What's the story behind the story? What inspired you to write this book?
Original Echoes really began while I was editing Fractured Echoes. I realised Fred Langley had a much larger story than the first novel could tell, and I became interested in showing where some of the events behind that book began. Once I started following Langley back, the story opened into questions about memory, choice and control. In particular, I became interested in what happens when people convince themselves that taking away someone else’s freedom is justified because they believe they are doing it for the right reasons. It gave me the chance to tell Langley’s story while also exploring the origins of the world readers first encounter in Fractured Echoes.
If you had to pick theme songs for the main characters of your book, what would they be?
For Fred Langley, it would be A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square. It belongs to the wartime world that shaped him and carries both hope and a sense of what that generation had paid for it. By 1962, Langley is not really a man of sixties pop or fifties rock and roll. His cultural reference points were formed much earlier, and I think that song would have stayed with him.
What's your favorite genre to read? Is it the same as your favorite genre to write?
I tend to read complex spy thrillers. I like books where motives are not obvious, people make imperfect choices, and you have to pay attention. That certainly feeds into what I write, although Original Echoes also brings together historical fiction, mystery and speculative elements. Whatever the genre, I seem to keep coming back to the same question: why did somebody make that particular choice?
What books are on your TBR pile right now?
At this time of year, The Lord of the Rings tends to find its way back onto the pile. An autumn reread has become something of a habit. I also have Malcolm Guite’s book on Galahad and the Grail waiting for me, and I am returning to Len Deighton’s Game, Set and Match trilogy. Deighton is very good at making you question what people know, what they believe and what they are not saying.
What scene in your book was your favorite to write?
One of my favourites is a dinner in 1895 between Langley and Lavinia Warrington, who funded the Welcroft Society. When I created Lavinia, I found myself asking what could have happened to someone to make her put her money and influence behind something like Welcroft. That gave me the chance to explore her rather than simply make her the wealthy person paying the bills. The scene also has a historical Easter egg buried in it. Readers who know the period may spot it, but I have deliberately left it for them to find. It was one of those enjoyable “what if?” moments where real history and fiction can brush against each other.
Do you have any quirky writing habits? (lucky mugs, cats on laps, etc.)
I normally write in silence, but editing is different. I choose one playlist or album and put it on repeat. It does three things. First, it tells my brain that it is editing time. Second, the album's length gives me a natural work period. Third, after a while I stop hearing the music, but it still blocks out other distractions. I edited Original Echoes to P!nk’s Trustfall. As with previous books, by the end of the process, I was quite ready to listen to something else.
Do you have a motto, quote or philosophy you live by?
I do not really have a motto. What I tend to encourage is making your own decision about whatever you are facing. It does not have to be the perfect decision, but it should be a conscious one. Make the decision, then act on it. That idea probably finds its way into my fiction as well. My characters rarely have complete information, but they still have to choose what to do.
If you could choose one thing for readers to remember after reading your book, what would it be?
Perhaps that the past is never quite as settled as we think. Memory can change, records can be wrong, and people often make choices without knowing who or what has shaped the choices available to them. Decisions can also have consequences long after the people who made them are gone. I would like readers to finish Original Echoes questioning some of what they thought they knew.
J J Noad is the author of the new book Original Echoes (Echoes Mysteries Book 2)
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