Alexandra Peel is a multi-genre self-published author who discovered her passion for writing after a long career working within the art world. We here at What We Reading sat down to ask about everything from growing in Liverpool, the rise of self-published authors and how sniffing in shops can lead to inspiration!
Thanks for speaking with us, Alexandra! First off, tell us a bit about yourself and what led you to the world of writing.
Hi, and thanks for inviting me to discuss my work. I grew up in Liverpool, UK in the 1970s – a time of upheaval, strikes, high unemployment, bread queues, power cuts and bins piled high with rubbish, and IRA bombings. Great times. Really, as a child, all the political stuff didn’t really hit home and it seemed like long summer days roaming the streets, cycling, playing British Bulldog, Space Hoppers etc.
There were a lot of families on our road so there was always someone to play with. However, even though I had plenty of friends, I recognised that they weren’t quite ‘like me’.
I was obsessed with drawing, crafting, making and creating anything. I was also a pretty keen amateur gardener because of my dad. My parents were extremely strict, like something from Victorian England – spare the rod, spoil the child was probably my dad’s personal motto! So, not the free and easy 70s people imagine.
Aged 18, I left home and studied for a B.A. (Hons) in Fine Art. Proceeded to be a sculptor, then an oil painter, and then specialised in acrylics. I had some exhibitions and a few sales, but never enough to make a living.
After almost 20 years of applying myself to the craft of painting, I attended a Steampunk convention and met writers for the first time. I went to a workshop run by Sam Stone, horror/Steampunk author, wrote an introductory piece and was encouraged to complete it. From that point, I dropped the visual arts to begin writing. I was about 40 years old. I had my first short horror story published in the Game Over anthology in 2015.
Talk to us about Sticks And Stones. What is it about, and how does it differ from your other works?
So, Sticks & Stones came about from a single story. I am a member of the Wirral Writers Club, and we hold an annual in-house competition. We start with a theme or tagline, or image.
That year I think it was something to do with an emotion. I wrote a tale of a young trainee witch and the appalling woman who had trained her and abused her. I really felt it needed to be about revenge – perhaps I was getting my own back on the adults of my childhood, haha!
The two characters in the titular story are unnamed and live in a tiny shack on a coastline. It was very influenced by Dylan Thomas poetry. I’ve been accused of writing ‘purple prose’, and that’s okay. I think my overly descriptive style came from being a visual artist and a very tactile person.
I decided a couple of years later to try and create my own anthology. I chose the theme of witches and the craft, as they do have an almost eternal appeal – for the British population at least. But I wanted to write them differently – not comic grotesque caricatures. These were real people, to me. Each story is short and very different from each other.
The Cusp, for example, is about choices, just because one has the ability to save a life, should they? Rescuing Robert is based on a real-life person, who did experience the visions told in this tale. Cwmdonkin Park is a poem to Dylan Thomas, imagining the actual moment he becomes a poet, through meeting the goddess Ceridwen – how pretentious!
Sticks & Stones features witches from across time and place and is, for me, more about the textures and feel of the events, and less about the story as it is in later works. I think all the witches are strong women, who make their own decisions, and take action; apart from the nun in There’s Rosemary…but is she really a witch?!
By contrast, The Floating Church novella has a protagonist who doesn’t make choices, and who is almost powerless, until the very end.
“I think my overly descriptive style came from being a visual artist and a very tactile person.”
What do you think makes you stand out as an author? Are you someone who throws themselves into the stories they write?
I’m not sure that I do stand out! That sounds pathetic, I know. I can imagine people saying, as they read this, then why bother?!
I came to writing late, so I still consider myself a beginner, maybe an intermediate writer. I create believable and interesting characters, I don’t mean that any are all-out action heroes – although, in my Steampunk collection, The Life and Crimes of Lockhart & Doppler, the title characters are action adventure types – if not entirely heroic; they’re thieves calling themselves treasure hunters.
I do think that I write original stories -at least, as original as one can be when there’s no such thing as originality. They’re unique, my characters. I do good worldbuilding too. I enjoy making maps and creating places – cities, rivers, towns, even though the reader never sees them.
Talk to us about one of your biggest successes so far.
One personal success was getting the steampunk duology, Beneath the Skin completed and self-published. This was the story that had begun as an introductory paragraph at that Steampunk convention, years earlier.
