Tell us about Sin.
Sin is a paranormal thriller following a man who just wants to be an ordinary guy, but isn’t.  People die around him.

He does everything he can think of to stop this happening, and, in the end, a failed suicide attempt sees him on the run, as his ‘talent’ and the threat to and from him, grows.

What genre is it?
It’s been called many things – horror, paranormal thriller, psychological thriller and more.  I just think it’s… weird.

What kind of readers will it appeal to?
Those with a sense of humour, for a start – Sin tackles it all with a tongue in cheek sense of dark humour.  It’s his only defence.  People have to love how they can be reading about something bad, then it’s turned on its head with a joke.

Complete this sentence for us: If you like ___________, you’ll love Sin.
Dean Koontz or Stephen King.  Sin has been compared to both of these.  And, actually, Hitchcock!

Sin is has quite a fantastic premise. Did it come to you in a flash of inspiration or through the long and tortured process of figuring out what works?
It came to me as I was writing it.  The story could quite easily end up as a children’s book.  I had no idea what it was going to be about until it got there!  It started as just a short story, which, when he wouldn’t shut up, became the prologue.  I found out what was going to happen as it did.

Lead character Sin has his own blog. Why, and what’s in it?
Sin is a big part of me, and I of him (however sinister that might sound).  He likes to be heard.  Plus, he spends time in an asylum, but it’s not talked about in a great deal of detail.  The blog, written from his point of view is, sort of, his diary from within there.

He even has his own Twitter account! (@SinNotSinful)

How does the author of Sin also write something as different as (children’s book) Zits ‘n’ Bits?
I write what’s in my head at the time.  Last November, I sat down to write some of the sequel and, after 1,000 words, realised I was writing a story about how Rudolph saved Christmas.    Even in my children’s books, there’s a lot of humour and oddity.  Poems like My Cat (the Vampire) for example!

Writing a book is never easy, but other than that, what has been the toughest part – editing or marketing?
Marketing, definitely.  In many cases it’s a bigger job than writing the book – and Sin took me ten years!  It can take over your life and you have you remind yourself you’re a writer first!

Tell us a bit about yourself.
I’ve been writing since I was very young.  I can’t help it – it’s a compulsion.  One of the good things about Sin’s blog is I can write, more or less, about any subject.  It’s practice and therapy!

I appeared, about fifteen years ago, on Sky TV to debate electronic publishing as opposed to traditional (I was the voice of electronic publishing and had the last word!).  I have SUCH a busy life, with work and my family, writing can sometimes take a back seat, but it’s always there, my muse mumbling away in the back of my head…

Have you got a website where readers can keep up with your work?
My website is http://www.shaunallan.co.uk
Sin’s blog is at http://singularityspoint.blogspot.com
My Facebook page is http://www.facebook.com/singularityspoint

Where can we buy Sin?
Autographed print copies are available from my website.  Otherwise it’s available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and lots more places online, in print and ebook.

What’s next?
I’ve just released my new book, Dark Places.  It’s a collection of 13 stories and 13 poems, all with a dark theme.  It includes the story of Joy, Sin’s (dead) sister…

Now that’s done, I have Sin’s sequel to write and a children’s book to finish.  Oh, and a children’s story.  And I just finished a flash fiction zombie story.  And…

It’s hard to say.  I don’t choose what to write.  It tells me as I go along!

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Enjoyed this interview? Then check out our conversation with Aaron Overfield