Exceptional An Interview with a FanStory writer. The Giraffmang Interview by Terry Broxson Artwork by Renate-Bertodi at FanArtReview.com

This is another FanStory interview with an accomplished member. The previous interviews were with Lyenochka, Jay Squires, RG Star, and Humpwhistle. Giraffmang is Gareth's pen name. He lives by the sea in Northern Ireland. This interview is with a fascinating man writing honestly about himself. As a fan, the further I got into the interview, the more compelling it became for me. I will be rooting for him in the international competition.  Giraffmang has written some wonderful guides on how to be a better writer. There is a ten-part series, 'Show don’t tell.' There are a couple of stand-alone guides; 'Entitled Advice' and  'The Writing Diet.' They can be found in his portfolio. I printed them and look at them now and again to help keep me on track. YOU HAVE HAD A REMARKABLE FIRST FIFTY YEARS OF LIFE. CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE JOURNEY? ‘I’ve been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn, and a king. I’ve been up and down and over and out, and I know one thing – each time I find myself flat on my face, I pick myself up and get back in the race…’ Those words are from ‘That’s Life,’ probably made most famous by Frank Sinatra.Sort of sums it all up nicely. Okay, that’s a glib response which gives nothing away. I’ve tried to answer this question several times before what you see here. Each time I had to stop as it kept getting way too long. I’ll try to give a bit of a potted history. I grew up in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in the 1970s and 80s during what we affectionately refer to as ‘The Troubles.’ Belfast was (and still is) a place deeply rooted in religion which pervades all aspects of society. Growing up was interesting, to say the least. Bomb scares, actual bombs, beatings, and knee-cappings were a common occurrences. Books were my refuge. Mind you, at the time; we didn’t really know that everywhere wasn’t like this. With only three tv channels and no internet, how could we know this wasn’t normal? Maybe the soldiers searching our school bags on the way to and from primary school (ages 4– 11) should have given it away! I got through school with the minimum of fuss, losing my Uncle Tommy to an IRA gunman, my grandmother at age 89, and my father to lung cancer at the ripe old age of 48. At University, I studied Modern & Contemporary History, although I’m pretty sure my actual degree was in drinking and playing rugby (I made the squad for All-Ireland Colleges)… So, from 1972 to 1994 were fairly uneventful. In 1994, I left Northern Ireland with £20 and three changes of clothes to make my fortune in England, after being forbidden to go by my family. I made my fame and fortune for £9300 a year in my first job in Surrey, England. I had a room in which I could touch both walls when I stood in the middle of it, and I could hear folk break wind from four rooms away. However, I loved it! It was my first full-time job, and I was working with children with epilepsy at a residential special school. The rest, as they say, is history. From 1994 until the present day, this has been my main career. Oh, I’ve had other part-time additional jobs such as modeling for catalogues, a little bit of acting, selling double-glazing over the phone, starting a cult, you know, normal kind of things…I gained my teaching qualification through my first job as well, so it was quite a time. I’ve always enjoyed studying, although I am neuroatypical and dyslexic, so I have had to work hard to become attuned to what I’m doing. I’m not a trained writer by any means, although I have studied script-writing at East Anglia University. One of the course instructors was Alex Garland (who wrote the Leonardo DiCaprio movie ‘The Beach’). I also did some courses through the ‘Writer’s of the Future’ organisation with Orson Scott Card (Ender’s Game). I also got an ordination as a minister. It drives my wife insane as I did it to win a bet and prove a point, but I can legally marry folk and minister. It certainly freaks out the police if they stop me these days, which is a welcome change from getting chucked in a cell for 48 hours without charges simply because I have an accent. I could go on, but there’s some people still awake at the back. YOUR PEN NAME IS INTERESTING. I did not fall into radioactive liquid to earn my pen name. I actually write under a few names in other places and under my real name as well. The secret behind my name on-site? You may have noticed that giraffe is spelt wrong without the ‘e.’ This stems back to about 2004 or 2005. When I got my first desktop computer, my wife (then girlfriend) misspelt the word when setting up one account, and I stuck with it. As to why that name it’s kind of dull, I love giraffes. When I was a young lad, maybe five or six, I went to Belfast Zoo for the first time, and a giraffe leant out of its enclosure and licked me on the face. I’ve had a love for them ever since. I think they’re the most beautiful animals, and when they fight, they’re fierce. They swing their necks at each other. It’s brutal. The ‘man’ part of the name is self-explanatory, and the ‘g’ at the end is for my initials. WHEN DID YOU FIRST GET INTERESTED IN WRITING? Writing is a strange thing for me. Reading was always at the forefront. As a child, it was an escape. A way to be in other places. I loved it. I have a deep abiding for sci-fi, always have. It’s true imagination. Everyone I know laughs at me as I’m never without a book. Even at work, I have one in my pocket for quiet times or my breaks. Yes, I read in the bath as well. I’d never written a story before I joined this site in 2014 other than what had been required of me in school. I’d been published previously as a poet in a couple of anthologies but had never taken it too seriously. I discovered FanStory by accident as I was looking for a home for some of my photography on the sister site FanArt. The site looked interesting, so I thought I’d give it a go. TELL US ABOUT PRINCE CHARLES.  