I couldn’t afford to pay for anyone to do anything such as editing, proofreading, cover design and layout. I did it all myself. I taught myself to use Photoshop in my spare time at work and designed the covers for both books.
Even if not many people have read it, I was so engaged with that project it was all-consuming. When I am writing I am very in the moment with my characters, it’s as though I kind of zone out and I am there. For the second book, I already knew exactly what Mr Nightingale (one antagonist in book two), and The Gentlemen would be like before I wrote any of their scenes and I think they work well.
I thoroughly enjoyed writing the scenes of all the antagonists in both books – the unnamed Paris Strangler, Mr Nightingale, and the Gentlemen. A lot of people say they enjoy writing or acting as the villain. It’s a fantastic way to get something out of one’s system!
I love that both books have a female, non-white heroine – I know some people might say this is appropriation, but, at the time I wrote this I had seen very few steampunk books with non-white protagonists – it seems to be a world populated by white men and women in England. I wanted to take that away and create a new heroine.
I will say here that I did send extracts to some contacts from India or with Indian heritage, to get their blessing as it were. They all said everything was acceptable because of the time period – there are a couple of racist comments included. They had no issue with a white woman writing this character.
People who have read it have thoroughly enjoyed it by the way. Wink, wink!
“I am very in the moment with my characters, it’s as though I kind of zone out and I am there.”
If you could go back in time to one book you read for the first time, what would it be and why?
Perfume, by Patrick Suskind, definitely.
Growing up, we didn’t have many books in our house. A Philip’s Encyclopaedia, a family Bible, a road atlas, and a couple of Reader’s Digests (my dad’s). School reading was fine, apart from the dreary poetry (what I thought as a 15-year-old), and Shakespeare’s sonnets. I enjoyed Lord of the Flies though.
From university onwards, I have always read. Amongst friends, we shared titles – no ebooks then, and so my education began. I have read some wonderful books, biography, fantasy, historical, and humorous.
Then, one year, my husband bought me Perfume. He said that I was obsessed with smells – I do have a habit of sniffing things in shops, or the air when out walking. The first page had me utterly entranced. Here was someone writing about my most powerful sense. It was grubby and horrible and I could smell the fishy women and their breath. It’s delightful. It’s horrific. My perfect balance of lovely prose and hideous goings-on.
What do you think is the biggest obstacle facing independent and aspiring authors these days?
The amount of writers.
Back in the 80s, when I was painting and being a Community Artist, this weird thing happened. Art suddenly became a thing that everyone and anyone could do. Art was not just for the artist, the person who had trained and applied themselves for years. Whatever a person created was ‘valid’. Workshops sprang up all over England, encouraging people to create, paint, throw pots, whatever – it was all art. Now that’s a separate argument for another time, but this I think has seeped into all creative activities.
Anyone can write. Of course they can – but can they write well? And who is to be the judge of quality? With the advent of sites like Amazon, Lulu and Smashwords, anyone can publish a book. The UK has always produced a large quantity of literature – for the size of the population, but since the advent of social media, it feels like an explosion of writers. I recently read someone’s tweet that said that it felt like those who shouted loudest were getting the attention and sales, they aren’t necessarily the best writers.
So, yeah, quantity.
I’m not a fan of self-publicity, I just want to be left alone to write, so all this social media stuff can get a bit too much at times. I am constantly bombarded with unsolicited emails from people or companies, who want to promote my books. It’s a daily occurrence. Of course, they want paying, but I can’t afford that – so if you’re a promoter reading this, please stop contacting me, I can’t afford you.
If you could go back in time and give your younger self one tip, what would it be?
Ooo! Now if I said, don’t study art at university, study English instead, I would never have met my husband! This is hard…
Start earlier, writing that is. If I had begun writing whilst at uni, or just after, I would be a lot more experienced by now. I know it’s never too late, but I do feel the approach of old age, advancing inexorably, quicker and quicker. Both my parents are dead, so I’m essentially ‘Next in Line’.
So, yeah, begin writing earlier.
And finally, what do you hope the future holds for you and your writing?
Firstly, that I will improve, hone my craft, to create something that I can look at and honestly say it is a great piece of writing – even if it doesn’t garner a huge amount of attention.
Secondly, that I can produce a piece of writing that many people will read and say, ‘That’s a great book.’
Follow Alexandra and her work at @AlexandraPeel and her website
Check out our interview with John Blackwood
Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
