Q&A: Paul Carnahan, Author of How Soon Is Now? #Q&A #Interview #HowSoonIsNow

Paul Carnahan was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and grew up in the new town of Cumbernauld. After studying journalism in Edinburgh, he began a decades-long career in local and national newspapers.

‘How Soon Is Now?’ is his first novel. The second, the Britpop-era romance ‘End of a Century’, will be released early in 2025, and a third is currently a work in progress.

Website & Social Media:

Website ➜ www.paulcarnahan.com 

Twitter ➜ https://twitter.com/pacarnahan  

Instagram ➜ https://www.instagram.com/paulcarnahan6/ 

Goodreads ➜ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/211423352-how-soon-is-now

Would you say it’s been a rocky road for you in regard to getting your book written and published or pretty much smooth sailing?  Can you tell us about your journey?

Writing ‘How Soon Is Now?’ took about five years, from start to finish, but the first few years involved a lot of false starts until I found the best story to fit the basic idea (‘What would you do if you could travel back to relive any part of your life?’).

With a large cast of characters, all with their own stories to tell, and a complicated time travel plot criss-crossing between the 1980s, 1990s and near-present, structuring the book for maximum pace and impact was quite a challenge, and involved long sessions of moving entire chunks of the book around until its shape was just right. It never seemed like hard work, though, because, from the moment I came up with the basic plot of the book and the idea of the Nostalgia Club, an eccentric group of time travellers who meet in the back room of an Edinburgh pub, I loved the story and characters so much it was always a joy to spend time with them.

When not writing, what do you like to do for relaxation and/or fun?

I love to read, of course, though I tend to stick to non-fiction when I’m writing, to make sure no one else’s style or ideas accidentally filters into my own work. I’m also a very keen – but distinctly untalented – guitar player. It will come as no surprise to readers of ‘How Soon Is Now?’ that 1980s and 1990s UK indie music figures strongly in my guitar repertoire (though rockabilly stuff is huge fun to play, too). Our household is also full of pets, so if I’m not to be found under a pile of cats, I’ll be out striding the muddy tracks of central Scotland with a dog at my side. 

What makes your book stand out from the rest?

‘How Soon Is Now?’ is a complex, knotty, densely-plotted time travel story full of twists, turns, secrets and paradoxes, but, at its heart, it’s about people. The time travel ‘hook’ is a fantastic way to dig into some big issues that touch us all, such as the pull of the past, the perils of nostalgia, love, loss, guilt and predestination – all while telling a rattling good yarn. As a book, it doesn’t fit easily into a single pigeonhole, but if readers don’t fit into pigeonholes, why should books? Very few people read only one kind of book – so why not give them a book that does lots of great things, all at the same time? It’s a mystery, it’s a fantasy, it’s literary fiction, it’s funny, it’s sad, it’s not afraid to get metaphysical... It’s very much its own beast, and that seems to really connect with readers.

Can you give us the very first page of your book so that we can get a glimpse inside?

Of course!

 

Time tidies up after itself better than most of us realise, so I’ll be brief. I want to get everything down while I can still remember how it happened.

It started with a note: Blue ink on a slip of paper you might mistake for a Christmas cracker joke, with these words written in a plain and precise hand: ‘We know. We can help. Come to the Thrawn Laddie, Edinburgh, 7.30pm Wednesday.’

I was at the off-licence, digging for change in the outside pocket of my suit jacket, when I found the note. I was down to one suit that still fitted and wore it most days - I was, more or less, still

keeping up appearances - so the note might have been curled up there for hours, days or even months. I glanced at it without really reading it and stuffed it back into my pocket, where it stayed until I made it back to the flat with the evening’s beer supply.

If your book was put in the holiday section of the store, what holiday would that be and why?

Hallowe’en! Not so much for the spooks and scares, but for the autumnal atmosphere. It’s set in Scotland around the turn of September into October, so there’s lots of rain, wind and mist as our lead character, troubled ex-journalist Luke Seymour, makes his way between his home in Glasgow and his adventures in Edinburgh with the Nostalgia Club. It’s also autumnal in the sense of its focus on a character navigating later middle-age, and all the accumulated regrets that come with it.

Would you consider turning your book into a series or has that already been done?

My next book is a very different proposition - a sunny, light and breezy romantic comedy set in 1995. It’ll be out early next year, but after that comes a return to some of the themes and characters of ‘How Soon Is Now?’, probably for release in 2026.

When you were young, did you ever see writing as a career or full-time profession?

I certainly did! After a brief spell during which I was sure I was going to be a zoo keeper, writing became my focus – and as soon as I became aware of its existence as a profession, journalism was my aim. So I studiend journalism at college and spent 30 years of my working life as a journalist, moving from local newspapers to national newspapers, with one eye always on writing my own projects.

What’s next on your to do list?

As I mentioned, my second novel, ‘End Of A Century’, will be out next year – I’m working on a final polish of that, adding pizzazz and sparkle wherever needed. As soon as that’s done, it’s back to work on book number three which – and here’s a scoop for you! – is provisionally titled ‘All Men Have Secrets'. Meanwhile, I’ve got a pile of notes for book number four, which looks like being a fun mash-up of some of my favourite ideas and concepts. Plenty to keep me going!