Pete Sutton's Blog, page 21

It's the end of the year post

As ever the end of the year prompts a "best of" round up.

I've read 90 books this year (way down on previous years - but due to writing a novel and publishing a short story collection!)

I have only rated 9 as Brilliant - this is a lower percentage than previous years

15 books by women - which is woeful so I will definitely be doing the Discoverability Challenge (1 book by a women new to me with review per month) next year

17 ARCs - which is more than the 1 per month that I said I'd do...

51 bought this year - I need to read a higher percentage off my TBR list

21 as ebooks - this seems to be creeping up year on year

So those Brilliant books?


this census-taker by China Mieville 

A masterly novella built more around what isn't revealed than what is revealed



One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

A deserved classic that I can't believe I've only just got round to reading this year



A Burglar's Guide to the City by Geoff Manaugh

Since the name of this blog is inspired by BLDG:BLOG you know I'm a fan of Manaugh and this book doesn't disappoint. A history of burglary and architecture, highly recommended.




The Good Immigrant edited by Nikesh Shukla

A collection of essays on what it means to be an immigrant in today's UK. This should be required reading!



City of Blades by Robert Jackson Bennett

Intelligent fantasy and a brilliant sequel



Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff

This is a fabulous book blending Lovecraftian horror with the experience of racism of the black characters. Reads like a series of novellas.



Unflattening by Nick Sousanis

Like Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics this book seeks to explain and describe the unique nature of comic art. If McCloud's is a Comics 101 this is a masterclass. Highly recommend both.



The Loney by Andrew Michael Hurley

A dark modern gothic tale, does a fabulous job of evoking atmosphere and a thoroughly entertaining read.



All the Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld

A cleverly constructed book that's a compelling character study in two narratives - one moving forwards in time and one moving backwards.

And that's it

I'm currently reading Don Quixote so expect that'll keep me busy til the end of the year...

Cover Reveal - The Dark Half of the Year

The North Bristol Writers have been working on a book this year and it's almost ready. It's called "The Dark Half of the Year" and it's a collection of ghost tales - the idea was for it to be ready by Christmas in the best M R James fashion with all stories based around winter holidays.There's an introduction by  Cavan Scott And stories from these fantastic writers:Kevlin Henney
Desiree Fischer
Ian Millsted
Roz Clarke
Chrissey Harrison
Dolly Garland
Ian McConaghy
Suzanne McConaghy
Myfanwy Rodman
Kenneth Peter Shinn
Madeleine Meyjes
Justin Newland
Clare Dornan
Tom Parker
Maria Herring
Nick Waltersand Peter Suttonwith a cover by Ian McConaghyIf you'd like a copy in return for a review let me know in the comments (first few comments only)We'll be doing a launch event early 2017 with readings and book signing and other such fun

The discovery challenge

Back in more optimistic times I agreed to do the Discoverability Challenge - to read 1 woman, new to me, per month and write a review. For no other reason than me being rubbish this has not happened.

So I'm going to commit to doing it again next year.

Please send me your recommendations for brilliant women writers I may not have heard of.

Reflections on the manic con & fest season

This is quite a long rambling post reflecting on around about 3 years of "stuff"  - it grew in the telling. It also includes a few thoughts about this year's festival of literature and BristolCon - so if that's what you're after bear with me a few paragraphs...

This year started with signing a book deal - although it seems like much longer ago because I've published two books already & a few weeks ago I signed another contract.




I never expected to be able to sell novels so quickly, the reason I have done, I think is due to the Festival of Literature and BristolCon which I'll come onto reportage wise soon.

I attended a bunch of Cons, like I have been doing since returning to the Con scene at BristolCon a couple of years ago (2013 I think it was) - BristolCon and Nine Worlds renewed my faith in Cons and I discovered that I was a very different person to when I'd previously dipped my toe in the Con scene in the mid-90's.

I'd visited Octocon in Dublin mainly because of the excellent line up. I didn't know anyone in the Con world, was pretty shy and retiring (you'd not think so but I was painfully shy - so much so that I was given a nickname by a friend's daughter of 'Whisper Pete') and although I enjoyed the panels I didn't see what the fuss was and didn't return to a con until the first Nine Worlds. (I didn't take part in Bar-Con, that was the problem!)

I have been going to literature festivals for many years though - the drop in on a session and then head off format is one I found easier. (I did a post once on the differences and similarities but it seems to have been lost in the mists of the ancient internet) so when Bristol Festival of Literature started up in 2011 I very happily went along. And on a leaflet there was a "if you'd like to volunteer, drop us a mail" I thought it'd be interesting so I dropped them a mail. And now I'm one of the organisers...

