Pete Sutton's Blog, page 39
November 5, 2014
Reviews - The Thicket, by Joe R Lansdale & The guest cat by Takashi Hiraide
The Thicket by Joe R Lansdale
The story opens with Jack’s parents dying of smallpox. His grandfather decides to take him and his sister to their aunt’s and along the way they cross a set of bankrobbers who kidnap his sister. Jack hires two unconventional bounty hunters: a dwarf named Shorty and a black gravedigger named Eustace who has a Hog companion (not pet). It’s set in turn of the century Texas and the hunters must travel to “The Thicket” an iniquitous den of thieves, murderers, rapists and other ne’er do wells with several adventures along the way.
“He’s right you know,” Jimmy Sue said, “ Just a year ago I kept thinking this ain’t fair, the way things have turned out for me. Then it comes to me clear as spring rain. Life is just what it is, and it ain’t fair at all.”
“Can’t we make it fair?”
“You can try, but all that other unfairness keeps seeping in.”
There’s an underlying message that life is just what it is and a tension between God-fearing Jack and reality, as the other characters see it. There is a loss of innocence and a worry of corruption threaded throughout. Lansdale is a wordsmith, full of pretty turns of phrase (or should that be ‘purty’) and the Wild West is beautifully pictured.
”I had a thought that if I didn’t run for it I was going to be dead next, so I broke and made like a rabbit, hit that back door so hard it came off its hinges, and me and it went out into the back there. A bullet came past me like it had to meet someone downtown and was late, and gave me a hot kiss on the ear as it passed.”
The plot is fairly standard for Westerns but that doesn’t make it any less of a page turner. It’s full of memorable characters but of course the Hog is the best one.
Overall – Dark Western with a mean streak and gallows humour. Recommended.
The guest cat by Takashi Hiraide
A couple in their 30’s renting a cottage in a quiet part of Tokyo work as freelance writers, from home. They no longer have much to say to each other. One day a cat invites itself into their lives, visiting from next door, a “guest cat”. It transforms their lives, they begin to order their lives around the cat’s visits, cooking it special meals, playing for hours with it with a ping pong ball. Then the landlord dies and everything changes. This is a philosophical book about ownership and property and a very quick read (140 pages). It lacks a certain feeling of story, being more espisodic and without a clear structural beginning, middle and end. If you can get past that and are a cat lover I think you’ll love this book. The prose is quite beautiful and thoughtful but lack of story meant it failed to sink its teeth into my imagination. The narrator notes that he wrote a number of articles that turned into the book you’re reading and I wonder if this is autobiographical. There’s a number of translator’s notes in the back which further elucidate what could be obscure facts about Japanese society.
Overall – Cute, thoughtful and well observed cat and cat owner behaviour.
The story opens with Jack’s parents dying of smallpox. His grandfather decides to take him and his sister to their aunt’s and along the way they cross a set of bankrobbers who kidnap his sister. Jack hires two unconventional bounty hunters: a dwarf named Shorty and a black gravedigger named Eustace who has a Hog companion (not pet). It’s set in turn of the century Texas and the hunters must travel to “The Thicket” an iniquitous den of thieves, murderers, rapists and other ne’er do wells with several adventures along the way.
“He’s right you know,” Jimmy Sue said, “ Just a year ago I kept thinking this ain’t fair, the way things have turned out for me. Then it comes to me clear as spring rain. Life is just what it is, and it ain’t fair at all.”
“Can’t we make it fair?”
“You can try, but all that other unfairness keeps seeping in.”
There’s an underlying message that life is just what it is and a tension between God-fearing Jack and reality, as the other characters see it. There is a loss of innocence and a worry of corruption threaded throughout. Lansdale is a wordsmith, full of pretty turns of phrase (or should that be ‘purty’) and the Wild West is beautifully pictured.
”I had a thought that if I didn’t run for it I was going to be dead next, so I broke and made like a rabbit, hit that back door so hard it came off its hinges, and me and it went out into the back there. A bullet came past me like it had to meet someone downtown and was late, and gave me a hot kiss on the ear as it passed.”
The plot is fairly standard for Westerns but that doesn’t make it any less of a page turner. It’s full of memorable characters but of course the Hog is the best one.
Overall – Dark Western with a mean streak and gallows humour. Recommended.
The guest cat by Takashi Hiraide
A couple in their 30’s renting a cottage in a quiet part of Tokyo work as freelance writers, from home. They no longer have much to say to each other. One day a cat invites itself into their lives, visiting from next door, a “guest cat”. It transforms their lives, they begin to order their lives around the cat’s visits, cooking it special meals, playing for hours with it with a ping pong ball. Then the landlord dies and everything changes. This is a philosophical book about ownership and property and a very quick read (140 pages). It lacks a certain feeling of story, being more espisodic and without a clear structural beginning, middle and end. If you can get past that and are a cat lover I think you’ll love this book. The prose is quite beautiful and thoughtful but lack of story meant it failed to sink its teeth into my imagination. The narrator notes that he wrote a number of articles that turned into the book you’re reading and I wonder if this is autobiographical. There’s a number of translator’s notes in the back which further elucidate what could be obscure facts about Japanese society.
Overall – Cute, thoughtful and well observed cat and cat owner behaviour.
November 3, 2014
Interview with Tom Greer
Tom Greer was born, raised and educated in Glasgow. He's also lived in London, Germany, Belfast and the North West of England and currently lives in the South West of England.
An Expendable Spy is his debut novel.
Follow Tom Greer on Twitter @tomgreerwriter
Visit and Like Tom Greer's Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/tomgreerwriter
We asked Tom all the usual questions
My name is Tom Greer and for my sins I write novels.
For anyone that hasn’t read them can you tell us a bit about your books
I concentrate on spy and crime fiction. My first novel, An Expendable Spy, was published on Amazon as an eBook and paperback at the end of last year. It's a Cold War spy story which takes place in London, Amsterdam and the wilds of Devon and is set in the late seventies. There'll be a sequel (of sorts) sometime in the next few years called Our Friends in Berlin which will take place ten years on against the backdrop of the events leading to the fall of the Berlin Wall and which will feature some of the characters from An Expendable Spy.
Currently I'm working on the first of the Inspector Gore crime series set in North London and featuring DCI John Gore. This series is centered on an Oxford educated, accelerated promotion detective and is written in the First Person, so the reader gets to hear Gore's actual thoughts. And as Gore himself points out to one of his Superiors, he's nothing like that other Oxford educated policeman, "For one thing, Morse is a fictional character and I'm clearly not."
