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The Edge of the Forest: Tell us more about Joe Craig. Where do you live? What are your interests or hobbies?
Joe Craig: I live in North London. When I'm not working, I spend most of my time playing the piano, cooking,
reading, watching movies...nothing particularly outrageous! However, I also started growing chilli plants a while ago, and
they have taken over a large part of my house (and my life!). I became slightly obsessed with them for a time, but pulled
through. Now I have hundreds and hundreds of chillies, so the next step is to come up with my own recipe for sweet chilli
sauce. That's a little project I'm working on at the moment.
The Edge of the Forest: Were you a reader as a child? What were some of your favorite books?
Joe Craig: I wasn't really a reader as a child. So many great books have appeared in just the last few years that I would have loved,
but they weren't around when I needed them! I think if I were a child now I would definitely be a reader.
I started off with Dr Seuss, whose work I still love, and then read lots of Dick King-Smith. I also remember enjoying the
series of books about the Bagthorpe family, by Helen Cresswell, though I can't now remember a thing about them.
When I was about ten or eleven I stopped reading fiction and read books of sport statistics (I can still remember most of
the stats, even though they're out of date now). I also read film magazines from cover to cover.
I didn't start reading fiction again until I was seventeen, but I haven't stopped since!
It was my big sister who got me back into reading. She had read the complete works of Jane Austen before her tenth
birthday—which was quite intimidating for me! But then she was able to recommend to me exactly the sorts of books I
would enjoy. I still rely on her for recommendations.
The Edge of the Forest: From your biography, it sounds like you became involved in writing, composing and performing
at university. Was that interest there from childhood? Are you still working in the theater?
Joe Craig: My first interest was in becoming a songwriter. That was the only thing I wanted to do, so I set out to
achieve it. At university I composed the scores for several musicals, and that led me to writing the music for a couple of
shows after I graduated that ran for a while on the London fringe. Then I moved into writing pop songs.
The only other writing I did at university was comedy writing—a few sketches here and there for the Cambridge
Footlights, and a radio show that I co-presented every week.
I can't say that I always had an interest in writing from childhood. What I did have was a love of stories and
story-telling. That's what has never left me, and what led me to start writing books.
The Edge of the Forest: What attracted you to writing for young people? Is Jimmy Coates: Killer/Assassin
your first novel?
Joe Craig: Yes, the first Jimmy Coates book is my first novel. To be honest, I don't think I set out to write for
young people, or anybody else. I set out to tell the story that I had come up with as best as I could possibly tell it,
without thinking about who it was aimed at. If anything, it was just aimed at me! I was trying to write something that would
keep me gripped as a reader, and get me excited. Because I'm such an impatient reader that was a challenge, and I keep
challenging myself in the same way every day that I'm writing.
The Edge of the Forest: Where did the idea for Jimmy Coates originate? How long was it from inspiration to
publication? Were there any challenges along the way?
Joe Craig: I pieced together the idea for Jimmy Coates over a period of a few weeks. Almost as an exercise,
I set myself the task of starting a story with the most ordinary and every-day situation I could think of—a kid
watching TV—but as quickly as possible plunged into something really gripping. So I had a very clear idea of what the
first chapter would look like—with the men arriving at Jimmy's house and saying, 'We've come for the boy.'
Then I found I had set myself some questions that needed answering—how come Jimmy has the amazing abilities that he
needs to get away from these men? Who are they? What do they want? As I answered each question I found I was constructing
the plot of a novel.
From that point, I spent a couple of weeks mapping out the story in more detail, and then started writing. I'd heard that
Frederick Forsyth wrote 2,000 words a day when he wrote Day of the Jackal. I'm very competitive, so I thought,
'Why I can't I do that too?' It was a method that worked for me and still does—for a first draft I always write
2,000 words a day until I'm done.
But with the first book I only wrote the first two chapters because I didn't want to write the whole thing if it was
rubbish! So I sent it to an agent to find out whether it was rubbish, and fortunately she said it wasn't, and she took me
on as a client. Then I went back to write the rest of the book.
Once the first draft is finished, it needs lots of editing, so I spent several months working on the first book until it was
ready for a publisher. Then my agent sent it off and I was lucky to be picked up almost straight away. It was another year
before the book came out, though, by which time I'd written Jimmy Coates: Target.
I was very fortunate. There were creative challenges along the way, but no obstacles. The creative challenge is one that I
face every day—making the book as good as it can possibly be. That's an exciting challenge to have, so I enjoy it!
The Edge of the Forest: Can you tell us about plans for the series and your current project?
Joe Craig: At the moment I'm writing the fourth book in the Jimmy Coates series, called Jimmy Coates:
Sabotage. The third in the series, Jimmy Coates: Revenge, has just been released here in the UK, and is doing
pretty well, so I'm excited about that at the moment. In the US, I'm afraid you're going to have to wait! The second book
in the series is coming out in March.
Once I've finished the book I'm working on now, I might go straight on and write more Jimmy Coates books
(I have the rest of the story planned out already), or I might want to start one of the other series ideas I have in my
notebooks. I might even want to take a break from writing books and go back to writing songs for a month or two, just so I
have some more up to date recordings.
The Edge of the Forest: Is there anything you would like to add?
Joe Craig: I have one more thought I'd like to add, and it's something that I don't think people realise, or if they
do, they don't hear it often enough. It's this: anybody can write a great story. There's no magic about it. You don't have
to wait for inspiration. Nobody even really knows what 'inspiration' is. If you start with the hard work, the inspiration
will follow. Or it won't—it doesn't matter. Working hard, using every scrap of your brain, and giving yourself the
time and space to create something you care passionately about—that's enough.
Anybody really interested in writing can have a look on my website—there are one or two things that might help, but for
more advice, or just to chat about writing, anyone can always email me.
Thanks for the interview. I enjoyed answering your questions. I hope the answers make sense!
Read Camille's reviews of the Jimmy Coates books here.
Joe Craig's Books for Young Readers
Jimmy Coates: Assassin? HarperTrophy; Reprint edition, 2006. ISBN: 0-0607-7265-4.(U.S. edition)
Jimmy Coates: Killer. HarperCollins Children's Books, 2005. ISBN: 0-0071-9685-7. (U.K. edition)
Jimmy Coates: Target. HarperCollins, 2007. ISBN: 0-0607-7266-2. (U.S. edition, out in May)
Jimmy Coates: Target. HarperCollins Children's Books, 2006. ISBN: 0-0071-9686-5. (U.K. edition)
Jimmy Coates: Revenge. HarperCollins Children's Books, 2007. ISBN: 0-0072-3285-3.(U.K. edition)
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