Face of God is an alternative rock band from Finland. The Trio flew to Berlin for performing two shows in the trend locations Comet and Werk 9. Very excited and in a good mood Face of God arrived in the venue Comet. Frontman Leo Stillman enjoyed buying a few jewelry from a street designer next to the location under the bridge (Oberbaumbrücke).
With lullabies, rock ballads and amazing guitar riffs, the Finnish metal band HIM, the inventors of Love Metal, have reinvented themselves once again with Tears On Tape.
With songs like “No Love”, “Love Without Tears” “Drawn And Quartered” and the fantastic instrumentals “Kiss The Void” and “Trapped In Autumn”, they show everyone that they are back and better than ever.
Interview with writer and poet Noel Heart, by Veronica Merlin.
http://noelheartpoet.wordpress.com/
First off, congratulations on the release of your poetry collection: Blue Lips / Acoustic Suicide. Let’s start with the title: what inspired you to name your collection Blue Lips with the subtitle Acoustic Suicide?
I don´t know. Blue Lips is a poem I forgot I ever wrote. I was standing outside Travastia in Helsinki, smoking, looking through the notebook I always carry around with me. I find this poem I had forgotten about. I switched 2 words around and gave it a title. I just knew it was the title. No, it has nothing to do with suicide.
The word “acoustic” makes one think of music. Are you planning on turning any of your poems into songs?
Acoustic is music. I used to play a lot of guitar when I was a teenager, so that is what Acoustic Suicide means to me. But life kind of caught up with me before I knew what was happening. I had a fiancé and 3 kids, and who knows where the guitar was, I can´t remember. So a few years back I bought a new one, the kids were getting bigger, so I would pick it up again.
I am planning to try to turn some of my poems into music. I think the poem “Soft as Tears” could be a fairly good song. But I still don´t get along with my “new” guitar. It is kind of when you get a new cell phone; you walk around it and give it the evil eye, almost consider poking it with a stick if it is making sounds or something like that. No, I just don´t have the time to sit down and start to play.
The cover art, I must say, I love it. Tell me how that drawing came about, and how you ended up using it for your poetry collection?
It is really provoking like the collection itself; it fits each other perfect.
The cover art is made by Pernille Folke and me. It is made back in the summer of 2012, and have been hanging on my wall ever since. I never even consider using it. I had another idea that I believed would be just perfect, but things don´t always go as you plan.
I like the first idea much better, but you called me up and told me you couldn´t make it work, so we tried another drawing, it sucked too, then you called me and said your boyfriend, Aston Merlin from Dark Mare Pictures, had asked why we didn´t used this drawing and added some blue lips on the belly. I loved the idea.
Pernille got the idea from a novel I am writing. I am still just making notes and researching.
So the madness has a deeper meaning.
You dedicated your poetry collection to Next Victory and Brandon Valo Lee, your lost boys. Can you tell us who they are, and why it was important to you to dedicate your first published work to them?
Next Victory is a beautiful trotter (horse) my mother gave me as a gift at my 30 years birthday. Her original plan was to give me a pony, so the kids could ride it, but we found Next and went to look at him. Something just happened that day. It was some kind of weird love at first sight. I was walking on my crutches that day which became Next´s favorite chew toy (he believed himself that he was a tiny little cute dog who could fit in a pocket. He tried to crawl into mine a countless number of times). There was a really special bond between me and Next. He did a lot of funny stuff with everybody else. He refused to lift his right front hoof if it wasn´t me, he sucked on my ear, and when I gave him apples he made sure I ate my bit before giving him the next piece. I had my own bodyguard there for a while, but I was always the one in control. I had to sell him a few months ago because of my bad knee and a riding accident last spring which didn´t involve Next.
Brandon Lee is the actor from the Crow, one of my favorite movies. Brandon was born last summer, and the name started as a joke. My mother bought this pregnant mare, and the first time I saw her I said the foal will be a stallion, he will be black with some white in the head, kind of like the crow, and I will call him Brandon Valo Lee. He was born looking like that, a fun story. He is a rock star. My mother sold him.
So they are my lost boys.
How do you write your poetry? Do you have a creative process like lighting candles or putting on music before you sit down to write, or does it just come to you without preparation?
I have no creative process at all. I just walk around with a notebook all the time and write what comes to mind when it comes to mind.
As a poet who inspired you? Do you read a lot of poetry yourself?
There is a lot that inspires me, the music I listen to, the stuff I read, movies, life etc… I do read some poetry, like Michael Strunge. Allen Edgar Poe. Leonard Cohen etc. I would like to see a poetry collection from Ville Valo someday. That could be very interesting.