The first novel in this series (the one I'm currently working on) is called Death Comes Calling and revolves around a serial killer targeting professional women in their mid to late thirties in North London.
Tell us a bit more about the last book you wrote
In An Expendable Spy, the main character, Jack Tate, wants his old life back. Five years earlier he'd been shunted out of MI6 and into a British Intelligence backwater where instead of running high level East German agents he's reduced to snooping night-after-night on trade unionists and minor public officials... none of whom he believes are a particular threat to The State.
But now he's been offered a way back into MI6, and his superiors are willing to sanction his return to field operations on one condition; that he proves himself worthy by tracking down and eliminating the leadership of a Moscow funded terrorist group and exposing the identity of their KGB handler.
Undercover and working alone Tate knows he's vulnerable. He knows he'll have to kill if he doesn't wish to end up dead himself. And he's also beginning to realize that events and rivalries are conspiring against him and that time isn't on his side.
You can take a look at An Expendable Spy on Amazon here.
What did you learn about writing whilst writing the last book you wrote?That editing is a whole lot more fun than doing the first draft, which can be a real slog. The first draft is like slowly carving a sculpture out of solid granite whereas the subsequent drafts are more like making delicate brush stroke changes to an oil canvas. And a writer needs to redraft, redraft and redraft again. Almost any writer's first draft will be rubbish - just typing, basically - but the subsequent edits should turn it into something worth reading. Too much of the dross on Amazon is there because the author has uploaded what is essentially a first draft.Do you have a set writing process, if so what is it? Most of the actual writing is done in my head on the hoof, so to speak, walking here and there. Walking into Bristol on a Saturday, for example, is me creating scenes and dialogue in my head. If possible I make notes as I go along on my iPhone notes app. The actually typing is usually done between ten at night and one in the morning, if I'm not too tired.I make at least three drafts. The first is typing which I wouldn't show to anyone. Much of the heavy lifting and improving is then done in the editing for the second draft, and the third draft is further improvements and adding things like the names of roads, wines etc that previously just read xxx Street or [reference a good red wine]. Any further drafts after that will be mainly be minor amendments and checking for typos.Do you write a lot of short stories?Funnily enough it's only now I've started writing short stories and that was down to having to produce one for the North Bristol Creative Writing Group. Afterwards I uploaded it to Wattpad. It's called The Gothic Time if you're interested in checking it out here. However, I did enjoy the experience and plan writing more of them and placing them on Wattpad on a regular basis. I've just had an idea for a Christmas short story… well, if it's good enough for Dickens it's good enough for me.Do you prefer the long or short form? How do you feel about Flash Fiction?I'm very much a novelist so I prefer the long form. I guess you could categorise The Gothic Time as Flash Fiction as it's only about a thousand words long, and any future short stories will be of that sort of length or less. Flash Fiction is a great exercise in making each and every word count and that's how I see it for myself - as a sort of writing exercise.Which character in your books do you most identify with and why?Logically it should be DI Ian Ritchie (AKA Dead Eye) in Death Comes Calling as he's a fellow Glaswegian, but unfortunately I'm nothing like him. I seem to have more in common with some aspects of John Gore (we both like Bach and Paul Simon) but he's an arrogant sod who complains much of the time about not being higher up the promotion ladder than he is so I hope I'm not too much like him.I don't think I have anything particularly in common with Jack Tate, the main character from An Expendable Spy, or with any of the spy chiefs or urban terrorists who also populate that novel.Which bit of your writing are you most proud of?I like the atmosphere of bleak realism I think I've achieved with An Expendable Spy. In Death Comes Calling, which in places is very dark, I like the way the tone is lightened by touches of humour, such as the somewhat surreal scene where two Metropolitan Police Officers debate the sexuality of a Womble in front of a witness. Tell us a bit about how you got published? Did you go via a slush pile? Get an agent before a publisher? I went for the Amazon self-publishing option rather than waste time and effort looking for a trad publisher, and so I use Kindle Direct Publishing for eBooks and CreateSpace for the paperback versions of my novels.
Publishing is in a flux at the moment and self-publishing is now a respectable option where say a decade ago it wasn't. It gives the author far more control of the whole publishing process; from choosing the cover to deciding the book price to running the marketing campaign... and the royalties are far higher than you'd get with a traditional publisher - 70% on Amazon compared with typically 10 -15% with a trad publisher. In one sentence what is your best piece of advice for new writers?Read and read and read and read.
Many thanks to Tom for dropping by and providing such interesting answers to our questions!
An Expendable Spy is his debut novel.
Follow Tom Greer on Twitter @tomgreerwriter
Visit and Like Tom Greer's Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/tomgreerwriter
We asked Tom all the usual questions
My name is Tom Greer and for my sins I write novels.
For anyone that hasn’t read them can you tell us a bit about your books
I concentrate on spy and crime fiction. My first novel, An Expendable Spy, was published on Amazon as an eBook and paperback at the end of last year. It's a Cold War spy story which takes place in London, Amsterdam and the wilds of Devon and is set in the late seventies. There'll be a sequel (of sorts) sometime in the next few years called Our Friends in Berlin which will take place ten years on against the backdrop of the events leading to the fall of the Berlin Wall and which will feature some of the characters from An Expendable Spy.
Currently I'm working on the first of the Inspector Gore crime series set in North London and featuring DCI John Gore. This series is centered on an Oxford educated, accelerated promotion detective and is written in the First Person, so the reader gets to hear Gore's actual thoughts. And as Gore himself points out to one of his Superiors, he's nothing like that other Oxford educated policeman, "For one thing, Morse is a fictional character and I'm clearly not."
The first novel in this series (the one I'm currently working on) is called Death Comes Calling and revolves around a serial killer targeting professional women in their mid to late thirties in North London.
Tell us a bit more about the last book you wrote
In An Expendable Spy, the main character, Jack Tate, wants his old life back. Five years earlier he'd been shunted out of MI6 and into a British Intelligence backwater where instead of running high level East German agents he's reduced to snooping night-after-night on trade unionists and minor public officials... none of whom he believes are a particular threat to The State.
But now he's been offered a way back into MI6, and his superiors are willing to sanction his return to field operations on one condition; that he proves himself worthy by tracking down and eliminating the leadership of a Moscow funded terrorist group and exposing the identity of their KGB handler.
Undercover and working alone Tate knows he's vulnerable. He knows he'll have to kill if he doesn't wish to end up dead himself. And he's also beginning to realize that events and rivalries are conspiring against him and that time isn't on his side.
