We’re fast approaching the end of the year, but there are still plenty of debut novels to look forward to. One of those is The Naseby Horses, by Dominic Brownlow, today’s interviewee.
And luckily for me, I’m on the blog tour for the book, so watch out for a review in a few weeks!
Tell us a little about your book and how you came to write it.
The Naseby Horses began its somewhat fragmented journey as a children’s book, loosely based on the old Fenland myth of the nine o’clock horses, which I remember, quite vividly, being told to me and my brothers by a friend of the family’s one evening when we were children; that if we weren’t asleep by nine o’clock, the nine o’clock would take us away. It was rather cruel, really, I think now, on reflection, but the idea stayed with me and when I finally made the decision, many years later, to try and write a story it just sort of resurfaced, as though it had never really been that far away. I’d been a closet writer for many years, putting together, in the few hours a week I seemed to have spare, numerous essays on life that never saw the light of day, then moved on to screenplays, one of which was even touted around the BBC for a short while, but work and life and a pervading belief that this was a world for others not me, locked away any idea of publishing something safely in the confines of fantasy.
When, a few years ago now, I moved back to the Fens and gave up, almost, working in the music industry to become a house husband I suddenly found myself with a bit more time and more importantly a real drive to start again. I was extraordinarily fortunate to be able to do this, I realise that, and it was an opportunity I didn’t want to waste. I took it very seriously. I set myself a routine and I wrote pretty much every morning. I had, over the years, learnt quite efficiently how not to write. I’d scattered already in my writing wake thousands of naive, clumsy words and ideas behind me, and set about penning a serious novel from scratch, based, still, on the idea of a Fenland curse, which although is quite obviously prominent in the story, over time, became almost secondary to much bigger, more profound, more sinister ideas.
What makes your book unique?
I think the very fact that it is both a literary novel and a children’s mystery makes it unique. I had purposefully set out to write a children’s book for adults. A lot of my old essays on life were reincarnated into the manuscript and quite quickly it began to write itself into a more mature novel, dealing with philosophy, metaphysics, religion, nature and family. The story is a book within a book, about Simon, my troubled protagonist, discovering at the most traumatic time imaginable in his and his family’s life, something written claiming to be the absolute truth and the metaphorical weight of this became far too big for me to ignore.
Your book will soon be in readers’ hands. Which part of being published are you most excited about?
I think, in all honesty, that has happened already. Once completed, I spent a long time attempting to perfect the novel, spending entire days on single paragraphs, deleting huge passages and rewriting, afraid, perhaps, of letting it out of my computer into the unknown world of publishing. When eventually I did, life had taken another detour, and it was only on a whim in the middle of the night that I sent it to the Bath Novel Children’s Award. Astonishingly it was long-listed and what followed, beyond seeking professional editorial help from the writer Susan Davis, was six months of quite extreme editing until at long last sending out to agents and receiving some of the most glowing rejection letters imaginable before being presented with that wonderful email from Louise Walters telling me she wanted to take it on. That was the most exciting bit, and a huge relief. As for now, and the book actually finding itself in people’s hands, I’m as anxious, I think, as I am excited. I want people to read it. I think they should. I’m very proud of it, but the name printed on the cover actually being my name seems a bit surreal still.
What has been the most challenging part of your journey to publication?
As mentioned above, it was everything that happened after I’d finished writing the book, trying and failing to get an agent. This is my first novel and it was a huge challenge to get the story right but in that time I think I taught myself how to write properly. That was all in my control and I enjoyed it greatly but then, as I’m sure many people will understand, there is before you, a huge, doorless wall that stretches up into the sky and blocks out the light; one that is almost impossible to scale. I was very fortunate. Susan Davis, as annoyed as I was with my mounting rejection letters, contacted directly Louise Walters, who, thankfully, and very bravely, I believe, took on the novel.
Do you have a writing mentor, or someone who has influenced your work?
Yes, without question. I have three. In the manuscript’s early days I worked sporadically with an editor called Nicholas Russell-Pavier, who, simultaneously, was brutally honest with me yet encouraged me that I would eventually write something publishable and if it wasn’t for him I may never have started again. The same happened with the fantastic Susan Davis, who rebooted my confidence and stuck with me when no one else did. And Louise Walters herself, who I have worked with extensively over the last year moulding the story into the place it is now. The book has been on many journeys and changed a little on each one and all because of these people.
If there was one book that you could have written, other than your own, what would it be and why?
I would be too afraid to go near the books I love for fear of getting them wrong. The author I have enjoyed the most over the recent years is Jon McGregor. His prose is beautiful and he somehow manages to hide stories behind the words. Climbers by M John Harrison does the same and is the book I often claim to be my favourite novel, and more recently the stories of Max Porter and Wyl Menmuir. I grew up with Iain Banks novels so would maybe like to claim one of his; Whit or Feersum Endjinn perhaps.
What advice would you give to other writers hoping to publish a novel?
This is my first novel so I’m not really fit to offer advice. I will pass on, however, words offered to me years ago that ‘I’ve been on many aeroplanes in my life but I wouldn’t think to fly one.’ Writing is something that needs to be learnt, whether that’s teaching yourself or seeking the help of an editor or going on a course.
Is there a debut novel you’ve particularly enjoyed reading in 2019?
I’ve read some great books this year. Those that are debut novel’s that really got to me are The Remainder by Alia Trabucco Zerán, The Last Words of Madelaine Anderson by Helen Kitson, S. A. Harris’s Haverscroft and Don’t Think A Single Thought by Diana Cambridge. I also re-read, I don’t know if that counts, Grief is The Thing with Feathers by Max Porter after being blow away by Lanny.
About the author
Dominic Brownlow lives near Peterborough with his two children. He lived in London and worked in the music industry as a manager before setting up his own independent label. He now enjoys life in the Fens and has an office that looks out over water. The Naseby Horses is his first novel. It was long listed for the Bath Novel Award 2016.
The Naseby Horses will be published on 5 December 2019. You can find out more on the publisher’s website.
Follow Dominic Brownlow on Twitter. You can also buy the book on Waterstones and Amazon.