Let’s get personal. It is hard to talk about poetry without digging a bit below the surface. A lot of your poems have a dark tone to them, hinting at a time in your life that has been rough. So, basically, tell me a little about yourself and your past.
They are a bit gloomy. My childhood was pretty rough. I had to learn to take care of myself and my siblings very fast. I can´t remember I lived with my parents till I was 7. I know I didn´t live with my grandfather, but I remember it like I did. He is a very important person in my life. He died when I was 16, and I felt like I lost my parents, so in my own opinion I am an orphan. My father accepts it, because he knows he wasn´t there, but he tried his very best. I do not talk much about my mother, but she is here. We don´t get a along very well, and as she says with her own words: she likes her horses better, they don´t talk back. And she never misses a chance to tell me that I wasn´t wanted in the first place.
Without saying too much I can say I had to go through more than most people, and just half of it would kill another person if they had to deal with it.
I am lucky to be alive. When I was about 15, somebody tried to kill me. It does not affect me much, because all the other stuff I have been through is so much worse. It did affect me a little. It is only a few years ago I started to use a scarf again without having the feeling that someone was trying to strangle me.
Because of it all, I choose to use an alias when I write because my private life is very important to me. I have been writing and published under my real name, but things went very fast for me. Suddenly I was an accepted name in some circles, and I got a lot of the crap that comes along, and I didn´t like it. My big passion is to write, and in the end of the day that is what matters.
I tried to use some of the knowledge I have about science and the universe as well in my poetry, and a few philosophical conversations with friends found their way into it as well.
You have chosen to self publish your poetry collection via Lulu and Amazon Kindle. Why not hold on for a publisher to take on your work?
I did. I had a publisher. But we couldn´t agree. That´s it.
What is the hardest part of self publishing? And what is the best part?
The hardest part is that I am a total technologic moron. So I had a lot of help by you. I use my laptop a lot, but it does a lot of weird stuff. Sometimes it is like: cool, how did I do that? I still think it will blow up one day. But it doesn’t matter as long as I can use my writing program even though it sometimes surprises me. You push a random button, and it does something I didn´t want it to do.
Can we expect a second poetry collection in the future? If so, will it be different from Blue Lips / Acoustic Suicide?
I am still writing, and one day I am sure there will be a new collection. I have some working titles: The Dream machine or Pop songs, but I am sure the title will be something very different than what I think it will be now.
I hope it will be different. I have some ideas, but you never know what it ends up with. Like Blue Lips is not as I planned it to be in the beginning. I didn´t even consider publishing it in the beginning.
I know you are writing on a book as well. Can you tell us what it is about, and what inspired you to start writing it?
Facebook. I am very interested in how the human mind works. Why do people need to be a fanatic fan; do we have a hive consciousness? Like bees. Sciences have proven we unconsciously communicate, like bees do consciously.
So my point is when I first got a profile on facebook, it shocked me how much time some people use on their idol, and what they a willing to do for a minute of attention. It is a very interesting topic. Many fanatic fans have a mental disease… and I could go on.
Any idea when we can hope to see it published?
As it is now, I would say it will be ready between sometime now and the day I die. I don´t know. I am trying to turn all my notes into a story and not just bits and pieces. I am having a kind of writes block with it.
As a side project you are writing on a fantasy book entitled “The Kiss, the Dragon and the Werewolf” which we are writing together. For the benefit of our readers: can you tell me a little about that book, and as well how did it come about?
I am not a fantasy writer, or I didn´t think I was, but I like it very much, and think it is funny.
I would say it is a very alternative fantasy story. We have made a whole new species and turned it all a little upside down. Small elves, human sized fairies and some very alternative personalities. I am kind of afraid to say too much about it. We have held the story in a light tone, but some of the topics in it are not light at all.
It started as a joke. You posted a picture on facebook of 2 guys kissing, I commented on it. I may have to say, we have been joking around for the past 2 years or so, that you are a werewolf, and I am a dragon. In that time, we have been writing a few crazy short stories as well, but mostly joking around. We have created a few other characters in that time. The Queen, the 2 kinds in the closet, the ballerina, the girl and the cowboy, and I am probably forgetting a few.
Suddenly one of us said: Let´s write a book. The other: That´s a deal. One of your friends saw it and said: I will buy that book. So we agreed… we better do it. Can´t sell a book without writing it. At this point it seems like we just are running wild with the story, but there is a meaning to the madness, and we know where it is going.
