An interview with Allen Ashley
by Stuart Young

Allen Ashley's collection of short stories Somnambulists is published on 1st August 2004 by Elastic Press. Allen is currently editing another possibly unique project - The Elastic Book of Numbers, due for publication in early 2005. Allen's stories and articles feature regularly in The Third Alternative, Dark Horizons, etc. He has message boards www.ttapress.com and www.elasticpress.com. So get in touch!

Stuart Young: Welcome to tonight’s edition of Insipid! The quiz show where contestants answer questions on the most trivial and insignificant subjects possible in the hopes of making the audience forget that their lives are essentially meaningless! Now let’s meet our contestant for tonight. And what’s your name young man?

Allen Ashley: Allen Ashley.

SY: And your specialist subject is?

AA: The life and works of Allen Ashley.

SY: Whew, talk about an insignificant subject. Okay, first question You’re currently editing The Elastic Book of Numbers. Are you enjoying this new role?

AA: It’s fantastic, though not entirely new as I’ve done a bit before with ‘Roadworks’ and ‘TTA’. I’m trying to treat everybody with the degree of integrity I’d expect from any decent editor, which is why every author receives a personal response. Sifting through a stack of submissions offers a fascinating snapshot of who’s writing what at the moment. It’s particularly exciting to read finely-crafted stories from new or relatively unknown authors - the editorial holy grail, I suppose. Also, if I can identify how and why other writers aren’t managing to develop their stories to the best potential, maybe I can apply those insights to my own fiction. That’s the theory, anyhow.

SY: So which do you enjoy most? Editing or writing? And within the realms of writing do you prefer short stories, novels, poetry, non-fiction or graffiti?

AA: I’ve always written and I always will. I suppose short stories are my specialism, but for a long time I produced and performed reams of poems and song lyrics. Non-fiction keeps one ticking over, the naan bread or rice accompaniment to the spicier dishes, if you like. But I've got the editing bug good and proper now so I don’t intend to stop that either. Regarding editing, I was going to say that this is a pleasure which comes with experience and maturity but the facts - a teenage Michael Moorcock running ‘Tarzan Stories’ back in the sixties, people such as young Gary Fry today at ‘Fusing Horizons’ - don't bear out such ageism. With graffiti, I presume you’re not talking about defacing Blair’s election posters with ‘Stop The War’ or ‘Troops Out Of Iraq Now’. Having been a victim of graffiti, I will say categorically: To hell with political correctness and the so-called voice of the unrepresented - graffiti is the visual and verbal vomit of ignorant morons. Dodo-ish enough for you, Stu?

SY: Your collection of short stories, Somnambulists, is due out from Elastic Press this year. How would you describe the stories in the collection? (Bonus points are awarded if you manage to describe the book without sounding smug or self-congratulatory.)

AA: I think people are going to be surprised. Despite my stated aim to make my work recognisable to the extent that one could remove the by-line and still recognise it as an Allen Ashley story, the pieces showcased in ‘Somnambulists’ represent probably the broadest selection yet in a single-author collection from the mighty Elastic Press. From 100 words to 8000, from The Great War to a reality-shifted London via near future speculation, skewed fairy tale and Biblical Judea. Plus plenty of the expected philosophising upon modern urban life. This is why we went for the curio cabinet cover - because the book contains so many toys and treasures.

SY: A few years back you wrote the spoof ‘The Thin Man’s Guide To Slipstream.’ You seem to embrace the non-genre whilst simultaneously keeping it at a distance. Why is this?

AA: Way back in the early days of ‘TTA’, I felt everyone was getting a little po-faced about the whole slipstream debate and I was just having a bit of fun. I don't conform to strict genre rules so ‘Slipstream’ is a handy shorthand for what I do. Deep down, though, I probably still see myself as an atavistic New Wave Science Fiction author. Truth is, I’ve missed that particular boat so I put myself forward as someone to help build the new literary Ark. Even if all I did was say, ‘Now I do not believe you wanted to write it that way!’

SY: Your novel The Planet Suite received some very flattering reviews. Have you any plans for more novels?

AA: Yes I did secure some very flattering reviews for The Planet Suite but for all sorts of complicated reasons, it didn’t catapult me as high up in the firmament as I’d hoped. What disappoints me to this day is that it is my firm belief that mine was the first successful attempt to write and publish a set of linked stories about all the planets of the solar system and I should have received more credit for that. Occasionally there is something new under the sun and that something is ‘The Planet Suite’. Apart from the above, there’s my psychological horror novel Inside The Viper which was due to go to press but the publishers hit financial difficulties. It needs updating a little but is available for consideration if anybody’s listening out there! I’ve also got a few ideas which are at what I’d call ‘the 40 page stage’. I do intend to bring all these projects to fruition one day soon. Hopefully, ‘Somnambulists’ will have the desired snowball effect.

