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I'd been trying to write a novel for around eight years, but I felt like a fraud, as all I could produce were thin rehashes of old ideas my favourite authors had already nailed. So I decided to create the kind of book I'd write if there weren't any rules - if all of the advice on how to write a saleable novel didn't apply to me. I decided to write the kind of book I'd love if someone else had written it with me in mind, and have as much fun as possible doing it. So I wrote Make a Move.
I'm proud of my influences, and embraced them all in creating my setting, story and characters. There's some Joe R. Lansdale in my style, as well as some attitude from Chuck Palahniuk and Michael Marshall Smith. I love comics, and I took inspiration from Warren Ellis, Joss Whedon and Andy Diggle in finding a rhythm for my dialogue. Many people have said my writing has a cinematic feel, and that's on purpose, as I'm a rabid cinéphile; aside from the obvious influences from French cinema, Make a Move owes a debt to my all-time favourite film: Grosse Pointe Blank.
And then there's Paris, whose influence permeates all of my writing, as it's the place in which stories seem to find me. I visit when I can, in the name of "research", but it's really just about being in a place, and with a population, that inspires me.
Make a Move is done, but my characters keep telling me they're not, so I reckon we'll hang out together a couple of more times, in Paris, looking for fun and trouble, outside of the rules.
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