We talked about making the novel into a movie, so if I offered you a part in it now, who would you play, and why? And who do you see in the other parts? And who would you like to direct it?
I would love to play Elisabeth, (she is kind of based on me, like Veronica is kind of based on you.) Elisabeth is a bit naive, clumsy, she believes there is good in everyone, she has a heart of gold and she is a mountain I wouldn´t try to move. I could see myself dressed up like a cow, shaking my ass while I try to sing about, was it twitter and facebook?
I could see a lot of different people playing a role in it, we have a lot of lovely blue zombie trees, and somebody have to play them.
I would love Aston Merlin from Dark Mare Pictures, if he wants too and don´t think it is too crazy. We will probably end up doing it ourselves, like with everything else. Now I regret I didn´t stay at film school. Maybe Aston will be up for the challenge, because no matter what, it will be a challenge, since we probably will end up playing all the roles ourselves, making our friends play along.
What has it been like to work with another writer, collaborating on telling a story? Has it been a challenge, or has it been great fun?
So far it has been fun. I think we think a lot alike. Sometimes so alike that it scares me a bit. Like the time you where writing, and I was walking around thinking: all the story need is a fountain, and you wrote about a fountain.
One of the best things is that before we write something that changes the storyline, we have planed it, we talk about it. At the same time it is a challenge. I am glad I am writing with you, I don´t think I could write like this with any other.
I love the way you just catch it when I send something crazy your way like the green fairy, she is beyond mad, remember never to tell her she can fly.
Is it something you would do, or are already planning to do again?
I think the last time the 2 of us spoke on the phone we came up with an idea to a new novel. We have so many ideas that I am starting to wonder if we will end up starting a rock band when we are 70 (we have talked about it).
I would love to write with you anytime.
I have been talking to a young, in my opinion very talented, writer in India about writing a short story together or something like that.
What kind of books do you read? Any authors you find has inspired you more than others?
I like to read Nordic mythologies, historical fiction, there is a lot. I read a lot of crimes by Lisa Marklund. At the moment I am reading the Berlin Noir series by Philip Kerr. It takes place in Germany in the years between first and second World War.
When did you first know you wanted to be an author?
When I was 4 years old I just knew I wanted to write. I sat with my grandfather, reading my first book to him. He was always reading to me, I loved it.
I have always been writing poetry, small stories etc… but burned most of it.
You listen to a lot of music. Who is your favourite bands, and why is music important in your life?
Music is very important to me, have always been. I listen to a lot of different music. HIM is a band I have been listening to since I was 19. I never really get tired of them. There are so many talented musicians, I listen to a lot. To mention a few, Leonard Cohen, HIM, Sort Sol, L.O.C., Dizzy Mizz Lizzy, Elvis, the Doors, Bon Jovi and so many more.
Do you play music yourself?
I used to play a lot of guitar, my plan is to start again, but I have been so lucky to get some nerve issues in both of my arms that may need surgery, so I am not so sure I will play again.
Who were your heroes while growing up?
Boy George and my grandfather. I have Cultures Clubs first album on vinyl standing next to my bed. When I was 2, I wanted to marry Boy George.
Like everybody else I had a lot of different heroes when I was growing up. In stile they make no sense at all. I listened to 2 Pac, Take That, Elvis, the Doors, Metallica, D.A.D. of cause and a lot of others.
If you could invite 3 people, living or dead, to a dinner party who would they be and why?
Dinner? I hope they don´t expect me to cock.
It would have to be Leonard Cohen, Ville Valo and L.O.C. a Danish rapper. It is not for the sake of their blue eyes, do they have blue eyes? They are 3 very talent gentlemen, so I think it could be very interesting to sit them down together and see what happens. As I see them, Cohen and L.O.C. are very outgoing, it seems like they look at the world and write about what they see. While it seems like Valo looks more inside.
The most interesting thing about it would be to see, who they are. You can´t tell what a human is like from the things they write. I would like to see the human, not the artist.
Now, you are a mother with three kids. How on earth do you find time to write anything at all?
I write when they are in school or late at night. I have been home sick for some years now, going to the hospital all the time, so I have a lot of time on my hands. It looks like it is a gen- failure… I just will have to learn to live with. I won’t know for sure the next few months.
My middle child had something to say about The Kiss, he said if it didn´t had a zombie in it, it would just suck big time. So we had to come up with some kind of zombie.
You are born and raised in Denmark, so English is not your birth language. Has it been difficult to write in English, and why did you choose to do so?
I am tested slightly dyslexic, but English is easier then Danish. But the more you read and write the better you get.
