Callum Gibson
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Callum Gibson
Acted as one of the three judges in the 2012 'Flashy Shorts' Competition.
What do you like most about writing?
I like how it feels as though I’m going nuts if I don’t do it. I like how it steals me for hours. I also like that I can take a break when I please, and that I can do it wearing nothing other than a smile – there isn’t much work out there for a naked fellow these days.
Is there anything you dislike about writing?
Sometimes I have to wear pants. But that’s all – I love the whole process. Not overly keen on the times when my brain is going too fast for my fingers, but what can you do?
What are your strengths and weaknesses as a writer?
I think that I can spin a pretty good yarn, that my characters are believable and likeable, and that I reckon I can write the most revoltingly vulgar dialogue, but still have the speaker come off as being sweet and nice. Yeah, I’d say that’s my real strength, I’m quite poetic when it comes to swearing. Weakness wise, where should I start? For a writer my spelling sometimes sucks and my grammar can, from time to time, resemble the efforts of a none-too-bright four-year-old. But, hey, I’m learning.
What inspires you to write?
Everything. Being happy and being sad, being in love and being alone. The video games I play, the movies I watch, the books I read, the conversations I have, and the conversations I hear. I guess the biggest inspirations to me are the people in my life; the friends who all lend themselves in one way or another to the characters I create and suffer my endless writing-related rants, and my family who are still on-board with the whole ‘I wanna be a professional-writer’ thing even when it all seems so far away.
Which author(s) would you say have most influenced your writing?
Stephen King is the guy who made me want to be a writer, and every time I read one of his books – old or new – they never fail to blow my mind. It is a thing of beauty, and if I ever get stuck on my own projects there always seems to be something within its pages that helps me out. Other than him I’m influenced by a bunch of people: Kevin Smith (nooch), Denis Leary, John Cusack, Shane Black, Clint Eastwood, Nick Hornby, and, well, anybody who can create something that makes me feel anything. Oh, J.K. Rowling seems to know what she’s doing too – Harry Potter blew my face off. I know they’re not all authors, but each and all of them are important to me in some way.
What are you reading at the moment?
Right now I’m in the middle of Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King. It’s just started to tie in with his The Dark Tower saga and that just slays me.
Which three books would you list as your favourite all-time reads?
It by Stephen King. I read this in 3 days in a hostel in New York, and a motel in Philadelphia and, without sounding hugely stupid, it kinda changed the way I look at things. I think this book rounded me as a person. Yeah, it’s that good.
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby. The book that taught me it was okay to be a man-child, taught me about dreams dying with age, and about how they don’t always have to.
Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling. Dude, come on, it’s wonderful. Yeah, wonderful.
The Dark Tower by Stephen King. A true magnum opus.
I know that, counting the sagas, there are about sixteen books in this list but give me a break. I was always better with the words then the numbers.
Do you have a preferred genre or particular style you apply when writing?
No. But there are a number of recurring themes in my work. Growing up, love and the loss of it, being a boy, being a man, friendship, the inexplicable mysteries of the fairer sex, and the humour that can be found in the saddest of situations. Oh, and my loathing of sweetcorn – that seems to crop up in everything.
What are you working on at the moment?
At the moment I’m working on a sequel to a coming of age novel I wrote whilst studying for the MA in Creative Writing at Northumbria university. When the first one was over I figured that I’d said all I had to about high school, adolescent love, and the days we all look back on with longing looks from time to time. Turns out I hadn’t, which is awesome, as I get to hang out with old friends again for another six to eight months. I’m about 300 pages in and it seems to be going well.
Any thoughts about e-books and e-book publishers?
Yeah, though I don’t think it would be appropriate for me to detail what I think of a certain one who did a good job of burning me and a couple of friends. I may wear out the * key on my Mac trying to keep the blue as clean as can be. Honestly, I think it’s like anything else. You need to trust who you’re working with.
Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?
Yeah: write. It’s all you can do. Write and write until your fingers hurt, your eyes are bleeding, and the backs of your knees have grown dirty great sweat-sores.
What are your hopes for the future?
I want to do this. I want to write. I want to affect people; how they feel, how they think, what they say, and what they do. I want them to laugh with me and cry with me, and I want them to know just what I was thinking, how I was feeling when I wrote whatever it is of mine they’re reading. I wouldn’t mind getting rich off it either.
Oh, and I quite fancy being a cowboy. That would be pretty sweet. One day…
Where can you be found online?
You can follow me on: Twitter at @airisbad1 and read about the intricacies of my rather boring life, or if anyone fancies hooking up on the Playstation my PSN ID is airisbad. I’m also, of course, on Facebook so if y’all want to pop onto that, there are plenty of pictures of all of the people in my life who have inspired nearly all of the characters I’ve ever written about.
Many Thanks Callum
