Pete Sutton's Blog, page 36

Guest post from North by Southwest writer - Ian Millsted

Now that North by Southwest is imminent I've asked the contributors to provide me with a guest post each.

The first is from Ian Millsted 



Ian Millsted is a writer and teacher who lives in Bristol with his wife and daughter. His fiction has appeared in the likes of Airship Shape and Bristol Fashion and Colinthology. He has been short listed for the Bristol Short Story Prize. His non fiction has appeared in Back Issue and the Times Educational Supplement. He's scripted comic strips for Comics International. Despite having migrated to Bristol some years ago he still supports Essex in cricket and West Ham in football.
Ian has written about boys reading

Boys do readA few months ago, while covering a tutor group for a colleague I did a very unscientific sample of what they were reading as that was their day for silent reading. What I observed for the next twenty minutes interested me.
Firstly, nearly all the boys (it is a single sex school up to age sixteen) had something with them to read; which was not my experience when trying to encourage reading in tutor time at previous schools. There were twenty students in the room aged 11 to 16 and the ability range is mixed. Admittedly, the school is based in a fairly affluent part of England but it has a comprehensive intake and there are students from the full spectrum of domestic circumstances. Only two students did not have a reading book and had to be given something to read. Two others asked if they could read biology text books to prepare for their exam later in the day. Sure.
Secondly, about half the class were reading science fiction or fantasy. There are both pros and cons of single sex education but one advantage here seemed to be that the students felt able to read what they wanted to. I was pleasantly surprised to see two reading ‘The Hunger Games’ and clearly enjoying reading female protagonists. Yay.
This class is reasonably representative of what I see around the school. Lots of boys reading. If you are reading this on Pete’s blog then I’m assuming you are interested in books, so what do the boys read? Well, mostly what you would expect. Derek Landy. Rick Riordan. Anthony Horowitz. Charlie Higson’s zombie books seem to be popular at the moment.
Last week I asked my GCSE class what they are reading at the moment. Responses included ‘The Lord of the Rings’, ‘Watchmen’ and ‘A History of Northern Soul’. You weren’t expecting the last one there, were you?
One thing that has spurred all this on this year in particular has been the introduction of something called ‘accelerated reader’ for the year sevens and eights. Basically, this is a programme which counts how many words you’ve read. The library displays lists of how many students have become word millionaires. Purists may have issues with competition being used to encourage reading but it certainly works. Any authors reading this would do well to investigate getting their books set up on this system as one thing it does is give recommendations and more useful ones than are given on amazon.
So boys do read. And so do girls. The sixth form is mixed. At least two of the girls in my A level class have discovered ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’
I find all this quite encouraging. The only downside is that they are all reading more than me at the moment.
Ian Millsted has two stories in the forthcoming ‘North by Southwest’. 

Friday Flash – Posted to BRSBKBLOG in March 2014

#FridayFlash

Zoophilia

 

My brother was killed by a giant clam, in Weston-Super-Mare.

 

My uncle started something with three gorillas that didn’t end well.

 

My cousin at Bristol Zoo? Well the less said about what happened to him the better.

 

Perhaps then I wasn’t the best person to volunteer to look after the giant squid. But he looked so lonesome and adorable.  I fell in love right then and there.

 

I’m a sucker for tentacles.

Weirder shadows over Innsmouth Giveaway winners

Congratulations to Ian Millsted and Seb Smith for winning copies of "Weirder Shadows over Innsmouth" edited by Stephen Jones, published by Titan books.

Readers were asked to provide us a mail titled  - "I need a copy of Weirder shadows over Innsmouth" and telling us in the body of the mail why they needed a copy. The two most entertaining entries would win a copy of the book (if you make us laugh or scream in terror whilst simultaneously losing our minds, that will automatically put you on the shortlist).

Ian's entry - "Because an anthology of weird fiction set in isolated communities of inbred folk will bring back fond memories of my two years teaching at a rural school in East Anglia."

Seb's entry - "Shadows draw closer; a deeper fear clutches at the wretched tatters of sanity... Had I received that blasphemous tome and been forewarned of the horrors which stride between worlds, my mind might have been spared the horror which lead to incarceration in this institution where only the damned dare tread..."