So anyway, back in 2012 the festival did an event with the late Iain M Banks (much missed, he was a lovely bloke) and the BristolCon guys turned up. I remember meeting Jo Hall & Claire Carter (there may have been others, apologies if I've forgotten you were there). There was a reason I couldn't attend BristolCon in 2012. It clashed with Litfest events I'd committed to.

I attended lots of the festival's program in 2012 and got to sit in on a whole bunch of workshops and got the writing bug (or rather rediscovered an old dream that I'd never really done much about. My storytelling urge was, to that point, being fulfilled through writing for a roleplaying company). Although I didn't get round to doing anything about it until after a book launch I attended with Vala Publishing in 2013.

So I'd taken a few tentative steps in writing when there was a call for submissions for Airship Shape. I'd also backed the Kickstarter for Nine Worlds. So 2013 was Nine Worlds, Bristol Festival of Literature and BristolCon. See, go to one con and you get the bug and start going to more. Since then I've been to cons abroad too (and will do so again next year).

Jo & Roz choosing to take my story (which needed work. So much work!) for Airship Shape was a seminal moment & the T Party savaging a story I submitted to the critique session at Nine Worlds was another (that story turned into Sick City Syndrome eventually). I determined that a) I needed to read a lot of how to write books and b) I needed to practise...

And so to this year and signing two book contracts and publishing two books. I also attended Bristol Festival of Literature and BristolCon again (as well as SF Weekender, Nine Worlds and FantasyCon) - and because I'm not so shy and retiring anymore I now know a lot of the Con Crowd. I also seem to have become a fixture at Bristol HorrorCon (where I launched my novel Sick City Syndrome)



First up was Bristol Festival of Literature at which the Writing Group I joined in 2013 (the other major influential moment in my writing 'career') The North Bristol Writers did a couple of events. We did spooky tales at Arnos Vale and took part in the Flash Slam, but sadly didn't place this year (we came second last year). There was a great buzz at the festival this year, and we put on some great events.

And then there was BristolCon. Once again writers David Gullen and Gaie Sebold stayed at our house and we left bright and early with a car full of books for the con. This year the writing group decided to sell books and Pat & Rachel McNally stepped up to run the table for us & did a sterling job. This meant I was mostly dividing my time between the panels I had to be in, the dealer's room and the brick out room & bar. I was driving so bar-con didn't start for me until I'd taken the stock home at the end of the day and then got the bus back. Because we then went for a very pleasant dinner with Alistair Rennie who had travelled down from Edinburgh for the con! The real drinking didn't start till late and I feel that I missed out on chatting to so many people. Gareth L Powell has posted his con report and mentions the family atmosphere & tellingly, the Cheers theme. This is my main take away from BristolCon - it's become almost impossible to talk to everyone I know at the Con because I've come to know so many people!

Many thanks to my panelists for the Uncanny Valley of the Mind panel - it was great overhearing a few con-goers chatting in the bar about the panel and some of the things we'd discussed later. Glad to have sparked drunken conversations about SkyNet ;-)

I was also on a panel ably moderated by Ian Millsted about first contact which was also fascinating.

Apart from that I went to the book launch, got roped into the mass-signing. I wasn't planning to but someone asked me for a signature and I got to sit next to Jonathan L Howard (Next year's Guest of Honour) and Sarah Pinborough (This year's Guest of Honour) and sold and signed a few books too.

My last panel of the day was somehow at 3pm  - monstrous women with David Gullen, Jonathan L Howard, Anna Smith-Spark & Dolly Garland which explored some interesting territory between what's eroticised violence and what's gratuitous. I spent the rest of my time in the dealer room

It's such a great little con mainly because I know so many people there & it feels like an annual get together of many of my favourite people. Although there were a few missing this year sadly, due to illness and other commitments. But there are so many folk I've become friends with through BristolCon that I can honestly say it has been life-changing. And one person that deserves a lot of that credit is Jo Hall who stepped down from being the chair after 8 years. (I bet she's feeling very light about now with that responsibility lifted!). I very much hope it'll go from strength to strength and look forward to next year. It has very much become a highlight of my social calendar...

And so it is time to put away the con calendar for the year and reflect on where I am. I have a book to edit (It was lovely to meet my editor, Kate Coe, at BristolCon - that makes a big difference I think) and ideas for more books. I have a decision to make about what to write next and some thinking about where I want to go career-wise. (It still feels weird to talk about a writing career!) and about defragmenting my life (more on that anon). But it may go a bit quiet here for the rest of the year - except for a couple of guest posts.

Somehow this all got a lot longer than I thought it would. You sit down to write a short story and you end up with a novella. I blame sleep deprivation!

