This week I have musician Ross Merrin on the blog. Ross has just published his debut novel, “How Beats The Original Heart”, the first book in his planned trilogy “Moments of Tiny Violence”. And it’s an absolute smasher ! Here’s a quick summary about How Beats The Original Heart , before I chat to Ross about music, his writing and his love of shoes…

BOOK SUMMARY

In the flare of the flames a life-force flickers. Why did Kick Vivid, singer in The Fifth Season, touring a post-religious world, agree to find the boy? And why does the omnipotent Universal Services pursue him so relentlessly when its dominance of the modern world is already almost total? Kick can find the truth at the heart of almost any situation – but this is different in a way even he can’t define. So much – everything perhaps – is within easy reach; pleasure, resources, the future…souls. And while Universal Services are selling life after death, not everyone is buying. There is laughter to be had, after all, in any life led and especially within the touring family. Kick promised to find the boy. He doesn’t know why. Universal Services do. It might be the flames that throw dancing shadows over everything around – or, maybe, simply nothing is as it seems. They say your life flashes before your eyes when you are about to die. When there’s nothing left to believe in, what do you believe in?

THE INTERVIEW

Hi Ross and welcome to the blog 👋

Hey there, my name is Ross Merrin and I am the author of ‘How Beats the Original Heart’, part of a trilogy entitled ‘Moments of Tiny Violence’.

Despite previous stints in nightclub management, charity co-ordination and corporate development, I have been a professional musician, solely, since 2002.

I am also the Director of Deaf Fret Management Limited, a company dedicated to developing creative talent which includes singer-songwriters, filmmakers, poets and performers.

“How Beats The Original Heart” is your debut novel, and the first book of “Moments of Tiny Violence” trilogy – a story of musician Kick Vivid and his rock group, The Fifth Season, who are on tour in an alternative world. Who or what inspired you to write “How Beats The Original Heart”?

I think this is a big question and it allows me to really put together the thinking behind the book. 

The fact that I am a musician allowed me to talk within that frame of reference but the things I really wanted to address in the book were on a grander scale – at least that was the intention!

I had been thinking for a long time about the nature of existence and how faith and belief – or lack of it – fit into a modern, perhaps more secular, world and I wanted to put a character through their paces in these terms.

Creating a tour environment in a world that has no religion gave me the perfect vehicle to carry the narrative of my main character as he matured, encountered good and bad people and circumstances and forged his own belief system.

I was curious to explore the possibilities of what you might believe in when there’s nothing left to believe in, as such, and, as much as anything else, it was the curiosity of how I might react that made it such a compelling tale for me to tell.

You are a musician & guitar player yourself – so are your characters based on observations of people you’ve come across in the past and incidents you’ve experienced ? Who were the hardest characters to portray?

Strangely, none of the characters are based on real people or any situations based on real events but I imagine anyone reading it with experience of a band situation would recognise personalities, traits and so on.

For example, Zip Furious, the guitarist, teases Riot Malign, the drummer because that’s what guitarists do to drummers for the most part. Drummers get it in the neck and are usually of the personality type that can take it – and give as good as they get.

(A good drummer is gold dust and genuinely holds it all together…just don’t tell them!)

Most of the characters were fairly easy to write in the band scenario simply because I have experience of it, but I also need each character to play their part in the constituting the complete band. Kick Vivid, our main character (thank you for loving his name by the way!), relies on each of his fellow band members for a different function, each providing something unique to the whole that is the band. 

It was a real consideration to have their personalities fit their role as a musician but also provide an existential element in the roles they played in Kick’s learning.

The Road Crew, on the other hand, were just plain fun to write and, in a book that was trying to deal with big subjects, allowed me ongoing light-hearted relief from the bigger subjects!

Were there any aspects of writing your novel that surprised you, either by being harder or easier to write about than you expected ? 

I was taken by surprise by a character called Bubon who I had originally intended to be in the book for a paragraph or so, but he just took on a life of his own and my pen just kept moving.

I had plotted the book very carefully but he just took over, so I ran with it.

There was one scene that was very difficult to write and that was the scene when the band stop at the inn in the early part of the tour. There is a very complicated thing happening at the inn which I felt really committed to conveying as a way of demonstrating who Kick was and how a simple action has the potential to make a huge difference – it’s not a scene without significance but it was still being tightened and tidied up on the eve of publication and, hopefully, I straightened it enough to make it coherent!

Hypothetically speaking, if “How Beats The Original Heart” was made into a film, who would you love to see portraying the characters, especially Kick Vivid (love that name!)? 

Ah, now I’m going to get all evasive on you Linda!

Who would I get to play Kick Vivid? 

Okay, so I figure each reader might have an image of Kick in their head and I don’t really want to disrupt the freedom of those images, but I do want to answer your question with the attention it deserves.

I have thought about this a lot and wondered the same – and even in my own mind, Kick is a little vague.

I think he would need to be a composite of any actors who could portray vulnerability, trustworthiness, competence, likeability, a profound stage- and natural charisma and the confidence to carry it without losing any approachable qualities.

I see him, physically, as quite tall, slim, a little shaggy but glamorous, obviously attractive but not a chiselled cliché. 

