An Exclusive Interview With Brian Finney
Introduction/tell us about yourself ?
I was born and spent the first half of my life in England. I immigrated to Southern California when I was 52 years old. I’ve been a writer and university professor most of my life (though initially I spent five years in industrial management positions). Until I recently retired, I wrote seven non-fiction books and numerous essays, almost all of them about twentieth and twenty-first century mainly British novelists. Once I stopped full-time teaching I readily turned to fiction, a genre I loved and had been writing about for so long. I have a detailed web page with more information: www.bhfinney.com
Tell us about Money Matters ?
The main plot is narrated by its protagonist Jenny, 27-years-old and a little adrift in life. She is still just getting by with two part-time jobs. Asked to investigate the disappearance of one employer’s girlfriend, Jenny reluctantly turns amateur detective and soon finds herself up against a range of powerful and sinister forces, including big money, a corrupt politician, and a Mexican drug cartel.
The novel mixes genres. It is part (late) coming-of-age, part amateur sleuth fiction, part social issues. Illegal immigration, one such issue, permeates both the main plot and a subplot featuring an undocumented young Mexican-American. Jenny’s search leads to her meeting the young, handsome director of an immigrants’ rights organization to whom she is strongly attracted. So the novel becomes also part romance.
Tell us about the writing process ?
I found that once I had honed Jenny’s voice the writing came easily. Voice is very important when writing fiction. I am an older man. Choosing to tell the narrative through the voice of a younger woman gave me the distance I needed to invent an authentic character who could carry the reader with her as things happened to her.
Why did you write this novel?
I knew I wanted to write a novel that reflected the divided state of American society in the 21st century. What I didn’t realize was that I was drawing on my own experience as an immigrant in making immigration so central an issue in the novel. To be successful these larger concerns had to be given individual life in characters like Jenny and her antagonistic sister
What challenges did you encounter while writing Money Matters?
Jenny inclines to a liberal stance, as do I. Her sister is right wing but also prejudiced. I had to fight to remove my own opinions from the arguments the two sisters repeatedly get into and even show Jenny’s sister winning some of them.
Who will enjoy Money Matters the most?
Because of its use of mixed genres Money Matters should appeal to a wide range of readers, both those who like a page-turner and those who like a book that involves current social issues.
What advice would you give to aspiring novelists?
Find an authentic voice for your narrator. Always dramatize any issues arising from the narrative. Never be afraid to erase whole sections if need be. Use an editor and don’t be defensive when asked to revise. But always be yourself.
Do you have any favorite quotes about writing?
My top favorite quote is from Samuel Beckett: “The creation of the world did not take place once and for all time, but takes place every day.” I also like D. H. Lawrence’s “Trust the tale, not the teller.’
What are you reading now?
I recently finished reading Salman Rushdie’s latest novel, Quichotte, an updated parody of Cervantes’ Don Quixote and much more. I’ve written a longish review of it that will be appearing any day in the Los Angeles Review of Books.
What are you working on next?
That is still up in the air. It might be a sequel to Money Matters. It might be another nonfiction work. Or it might be a fictionalized autobiography of my wartime childhood. Currently, I am busy promoting my novel which is available on Amazon as an e-book, paperback and audiobook: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999800310