BristolCon

Just a quick reminder that I'll be at BristolCon

My books will be on sale on the North Bristol Writers table in the vendor room





I'll be on two panels - as a moderator on one and panelist on the other

And I'll be doing a reading from Sick City Syndrome

10:00 – 10:45 - Call Me Rosetta
First Contact: As a probe sent out from Earth, what am I looking for, and what do I send back? If there’s life out there, when we meet the aliens, how do we say hello? How can we explain ourselves, and what should we keep back until the second date?with Ian Millsted (Mod), Pete Sutton, Deane Saunders-Stowe,Janet Edwards, one other tbc13:00 – 13:45 - Uncanny Valleys of the MindWe’ve been worried about sentient robots for a long time, but are we really worrying about what they might do to us, or what they might do to our understanding of ourselves? When we’re developing smart machines, how do we weigh up the benefits and the dangers, and given that a Twitter chatbot can become a fascist in 24 hours, when do we pull the plug?with Pete Sutton (Mod), Claire Carter, Kevlin Henney, Ken MacLeod, Rosie Oliver13:50 – 13:55 - ReadingI'm not planning on joining in on the mass signing but am happy to sign stuff if you can catch me ;-)

Review - David Tallerman & Anthony Summey C21st Gods

21st Century Gods by David Tallerman & Anthony Summey

I was so happy to be able to snag a copy of this from Netgalley. I've been a big fan of Tallerman's since I read Giant Thief and have enjoyed everything I've read from him so far. So when he announced he was tackling a comic (a format I'm a big fan of) involving noir (a genre I like) and Call of Cthulhu I was so keen to grab hold.

And it doesn't disappoint. The art is crisp and reminded me a little of Dave Gibbons and fit the story well. The trenchcoated, bearded detective instantly likeable and the horror built well in this first issue.

There are some well-drawn tableaux's of murders towards the end of the issue that are a morbid pleasure to see. This is a nice little introduction and my appetite is definitely whetted for the next one...

Overall - This is going to be a series to look out for - take yourself over to Tallerman's blog to see what he says about it - it's worth reading

Guest post - Rosemary Dun

Rosemary Dun is a lover of words and a performer of poetry – she’s been known to whip out her ukulele (unless you ask her very nicely not to!) The Trouble With Love is her debut novel with Sphere, Little Brown, and she couldn't be more delighted. She’s also a creative writing tutor, mother to two grownup daughters (how did that happen?) and she lives close to Bristol’s historic harbourside with her bonkers labrador Tallulah.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Trouble-Love-hilarious-guaranteed-laughing-ebook/dp/B01HPMVFWC/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1473006613&sr=1-1&keywords=the+trouble+with+love+by+rosemary+dun
www.rosemarydun.co.uk
https://www.facebook.com/RosemaryDunAuthor/
https://twitter.com/rosemarydun

