Mortgage Soup fires the questions at Martin Stewart, founder of London Money and author of Goodbye Morecambe.

Mortgage Soup: What inspired you to write Goodbye Morecambe, and when did the idea first come to you?

Martin Stewart: I think the desire to prove I am not going to be defined by mortgages, swaps rates or house prices. I’ve spoken to thousands of people in our industry and the vast majority “fell into” the sector. That tells me that there are an awful lot of mortgage professionals who are not living an authentic life. There will be many with a book to write, a film to make, a house to build or a picture to paint. I hope those individuals take a step back over Christmas and set themselves some personal goals that don’t involve banks or building societies.

Mortgage Soup: How did you manage to balance running a business and writing a book during lockdown?

Martin Stewart: We run a very streamlined business that requires little day to day maintenance. We work clever, we don’t work hard. But there is always a way to find time to do things that truly matter. So, whether that was locking the door and turning the phone off for days on end or writing on the commute or in the office when no one was looking, i always made sure the book got the attention it deserved.

Mortgage Soup: Did you experience writer’s block at any stage, and how did you overcome it?

Martin Stewart: Not writers block per se, anyone who knows me knows I am not often lost for words. But writers’ ego is another thing altogether. One day you think you’re Geroge Orwell, next minute you think you’re no better than Nadine Dorries. If one thing stops people writing a book it is the fear of not being good enough. We are surrounded by billions of people so we are not short of inspiration, but we are guilty of sometimes being short of confidence.

Mortgage Soup: What was the most challenging aspect of writing the book, and how did you push through it?

Martin Stewart: Losing the narrative arc, which is basically the voice of the story, its trajectory, its essence. The first draft of Goodbye Morecambe is very different to the final version, brutally so in many respects. Every book is at risk of being over edited. A poorly thought through paragraph in the middle of a weak chapter can very quickly send you in the wrong direction. It is why I had to write one million words to get the 80,000 I needed. Putting it numerically, my failure rate for the work in progress was 92%. You can see why people give up!

Mortgage Soup: How did you approach writing the complex emotions and themes in the story, like jealousy, revenge, hope, and redemption?

Martin Stewart: You should always write about what you know and as human beings we all know about jealously, revenge, hope and redemption.

Mortgage Soup: Can you share more about the protagonist, Stanton, and what makes his journey compelling?

Martin Stewart: I described Stanton as being someone with the face of an angel but the heart of the devil. I was hoping to find a story about someone born on the wrong side of everything, someone whose life was already written and was unlikely to ever have a happy ending. Then I thought about juxtaposing that complex character alongside someone totally opposite to him and then sending them both on an adventure where they ended up with no choice but to rely on each other. I needed two diametrically opposite characters for that dynamic to really evolve and I hopefully found that in the cold, calculating Stanton and the shy vulnerable Heather. Setting it in a seaside town in 1985 gives those characters an evocative and cinematic environment in which to work.

Mortgage Soup: Why did you choose to compare Goodbye Morecambe to Quadrophenia meets Romeo & Juliet?

Martin Stewart: All books need an elevator pitch. If I said “boy living in a cupboard finds out he is a wizard’ you don’t need to think too hard about who I am talking about. What I am saying with mine is “cultural wars rage leading two young kids with nothing in common to find each other”.

Mortgage Soup: How did you develop the idea of setting the story within the span of a week?

Martin Stewart: I needed a medium to concentrate the impact of the story and there is nothing better than a short period of time to focus the reader’s attention. A story needs unmissable deadlines which, if they are missed, could have dire consequences for all concerned. Therefore, spreading the story over just five days gave me plenty of opportunity for time sensitive drama.

Mortgage Soup: What message or feeling do you hope readers take away after finishing the book?

Martin Stewart: Hopefully not feeling that I should stick to mortgages!

One of the reasons the book is set in 1985 was to ensure the jeopardy within the story could not be influenced by technology. So, to me there is an element of nostalgia that may appeal to those who grew up in that era.

Mortgage Soup: Did any real-life experiences or people influence the characters or plot in the story?

Martin Stewart: This is my hometown. I worked on its fairground in 1985 as many teenage boys did. Back then the English seaside resorts were at their zenith which helps to give the story an evocative setting. Other than that, it is a complete work of fiction.

Mortgage Soup: How did you handle the long wait between finishing the book and getting it published?

Martin Stewart: I pretended I was on hold to a lender! In all seriousness I totally misjudged the process and wasted huge amounts of time getting bogged down, trying different things, failing, adjusting and then trying again. Some people spend years editing their novel and they start to suffer Stockholm Syndrome as a result. I made a conscious decision at the start of the year to get the book ready for publication within 12 months and I’ve just about met the deadline.

Mortgage Soup: What was your experience working with publishers, and what surprised you most about the process?

Martin Stewart: It was not so much the publishers more the literary agents where I wasted most time. I wanted to try and access the market in a more traditional way, but the publishing world as a whole seems quite impenetrable unless you are selling misery porn, books about wizards or a celebrity who has had a book ghostwritten for them. Thankfully, self-publishing is now a well-supported and very professional sector and though the entry costs are high, these days anyone can reach a global audience with their book.

Mortgage Soup: Why did you decide to invest £2,000 in the book cover, and what do you think it adds to the book’s appeal?

Martin Stewart: I was brought up reading Penguin Classics and loved their look which would often come with an eye-catching black and white picture on the front. Whenever I look in bookshops, I am naturally drawn to those types of covers and in such a competitive market as book sales, even a small advantage can make someone pick your book up over theirs. Also, I believe Goodbye Morecambe to be quite cinematically visual and Stanton has an aesthetic appeal which I felt deserved to be sign posted to the reader.

Mortgage Soup: What advice would you give to aspiring authors who want to publish their first book?

Martin Stewart: The sooner you start writing ‘Once Upon A Time’ the sooner you get to write ‘The End’. Begin with the final page in mind, but just make sure you begin. The graveyard is full of some of the greatest books we never got the chance to read.

Mortgage Soup: Do you plan to write another book, and if so, what themes or ideas are you interested in exploring next?

Martin Stewart: Goodbye Morecambe is part of what I like to call a ‘Seaside Trilogy’. Every author has a genre, and we all know what to expect from JK Rowling, John Le Carre and Tom Sharpe. My genre is quite simplistic – two people meet that shouldn’t meet, because when they do absolutely anything can happen…

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