After reading through the latest release from Jon Richter, The Warden, I sat down for a chat with Jon about how the book came about, and what it was like writing during a pandemic. My review for the book can be found here.
In the afterword for the book you talk about it being written during the pandemic, was this an idea that solely came about because of Covid and lock-downs, or was it something that you were toying with before but life kind of gave a push with current events?
The book was completely COVID/lockdown inspired, I suppose just my way of ‘processing’ what was happening around me: the sudden and bizarre cessation of huge numbers of activities and things that felt utterly and completely habitual and taken for granted, the seemingly overnight transformation of these routines into new and different habits and rituals (handwashing, face masks, Zoom calls), the spread of misinformation, the wildly different reactions of people to the whole situation… so in some ways the book is really just my form of a pandemic diary!
The story features two interweaving plots, one that follows a man in 2024 who’s being isolated from the outside world, and the other showing the start of the pandemic and the creation of the AI that controls The Tower. Why did you choose to structure the book this way?
I’ve worked as an accountant for twenty years entirely for ‘big corporates’, and for a long time I’ve wanted to set a story in that world – but a much less boring and frustrating version! An AI character featured in one of my previous novels, and was a type of character I wanted to explore further, so I thought a ‘back story’ of its creation and how it might interact with and manipulate its cynical capitalist creators and their corporate politics and bureaucracy might be a fun way to do it… hopefully I succeeded!
I’ve also always enjoyed interesting structures for books (as opposed to single POV, straightforward chronological order) so when I realised that two story strands I’d dreamt up might actually be able to be weaved together into one weird-yet-cohesive whole, that was the impetus I needed to get going on the project! (If anyone’s interested in a recommendation for an ingenious way to structure a novel, try Use Of Weapons by Iain M Banks: it features alternating chapters that start in the past, moving forward, and chapters that start in the future, moving backward. We see the same character, but his future self is horribly transformed and emotionally eviscerated – the book’s climax is therefore the story’s middle, which reveals the incident that caused this devastation.)
The Warden shows a UK where people have been in one long lock-down for years, which after seeing how our own government has dealt with things might be the most fantastical element of the book. Did current Covid events ever influence your story, or make you think about changing things in any way?
The honest truth is that I naively thought, like I think a lot of us did, that the pandemic would be done and dusted within a few months! So when I started writing The Warden around March 2020, I thought the pandemic would be a think of the past before I’d even finished the book – little did I know it would be released just over a year later in the middle of another lockdown!
I did worry that this would make the story too close to home for some people, particularly those who have suffered misfortunes or bereavements during this terrible pandemic, but hopefully the book is far-fetched and fun enough to not have that impact – it’s very much intended as an alternate ‘extreme’ take on what might happen, rather than a realistic reflection, although I agree that the shambolic performance of our government is making me wonder how unrealistic the book’s setting might actually turn out to be…
I’ve seen some people saying that no one would want to read anything that deals with pandemics or viral apocalypses at the moment, but I found this book to be such a compulsive read that I couldn’t put down. Did you find that writing a book that deals with a Covid pandemic that lasts years to be something of a tough sell?
It’s definitely been one of my more divisive books, and I do understand the people who have reviewed it negatively as a result; the once-popular setting of ‘pandemic-driven dystopia’ has suddenly become much less of a fantasy than we all could ever have imagined! The responses I’ve had though have largely been along exactly those lines (‘I didn’t think I’d enjoy this, but it turns out I did’) and I’m very grateful to you for your kind words. I think the key is that the story isn’t attempting to be realistic or taking itself particularly seriously – it’s just an exploration of a few (slightly mad) ideas, like most of my books are I suppose!
It is interesting to see that a lot of authors are choosing to simply ignore the pandemic in their writing, setting their books either just before the outbreak or in a sort of alternative reality where it never happened. I think this might change over time as COVID becomes more of ‘a thing we all lived through’ rather than a still-current event, in the same way that you wouldn’t set a book during wartime years without mentioning the war, if that makes sense?