I have never considered being a bit dyslexic a problem, that is just who I am, I read perfectly, I can´t spell very well in Danish, but is easier to spell in English. And like with everything else, the more you do it, the better you get, and I am stubborn as hell.
Do you find that networking, such as Face Book, Twitter and the likes, makes it easier to reach a wider audience when it comes to promoting your work?
It is easier, the world is smaller, but I am very suspicious when I talk to people online about their motives and stuff. I am just born very suspicious. It takes time to build an audience. I have built one once before I decided to use an alias. I had a little but faithful audience. I am sure they will find me again.
I am not good at promoting my book. I find it very hard to do. I am better at promoting other peoples work as my brother always says. I would be able to sell sand in Sahara if I wanted to.
In a perfect world, what would your future look like? What are your hopes and dreams?
In a perfect world, I would be able to write and have my privacy at the same time.
In a perfect world, I would be able to live off my books.
Any advice you would like to offer upcoming writers on writing and publishing?
Hmm, don´t let anyone tell you how you should write. Some will try to make you fit into what they believe. Be yourself, and do what you find is right for you.
Think it through when and if you get an offer, not everything that shines are diamonds.
Anything else you would like to add?
I have had a lot of people believing in me, and you Veronica has been a big help to me with editing etc. You are my sister in crime.
So I try to give something back by helping new artists when I see they have talent. It is not always I personally like what they write or draw, but if they do it in a way were I see there is a real talent that just needs to be helped on the way, maybe the artist needs someone who believe in him or her or help with the spelling, then I do it.
A lot of people are ready to tell you, what they think you will hear. Like I have been given a few complements, I heard I write as good as Poe, better than Ville Valo. I don’t know about that, and it doesn´t mean a lot to me, because I believe the best complement you ever can get as an artist, is when somebody tells you, you inspired them to write or draw. It would be wrong to compare yourself with other artists; every artist is different and does things in their own way, which make them all unique.
All that remains then is for me to thank you for your time and wish you the best of luck in the future.
You are welcome and thank you…
Blue Lips/ Acoustic Suicide, by Noel Heart are available on Amazon as an e-book/kindle and on Lulu.com as a paperback.
http://www.lulu.com/shop/noel-heart/blue-lips-acoustic-suicide/paperback/product-20985370.html
Half of the interview is also published here,
http://newyorkertimes.com/2013/05/interview-with-writer-and-poet-noel-heart/
Interview with Veronica Merlin, by Noel Heart.
http://starstonestenfalk.wordpress.com/
Hello and thank you very much for doing this.
You are the author of The Starstone series. A series of 5 books, you have already published the first 2, The Hand of Fate and The twins. Can you tell me anything about those two books for those who haven´t read them?
Yes, it’s fantasy, basically. Dark, cruel, heartbreaking, loving, passionate… I could keep talking about them forever, so I find it very hard to choose what to say. The curse of a writer who loves all of her characters deeply, I guess. It’s not exactly standard fantasy, I have no good vs evil, and I come across quite a few subjects that relate to our world such as child abuse, drug addiction and homosexuality, just to mention a few. I am a critical kind of writer as well as person. I must always strive to get my point across and to make people think about the world they live in.
I read The Starstone, The Hand of Fate, and I fell in love with Lien, she is a very strong minded young lady, can you tell a bit more about her and the other characters?
Lien, well, she is a bastard child, growing up in the elven city of Eilad with her twin sister Cazal. The two of them are based on me and a girl I grew up with. Everyone thought we were twins when we were kids, but as we grew up we stopped looking alike, and we completely grew apart. As a writer I find that all of my characters are a shade of me somehow. They all matter greatly to me, even the less lovable ones. I have so many characters it would take far too long to describe all of them, but I always loved Nahoris, my young elven wizard, and his uncle Thalid. They are a perfect light and shadow example, one dark, one light, and in the end both of them just a shade of grey.
I remember you telling me a lot about the character Valo to the point where when I read the book; I guessed who he was by the description you had given me. What inspired you to create him?
I did? To be honest I don’t remember talking much about Valo, but then again I have a lousy memory sometimes. Valo is a half elf, and I guess if someone inspired him at the very beginning it was Tanis from Dragon Lance. I am a huge fan of Tanis, and I couldn’t imagine writing a fantasy series without my own half elf. Still, they turned out to be very different in the end. The name I kind of stole from the Finnish singer Ville Valo, but you must have guessed that. My Valo is nothing like Ville though, and I just used the name because Valo means ‘light’, and it fits him very well.
