| Interview with Joe Craig |
First off, thanks so much for joining us for an up-close and personal interview for TeensReadToo.com!
My name is Jen, and I’ll be your server toda…oh, wait, wrong job! Anyway, thanks so much for taking
time out of your writing schedule—which I’m sure is busy!—and answering a few questions for your
readers and fans.
Let’s get some of the typical interview questions out of the way first. When did you first know that you
wanted to be a writer?
When I was growing up I only ever wanted to be one thing – a songwriter. So when I graduated from
university, that’s what I became. But I kept coming up with ideas for stories, and I didn’t want to waste
them, so I started writing them down. I still didn’t have any idea that I could become a writer – it just
wasn’t something that occurred to me, until my parents encouraged me to send some of my writing to an
agent. Pretty soon I realized the writing could take over from the music.
Can you tell us a little bit about your road to publishing?
I graduated from Cambridge University in 2002 with a degree in Philosophy. Then I worked as a
songwriter and musician for about 6 months before I sent some of my story ideas to an agent. She
encouraged me to pursue my writing, and sixth months later I’d written the first book in the Jimmy Coates
series. Once my agent thought it was ready, she sent it to a handful of publishers. I had meetings with
two of them a couple of months after that, and was able to choose which offer I liked.
I was 23 when my first book came out in the UK, in 2004, and it was out in the US a year later. When I
think about it, I can’t believe how lucky I’ve been. For me it’s been just about the easiest route to
publication you can imagine!
I think I will always consider myself a musician, even if the books have completely taken over. (You can
hear some of my songs through my website, www.joecraig.co.uk)
Tell us a little bit about either your latest or upcoming release. If you could only tell your readers one
thing about the story that had to convince us to buy the book, what would it be?
The paperback of ‘Jimmy Coates: Assassin?’ (the first in the series) has just come out in the US, but that
doesn’t feel like a ‘latest’ release because here in the UK, we’re already looking forward to the third in
the series coming out in February – ‘Jimmy Coates: Revenge’. I’m about to start writing the fourth.
The series is about a boy on the run. He's sitting at home one night, watching TV, when two big guys in
suits come to his house. They say to his mum, ‘We’ve come for the boy’. His mum says, ‘Jimmy, run!’ So
Jimmy runs. The men catch up with him, but then Jimmy finds he can do some amazing things he didn’t
know he could do… That’s what happens in Chapter 1 of the first book.
I suppose if I could only say one thing about the series it would be this:
I wrote it to be the most gripping story I had ever come across.
What, or who, has been the greatest inspiration for your stories?
All the stories that I have ever loved – great movies, great books, great myths and legends. I am inspired
every time I feel that kick in my stomach from a twist that I didn’t see coming, or every time I hear a line of
dialogue so sharp it makes me want to jump up and shout with joy.
There are some amazing stories out there. Just being a part of that industry is a wonderful inspiration.
Let’s hear about your family, who I’m sure are thrilled to have a published author among them!
My mum and dad were very supportive and let me live at home while I was writing the first book (but they
also made sure I was working pretty hard!).
My whole family has always had a love of books and stories. I have two sisters, and out of the three of
us, I’d say that I was the least likely to write a book. My sisters read far more than I do; they both studied
English, and they both write beautifully.
Even my mum was always more likely to write a book before me – she’s a poet, and her first collection
was published last year. So I think it was a bit of shock to everyone (including me) that I wrote a book.
But we’re all great story-tellers and jokers. When we’re together everybody always interrupts each other,
so we’ve all had to learn how to keep people’s attention with a gripping story-telling style – even if it’s just
telling people about our day.
Now for some fun facts. What’s your greatest comfort food?
I have different types of comfort food for different levels and types of comfort. It’s all very technical – a
finely tuned system. My favourite is probably sushi. But while I’m writing, I invent snacks to keep me
going – sweet chili sauce on toast is a good one. In fact, right now I’m working on my own brand of sweet
chili sauce, so I’m pretty excited about that at the moment.
What are the first three things you do when you wake up in the morning?
1. Look at the time.
2. Roll over.
3. Get dragged out of bed by my girlfriend.
If I came to your house and looked in your closet/attic/basement, what’s the one thing that would
surprise me the most?
