Guest Post: Kim Curran on the top ten things that inspire her to write

Today I have a guest post from Kim Curran, author of the Shifter trilogy. You can read my reviews of the books: Shift, Control and Delete. It's a YA sci-fi action series and the final book has just come out. I also interviewed Kim a couple of years ago, around when Control was released. By the way, be sure to read to the very end of the post where there's a giveaway.

Top ten things that help inspire me to write

1) Burning ideas I can’t get out of my head and that wake me up at night
This is the best bit of being a writer: when an idea blindsides you and you just have to, HAVE TO, write it. You feel like your head is a balloon about to take flight. Nothing beats that feeling. Not book deals or publication days. It’s the best.

2) My office
I’m lucky enough to have a room at home that’s dedicated to writing. Which mostly means it’s packed full of books, free-range post-it notes (that won’t stay stuck to my walls) and a handful of toys. It’s a mess, but it’s a space that’s all mine.

3)  Busy trains / buses
There’s no better way to block out annoying commuters than to lose yourself in a world of your own creation. I wrote most of Shift and Control long hand while on my commute to and from work on the 243 bus from Waterloo to Shoreditch.

4) A new notebook
When I have one of those shiny exciting ideas I have to start scribbling it down before it floats away. And so a beautiful, clean and unspoiled notebook becomes a must. My brand of choice is Leuchtturm1917. Although don’t ask me to pronounce it.

5) Other authors
When I read a truly great book, one that makes me sigh over its brilliance, it pushes me to want to be a better writer.

6) My friends and family
More often than not, I have very little faith in myself as a writer. Which is when having people around me who believe in me, and will me to go on, is so important.

7) My tattoos
I got them after going through a phase where I seriously considered giving up writing. Now they’re a reminder that I can’t give up no matter what.

8) Boredom
Nothing inspires me to sit down and make up new world more than having nothing to do. It’s my mother’s fault. If ever I whinged, “I’m bored!” she would counter with, “Well you can do the washing up, that will keep you amused.” And suddenly I’d come up with something to entertain myself. 

9) My dinosaur onesie
When I’m having a low day, I pull on my dinosaur onesie, wag my tail and feel suddenly better about everything.

10) My readers
Knowing there are people out there who enjoy reading what I’ve written and who might like to read what I write next, well, it’s the most humbling form of inspiration there is.

Dublin-born Kim Curran is the award-nominated author of books for young adults, including Shift, Control and Delete.

She studied Philosophy & Literature at university with the plan of being paid big bucks to think deep thoughts. While that never quite worked out, she did land a job as a junior copywriter with an ad agency a week after graduating. She’s worked in advertising ever since and is obsessed with the power of the media on young minds.
She is a mentor at the Ministry of Stories and for the WoMentoring Project. And lives in London with her husband and too many books.

To find out more visit www.kimcurran.co.uk, or follow Kim on Twitter or Goodreads.

Giveaway!

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Delete by Kim Curran

Delete by Kim Curran is the final volume in her Shifter trilogy. I have previously reviewed the first two books, Shift and Control, and have also interviewed the author in the past. Delete was one of the books orphaned when Strange Chemistry went under and I am very glad to see it and the series being given new life now. Before I get into this review, I need to warn you, this entire review from the blurb onwards contains spoilers for the end of Control. Really big spoilers.

The country is at war. Beset by enemies within and without. And all because of the decisions changed by one boy, Scott Tyler. In this ravaged alternative reality, Scott hardly recognises himself. He's a war hero, a leader of a unit of Shifters and maybe the only one who can prevent the country's frail defences from crumbling.

But all Scott wants to do is find a way back to the world he knew, without losing the girl he loves. With every Shift he makes, Scott edges closer towards oblivion. With no one to trust – not even himself – how much is he willing to risk to get home?

