Tim Bowler
About Author
Tim Bowler was born and brought up in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, the setting of his first novel, Midget. On leaving school he studied Swedish and Scandinavian Studies at East Anglia University, and lived for a while in Sweden. He then worked in a number of fields, including forestry and the timber trade, and spent seven years as a teacher. By the time he left teaching, Tim had become Head of Modern Languages at a school in Newton Abbot, Devon.
Tim is now a full-time writer and lives in Devon.
Tim has won numerous awards for his novels: the prestigious Carnegie Medal for his third book, River Boy, and both the Angus Book Award and the Lancashire Libraries Children's Book Award for his fourth novel, Shadows. His fifth novel, Storm Catchers, won the South Lanarkshire Book Award and the Stockton Libraries Award. Starseeker was shortlisted for the Lancashire Libraries Children's Book Award.
Author link
Interview
NIGHT RUNNER
PUBLISHED BY OUP
JULY 2014
Zinny's life changes dramatically after his house is burgled and he spots someone watching his family home from the shadows.... His family is under threat and with his mum and dad both keeping secrets from him, Zinny doesn't know which way to turn. Before he knows it, a series of bad decisions have led him to running, night running, for a shadowy group of violent criminals
We spoke to Carnegie-winning author Tim Bowler about his latest novel, which is also the ReadingZone Book Club novel for July.
"Night Runner evolved in exactly the same way as any of my stories", says Bowler, "starting with a small idea which I follow through to see where it goes. I'm not a story teller who likes to plot and plan. The best way to get a rubbish story from me would be to give me a plot and say, follow that. I like the story to develop organically as it goes and I just like to dive in."
With Night Runner, Bowler had had an image of a boy looking out of a window. "I knew he had bunked off school although I didn't know why, and he looks out of the window and sees a guy watching. By the end of chapter one a lot has already happened and by the end of chapter two, he's being told to get into a car by some men but I didn't know who they were or what they wanted."
Bowler believes that stories need to be told as the author writes, that they "don't lend themselves to too much system". He admits that this means he spends a lot of time deleting his work but at the early stages of a story, his focus is to find out what happens, or as he puts it, "First I get it written, then I get it right".
At this stage it's all about the story, finding out what happens, says Bowler. "I'm unconsciously getting into the situation that the boy is in. He has a sports kit although I don't know at this point that he's a runner. I find out, as I write the chapter, that his dad is a drunk who beats him.
"I have written 20 books that way and a lot of writers work that way. It's about handing over to the unconscious part of your self. When you're writing, your instinct takes over and although you may think a chapter is heading in a certain direction, sometimes it wants to go somewhere else and so I follow that. I think that there's a 'true north' to every story and that your deeper self knows it all along."
He adds, "This book begins with Zinny, at a window looking out at a man in the street, and you could take that story in whichever direction you want but you have to trust yourself and find the true north, where your story wants to go, and follow it through."
Even at the end of the story there can be surprises. The ending of Apocalypse, for example, surprised Bowler even as he wrote the very last chapter, despite having written a number of drafts and "knowing where the ending was going". When the final version came to him, Bowler says, "Wherever it came from, I grabbed it as the true ending for the story. I think if you plot too much, the story can lose its power."
Night Runner maintains a sense of rising tension through each chapter as Zinny moves from one crisis to the next, having to make desperate decisions to protect his family as the stakes rise ever higher. Bowler is keenly conscious of the pace of his stories and will try to keep a reader gripped on every page, even on every paragraph."
"It's instinct, constantly sitting on my shoulder," he says. "I want the text to be as tight as it can be and I'm always looking for the next thing to shock you but not in a gratuitous way, it's pure story telling but you need to have it instinctively in you. I don't add unnecessary things but every moment, I want there to be something happening, I want the reader to be gripped," he explains. "Even if you're writing a descriptive piece where two people are leaning against a gate and looking at the sky, there has to be a sense of movement in the story."
Getting under the skin of a character and finding out who they are and what drives them is key for Bowler, who has already written a number of psychological thrillers. He says, "I want to write about people and the human condition - here is a boy called Zinny whose mum and dad are falling apart because of drink and because the mum has a secret, while Zinny is getting bullied. He's not street smart; he's a fast runner but he's not a fighter. He's trying to keep his family together, despite everything, which shows a lot of courage."
But while he's keen to explore the human condition, the story always comes first says Bowler. "There has to be a gripping narrative running through the top of the story, each page has to pay its way, but there is also lots of hidden stuff. With great stories you sense the hidden layers underneath and you get more out of it each time you read it. But I'm telling a story first - I'm sitting around a camp fire, people are coming back from hunting and they are tired and just want a good story, so the story, the characters, come first."
The best writers will manage to keep the reader gripped and to bring them to the high point in the story, that moment of epiphany where the story turns. Bowler says, "Every story has its spiritual apex, the moment when everything changes. Very often we see it towards the end of the book and in Night Runner, that is probably the point when everyone turns up for Zinny and they are together in the hospital, even the dad. Until that point is reached, I'm always ratcheting up the tension."
There is more darkness now in teen fiction and the publication of Night Runner, which includes gang violence and a murder, follows on the heels of the debates around Kevin Brooks' The Bunker Diary, which won this year's Carnegie Medal. Bowler says, "The Bunker Diary is a bleak book and it takes darkness much further than I do but I can't think of a more protected place where we can confront things we see in the world around us, except in literature. We experience those things vicariously through the protagonists.