If you checked out my garage you might be a bit surprised by my collection of postcards. There are
thousands of them. I don’t know why I can’t bring myself to throw them out.
Everyone asks the question about “if you could be a tree, which tree would you be?” so I want to know: If
you could be a color, which color would it be, and why?
Definitely the colour of an aubergine, (you guys call them eggplants, don’t you?). I love that colour –
deep purple, so dark it’s almost black.
Who is your favorite cartoon character? Which cartoon character is most like you?
Bugs Bunny is a hero of mine. He has been all my life. It might sound stupid, but I often find myself
asking what Bugs would do in any particular situation.
If you could beam yourself to anywhere in the world (“Beam me up, Scotty!”), during any time in history,
where and when would it be—and why?
Hmm… that depends whether I can come back again! If I can’t come back, then I’d beam myself to just a
few weeks ago. I don’t want to get stuck somewhere in history without the people I love – and I’d have to
start again on all my books! So just a couple of weeks ago will be fine. (I’d take all the winning lottery
numbers with me, though.)
If I’m allowed to come back, I’d go back to the early days of the 20th century, and convince whoever’s
developing the car that they should make it run on something a little friendlier than oil. (And I’d do some
pretty heavy investing on the stock market while I’m there.)
So what’s your favorite type of music to listen to? Favorite musical artists? Do you listen to music while
you’re writing?
Ah, music! As you’d expect from someone who started life as a musician, I listen to a huge amount of
music. (In fact I still consider myself more of a musician than a writer sometimes, but that’s clearly crazy.)
I love soul (modern and classic), funk, r&b, classic rock, jazz, singer/songwriters… My favourite artists
are probably Ray Charles, Billy Joel, Al Green, Stevie Wonder… I could go on forever! Actually, I made a
much longer list on my MySpace page.
When I’m writing though, it’s different. There’s only one man I can listen to if I want to get any work done
– Oscar Peterson, the great jazz piano player. I have all my Oscar Peterson CDs (about 50) stacked up
in my study, and I just go through them one after the other until my book is written!
Do you have any favorite T.V. shows? Movies you watch over and over again? What was the last movie
you saw at the theater?
The Sopranos is the greatest TV show ever. Seinfeld is a close second. I also love Curb Your
Enthusiasm, Prison Break, and a British show called Shameless. I also enjoy all those shows like
American Idol (we call it Pop Idol here, and we also have a show called X Factor, which is basically the
same).
As for movies, there are loads that I watch over and over. For example, I have loads of those old film noir
movies on DVD, and I can watch them endlessly – The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, D.O.A., Double
Indemnity, Touch of Evil… Again, you’ll have to check my MySpace page for a full list of the movies I love
– it would take up way too much space.
The last film I went to see at the cinema was Cars, which I loved.
You have the chance to give one piece of advice to your teen readers. What would it be?
In life: Forget the idea that there’s some other person out there who can make you famous or rich or
great, if only you could get to them. Only you can make yourself famous or rich or great. But with hard
work and constant dedication, it will happen. Oh, and be genuinely friendly to everybody.
In writing: separate your instinct from your intellect. Write from your gut, without caring how good your
work is, then go back to it with the critical side of your brain set to maximum, and re-write. Learning when
to use my instinct and when to use my intellect is still something that fascinates me when I write.
One last question. What stories can we look forward to from you in the future?
In the near future, Jimmy Coates: Target comes out in the US in March. After that will come books three
and four in the series, I hope.
Once I’ve finished writing book four, I will probably take a little break from Jimmy Coates to start another
series idea that I’ve been developing for a long time. I want to come back to Jimmy Coates eventually,
because there’s more story to tell, but it would be exciting to have other characters in my head for a
while too. It’ll either be an action series about a conspiracy in the scientific world, or I might write a one-
off comedy-thriller I’ve wanted to write for ages about the monkeys that NASA sent into space.
As if all that wasn’t enough, I’m also developing a picture book, a couple of projects for the TV here in
the UK, and some new songs that I want to record some time next year, as soon as I get the time!
Again, thanks so much for joining us at TeensReadToo.com!