One of the things I love most about your books is that not everything is just black and white. Just because a character seems evil at first, depending on who´s eyes you see it through; don´t necessarily mean they are evil. You tell the story from both sides. So, as a reader I get the feeling that the front line is clear, and both sides fight for what they feel is the right thing. So it is kind of a grey area where not everything is as it seems at first. Why did you choose to write the story like that?
I hate the old notion that fantasy must be black and white. Good vs evil, stuff like that. I love to display all sides of a story; I like to portray the characters as three- dimensional as people who think and feel and have reasons for everything they do. It is very important to me that all my characters are displayed fairly, and that you as a reader get a chance to understand them, even if they do things that might come across as evil, really evil sometimes. They always have a reason; they are always able to justify it to themselves.
You already finished writing the last 3 books when will they be published? Can you tell anything about them?
I could tell you loads. First off, they are called the Crown Prince, the Unicorns Horn and the Shadow of Time. The Crown Prince is in editing and translation, being translated into Danish and will be out by fall this year if everything goes according to plan. I must admit I am a bit nervous about releasing the Crown Prince. It is a very raw and cruel book in many ways. I hardly dared send it to editing… I have been looking it over a thousand times, wondering if I should change it, soften it up, streamline it, but every time I try I just can’t. It has to be the way it is.
When did you first know, you wanted to be an author?
I have always been an author. I have always had stories in my head, always told stories, written stories, and it was the first dream I ever had as a child. I always wanted to write, and I always did write.
You are a horse girl, and you have 4 horses, and just got a little foal. I read a lot about them on your blog all the time. All of your horses have personality. Can you tell me about them?
Oh, don’t get me started on my horses! How much time do you have? No, my boyfriend and I have Saleem, our young Arabian gelding. He is six this summer. I broke him in last year, but we have had a lot of problems with him since he is a ‘head shaker.’ We are working it out though; he has got a good heart and a very mild personality.
Apocalipse is his son, and the son of my old, now deceased, mare Amalia. Apocalipse is turning three this year, so he is too young to be ridden yet, but he is absolutely my future star. His mother was a huge jumping talent, and I have high hopes for him as well.
Marble Dane is my two year old thoroughbred mare. She is rather aggressive, having been sick a lot she believes that she needs to defend herself at all times. Still, I am certain there is a very nice little girl underneath it all; I just need to find her.
Tardis is my four year old Arabian mare. We only just got her last October when I realized that my old dressage horse Apollon was failing. Tardis just had the most beautiful foal, a stallion named Ablaze. I am looking forward to getting to know him and to breaking in Tardis, hopefully this fall, once she is done being a mother full time.
You just finished writing a book on Natural Horsemanship. In it you tell the stories of your own horses, I have had the pleasure of meeting Apollon, who I know cost you a lot of trouble along with his brother Poseidon. As far as I can understand, they both had a rough start in life. Can you tell a bit about that?
Poseidon had a terrible start in life. He was kept tied up and isolated for two full years until I bought him and got him out of the stable where he was born. It never stopped haunting him, and I learned almost everything I know about Natural Horsemanship while trying to make this horse adjust to the world and live a happy life. I had him for fifteen years, and I dare say we did very well. In the end his body grew old and worn out, but he had a good life with me most of the time.
Apollon was never mistreated, luckily, but he always had health issues, and we never knew why. We kept running blood tests and any other kind of tests we could imagine, trying to find out why he would run a fever every other month, but we never got an answer. His immune system was flawed for some reason, and in the end it failed completely. My vets and I fought it every step of the way, but we did come up short last year, and I had to have him euthanized to spare him further pain.
Poseidon and Apollon are names from the Greek mythology, why did you choose those names?
I always loved Greek mythology, and it just fitted them. Poseidon is the god of the ocean, the wild, untamed, hot tempered god who you do not cross. Apollon (the Danish name for Apollo,) is the beautiful, cunning, clever god of the sun. In every possible way, these names were just right for my two boys.
In your book about Natural Horsemanship, you tell the stories of all the horses you have had, and what happen to them. You train them all on your own, can you tell a bit about how you train them?
I tell their story because every one of their stories is different. The book is entitled “My Heart, My Soul, My Star, My Endless Night”, and I started writing it last year when Poseidon was euthanized. It was meant to be mostly about him, because his story was so special and so cruel, but when I started writing it I realized that all of their stories are unique.
I don’t think I can describe Natural Horsemanship briefly so that anyone can understand if they don’t already know what it is, but basically it means working with your horse without using force. No shouting and screaming or beating the poor animal. Natural Horsemanship is about understanding the horse, and making it understand you without scaring it into submission.
