Midway - An Interview with Tony Ballantyne

Tony Ballantyne's new collection has been called "superb" by The Guardian - and with good reason. I was lucky enough to sit down with the man himself and discuss Midway. To read the wonderful and poignant title story, check out Lightspeed, the acclaimed US sci-fi fiction mag, where it was first published. The collection as a whole is ambitious, moving and sharp. I loved it. So here we go...

Let's talk about buildings in transition. You and I both live in places where huge textile mills along river valleys and in city centres have been left empty and then re-colonised. Sometimes it's for housing but you seem more interested in the niche business concerns that spring up. Cafes, bakeries, potteries, life coaches... you seem drawn to the curious characters that populate these spaces. Was that sense of being in transition - a building midway between one version of itself and another - something that inspired you?

Yes, definitely. Go to most cities in England and you'll find that buildings have been repurposed. Our industrial past has been sanitised and romanticised, the structures have been borrowed to lend a veneer of authenticity (Why have butchers started wearing flat caps, by the way?)

I'm also fascinated by the way that people fill in forgotten spaces. You see it in school playgrounds: children have a way of finding forgotten corners to meet with their friends. We're seeing something similar in large shopping centres at the moment. Chain business are moving out and pop up shops and art galleries are moving in. These buildings were created for commerce and industry, and now the creatives are moving in.

Speaking of creatives, in Midway, the creative process is ever-present. It seems to me you're exploring dedication to the creative process... I get the sense that, in these stories, some characters create with dedication and others don't - I'm thinking of the artists who are criticised in The Cold Equations, or the food blogger whose projects fizzles out. Can you tell us more about your thinking here?

Don't get me started...

I'm of the opinion that creativity is often used as an excuse, particularly by those beginning to work in a field. In the classroom as well as online I've often people advising beginners to listen to their heart, to let their imaginations run free. Bollocks. I'm firmly of the opinion that creativity is something that emerges a long way down the line.

Learn the basics. Practice your craft, look at what others have done and build on it. Do that for long enough and, when you're good enough, then the creativity will emerge quite naturally. There are no short cuts. There are naturally talented people. But talent is not enough. It's a short cut, it's start, it makes things easier, but you still have to put the work on. Everyone has to put the work in.

The idea of being trapped comes up a lot because of your personal circumstances as your father's health worsened - a limbo between two states or spaces (in Return to Dream London or A Pigeon in the Arndale Centre) or being trapped by illness (Light on Her Feet.) The image of a pigeon in a shopping centre is one I've found myself thinking about a lot...

Not exactly trapped, more railroaded. As my father was dying I could see how his choices were slowly being taken away. Where he could live, what he could eat. It wasn't that he had no choices, in fact one thing that really stuck with me was a notice in a care home reminding staff that residents should be allowed to make decisions, even if they made bad choices. That's really quite an enlightened statement to make.

That's why I liked the image of the pigeon. It's free to fly, it doesn't realise that it's trapped, it's following the same path over and over again.

Reading Midway I was reminded of a lyric from a Loudon Wainwright song; "I'm a son and I'm a father / I am just a middle-man." I suppose you're a middle-man in this collection (you appear a lot, in conversation with your grandmother.) But the addition of grandmother who defies time and appears spirit-like, makes your dad a middle-man too. 'Grandma' is the glue that holds the stories together. Did she arrive later in the project, or was she central from the beginning?

I feel like a middle man in every sense at the moment! Middle aged, part of the sandwich generation. I don't think that's a bad thing, far from it. I think it's a good place to stand and take a look around from.  

Grandma was the seed around which the project crystalised. I actually was walking past her old house when I imagined calling in to say hello. That was the moment when Midway stopped being a random collection of stories and became a coherent whole. I was drawn to the idea that the stories took place midway between her past and the SF future of the final tale.

Once she was there I found myself wondering what she would think about the stories I was writing, I imagined her reading them and her reaction to them. She was a useful foil - she stopped the writing becoming a collection of 'poor me' stories. She really would have told me to stop complaining about things and just get on with life.

The act of returning home - or trying to return home - is important throughout but especially in the superb title story. In earlier sections of the collection you've returned to your family home in the north east, staying in your childhood bedroom, and you see the place through the eyes of an adult. Buildings that once seemed mysterious now make sense. You're much more politically aware. And angry!

Oh yes, but I try not to be.

I've always distrusted political writing. Too much talking and not enough doing.  I'm not saying that writers don't make a difference. Actually, I am. If you want to change the world, become a teacher. Or a nurse or a care home worker.

A lot of your characters are on journeys - you included. Sometimes from place to place (or planet to planet)... but sometimes from state to state or time to time. I suppose writing autobiographically is like time-travel. Was this something you considered as you worked, or did it emerge?

I think all writing is about a journey - but yes, I think a lot of my writing is about potential for change. I wrote the Penrose series (about a planet of robots) because I was fascinated by the idea of two robot parents making a child (this was the opening scene of the book). Just imagine you could choose your child's character. Would you make them kind and generous but worry about them being taken advantage of, or would you make them self-centred and driven to succeed?  We don't get to make those those choices as humans.

We're born... then we have to work with what we have.

Midway is out now and garnering stellar reviews.