Thank you – it’s been loads of fun!
My name is Jen, and I’ll be your server toda…oh, wait, wrong job! Anyway, thanks so much for taking
time out of your writing schedule—which I’m sure is busy!—and answering a few questions for your
readers and fans.
Let’s get some of the typical interview questions out of the way first. When did you first know that you
wanted to be a writer?
When I was growing up I only ever wanted to be one thing – a songwriter. So when I graduated from
university, that’s what I became. But I kept coming up with ideas for stories, and I didn’t want to waste
them, so I started writing them down. I still didn’t have any idea that I could become a writer – it just
wasn’t something that occurred to me, until my parents encouraged me to send some of my writing to an
agent. Pretty soon I realized the writing could take over from the music.
Can you tell us a little bit about your road to publishing?
I graduated from Cambridge University in 2002 with a degree in Philosophy. Then I worked as a
songwriter and musician for about 6 months before I sent some of my story ideas to an agent. She
encouraged me to pursue my writing, and sixth months later I’d written the first book in the Jimmy Coates
series. Once my agent thought it was ready, she sent it to a handful of publishers. I had meetings with
two of them a couple of months after that, and was able to choose which offer I liked.
I was 23 when my first book came out in the UK, in 2004, and it was out in the US a year later. When I
think about it, I can’t believe how lucky I’ve been. For me it’s been just about the easiest route to
publication you can imagine!
I think I will always consider myself a musician, even if the books have completely taken over. (You can
hear some of my songs through my website, www.joecraig.co.uk)
Tell us a little bit about either your latest or upcoming release. If you could only tell your readers one
thing about the story that had to convince us to buy the book, what would it be?
The paperback of ‘Jimmy Coates: Assassin?’ (the first in the series) has just come out in the US, but that
doesn’t feel like a ‘latest’ release because here in the UK, we’re already looking forward to the third in
the series coming out in February – ‘Jimmy Coates: Revenge’. I’m about to start writing the fourth.
The series is about a boy on the run. He's sitting at home one night, watching TV, when two big guys in
suits come to his house. They say to his mum, ‘We’ve come for the boy’. His mum says, ‘Jimmy, run!’ So
Jimmy runs. The men catch up with him, but then Jimmy finds he can do some amazing things he didn’t
know he could do… That’s what happens in Chapter 1 of the first book.
I suppose if I could only say one thing about the series it would be this:
I wrote it to be the most gripping story I had ever come across.
What, or who, has been the greatest inspiration for your stories?
All the stories that I have ever loved – great movies, great books, great myths and legends. I am inspired
every time I feel that kick in my stomach from a twist that I didn’t see coming, or every time I hear a line of
dialogue so sharp it makes me want to jump up and shout with joy.
There are some amazing stories out there. Just being a part of that industry is a wonderful inspiration.
Let’s hear about your family, who I’m sure are thrilled to have a published author among them!
My mum and dad were very supportive and let me live at home while I was writing the first book (but they
also made sure I was working pretty hard!).
My whole family has always had a love of books and stories. I have two sisters, and out of the three of
us, I’d say that I was the least likely to write a book. My sisters read far more than I do; they both studied
English, and they both write beautifully.
Even my mum was always more likely to write a book before me – she’s a poet, and her first collection
was published last year. So I think it was a bit of shock to everyone (including me) that I wrote a book.
But we’re all great story-tellers and jokers. When we’re together everybody always interrupts each other,
so we’ve all had to learn how to keep people’s attention with a gripping story-telling style – even if it’s just
telling people about our day.
Now for some fun facts. What’s your greatest comfort food?
I have different types of comfort food for different levels and types of comfort. It’s all very technical – a
finely tuned system. My favourite is probably sushi. But while I’m writing, I invent snacks to keep me
going – sweet chili sauce on toast is a good one. In fact, right now I’m working on my own brand of sweet
chili sauce, so I’m pretty excited about that at the moment.
What are the first three things you do when you wake up in the morning?
1. Look at the time.
2. Roll over.
3. Get dragged out of bed by my girlfriend.
If I came to your house and looked in your closet/attic/basement, what’s the one thing that would
surprise me the most?
