Accomplishment: Kim Newman is a man of many parts: journalist, film critic, and author. He has won the Bram Stoker Award, the International Horror Guild Award, and the BSFA award. A recurring feature of Kim Newman's fiction is his fondness for reinterpreting historical figures (particularly from the entertainment industry) and other authors' characters in new settings, either realistic alternate-history or outright fantasy. Kim Newman's first two books were both non-fiction. Ghastly Beyond Belief: The Science Fiction and Fantasy Book of Quotations (1985), co-written with his friend Neil Gaiman, is a light-hearted tribute to entertainingly bad prose in fantastic fiction, and Nightmare Movies: A critical history of the horror film, 1968-88 (1988) is a serious history of horror films.

What was the first story that ever made you afraid?

The War of the Worlds, by HG Wells. I come across this as a BBC radio serial before I read the book, and been so terrified by the first episode that I didn’t listen to the rest of it. A while back, a collector got me that serial – a 1960s version, not the famous Orson Welles production – but I still haven’t got round to listening to it, so maybe I’m not yet over the scare.


Elmore Leonard listed ten rules, one of which is: 'Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip. Think of what you skip reading a novel.' What rule or piece of advice would you add to the list, and if you know his ten rules, which one would you break?

I got this from reading Michael Moorcock – try to have a social event of some sort (party, funeral) at some point in the plot so all the characters can get dressed up and socialise; but make sure something happens beyond chat – flirting or insults – to keep the story going.


Is self publishing the new 'slush-pile’?

I think it’s more like the new instant remainder. I can conceive reasons to self-publish side projects: Paul McAuley and I collaborated on a novella ,which is available as an e-download from Amazon, because we wanted to make it available beyond its initial publication in an anthology and yet it didn’t quite fit in any of our individual books. But self-publishing, especially electronically, is mostly about making something available – without a publicity campaign or the resources of an actual publisher, it’s obviously hard to get anyone to read the thing.


Are there any other genres you enjoy other than speculative fiction?

19th century novels, hard-boiled crime. Some historical fiction. I read a lot of non-fiction – history, criticism, cultural stuff, biography – too. I can enjoy superior examples of most genres.


What are you currently reading?

Film Freak, by Christopher Fowler. Teen Angels & New Mutants, by Steve Bissette.


Which four books do you wish you had written?

The Manchurian Candidate, by Richard Condon. Diary of a Nobody, by George and Weedon Grossmith. The Long Good-Bye, by Raymond Chandler. The Night Has a Thousand Eyes, by Cornell Woolrich. This is a pretty random selection.


Are you ever afraid that one day you will stop enjoying writing?

It’s not something that has ever occurred to me before. Thanks for bringing it up, though.


Every writer has a weakness, what is yours?

Overuse of variants on the word ‘seems’. I go through manuscripts weeding it out, and generally trying to prune a certain tendency to vagueness that creeps in if I don’t pay a lot of attention. In my final drafts, I try to be more definite about things.


How would you like to be remembered?

I’m too busy trying to be noticed to worry about this at the moment.

Sheri had that far-away-look in her eyes, like she wanted to keep this guy all night, perhaps longer. Jeez, what was it with dames and guys who talked horror? And what was it with cup-cake? Sheri Lamour knew horror, both of us did. We lived with it every day, cleared up its mess.

"Clay...?"

I knew what she was going to say, shook my head. "Mr Newman's been one hell of a guest but he has things to do, people to see...books to write."

Sheri sighed, but there was relief in his face as we accompanied him to the door.

"Thank you, Mr Newman," I said.

"Don't be a stranger..." Sheri in her breathiest voice.