You can take a look at An Expendable Spy on Amazon here.
What did you learn about writing whilst writing the last book you wrote?That editing is a whole lot more fun than doing the first draft, which can be a real slog. The first draft is like slowly carving a sculpture out of solid granite whereas the subsequent drafts are more like making delicate brush stroke changes to an oil canvas. And a writer needs to redraft, redraft and redraft again. Almost any writer's first draft will be rubbish - just typing, basically - but the subsequent edits should turn it into something worth reading. Too much of the dross on Amazon is there because the author has uploaded what is essentially a first draft.Do you have a set writing process, if so what is it? Most of the actual writing is done in my head on the hoof, so to speak, walking here and there. Walking into Bristol on a Saturday, for example, is me creating scenes and dialogue in my head. If possible I make notes as I go along on my iPhone notes app. The actually typing is usually done between ten at night and one in the morning, if I'm not too tired.I make at least three drafts. The first is typing which I wouldn't show to anyone. Much of the heavy lifting and improving is then done in the editing for the second draft, and the third draft is further improvements and adding things like the names of roads, wines etc that previously just read xxx Street or [reference a good red wine]. Any further drafts after that will be mainly be minor amendments and checking for typos.Do you write a lot of short stories?Funnily enough it's only now I've started writing short stories and that was down to having to produce one for the North Bristol Creative Writing Group. Afterwards I uploaded it to Wattpad. It's called The Gothic Time if you're interested in checking it out here. However, I did enjoy the experience and plan writing more of them and placing them on Wattpad on a regular basis. I've just had an idea for a Christmas short story… well, if it's good enough for Dickens it's good enough for me.Do you prefer the long or short form? How do you feel about Flash Fiction?I'm very much a novelist so I prefer the long form. I guess you could categorise The Gothic Time as Flash Fiction as it's only about a thousand words long, and any future short stories will be of that sort of length or less. Flash Fiction is a great exercise in making each and every word count and that's how I see it for myself - as a sort of writing exercise.Which character in your books do you most identify with and why?Logically it should be DI Ian Ritchie (AKA Dead Eye) in Death Comes Calling as he's a fellow Glaswegian, but unfortunately I'm nothing like him. I seem to have more in common with some aspects of John Gore (we both like Bach and Paul Simon) but he's an arrogant sod who complains much of the time about not being higher up the promotion ladder than he is so I hope I'm not too much like him.I don't think I have anything particularly in common with Jack Tate, the main character from An Expendable Spy, or with any of the spy chiefs or urban terrorists who also populate that novel.Which bit of your writing are you most proud of?I like the atmosphere of bleak realism I think I've achieved with An Expendable Spy. In Death Comes Calling, which in places is very dark, I like the way the tone is lightened by touches of humour, such as the somewhat surreal scene where two Metropolitan Police Officers debate the sexuality of a Womble in front of a witness. Tell us a bit about how you got published? Did you go via a slush pile? Get an agent before a publisher? I went for the Amazon self-publishing option rather than waste time and effort looking for a trad publisher, and so I use Kindle Direct Publishing for eBooks and CreateSpace for the paperback versions of my novels.
Publishing is in a flux at the moment and self-publishing is now a respectable option where say a decade ago it wasn't. It gives the author far more control of the whole publishing process; from choosing the cover to deciding the book price to running the marketing campaign... and the royalties are far higher than you'd get with a traditional publisher - 70% on Amazon compared with typically 10 -15% with a trad publisher. In one sentence what is your best piece of advice for new writers?Read and read and read and read.
Many thanks to Tom for dropping by and providing such interesting answers to our questions!
October 31, 2014
ICYMI - Book giveaways
The Bristol Book Blog is currently running two book giveaways.
You can snag a copy of Ellen Allen's The Sham - http://brsbkblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/...
Ellen shared her playlist with us at the Blog with key songs at key moments and has kindly provided some books for a giveaway (ebook, any format) - All you have to do to snag a copy is provide the book blog with your reading playlist - do you read to music? if so what do you listen to? The most interesting, entertaining replies will receive a copy of the book (10 copies in total):
AND you can also get a copy of Andrew Goodman's Oliver Drummond and the four horsemen - http://brsbkblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/...
All you need to enter is to name the four Horsemen in the comments on the link above! Names will be drawn from a hat in two weeks time.
You can snag a copy of Ellen Allen's The Sham - http://brsbkblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/...
Ellen shared her playlist with us at the Blog with key songs at key moments and has kindly provided some books for a giveaway (ebook, any format) - All you have to do to snag a copy is provide the book blog with your reading playlist - do you read to music? if so what do you listen to? The most interesting, entertaining replies will receive a copy of the book (10 copies in total):
AND you can also get a copy of Andrew Goodman's Oliver Drummond and the four horsemen - http://brsbkblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/...
All you need to enter is to name the four Horsemen in the comments on the link above! Names will be drawn from a hat in two weeks time.
October 30, 2014
Interview with Andrew Goodman
Today's guest is Andrew Goodman who is now onto his second series of books since we last spoke to him.
Hello, my name is Andrew and I write stories for young adults. It's been seventeen minutes since my last writing session.
Actually, I'm not only a writer of novels but also short stories and short- & feature-length screenplays – I was a semi-finalist in the 2009 British Short Screenplay Competition and was commissioned to write a 90-minute feature in 2012 for SeeView Pictures.
Tiberius Found and Tiberius Bound wee my first novels published in paperback and ebook formats, and are the initial two books book of a three-part series: The Emperor Initiative, with final subsequent instalment to be released in 2015. October 2014 will also see the release of my first “Oliver Drummond” supernatural adventure novels set in the 1920s: Oliver Drummond and The Four Horsemen, which sees schoolboy Oliver ‘Bulldog’ Drummond pitting his wits against occult groups, ghosts, murderers and traitors who want to gain control over the horseshoes from the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
You can read my Blog here.
For anyone that hasn ’t read them can you tell us a bit about your books?
I write action/adventure novels for the Young Adult market, although it seems that most of my readership passed through the target demographic of 12-18 many years ago! My first two books are parts one and two in a three-part series called The Emperor Initiative which sees a 16-year-old boy on the run from a group of scientists who want to finish the job they started when he was born.The series is set in the near future (2028) and follows Daniel Henstock as he discovers he’s been genetically engineered – assigned the codename Tiberius – and has to flee the country to save himself. He goes to America, intent on unearthing the truth about his origins, but only succeeds in putting more people in danger. The Initiative, however, don’t easily give up and he decides to take the fight to them when they abduct and threaten the life of the only person he knows he can trust.The three books in the series – Tiberius Found, Tiberius Bound and Tiberius Crowned – see Daniel unsure of whom he can trust, learning skills and abilities he never thought possible, suffer terrible hurt and loss, fall in love, and come face-to-face with the person at the top of the food chain responsible for his origins. Bit of a roller coaster, for the young man.
