Author Tom Galvin

TOM'S INTERVIEW:

It's great having you here, Tom, so tell us what, Gabriel's Gate, about.

In 2010, when the recession took root in Ireland, the young people looked at the ground they were standing on and realised it was rotten. Rotten in so many ways, but especially in the ways made by man. So most decided it was time to do what their forefathers had done during times of famine, when the ground was rotten too, and leave. For America. And Newfoundland. And Australia. And Canada.

But that winter, a group of college students had a different idea. They weren’t going to leave. They would simply find a patch of land that hadn’t been contaminated and live off it. So they take over a farm inherited by one of the group and try to make a living from the land.

What they discover is no fairy-tale – they have to get their hands dirty in many ways, toiling and working the land every day, forced to do things they never would have imagined doing like killing for meat – but they discover their pace and eventually peace settles on the group despite the hardships, until . . . well, the heart of the story kicks off once the ghosts return, as the farm is, unbeknown to all except the owner, sinking under bad debt and a history of betrayal.

This book has been called the first in the ‘recession-lit’ novels, which is quite flattering, but it’s as much an old Irish fairy tale or a fable ora ghost story with the central themes just given a modern twist.

The idea began in college when friends and I would sit up late talking about how best to solve life’s issues – as students do. We were studying philosophy, theology, those sorts of subjects, and we all had notions of what utopia would be.

When the recession began to take hold here in Ireland, I saw the perfect window to revise the novel and press home the central themes – land, youth, man’s inhumanity to man and his blasé slaughter and disregard for the animal kingdom, greed. . . and of course the things that make life so worth living – friendship and good bonds between people, hope, determination etc.


When did you first want to write for a living?

Since I was a teen, basically. Although I took the long road and there are plenty of miles to go yet.

I thought going the Arts degree/ journalism route would be the way in, but of course there are so many elements that are needed to write properly and produce quality work – there is talent, obviously, but not everyone has that in abundance, so you need to throw in life experience, judgement, patience, diligence and so on. So when I was younger I believed I earned a right to be a writer because that’s what I wanted. But it’s not like that at all.

I’m now at the point where I do have a plan, which takes in the next two to three years and certain things need to happen. If they don’t, I might throw it in. But I’m not thinking like that just yet.


What made you decide on horror?

I suppose a genre chooses you, in many ways, because you write about what you are passionate about. I’m not a fan of horror for the sake of horror and prefer material that is skirting the fringes and deals in the realm of the possible. Dark, gothic ghost stories that leave spaces for the reader’s imagination to fill in are always more appealing than wanton blood and gore, I feel. Gabriel's Gate is full of that. It's written to make the reader feel claustrophobic, hemmed in by the location of this farm. I generally love stories that build the tension right up to a breaking point.


How long have you been writing?

On my books and with purpose, about 10 years. But I was also writing to earn a living as a journalist over the last 15 years, so I suppose it all counts. I’ve also had non-fiction published, so that counts too. What I want obviously is to narrow the field of vision down to just writing fiction . . . but as we well know, if it don’t pay the bills, then it’s not a job yet.


What kind of inspirations do you have?

I would never be writing if I hadn’t travelled so much and hope to continue setting books in foreign locations. I have another novel set in Kaliningrad, an exclave of Russia and I visited the city to put a lot of the ideas into shape; it was a long way to go on a whim but it was worth it. My next book, for example, is set in Mexico. And there has been a lot of research involved in that.

I love music, passionately and play a lot in bars and clubs. Lead guitar, Fender Telecaster, which, I've always said, plugged into a Vox amp and cranked up is a better high than any drink or drug. I have a soundtrack to go with whatever I’m working on. When I was finishing Gabriel’s Gate I used to listen to a lot of Nick Cave and Tom Waits and a lot of frenetic jazz just to feed off the energy.

I also studied photography. You can learn many things and apply them if you’re passionate enough about them.


Favorite authors/or books?

I read everything from Samuel Beckett to Cormac McCarthy, Stephen King, love straight-up tales of human passion and struggle and devoured everything Jack London and Kerouac wrote. At the moment I’m reading quite a bit of these great American writers who have been bringing the fringes to life – Donald Ray Pollock, Alan Heathcock, Tom Franklin -- and also revisiting some of the great beat writers.


What can we expect to see from you in the near future?

I have two other novels finished and one should be out early next year.

It’s set in Mexico and involves three men who go on the trail of a friend who disappeared down there, but before he vanished he sent his travel notes back with a request that his friends follow the path he was on as he sensed something bad was going to happen him on the final leg of the journey.

He had become obsessed with Doomsday cults, based on Mayan prophecies and set about researching them. But that's a loose hook. Where he ends up is what his friends must find out. They follow in his footsteps to the letter but as the journey progresses it all begins to fall apart . It is a ‘road book’ and I wanted to lob in a lot of metaphors about life without forcing them down the readers’ throats. The title is 'What became of Henry Kane'. It's dark, it's not written in a conventional way but I'm as passionate about it as I was with Gabriel's Gate, so I'm looking forward to seeing it in print in 2013.


Thank you so much for joining me today.



Tom's Bio:

Tom Galvin an author and journalist and part-time musician, lives in Ireland with his Polish wife, Asia, and twin babies, Alex and Alicia.

After graduating in English and Philosophy, he lived in Poland as a teacher and journalist between 1994-1999 and returned home to write a book on his Polish experience, 'There's an Egg in My Soup'.

His first novel was published in 2011 by Book Republic, Gabriel's Gate, a dark thriller set on a commune in recession-era Ireland and described as “by turns social commentary, thriller, moral fable, black comedy and horror story”.

Samples clickaboo here: www.tomgalvin.com
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