At the end of Control, Scott made a massive shift to undo the events caused by Frankie, the main "bad guy" of that book. Well, actually, Scott forces her to undo her choices, so that he can save his girlfriend. Delete opens just as that shift has been made and Scott finds himself in a worse reality, one where world war three (although they don't call it that) is ravaging the UK. All shifter children are recruited to the army to fight, Scott is in charge of the whole fighting shifter department, and Project Ganymede, the programme cutting up kids' brains which Scott stopped in the previous reality, is in full swing on a greater scale. Turns out Frankie's manipulations of world political events, while self-serving, were at least holding war at bay.

It's immediately clear to Scott that the reality he finds himself in now is pretty crappy, but he resists shifting back immediately because he doesn't want Aubrey to be dead. Instead, with slight confusion since he doesn't have any memories of the war world, Scott tries to slip into the role he finds himself in until he can work out what's going on. It was established in the earlier books that Scott is special for being able to remember other realities for more than a few minutes. In the past, he eventually slots the new reality memories into his mind but this time the shift is so big (or something) that he spends the entire book not fully remembering everything. And also not undoing it until the very end.

However, new reality Scott does leak through, providing us with some character contrast. Old Scott didn't grow up on rations or during a war, while new Scott did. Old Scott never had to learn to make human sacrifices for the greater good while army-trained new Scott did. Actually that last one is something our Scott picks up worryingly quickly and I can't say I was happy to watch him let people die that he probably could have saved.

Delete is a fast-paced action story and if there wasn't so much going on in it, I'm sure some of the people around Scott would have had more time to worry about his psychological well being — or at least to stop him being so involved in everything. As it is, they weren't even overly concerned about him running around on a gun-shot leg, so I suppose they're all used to putting the war first. I don't want to go into spoilers, but I found the end a little bit frustrating. I don't think it was a bad ending — it resolved everything and lived up to what we've come to expect from the series — but emotionally it was a bit distressing, possibly because of, well, reality whiplash. (Haha.)

Each book in this series has upped the stakes and Delete certainly continues that trend, this time putting the whole world on the line. I'd say that if you liked the first book but didn't think the stakes were high enough, keep reading!

If you enjoy fast-paced action books then I definitely recommend this series. And if you read Shift and Control, then forgot about Delete because of the delayed publication, then definitely pick up a copy of Delete. The re-released covers have been updated but still use the same art as the original set, so they won't even clash much if you bought the first two books from Strange Chemistry. Win! If you haven't read the earlier books but still read this review, I strongly recommend starting at the start of the series. I don't think it would make much sense otherwise.

4 / 5 stars

First published: March 2015, Xist Publishing
Series: Shifter series, book 3 of 3
Format read: eARC
Source: Courtesy of the author

Control by Kim Curran

Control by Kim Curran is the sequel to Shift which I reviewed last year. I also recently posted an interview with the author to celebrate the launch of this book. You can read it here (and if you're reading this before the end of August, you can also enter to win copies of Shift and Control). Incidentally, if you haven't read the first book, I suggest you do before reading Control, as it's really the kind of series that requires linearity. The blurb from Goodreads:

Scott Tyler is not like other teenagers. With a single thought he can alter reality around him. And he can stop anyone else from doing the same.

That's why he's so important to ARES, the secret government agency that regulates other kids like him: Shifters.

They've sent him on a mission. To track down the enigmatic Frank Anderson. An ex-Shifter who runs a project for unusual kids - as if the ability to change your every decision wasn't unusual enough. But Anderson and the kids have a dark secret. One that Scott is determined to discover.

As his obsession with discovering the truth takes him further away from anyone he cares about, his grip on reality starts to weaken. Scott realises if he can't control his choices, they'll control him.

Control opens with Scott and Aubrey cleaning up the mess they uncovered at the end of the first book, tracking down the people who had been involved in a dodgy operation they uncovered. In the course of events, they (well mostly Scott, since Aubrey can't remember past timelines) uncover bigger problems with the state of the world. And being super-powered teenagers, of course they try to fix them. And by-golly does this one have an excellent ending. (Consequences: they are things that exist.)

