Special Guest Interview with David West, Author of the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

Penniless and a disappointment to his father, Anthony Standen is flung into the Eighty Years' War, spying for the queen who exiled him, against the queen who knighted him.

I'm pleased to welcome author David West to The Writing Desk:

What was the inspiration for the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures?

I took the Open University Creative Writing and Advanced Creative Writing courses, intending to write contemporary crime fiction. But I couldn’t get a clear picture of my detective. Around the same time I read a biography of Sir Francis Drake and discovered that Walsingham had a spy, Sir Anthony Standen, who provided all the intelligence on the Spanish Armada that he needed. 

Standen is my mother’s maiden name, and I have since discovered that his younger brother was my 10th great-grandfather. I read his entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and thought it was the most incredible story I had read. At almost every turn I kept asking: why did he do that, and how did he do that? So I decided to tell his story myself. When I completed The Spy who Sank the Armada, I started paging through history a year at a time, and soon found the inspiration for the second book, Fire and Earth. 

What is your preferred writing routine? 

I start with research. I spend months collating every detail of the historical characters, events, and places involved. I write with Scrivener, and find it very useful for assembling all that data and producing character profiles. One of the joys of historical fiction is that a central conflict is already there for you to work around. Because I write historical crime fiction, I need to create my own crime to solve, amidst the chaos of the historical events. 

But there is another conflict to discover, and that is the internal conflict that we can all relate to. In The Spy who Sank the Armada the internal conflict was between what Anthony thought he needed, and what he really needed. For Fire and Earth the underlying conflict is between faith and reason. The Suggested Assassin has misogyny as its underlying conflict, and Called to Account has racism, in particular anti-semitism, at its core.

When I’ve got to know my characters and the conflicts which embroil them, I start outlining the chapters and building the story arc. I’m aware that the outline will probably change once I start writing, but I dont like to set out on a journey without a map. I know I’m ready to start writing when I have scenes playing out like movies in my mind. Then I try to write a thousand words a day. Some days it’ll be more, and some less. When I get stuck, I go for a long walk. Around fifteen miles will loosen most of my writer’s blocks.

What advice do you have for new writers? 

Study the craft. If I’d tried to write without doing the OU courses, I dread to think what drivel I might be writing. Actually I don’t need to think about it, I did try it many years ago, when I was working away from home. I wrote the first chapter of a Biggles style detective story. When I got home and showed it to Claire she didn’t pull any punches. It was dreadful!

Get to know your characters. I’m so lucky that I discovered Sir Anthony. Sharing my protagonist’s DNA definitely helps. Claire has read every draft of each of my books. Her input has been essential, particularly her encyclopaedic knowledge of the Georgette Heyer and Jane Austin canons. She’ll still criticise where necessary, but she’ll also let me know what she likes.

When you have your perfect manuscript you should consider how to publish it. When I was ready with the first book, the advice I read was that you need to secure a literary agent first. I crafted my synopsis and elevator pitch, but didn’t get any bites. My other editor, Debz, suggested Kindle Direct Publishing. It’s a good way to access the worlds largest bookstore. Your only questions then are how good a cover you want, and what you’re prepared to pay for one.

What have you found to be the best way to raise awareness of your books? 

I use Amazon Sponsored Product advertising. It’s taken some finessing to spend less on advertising than I recoup through sales, but it does work. Word of mouth is a great help too. I often find that many months after I’ve told a friend or acquaintance about my books, they tell me that they really enjoyed them. I can tell they’re telling the truth because of the sense of surprise in their voice. 

I took a stall at our village Christmas Fayre and sold fifty books in an hour. I’ve taken advertisements in book review magazines, and done radio, and podcast interviews. So in terms of sales, word of mouth, established networks, and author events are best. But you’re never going to hit the Sunday Times bestseller list that way unless you’re a celebrity author. People can’t buy your book unless they’re aware of it. That’s why guest blog spots like The Writing Desk are so useful. I also have an article coming out in the Crime Readers Association newsletter in November. 

Tell us something unexpected you discovered during your research 

My latest book in the series, Called to Account, includes my first use of forensic science for crime detection. I researched the invention of the microscope and discovered that a Dutch spectacle maker, Zacharias Janssen, is credited with making the first compound microscope around 1600. He didn’t publicise the fact because he had a sideline in counterfeiting, for which the microscope helped him perfect his craft. The only way we know of his invention is through the testimony of his son. I liked the invention of a device for nefarious purposes being used for crime detection.

What was the hardest scene you remember writing? 

Called to Account is set around a pogrom. I found getting into the mind of the ringleader of the anti-Semitic rebels a very uncomfortable place to be. Unfortunately it’s somewhere you do have to go if you’re to write convincingly. I drew on childhood memories from the early 1960’s, when racial prejudice was rife. 

What are you planning to write next?

I’m in the outlining stage of the fifth book, which is set in Paris around 1613 - 1617. I’ve read biographies of Marie de Medici, Louis XIII, Cardinal Richelieu, and Charles d’Albert de Luynes. I think the underlying conflict will be the parent-child conflict.

David West

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About the Author

David V.S. West was educated at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, where he took a B.A. in Engineering Science. During a career in engineering and project management he was commissioned by Gower Publishing to write a book on Project Sponsorship. This led him to study creative writing with the Open University, and a new career as a writer. The Spy who Sank the Armada is the first novel in the series The Sir Anthony Standen Adventures. The second is Fire and Earth, the third is The Suggested Assassin, and the fourth is Called to Account. He lives in Wiltshire. His author website is www.davidvswest.co.uk and you can find David on Facebook and Twitter @dvswest