SY: You’ve written several stories that parody popular culture, ‘Harry Pothole’, ‘Bridget Jones in Space’, when doing so are you holding up a mirror to modern society to highlight its shallowness and inadequacies? Or are you just after a cheap laugh?

AA: They’re a bit of fun but maybe also a slightly jealous response along the lines of, ‘Why is such essentially unoriginal work garnering such praise and popularity when I’m busting a gut trying to do something new?’ I mean, come on - ‘Bridget Jones’ - neurotic young Hampstead woman keeps a confessional journal; ‘Harry Potter’ - Famous Five go to wizard boarding school. If I was Jill Murphy (‘The Worst Witch’) I would be spitting pins. OK, having now alienated everybody in the BFS, I have to admit that my penchant for parody and pastiche doesn’t end with ‘Harry Pothole’ and ‘Bridget Jones In Space’. I’ve even written stories in the style of J. G. Ballard and Des Lewis - and I love those guys, they’re my literary heroes!

SY: You like to play around with different formats within your stories; using scripts, letters etc. What is the appeal of this approach?

AA: Sorry, Stu, but it’s not playing around. Of course, I refuse restrictions on what forms are and are not acceptable within short stories. Again, people like Ballard, Moorcock, Vonnegut and the broad ‘New Wave SF’ church opened the doors here. In my defence, most of my stories are actually fairly linear and they all have proper endings! Largely, I follow the demands of the particular story. For example, ‘Pumpkin Coach’ is set in a TV newsroom so unfolds mostly as a drama script. ‘Life And Trials’ is posited on the handbill proclamation ‘Ben Grocott Is Innocent’ so takes the form of letters and court reports. I’m quite instinctive about how I present a story - it’s not rocket science! I’d like to bury once and for all any notion that my work is difficult. Read ‘Somnambulists’ and find out I’m right about this.

SY: In the past you’ve worked as a music critic and football journalist. Did this influence your fiction writing?

AA: It all feeds in. There’s a small amount of music criticism in ‘The Planet Suite’ and one phrase I picked up at a football match. Perhaps the best influence is learning to hit deadlines consistently. Regularity and reliability aren’t always eye-catching but are important qualities nonetheless. Sometimes I worry, though, that my character dooms me to always be Lee Dixon or Gary Neville rather than a wayward genius such as Gazza or George Best!

SY: What does the typical Allen Ashley groupie look like?

AA: Do you know any? Make sure they come to my book launch.

SY: Is it better to write a story at the computer or in longhand?

AA: Whatever feels right at the time. Don’t make excuses or employ avoidance strategies along the lines of ‘I can only use an Apple Mac / I must have American A4 paper’. I occasionally use a Dictaphone. It worked for Edgar Rice Burroughs and there the similarity ends!

SY: Which author do you think has done the most harm in terms of putting people off the idea of reading books?

AA: None. These days there are so many factors mitigating against developing and maintaining healthy reading habits. Goldfish attention culture and intrusive noise cover most of them. All right, as you’ve forced my hand, I’ll say Jordan, the Beckhams and their ilk. People who don’t read - possibly can’t read - but whose ‘books’ are pushing real authors out into the margins.

SY: If you could napalm either the Big Brother house or the Pop Idol studio which would you choose?

AA: I've never seen ‘Pop Idol’ so I wouldn’t know about that nonsense. Why stop at ‘Big Brother’? Why stop at napalm? Bring back ‘Night Thoughts’, the test card and ‘Doctor Who’, I say!

SY: In The Third Alternative you use your regular column in ‘The Dodo has Landed’ to constantly bemoan the mediocrity of modern existence. Is there any aspect of modern life you don’t moan about?

AA: Plenty. The Premiership, and particularly the unbeaten Arsenal team of 2003-4, is better than football ever was back in the black and white days. Anyway, the theme of ‘The Dodo’ is cautionary: simply that not all change is progressive. One quick example - Directory Enquiries. Wasn’t it easier, simpler and cheaper when you just dialled 192?

SY: You’ve also written several articles, guest editorials, soapbox features, readers letters etc. You just have too many opinions to be confined to one puny column don’t you?

AA: Not at all. I’m actually very tolerant and easy-going. I’ve discovered that I’m also reactive (NOT reactionary) so that I don’t always consciously know my opinion until I’m forced by circumstances to declare.

SY: And just to end on a cheerful note, what would you like inscribed on your gravestone?

AA: Perhaps ‘He was so close to achieving actual immortality’. Or else, ‘999 Not Out’. But more likely ‘Slipstream died with him’!!

SY: Ooo, I’m afraid that’s the wrong answer. So unfortunately you’ve failed to win tonight’s star prize of going on to fame and fortune as a best-selling author. But you have won the consolation prize an interview in the latest edition of Prism!

(Waves enthusiastically to camera as the credits start to roll. Turns to offer Allen mock sympathy as the credits start to roll but Allen knocks him to the ground and stomps repeatedly on his head.)