To celebrate the release of his novel The Bird Room, 3:AM’s Chris Killen is “embarking” on an online book tour. So far, he’s called at Dogmatika, Bookmunch and Meet at the Gate, where he catches up with fellow writer Steven Hall:
Steven: I have a really clear memory of reading the first chapter of The Bird Room when you emailed the manuscript to me. I was sitting cross-legged on my living room floor and by the end of the first page I was completely sold. I remember looking across to my girlfriend and saying “Oh, shit. This is really good. Like, really good.” I was amazed when you told me that you hadn’t had any interest from the agents you’d showed it to, because the brilliance of the book is all there the minute you start reading. What the hell’s wrong with the publishing industry, Chris?
Chris: Thank you. That’s very nice of you. I don’t know. I don’t want to sound full of myself but I think The Bird Room is maybe not like other ‘popular’ contemporary novels, or at least not ones in this country. My influences are mostly cult writers. So maybe it was something that people (agents) looked at and were unsure where it would fit in the current scheme of things. It is not set in an exotic location. It is not a coming-of-age novel from a young foreign woman’s point of view. You don’t ‘learn anything’. I don’t know.
I think there are some good small presses in this country — Social Disease, Snowbooks, Salt — that are willing to take some risks.
And there’s Canongate, of course. From meeting them and talking with them, they genuinely seem excited about the idea of taking gambles on things — publishing because they are passionate about something, more than because they think it will sell thousands of copies. I feel very lucky that they read my novel and liked it.
You can catch up with the tour here, read the reviews (thus far) in the Irish Times and, of course, right here on 3:AM.
First posted: Friday, January 23rd, 2009.