The book is going through editing later this year, and will be out next year at some point. I just need time to add instructional pictures and stuff like that, but I have finished writing it by now.
You have a blog on wordpress that I very much enjoy to read, you tell very openhearted about your horses and your life, what happens, what’s going on and so on. A year or so ago you wrote this story, The Hillflower Story, in 13 chapters, just there and then, you couldn´t go back and change anything, you had to have the storyline and everything under control. How was it to write like that, and how did you come up with the story?
It started as a bit of a joke, I didn’t think I could do it. I mean, I am not a crime fiction writer. Still, I had the basic for the story come to me in a sort of nightmarish dream, and I woke up thinking: ‘I could work with that!’ So I wrote the first chapter on my blog, and it went well, so I wrote the second, and then I realized that I had trapped myself because now it was public, and I had to finish it. That was kind of terrifying. When I write books, I can always go back and change something if I realize that it won’t fit the story line in the end… With this one, being public right from the start, I had to make it work out. It was a great challenge, and it worked out quite well. I am releasing a short story collection at some point, and I am planning on including the Hillflower story simply because I grew to love it along the way.
You have also published a poetry collection called This Song, and it is a very beautiful collection. I always come to think of the poem In The Rose Shaped Shadow, I know the poem means a lot too, can you tell why?
In the Rose Shaped Shadow is a very personal poem or song if you like. It is a song. All of what I write is very personal no matter if it is fantasy or lyrics or poems or anything else. This particular song was written to a childhood friend of mine who committed suicide. The collection is dedicated to her as well.
You played in the band Whatever as a teenager. You told me you were starting to play a bit again with the band. Do you have any plan for the future, or is it just for fun now?
Whatever was always just for fun. The girls and I love each other dearly, but we never had star dreams. We play together perfectly, we sing together in three part harmony, and we love our music. Of course it would be nice to become big pop stars, but let’s be honest. We are past thirty all of us; we are far too old to make it in that world by now. I am really glad that we have stuck together all these years though, those girls mean the world to me.
Back when you where a teenager, you played some gigs, what happened, and why did you split up?
That wasn’t with Whatever. I sung in a band named Greystone – don’t ask me why – and yes, we did split up for totally rock’n’roll reasons. Our guitar player just disappeared. Dropped off the face of the earth. He texted me about a year later saying he was sorry, but he had gone to rehab and had to break it off with us. We were like, what? None of us were doing any kind of drugs, but I guess it was the whole rock scene he just needed to get away from.
I played lead guitar in another band after Greystone named Indigo. It was horrible. I am not a guitar player. I mean, I was pretty good before I broke my hand, but it was never really what I wanted to do, and it showed in the way I played.
Most of the poems you have composed music to. Do you consider recording some of them?
I always consider recording them. I think we will at some point, with Whatever. I hope we will. But life keeps getting in the way…
What was the first instrument you played?
Flute. I was pretty good too. But I have happily forgotten everything about it by now. I still play guitar though.
You told me a young boy from USA, just asked if he could compose music for some of your songs. Can you tell me the story?
I met him on face book, through a Silmarillion fan page. We kind of just started talking a bit, and he read the Hand of Fate and the Twins and loved them, and so he bought This Song as well and asked if he could use some of the lyrics for his music. Of course they are copyrighted, but I said yes, as long as he would credit me for the lyrics. How could I be anything but flattered to have touched someone that much by my words of course he could play them anyway he wanted. Almost.
At the moment you are working on a very different fantasy novel: “The Kiss, the Dragon and The Werewolf” with me. How is it to work with somebody else? Can you tell me a bit about the story?
It is great fun, mostly. I don’t think I have laughed so much in a long time as I do every time you send the book back to me. I love how your mind works, how completely insane we both are, and how we can keep surprising each other. It is a bit of a challenge as well, to not be in control of the story, to have someone else have equal power to take the story in a direction I may not have expected. It teaches you a lot about your skills as a writer as well as a team player.
The story itself is written in a light tone, it feels rather random at times, but it really isn’t. We have an alcoholic unicorn, a dragon with a lousy aim and a werewolf that can’t run very fast, just to mention a few… the greatest challenge for me has been handling the Green Fairy, (pun intended,) because she is so far from anything I could ever have come up with myself, but again, I have learned a lot from writing this book, and I can’t wait to see it released.
We talked about making the novel into a movie, so if I offered you a part in it now, who would you play and why? And who do you see in the other parts? Who would you like to direct it?
