{"id":17723,"date":"2011-08-16T11:06:07","date_gmt":"2011-08-16T01:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.booktopia.com.au\/?p=17723"},"modified":"2016-03-01T09:51:03","modified_gmt":"2016-02-29T23:51:03","slug":"mark-dapin-author-of-spirit-house-and-king-of-the-cross-answers-ten-terrifying-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/2011\/08\/16\/mark-dapin-author-of-spirit-house-and-king-of-the-cross-answers-ten-terrifying-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Dapin, author of Spirit House and King of the Cross, answers Ten Terrifying Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Booktopia Book Guru asks<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mark Dapin<\/h1>\n

author of Spirit House<\/em><\/a> and King of the Cross<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Ten Terrifying Questions<\/h2>\n

————————-<\/p>\n

1. To begin with why don\u2019t you tell us a little bit about yourself – where were you born? Raised? Schooled?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was born in Leeds, England. I went to state schools in Leeds and Aldershot, Hampshire. Dad was a greetings card salesman, Mum was a nurse. When I was 10, Mum left Dad for our 20-year-old lodger, and my brother and I went with her. Mum and the lodger are still together.<\/p>\n

2. What did you want to be when you were twelve, eighteen and thirty? And why?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I never wanted to be anything much apart from a writer, although when I was 10 I briefly thought about being a bus driver. I still don\u2019t have a driving licence, bus or otherwise.\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

3. What strongly held belief did you have at eighteen that you do not have now?<\/strong><\/p>\n

That I wouldn\u2019t live past 30.<\/p>\n

4. What were three works of art \u2013 book or painting or piece of music, etc \u2013 you can now say, had a great effect on you and influenced your own development as a writer?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong>Darkness at Noon<\/em> by Arthur Koestler; Complete Control<\/em> by the Clash; the war poetry of Siegfried Sassoon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

5. Considering the innumerable artistic avenues open to you, why did you choose to write a novel?<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are no other artistic avenues open to me. I can\u2019t sing, play an inst<\/strong>rument, paint, sculpt, dance or draw.<\/p>\n

6. Please tell us about your latest novel\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

Spirit House<\/em><\/a> is about a 70 year-old-veteran of the Thailand-Burma Railway who tells his life story to his grandson. In an effort to exorcise the ghosts of dead POWs, he builds a Thai-style spirit house in front of his Fibro home in Bondi.<\/p>\n

(BBGuru:<\/strong> Here is the publisher’s synopsis –<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>David is thirteen and confused. His mum has gone off with her lover and sent David to his grandparents in Bondi to give her new relationship some ‘space’. Sometimes it breaks your heart to understand.<\/p>\n

David’s grandfather, Jimmy, a Jewish war veteran and survivor of the Thai-Burma railway, is seventy. Haunted by the ghosts of long-dead comrades, the only person he can confide in is a thirteen-year-old from a different world. Sometimes it breaks your heart to be understood.<\/p>\n

Spirit House<\/em><\/a> is a story of Changi and the Thai-Burma railway, of old men living with the horrors of their past, and a bot making sense of the daunting business of growing up.)<\/p>\n

7. What do you hope people take away with them after reading your work?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The desire to buy my next book. And my last one.<\/p>\n

8. Whom do you most admire in the realm of writing and why?<\/strong>\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Until The Information<\/em><\/a>, Martin Amis<\/a> used to write some of the best sentences in the English language. Ian McEwan<\/a> is a fine novelist. The lifetime achievements of Nabokov<\/a> are unsurpassed.<\/p>\n

9. Many artists set themselves very ambitious goals. What are yours?<\/strong><\/p>\n

To write books that people love, and books that will stand the test of time.<\/p>\n

10. What advice do you give aspiring writers?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Do not use clich\u00e9s (such as \u201cwill stand the test of time\u201d).<\/p>\n

Mark, thank you for playing.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Booktopia Book Guru asks Mark Dapin author of Spirit House and King of the Cross Ten Terrifying Questions ————————- 1. To begin with why don\u2019t you tell us a little bit about yourself – where were you born? Raised? Schooled? I was born in Leeds, England. I went to state schools in Leeds and Aldershot, Hampshire. Dad was a greetings card salesman, Mum was a nurse. When I was 10, Mum left Dad for our 20-year-old lodger, and my brother and I went with her. Mum and the lodger are still together. 2. What did you want to be when you were twelve, eighteen and thirty? And why? I never wanted to be anything much apart from a writer, although when I was 10 I briefly<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3523,4971,5184],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17723"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17723"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57646,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17723\/revisions\/57646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}