Well done guys - copies will be in your hands very soon!

some reviews

Deadly companions by Dorothy H Crawford

A non-expert guide to the microbes that cause disease and what effect they have had on human evolution. Crawford does a good job of explaining the science and casting her gaze over history to see what effects infectious diseases have had. Our fight against them, both ancient and modern. For me, having done microbiology at university, it was a bit of a high level refresher but I think it’s a very good introduction to the subject and the social effects of disease was a fascinating take.
Overall – A good primer on infectious microbes.
The Honey month by Amal Al-Mohtar

The author decides to write a story or poem every day one February to go with the samples of honey she is receiving. There are notes on the honey – colour, smell & taste, that are sensual descriptions and then there are poems and stories inspired by that day’s honey. This is a slight book but interesting. It kept me entertained for part of a long flight but I think it probably would be best as a dipping book.
Overall – Interesting poetry and poetic prose.
The Beauty by Aliya Whitely

A post-apocalyptic novella set in a wold where a fungal disease has wiped out all women, or certainly all women in the nearby area to where the story is set. The tale follows Nathan, who has been given the task of keeping the group’s stories alive. When strange fungal entities, in female shapes, come to the group of men, everything changes.
The Beauty is written in a sparse style that is also somewhat poetic. There are large themes at play here – gender is an obvious one that is explored in several ways but also hope is a thread woven throughout. There is an almost Vandermeerian focus on fungus but the story stands alone but alongside other gender role reversal stories. It is short but proves that good things come in small packages.
Overall – Small but perfectly formed. Recommended.
Feral: Rewilding the land by George Monbiot

Monbiot acknowledges that the Green movement has, so far, been about telling us what we shouldn’t do. This is a manifesto for what we should be doing. We should leave nature alone, in as many places as we can, and let it get on with things. Re-introducing some key species (and there is a long table of species he grades as potential re-introductions) especially wolves and beavers. He makes the case for rewilding eloquently and passionately but there is an element of blindness and monomania involved. For example he excoriates the sheep farming industry and ably demonstrates that sheep, and to a lesser extent goats, are a major ecological menace, when farmed as they are in e.g. Wales. But his contention that people could just switch from sheep farming to eco-tourism, or that they’d even want to ignores human nature. Similarly he is a fisherman, going out in a sea kayak, he at least eats his catch, and yet  we may all bewail the fact that we are emptying the oceans. He suggests that we allow some areas of the seas to rewild, which would require international co-operation.
It seems the UK is well behind its European neighbours when it comes to rewilding and he spends a little time trying to work out why, and concludes that it may be because we industrialised first or that we have an island mentality. Where the book shines is in leaps of imagination when it comes to anthopogenic climate change and historical effects of man on nature. For example, using the example of Serbia, which rewilded after the second world war when the ethnic Germans were either expelled or left, who happened to be sheep and goat farmers, he makes the point that removing human effects on the land cause rewilding. He then covers the native American’s genocide and posits that the amazing abundance of nature, passenger pigeon flocks in their millions, massive bison herds etc. were an effect of the depopulation of the Americas, rather than a natural occurrence.
Monbiot is a journalist and his prose is clear and entices you ever onwards and he is never less than entertaining. But I’m not convinced that his vision is not just another nostalgia for a past that either didn’t exist, or exist in the way he seems to think it does.  In the end how easy is it to go against the powerful farming and fishing lobby and is it possible to remove man’s influence from large areas of our country?
Overall – A fascinating and thought provoking read

Guns of the Dawn Giveaway

Bristol Book Blog has one copy of Adrian Tchaikovsky's new book, Guns of the Dawn, to give away to one lucky reader.

As it's such a chunky book, and hardback, the give away will take place at BristolCon Fringe on February 16th.

Come along and put your name in the hat if you want the chance to win!