Tell us a bit more about the last book you wrote
My latest book – Oliver Drummond and The Four Horsemen – is a period adventure, set in 1926, and follows schoolboy Oliver ‘Bulldog’ Drummond as he becomes involved in the mysterious death of a government scientist. He quickly learns that all is not as it seems. The discovery of three horseshoes from The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse leads to a race to unearth the final artifact, and Oliver is determined to not let them fall into the wrong hands. If he fails then the Horsemen will be unleashed upon the world and under the control of a man hell-bent on dominion.He comes face-to-face with ghosts, traitors, murderers and people who have no qualms to kill and torture to fulfill their ambitions. Not to mention meeting the Horsemen themselves. And those strange feelings he has for a girl, in the pit of his stomach, doesn’t help matters…The novel is the first in a planned series of ‘Oliver Drummond’ adventures with the next already well into the planning stage.
What did you learn about writing whilst writing the last book you wrote? How much fun the lack of technology for my characters could be! When they’re in danger they can’t simply get on their mobile and summon help. I found the world of post-World War One a great time – Europe was still re-building even eight years after the War, and suspicion and intrigue was rife. Science was still in its infancy and it was a time of discovery and doubt. Great elements for a supernatural adventure!
Do you have a set writing process, if so what is it? I like to spend a lot of time planning and blocking a story out. I know that this process doesn’t work for everyone but I find the blocks as stepping-stones that help keep me on track. That doesn’t mean I have to follow them rigidly if I think of something better during the writing process.When I’m in the writing stage, I write. At any time available. Once the first draft is finished I leave it for a few weeks before moving onto the editing stages and do however many edits I feel necessary to make it as good as it can be. If, at that point, I’m engaging a professional editor then I’d send it off and await for the shredding to begin…Once I've got the finished work, I format into eBook and print versions, get the artwork sorted through third parties, and get ready for publication. Simple.
Do you write a lot of short stories? I used to. I think it was part of the learning process, of how to write stories. A novel can be quite a daunting thought but a few thousand words are much more achievable for a person starting to write. That’s not to say short stories are an easy option, often the opposite is true. You have far fewer words to bring a convincing story to a satisfactory conclusion that means you can’t have any fat.
Do you prefer the long or short form? How do you feel about Flash Fiction? I prefer writing novels, these days. Although, if the mood takes me then a short story can keep the juices flowing nicely. Flash fiction is great! Love it. Very, very difficult to do well and there are even fewer words to play with. I was very happy in the summer to win the BeaconLit Writing Festival flash fiction competition, which had a 150-word limit.
Which character in your books do you most identify with and why? I really like Miles Brennan (in the Tiberius novels) and James Burghley (Oliver’s uncle).We’re never really sure if Brennan is someone who can be trusted and he’s keeping so many secrets that I’m not sure if he even knows the answer! In my dream film cast list I’d have Gerard Butler play him. Anyone know Gerard who can suggest this?James Burghley is a man in his thirties who wants fun and adventure in his life, and who, too, has lots of secrets. He’s quite laid back, with a quirky sense of humour, but when the situation demands is prepared to stand up and be counted
Which bit of your writing are you most proud of? I like to include a touch of humour to my writing, but without making it too obvious. I love it when a situation creates itself and a punch-line or quip neatly presents itself.However, the first time I saw one of my books in print format was amazing. An eBook is ok, but holding that paperback the first time was a special moment.
Tell us a bit about how you got published? Did you go via a slush pile? Get an agent before a publisher?
I decided to follow my usual route of Amazon self-publishing with ‘Oliver…’ although I have submitted it to a few agents just to see what the waters are like. I used the Kindle Direct Publishing platform (for the eBook version) and its sister company CreateSpace (for the print/paperback version), as I did for for my other previous novels, and find the process quick and easy to follow.
There are a number of idiosyncrasies specific to each of the above publishing platforms but I've got through the growling-at-the-computer-screen phase and know what I need to do now, to make the job as quick and easy as it can be.
The world of publishing is still changing, and will continue to do so for a while yet, and there is no shame in self-publishing these days, as long as your work is of the highest possible standard.
In one sentence what is your best piece of advice for new writers? Keep reading, keep writing, be open to constructive criticism and develop a very, very thick skin.Don’t be too precious about your work, and don’t be afraid to ask for help.
OK, So not quite one sentence…
------------------
Andrew has very kindly provided three copies of the latest book - Oliver Drummond and the Four Horsemen as a give away (ebook, any format). All you need to enter is to name the four Horsemen in the comments below! Names will be drawn from a hat in two weeks time.
Hello, my name is Andrew and I write stories for young adults. It's been seventeen minutes since my last writing session.
Actually, I'm not only a writer of novels but also short stories and short- & feature-length screenplays – I was a semi-finalist in the 2009 British Short Screenplay Competition and was commissioned to write a 90-minute feature in 2012 for SeeView Pictures.
Tiberius Found and Tiberius Bound wee my first novels published in paperback and ebook formats, and are the initial two books book of a three-part series: The Emperor Initiative, with final subsequent instalment to be released in 2015. October 2014 will also see the release of my first “Oliver Drummond” supernatural adventure novels set in the 1920s: Oliver Drummond and The Four Horsemen, which sees schoolboy Oliver ‘Bulldog’ Drummond pitting his wits against occult groups, ghosts, murderers and traitors who want to gain control over the horseshoes from the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
You can read my Blog here.
For anyone that hasn ’t read them can you tell us a bit about your books?
I write action/adventure novels for the Young Adult market, although it seems that most of my readership passed through the target demographic of 12-18 many years ago! My first two books are parts one and two in a three-part series called The Emperor Initiative which sees a 16-year-old boy on the run from a group of scientists who want to finish the job they started when he was born.The series is set in the near future (2028) and follows Daniel Henstock as he discovers he’s been genetically engineered – assigned the codename Tiberius – and has to flee the country to save himself. He goes to America, intent on unearthing the truth about his origins, but only succeeds in putting more people in danger. The Initiative, however, don’t easily give up and he decides to take the fight to them when they abduct and threaten the life of the only person he knows he can trust.The three books in the series – Tiberius Found, Tiberius Bound and Tiberius Crowned – see Daniel unsure of whom he can trust, learning skills and abilities he never thought possible, suffer terrible hurt and loss, fall in love, and come face-to-face with the person at the top of the food chain responsible for his origins. Bit of a roller coaster, for the young man.
