New Welsh Writers: Lloyd Markham [Interview extract]
We ask new Welsh writers how they got their start and if they have advice for those looking to publish their first books.
INTERVIEWER
When did you first develop an interest in writing?
LLOYD MARKHAM
I think around the time I first started reading, really. Though the seeds were perhaps planted even earlier. When my dad would read me bedtime stories as a child he would often change things to amuse himself—inserting rude jokes and non-sequiturs into otherwise innocent books and fables. Eventually, I wanted to join in on the fun. I would wrestle the books away from him and declare, "No! It didn’t go like that, Dad. It went like this!"
Funny as it is to think about it now, those early experiences with my father probably put the idea into my head that I could make up stories too.
What I’m saying is I blame my father for everything.
Read the interview in full on the Cardiff Review website
Buy Bad Ideas\Chemicals by Lloyd Markham from our online shop for £7.99
Join us for the Cosmic Re-launch of Bad Ideas\Chemicals at The Full Moon, Cardiff on 30 November 2017
Praise for Bad Ideas\Chemicals:
‘A dark and witty take on small town life.’ – David Towsey
‘bleak, weird, grim, cool... it will probably become a cult classic.’ – Rhian Elizabeth
'Some writers try to do weird. Some writers do weird. Lloyd Markham is weird.' – Christopher Meredith
‘Poignant, unnervingly funny and poetic,' – Philip Gross
‘a unique new voice.’ – Rhys Thomas
About Bad Ideas\Chemicals:
Cassandra Fish believes she is out of this world, wearing her orange film-set spacesuit daily in the hope that her absent parents will return and take her back to her real planet. While she waits she accompanies her friends – frustrated musician Billy, the only open mic player in the town and the laddish, volatile Fox – from bar to nightclub – on one last great night out to drink, dance, take bad chemicals, have bad trips, have bad ideas, and do unthinkable things.
Lloyd Markham was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, moving to and settling in Bridgend, south Wales when he was thirteen. He spent the rest of his teenage years miserable and strange and having bad nights out before undertaking a BA in Writing at Glamorgan followed by an MPhil. He enjoys noise music, Japanese animation and the documentaries of Adam Curtis. His favourite book is The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. He operates synthesisers in a band called Deep Hum and has less bad nights out these days.