Oh I don’t know how to answer that. I would love to play the werewolf, but I am not an actor. I have played a lot of theater, and I was told I was pretty good at it, but it was never my thing, I don’t like it. Still, if I must dream big, it would be pretty awesome to have Jared Leto play one of the characters… just because we kind of created him in his image, or should I say inspired by a picture of him.
Here I should say that I would want my boyfriend direct it, Aston Merlin from Dark Mare Pictures, but I don’t think I would want him to. I am pretty sure he is far too serious for this story; he would never understand our humour…
You are born and raised in Denmark, how was it, growing up?
I was sick a lot as a child. Still am. Growing up haven’t been much fun. I hated school. I dropped out very early on, and no one called me on it. I was about twelve I think, when I stopped going to school, and no one noticed until years later. I guess I just got lost in the system, and I loved it. Going to school was never my kind of thing, I can’t pass the grades, simply because the thought of having to spend my time studying for something I don’t find interesting will make me cry instantly. I can learn anything I want if it interests me, but stuff like math for instance… not going to happen.
You have 5 horses, a boyfriend and cats. How do you get the time to write as much as you do?
I have no idea. Mostly I write at night, so I guess what I don’t do is sleep.
Did anyone inspire you to write, and if, who and why?
Alexander Dumas, I was always a huge fan of the Three Musketeers ever since I was a very little kid. My granddad had a very old and big version of the book, written on parchment and leather bound. I used to love that book to bits and make my mom read it to me over and over again until I got old enough to read it myself.
Tolkien as well has been a huge influence on me as well as Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, and I must admit J. K. Rowling. I adore Harry Potter even if I could never write anything like it myself.
You listen to a lot of music, who is your favourite bands?
There are so many. The Doors, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Donovan, Phil Ochs… and to be a bit more from my own time: HIM, 30 Seconds to Mars, The Rasmus, The 69 Eyes, Negative, My Chemical Romance, The Ark, Hannah Montana … I am sure I am forgetting someone really important, but I could go on forever. I love music. Real music played on instruments. Nothing electronic.
Who were you heroes growing up?
Jim Morrison and Athos from the Three Musketeers. I’ve always been an odd child.
If you could invite 3 people, living or dead, to a dinner party who would they be and why?
Again, I would love to invite Jim Morrison. I guess it’s hard to get over your first hero. He would have to be there. I adore him for his song writing. I grew up hoping that one day I could be half as good as him.
Phil Ochs would have to be there too. Again, I adore the man for his song writing, his amazing singing voice, and I absolutely envy him for his astounding skills with a guitar. This guy was so brilliant, so talented, I would love to get a chance to tell him off for killing himself in the end. It seems so unreasonable that someone with so many skills would be so unhappy while the rest of us struggle along with our mediocre talents.
J.R.R Tolkien would have to be the last. I would love to meet him to pick his extraordinary brain, and to beg and plead for a chance for Dark Mare Pictures to make a fair and true -to -the -book series of movies based on the Silmarillion. You know, nothing like Peter Jacksons LOTR trilogy. The elves would actually speak Quenya or Sindarin, stuff like that. A fair version for the geeks. It doesn’t hurt to dream right?
Do you find that networking, such as Face Book, Twitter and the likes makes it easier to reach a wider audience when it comes to promoting your work?
In a way. I sure meet a lot of people from all over the world. That has been rather amazing. Face Book makes it easy as does my blog on WordPress, Starstone. I have a Twitter as well, but I am a bit too slow, I can’t really figure out how it works. Maybe I am just too old by now to learn stuff like that…
In a perfect world, what would your future look like? What are your hopes and dreams?
In a perfect world I would live on a deserted island in my own castle surrounded by a huge wall and a moat, just me and my horses. Okay and my cats and maybe my boyfriend and a few of my friends… But I am a loner, I like to be able to disappear and just be me and my writing. In a perfect world I would have a lot of money and be able to buy and save all the mistreated and misunderstood horses I came across. But then again, in a perfect world no horses would be mistreated.
No, it would be nice to one day be able to support myself completely by selling my books. That would be a real dream come true for me.
Any advice you would like to offer upcoming writers on writing and publishing?
Write. Finish what you are writing. Keep writing till the end. I see a lot of writers get stuck half way through and never finish their books. Write. There is nothing more important.
Self publishing is rather easy, Amazon makes it easy to set up the e-books, and Lulu.com prints some beautiful versatile paperbacks. The hard thing is promoting. You have to be patient and trust your work.
Anything else you would like to add?