Tell us a bit more about the last book you wrote
My latest book – Oliver Drummond and The Four Horsemen – is a period adventure, set in 1926, and follows schoolboy Oliver ‘Bulldog’ Drummond as he becomes involved in the mysterious death of a government scientist. He quickly learns that all is not as it seems. The discovery of three horseshoes from The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse leads to a race to unearth the final artifact, and Oliver is determined to not let them fall into the wrong hands. If he fails then the Horsemen will be unleashed upon the world and under the control of a man hell-bent on dominion.He comes face-to-face with ghosts, traitors, murderers and people who have no qualms to kill and torture to fulfill their ambitions. Not to mention meeting the Horsemen themselves. And those strange feelings he has for a girl, in the pit of his stomach, doesn’t help matters…The novel is the first in a planned series of ‘Oliver Drummond’ adventures with the next already well into the planning stage.
What did you learn about writing whilst writing the last book you wrote? How much fun the lack of technology for my characters could be! When they’re in danger they can’t simply get on their mobile and summon help. I found the world of post-World War One a great time – Europe was still re-building even eight years after the War, and suspicion and intrigue was rife. Science was still in its infancy and it was a time of discovery and doubt. Great elements for a supernatural adventure!
Do you have a set writing process, if so what is it? I like to spend a lot of time planning and blocking a story out. I know that this process doesn’t work for everyone but I find the blocks as stepping-stones that help keep me on track. That doesn’t mean I have to follow them rigidly if I think of something better during the writing process.When I’m in the writing stage, I write. At any time available. Once the first draft is finished I leave it for a few weeks before moving onto the editing stages and do however many edits I feel necessary to make it as good as it can be. If, at that point, I’m engaging a professional editor then I’d send it off and await for the shredding to begin…Once I've got the finished work, I format into eBook and print versions, get the artwork sorted through third parties, and get ready for publication. Simple.
Do you write a lot of short stories? I used to. I think it was part of the learning process, of how to write stories. A novel can be quite a daunting thought but a few thousand words are much more achievable for a person starting to write. That’s not to say short stories are an easy option, often the opposite is true. You have far fewer words to bring a convincing story to a satisfactory conclusion that means you can’t have any fat.
Do you prefer the long or short form? How do you feel about Flash Fiction? I prefer writing novels, these days. Although, if the mood takes me then a short story can keep the juices flowing nicely. Flash fiction is great! Love it. Very, very difficult to do well and there are even fewer words to play with. I was very happy in the summer to win the BeaconLit Writing Festival flash fiction competition, which had a 150-word limit.
Which character in your books do you most identify with and why? I really like Miles Brennan (in the Tiberius novels) and James Burghley (Oliver’s uncle).We’re never really sure if Brennan is someone who can be trusted and he’s keeping so many secrets that I’m not sure if he even knows the answer! In my dream film cast list I’d have Gerard Butler play him. Anyone know Gerard who can suggest this?James Burghley is a man in his thirties who wants fun and adventure in his life, and who, too, has lots of secrets. He’s quite laid back, with a quirky sense of humour, but when the situation demands is prepared to stand up and be counted
Which bit of your writing are you most proud of? I like to include a touch of humour to my writing, but without making it too obvious. I love it when a situation creates itself and a punch-line or quip neatly presents itself.However, the first time I saw one of my books in print format was amazing. An eBook is ok, but holding that paperback the first time was a special moment.
Tell us a bit about how you got published? Did you go via a slush pile? Get an agent before a publisher?
I decided to follow my usual route of Amazon self-publishing with ‘Oliver…’ although I have submitted it to a few agents just to see what the waters are like. I used the Kindle Direct Publishing platform (for the eBook version) and its sister company CreateSpace (for the print/paperback version), as I did for for my other previous novels, and find the process quick and easy to follow.
There are a number of idiosyncrasies specific to each of the above publishing platforms but I've got through the growling-at-the-computer-screen phase and know what I need to do now, to make the job as quick and easy as it can be.
The world of publishing is still changing, and will continue to do so for a while yet, and there is no shame in self-publishing these days, as long as your work is of the highest possible standard.
In one sentence what is your best piece of advice for new writers? Keep reading, keep writing, be open to constructive criticism and develop a very, very thick skin.Don’t be too precious about your work, and don’t be afraid to ask for help.
OK, So not quite one sentence…
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Andrew has very kindly provided three copies of the latest book - Oliver Drummond and the Four Horsemen as a give away (ebook, any format). All you need to enter is to name the four Horsemen in the comments below! Names will be drawn from a hat in two weeks time.
BristolCon 2014
BristolCon continues to be one of my favourite Cons. It's perfectly formed and extremely well run. I moderated a panel, appeared on a panel, did a reading, went to a workshop, watched a bad film, rooted out werewolves in the games room, played cards against humanity, said hello to a lot of folk I've come to know over the past couple of years, performed at the open mic and made new friends. Phew! (But I got very few photographs!)
As well as spending a lot of time in the art room chatting with the guys from Wyrmwick
And time in the bar.
There was a very entertaining open-mic the evening before where I read my story - "Spin, spin, spin the Wheels of Justice." from the collection "Thunder & Magpies" (currently I'm biting my nails waiting to see if the publisher I sent it to will make an offer - this was the latest message I saw - "Just a small FYI. If you've subbed to Kristell Ink or Grimbold Grimkins and not yet heard, then your manuscript is being carefully considered. We're down to the 'oh-my-gosh-these-are-good-why-can't-we-have-them-all' part of the acquisition process.")
Many thanks to John Courtney Grimwood, Mike Shevdon, Sarah Ash & Jacey Bedford for being great panellists on the "Writing Historical Fantasy" panel. We discussed lots of interesting stuff - first experiences of historical fantasy, attractions of particular time periods, research (don't we all want to learn North African cooking in Africa now that Mr Grimwood said that was part of his research for his Fellaheen books!)
I didn't get time to ask about how to get into pre-20th Century mindsets or how alternative does adding magic to history make history (if we can teleport do we need to invent cars, trains and planes?). I also wanted to ask what periods had been done to death and what were under-explored and of the disneyfication of history. Ah well next time!
