North London Reading Group

Originally from Northern Ireland, Damian’s “unputdownable” new novel Twisted Agendas is out now. We caught up with him using good old fashioned email to find out why his new novel is so different from his debut, what it was like growing up during The Troubles, and how to reduce your debut novel to a 120-page screenplay.

And if you’ve further questions, choose a pub with Wi-Fi and invite him along!

Hi Damian! Tell us about Twisted Agendas.

Twisted Agendas is an offbeat tale set in London and NYC that’s told from four interweaving points of view. There’s the protagonist Danny, a young fellow from Northern Ireland who’s escaping his domineering father and fiancee Susan; Piper, a feisty American ex-pat studying at the LSE whose younger brother died in a fire that resulted in a difficult relationship with her mother; Julia, a posh immigration officer who becomes Danny’s landlady; and Mrs. Hartley, Julia’s elderly next-door neighbor, who writes letters to the Queen Mother as if they’re best friends and who despises Julia.

How did the idea for the book take root?

I loved Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City and decided to try and write something equally as entertaining and offbeat for my second novel.

Your debut was an acclaimed coming of age story, yet your new book is very different and has been described as part drama, part thriller. Did you have an itch to scratch – or can we expect further page turners from you?

Yes, I’d like to write more page turners like Twisted Agendas. In fact, I plan to begin the sequel soon. I don’t like to categorize myself as say a literary fiction writer or a genre writer. The most interesting work today is coming from writers who interweave genres.

I hate the snobbery surrounding the concept of literary fiction. It’s so unnecessary, so ridiculously elitist. Literary fiction’s a genre just like thriller and mystery are genres. That’s why I was dead pleased when Twisted Agendas was called “a thriller with thought” by one reviewer. It not a pure thriller but certainly flirts heavily with the genre.

Writer Patricia Wood said it was a novel that book clubs will want to read and discuss. What has your experience been with reading groups so far?

I’ve had wonderful experiences with reading groups, especially the ones where we tuck into appetizers and guzzle wine while my book’s being discussed. By the way, if any of your book groups decide to adopt my novel, I would be happy to make myself available to chat on Skype if that’s something they like to do.

Twisted Agendas is a transatlantic novel. You were born in Northern Ireland, and you now live in Pennsylvania – what was it like acclimatising to life in the States?

I lived in London, which I loved, before moving to the US. I slotted into America very quickly, undoubtedly because both cultures speak English although most people in the UK don’t realize that Spanish is spoken widely here as well.

As I had a law degree, I did the New York Bar exams and found work as an attorney with fourteen months of arriving in the States. So I was very lucky. Writing-wise, it’s taken me until last year to feel comfortable enough to write my first American novel – by that I mean setting the novel predominately in the US.

What was it like to ‘come of age in The Troubles’ as your website puts it?

I had a great childhood. Loving parents and siblings. And Glenullin (translated from the Irish ‘Glen of the Eagle’) where I grew up is breathtakingly beautiful. But it was very hurtful to understand as I grew older that there was a majority section of the country of which I was a citizen that regarded me as second-class and didn’t believe I should be treated equally. It also was painful growing up knowing I was gay and having to conceal that truth from the people I loved.

Whilst ‘The Troubles’ may have gone, the Lithuanian gun smuggling saga in the news this week shows Northern Ireland still faces difficult times. How optimistic are you for the future?

Oh, I didn’t know about this. Living now in the US and having become a citizen, I’m wholly engrossed in the hotbed of American politics and don’t hear everything that’s taking place in Northern Ireland. Having said that though, I’m very optimistic about Northern Ireland’s future. So many young people want a bright future for themselves and their families, want to get on with their lives and reject the idiotic prejudice that’s been Ireland’s Achilles heel for centuries, and these people will ensure the peace lasts and grows stronger.

Finally – you’ve been working on a screenplay for your first novel. How has that compared to writing a novel, and when are we likely to see the end result?

Writing a screenplay is a very different art form. For starters, it’s visual and there’s no room for pages of backstory and interior monologue…unless you want the film to turn out crap, that is!!  Everything has to be written in 120 pages maximum (industry standard) with lots of white space on each page.

So I learned to ‘show’ stuff and develop characters in less words and to visualize the thing in my mind like it was already a film. Ultimately, writing a screenplay has made me a tighter novelist, I think. I rewrote Twisted Agendas while working on the Gabriel screenplay.

Regards the end result,  I’m fervently hoping there will be a movie in a few years time. Getting a film financed takes a lot of negotiating and good luck before the light changes to green.