David Cunningham 2009 on CloudWorld and CloudWorld at War

I first came across Cloudworld back in 2006 having got hooked by it's cover and fell in love with the story. After a year of wanting to find out what happened to Marcus and his friends I started emailing David during the whole of 2008. Finally just before Christmas I got the Eureka email from him to say that CloudWorld at War was finally being published and my copy of it arrived just in time for the Christmas holiday! Here below are some questions I put to David about his journey from 2006 to 2009.

VW: How did you first get the idea for the CloudWorld books and what was your inspiration for them?

DC: I first sketched out the basic premise back in 1994, in a burst of euphoria after getting my first short story accepted by a literary magazine! But I think the roots of inspiration go back a lot further than that and have various sources. I'm sure growing up mainly in a seafront house in the west of Scotland and seeing a huge, tumultuous sky outside the window every day gave me a fascination with clouds. And any time I went on a plane to visit my relatives in Italy, I was always mesmerised by seeing clouds from above, in constant sunlight (I adore flying!). Then, as with anyone else, there's the influence of the books you read and films you see when you're growing up. I'm sure Cloud City in The Empire Strikes Back films had a big impact on me and I seem to remember an improvised airship in Terry Gilliam's hugely underrated Baron Munchausen film.

VW: Why did you do them as children's books?

DC: I had already written a couple of children's fantasy novels in the 1990s. They were called Mightier Than The Sword and The Enchanted Ocean, but neither was published. I think I wrote those as books for younger readers mainly because it was a chance to complete a novel that didn't have to be too long! (people forget that pre-JK Rowling and Philip Pullman an average-length children's novel could be 30 - 40,000 words, as in the work of authors like Alan Garner or Penelope Lively.)

In the case of CloudWorld, I think I was concerned that if I wrote it as an adult book people would start quibbling about whether or not the physics of the world made sense, when the most important things for me were that it should have a scary beauty about it and reflect Marcus's emotional journey (from a sunlit innocence into a dark, painful place and then, to some extent, back again.) I had a feeling it would be easier to suspend disbelief in a book for younger readers (though I've since decided there's no reason why the world of CloudWorld couldn't exist in a parallel universe where things work a little differently!)

VW: Were you influenced by other fantasy writers?

DC: As a child: John Masefield; Alan Warner; Ursula le Guin and as an adult: Philip Pullman, William Nicholson
They all create thrilling, imaginative stories, but also write beautifully and have real depth of emotion.

VW: What was your inspiration for the characters?

DC: I think there's quite a bit of the younger me in Marcus. And I did lose my father when I was in my teens, so I'm sure I put quite a lot of those emotions of grief into his characterisation. The other characters are pretty much wholly made up.

VW: Did you have to do much research for the war and fight scenes?

DC: I did a fair bit of research about weapons and airships just to make the action seem more believable without slowing down too much by describing everything in detail (only Tolkein is able to get away with that!)

VW: What is it that helps you to write - e.g. music, scenery etc.

DC: When I first started writing I used to sit at the front window of the seafront house I mentioned before. I found looking out at the sea and sky very inspiring. That house is long since sold and I've lived in cities for many years now, but I still miss the view and being near the ocean.

VW: What do you do to clear a writer's block?

DC: I'm a fairly slow, deliberate writer - I would give anything to be faster. But I don't get blocked that much. Progress tends to be gradual but steady.

VW: Will you go on to a third CloudWorld book?

DC: Given all the trials I've experienced with trying to get the second one published, I don't think I have the will or energy to do a third one right now - though I have more than enough ideas for it. I think I would do it only if there were a real increase of enthusiasm for the first two books.

VW: Will you have a go at writing adult fiction?

DC: I've actually published quite a lot of short stories for adults in literary magazines and had a few broadcast on the radio. For some reason, when I write short stories they come out realistic and ‘literary', but when I write anything longer it comes out as the kind of ‘escapist' fantasy fiction better suited for younger readers. I don't really know why, but I've stopped worrying about it!

VW: You were disappointingly dropped by your publisher even though CloudWorld was very successful. How long did it take you to find your current one?

DC: This is what happened: when CloudWorld was originally accepted for publication by Faber & Faber it was a single-volume book. However, my editor persuaded me to cut the final third of the manuscript, with the intention of expanding the cut material into a full-length sequel.

