I had the great pleasure to listen to Cynan Jones, a Ceredigion based author, speak at Waterstones about his latest book, Pulse. Despite the classic rainy Cardiff weather, Jones effortlessly created a warming, intimate atmosphere as he shared the process behind his work.
Jones’s work is pretty expansive, publishing his first novel The Long Dry in 2006 and Everything I Found on the Beach and Bird, Blood, Snow in 2011 and 2012. My favourite novel by Jones, The Dig, was published in 2014 and received huge praise. One chapter from the novel was shortlisted for the 2013 Sunday Times Short Story Award, as well as the novel winning the 2014 Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize and 2015 Wales Book of the Year Fiction Prize. And rightly so, the novel is absolutely incredible!
Undoubtedly, I was very keen to see this inspiring author talk about his latest collection of short stories. Described as ‘breathtakingly tense, vital and precise’, the collection includes six stories, titled Peregrine, Reindeer, Cow, Stock, White Squares and Pulse. Released on the 6th November, Pulse intricately explores the collision of internal and external forces and the worlds in which these characters live in, a truly gripping reading experience! Sat upstairs in Waterstones, backed with the hum of the café refrigerators, Cynan explained that the authenticity of the landscapes described in his works comes from his childhood. Growing up in rural Ceredigion, his grandparents were farmers and he watched the hardship of small farming communities.
The interviewer asked how his career started and Jones outlined his decision at twenty-two to write, and the consequent move to Glasgow, working as a copywriter to learn the craft of writing. At twenty-eight, he moved back home with his mum, and he gave himself two years to pursue his writing dream, explaining that he started out writing about cities only to find a “fakeness” in his work. Instead, he turned back to what he knew and wrote about familiar places.
Cynan explained that he does a lot of process writing and showing characters’ physical movements to create personalities rather than lengthy descriptions – “Leaving gaps in writing form and building description from a feeling rather than something explicit in the text”. Cynan cleverly allows the reader to create their own images of the characters and hearing him explain this made me feel even more connected to his work.
Interwoven with quick wit and an insight into Jones’s world of writing, he answered the question of what his perfect writing day looks like: “I like to be left alone. I like to get up and eat marmalade on toast, start writing from around 10 and then go to bed early”. Lots of Jones’s work was crafted through lockdown and he explained how the pandemic changed his approach – “life changes and you have to change the ways you go about it. It’s finding new ways to get through”.
With this selection of short stories, Cynan continued this idea of people watching to craft such real personalities – touching on his perception of rural Welsh society. Yet this captivating speaker kept the crowd laughing, joking that he would next write vampire novels, making the point that he wants to keep working out of his comfort zone. Gesturing to Waterstones’ walls laden with books, Cynan professed his ambition to write what isn’t there.
Audience members began to ask Cynan Jones questions about his work and life, with one question asking what he would be if he wasn’t an author. Quick off the mark, he chuckled saying that he would be an electrician – “we need them and they make good money!”. The crowd hung onto his words and laughed along with his witty sense of humour, keen to understand the ingenious author’s mind.
After the questions, Jones headed downstairs to sign copies of Pulse; I readily bought a hardback copy and asked for a signature. As I thanked him for signing my copy and answering my questions, he explained he feels moved that “people have come to connect with the person behind the book”.
The evening was wonderfully curated by Waterstones and Cynan Jones was a truly inspirational and insightful speaker, capturing the audience with his brilliant mind and witty jokes. Pulse and Jones’s other works are available at Waterstones, and I hugely recommend giving his books a try!