Yes, I would like to thank everyone who has stood by me through the years, my mom, my boyfriend, my loyal friends… I know I am not always an easy person to figure out or to be around, and even if I am a loner, and I keep saying that I am best on my own, that is not entirely true. I wouldn’t have been where I am today without each and every one of you.
Thank you so much for your time and good luck in the future.
Right back at you!
All of Veronica’s books are available on Amazon as an e-book/kindle and on Lulu.com as a paperback.
The Hand of Fate paperback
http://www.lulu.com/shop/veronica-merlin/the-hand-of-fate/paperback/product-20261635.html
The Hand of Fate Hardcover
The Hand of Fate, E-book
The Twins paperback
http://www.lulu.com/shop/veronica-merlin/starstone-the-twins/paperback/product-20719275.html
The Twins, E-book
This Song paperback
http://www.lulu.com/shop/veronica-merlin/this-song/paperback/product-20528953.html
This Song, E-book
Wonderful writer and poet, Noel Heart just released her poetry collection last night.
Blue Lips – Acoustic Suicide, available now, as a paperback;
http://www.lulu.com/shop/noel-heart/blue-lips-acoustic-suicide/paperback/product-20985370.html
The E-book is coming soon!
I got the honor of writing on the back of the cover, so I will be lazy and just quote myself;
“A beautiful collection of poetry, from a very honest and open minded poet.
Let’s start with the basics, who is Six Inch? Can you tell us a little bit about yourselves, who are the members of the band and how it all got started?
-Andy (vocals), Jani (guitar), Kim (bass) and Migi (drums) founded the band in 2011. Later we recruited Pinja (violin) and Nestori (keyboards) to the band.
Have you always known you wanted to play, and what music did you listen to growing up?
-Yes. We all have always been very into music. It plays a very big role in all of our lives. For example Kim dies if he can’t play his bass and Andy is always depressed when he has to sing. We listened to heavy metal to get balls.
How would you describe your sound, and which bands have inspired you?
-Horror, dark and melancholic music from the middle of the darkest blood freezing winter. Marilyn Manson, Evanescence, Nightwish, Korn, Deftones and Danny Elfman have inspired us.
You have a violinist, which we don´t see so often, where did the idea of using a violin come from?
-It’s a dark secret and perversion of Andy’s twisted mind but at the same very original and romantic idea.
And for your music, how will you describe the process of composing and writing, are you all involved in the process from beginning to end?
-Usually someone of the band composes a song and then we transcribe it together. Andy and Pinja write the lyrics.
You have already released some demos and an EP, and now you are getting ready to release an album, when is it going to be released, and will it be released outside of Finland too? Do you have a name for the album?
-The album is ready and we will release it ASAP probably only in internet. We are not sure about physical release because it costs and we’re broke. 
We are not sure about the album’s name yet.
The cover for the album looks awesome; can you tell us a little bit about it? Who came up with it, who made it?
-It was again a dark secret and perversion of Andy’s twisted mind and a friend made the album cover for us. It is a great piece of dark art she did!
You’ve mostly played in Finland till now, but you recently played some gigs in Spain. Were you excited about that? And how do you feel it went? Is it a goal of yours to play more gigs outside of Finland this year?
-Of course we were excited about the gigs in Spain. The weather wasn’t what we expected (frost and snow on the way to Barcelona) but otherwise it was a nice trip. The gigs went quite well. We are interested to play gigs also abroad.
You have a music video coming out to the song Melancholic Whisper of Life. Can you tell us a little bit about your inspiration for the song and music video?
-Well we have had a lot of problems with the music video. It’s a cursed one but we hope it will be ready for release some year. Melancholic Whisper of Life is a dark song made in the middle of despair. The music video is the director’s vision of the song.
Melancholic Whisper of Life
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJbwGtwv-3c
You also just released the song Anything, What can you tell us about this song? And do you plan to make a video for this as well?
-Anything is a song about bad relationships. We’re not gonna make a music video for Anything but maybe for some other song from the album.
Anything
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRxgpK3n7VA
What are your plans for 2013? Do you have a lot of exact plans, or are you just taking things as they come?
-To release the album and music video, probably start to make a second music video, play as many gigs as possible and try to get some deal with e.g. a record label. You never know what’s gonna happen.
Where do you see the band in the future, what are your goals?
-We all are gonna be professional except that our violinist Pinja is already a real music professional. Maybe Six Inch goes blues.
Thank you very much for your time, and we wish you all the best for the future!
-Thanks, U 2! =)
Thank you so much to Andy and Kim…
Interviewers Sylvia Alnes, Veronica Merlin and Lone-Elisabeth Berg….