I very much enjoyed the Discoverability panel and nice to see Spacewitch represented on the panel. They discussed the Amazon effect, women's discoverability (a particular bugbear of Emma Newman) and there was a general consensus that book bloggers help, but have a limited audience, and that there needs to be a level of curation rather than algorithms that only work at scale.
I went to the "Common writing problems Q&A" where Snorri Kristjansson gave us an interesting and entertaining analogy between writing and making a chair. If your chair has a big spike in the middle it may not be the best chair ever made, if it's green some people may like green or may not but it doesn't mean it's a badly made chair. Perhaps you had to be there! There was also a fascinating discussion about writer's block by Gareth L Powell
After an irritating lunchtime (The cafe under St Mary Redcliffe - got meals wrong, spent a long time to serve us etc) I spent a useful hour in the company with Jacey Bedford in the "How to get an agent" workshop. Lots of great advice and places to look like Miss Snark & Pubrants amongst others. I came away with a handout and the beginnings of a plan.
Other panel highlight was "Sex or Death" where Kevlin Henney had a bunch of statistics from his around 100 short stories. Overall outcome? We are more afraid of putting sex in stories than we are death. After the panel Stark Holborn roped Snorri Kristjansson into helping her do a reading by reading one half of the dialogue. That worked really well and I may steal, sorry borrow, the idea in the future!
The only other reading I managed to catch was Roz Clarke even after promising myself I'd get to more this year. I'm not sure about readings at Cons, they don't appear to work very well, but I'm not sure what the fix is. The only time I've seen full readings of, let's say less well known names, is at 9 worlds with their "New Voices" where each writer probably brings in a couple of people.
I also appeared on a panel - but wasn't hugely happy with my performance, I think I do better as a moderator than a guest. It was well moderated by Pete Newman and was about "Writing Non-human characters." I did manage to crowbar a reference to the Fundsurfer in though.
I also did a reading from "Seven Deadly Swords" my novel that is out with beta readers currently. It seemed to go down well to the few people that turned up.
The evening was spent in socialising, gaming and watching "The Uninvited" a film shown by the fantastic Bristol Bad Film Club which is about a cat that's escaped from a genetic research lab and is taken aboard a yacht bound for the Cayman islands. Needless to say it runs amok. Bonkers plot, "special" special effects and "interesting" acting. A good laugh. I hope BristolCon invite the Bad film club guys back next year too.
I had a fantastic time and will definitely be going next year. How do they fit so much awesome into one day?
As well as spending a lot of time in the art room chatting with the guys from Wyrmwick
And time in the bar.
There was a very entertaining open-mic the evening before where I read my story - "Spin, spin, spin the Wheels of Justice." from the collection "Thunder & Magpies" (currently I'm biting my nails waiting to see if the publisher I sent it to will make an offer - this was the latest message I saw - "Just a small FYI. If you've subbed to Kristell Ink or Grimbold Grimkins and not yet heard, then your manuscript is being carefully considered. We're down to the 'oh-my-gosh-these-are-good-why-can't-we-have-them-all' part of the acquisition process.")
Many thanks to John Courtney Grimwood, Mike Shevdon, Sarah Ash & Jacey Bedford for being great panellists on the "Writing Historical Fantasy" panel. We discussed lots of interesting stuff - first experiences of historical fantasy, attractions of particular time periods, research (don't we all want to learn North African cooking in Africa now that Mr Grimwood said that was part of his research for his Fellaheen books!)
I didn't get time to ask about how to get into pre-20th Century mindsets or how alternative does adding magic to history make history (if we can teleport do we need to invent cars, trains and planes?). I also wanted to ask what periods had been done to death and what were under-explored and of the disneyfication of history. Ah well next time!
I very much enjoyed the Discoverability panel and nice to see Spacewitch represented on the panel. They discussed the Amazon effect, women's discoverability (a particular bugbear of Emma Newman) and there was a general consensus that book bloggers help, but have a limited audience, and that there needs to be a level of curation rather than algorithms that only work at scale.
I went to the "Common writing problems Q&A" where Snorri Kristjansson gave us an interesting and entertaining analogy between writing and making a chair. If your chair has a big spike in the middle it may not be the best chair ever made, if it's green some people may like green or may not but it doesn't mean it's a badly made chair. Perhaps you had to be there! There was also a fascinating discussion about writer's block by Gareth L Powell
After an irritating lunchtime (The cafe under St Mary Redcliffe - got meals wrong, spent a long time to serve us etc) I spent a useful hour in the company with Jacey Bedford in the "How to get an agent" workshop. Lots of great advice and places to look like Miss Snark & Pubrants amongst others. I came away with a handout and the beginnings of a plan.
Other panel highlight was "Sex or Death" where Kevlin Henney had a bunch of statistics from his around 100 short stories. Overall outcome? We are more afraid of putting sex in stories than we are death. After the panel Stark Holborn roped Snorri Kristjansson into helping her do a reading by reading one half of the dialogue. That worked really well and I may steal, sorry borrow, the idea in the future!
The only other reading I managed to catch was Roz Clarke even after promising myself I'd get to more this year. I'm not sure about readings at Cons, they don't appear to work very well, but I'm not sure what the fix is. The only time I've seen full readings of, let's say less well known names, is at 9 worlds with their "New Voices" where each writer probably brings in a couple of people.
I also appeared on a panel - but wasn't hugely happy with my performance, I think I do better as a moderator than a guest. It was well moderated by Pete Newman and was about "Writing Non-human characters." I did manage to crowbar a reference to the Fundsurfer in though.
I also did a reading from "Seven Deadly Swords" my novel that is out with beta readers currently. It seemed to go down well to the few people that turned up.
The evening was spent in socialising, gaming and watching "The Uninvited" a film shown by the fantastic Bristol Bad Film Club which is about a cat that's escaped from a genetic research lab and is taken aboard a yacht bound for the Cayman islands. Needless to say it runs amok. Bonkers plot, "special" special effects and "interesting" acting. A good laugh. I hope BristolCon invite the Bad film club guys back next year too.
I had a fantastic time and will definitely be going next year. How do they fit so much awesome into one day?
October 27, 2014
The Sham - Book Giveaway
Here at BRSBKBLOG we are very lucky to have a brilliant book giveaway for new YA thriller - The Sham by Ellen Allen
Ellen has loved reading ever since she was tiny and discovered Enid Blyton in a corner of her classroom - The Magic Faraway Tree, anyone? She later went on to develop a trilogy to rival Tolkien, based on The Hobbit (er, only it wasn't quite as good!).