If you were in The Tower do you think you’d have been able to cope with the isolation, and what do you think you’d do to keep yourself occupied for all that time?
I suppose the honest answer is that my pandemic experience wasn’t wildly dissimilar to life in The Tower! I worked from home throughout, making my working day a non-stop series of Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, Powerpoint presentations and Zoom calls – then I worked on my writing around that, which meant more Word documents, and finally I spent a lot of time doing the recreational stuff I’ve always enjoyed: watching movies, playing video games, listening to music and going out running to exercise! So I think I’ve been very fortunate that (a) I was able to earn money during lockdown, and (b) my nerdy lifestyle wasn’t too badly affected by the circumstances. For others, for example those who enjoy the outdoors and sunny holidays, I’m sure the experience has been much tougher.
One of your other books, Auxiliary: London 2039, has some similar themes to this book; a future where people have become more reliant on machines and robotics, and the sinister ways that can turn on people. Is this an idea that particularly appeals to you?
I think this future is absolutely inevitable, or at least the ‘reliant on machines and robotics’ bit. To an extent it’s already come true – a lot of us simply couldn’t function without our laptops, TVs and smartphones, and we already rely on algorithms and other AI to support us in our daily lives. In some ways an extrapolation of this, where the AI is able to communicate with us much more effectively than Alexa’s rudimentary Q&A, might actually feel more personal and less cold – as an example, I can certainly see the huge benefits of the proposed care robots that will keep people company in old folks’ homes. But we certainly need to manage the technology carefully to avoid the dreaded ‘Skynet’ scenario beloved of writers like me: the tipping point is of course the moment when the learning capabilities of our creations outstrip our abilities to predict the end results.
I suppose some comfort should be drawn from the fact that a future with more technology, better integrated, isn’t necessarily a bad one – it just seems that way because we fiction writers love a bit of drama and conflict!
Was it different writing a book during a global pandemic than your normal approach?
I did experience a bit of the creative ‘brain fog’ that quite a lot of creatives talked about, where you had this increased amount of time in which to work as well as fewer distractions, and yet found your mind at times completely stifled. I think lack of inspiration was the issue; I realised that our brains need change and stimulation, not necessarily from grand overseas travel experiences, but even from just dragging yourself out to the local sandwich shop or having a phone call with your mum or whatever. But overall I think my creative process (shut self away in writing room with laptop, emerge several hours later with a chunk of writing done, try to remember to eat food) was pretty much the same as always – in some ways, the fact that I knew I wasn’t really missing out on anything was quite helpful!
What are you working on next, what can people look forward to seeing from you in the future?
In my usual genre-hopping way, I’ve got a couple of books in the pipeline that are a bit different: a fantasy effort I wrote recently that I’m seeking representation for, and a (weird) crime thriller I’m just starting out on. I do have another sci-fi-ish idea up my gleaming metallic sleeve, but that might be on the back burner until next year… but the beauty of this career is that you never know when inspiration will strike, and (a bit like The Warden) I could find myself writing something completely unexpected in a few months’ time!
I also write short dark stories from time to time and am slowly amassing enough for a third collection – my first two anthologies get a bit less love than some of my more mainstream releases, so I’d be delighted if any readers would check out Jon Richter’s Disturbing Works (Volumes One and Two) for some creepy tales with unexpected twists (they’ve been described as ‘Tales Of The Unexpected meets Black Mirror’, a quote I was extremely happy with!) You can find these, and the rest of my seven books (and other peculiar projects) at www.jon-richter.com, or alternatively just type Jon Richter into Amazon to peruse my sinister wares – you’ll find crime thrillers as well as more cyberpunk, so hopefully there’s something there that appeals to everyone. I also host a fortnightly podcast called Dark Natter, where I chat to guests about their favourite pieces of dark fiction, which is available on all the major streaming platforms.
Thanks so much for having me as a guest on your blog; it’s great to be allowed to waffle on about my work and I hope I haven’t been too self-indulgent! I wish you and your readers an absolutely ace rest of your day.
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