 or 5 short stories published in different places before I weighed everything up and decided to move across into mainstream journalism. I was working in a factory at the time and needed a second income, and small press titles didn’t pay much, if at all. I do believe in writing for enjoyment, i’m not a complete mercenery, but I also believe in earning a fair days pay for a fair days work! So fiction took a back seat for perhaps 8 or 10 years, until I arrived at a point in my life where I could afford to set aside sufficient time to create again. That time was last year, and since then i’ve had a few stories put out in ezines, another in an Edgar Allen Poe-themed anthology called Return of the Raven, Apartment 14F, and my next project will also have some supernatural elements.
LT: Which authors do you like to read in you spare time?
CS: My all-time hero is the master, Stephen King. The way he writes characters is second-to-none, he makes them real. His son, Joe Hill, who has recently broken through is also very talented and I always loved Dean Koontz. The guy is a poet with words and he is so prolific you wonder how he does it. With King its all about the characterization and story, with Koontz its more about the words and language he uses.
I don’t just read horror - I think Neil Strauss (author of the Game, Emergency, and the Dirt - The story of Motley Crue) is a great writer, and I also love contemporary British writers like Tony Parsons and Hick Hornby. Being Welsh I also try and keep abreast of Welsh writers, and Rachel Trezise is an exceptional talent who generally writes about the grittier aspects of life in the valleys.
LT: If you had a chance to write a re-imagined version of any story, what would it be?
CS: Another good question. And a tough one! Hmmm… I don’t know, but I really like the Indiana Jones films. That character is so complex and the plots so fast-paced and exciting. I don’t think I’d change anything about the films, but I would certainly make about thirty more and take the character on all kinds of adventures!
LT: Now that Apartment F is complete, what other projects will you work on in the near future?
CS: At the moment I’m doing some ghostwriting for a film-maker in America. Its just tidying up and reformatting a script he had, but when we finish with that we are hopefully going to work on another screenplay which i’ll write from scratch, maybe incorporating and expanding on a short story I have. Otherwise, I would love to write a good zombie story. It would hardly be original, there’s only so much you can do with zombies, but I think it would be fun!
LT: Please tell our readers where and when your book will be available.
CS: The book will be available from September 1st. Here is the direct link: http://www.damnationbooks.com/book.php?isbn=9781615720118″>http://www.damnationbooks.com/book.php?isbn=9781615720118
It will be available on PDF and also in paperback. Kindle and Barnes and Noble will stock it, and probably Amazon. The publisher, Damnation Books, have this cool little promotion - on the day of release the first person to order it will get it free, and then every subsequent buyer will pay in 5 cents more until it reaches full price, which is $4.50, I believe for the PDF and $7.50 for the paperback. You also get a free book from them just for joining the Damnation Books Readers Yahoo group.
LT: Would you like to add anything else?
CS: I think its interesting how the industry is evolving right now, and not just in the obvious internet-influenced ways. Novels are now becoming novellas, and short stories are becoming flash fiction. Everything seems to be getting smaller! And the material itself is becoming much faster-paced. I do wonder where it will all end!
©2009 Lori Titus
Tags: Christian Saunders
September 6th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
What a nice interview! Apartment 14F is an awesome story.
September 6th, 2009 at 8:39 pm
Great interview! Apartment 14F was a great read ~ the cultural immersion and depth of the story drew me in and did not let me go ’till the end! I look forward to reading more of your work and, as one of the Zombie Cookbook chefs, I’m sure you will bring a creative and tasty, I mean tasteful, zombie tale to the table ^o^
September 7th, 2009 at 12:39 am
I have to agree with Kate. One of the first stories I have read from start to finish in one sitting for a long time.
September 11th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
Absolutely loved this interview! I would really like to see what you would end up doing with, Indiana Jones..lol. Thank you so much for sharing apart of such an intriguing life!