One of my major qualms with Shift was that it was not complex enough in terms of taking advantage of the crazy stuff that could be done with changing timelines. Control does a much better job of this. There is much more weird and slightly confusing (in a good way) stuff going on. In the first book a lot of the focus was on Scott's shifting abilities but in Control, because he can remember past timelines, other people's shifts come into play with much more significance. I appreciated the added complexity. (A possible trade-off is there were two small continuity errors which bugged me a little but which weren't important enough to ruin the story for me.)

The new villain was much better than the first book's villain, partly because being fat wasn't part of their evil ick factor and partly because there were (eventually) shades of grey to their choices. And I do like me some shades of grey. Also the nature of the villain allowed the author to introduce some interesting minor characters with unique shifting abilities or quirks, which helped to flesh out that aspect of the world-building.

One of these minor characters was trans and while their situation was definitely interesting, it was also problematic and might annoy some readers. I don't feel qualified to comment further, but you have been warned.

Overall, Control was a fun, action-packed read. I enjoyed it more than the first book and I would definitely recommend it to readers who enjoyed Shift. I am eagerly awaiting the final book in the series, which should be out next year.

4 / 5 stars

First published: August 2013, Strange Chemistry
Series: Yes. Book 2 of 3 (sequel to Shift, prequel to Delete)
Format read: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Interview with Kim Curran

Today I am very pleased to bring you an interview with Kim Curran, author of Shift and Control. You can read my review of Shift from last year. Control, out in August, is the second book in the series.

But first some competition news:

To celebrate the release of Kim Curran's Control, Strange Chemistry are offering 5 Signed Copies of Control and Shift! To enter, all you need to do is tell us what embarrassing moments you'd change if you could shift! Simply tweet @strangechem and use the hashtag #Control to tell us what red-faced moment you'd like to erase. Winners will be picked at random; the competition is open to international entrants; and competition ends on 31 August.

Now, without further ado, on to the interview!

~

Some of my readers are also writers. Could you tell us a bit about your publishing journey and what it's like to work with Strange Chemistry, a relatively new imprint?

My journey was, in some ways, a pretty familiar one. I wrote my first book – a YA urban fantasy – and started submitting it to agents. At first, all I got was form rejection letters. But I kept working on the book. And I guess it got better and better, because pretty soon I was receiving full requests with every submission. But after 20 or so ‘liked it but didn’t love it’ letters, I put that book away and started a new one.

The book I started then was Shift. It seemed to flow out of me and I wrote it in about three or four months. One of the agents who had passed on my first book saw me tweeting about how Shift was inspired by quantum physics and, as a fan of physics himself, asked me to send it to him when I was done.

I did – emailing the MS from a hammock in Mexico where I was travelling with my husband. The agent, Sam Copeland of RCW, DMed me to offer representation about a week later.

About six months after that, I signed with Strange Chemistry.

Working with the team at Strange Chemistry has been a joy. And it’s been especially interesting to be working with an imprint who, just like me, are just starting out. There’s an amazing family feeling at SC and I’ve become very close friends with many of the other authors on their list – something I haven’t seen much with big publishing houses.

We all want each other to succeed and the support network has been invaluable. Especially as in this business, the heartache and rejection never really goes away. Even after you’ve been published.


I read that Shift was inspired by quantum physics. Being a physicist myself, I find that intriguing; could you tell us more about that?

I have zero training in physics beyond my GCSE. But it’s a topic that has always fascinated me. Especially on the quantum level where it seems as if all the ‘usual’ laws of physics are thrown away. After all, they say if you think you understand quantum physics, you don’t. The one experiment that messed with my head most is the Double Slit experiment. I won’t take up space explaining it here, as I cover it in Shift or you can watch this video.

There are two things we can learn from it. First, that light acts as a wave and a particle. And two, that whether it acts as a wave or particle changes depending on whether the experiment is being observed.

This idea niggled away at me. That the very nature of matter is altered by human presence. And one day, when I was sitting on a bus, looking down at all the people below, and wondering about the decisions they have all made and whether they would like to change them the idea came to me: what if someone had the power to change their decisions, the way that light changes from particle to wave. And BAM! Shift was born.


