Holme Valley-based writer James Waddington’s latest literary venture is a labour love –- as well as writing and editing it he also designed the cover for the book, and set every last letter, comma and full stop of the type himself. He told VAL JAVIN about the pains and pleasures of writing

‘In the week when the Booker Prize shortlist was announced, the autobiography of celebrity Jordan outsold the entire shortlist’

JAMES Waddington has an enviable skill with words.

He has had plays on at the Edinburgh Fringe and at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith. His novel Bad To The Bone, a surreal comedy based on the toughest sporting event of them all, the Tour De France, received international coverage and admiring reviews.

And you might just get him James, of Honley, to admit that he’s “OK” at writing short stories too.

What has been taxing his literary talent more recently though is his latest project, the creation of a complete book of short stories.

You suspect that it has been a labour of love as well as a steep learning curve for this retired lecturer, whose day job was once teaching literary theory to students.

For as well as conceiving the ideas for all 15 pieces in this newly published collection of short stories, James has written and edited them, designed the cover for the book and set every last letter, comma and full stop of the type himself.

James has been involved in the creative world for long enough to have had few illusions about just how taxing it is getting into print.

He knows only too well that the market is a tricky place and though setting up your own press might seem an extreme measure there is a perfect logic to it.

“It is difficult to say that today is a difficult time to get into print. It has always been difficult. But today the market is for mass sales and the interesting, slightly eccentric writer who is not going to sell huge numbers is marginalised.”

And he points out as an example that in the week when the Booker Prize shortlist was announced the autobiography of celebrity Jordan outsold the entire shortlist.

In the first week of October 13,000 books were published. One of them was James’s collection of short stories, which he has named Torc and which he has published under the banner of Ogo Press.

“I did it by trial and error. I used an open source typesetting programme on my computer. I’ve taught myself how to do it.

“I made up the name of someone who had done the design because it looked naff putting my name on it.

“I also learned a lot about what it must be like to run a small business and what it must be like if you were dependent on it.

“There has always been that question about whether this is vanity publishing. I feel that I have proved myself with the novel and with the plays and the fact that some of the stories had already been published.

James began writing plays in the early Nineties and with a rehearsed reading at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds, plus successful outings for his work in Edinburgh and Hammersmith, was clearly a talent to watch.

But James had other ideas.

“I realised that to go any further I would have to devote myself to it 24 hours a day.”

At the time James was lecturing to students at Bretton Hall College in drama and English.

“I probably kept that up until 1996, when I retired from proper work. It’s more about enjoyment now.”

And he admits that there were other avenues of writing that he wanted to explore.

“I wrote short stories and a few novels. I wrote Back To The Bad, which wasn’t a huge financial success but got hugely good reviews in Italy, France and in England.

“My son found that an American college swimming team took its motto from the book.

“Seeing the book published in Russian was extraordinary too. Seeing your name in the Cyrillic alphabet is quite something.

“My favourite medium is still plays. I think that is what I’m naturally best at. Short stories I’m OK at too.

“I’m not a natural novel writer.’’

Torc, the title short story from which the book derives its cover, is about human sacrifice on a Scandinavian lake in the last decade of the last century. It appeared under another title in 1991.

It is one of a number of stories in the collection that have been published elsewhere. That exposure has made James think still more about those whose writing talents do not reflect current commercial mass market tastes and whose work is therefore being marginalised.

“I’m not going into the publishing business and I’m not looking for other people’s books to publish but I would offer to use my experience with this book to say to people that this is how you do it.

“You can get a book out for about £1,000. I’ve had 500 printed; not that I expect to sell them all in the first year!”

As for the stories themselves here’s what James has to say. “There are a couple of almost formula stories that are funny I think.

“There’s a medieval story about a juggler, a couple about age, one or two are demanding and maybe slightly disturbing. Most, though I cannot say all, are very readable!

“There is no one common theme.’’

And would James do it all again?

“Once this is off my back I might sit down and write some more short stories. I’ve been so bound up with this for the last year. I used to write virtually every morning if we were at home, but it doesn’t guarantee success.”

But yes, somehow I think he would do it all again.