Denland and Lascanne have been allies for generations, but now the Denlanders have assassinated their king, overthrown the monarchy and marched on their northern neighbour. At the border, the war rages; Lascanne's brave redcoats against the revolutionaries of Denland.
Emily Marshwic has watched the war take her brother-in-law and now her young brother. Then comes the call for more soldiers, to a land already drained of husbands, fathers and sons. Every household must give up one woman to the army and Emily has no choice but to join the ranks of young women marching to the front. In the midst of warfare, with just enough training to hold a musket, Emily comes face to face with the reality: the senseless slaughter; the weary cynicism of the Survivor's Club; the swamp's own natives hiding from the conflict.
As the war worsens, and Emily begins to have doubts about the justice of Lascanne's cause, she finds herself in a position where her choices will make or destroy both her own future and that of her nation.

A standalone, action-packed     
Adrian has been wanting to write this book for a long time:
‘There is only one book – specifically conceived and started as a book – which has never let go of me, and has shadowed me all the way to the present day. It is Emily Marshwic’s book, the story of her war for her king, her country and her truth, however hard to reconcile those may be. I am happier than I can say that, after all her perseverance (a character trait that appears to have preceded her actual realisation as a character), she is finally seeing the light of day.’ Adrian Tchaikovsky 

Sparse new website

So after being asked, again, if I had a website dedicated to my writing I thought I'd make one:

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http://petewsutton.com/

It's a bit sparse there at the moment & I'm sure someone with wordpress skillz would be able to make it look MUCH better but, well, there it is - an actual writing website listing.

Never fear Bristol Book Blog will continue with reviews, interviews and blogging!

The Ship - Review

The Ship by Antonia Honeywell


Lalage Paul, known as Lalla, 16, lives in (a very changed) London but has been sheltered from the chaos of a dystopian post-collapse world by her parents. Her mother, who tries to give her an education via the British Museum, despite it being colonised by a ragtag group of survivors; and her father, Michael, part of the establishment, architect of the Dove, a program to “save” Britain. Now the Nazareth Act has been put in place everyone must produce an identity card, or they will be shot. Michael has a plan to escape, he has bought a large ocean going ship and stocked it with food that is rapidly becoming scarce in London. He has invited a group of people who all, in one way or another, represent hope in the future. 500 people. When the chaos on the streets of London becomes too much and a shocking event causes them to escape immediately Lalla is full of hope. But where is the ship going? What is Paul’s plan for escape? Why is the escapees devotion to him disturbingly cult-like?
This is a rollercoaster of a book that wraps itself around you at the beginning and doesn’t let go. Lalla is often annoying and spoiled, but utterly believable and, as narrator the tension between naïveté, teenage angst and slowly dawning comprehension is a difficult trick to pull off but Honeywell does it with aplomb. Lalla is an insufferable spoiled brat, immature and irritating and yet you can’t help but be on her side, which throws into sharp relief the question at the heart of the book (imho) what is freedom? There are labyrinths here to explore and like all good books a wealth to ponder and discuss, this would make a good book club read.
As those who follow my reviews will know, I am not a fan of YA, and this is possibly going to be marketed as such, teenage protagonist = YA right? However I think there is enough here to satisfy any reader, it didn’t suffer from all the things I dislike about YA fiction. It is also a dystopia and the problems that sometimes occur with that genre, either over-explaining the world, or trying to justify unbelievable worlds just doesn’t occur here. It is over the top, Regent’s Park is bombed to remove undesirable non-ID’d people for example, but a light touch from Honeywell makes you accept and move on. The world of the book is seen through a glass darkly, but that enhances rather than detracts. Post-collapse books usually take a “people are mostly bad” or “people are mostly good” stance but Honeywell eschews this in favour of “people react in different ways” which is refreshingly shades of grey.
The plot relies on Lalla being a bit dense, which is a big no no for me usually, and yet, here, it works. Honeywell’s accomplishment is to be applauded, taking several elements that all, at face value, will turn off readers and making of them a compelling tale that you don’t want to put down.

Overall - In short, this is a book you ought to read.

Small Stories

When Small Stories burst onto the scene back at the Bird Cage, just a few short months ago, not even a year, I was hooked. I attended all but one (and I was out of the country for the one I couldn't attend.) I watched, listened and joined in as the events got ever better.

On Monday the last chapter of this remarkable event happened & I started things off with Hater, from North by Southwest (coming very soon from Tangent books)


As usual there was a live drawing, this time of Tim Popple's memorably dark tale Instagraham by Small's very own Natalie Burns.