I saw on your website that your day job involves writing copy for videogame ads. Do you think this has influenced the kind of books you write?

I have always loved games. I didn’t have a computer growing up, but I spent a large amount of my time and pocket money in arcades, playing games like Golden Axe and Street Fighter. And when the first PlayStation came out when I was at university I wasted days and days killing zombies. Now, as you say, I write adverts for video games. And I’d love to one day write the games themselves, rather than just the ads for them.

So it’s unsurprising that games have been a huge influence on my work. The first chapter in Shift is actually the main character playing a Zombie Survival game (maybe all those hours playing Resident Evil weren’t wasted after all).

For me, games are just another storytelling medium.


There's a third book in the Shifter series, isn't there? Can you tell us about that and any other future writing plans?

There is indeed. The third is called Delete and should be coming out next year. It will be the last of the Shifter series and I hope to go out with a bang.

As for what comes next, I’m not entirely sure. I have another YA novel I’m currently looking for a home for. A Middle Grade series I’ve started working on and a notebook filled with other ideas. I’m also interested in exploring all the other avenues open to writers these days, such as KickStarter and self-publishing.

I’d also love to make the move from novelist to screenwriter, comic writer and, as I’ve already said, I’d love to write for games.

The industry is going through interesting times. And those who will come out the other side still successful are those who are able to embrace change.

~

Thank-you very much for taking the time to answer some questions, Kim! And thanks to Caroline from Angry Robot for organising this. And if you want to win copies of Kim Curran's books, don't forget to enter the competition!

For more info on the books, see Strange Chemistry's pages for Shift and Control or Kim's website.

Shift by Kim Curran

Shift by Kim Curran is the author's debut novel and is not to be confused with the other book called Shift (by Em Bailey) that I read and reviewed this year.

The premise of Shift is fairly high-concept: some people have the ability to change decisions they've made in the past and "shift" the world on to the reality in which those decisions were the ones they really made. Of course there are caveats: only children between the ages of pre-teen and 18 or 19 can do it before they grow out of it, they can't influence events they weren't a part of, and they can only change decisions that were consciously made, not automatic, non-thinking reactions. Generally, they only remember the old reality for a few minutes before they assimilate fully into the new reality. The sixteen-year-old main character's — Scott's — extra-special power (apart from being rather powerful) is that he can remember other realities for longer.

And of course, there's a government agency regulating shifters and their training.

Shift was a fun, fast-paced read. There are a lot of explosions and surprisingly competent eleven year olds. The bad guy was truly horrifying (although, a warning for those that care, part of his ickiness is centred about his fatness and lack of personal hygiene) and reminded me a bit of Sylar in early Heroes (the TV show) when we still thought he was all-powerful and ate brains. Also, it's set mostly in London, which is quite refreshing, as was the slang and spelling.

I couldn't help but feel, when I got to the end, that Shift didn't quite deliver on what the blurb and prologue. I was expecting more shifting, more chaos, and more doom (admittedly, not more explosions; those were sufficient). I was reading carefully, noting each time Scott made a subtle conscious decision in the narrative, and the only time he actually shifted back to a point on the fly after learning about his powers was near the start (and, forgivably, pretty unsubtle). There were a few points during the thick of things when I wanted to shout at him to go back to that last decision point I'd noted to save whatever. I was also expecting it to end up being more complicated in terms of shifting between realities, Scott having old memories and what was real and what was really going on? A bit more like the movie Prime. Or, if not actually that insanely complicated, less linear than it was. Basically, I had higher expectations of the concept. But perhaps Curran will up the ante in the sequels.

That said, I did enjoy reading Shift and found it difficult to put down. I even set up my phone (for the first time in this way) so that it would read it aloud to me while I was driving. So it's definitely an addictive type of read (probably because of the explosions). I recommend it to anyone who's after a light, action-packed, quick read. It's mercifully not (very) dystopian, and has mystery and conspiracy to keep the reader interested.

4 / 5 stars