"In Night Runner, a teenager has a gun stuck down his throat and we might disagree with some of the decisions he makes but it's about where the moral template is, which is why the characters survive. Because it's in a narrative, we can relate to it, to those people who are like us. Teenagers can handle writing like this and if they can't then they can close the book; when you're reading, you can always control your own experiences. You don't deal with darkness by avoiding it and in the context of a story, you can approach it and see it through someone else's eyes."
He adds, "If these things happened to us in real life they would be unbearable but in the context of a story, they help us to explore the human condition. I can't think of a single subject I wouldn't tackle because I knew a young person was going to read the story. It's about how things are portrayed. Look at Hamlet and the Revenger's Tragedy, and at real life stories. What is heroic about the Titanic and Scott in Antartica? They all die, but the hope is in the bravery of those people and in the fact that they are still being talked about."
Unlike The Bunker Diary, the ending of Night Runner does provide answers and there is a sense of hope for Zinny and his family, but Bowler does not feel compelled to give happy endings, just satisfying ones. He says, "I feel I must write a truthful ending and if one of the main characters had needed to get killed, that is what would have happened.
"I just think that teenaged readers especially are hard-wired to, and have a nose for, humbug and if you put in a Disney ending, they would have accused me of a loss of nerve. I'd much rather have a truthful ending than be an over-protective guardian of literature. If a reader doesn't like the ending, they might tell me what they think; they wouldn't be damaged by it. I like happy endings but you can't just have feel-good stories. Comedies make you laugh, tragedies make you think, and we need all those different kinds of stories."
There is more willingness now from publishers to publish books that are edgier it took Kevin Brooks ten or 12 years to have The Bunker Diary published. "The fact that it has now been published means that there are people are willing to read it. But publishers are also very pragmatic about what is on their lists," says Bowler. "They have to sell books. There are some great YA authors creating demanding books and I love that people like Patrick Ness, Melvin Burgess and Kevin Brooks, and it is great that teenaged readers now have access to that quality of literature."
Bowler has just finished writing Game Changer, a short thriller about a boy who is frightened of going outside and, when he does eventually do so, he witnesses an atrocity committed by people who are now after him. It will be published by OUP in March 2015. Bowler also has "another huge novel on the go for teenagers", and he is writing a novel for younger readers aged nine to 12 years, the first time he has moved into the younger age range.
Having been writing stories since he was five years old, Bowler finds it hard to "take big breaks" from writing. He lives and works in a small Devonshire village and sets himself targets for each day to write or edit a certain number of words. "I need to write in complete silence and isolation so I have a bolt hole that I go to every day, in my village, a wooden shed, where I write and do my monthly video pod casts," he says. "It's very quiet, I just have ducks for company you can see a picture of it on my website." (www.timbowler.co.uk). He also travels to do workshops and talks.
When he does want to relax, he turns to physical sports like squash he is part of a local team that has been playing together for 30 years now - and also enjoys watching sport. He does yoga and is passionate about classical music - but his absolute passion is writing. "I've been writing stories since I was five years old although I only started being published when I was 40. I write unconditionally and I hope that somewhere, people will pick up my books and enjoy them. My sense is that you just need to write your stories or your symphonies, or whatever you're creating, with integrity and someone, somewhere, will pick it up, read it and enjoy it."
GENERAL INTERVIEW
Could you tell us a bit about yourself...
"I was born in Leigh-on-Sea and as a boy spent most of my spare time either in or on the water. I had a little sailing boat and used to love exploring the Thames estuary or sailing up the east coast with my parents.
I'm sport mad and used to be a good football and basketball player when I was at school. I'm also very keen on squash and play for a men's team in my local area. I studied Swedish at university and lived for a year in Sweden.
I moved to Devon in 1983 and have lived there ever since. I've had lots of jobs. I've been a building site labourer, a postman, a barman, a waiter, a shipping clerk, a forester, an ice cream van driver, a timber salesman, a trainee removals manager, a teacher and a translator. I've written compulsively since I was five.
Before I became a full-time writer, I had to fit my writing round all those other jobs so I used to get up early and write between three and seven in the morning. I also became quite clever at finding opportunities during the working day to write. I'd write on park benches in the lunch hour or during any slack moments at work and while commuting.
My first novel was called Midget and it took me ten years to finish. It was published in 1994. I've written several more novels since then including: Dragon's Rock, River Boy, Shadows, Storm Catchers, Starseeker and Apocalypse."
Describe yourself in three words . . .
"Friendly, passionate, driven."
What kind of person were you at school . . .
"Sporty, well-behaved, unremarkable academically except in foreign languages and storytelling."
Any advice to aspiring authors. . .
"Write, write, write. Practise your craft. Don't give up when the going gets tough. It gets tough for everyone. Writing is hard. It takes patience, persistence and as much self-belief as you can muster. If you have the talent, it will come out eventually as long as you keep the words coming. So write, write, write."
What did you want to be as a child . . .
"A writer."
What book did you most enjoy writing . . .
"They were all difficult but all enjoyable in different ways. River Boy was the least trouble. Once I worked out what I wanted to say, the story seemed to flow."
What is the best thing about being an author . . .
"Seeing a story come alive, especially after you've been struggling with it."
How do you relax . . .
"I play squash, go walking, listen to music, play the piano, read, practise yoga, go to the theatre or a concert, watch a movie, spend time with family and friends."
What could you not live without . . .
"Coffee ice cream."
What do you have on your desk . . .
"Lots of things including a large model train that I use to prop up my laptop lid. The hinges are faulty and without the train behind the lid, it would flop right down to the table."
Who from the past would you most like to have met . . .
"Loads of people but I'd particularly love to have met Shakespeare, the composer Joseph Haydn and the diarist Samuel Pepys."
And what would you ask them . . .
"That would be telling!"
Night Runner
