Sitting in his living room, Chris Buckley describes his decision to move here four years ago from the U.K. with his two children after seeing a documentary about Newfoundland on television. The family visited for a weekend, attended the Brigus Blueberry Festival and knew they’d found a new place to call home.
“I think the quality of life here is a hundredfold to the U.K.,” said Buckley. “To be able to come to a place where the pace of life is a lot slower allows me to do the day job, and in my own time just to think and spend time not having to rush around doing stuff.”
It was only a few months after moving here that Buckley sat down at his desk in his Paradise home, logged on to Facebook and typed out a “status update” that would change the lives of two men who barely knew each other:
“I have an idea for a book. Who wants to help me write it?” he wrote.
The answer came a day or so later from Phil Marshall — a friend back in the U.K. The two knew each other from their children being in the same class.
“We used to just have brief conversations with each other — hellos, holidays, all that kind of stuff,” said Buckley.
The topics had never drifted too far off — Buckley never knowing Marshall had done a bit of writing on the side, and Marshall not knowing Buckley had a bank of ideas waiting to be cashed in.
After Marshall’s email, they recognized the potential of combining each other’s strengths. It took a few months for the name Marshall Buckley to emerge, but they agreed to become writing partners and haven’t looked back.
“It’s having two smart minds work on something rather then have one smart mind work on something, because collectively together we’re better then the sum of the parts,” said Buckley.
Marshall cites authors Chris Brookmyer, Richard Laymon, Terry Pratchett and Dean Koontz among his influences, whereby Buckley doesn’t read or watch too much television or film, which means “none of my influences are from things that I’ve seen or read.”
Separated by an ocean and living in different time zones, “Marshall Buckley” got straight to work on the first book, “The Long Second,” by communicating through instant messaging, Skype and their smart phones.
Even 2,500 miles apart, they’re probably in more constant contact than if they lived down the road from each other, said Buckley.
The book follows a process whereby Buckley sends the ideas to Marshall to write, and then Buckley edits it after.
They discuss if it’s following the story map before going to the next chapter.
“He’ll ask me where it should go, what the idea is, for a cast list and he’ll enhance it … and between the two of us we come up with this story that’s better than if it was just one of us,” said Buckley.
“It’s quite unique the way all this works, in that by the end of the book all the proofing and that has been done because we do it as we go.”
Rookie authors can take several months or even years writing a new book, but again Marshall Buckley broke the mould. “The Long Second” was finished in exactly two months, at a whopping 115,000 words, or 500 pages.
“The style of writing , the subject matter and the characters will fit very nicely with how Newfoundlanders are — I think they’ll be interested in the characters because they’re quintessentially British, ‘right now’ type people,” said Buckley.
He said it differs from other books because it doesn’t target a specific demographic, and both his 14-year-old daughter and 80-year-old mother loved it.
“The Long Second” tells the story of Tony Cole, an ordinary guy who has the ability to travel back in time. It’s far from the typical sci-fi novels that have tackled time-travel before. Marshall Buckley throws in a crook father, a high-rolling brother and even a sister involved in the local gang. Cole sets out to right the the wrongs of his family, but encounters some difficulty.
“It’s got all the right messages in there, but on the other hand, it has all the things it shouldn’t have in there — there’s sex, there’s fraud, there’s jail, we refer to the economic downturn.”
“The Long Second” and subsequent books written by Marshall Buckley, including the sequel “Broken,” is a style in the U.K. known as grime writing. The authors hope it will catch on in Canada.
“The kind of ‘grime’ writing aspect of it is very raw, very fresh, it’s new … and new is not wrong,” said Buckley. “I don’t think there’s anything here in Canada that fits the writing style of ‘The Long Second.’”
Grime writing puts a stronger focus on the characters as they interact in what Buckley calls the “here and now.”
Buckley said he takes inspiration from people he has met, but none of the characters in the novels are directly related.
“You generally go through life collecting people … people with different traits, skills, intelligence levels,” said Buckley. “You can take from that bank of people that you’ve come across in your life to build some really interesting characters.”
“The Long Second” successfully secured an agent in Paris, France, a short while after it was completed, but had difficulty finding a publisher because they were still unknown authors.
The authors struggled with what step to take next as they worked on a sequel, and a separate book called “Adam’s Game” — a post-apocolypctic story of how it would be if everyone on the Earth disappeared.
They finally decided on self-publishing — aware of the stigma attached to the decision — but not wanting their work to go to waste,
“Self-publishing is a facility to help people who have written a book that’s good, and to get it out there for the masses,” said Buckley.
Versions of their book are available in paperback and digital download for Kindle, both from the Amazon website. To set themselves apart they also offer personalized dedications in the digital version, and are considering the idea of changing character names to personalize the experience for their readers.
It’s all to “make the reading experience better for somebody who has made the decision to find us, buy our book, read our book.”
Talking to Buckley, you can hear the enthusiasm in his voice for the writing process and the finished work. He’s also never short on ideas for the books.
“Sometimes Phil will say to me, ‘Stop giving me ideas. I already have a hundred in the think- tank.’ So I’ll stop giving him ideas,” said Buckley.
The authors are now writing the final book in “The Long Second” trilogy, with nearly 10 chapters already complete. There is also talk of turning the books into video games, or a screenplay.
“We’ve already given thought to who would play which characters,” said Buckley.
Many of the names are from popular U.K. television series.
Buckley said the move to Newfoundland has absolutely driven his own creative process — spending time on the East Coast Trail, Flatrock or Pouch Cove watching whales.
“This is what life should be about,” said Buckley. “Being able to do things that you can’t do where you’re from, like going to Middle Cove beach and having a fire and cooking some burgers. It’s fantastic.”
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Hi Biff, They don't receive The Telegram in the UK, so that's good then.