Over at Abaddon/Solaris Books, they’re releasing some great new books, especially some wonderfully dark fantasy. I’m going to be doing some interviews with a few of the authors there so I hope you’ll take the time to check out their work.

First up, Rebecca Levene, who’s book Cold Warriors is being released in May 2010.

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To start, can you tell me a little about yourself.

As a friend of mine once said, I want to be known for my work, not my face – like an arsonist. I don’t really know what to tell you. I grew up in rural Suffolk – used to milk the goats when I was a kid – and for obvious reasons escaped as soon as possible and have been living in London ever since. Other than that, it’s just been a life, filled with the kind of stuff lives are filled with. So instead, here are three random facts about me:

a) My dad made some of the costumes for Lawrence of Arabia.
b) I worked on mainland China’s first soap opera – which was originally intended to feature a eunuch travelling back through time to recover his lost genitalia.
c) I once accidentally started a religion.

How long have you been writing and how did you get to this point in your career?

Like most writers, I imagine, I’ve been doing it since I was a kid – I used to distract myself from my carsickness on long journeys by making up stories in my head, and some of those characters have been living in there ever since.

I’ve been writing professionally for around twelve years now. I’m not quite sure what stage you’d call this in my career – the ‘not struggling quite as badly as before but still not always making ends meet’ stage? Anyway, I got here by writing whatever someone would pay me to write – that included a beginner’s guide to poker and a novelisation of a video game. People can be snobby about that kind of work-for-hire stuff, but it’s how I learnt my craft.

Your new novel is called Cold Warriors. Tell me what inspired or drove you to write this book?

Cold Warriors‘ initial inspiration was probably John Le Carre. I read The Spy Who Came In From The Cold when I was quite young, and it made a huge impression on me, the page-turning action combined with the aching melancholy. I also loved fantasy books, and a combination of the two seemed like the best thing ever to me then – and still does.

Other than that, I think it was the usual: I wanted to write something I would have enjoyed reading in that magical, voracious, book-consuming period of my youth when I truly could get lost in a work of fiction in a way that’s frustratingly elusive now.

I have a keen interest in dark and paranormal fantasy. Tell me how you would classify this book and what’s dark about it?

I’ve always described the book as a supernatural thriller – it’s about a British spy agency seeking out occult means to defend the nation. I guess the darkness comes from my interest in the terrible things people can do, and what motivates them to do them. I’m not just talking about the big, ending-the-world stuff, although that too, but also the smaller cruelties even good people are capable of.

Often there are characters in a book that we just love, but what character of yours would you completely despise if you were to meet them in real life? Why?

Hmm… I usually have a sneaking fondness for even the worst of my characters, but – without giving too much away – there’s someone in this book who’s committed a crime I find utterly unforgivable. I think readers will know who I’m talking about when they get there.

There’s a Richard Prior routine – this is relevant, honest – in which he talks about spending time in prison to research Stir Crazy. When he first gets there, he looks at all the inmates and thinks what a terrible waste it is to lock them up. And then two hours later he’s thinking, thank god these maniacs are in jail – let’s throw away the key. I worked in Brixton Prison for a while, and that really is the mental process I went through about the inmates. You start off feeling sorry for them, and then they scare the shit out of you, and you finally end up feeling sorry for them again – because many of them are victims – but also hoping very hard you’ll never meet them in the outside world.

I think that’s how I feel about my villains. They can be charming or funny or pitiful, but they really do need to be stopped.

Sometimes we have to be ruthless in writing/editing. We cut scenes, eliminate characters or even kill them off. Tell me what was the hardest of these in this book.

Actually, I don’t think I’ve ever cut a scene I truly mourned – I trained as a sub-editor in magazines and that’s made me pretty brutal with material that’s surplus to requirements, even my own. There is a decision I made about one of my characters in this book which was very hard. I hadn’t planned to do it in my original synopsis, but when it came to the moment I realised it had to happen.

This blog is called Random Musings, so give me a random quote from the book – something that you’re particularly fond of.

Hmm… How about:

"He was huge, a beached white whale in this shallow pool, roll after roll of fat leaving the greying head on top looking too small, like a deformity."

What can we expect from you next? Is the next book in the series already written?

The next book is written and out this summer, possibly as early as July. It’s called Ghost Dance. I did actually take a year to write it, not 2 months – my editor held off until he could publish the first two close together, to get some momentum going for the series. I’m also working with a friend on a non-fiction book about the videogame industry that I’m very excited about, but I shouldn’t say more till I know whether it’s been commissioned.

Where can we find you on the internet? Blog? Twitter? Web site? Book trailer?

I’m afraid you can’t – I really know I should do some of those, but I’m terrible about keeping that kind of thing going. Like most writers (well, I tell myself it’s like most writers) I’m horrifically lazy. Writing is my job and I write what I have to, but the thought of producing a word more than that makes my heart sink.

You could check out the Abaddon website, though. And my friends’ wonderful site refers to me now and again.

Any final comments or thoughts you’d like to convey that you haven’t covered?

Nope – I think your questions have pretty much done the job. Thanks for taking the time to come up with them!

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I really like the insight you have into the criminal mind. There is understanding and empathy, yet revulsion. I can’t wait to read this. Thank you, Rebecca, I really appreciate you taking the time to answer these questions. Looking forward to the May release of Cold Warriors!