By Nick Tricome
Alexander Gordon Smith, the author of the Escape from the Furnace series of horror novels, visited Ridley High School back on Friday, March 16th to talk about the Furnace series, his newest book, and how he ultimately became a writer.
The Furnace series spreads across four novels Lockdown, Solitary, Death Sentence, and Fugitive. The story focuses on a trouble making teenager named Alex, who is sent to one of the most secure prisons in the world after being framed for murder.
Smith started by introducing himself to the classes in the Board Room that were in attendance. He said that he liked to be called Gordon, and joked that the only reason that his parents did not make Gordon his first name, is because they did not want his initials to be GAS.
Smith then briefly discussed his writing process.
“I get up in the morning, write for a few hours, then watch movies and play videogames for inspiration,” he explained.
However, Smith quickly put to rest the idea that all writers do is sit inside and write all day.
“The best thing about being a writer is having experiences, going out, meeting people, building things,” he said.
Smith then went into how he got started writing horror stories.
When he was six years old, he wrote his first book. He showed a picture book that was filled with drawings of colorful monsters on each page.
Smith was proud of his accomplishment and showed it to his mother, hoping to scare her with his book.
To his surprise, his mother thought that the book was charming, and he marched out of the room upset over the fact that his book did not meet his expectations.
About a year later, Smith watched his first R rated horror film, given to him by his grandmother of all people.
All the blood and gore in the movie turned him away from the horror a bit, because he had a different definition of horror.
“Monsters and Scooby-Doo are what I considered horror,” he said. “It was always a guy in a mask, but you were hoping that one time it would actually be a monster.”
Smith explained that he loves the horror genre, because, “horror is the only genre that has no rules. Anything can happen.”
But Smith also had another reason for his preference in horror.
“When you’re so young, everything you read can be true, horror lets you be a kid again.”
By age 11, Smith decided that he was going to be a horror writer.
In order to be a better writer, Smith went out and tried to have real experiences and haunting. He decided to go to a haunted house with his friend Nigel.
Only equipped with a flashlight, the two entered the boarded up house. It smelled, there were rats crawling everywhere and Smith heard a clock ticking throughout the building.
Smith told himself, “this is my job now; I’m an author and a detective.”
He continued to keep moving, but as the sound of the clock got louder, Smith thought “THIS HOUSE HAS A PULSE!”
Smith ran out of the house with the flashlight, unaware that he had left Nigel in the dark.
“I was in that house for seven minutes,” Smith said. “I realized I wasn’t brave enough to be a paranormal author, so I decided to be a more traditional author.”
After Smith finished his humorous story, he discussed his first novel.
“It is about Angels….That ate people.”
An odd idea, but Smith had aspirations.
“I wanted to be the next Stephen King (in terms of financial success).”
Smith pursued his goal, but it came at a cost.
He stopped working in school and failed his exams. He sent his work to multiple publishers, but got rejected.
Then Smith realized that flunking out of school was not a smart idea. He went back to school, took his exams, and went to university (college).
After college, Smith did what he said was the worst thing possible, he “gave up” on writing.
Eventually, he had a change of heart and started writing a book with his brother entitled The Inventor(UK Only).
The book was about all these various inventions, so they both decided to build them.
One of those inventions were rocket boots…. You can imagine how that worked out.
The characters of the book were inventors, and trying to recreate everything the characters made led to Smith sharing a piece of advice with students.
“Get to know your characters and the book will write itself.”
Smith said that he spent so much time being an inventor that the book practically wrote itself, because Smith and his brother knew exactly what their characters went through.
While he was still discussing his characters, Smith moved on to the inspiration that created Alex, the protagonist of the Furnace series.
During the time Smith stopped working in school, he got in trouble often, until his family intervened and snapped him out of it.
When he started to write the first Furnace book, Smith thought, “What would happen if that 15-year old kid wasn’t saved?”
From then on, Smith went around, firing shotguns, so he knew what firing a gun felt like for prison guards. Then spent time in a prison cell, to know what it felt like for his main character to be stuck in prison.
“If it was real for me, it was real for Alex,” Smith explained.
Smith wrapped up by briefly discussing his new book “Fury,” a story where everyone turns on the protagonist.
Smith told the students that the inspiration came from a game he used to play in gym class.
“My PE teacher had a game where you had a ball, got a five second head start, then everyone comes after you.”
Smith concluded by offering words of encouragement to those who hope to be a writer.
“Anyone can be a writer; you just have to have a passion for writing stories.”
All four novels in the Furnace series, as well as The Fury are available now.