As a grown up, her dream is to see her book in a book shop or to read a good review that some kind soul has left online for others to read. She lives in the south of France with her small daughter and would, one day, like to be able to master the French subjunctive.
Author of new YA novel The Sham, a keen outdoor swimmer (whatever the weather), an avid reader and she also likes to collect quotes, articles, tips etc. on how to write, submit & publish really good fiction.
Find Ellen on the web here: http://writingright.net/ and Twitter here: @Ellenwritesall
Eighteen-year-old Emily Heath would love to leave her dead-end town, known locally as “The Sham”, with her boyfriend, Jack, but he’s very, very sick; his body is failing and his brain is shutting down. He’s also in hiding, under suspicion of murder. Six months’ ago, strange signs were painted across town in a dialect no one has spoken for decades and one of Emily’s classmates washed up in the local floods.
Emily has never trusted her instincts and now they’re pulling her towards Jack, who the police think is a sham himself, someone else entirely. As the town wakes to discover new signs plastered across its walls, Emily must decide who and what she trusts, and fast: local vigilantes are hunting Jack; the floods, the police, and her parents are blocking her path; and the town doesn’t need another dead body.
**This book is unsuitable for younger readers; it contains discussions about murder scenes, conversations about sex and profanity.
Ellen shared her playlist with us at the Blog with key songs at key moments and has kindly provided some books for a giveaway (ebook, any format) - All you have to do to snag a copy is provide the book blog with your reading playlist - do you read to music? if so what do you listen to? The most interesting, entertaining replies will receive a copy of the book (10 copies in total):
The Sham's playlist - possible spoilers (click on it to view full size & reveal)
Ellen has loved reading ever since she was tiny and discovered Enid Blyton in a corner of her classroom - The Magic Faraway Tree, anyone? She later went on to develop a trilogy to rival Tolkien, based on The Hobbit (er, only it wasn't quite as good!).
As a grown up, her dream is to see her book in a book shop or to read a good review that some kind soul has left online for others to read. She lives in the south of France with her small daughter and would, one day, like to be able to master the French subjunctive.
Author of new YA novel The Sham, a keen outdoor swimmer (whatever the weather), an avid reader and she also likes to collect quotes, articles, tips etc. on how to write, submit & publish really good fiction.
Find Ellen on the web here: http://writingright.net/ and Twitter here: @Ellenwritesall
Eighteen-year-old Emily Heath would love to leave her dead-end town, known locally as “The Sham”, with her boyfriend, Jack, but he’s very, very sick; his body is failing and his brain is shutting down. He’s also in hiding, under suspicion of murder. Six months’ ago, strange signs were painted across town in a dialect no one has spoken for decades and one of Emily’s classmates washed up in the local floods.
Emily has never trusted her instincts and now they’re pulling her towards Jack, who the police think is a sham himself, someone else entirely. As the town wakes to discover new signs plastered across its walls, Emily must decide who and what she trusts, and fast: local vigilantes are hunting Jack; the floods, the police, and her parents are blocking her path; and the town doesn’t need another dead body.
**This book is unsuitable for younger readers; it contains discussions about murder scenes, conversations about sex and profanity.
Ellen shared her playlist with us at the Blog with key songs at key moments and has kindly provided some books for a giveaway (ebook, any format) - All you have to do to snag a copy is provide the book blog with your reading playlist - do you read to music? if so what do you listen to? The most interesting, entertaining replies will receive a copy of the book (10 copies in total):
The Sham's playlist - possible spoilers (click on it to view full size & reveal)
October 22, 2014
Review - David Gullen's Open Waters
Mr Gullen has collected together 11 stories that have been published in magazines and anthologies (and 5 that haven’t) into this, his first short story collection. The earliest published in 1998, the latest in 2011. It’s a wide mix of speculative stories of varying length, a few flash, a few longer pieces, many in between. With the majority of stories Gullen explains the genesis, with many stemming from challenges created by the T party, the writing group Mr Gullen is part of.
There is a lot to like in here and the quality is, in the main, very high. I dipped in and out in between other projects - my own writing and reading for reviews. The first and last stories are very good, both about war, a subject Gullen tells us he often writes about, – the first a ‘what if’, what if the invasion by tourists every year was just that, an invasion, this one stuck with me long after reading it. The last with humanity getting caught up in a galactic war as auxillaries and a small army of humans are abandoned on an alien world and left to conquer it. I was also taken by Gullen’s re-imagining of the lady in the lake in Come the Hour which, he tells us, had a rejection because the editor thought her readers would like to keep their lunches, which Gullen takes as a compliment. My favourite though must be Fade a post-apocalyptic story about us and Them and the Difference, one of those stories that lights up the creative part of your brain and therefore makes the world contained seem much larger than what is on the page. I wish I’d written something as cool as this story. There were a few misses, not poorly written, just didn’t do it for me, but that’s natural in any collection, but they were very few.
These are stories about war, about relationships, about humans, sometimes in alien situations. It is a collection with heart and imagination. Besides, where else would you go for your walrus porn and cowboy Cthulhu erotica?
Overall – An excellent read, recommended.
October 21, 2014
North by Southwest
Since earlier this year I've been working on an anthology - the North Bristol Writers have got together to create a whole bunch of new stories and it's almost time that they were committed to paper.
There are 10 writers, 1 fantastic artist and 1 brilliant editor ready to turn a whole bunch of words into a living breathing book.
But we need cash to make it a reality and so we're launching a Fundsurfer. What's Fundsurfer? It's a crowdfunding platform, not just any crowdfunding platform though because these boys are based in Bristol.
https://www.fundsurfer.com/
If you're going to help fund this you'll have to register an account.
And we've been in to meet them & discuss the project and they've been super helpful every step of the way since we decided to go down the crowdfunding route.
At BristolCon we'll be launching the Fundsurfer and you will be able to throw all your money at us in return for a variety of cool rewards. I'll do an update post when we go live. And, no doubt throughout the process. With updates to the crowdfunding, cover reveals, cover blurbs, early reviews etc.
This is my first foray into crowdfunding and I'm not sure what to expect - will people flock or flee?
Anyhow - I'd like to publicly thank Richard Jones from Tangent books who will do the magic publishing bit once we have typeset the book. Joanne Hall (@Hierath) for stepping in to wrangle the wordage. Claire M Hutt (@clairedreams99) for providing lots of wonderful art, and excellent advice.
