Martin Millar Interview

Author Martin Millar

I am flat out ecstatic to share today an interview with Martin Millar, author of Lonely Werewolf Girl, which very quickly became one of my most favorite books ever. And its author is just as interesting and fantastic!

What do you think makes a good story?

MM: That’s difficult to say. For me to write a good story, I need to start off with some good characters. Once I have them, the story seems to flow naturally.

If you can create a world that your readers enjoy escaping in to, then you’ve probably succeeded in writing a good story, regardless of anything else.

What’s your most interesting writing quirk?

MM: I don’t know if I have any writing quirks. Possibly this extract from my book ‘Suzy Led Zeppelin and Me,’ where I’m talking about my writing, would qualify. Although Suzy, Led Zeppelin and Me, being partly an autobiographical novel, is full of things which seem as if they’re meant to be true, but might not be.

‘  …I’m at the ‘nice and big’ stage… I go through the text making sure I haven’t used any long words. If I find any fancy adjectives have crept in I replace them with small words like ‘nice’ and ‘big’. I’ve liked these words ever since I was told not to use them in English class at school. After that I check that the sentences are short so as people won’t get confused and I shorten all the chapters so they won’t get bored. I can’t read anything complicated these days, my attention span is too short. Everyone else probably feels the same.’

As I’ve mentioned before, Lonely Werewolf Girl is unlike any other Urban Fantasy book I’ve read, especially where werewolves are concerned. How did you craft this specific world? Did it come to you fully formed or did you draw on research, perhaps even other things you’ve read in this genre or others?

MM: It didn’t take long to craft the world. The London in the novel is just the London I’ve lived in for a long time. The Scottish Highlands in the novel is more from my imagination. (I come from Scotland, but from Glasgow, not the Highlands.)  Everything else I just made up. I’m not a great researcher, and I didn’t take any ideas or inspiration from other werewolf books.

I personally love werewolves the most out of all of the supernatural beings I’ve read about. Why did you choose to write a story about a werewolf family? Do you have a special, furry place in your heart for them as well?

MM: I do now, but I didn’t really before I wrote Lonely Werewolf Girl.

As for why I decided to write about werewolves, that’s difficult to answer. You would think I could give a clear, easy answer, but I can’t really. It just came to me one day that I’d like to write about werewolves. At the same time as I had that thought, the phrase ‘Lonely Werewolf Girl,’ popped into my mind. I don’t know why. But I liked that phrase, and the thought of what a lonely werewolf girl might be like, and then it expanded from there.

If the werewolf girl was to be lonely, she needed to be an outcast, and it followed on from there that she might be an outcast from her family. To make her Scottish, but living in London, was an easy next step, as there are many Scots living in London. And the thought of her having a Scottish family was easy to extend into her having a whole Scottish clan of werewolves. Once I’d thought of that, I had the whole world for the book.

However, if Kalix was to be functioning properly in London, and if her clan was to function properly in Scotland. they couldn’t be savage beasts, even when they transformed from human to werewolf. Anyway, I don’t much like the idea that werewolves are uncontrollably savage when they make the change. So the MacRinnalch clan of werewolves keep their human intelligence, even as werewolves. This made everything work a lot better. The whole world of the books, with the large werewolf clan, would not have worked if all the werewolves regularly lost their reason and started attacking people. The werewolf clan is secretive about their true nature, but otherwise keen to integrate into the modern world.

What do you like most about Lonely Werewolf Girl? Why?

MM: I like a lot of the characters. I’m very fond of Kalix, although in some ways she is not a likeable character. She has many flaws, but these always make me sympathise with her. I like Dominil, Malveria, Vex and Thrix too.

I’m also pleased with the humour. It’s not easy to be funny in print but I think I succeeded in parts of Lonely Werewolf Girl and Curse of the Wolf Girl.

What do you like to do when you’re not writing

MM: I read history, and some novels, always old novels, I generally don’t read modern fiction.  I like playing video games on my playstation, and I like  manga and anime. These days I also listen to a lot of music. I always did, when young, but I went through a period of not listening to so much. Now with youtube and spotify I find myself listening to a lot more again, which is good.

I also waste a lot of time doing nothing.

Most seriously a man after my own heart. Anime and manga, too? Oh, my. He is awesome. Thank you again for your great answers for taking time out to answer some questions for me!

Learn more about Martin at his super neat site here!