It was a break up event, appropriate to the anti-Valentines theme many of the readers took. I know that it will be sorely missed and the lit scene is poorer without it. But I'm hoping the team will be back & working with Bristol festival of literature later in the year.

This last chapter, like the last chapter of a book you have loved, ended leaving us wanting more, and yet satisfied with the way it ended. On a high, with a full room, a great mix of readers, many of whom have found friends through this set of events, and a storming set of performances.

My favourites on the night were Nathan Williams with a characteristically comic modern tale about ISIS, Christopher Fielden's unforgettable Batman themed story and also worth a mention was David Rodger's Fast Love Die and the extremely long titled story from Ellen Waddell.

I hope to see the readers around the Bristol Lit Scene again soon. Maybe at  Let Me Tell You a Story Jack

Ellen is doing a one woman show http://ellenwaddell.com/solo-shows/ which still has tickets available & looks great.

A huge, and heartfelt thankyou to Sian & Nat for putting on an excellent set of events and for all their hard work last year for Small Stories: Big Books, taking my rather woolly idea and making it work!

Interview with Mike Shevdon

(Photograph by Mark Lewis Photography)
Mike Shevdon is a writer of modern fantasy fiction, melding history, fantasy and imagination into tales for the 21st Century. Blending English folk tales into the world of mobile phones and CCTV, he has caught the imagination of readers worldwide since 2009. Mike's series, The Courts of the Feyre, follows Niall Petersen as he discovers a world of magic, danger and wonder hidden in plain sight.
You can find Mike on the Net here: 
Web: http://shevdon.com/Twitter: @Shevdon

BooksAvailable now worldwide from all good bookstores:-  Sixty One Nails
-  The Road to Bedlam-  Strangeness and Charm-  The Eighth Court

What are you working on at the moment (apart from this interview)
My main project at the moment was not anticipated. I said after The Eighth Court that it was the end of the series and, at the time, I meant it. I thought I’d reached the end of where that series, with those characters, could go and I would work on something else. I did work on something else, but The Courts of the Feyre wasn’t finished with me. I was sitting in traffic about a mile from my house when the main plot for a fifth book dropped into my head - I know that sounds strange, but that’s how it felt. It was just there, all at once. I drove home and spent over an hour writing notes on everything I could remember and then I left it. I went back to the notes a week later wondering if they would make sense or if the entire thing would sound lame. It didn’t and I’ve spent some weeks developing the ideas and fleshing out the sub-plots and continuity issues. I have the first chapter or so in draft, and I’m really enjoying the writing which is always a good sign.

Do you have a set writing process, if so what is it?
I do a lot of development in my head before I write anything down. I write some of my best stuff in the bath where there’s no computer. I think the habit comes from my days of commuting into London. The easiest way to write on a station platform, or on a crowded tube train, is to do it in your head. Once I have it in my head I outline it on a computer and check it for continuity, consistency and sense. Then I’ll think about how it fits into the story, what it delivers to the characters and plot, and whether it’s the right thing for where I want to go. I’ll often go through several iterations of this, refining what’s there or replacing big chunks. The beauty of outlines is that it’s all in summary form and making big changes is relatively easy. Then once I’m happy with the outline I’ll work on translating it into words, creating settings, scenes, dialogue, and finding the right words to say what needs to be said. Then I might have a first draft, or I might chuck a whole piece away and re-write it. Sometimes that’s the only way to move forward. I’ll keep as much forward momentum as I can and keep moving forward as long as I can, but if I get stuck I’ll flip back into editing and rewind to a point, then roll forward. Write, edit, read, re-write, roll-forward and repeat until done.Then editing again, and then maybe ask test readers for feedback, re-writes, and re-edits. Then re-test, maybe with different test readers. Only then am I ready to share it with anyone.
You have a food blog ( http://shevdon.com/food/ ) does food play an important part in your stories?
The food blog came about because friends would come and have supper and ask for recipes, and I would end up writing out the same recipe multiple times, so I thought I would post them on the blog and they could grab them from there. It’s also the chance to share my experience of cooking and preparing food for friends, which is something I love to do. Inevitably, though, food creeps into my work. It’s an opportunity to engage smell and taste, and bring in sensations like hunger. The breakfast that Niall and Blackbird have after their first night together is both a recognition of their bodily needs, and a chance to savour the flavours of smoked bacon and grilled sausages. It wouldn’t be the same with a bowl of muesli. When Blackbird is greedily consuming long-boned chops from a French trimmed rack of lamb fast-roasted with rosemary, garlic and salt at the Courts, I know how it tastes because I’ve cooked and eaten it. If you get hungry reading my books then I’m doing my job properly.

