Simon Toyne is the author of “Sanctus,” the first book of a planned trilogy that has taken the publishing world by storm, being published in over fifty countries around the world and translated into 28 languages. We sit down at Parts & Labour on Queen St. West with a bottle of Casale Vecchio Montepulciano D’Abruzzo and giant cheeseburgers made by Chef Matty Matheson. Toyne has just finished writing the second book in the trilogy, “The Key,” and readers can expect it in Canada in September of 2012.
How did your first novel, “Sanctus”, come about?
I worked in television for 20 years and had always wanted to write a book but life gets in the way: you know you’ve got a career and get married and have children. I was staring down the barrel of 40 and my kids were about to go to school and I thought as soon as they go to school the notion of just taking time off and going off somewhere to write a book will be impossible. So, I quit my job, I had a couple of ideas for books and we went and lived in France for seven months. It was literally on the way to France that I had this third idea, this new idea, which turned out to be “Sanctus” and I wrote the first third of it while we were in France.
You had no book deal, no agent, no publisher, so how did you go about getting published?
I tried to get an agent first because coming from television I know the benefit of having good representation. All the agencies have websites with submission guidelines, I sent off the first fifty pages and within a week had two rejections and one person, who is now my agent, saying “We like this, can you show us the rest?” I ended up doing two major re-writes, with their guidance, before they took me on and then I did another major re-write once they’d signed me. They presented it to publishers and then the fairy tale thing happened where I had four publishing houses in the UK wanting to buy it. It went to auction and sold all over the world – unbelievable for a first book.
For people who’ve read “Sanctus” what can they look forward to in “The Key”?
At the end of “Sanctus” a very big mystery is revealed, so the subsequent book deals with the ripple effects of this big, seismic change, not only for the world but also for the main characters. Where “Sanctus” focused very much on the character of Liv, on her story and her identity, “The Key” deals with Gabriel and goes into his past and you realize that his destiny is caught up with Liv’s. They’ve set themselves on this path towards an ultimate reconciliation of the mythology and the prophecies that are described in this book. It’s all heading toward this apocalyptic end but is it going to be a good end or a bad end? It depends on these two.
Where did you live in France when you were writing the book?
When I lived in France we were in the Gaillac region, a very ancient wine-producing region. We rented this place that was literally in the middle of all the vineyards. They do produce nice wine but not in any kind of volume, so they don’t export it, it all stays in France. It’s very good. That was my view from my window, I had to turn away because otherwise I’d just stare out the window all day. I had to move my desk so I was staring at a wall.
What do you think of this Italian wine with the burger Chef Matty has made?
It’s slightly dry but quite fruity and at 13.5% it has enough alcohol to cope with the strong flavours of the burger. It’s slightly smoky. I love Italian wines and this is truly a classic. It’s got that warmth, you can almost taste the sun. Everyone should try this combo, this burger and this wine.
Did you grow up with wine in the house?
Growing up we would occasionally have a bottle of wine on special occasions or if my mother and father were having a nice 70’s dinner party they would buy a bottle of Mateus Rose or something to impress their guests.
The whole wine thing in the UK is relatively recent, it was all beer when we’d go to the pub. I remember being a kid and going to the supermarket and there was no wine, or if there was there would be one brand, a bottle of sweet, white German wine or a cheap Spanish red. That was the wine situation. In the boom of the ’80’s the wine bar appeared in the UK and it was a rival to the traditional pub. Drinking tastes change and all of a sudden nice wines appeared at supermarkets.
If you go to my parents’ place now, they just drink all the time. Classic retired people: at five o’clock the wine comes out and they’ll drink a bottle of wine between them every night. Probably not so great for their liver but you know they’re happy.
When did you start drinking wine?
I discovered it relatively late on. When you’re in college you drink Thunderbird to get drunk, it’s got nothing to do with the taste, it’s entirely to do with the price, the alcoholic content and the ready availability of it. Also, the fact that it’s a screw cap so it can go with you all night long to various parties. When I was younger I was more of a pub man and a beer drinker, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve developed a taste for wine and red wine is my default drink now. Even when I’m eating fish I’ll drink red wine. I like white but I just prefer red. Red wine for me is the king of drinks.
What wines do you prefer?
I like the French wines, there’s a very specific taste to French wines. In the UK, I’m not sure about here, but there the market is almost dominated by New World wines, Australian wines, California, and South Africa. Australia seems to have flooded the market. They’re often very young wines almost like alcoholic fruit juice. It hits you in the face with the flavour initially but they’re often very one note. With French and Italian wine there’s a lot more structure, its not so brash, not so in your face.
My absolute favourite wine of all, my ‘going out on my birthday treat’, would be a Fleurie, a kind of light Beaujolais. It’s the Porsche of the Beaujolais, it’s like tasting a truffle for the first time and you think “where has this been all my life?”
This is your second visit to Toronto, what are some of your favourite restaurants in the city?
My sister lives here and she’s a good guide, she took me to the Black Hoof and that was good. We had bone marrow and pig’s cheek tacos, delicious. We also ate in the diner in the Thompson Hotel, The Counter, very nice and then last night I was at Terroni. I can highly recommend the chamomile grappa that they have there, very nice for a cold evening.
What’s coming up for you next?
I finish the book tour with a stop in Romania, then I start work on the third book, which I’m really excited about. The first book took two and a half years to write and now I’ve got a year to write a book that I haven’t worked out yet. Having written the second one I’m looking forward to it. Middle books are hard to keep as a self-contained book but also be the bridge between the first and third books. What I’m really looking forward to is that everything is resolved, its all coming to a point and there’s something satisfying in that. There’s a revelation at the end of the story, it’s such a big one. I’m quite excited to write it and get it out there.
