In 2021, Derek Landy is releasing Dead or Alive on April 1st, which is the 14th and penultimate novel in his internationally bestselling Skulduggery Pleasant series, followed by The Skulduggery Pleasant Grimoire on May 27th, which is an essential book for any Skulduggery fan!
We had the honour of chatting with Landy about Dead or Alive, writing a book essentially every year for the last 14 years, book recommendations, and much more!
On April 6th, HarperCollins Children’s UK and Waterstones will be hosting an exclusive online event to celebrate the release of Derek Landy’s explosive new novel, Dead or Alive. For more information, click here!
Hi, Derek! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
I’m Irish, a Scorpio, from Ireland! I like short walks on pavements and long drives on buses (except I hate people so should probably stay away from buses). My favourite colour is purple and my favourite food is meat. I write books and comics and a few movies and when I was a kid I stuck my fingers in an electrical socket because my sister had just done it and it looked like fun. It was not fun.
After the chaos that was 2020, have you set any goals for this year? If so, how are they going so far?
My goal is to be more present in the now and to chant more at 6:30 in the morning. I don’t know which morning yet, as I tend to be asleep at 6:30 AM, but one of these mornings I’ll definitely be chanting if I wake up in time. I keep meaning to start going for jogs instead of spending all day writing at my desk, and also to work out at home, because I really need to. I don’t like the look that my trainer gets when she realises I haven’t done anything while the gyms have been closed. It’s depressing.
Quick lightning round! Tell us the first book you ever remember reading, the one that made you want to become an author, and one that you can’t stop thinking about!
Do they have to be the same book? Oh good!
The first book I can remember reading is The Secret of Skeleton Island, which was a Three Investigators book. It was the first of that series that I’d read and I loved every word of it. There were other books before that, a few Hardy Boys and Nancy Drews and Secret Sevens and what have you, but Skeleton Island is the one I loved enough to keep note of the title.
I can’t really pick a book that made me want to become an author, though. Every book I’d ever read — even the bad ones — made me want to do that. The moment I realised that there were people in the world whose entire lives revolved around daydreaming, I knew I’d found my calling.
The book I can’t stop thinking about is… god, too many. Mucho Mojo by Joe R. Lansdale. NOS4A2 by Joe Hill. My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix.
Wait. You said this was a lightning round, didn’t you? Meaning quick answers? Aw dammit.
When did you first discover your love for writing?
In school. When my class would be given a short story to write for homework I could never understand why my friends would groan. That was my first indication that maybe I liked writing more than regular folk.
Dead or Alive is the 14th and penultimate installment in your Skulduggery Pleasant series and it is out today! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Brilliant. Exciting. Horrific. Funny. Modest.
Wait, describe me or the book in five words? Aw man…
What can readers expect?
Essentially, they can expect trauma. They know by now that my characters are never safe. Even if I don’t kill them, I’m going to put them through hell. You can’t get to Book Fourteen of a series and take your foot off the pedal — it just won’t work. You’ve got to go faster, take the turns tighter, you’ve got to drive with your eyes closed and the wind screaming through your hair.
(I do not advise any of this for the ACTUAL driving of an ACTUAL car. Also, wear your safety belt.)
Can you tell us about any challenges you faced while writing Dead or Alive and how you were able to overcome them?
I was set to start writing this book in March of 2020, but then everyone was in lockdown and we were all getting more and more nervous. In order to write, I have to be able to daydream, and in order to daydream, I can’t be spending my time worried about my parents or my siblings or my nieces and nephews — so I couldn’t write. Months passed and I still couldn’t write. Slowly, I eased out of it. As I got used to the new way of doing things, I started to relax, and daydream, and write, so by August I was working on the book. I was way being schedule, with deadlines for two other things slamming into me, with a Marvel comics miniseries to finish… but I managed it. Because the most important attribute a writer can have, way beyond dedication or determination or good ideas or talent or skill — is the ability to shut everyone in the world out of your head. It’s the ability to be completely and utterly selfish for a few hours every single day. And that’s a beautiful thing.
If it’s not too spoilery, were there any favourite moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring more?
I love my main characters. I love Skulduggery — he’s always so much fun to write — and Valkyrie, as my point-of-view character, is someone I just adore. The wonderful thing about writing a long-running series is that you suddenly have this opportunity to put these characters through so much torment and turmoil, while still keeping them as bright and breezy and funny as they need to be.
Simple question: how do you do it? Skulduggery Pleasant released 14 years ago, so you have essentially released a book a year along with novellas as well. How do you keep your creative juices flowing and find the inspiration for the next installment or story?
I started off well — I decided to put every good idea I’d ever had into my initial plotline for the series. Then it just expanded. I was finding out more and more about the backstories and the relationships and the secrets and the motivations, and it just unfolded around me.
This was only going to be a nine book series originally — I figured that by nine books I’d be well and truly sick of writing about these people. But it hasn’t worked out like that at all. I had as much fun writing Dead Or Alive as I did writing the very first Skulduggery Pleasant.
What’s the best and the worst writing advice you have received?
They’re the same bit of advice, actually…! It’s that old chestnut: write what you know.
I used to think that was very limiting. If I could only write about what I knew, then all I’d be writing about was a kid who was raised on a farm who couldn’t bring himself to take anything seriously. I’d be writing about a guy who failed his school exams and got kicked out of art college and spent the next ten years working on that family farm, dreaming of being a writer.
But then I realised that’s not what it means — or at least, it doesn’t have to just mean that. I’ve decided that “write what you know” means you should write honestly at all times. It doesn’t matter how outlandish your plot is, how bizarre your characters are — so long as you write with emotional honesty, so long as you loan a bit of yourself to the story, so long as the reader can see that sliver of real, honest, humanity shining through behind the words — then that is all they need to connect with what you’re doing.
What’s next for you?
Not a break, that’s for sure. I’ve got the Skulduggery Pleasant Grimoire coming out in May, which is basically a guide to the series that has ballooned to twice the size it should have been, and before too long I’ve got to start on the final Skulduggery book… But between all that, I reckon I need a palette cleanser. Something new and different. Maybe a couple of short stories. Maybe a screenplay. I don’t know. I haven’t decided yet.
Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for our readers?
Yes. Don’t eat your books or marry your books. Definitely don’t marry and THEN eat your books. That’s just weird and wrong.
Also, read the Three Joes and a Grady, my collection of favourite writers: Joe R. Lansdale, Joe Hill, Hoe Abercrombie, and Grady Hendrix. And read more comics, dammit. They’re good for your soul.
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