When did you first get the idea for sixty-one nails? How long did it take for it to turn into a book?
Sixty-One Nails took seven years to write, during which I learned a tremendous amount about writing, editing, and storytelling. I was working in London at the time and simply by watching other people on their daily commute I became aware how little they saw of their surroundings. It occurred to me that there were all sorts of things that might happen around them that would simply pass them by.At the same time I’d been reading a lot of urban fantasy from the USA, which was just starting to appear over here, and I realised that no-one was writing about the world I knew, despite the deep history and rich folklore of the UK. So I started researching English folklore and found the 800 year-old Ceremony of the Quit Rents in which two knives are tested before the Queen’s Remembrancer in the Royal Courts of Justice every year. After that it all came together.
There is a fair amount of history in the books, how much research did you have to do & how did you go about it?
I do a lot of research, but luckily I’m interested in the subject matter so it’s not a chore. I start with something simple, such as the relationship between iron and magic. Then I find references to books, articles, snippets, stories and anything else and start looking for commonalities. I find a thread and follow it, wherever it leads. Sometimes it dries up. Sometimes it only seems to dry up and then sprouts off in a new direction. The idea is to let the research inspire the story rather than trying to force the research to fit the ideas. In this case it led me from iron to blacksmiths, blacksmiths to anvils, anvils to wedding ceremonies, blacksmith weddings to ceremonies involving iron, and thence to the Quit Rent Ceremony, which is the testing of two knives, one blunt, one sharp, against a hazel rod of one year’s new growth. Then I asked the question, if this ceremony has been carried out for 800 years (and it has) then why? What is it’s purpose? The usual rent for land is much more than a couple of knives, and there’s a rent of six horse-shoes for a forge that’s not even there any more. Why? That’s the question that sparked the story.

Which character in the books do you most identify with and why?
Initially it was the protagonist, Niall. He’s a commuter, he works in London, as I did, and his viewpoint drives the story. There was a lot of me in Niall, and in the first drafts this came out quite strongly. At some point in the development, though, he started being someone else, someone I knew quite well but definitely not me. He made choices I wouldn’t make, did things I wouldn’t do, and he is a mess of tangled and frustrated desires, wants and needs. He became himself and he has his own identity.Is there another character, then? Not really. It’s all of them. In my head I’m everyone and no-one. I’m Raffmir, psychotic, genocidal, witty, passionate believer in myself and my right to rule. I’m Blackbird, cautiously exploring the limits of my influence and power, driving towards a vision of a world in which I belong. I’m Alex,16 years old, hormonal, angry, jealous, manipulative, desperately aware of how other see me, but suddenly and inexplicably affectionate and thoughtful. As I write I am each of these people, while at the same time I have to stand back and see the big picture.
Do you prefer the long or short form? How do you feel about Flash Fiction?
I’m a long-form writer. My idea of a short story is 25K words. I start writing and the words cluster around ideas until it grows into something. I do have one short story which I did for an anthology, which is just above 5K words but that’s the only thing I’ve written below 20K.I’ve not really tried Flash Fiction. The idea of trying to write anything quite so limited gives me the heebie jeebies, although I did once enter a competition to get a story on a postcard for Waterstone’s, which was quite fun. I don’t think it was any good, though. I think it’s safe to say it’s not my forte.

