On Thin Ice: Guest Author Richard Godwin
By - June 17, 2013
I'm very excited to introduce you all today to guest author, Richard Godwin, author of the new crime novel One Lost Summer. I 
put Richard in the hot seat and let him answer the tough questions. Here's what he had to say:
CM: When did you start writing?
RG: I have been writing since early adulthood, but for many years it was something I did when I had time since I worked, for a long time as a lecturer at London University where I taught English and Americanliterature, having studied with a famous Professor who knew the Beats and introduced them to EnglishUniversities. I have been writing professionally full time now for four years.
CM: How long does it typically take you to finish your manuscript?
RG: It all depends, anywhere between 2 and 4 months for the draft then anywhere between 4 months and a year for the edit, but as I say it varies.
RG: It all depends, anywhere between 2 and 4 months for the draft then anywhere between 4 months and a year for the edit, but as I say it varies.
CM: What’s something readers would be surprised to know about you after they read one of your books?
RG: That I am a funny easy going guy. And I am an extremely good chef.
RG: That I am a funny easy going guy. And I am an extremely good chef.
CM: What’s the best book you’ve ever read and why?
RG: That is almost impossible to answer, there are more than one, but if you want me to name a few, they would be Dostoyevsky's Crime andPunishment. No one goes deeper into the mind than Dostoyevsky and that novel changed the course of fiction. Graham Greene's Brighton Rock. Greene writes with such elegance and discipline, he is also one of the few authors who can write equally well about good and bad characters. F. Scott Fitzerald's The Great Gatsby. Stunningly beautiful prose and the great comment on the myth of the American Dream. Charles Dickens's Great Expectations. Leaner than his other novels it is a brilliant story told with the author's amazingversatility and humanity.
RG: That is almost impossible to answer, there are more than one, but if you want me to name a few, they would be Dostoyevsky's Crime andPunishment. No one goes deeper into the mind than Dostoyevsky and that novel changed the course of fiction. Graham Greene's Brighton Rock. Greene writes with such elegance and discipline, he is also one of the few authors who can write equally well about good and bad characters. F. Scott Fitzerald's The Great Gatsby. Stunningly beautiful prose and the great comment on the myth of the American Dream. Charles Dickens's Great Expectations. Leaner than his other novels it is a brilliant story told with the author's amazingversatility and humanity.
CM: If your house caught fire, what are the four things (rather than people) you’d save? (Because everyone asks “three,” and I think you should get four!)
RG: I know the answer to part of this one since I set fire to my bed once as a young man, although modesty prevents me from a full disclosure of the circumstances that led to this nocturnal conflagration. I reached for my vinyl collection.
RG: I know the answer to part of this one since I set fire to my bed once as a young man, although modesty prevents me from a full disclosure of the circumstances that led to this nocturnal conflagration. I reached for my vinyl collection.
I would now save my laptop and its contents, any paper manuscripts, my vinyl collection, which is extensive, and as many books as I could grab.
CM: What is your favorite time of day to write/why?
RG: The morning. I am most focused then.
CM: What is your favorite word?
RG: antidisestablishmentarianism among many others of a less contorted nature . Truthfully I don't really have one.
RG: antidisestablishmentarianism among many others of a less contorted nature . Truthfully I don't really have one.
CM: What is your least favorite word?
RG: trendy . But I see words as part of a sign system.
RG: trendy . But I see words as part of a sign system.
One Lost Summer is Richard's third novel, and in his own words, it is "quite unlike my previous two." What it's about:
Rex Allen loves star quality in women. He moves into a new house in a heat wave with few possessions apart from two photographs of his dead
daughter. His next door neighbour, beautiful Evangeline Glass invites him over to one of her many summer parties, where he meets her friends and possessive husband Harry. Rex feels he knows Evangeline intimately. He starts to spy on her and becomes convinced she is someone other than who she pretends to be. When he discovers she has a lover, he blackmails her into playing a game of identity that ends in disaster.
daughter. His next door neighbour, beautiful Evangeline Glass invites him over to one of her many summer parties, where he meets her friends and possessive husband Harry. Rex feels he knows Evangeline intimately. He starts to spy on her and becomes convinced she is someone other than who she pretends to be. When he discovers she has a lover, he blackmails her into playing a game of identity that ends in disaster.Richard describes the novel as "a Noir psychological portrait and a study of identity and loss. It is also a summer novel, set in a heatwave. It's already attracting some great reviews and is published 14th June."
Which means that it's available for you to check out now!
One Lost Summer is available at all good retailers and online at
Add One Lost Summer on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17978636-one-lost-summer ;
You can find out more about Richard Godwin at his website: http://www.richardgodwin.net/
Please Follow him on Twitter https://twitter.com/stanzazone
Or sit down with a cup of coffee and listen to Richard Godwin being interviewed about One Lost Summeron BBC radio here
http://www.richardgodwin.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/01-GODWIN-BOOK-BBC-SURREY.mp3
http://www.richardgodwin.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/01-GODWIN-BOOK-BBC-SURREY.mp3
Richard will be in the house today to answer your questions, so bring them on- I'm sure someone out there wants to know what sparked the idea for his novel, what his favorite soup is, and why he won't share his tap dance video with me, right?
FLASH POINT (Dr. Jenna Ramey #3)
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