‘I’VE ALWAYS BEEN A BIT of a daydreamer’
Gareth Brown has told how becoming an author was“pretty much all I’ve ever wanted to do” — and how he had“always sort of been a writer, even before I wanted to be a writer”. His debut novel, The Book of Doors, will be released on February 15.
Set in Newyork City, the book follows Cassie Andrews, a bookseller who gets an unexpected gift from her favourite customer: The Book of Doors, a book full of strange writing, mysterious drawings and a message that any door is every door.
Cassie soon finds that the book gives anyone who possesses it extraordinary powers — and it isn’t long before she and her best friend, Izzy, begin to explore those powers and are swept away by the possibilities of traveling anywhere.
But the Book of Doors isn’t the only magical book out there — and there are people who are now after what Cassie possesses.
The only man who can help her and Izzy, it seems, is Drummond Fox. He’s a man who is trying to escape his own demons — and who has a secret library of magic books, which has been hidden away for safekeeping.
Gareth told Chic how while being an author was“pretty much all I’ve ever wanted to do”, there was one particular moment that led him to want to pursue it.
He recalled,“i didn’t read a lot when I was younger, other than stuff you had to read for school.
“But when I was a teenager, one of my friends told me to go and read a Stephen King book. And I did. And I loved it. And reading that, I kind of understood for the first time what good books could be.
“I think I’d always sort of been a writer, even before I wanted to be a writer — I’ve always been a bit of daydreamer, and I would, you know, make up stories. And I loved TV and films and just storytelling, anyway.
“I think this was the first time where I realised,‘ah this is that thing that I enjoyed doing — this is what it means, as a thing to do’.
“So, from when I was a teenager, I’ve always wanted to be a writer. I was trying to write pretty awful novels, from that age onwards.
“It’s always been in the background.
It’s kind of ebbed and flowed, with the pressures of work and other things. I took a job 20 years ago that would pay the bills until I became a rich and famous author, obviously — and I’m still here, obviously, 20 plus years later.,
“But I’d always wanted to be a writer. And I suppose I was always trying to write, and always writing things in the background and just making progress steadily — and ended up here.“
The Stephen King book in question was Christine, the“one about the haunted car”.
Gareth continued,“it’s when he was at his peak of his writing in the mid
80s, when he was just writing furiously and it sucked you in. It’s a bit scary, and
Author Gareth Brown on Stephen King, working for the NHS and his debut book… By Keeley Ryan
compelling and just everything that I loved.
“And so I only had horror books after that. I think I thought that because I liked Stephen King, I liked horror — but the reality was I just like good writing.
“Over time, I managed to diversify into other things. But it was Christine. And then I read some of his other stuff, and as I got older I sort of drifted away from it — and then you come back a bit, and then I read some of his later books.
“But it was Christine that started it all.” Gareth, who is the Director of Screening for NHS Scotland, also opened up about balancing writing with his day-to-day job.
He said,“i can touch type and so as long as I know what I want to write, I never have any problems getting through that.
“And consistency helps. I think, just writing to do a little bit ev ery day. I used to be a real inspiration writer, I’d wait until the mood was taking me — I’d write a ridiculous amount in two days, and then I wouldn’t write again fro two months.
“Whereas now, I think I’m doing a little bit every day — even if you don’t feel like it, even if you think it’s awful, just get it down and you can always make it better later.
“Doing it consistently. And then it’s almost like the guerrilla tactic of just like, write whenever you can.
“Sometimes, that would be the last thing at night, I’d write things on the iphone and then copy and paste it in the next day. Or I’d write during the lunch break at work, if it was an otherwise busy day. I think it was any time I had free, when I wasn’t walking the dogs or working or eating, I would write.
“And that was probably because I was in my head. I wanted to get it down, I wanted to — I was excited by the story. There’s a momentum with it.”
Gareth told how the inspiration behind The Book of Doors began with the idea of a “magical book that could open doors and turn doors into other doors”— but he had originally pictured it as a fantasy novel, with“wizards, and dragons”.
He continued, “I don’t really read enough fantasy to feel like I could write fantasy, so I’ve never done anything with it really.
“And then it was during Covid. I love travelling and I was just daydreaming one day, like, ‘oh, if I could go there’ or ‘I’d love to go to Japan and have a quick sushi lunch and go back in the afternoon; that’d be great’.
“I sort of connected that idea of what if that book of doors existed in the real world; take it out of a fantasy setting and put it in a real, contemporary world.
