Born in Mid-Air

Scott Taylor was born and bred in Nottingham but has since found himself completing a degree in journalism, running a coffee shop in Bristol and teaching English in Siberia. He’s now back in his home town after self-publishing his debut novel Born in Mid-Air. Here he gives a little context to the book as well as a small excerpt.   

You've travelled about a bit...
After finishing my studies at Alderman White comprehensive and then South Notts College I moved down south to do a degree in journalism at Surrey Institute of Art and Design. My mum died suddenly of cancer when I was in my second year. Despite wanting initially to pack-in the degree (and everything), I pressed-on and graduated in 1998. I stayed living down south after my degree for a few years before moving to Bristol and managing a coffee shop. This was quite tiresome and I soon got into teaching English as a foreign language. My first role was in Siberia. I lived there for a year, experiencing winter days of minus 48 degrees and summer ones of 30. Teaching English also took me to Kurdish Turkey and northern Italy. These expeditions taught me a lot about both myself and that massive thing out there called The World.

But your back home now...
I returned to Nottingham in 2007. Before then, my sadness about mum had made my hometown something of an emotional open wound, but after ten years I found that familiarity had made the old place a friend. I now live in St Anns with my girlfriend, writing, and working in a call centre. I had a rehearsed reading of my comedy play Sticks & Stones performed in London in 2008, and wrote three sketch shows which featured in the first two Nottingham Comedy Festivals (2009 & 2010).

You’ve self-published your first novel. This seems to be quite a growing trend...
Technology has changed the landscape. Authors have latched onto the fact that they can use sites like Lulu and Amazon KDP to go straight to the audience instead of trying to first impress an agent behind a desk in London who has to impress a publisher over lunch in London, who might then see fit to release the book to everyone. Self-publishing used to be a dirty word, but it shouldn't be. Musicians who spend their own time and money writing and recording an album are praised for it. Authors who spend their own time and money writing and publishing a book deserve the same kudos. Sure, it's a product that's rough around the edges, but that's half the attraction. Think about mixtapes in music. They're interesting and individual because the big companies haven't homogenised the sound yet. Self-published books are writer's mixtapes.

Why Born in Mid-Air?
I was born on the sixth floor of Balloon Woods flats. They've since been demolished, and I find it a bit sad that I can't go back to where I was born, look at it and think, 'This bizarre journey all started there'. I'd like to do that sometimes. But I can't, I'd just have to gaze at a vague point in mid-air. I suppose I'm using that as a term to capture a feeling of vagueness and uncertainty.

The main protagonist Dom is struggling to find his place in the world after his mum's death. Why is he finding this loss so hard to get over?
It's his mum. She wasn't perfect, they didn't always agree, but still, that bond was there. She passed away without them saying goodbye, without a chance for that final redemption of his mum saying, 'It's ok. Everything's forgiven. I love you.'

You've set the book in Nottingham as the end of the millennium approaches. What kind of city was Nottingham then and why this period?
There was a lot of questioning of faith and beliefs and what-not at the end of the millennium, and an expression of uncertainty as people looked to the future. I think that dovetails with Dom's feelings after his mum's death, but his reasons are all personal. I also set the story then because that's when my own mum passed away.
Nottingham seemed a lot more musical then, with more clubs and fewer pretentious bars and gastro-pubs. It may well still be musical now, but perhaps I'm just out of the loop since I became a grumpy old curmudgeon.

You've got one tweet to tell us why people should read your book...
Born in Mid-Air offers a glimpse into the broken heart of a boy and the pulsing soul of a city. Relive the late nights of 1990s Nottingham.

Tell us a little bit about the excerpt you've chosen.
The excerpt I've chosen is quite representative of the book as a whole. It's got some musings by Dom about the city and his relationship with it, just before a bit of a key point where the story makes a stride forward. The key moment includes alcohol and a girl, which again is fairly typical of both the book and my life in the 1990s.

Born in Mid-Air

Walking through the city streets again, Dom found that his vibe needed some fine tuning in order to fit in with the buzz of the city.  It wouldn't take long, though.  He walked knowingly, taking sly shortcuts down back alleys which at night bustled with clubbers but during the day lay redundant.  Only so often did he emerge into the busy streets, and then only briefly.  He'd quickly dart into another alley and be away again.  He could travel to almost any location in town and avoid the crowds, a feat which evaded most.  Realising this boosted his moral, and his feeling of belonging and being in touch.

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