Tuesday, 29 March 2011  Dancing WIth Myself: MARC NASH
interviews MARC NASH  So schizoid time Marc Nash (if that's even
your/our real name, which I/we happen to know it isn't). Ready
for me to probe you like an alien abductee?  Am I ever?  If you
answer a question with another one, we'll eat up our ration in
double quick time won't we?  Do you want me to answer that?
Ornery bugger aren't you?  See what you've done there is mix
your idioms. 'Ornery' is an American usage, while 'bugger' is
quintessentially English. I like words me.  Okay, tell us about
words then.  Writers organise their material, maybe around plot,
or story, or character, or perhaps a central metaphor or
conceit. None of these are the primary organising principle for
me. I have to get the voice of the book right and that comes
from language. My books, my main characters talk to the reader.
It's a conversation, so the language has to seduce, wheedle,
persuade, annoy, and generally communicate, to suck the reader
into it. This voice varies from