“It was that longstanding device paired with the Covid lockdown desire to travel, and how nice it would be to travel.
“I didn’t really have the whole story worked out, I just had the initial idea of someone coming across this book in the real world — and it kind of wrote itself from there. I just let it run and see what happened. “And when you have that initial idea, sort of certain things come almost logically after that — is it the only book? Probably not. Where did the books come from? If there are other books like this, do people want them? These sorts of things — these blanks get filled in by themselves.” Gareth told how while all of the magical books and their various powers were fun to write, there is one in particular that stood out as a favourite. He said,“it has to be The Book of Doors, because that’s where it started from; that came from my love of travel. My wife and I love traveling, but hate planes and airports. “It was just that idea of — that section near the start, where Cassie was just, playing with the book and going,‘what would I do if I had the book and go to the places that I love?’ That was fun. “And all the books were fun [to write]. What I enjoyed about them was discovering what books were were — but also thinking about how you could use books in an interesting way? How would you use it in a way that maybe isn’t the obvious way to use it?
“It was fun for me. It was like, ‘what are the magic spells? What can you do?’
“But the book of doors, that’s probably the favourite one of my mine — because that’s the one that started it all.”
As for where he would go — or what he would do — if he was able to use the book of doors himself, Gareth told how there were a few things that immediately came to mind.
He said,“my wife’s from Malaysia originally, and the food over there is amazing. So, if I could open the door and pop over there — there’s a lovely restaurant on the beach in her home town that does laksa, and it’s their speciality.
“If I could open the door and go there for lunch right now, I’d quite happily do that and then pop back for my afternoon meeting.
“Or maybe open another door and go for a walk around Tokyo or Newyork, or something, and have a nice drink and then come back here for bed.
“I love cities. I love traveling, frankly — and I could go anywhere.
“And I sort of talk about this in the book, the mundane practicalities of every day life. If I had a Book of Doors, I wouldn’t have to get a train to Glasgow every time I had to go to Glasgow — I’d just have to open my door.”
“The mundane things like that, which are not glamorous and not sexy, would be brilliant.”
And Gareth shared who would be his dreamcast if The Book of Doors were to make the move from the page to the screen one day — and some of the famous faces that he pictured while he was thinking of while writing the book.
He said,“it’s probably a bit of a cliché, but I think Drummond Fox is probably David Tennant — maybe that’s a bit too obvious. Somebody else suggested that to me after reading it, and I could see what they mean.
“I would think for Drummond Fox, any sort of good character actor — they don’t have to be Scottish — like Michael Sheen, or somebody like that would be great as Drummond Fox.
“For Cassie, I’ve got no idea. For Izzy, I always imagined her as a young Marisa Tomei when she was in My Cousinvinny — a young, Italian-american woman.
“For Hugo Barbary, he doesn’t physically match, but for some reason I was always thinking of Stanley Tucci. That sort of bald, handsome, with glasses sort of styling — but Hugo Barbary is a much bigger man than I think Stanley Tucci is.
“For The Woman, I always imagined her to be one of these sort of beautiful but quite fragile sort of looking actresses — like a Natalie Portman or Millie Bobby Brown type.
“I mean, that’s the most ridiculous cast list — you’d never get all of those people — but those are the sort of people I would have in mind.”
Gareth opened up about the reactions in the lead-up to the book’s release, and how there’s been “great reviews”so far.
He said,“i think what’s good for me is finding an audience. I was probably a bit concerned that — I like books that jump between genres and do different things.
“That is one that has got some horror bits in it, but it’s definitely got a sort of thriller feel — and it’s also got that sort of magical fantasy thing.
“I could see how some people who might like one or two of those things, but not all three of them, it might be difficult for them.
“But it seems to be finding the people who are understanding what it is trying to do, with is good for me — and people are enjoying it.”
As for whether there could be more adventures set in the realm of The
Book of Doors, Gareth said that would “happily revisit”the world one day — and“definitely”has some ideas of where things could go.
He said,“for the UK and the US, I have a contract for a second book but it’s not necessarily a sequel. We’re in discussion about what the second book would be.
“I don’t think it’s going to be a direct sequel, but if I get a chance to write more books I would happily do it.
“There are other special books out there to be discovered by the book hunters and there are things that could be done.
“There are hints in The Book of Doors about where the plot might go, and there’s things that are left unresolved that are slightly below the surface.
“I would happily revisit that world, if people want me to.”
The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown, published by Bantam, is available on February 15.
i wanted to get it down. i was excited...”