Chris Humphreys
Chris (C.C.) Humphreys has played Hamlet in Calgary, a gladiator in Tunisia, and a dead immortal in Highlander; he’s waltzed in London’s West End, conned the landlord of the Rovers Return in Coronation Street, commanded a starfleet in Andromeda, and voiced Salem the cat in the original Sabrina. He has published 20 novels including The French Executioner, The Jack Absolute Trilogy; Vlad – The Last Confession; A Place Called Armageddon; and Shakespeare’s Rebel. His novel Plague won the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Novel in Canada in 2015. He is now also writingepic fantasy with the Immortals’ Blood Trilogy, for Gollancz; the first book, Smoke in the Glass, was published in 2019 and Book Two: The Coming of the Dark in 2020. The epic conclusion, The Wars of Gods and Men, will be published in 2021.
He has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia. He wears a unicorn signet ring and always wondered why. The Hunt of the Unicorn begins to answer that question.
Marina Raydun: What a phenomenal CV! When did you first start writing plays?
Chris Humphreys: I wrote my first play in 1992. I entered a 24 Hour playwriting competition in Vancouver where I was living at the time. You went into a room with 2 pages of notes at 5:30 on a Friday night, left 24 hours later, having slept there… my sole goal was to finish something, a draft- always my problem. I ended up winning! The prize was $500 and a production the following year. Suddenly, I was a professional.
MR: Are there any major differences to your creative method, your artistic process, when you’re playwriting versus penning novels?
CH: A little. I don’t tend to plan much when writing a novel, but I do some. With a play it’s even more open— who are these characters? What do they want? How do they tell me that?
MR: What is the first experience you had when you learned that language had power?
CH: I’ve always known that from my life as an actor. When you connect with someone in an audience – laughter, tears – you realize how language affects people.
MR: Have you read anything that made you feel differently about fiction?
CH: Almost anything by Rosemary Sutcliff. The way she conjures ancient worlds with only that world’s references – plants, religions etc. Always blows me away.
MR: Is there one topic you would never write about as an author? Why?
CH: Never? No. But I do find violence, especially sexual violence, against women very hard to write about. Sadly, there was so much of it down the centuries so to avoid it entirely is to whitewash history and its consequences. I have to strike a balance.
MR: Has anything changed for you, creatively, over the course of the pandemic?
CH: Not really. I am a writer so I am always kind of in lockdown. I haven’t been able to travel to research but my new novel is set mainly in London, where I lived for years, and Norway where I have spent a lot of time. Just hope it doesn’t go on too much longer.
MR: What is your favorite genre to read?
CH: I read across the genres. It depends on my mood. I like a good thriller or speculative fiction with a twist. Sometimes I read what I am writing, more often not.
MR: What literary pilgrimages have you gone on?
CH: They are mostly to do with research. I try to go to the places I am writing about. To be on the walls of Constantinople and see your characters in action or to stand in a room in Targoviste (Romania) where Vlad launched his Easter Sunday massacre… that is inspirational. I acknowledge the legacy of other writers, but I tend to honour them through their words, not the places they dwelt.
MR: You also narrate audiobooks. Tell us a little bit about that process, especially when it comes to narrating other authors’ creations.
CH: This has been my great ‘pivot’ of the last year. I always recorded my own audiobooks for publishers when they bought the rights. But last year I set up a studio, learned the tech (not usually my strongest skill-set) and hung out my shingle. I love all forms of storytelling and bringing someone’s visions to life in the spoken word is a privilege.
MR: Is there a book that people might be surprised to learn you love?
CH: Anything by Raymond Chandler. I love his prose. “No matter how much I try to be nice, I always find myself kneeling with my face in the dirt and my thumb reaching for some guy’s eye.” There’s everything in that sentence, about character, action and sheer brio. If I could write one like it, I might put away my pen forever. Job done.
More information about Chris can be found on his website at authorchrishumphreys.com