I’ve had a blessed life in some regards. A lot of my work with children has been through charities. As such, you get invited to all sorts of wonderful events. Such was the case with Prince Charles, who I’ve met about five times now, the last being a proper sit-down meal at the palace and twenty minutes or so with Prince Charles himself. He’s very funny and intelligent. I THINK OF YOUR  WRITING AS OUTSIDE-THE-BOX THINKING. HOW DO YOU DO THAT? It may be down to my being neuroatypical, but that’s a boring answer! I tend to see things differently from an obscure viewpoint. I think I was born with a ‘what if?’ gene Creativity is sparked in many ways. I think Lee (Humpwhistle) said it in his interview with you, sometimes there’s a phrase or a snippet of conversation that you overhear, and the mind starts churning. I’m like that too. Of course, frequently, this means I’m away with the fairies in the middle of the supermarket, much to my wife’s ire. I have a story of mine entitled ‘The Box,’ which came about simply because I was looking at one. Many times, my starting point is an ending. An image I can see clearly. I tend to also see my stories unfold like a movie, and I just write them down. I’m also a big believer in not deleting anything. If something isn’t working, I file it away and go back to it at some point. I may not remember what a couple of paragraphs were originally about, but then I take a different tangent. HOW DO LIFE EXPERIENCES IMPACT YOUR WRITING? How do they not? Humans absorb things, everyday things, peculiar things, doesn’t matter – in they go. I think the biggest influence or impact is in the characters. I work with people. In my job, I observe all the time. I’m looking for things, patterns, signs for behaviours, or warnings of medical conditions such as the onset of seizures. So, basically, I’m exposed to the human condition in a way that passes a lot of folk by. I believe this informs my characters in making them multi-dimensional. If a character behaves, feels, and reacts like a real person, you can get away with the most outlandish of plots and settings because the characters give that grounding and are the thing readers can identify with. I’m also a complete loon, so that helps. WHAT PROMPTED YOU TO WRITE THE WRITING GUIDES MENTIONED IN THE INTRODUCTION?  It’s just a way of trying to help other writers, much like people helped me when I started. Sadly, many of them aren’t here anymore. People like Dean Kuch (his beloved crossed-out words and red text! lol), Michael Cahill, and JP Duck. Others are still around, like Jay Squires. I read a lot, and I study a lot. I want to be a better writer. Lee said it as well. Try to write something worthy of being a story of the month contender. But, it’s important to remember that the only true competition should be with yourself. HOW DO YOUR APPROACH YOUR WRITING?  Writing for me is instinctual. I see it all in my head, and I write it down. Once I learn something, it tends to stick with me, and it becomes part of an organic process. I have a tendency to not leave a line until I’m happy with it. I’m not a big fan of the ‘get everything down and worry about it later’ approach. YOU ARE  A RECOGNIZED REVIEWER, AND YOU WRITE THOUGHTFUL REVIEWS; WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?   The reviewing process, for me, is a bit of a bone of contention. I’ve been quite vocal about it on-site at various times, and sometimes it loses me ‘friends.’ I take it seriously. It should be taken seriously. I use the star system as prescribed by the site. I’ll give three or four-star reviews but always with a reason. I wish more people would engage in this aspect, and I wish more folk were open to it. It should be seen as a constructive way to improve your writing. The other aspect of reviewing which gets missed is that it can greatly inform your own writing. Think of all that proofing and editing experience you have at your fingertips if you just engaged with it. The other aspect that grates me about it is the loss of a star. No one loses a star. Period. I’m not sure where this idea came from, but I award stars based on what I’ve read. I don’t steal them from people. Not everything is a five-star piece. Not every piece starts out with five stars. It starts with none. I look for various things when I review. In poetry, I want it to move me. If it doesn’t, I don’t really see the point in it. In fiction, I want to be able to read it first and foremost! After that, I want to be engaged and entertained and hopefully surprised. DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE PIECE OF WRITING? Of my own? I’m not sure I do. I have a few characters I’ve created who I’m rather fond of – Anders Bolt (a post-modern Flash Gordon), Jeremiah Flint (a western anti-hero of sorts), and Erica of Marylebone (an eternal champion residing on the platform of Marylebone station). Favourite writing of all time? ‘Wind in the Willows’ by Kenneth Graham and ‘The Princess Bride’ by William Goldman. CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT  YOUR BOOKS ON AMAZON? The books on Amazon are anthologies in which I have short stories published. I go through the submission process and hope for the best. I’ve been fortunate. It took me six months of writing before I had my first story accepted for publication. I have about a 45 – 50% hit ratio of submissions to acceptances. The key, I believe, is doing the research and finding the right submission call and publication for your work. YOU ARE WORKING ON A NOVEL. WHAT ABOUT OTHER FUTURE WRITING?  Well, I have to finish my novel, but I keep getting side-tracked. I’ve had some good feedback about what I’ve written so far. It’s a sci-fi piece but based on some real phenomena. I have a couple of friends at NASA who check some stuff out for me, which is nice! I have another in the pipeline and treatments written for a series of pulp fiction-type books that a publisher has shown some interest in. One of my novellas has currently been longlisted in an international competition. It’s done well to get that far as there were a few thousand entries, and it’s made the top 50. I’ll find out if it’s been shortlisted in September to the top 15 or so. The prize is a publishing contract. I’m very proud to have got it this far as it’s a western.   Recognized

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