"I like to write about worlds where I can bend the rules..."

John Holmes-Carrington is one our Harvey regulars and is one of my (secret) panel of submissions readers. His stories for Harvey so far range from the mysterious to the intriguing to the slightly off reality that we love so much. One of John’s Harvey stories, featured this week in Harvey Duckman is Alive!, has been the catalyst for a full length novel that we are all looking forward to reading when it’s released later this year.

We catch up with John as he works on the final edit of his novel and a host of other Harvey stories that are heading for Harvey baskets in the near future.

Q: Where on earth did the inspiration for the Dop a Glop come from?

A: Hi Gillie, thank you for inviting me to do this Q&A. It’s a bit odd focusing on fact rather than fiction!
The idea for the Dop-a-Glop started as a jokey challenge: “Go on, write a story about plumbing…”, not I’d originally thought the most daring of topics, but why not? It sounds like fun, and actually it’s a pretty broad scope.
The main theme of the story came from a memory as a child, sitting in a bath wondering where the water went when it went down the plughole. It was pretty scary back then thinking that whatever went down it wouldn’t be recoverable, and that the noise it made as the last dregs ran out could be something lurking below keeping whatever the water washed down.
This made me think of tales by the Brothers Grimm. Their fairy stories in the original are not for the faint hearted and not with the happy endings often associated with modern interpretations. There are lots of stories about princesses and bathing so what about combining the fear of the plughole with a fairy tale? Thus the Dop a Glop were born.

Q: The Dop a Glop is deliciously dark – and we know there’s a Harvey After Dark story in the offing – but you write a lot of different styles… what would you say is your favourite genre to write in?

A:  I started writing stories that I wanted to read and this still tends to be where I get my motivation. I like to write about worlds which have a (sometimes very) loose basis in reality but where I can make up or can bend the rules. In particular I enjoy genres that challenge conventional thinking and give the reader a moment to pause and consider, “could that happen here?” To that end at the moment I’m experimenting with Fantasy more than outright Fantastical.

Q: How have you found the switch from writing short fiction to writing a full length novel?

A: I have to say it has been really challenging. With short stories you can take a single idea and wrap it up in a fairly tight narrative. The story is in the moment, a brief excerpt that hints at something bigger. The challenge with a novel is elaborating on what that larger something might be. Writing a longer story means that you need to think about your characters in a much broader way. You need to address how they got to the various points in the story. Why do they behave in the way they do? What drives and motivates them? Oh and then of course what happens next? You want to write stories that keep the reader engaged, guessing what comes next, but trying not to be too obvious. It is easier to keep a short story engaging because you are limited in how much of that broader story you can tell, and the reader goes away adding to the tale in their own head. With a novel it is much harder to keep this going over a longer narrative arc without losing the reader along the way.

Q: As a Harvey panel regular, what advice would you have for anyone wanting to submit a story to Harvey? What is guaranteed to capture your attention and enthusiasm?

A: Firstly and foremost I’m a reader and ultimately I want to be entertained and challenged so if a story long or short can do this then for me, then it’s a winner. Just a warning though, I’m not fond of derivative stories where you’re copying someone else’s ideas. Please try to be original.
Secondly, don’t feel you have to write to a particular genre. Yes, we have ‘buckets’ but these are open to pretty loose interpretation. I often start with a ‘what if?’ scenario involving something I’ve heard, seen or read and weave it into the theme. For example, I wrote one story based around a radio phone-in discussing the development of autonomous vehicles, another was loosely connected to an outcrop of rock I’d passed out walking. Pretty random stuff. So don’t limit yourself, but do try to make it intriguing, after all we do like weird!

Q: What short story ideas are you working on for future Harveys, and which basket excites you the most?

A: I have a story that would probably fit into a Steampunk basket and one in development which is more Fantasy based. I tend to like themes that could be based in reality, but still allow wider interpretation. The one basket I’m really looking forward to is Urban Fantasy, that way I get to make the rules up in my version of the world.

Q: You’ve come up with some fab ideas for Harvey’s Flash!Mob short fiction prompts… which one of those excites you the most?

A: Thank you, hopefully they will inspire some great ideas. The one I’m really looking forward to reading submissions for is ‘Out of the Fog’. Fog is the masking of the known, it is reality obscured, uncomfortable and unpredictable. Who knows what might appear out of it or where I might be led through it?

Q: Where do you write and how do you settle into your writing mode, to switch from your day job work environment which is very demanding into a space of creativity?

A: That far I’m pretty conventional. I tend to work on a laptop at the dining table at home. I do carry a notebook and pen around with me a lot of the time in which I jot random thoughts and ideas. I do love technology and I tried making notes on a tablet but this didn’t work for me as I spent more time correcting my typing than the developing ideas. It also helps that my writing is almost unintelligible to anyone else so no one gets to judge until its typed up.
My day job tends to require engagement with lots of people, with all the noise and compromise that can be involved in dealing with their rather than my priorities. My writing mode is very insular and is mostly just me and the inside of my head. I often wear headphones and listen to music whilst I’m writing which blocks out the world around me, much to the annoyance of my family. Though interestingly I find the choice of music can affect the pace of my writing, which does help if there’s a deadline…

Q: What advice would you give anyone starting out on their writing and publishing adventure?

A: Just go for it. Chances are if you enjoy the story that you’ve written, others will. I had been writing stories for years and they sat in folders hidden in a cupboard. It took a lot for me to accept that someone else might want to read them let alone publish them. Writing is a personal experience whereas publishing is the release of those stories into the wild which can be daunting. Sometimes you have to learn to let go. No, you won’t always get it right first time and criticism can be hard to take, but usually it is given for the best reasons, so try to take it on board and learn from it. That said, above all, the most important thing is that you enjoy the experience of writing. So, in case I wasn’t clear… just go for it!

THE LEGEND OF THE DOP A GLOP
by John Holmes-Carrington
First published in Harvey Duckman Volume 9, March 2022

Some folk will wish, it’s not that rare
For eyes a shining just like stars
For heads of full and lustrous hair
And skin silk-smooth and free of scars
Hear now my tale and heed it well.
I’ll warn th’ unwary and won’t stop
I’ve pledged my life all folk to tell
The legend of the Dop a Glop...

Read more of The Dop a Glop by John Holmes-Carrington in this week's Harvey Is Alive! newsletter.