Lorne Jackson talks to the Birmingham novelist who is now turning his hand to making music.

Most successful novelists have little trouble devising dazzling plots and dynamic characters.

But the situation can be a little duller when it comes to their own lives.

Gustave Flaubert was typical of the breed when he proclaimed: “Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.”

I’m not sure Roger Jon Ellory has taken much heed of Flaubert’s maxim.

The Birmingham author’s series of best-selling thrillers – which he writes under the name RJ Ellory – are certainly violent and original.

However, his life has also had its fair share of twists, turns and unexpected reveals.

Since his first novel was published in 2003, I’ve interviewed him on several occasions.

Each time there has been a book to promote, a true tale to tell.

At our first meeting, he told me his intriguing back-story.

Ellory’s mother was a television actress, but he was orphaned at an early age, and, with his older brother, was raised by his grandmother.

Her death, while both were teenagers, left the boys to fend for themselves, resulting in a conviction for poaching for Roger.

After a short period in prison, he settled down, though he lost touch with his brother, who had left Birmingham.

Ellory always enjoyed books, and, after many setbacks and rejections, released Candlemoth, his first novel.

The book put him on the literary map. But it did more than that. It led him to his brother, who had wandered into a bookshop, spotted his sibling’s novel, and decided to make contact.

That’s the kind of life Ellory leads.

Now for the update.

Yes, there is a new novel. Bad Signs. It’s excellent, as always. And, yes, there’s dramatic news in the author’s life.

He’s now a rock star. Well, sort of...

Ellory is singing in a band called The Whiskey Poets, and their EP, The Moonrise, is out now.

“I’d always wanted to do something musically,” the Bordesley Green scribe reveals.

“And it had got to the point where I thought, ‘If I don’t do it now, I’m never going to do it.’

“So I got together with a couple of musician friends, and we had a rehearsal in a local studio. Then we recorded a few tracks and put them together on a CD.

“We only really made the disc as a calling card, to introduce ourselves to potential bookers for gigs and small festivals.

“Then we put a website up, and people started e-mailing, asking how they could get the CD.

“So we’re now selling the music online. Everyday I’m getting orders from England, France, Germany, Italy, America and Holland. It’s not huge, just something we’ve produced ourselves.

“Yet the CDs are being sold at a rapid rate of knots. And we’re getting airplay on local radio as well.”

The Whiskey Poets perform American-style folk music, written by Ellory.

So how does crafting a song compare to honing a novel?

“Writing a song and recording it is rather like writing a chapter of a novel,” he says. “I imagine writing a whole album would be like putting a book together.

“The fundamental difference between creating music and a book is that the book is insular. It’s one person’s creativity.

“You sit by yourself in a room, then you have to wait a year for it to be published, and have an audience.”

“But with music you have that immediate feedback and engagement with an audience. It’s a different fix. I like doing both, although first and foremost I’m a writer.”

Which brings us to the other side of Ellory’s creativity. Those books.

Rather curiously for a Birmingham writer, all his novels are set in America. In the States, where he has had much success, readers often assume he’s from Birmingham, Alabama.

But no matter the location, the loquaciousness of Ellory is never in doubt.

Though his books always provide a wild and giddy ride, there is more to them than thrills, chills and spills.

Each tale is rich, complex and nuanced, with many psychological undercurrents.

Bad Signs, for instance, is about two orphaned half-brothers, Clarence Luckman and Elliot Danziger, growing up in the West Coast of America in the 1960s.

Having been raised in state institutions, they are seized as hostages by a convicted killer fleeing Death Row.

Earl Sheridan is a psychopath, yet he also has the power to change the boys’ lives for ever.

The trio set off on a frenetic escape from the law through California and Texas, while the brothers come to terms with the growing tide of violence that follows in their wake.

They must also deal with their relationship with one another. It’s edge of the seat entertainment. Though it will lead to raised eyebrows from readers who know Ellory’s biog.

Two orphaned brothers? Trouble with the law?

This might be America, but it’s also close to home. Ellory’s home.

How autobiographical is the novel?

“Not much, I’d say,” says Ellory.

“There are the surface details, I suppose, but this is a work of fiction, like everything else I’ve written. And fiction is all I want to write.

“To the outsider, my life may seem fascinating. But it’s not to me.

“I’m more interested in inventing stories than telling the story of my own life. Bad Signs is more worthy of the reader’s attention than any trawl through my CV.”

He adds: “It’s is a fast-paced novel, which takes place over nine days.

“I’d say it’s a blend of Romeo and Juliet and Badlands. There’s certainly a lot of drama, not to mention darkness.”

The novel looks certain to be a success, in the UK and the US.

But why does Ellory continue to focus his fictional eye across the pond? Isn’t he intrigued by his own country?

“I don’t think I’d write a novel set in Birmingham, or even England,” he says.

“Sometimes you just become so close to an environment that you cease to see it.

“That’s how I feel about my hometown. I guess you could say I know it too well.”

* Bad Signs By RJ Ellory is published by Orion, priced £18.99. For information about The Whiskey Poets visit www.whiskeypoets.com