JQM Literary Chat Welcomes Andrew Shanahan
Tell us about yourself:
I once had a cat called Casserole and I loved him deeply and eternally. He was a ginger tom and like most of those I’ve met, he was a total butterball. He ate too much and would laze around just waiting to be loved. He was fairly indiscriminate about who petted him or how they petted him, he just loved love.
I feel a kinship for Casserole, even though he’s been dead for twenty-two years now. Like him, I’m lazy, prone to over-eating, unless someone guards the food bowl, and I desperately crave attention and love, quite possibly in an unhealthy way. What else could drive an otherwise sane man to write for a living? I’m bald though, so I suppose I’m not quite the same as Casserole.
Sometimes I wish I sailed on one of those North Atlantic prawn trawlers. I’m fairly sure the crew would have staged a convenient accident that saw me tipped into the sea after being confined with me for a week. Imagine the feeling of desperation as the whitecaps clip around you and you watch the boat and crew steaming onwards.
Tell us about your book:
Before and After is the story of Ben Stone and to a degree, his dog Brown. Ben weighs 601 lbs and hasn’t been outside of his fourth floor council flat for nine years. As the book begins he is about to be hoisted by a crane out of the front of his flat, so that he can get to hospital as he needs his leg amputating as a result of having type 2 diabetes.
Ben is terrified. Not just at the prospect of leaving his house after so long, but he’s also scared of the operation and the relatively likely scenario that he would die. He’s concerned about who will care for Brown and whether he has wasted his life. Fortunately, he needn’t worry because just as he’s about to be removed from the flat, the world ends.
The story deals with the impact of the choices that Ben has made and also looks at what life was like before for Ben as he gains weight and struggles to make sense of the world. I’ve made it seem very bleak but it’s really full of positivity and hope!
What influenced you to write your current genre?
I wanted to tell a story that focused on someone who was overweight. I also wanted that person to be a rounded (no pun intended) character, who had a heart and soul. I’ve worked for over five years running an organisation called MAN v FAT, which has supported over four million men to lose weight and to get healthier. I’ve also really struggled with food choices my entire life. I wanted to read a character who wasn’t perfect, who was flawed but who readers could hopefully empathise with. I then wanted to put that person at the heart of an action story and see what happened.
Who are your favorite authors?
Too many, this week: Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, Ben H Winters, Cormac McCarthy, Sara Paretsky, Harlan Coben, Jon Ronson, Alan Garner, John Steinbeck and Alexander McCall Smith. Next week, who knows.
What are your favorite books?
I’m still obsessed with Of Mice And Men. There’s something eternally magnetic for me in that story of two people who are buffeted by the winds of fate. Plus I really dig mice.
Who are your favorite literary characters?
I really do understand where Marvin The Paranoid Android was coming from – like I grok him on a cellular level. Additionally, I often wonder where on the journey from sky to floor I am, as per the Magrathean Sperm Whale.
Is there anything you want to share with potential readers?
I can’t write long-hand, so if you want your book signing bring a typewriter.
Where can we go to learn more about you and your literary works?
I’m @nervouscrying on Twitter, @shaniswriting on Facebook and Instagram and my blog is www.helloshan.co.uk. You can buy Before and After as an ebook or paperback from Amazon – www.helpbiscuits.com
James Quinlan Meservy - Author 