An interview with Martine Lillycrop by Writing Ink Reviews.

WIR:      Hi, Martine.  Thanks for taking the time to talk to me about your latest novel, High Tide in the City.

ML:        No problem. I’m looking forward to it.

WIR:      High Tide in the City is a cyberpunk novel with a distinctly ‘noir’ atmosphere.  Several people have commented on its Chandleresque feel.  Do you read a lot of Raymond Chandler?

ML:        No.  Sorry, but I don’t.

When I started writing this, and in those days I was calling the book Persona, I wasn’t aiming to sound like anyone.  Nix’s voice was in my head and I just wrote him.

I’d never read any of Chandler’s work. Sad to admit, I’m a sci-fi geek, which might explain why everything I’ve written is in that genre.  I don’t tend to read outside of it, so when someone compared the style to Chandler’s, I must confess I felt a bit put out.  Now I’ve read some of Chandler’s work, I have to agree with the comparison.  Chandler is the master, though. I wouldn't put myself up there alongside him.

WIR:      The opening chapters appeared a few years ago on YouWriteOn.com, where it joined their Bestseller list as one of the highest-rated books. Is the current opening the same as the one published there?

ML:        There have been a lot of changes, partly due to there now being an ending.

I’m not a planner, I tend to go with the flow and see where it takes me.  That means I end up with a lot of extra stuff in the first draft. Some of which turns out to be useful and has a place in the finished piece, the rest gets dumped. So some of the scenes and details that appeared in that early incarnation have now gone, or have been replaced with an alternative.

WIR:      Presumably those changes are an improvement?

ML:        (laughs) Well, that’s the idea. It means the story’s not bogged down by irrelevant details or scenes that have no purpose. It makes for a cleaner book and a better story.

WIR:      As a prize for achieving such a high standard on YouWriteOn, Persona earned a free professional review.  How did it feel, having a well-known editor look over your work and give it a thumbs up?

ML:        Well, what can I say? Amazing!  An incredible opportunity.

 I get the impression the reviewer – Michael Legat – was a little puzzled by some aspects of my story. He didn’t let that stop him, though and delivered some really sound points to help me improve what I’d done so far. Sadly, he has now passed away, but I like the idea that some of his advice found its way into the pages of my novel.

WIR:      That’s a nice thought. 

Where did the inspiration for High Tide in the City come from?

ML:        That’s a difficult question. For a writer like me, things percolate subconsciously, so a lot of comments, articles, news reports and memes were probably working on me beneath the surface, and continued to do so while this novel was getting written. I often feel a novel writes itself.  Okay, yes, the writer writes it, but given free rein the end result is often vastly different (and superior) than the initial idea. At least, that’s my experience.

Part of it, I guess, was that I love Bristol as a city. It’s a beautiful place full of history and diversity. I suppose I wanted to ask myself what would happen if.  What would happen to Bristol if the sea levels rose to such a point that half of it was under water half of the time?  It already has a tidal range of 13 metres. That’s a lot of sea! That, plus the anticipated scarcity of fossil fuels in 2070, and the predicted rise in sea levels, was the perfect setting for my man Nix. 

WIR:      I love the fact that you’ve taken an ordinary, everyday city, transported it to the future and made it contemporary.   There are obvious differences – technology, environment -  but it isn’t far-fetched.  How did you strike a balance between making it futuristic and keeping it real?

ML:        If anything, I’ve underestimated the rate at which technology will move forward.  At its present levels, I think things will be far more advanced than I’ve envisioned for the 2070s. I endeavoured to restrain myself for the simple fact that I didn’t want it all to be too ‘glass and chrome’ and living under domes. I wanted gritty. I wanted things to be mean and nasty. I didn’t want laser guns or robots (although they’re there).  I wanted the people to be people, just like us. Not cyborgs or AIs (though they’re there, too). They’re there, but not evident, if that makes sense.

WIR:      I’m intrigued by these bracers.  They’re these computer/phone/passports gadgets that everyone wears on their wrist. An obvious progression from the mobile phone.  How did you get the idea?

ML:        Because they’re an obvious progression from mobile phones. (laughs)

WIR:      (laughs)  Oh, okay.

ML:        That’s what they are. It makes sense, right?  We already have bracers, just about. It’s just that no one’s got around to combining a wristwatch with a mobile phone and strapping it to their arm. In High Tide in the City, bracers do a lot more than phones, even todays’ phones.  But essentially, that’s all they are.

WIR:      The book is set in the UK, yet the protagonist, Nix, is an American. How does that work?

 ML:       This relates to the whole global warming, fuel scarcity thing in Nix’s world.  The United States has become a third world nation, due to a fifty year famine striking the American ‘Breadbasket’. They’ve run out of oil, they have no food, half the country is now desert. All that’s left are the coastal districts, which are under severe pressure to cope with the new Demographic. Anyone without squeaky clean paperwork is deported, and Nix’s mum (who was a single parent) was a Brit working in the States. So he’s actually English. Unfortunately his mother died when Nix was 14, and he was deported as a foreigner, even though he was born and raised in the states.  Thus the accent and the attitude.

WIR:      Will we be seeing more of Nix in the future?

ML:        I’m working on a sequel right now.  Don’t hold  your breath, though. I’m not what’s called prolific when it comes to churning out tomes.

WIR:      In the meantime, anyone who hasn’t read High Tide in the City can check it out on Amazon Kindle.

ML:        And it’s being released as a paperback on Amazon in the next couple of months.

WIR:      You can also get Martine’s other works, Blightspawn, and Under Verdant Skies on Kindle too, right?

ML:        That’s right.

WIR:      Thank you Martine, I’m looking forward to the sequel. Hurry up. Get writing!