There, I’ve tried to answer but not coloured anyone’s own image – have I done enough!?

How about I promise that, should they make it into a film, I come back and tell you who I chose?

I would be very curious as to who YOU would choose to be honest?

Me? Oh, I would choose an actor Jason Momoa !! 😜 ….. Although “How Beats The Original Heart” is based in an alternative world, is your fictional town/urban area inspired by any city/town/area in the “real” world?  If so, what was it about this place or places that ignited your imagination and got the creative juices flowing? 

Many of the settings in the book are inspired by environments of been in. Despite it being an alternative world, I have placed real settings into it.

I used to fish all the time when I was younger – much less so now but it was profoundly formative and much of the book as set in or around water.

Given the nature of the subjects I was trying to explore, water, being the giver of life, was a key character in the book as much as the humans themselves and there are several places in Scotland that, with tiny adjustments, I essentially described as I remember them.

I’ve been very lucky in that I have dived in some extraordinary parts of the world and the dive scenes I described are rooted very deeply in personal experiences and actual dive sites.

Every time I am in places as such as these, I take a moment to marvel at it – and salute my good fortune at being able to experience them.

The Nowhere People was also based on personal experience of a place but I am not saying where for fear of upsetting someone!

Are you a bookworm? What is your favourite genre and/or authors? Kindle or actual book? 

I’m not a huge bookworm – I can go through periods of my life not picking up a book but that’s mostly because something is coming out of my head at that point (like a book plot or a song) and there’s no room for something to go in at the same time!

If it’s like this, I tend to read autobiographies if anything – I have read dozens – because I have no plot to remember and I can read it more ‘in the moment’ as such.

Other times, I pile through novels at a significant rate and it has to be a real book rather than on a screen by the way.

I really like humour and imagination so enjoy David Mitchell and am currently reading ‘Number 9 Dream’.

Iain Banks ticks a lot of my boxes, interestingly especially in one that was a little unlikely, ‘A Song of Stone’, which is beautifully written but quite strange.

I loved Matthew Branton’s ‘The Love Parade’ and an especial favourite is Claire North’s ‘Touch’ which is just an incredible piece of writing. She’s brilliant generally.

‘Shantaram’ (Gregory David Roberts) and ‘Kill Your Friends’ (John Niven) would come with me to a desert island too.

Is “How Beats The Original World”  available to purchase worldwide?

‘How Beats the Original Heart’ is available to buy worldwide – it is available through Amazon and I know that they deliver orders to Europe but friends in Mexico have had to settle for downloads so I think the Atlantic is a deciding factor in some way.

Personal now – what outfits and shoes would you normally be found wearing?

Now you’re asking!

I have a wardrobe full of clothes…that I never wear! I am sure I am not alone in that but I work mostly from home so convenience tends to come into the decision-making each day.

Having said that, you will never find me in my ‘pyjamas’ as it were – getting dressed to go out is a big part of my mental approach to the day. I don’t feel anything like as alert if I am not dressed properly.

I do have some great clothes – I am a big fan of charity shops and I live in an area where they are brimming with interesting things so they provide the staple in my wardrobe.

I can get into the habit of laying out my clothes the night before and dressing up a little but I tend to fall out of it if I have a big recording session to do in my studio, say, and comfort and practicality becomes the order of things.

Smart jeans, long-sleeved tops and good trainers get through many days but it’s hard to beat a good suit and polished shoes for feeling like you can take on the world effectively.

I’ve got an immaculate red suit that I bought in a charity shop for £20 just to give you an idea!

Do you have any favourite shops or online sites ?j

As I mentioned, I love charity shops for clothes – some people don’t care for them and really want only new clothes but I often find clearly unworn, unwanted gifts that have been handed in to charity shops as well as interesting and unique second-hand items so I can find little to complain about!

I run a home studio almost exclusively with eBay and Amazon purchases – I loved to support local guitar shops but they have all closed or gone online so it is just the way of things and, unlike how it might have been even10 years ago, there is less to go wrong with distance purchasing if you know the item you are after.

What’s next on your clothes/shoe wish list?

I am an absolute sucker for shoes – I’ve been known to buy them for the hell of it. 

As for clothes, well, going back to that comment about suits – I have a couple but as I get older, my taste changes a little and I think 2025 is going to see me exploring options in that area.

Boots or Shoes?

In winter, boots – in summer, shoes.

There’s nothing complicated in my choices here, simply pragmaticism – a good pair of boots keep my feet drier in winter on the sunny isle that is Britain!

When it comes to shoes, I am going to spend 2025 wearing those shoes I have already bought and not yet worn before I get any more…promise.

Conversely, in summer, it’s a treat to enjoy greater flexibility and fresh air around your ankles in the way that shoes allow.

Links you would like to share:

Web: www.theoriginalheart.com

Insta: @theoriginalheartbook (or @rossmerrin)

X: @OrigHeartBook (or @RossMerrin)

Also: www.deaf-fret.com

Great chatting to you Ross! LoveD your book so thanks for the review copy & thanks also to Debbie of Cameron PM

Linda x

All photographs have been published with the kind permission of Ross Merrin