Which bit of your writing are you most proud of?
There is a chapter in The Road to Bedlam which describes the memorial service for Niall’s daughter, Alex, and three other girls who have died in an incident that is being described as a sewer explosion. It visits the idea of coping with the loss of your child, which is something which took a lot of strength to explore and provides the emotional impetus that drives the narrative that comes after. It was incredibly hard to write with any degree of authenticity. It’s so easy to slip into sentimentality with something like that, or to go the other way and come across as hollow and callous. It’s a very delicate balancing act, and there were many drafts over several weeks for something that’s really quite short. I knew I had it right when one of my readers told me it made them cry. It has great emotional power for me too, and even now I can’t read it out loud.
What did you learn about writing by writing a series?
I learned that things must change. If they don’t change then you are simply recycling what has gone before. There are series that as they progress get more and more the same.  A formula emerges and you can predict what’s going to happen. I didn’t want to do that.
I set out to write separate books that were linked by common characters and an over-arching storyline, rather than a set of books with repeating storylines. With each book I took what I learned from the previous one and used what I’d learned to develop the characters and plot, structures and themes, and the shape of the story. With a series you gather weight as you progress and keeping track of everything can be quite a challenge. In particular with Fantasy you can end up backing yourself into a corner or making yourself look stupid because you miss the obvious or contradict yourself. Every time you introduce something new, you have to establish why that only became apparent now, and whether its existence could potentially have changed the balance of anything that came before.
In one sentence what is your best piece of advice for new writers?
Just imagine what you could do if you poured your heart into your writing.
Many thanks to Mike for these interesting answers - please do go check out his books, I'm sure you'll now be intrigued to try them!

Launching the Ship

On February 19th, at 6pm at Foyles Cabot Circus, Bristol, Bristol Festival of Literature is proud to bring Antonia Honeywell to Bristol to launch her stunning debut novel - The Ship
Antonia Honeywell's "mind-blowing" debut novel will be released by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in February 2015. The Ship is described as "rites-of-passage novel, a love story and a high-concept thriller", telling the story of a world in collapse, where a wealthy man buys a huge ship to transport a handpicked group of 500 – including his 16-year-old daughter - to a safe destiny. However daughter Lalla begins to question and then challenge her tyrannical father as the ship approaches its destination. 

Antonia Honeywell is a graduate of the Curtis Brown novel writing course 2011 and Bristol Festival of Literature is proud to bring Antonia to Bristol to launch the book at Foyles. Antonia will read a passage before being interviewed by Cheryl Morgan, a Hugo award-winning British science fiction critic and owner of Wizard’s Tower Press. There will then be a signing.
The ShipI am living on a ship of my father’s creation. I live with five hundred people whom my father has chosen. We have everything we could ever need – endless freezers full of food, access to music, art, films. Games, craft materials, time to learn, to share, to try. Everything is clean, everyone has work and a purpose. We have an infirmary supplied with medicines and equipment and a doctor who knows how to use them (although he couldn’t save my mother).My father has banished time. He has abolished the days of the week. There are no longer any dates – as he says, we no longer need them. Everyone is so grateful for what we have and so afraid of what we left behind that there is no need for my father to enforce his one rule – that we do not look back. Who wants to remember starvation, homelessness, disease? Governments killing their own people? The petrolheads on the street, the bodies of the dispossessed?But I remember London. I remember our walls dancing orange when the street dwellers lit oildrums in the square. I remember the foul smells of the outside, the hunger and the fear, my mother and I leaving food for the people hiding in the British Museum, where she taught me. I have made friends; I think I might have fallen in love. But Patience in the laundry, Helen in the school, Gerhardt in the kitchen, even Tom, can’t stop me wondering whether I will ever see a fresh egg, or eat an apple. Or why are there twelve cots and a wedding dress in the stores, or why the sun now rises and set on the same side of the ship.My mother is dead and there is no one I can ask. Everyone else was chosen, and they are too grateful to ask questions. But I am my father’s daughter. He did not choose me. Everything I know, I learned at the British Museum. And now I must decide what I am to do next.“mind-blowing….a dystopian novel with a utopian heart that will appeal across genres and age-ranges”Arzu Tahsin, Weidenfeld & Nicolson deputy publishing director.Click  here  for link to Bookseller press release, and click here for an interview with Antonia.Join the Bristol Festival of Literature Facebook Event page here: https://www.facebook.com/events/15348... RSVP to bristolevents@foyles.co.uk to let us know you are coming