If you checked out my garage you might be a bit surprised by my collection of postcards. There are
thousands of them. I don’t know why I can’t bring myself to throw them out.
Everyone asks the question about “if you could be a tree, which tree would you be?” so I want to know: If
you could be a color, which color would it be, and why?
Definitely the colour of an aubergine, (you guys call them eggplants, don’t you?). I love that colour –
deep purple, so dark it’s almost black.
Who is your favorite cartoon character? Which cartoon character is most like you?
Bugs Bunny is a hero of mine. He has been all my life. It might sound stupid, but I often find myself
asking what Bugs would do in any particular situation.
If you could beam yourself to anywhere in the world (“Beam me up, Scotty!”), during any time in history,
where and when would it be—and why?
Hmm… that depends whether I can come back again! If I can’t come back, then I’d beam myself to just a
few weeks ago. I don’t want to get stuck somewhere in history without the people I love – and I’d have to
start again on all my books! So just a couple of weeks ago will be fine. (I’d take all the winning lottery
numbers with me, though.)
If I’m allowed to come back, I’d go back to the early days of the 20th century, and convince whoever’s
developing the car that they should make it run on something a little friendlier than oil. (And I’d do some
pretty heavy investing on the stock market while I’m there.)
So what’s your favorite type of music to listen to? Favorite musical artists? Do you listen to music while
you’re writing?
Ah, music! As you’d expect from someone who started life as a musician, I listen to a huge amount of
music. (In fact I still consider myself more of a musician than a writer sometimes, but that’s clearly crazy.)
I love soul (modern and classic), funk, r&b, classic rock, jazz, singer/songwriters… My favourite artists
are probably Ray Charles, Billy Joel, Al Green, Stevie Wonder… I could go on forever! Actually, I made a
much longer list on my MySpace page.
When I’m writing though, it’s different. There’s only one man I can listen to if I want to get any work done
– Oscar Peterson, the great jazz piano player. I have all my Oscar Peterson CDs (about 50) stacked up
in my study, and I just go through them one after the other until my book is written!
Do you have any favorite T.V. shows? Movies you watch over and over again? What was the last movie
you saw at the theater?
The Sopranos is the greatest TV show ever. Seinfeld is a close second. I also love Curb Your
Enthusiasm, Prison Break, and a British show called Shameless. I also enjoy all those shows like
American Idol (we call it Pop Idol here, and we also have a show called X Factor, which is basically the
same).
As for movies, there are loads that I watch over and over. For example, I have loads of those old film noir
movies on DVD, and I can watch them endlessly – The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, D.O.A., Double
Indemnity, Touch of Evil… Again, you’ll have to check my MySpace page for a full list of the movies I love
– it would take up way too much space.
The last film I went to see at the cinema was Cars, which I loved.
You have the chance to give one piece of advice to your teen readers. What would it be?
In life: Forget the idea that there’s some other person out there who can make you famous or rich or
great, if only you could get to them. Only you can make yourself famous or rich or great. But with hard
work and constant dedication, it will happen. Oh, and be genuinely friendly to everybody.
In writing: separate your instinct from your intellect. Write from your gut, without caring how good your
work is, then go back to it with the critical side of your brain set to maximum, and re-write. Learning when
to use my instinct and when to use my intellect is still something that fascinates me when I write.
One last question. What stories can we look forward to from you in the future?
In the near future, Jimmy Coates: Target comes out in the US in March. After that will come books three
and four in the series, I hope.
Once I’ve finished writing book four, I will probably take a little break from Jimmy Coates to start another
series idea that I’ve been developing for a long time. I want to come back to Jimmy Coates eventually,
because there’s more story to tell, but it would be exciting to have other characters in my head for a
while too. It’ll either be an action series about a conspiracy in the scientific world, or I might write a one-
off comedy-thriller I’ve wanted to write for ages about the monkeys that NASA sent into space.
As if all that wasn’t enough, I’m also developing a picture book, a couple of projects for the TV here in
the UK, and some new songs that I want to record some time next year, as soon as I get the time!
Again, thanks so much for joining us at TeensReadToo.com!
Thank you – it’s been loads of fun!