CloudWorld was published in February 2006. It sold 8500 copies out of 10500 originally printed. But when I finished CloudWorld At War, in the autumn of 2007, Faber declined to publish it on the basis that too much time had passed since the publication of the first book, which had, according to them, only sold ‘respectably' well. It wasn't personal - they simply made a business decision.

None the less, I found myself in the weird position of receiving frequent emails from readers asking me how the CloudWorld story ended, but being unable to share it with them! Initially I intended to publish the book myself through a website called www.lulu.com which allows authors to make their books available online as paid downloads and even sell them through Amazon. But then a friend told me about a small publisher called Kennedy & Boyd, who mainly specialise in reprinting academic books but also publish some new fiction. They were willing to take a chance on CloudWorld At War. The only slight drawback is that their books are produced with POD (print on demand) technology, which means that they can be bought on Amazon tend not to be stocked in normal bookstores.

Incidentally, your readers might find the following quote from none other than John Grisham interesting. I came across it on a website called www.achievement.org and it made me feel better about taking a couple of years to write a book when also doing a demanding, full-time job: "A Time to Kill took three years to write...and I was very disciplined about it... The bulk was written at five o'clock in the morning, from five ‘til seven in the morning... And I remember several times being in court at nine o'clock in the morning, really tired, because writing takes a lot out of you. It's draining. And I would do it for an hour or two in the morning, and get ready for court, and go to court. Be standing, waiting for the judge, and be really tired." So there!

VW: Did you enjoy having more autonomy over the editing and jacket cover?

DC: I actually really like being edited! It's a great safety net for authors. So I paid a company in the States to not only proof read the manuscript but also make editorial suggestions. I didn't want to be selling something to people unless it had received, as much as possible, the same pre-publication scrutiny as the first book. As for the cover, my idea was to have an image that was as simple as possible, while still conveying the atmosphere of the story. Hopefully it's good enough for the time being.

VW: Who are your favourite authors, especially those that have influenced your writing?

DC: Apart from those mentioned above, my current favourite author is the American, Michael Chabon. I loved his novel, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, and his short story collection, Werewolves in their Youth.

VW: What are your favourite films, especially those that have influenced your writing?

DC: You'll be unsurprised to hear that I was a total Star Wars nut as a kid. I was also a huge Indiana Jones fan. In more recent times I loved the Lord of the Rings movies. Basically I adore anything that has an epic imaginative vision combined with strong emotions. I'm also just about the only person in the world, it seems, who loved Superman Returns (for exactly the reasons just mentioned.)

VW: Will you get either of the books onto film - either CGI or real actors?

DC: Though it received very little publicity from Faber, CloudWorld did actually manage to get a film agent in Hollywood - a lady at CAA called Shari Smiley. Some producers she approached liked its vividness but were put off by the lack of an ending. Another reviewer suggested it would be ideal as a Hayao Miyazaki cartoon. But I think all of this is pretty unlikely, to say the least. Fantasy films cost so much money to make that filmmakers tend only to adapt long-established properties (Batman, Spiderman, X-Men) or novels that are already hugely successful (Harry Potter, The Golden Compass). Only Steven Spielberg and James Cameron have the clout to make expensive films from original ideas. One day, the cost of CGI will drop to the point where filmmakers can perhaps take chances on more unusual fantasy and science fiction stories. But it won't happen for a long time.

My only other connection with the film business is that William Nicholson, who has twice been Oscar-nominated for his screenplays for the movies Shadowlands and Gladiator, thought well enough of CloudWorld At War to give a quote for its cover. But he's already been so kind in doing so that I really wouldn't want to presume upon his connections. Ultimately, books have to make their own way through word of mouth recommendation.

VW: Where will you go with your writing in the future? 

DC: Quite a bit of 2008 was taken up with trying to find a new publisher for "CloudWorld At War". I also spent a few months preparing and then teaching a creative writing class at the Scottish Universities' International Summer School in Edinburgh (in order to pay for what I thought would be the costs of self-publishing the book.) This was in addition to my normal full-time job!! However, I did also manage to write a handful of new short stories, which I'm hoping to get published in magazines or broadcast in the near future. I haven't submitted short stories anywhere since c2003, so it's been quite an odd experience trawling through the Writers & Artists' Yearbook again and trying to renew old contacts at BBC Radio! I'm also quite well into planning (and even writing parts of) a new book, though I haven't quite worked out yet if it's for adults or teenagers.