I asked Rosemary to provide a blog on one of three possible topics - she's gone above and beyond and provided info on all three topics 9and every interesting it is too)
·         How does writing poetry help with writing a novel?
Thank you for asking – it’s a great question. I guess that regular writing of any sort helps, especially when tackling a big project like a novel. So there’s that.
Writing poetry has helped me be unafraid of the blank page. I’m happy I can get something down on paper: it’s taught me to feel the fear and do it anyway. I love the playfulness in poetry, the mucking about with words and phrases which can produce exciting juxtapositions, surprises, and alchemy.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge said that poetry is “the very best words in the very best order.” So, there’s a discipline to poetry which I’ve come to embrace and love; this too has helped hone my editing/ revision skills which I can then apply to my novel writing.
On a good day I may liken the writing of poetry to the making mud pies, i.e. you scoop up a load of mud (words/ phrases/ ideas), throw it (them) down (on to the page) and set about shaping it. To stretch this metaphor to squeaking point, writing novels is playing with whole mud towns/ people/ universes. If I go too far, get overly worried, or my inner critic is threatening to ruin the day, then I try to remember advice from playwright Simon Stephens: “Don’t worry, nobody died, it’s only writing.”
·         Ten things I wish I’d been told before sitting down to write a novel – let’s say my first novel (unpublished and languishing in a box somewhere):
1.      If you’re not careful you’ll develop “writer’s bum” and an addiction to Kettle’s crisp sandwiches! Beware comfy clothes and comfort eating!2.      Wear comfy clothes – it’s physical, it’s tiring even exhausting, it’s hard work.3.      Learn how to plot, embrace the plot, love a plot – a plot does not mean that you’re writing something unoriginal; instead it’s a thing of beauty and is akin to an artist learning perspective. As the late great comedian Frank Carson used to say “It’s the way I tell ‘em!”.4.      A novel is all about character. Time spent on characterisation - instead of rushing off like a greyhound out of the traps – is key and essential and will get you out of plot scrapes. If stuck return to character and freewrite around the problem. 5.      Get a copy of The Wisdom of The Enneagram and The Emotion Thesaurus (goes without saying that you’ll actually have a book copy of the Concise Oxford Dictionary and a Roget’s Thesaurus – the internet is not as good!).6.      Write every day – even if it’s only half an hour (or 10 minutes). Get that shitty first draft on the page – and then the “real” work (of rewriting/ editing/ shaping) can begin. Get it written first, and then get it right!7.      Keep a notebook and carry a small one with you everywhere – from now on your subconscious will be working away at your novel and bright ideas/ the solution to plot problems, etc., will suddenly pop into your head – write them down. You can’t retain a thought for more than 2 minutes.  8.      Know your main character’s wound, and don’t forget his/ her emotional journey. Don’t just have stuff happen: what changes your main character – what is their “journey”?9.      Under no circumstances overwrite, indulge in literary folderols, engage the purple prose – NO! Instead keep it simple, be specific, and you will find your voice and the unique way you and your characters have at looking at things.10.  Be a method actor. Inhabit your characters – know their motivations, needs and desires. There must be a want – what does your protagonist want to achieve, what is their goal over the whole story? Oh, and never ever head hop.11.  I add in this final one – HAVE FUN!! (Sometimes it will be hell – but it will also be fun, moving, tear-jerking, exciting, and there will be “blimey I had no idea that was going to happen” moments.) 12.  Ah – no – just one more (sorry) – have a plot, a plan, know where you’re headed otherwise you’ll get lost along the way. Writing a novel is a journey for the writer too.
·         How Has Bristol Crept Into Your Writing? i.e. Setting As Character
I love novels which employ setting and I love to employ setting. As you know, I  teach creative writing, and I often find that setting is a key element which new writers sometimes forget e.g. they may forget to let us know where and when we are; which month/ season; what the weather’s like; what is the mood of a scene; what the characters are doing; how they are moving about their setting; what the protagonist notices/ experiences around him/ her via viewpoint, etc. etc. It’s powerful stuff, is setting.
I’m a Bristolian born and bred – there’s something about Bristol with its whiff of adventure, its whole being a famous port and home to pirates and smugglers. You can sniff it in the air. I write commercial women’s fiction and read a lot of it too – I was becoming a tad bored (sorry) of novels set in London or the Cotswolds – especially when I live in such a marvellous place as Bristol – so it was a no-brainer!
A setting informs your characters: it helps mould them into who they are. I can’t avoid setting – to me it’s as essential as characterisation. So, yes, it creeps in and is put in, and is just there helping us to connect to the stories of the characters and enabling us, the watchers, the interlopers, to better spy and eavesdrop on their lives.
Then there are the film rights! Ah yes. If you can visualise your novel and see it in your mind’s eye, playing out like a film, and you are able to bring this to the page, then you’re part way there!

Reviews - Two by Teodor Reljic & Starve better by Nick Mamatas

Two books of two halves




Nick Mamatas has written a book in two halves - Lies and Life. I read this for the Lies part - his advice to writers and there was plenty of inteersting advice from the writer and editor. I like that some of it chimed with my own writing, a celebration of ambiguity for example. Mamatas gained a bit of notoriety for earning money from writing term papers for students for money and the second half of the book, the starve better part, was how to earn fast cash as a writer. Some of which was morally er, ambiguous and I enjoyed that section a lot less.

Overall - if you are a writer you can live without this, but if you do happen to pick it up you may find something inside of use.



Two by Teodor Reljic


Full disclosure - I was introduced to Teo by a mutual friend at the recent Fantasycon where he gave me a copy of his book.


 First things first - this is a beautiful book - the cover, the designs, the red tint to the pages - it's a visual delight. Luckily the story lives up to the promise of the outside - Reljic tells two tales (hence the title) at once, but in interspersed chapters - those following William and those following Vermillion, the protagonist of a story William's mother has been telling him. William and his parents are on their annual trip to Malta and when things go awry William retreats more and more into the Vermillion stories. The writing is dreamy, and poetic and often exquisite:

She lets words fall one by one, like they’re meant to die after they leave her mouth to be reborn in your mind.

William's POV is convincing and the story feels both complete and open, and there’s that ambiguity that I mentioned as recommended by Mamatas and I often explore in my own writing.

Overall - this is a book that will reward re-reading and is in a very appealing style. I really enjoyed it and look forward to seeing more from this author.


