Blog tour: Full Wire

Welcome to the blog tour for Full Wire by J.R. McMenemie!

Hi J.R.! First of all, I would like to congratulate you on the publication of Full Wire! Can you please briefly tell us what it is about?

A: Thank you Silvia, and please, call me John.

Full Wire is a dystopian sci-fi thriller. It’s a story of unrequited love in an age of transhumanism, set against the backdrop of a crime which happens in London in the year 2186.

Did you have the plot entirely figured out when you started writing the book or did it take an unexpected turn as the characters grew on the page?

A: I knew where it was headed right from the start, and had the basic structure and plot all down before I began to write. I can’t go into specifics without giving away spoilers, but there were times when the characters would make demands of the story and I’d have to alter it. However, for the most part they all generally behaved themselves!

Was Full Wire your working title? Either way, how did you choose it?

A: Yes, it was always the title. I played around with many others during the writing process but Full Wire was the one I always went back to.

It began as a colloquialism for the immersive internet experience in the book. In the early stages of drafting, I had two levels of connection: a direct link to the network which was called “Straight Wire” and a newer, more advanced, fully immersive connection called “Full Wire.”  Over the course of writing and plotting, the definition and usage of those terms changed, and “Full Wire” came to mean something else.

If this novel was going to be turned into a film, who would you cast in the role of Pierre?

A: That’s a difficult question to answer, because although I do have a clear image of Pierre in my head, I never describe him in the book. I’d like to leave that up the reader, and for them to picture Pierre in their own mind’s eye without any interference from me. 

Saying that, I’ve always had an idea who I’d like to see playing him if Full Wire was developed into a film, and there are a few actors I think who really fit the bill physically. Two or three in particular, British actors who are around the same age and build as Pierre, really do resemble my own image of him. One of these I feel would be especially well cast interpreting Pierre’s emotions and aching love for Jani, but I can’t say anymore than that because I don’t want to interfere with the reader’s own creative process.

I’ve also thought about the rest of the main cast, and although I don’t want to say too much, I have a feeling that Doug Jones would be fantastic as Baumer.

Without giving too much away, can you tell us about a scene in the book that you love or that was particularly difficult to write?

A: I really can’t make that kind of choice because I love them all in their own way, but I can say that what stands out for most people, early on, is the flypast at the roof party in chapter four. It’s also the first thing I wrote when I’d finished planning it, and the first piece I brought to my writers group. It’s also the chapter which contains the first major plot point. I had real fun writing those scenes.

Also I loved writing any scene where Baumer speaks. The slang he uses was great fun to do.

In terms of difficulty, there are a few scenes I found to be quite hard emotionally, and one or two that I had to completely step away from for a week or so. It’s probably obvious which ones those are to someone who’s read it.

Is there anything that didn’t make it into the final version of the book?

A: Ha! Quite a bit! A couple of scenes that didn’t quite work, a bit of dialogue, but the main one was this: There was a whole other book within the book that was cut entirely. I had this idea that each chapter could be preceded by a mood piece from a book written fifty years previously, about the catastrophic storm and resulting floods which create so much of the landscape in Full Wire.

Pierre referred to this book frequently, it being a particular favourite of his, and I would draw parallels between that author’s journey and Pierre’s, but, with everything else that’s going on — Anne Boleyn, narcotic hallucinations, immersive VR etc — I felt that another layer of reality would be too much, so the whole thing was removed, including any reference to it and its author. I think it was a good decision but you never know, this book might end up as a companion piece to Full Wire one day.

If you are already working on your next writing project, would you mind giving us a little anticipation of what we are to expect?

A: Apart from trying to develop Full Wire into a screenplay, and mulling over the sequel to that novel (there is one lurking in the recesses), my main writing project is a new standalone novel concerning, amongst other things, memory and addiction. It’s not as sci-fi as Full Wire and there isn’t a working title as yet, but I have planned it structurally. It’s going to be a lot longer than Full Wire but I’m only really at the beginning, so who knows where it’ll take me?

What are you reading at the moment?

A: Homo Deus, by Yuval Noah Harari. I bought that and Sapiens as a set. I thought Sapiens was very good and Homo Deus is equally thought provoking and interesting. He’s also quite humorous and a touch cynical, which always makes a book that size go a bit easier.

Due to the popularity of social networking websites, interacting with readers – be it via Twitter, Facebook Instagram etc. – is becoming increasingly important. How do you cope with these new demands on authors and do you think that they somehow disrupt your writing schedule?

A: Social media can be a very positive force in a person’s life. As a writer, I’ve met some fantastic people during my time on Twitter, and had (mainly) productive conversations with film directors, screenwriters, novelists, actors, journalists, graphic artists etc. A vast majority of the people I interact with are supportive and constructive.

I agree that it’s an important, possibly vital promotional tool for all artists these days, but you have to strike a balance between using it and abusing it, or even between you using it, and it using you!

It’s very easy to suddenly catch yourself mindlessly scrolling through the endless feed, so you have to be aware of that distraction because it can interfere with everything else in your life.

As for disrupting my own writing schedule, when I’m writing I switch everything else off. I put on the blinders and I write.

What one piece of advice would you give to aspiring writers?

A: Read a lot, write a lot, and submit what you finish. You can do it.

Thank you for your time!

A: You are very welcome!