It is worth me stating, since there is a personal connection here, that plenty of people give me books to review, or I obtain books written by friends but I don't always fall in love with them enough to write a review.

On Being a Complicated Writer

So I’m still blogging on BRSBKBLOG – with the latest blog being -“on being a complicated writer.” but I think with the new year I’ll be defragging my life and will incorporate BRSBKBLOG into these pages…

Reviews - Good Immigrant, City of Blades, Europe in Winter

So what ties up three apparently disconnected books? A non-fiction collection of essays, a fantasy novel and a near-future SF novel? Apart from the fact they are all new this year and all came across my desk so I'd read and review them?

Well I think they have all been written with an understanding that the world works a certain way, but it need not do so. Stories make the world. We should all tell better ones...




The Good Immigrant Edited by Nikesh Shukla

From the back - "What's it like to live in a country that doesn't trust you and doesn't want you unless you win an Olympic gold medal or a national baking competition." This Unbound book was inspired by a comment on a Guardian article (don't they always tell you to never read the comments?) The commenter wondered why a more prominent author wasn't interviewed in a piece by an Asian journalist who had interviewed five or six people of colour. The commentator supposed that they were all friends of the journalist just because they were mostly Asian too.So the editor got together twenty writers of colour to talk about what it felt like to be a person of colour in modern day Britain. This was written before the Referendum though, so I can only imagine that it has got worse.

Hence there are personal stories about anglicisation of names, the treatment of Muslims at airports, what it felt like to have no good role models and therefore to choose Kendo Nagasacki as one, why stories have to be about white people and many more.

This is good writing and it is important writing. Representation is massively important and in today's social climate needed more than ever. I was very happy to support this on Unbound and glad it was such a great read, as well as being something I'd like to place in the hands of nearly everyone. Read this, it's important, I'd say...

If you want an idea of the quality & type of writing then you can read this piece by Riz Ahmed.






City of Blades by Robert Jackson Bennett

What does it mean to be a soldier? This question lies at the heart of the second book from Robert Jackson Bennet in the series. A glittering, multi-faceted gem of a book it is too. I seldom invest in series, the author has to be just damn good to get me to buy more than one book in the same world and few make the mark. Bennett is one of them (Dave Hutchinson is another - see below). City of Stairs was bold, it felt fresh, it ticked all the epic fantasy boxes that I wanted to be ticked (caveat - I'm not a massive epic fantasy fan, you have to do something special in the genre to make me want to read it) and it was just a rollicking good read.

So I approached City of Blades with some nerves - I knew Bennett hadn't planned to write a sequel, I knew it wasn't going to be about exactly the same characters (although Mulaghesh is the main protagonist - and a fabulous kick-ass character too) and, although set in the same world, wasn't going to be in enchanting Bulikov.

Once I'd read a few pages any reservations I had were blown away. Bennett has the knack of grounding you in the story, you are immediately with the characters, absorbing the sights, sounds and smells of the world he's transmitting into your brain via the written word. It's a skill I am totally envious of.

General Turyin Mulaghesh has quit but is persuaded to come back for one last mission on behalf of now PM Ashara. The mission? To find a missing member of the government, someone who was investigating a new type of ore found beneath Voortyashtan, the home city of the former god of war and death. And so Bennett pulls out of the hat a second, brilliantly imagined, city in the same world as City of Stairs with an engaging plot, a new cast, with some cameos by old favourites, and a book that builds up to a page-turning second half.

I highly recommend this series to all, but especially to fantasy fans





Europe in Winter by Dave Hutchinson

To reveal any of the plot would just involve massive spoilers at this, the third book, so suffice to say we are back with Rudi and the Coureurs and we get to explore some of the loose ends of the previous two novels and get engaged in exciting new plots and plot twists.

If you haven't read the first two books then you need to remedy that! Set in a fractured Europe where the EU has mostly failed and the countries of Europe are breaking into ever smaller kingdoms and polities these books have a thriller/spycraft feel but with a healthy dose of near-future SF.

Hutchinson is a master of the splintered novel with a great many moving parts that in a lesser writer's hands would feel chaotic and random. If you've got this far however you'll know to trust that everything, all the various twits, turns, apparent digressions (that aren't) sub-plots and minor characters are there for a purpose that makes a coherent and quite brilliant whole.

I love that Hutchinson explores parts of Europe that are under-represented in other fiction - places like Poland and Estonia. I really enjoyed the Polish section as I've spent some time in that country working and Hutchinson's description gelled very much with that.

The fact that the first two books made the Clarke Award shortlist should tell you that this is an author to watch and watch I will.

Another highly recommended book.