And, of course, my fellow writers - Jemma Milburn, Clare Dornan, Ian Millstead, Kevlin Henney, Margaret Carruthers, Roz Clarke, John Hawks-Reed, Desiree Fischer & Justin Newland
Interview with Judy Darley
Today Judy Darley has dropped in to talk about her writing
Judy Darley is a British fiction writer, writing tutor and journalist. She’s had short stories, flashes and poetry published by literary magazine and anthologies including Germ Magazine, Litro, Riptide Journal, and The View From Here. Judy’s debut short story collection ‘Remember Me To The Bees’ is out now. She blogs at www.skylightrain.com and tweets at https://twitter.com/JudyDarley
For anyone that hasn’t read you, can you tell us a bit about your work?I have a bit of a fascination with people who are damaged in some way, partly because I think we all are, to some extent. I write short fiction exploring the behaviour of people who are slightly off-kilter, people doing their best but often getting things wrong. I like ambiguity, so in some of my work I wind together what’s really happening with the narrator’s perception of what’s happening, making it a challenge to separate the real and irreal, if you like. Alongside short fiction, I’m polishing up an adult novel called Ghosts In The Eaves, about a selective mute, and a novel for older children, titled Smoke in the Cemetery. I also write journalism to pay the bills, and increasing quantities of poetry.Tell us a bit more about the last book you wroteRemember Me To The Bees is a collection of 20 of my short stories, taking us through the moments in people’s lives that change them forever – a young teacher sits on the edge of a decision with far-reaching consequences, a child keeps a secret she perhaps shouldn’t have, a woman reunites with her mentally unstable father... Often the stories end before the verdict is reached, as in Flyleaf, when a man is drawn to stalk a woman he notices in a bookstore. Each story includes a reference to bees in some way, so you can play ‘spot the bee’ as you read. The book, published by Scopophillia, is available to buy from Tangent
Do you have a set writing process, if so what is it?I work from home most days. I wake early, grab my laptop and take it back to bed with me. The first hour of the day is often my most creative and productive, so I work as hard as I can in that time. Then I get up, make a coffee and retreat to my writing room where I’ll work on whatever’s most pressing – often journalistic deadlines have to be met first, but then I can pick and choose a bit, often doing a bit of research and blogging for my culture blog SkyLightRain.com to get my thoughts flowing. Some days I take a break mid-morning to go for a run or dabble with paint so I can mull over what I’ve been working on, then give it a tight edit before moving onto the next wordy task. The thing that often eats the most time is coming up with pitches and finding the right people to send them to – all essential in keeping a roof over my head!Which bit of your writing are you most proud of?I tend to be proudest of whichever of my pieces has most recently been chosen for publication. I recently had a poem published by streetcake magazine and that was a thrill, especially as poetry is a new area for me.What are you working on now? (apart from this interview of course)I’m working on a new collection of short stories, poetry and flashes on the theme of journeys, both physical (there are several train journeys in there for some reason!), and emotional. I’ve also begun making MP3s of some of my shorter works – I love doing readings and this is a fun way to get them out to a wider audience.Why do you like to write Flash fiction? I love the immediacy of it, and the work it demands of the reader, making ‘show not tell’ more crucial than ever. It’s exhilarating to sit down with a coffee and complete the first draft of something before the coffee goes cold. Notice I say first draft, for me a few drafts are usually needed to make sure it says exactly what I mean it to, though there are occasional dizzying moments when I read a piece back and find I wouldn’t change a word. Love it when that happens!On your website, under inspiration, are several artists - who is inspiring you now and why? who is your greatest inspiration?I’m a huge fan of all forms of the arts and love any artist who creates work that sows the seed of an idea for a work of fiction. Sculptor Carol Peace creates amazing pieces – her figures seem to be full of restrained emotion. I also love more abstract work, like the paintings of Adam Closs and the photography of Stephen Mason – their work contains so much energy I can use it to fuel my own work! I draw a lot of inspiration from travel too – being somewhere unfamiliar fires up my curiosity.Another inspiration question - what (or who) inspired you to take up writing & why?I began making up stories before I learnt to read, so I suppose it’s always been in me. My parents both love the arts, including literature, so it never felt like an unusual choice to me. It seemed to me to be a way of turning work into play, or vice versa. Not a bad way to make a living!You're running a workshop entitled - "Writing from art" - tell us a bit about that and the literary evening that follows itI’m really excited about this! It’s part of a literary/art fusion I’m putting together with Carol Peace. Carol is opening up her artist’s studio from 6-16th November, with a literary night on 7th November – seven writers will each read works on the topics travel, identity and home. It all takes place in the studio, surrounded by Carol’s sculptures, drawings and paintings. There are just 30 tickets available in all, so it will be a really intimate event. Tickets cost £4 and are available hereThe writing workshop takes place on the following Wednesday (12th Nov, from 2-5pm), and will look at how art has influenced writers through history, before leading participants through exercises designed to help you get in tune with yourself and the work around you, with the aim of transforming what you see into poetry and prose pieces. I think it will be a lot of fun! Tickets cost £12 (including tea, coffee and biscuits), available hereIn one sentence what is your best piece of advice for new writers?Writing is a journey – every draft leads to another, so don’t worry if the first is imperfect.Many thanks to Judy for these fascinating answers!
Judy Darley is a British fiction writer, writing tutor and journalist. She’s had short stories, flashes and poetry published by literary magazine and anthologies including Germ Magazine, Litro, Riptide Journal, and The View From Here. Judy’s debut short story collection ‘Remember Me To The Bees’ is out now. She blogs at www.skylightrain.com and tweets at https://twitter.com/JudyDarley
For anyone that hasn’t read you, can you tell us a bit about your work?I have a bit of a fascination with people who are damaged in some way, partly because I think we all are, to some extent. I write short fiction exploring the behaviour of people who are slightly off-kilter, people doing their best but often getting things wrong. I like ambiguity, so in some of my work I wind together what’s really happening with the narrator’s perception of what’s happening, making it a challenge to separate the real and irreal, if you like. Alongside short fiction, I’m polishing up an adult novel called Ghosts In The Eaves, about a selective mute, and a novel for older children, titled Smoke in the Cemetery. I also write journalism to pay the bills, and increasing quantities of poetry.Tell us a bit more about the last book you wroteRemember Me To The Bees is a collection of 20 of my short stories, taking us through the moments in people’s lives that change them forever – a young teacher sits on the edge of a decision with far-reaching consequences, a child keeps a secret she perhaps shouldn’t have, a woman reunites with her mentally unstable father... Often the stories end before the verdict is reached, as in Flyleaf, when a man is drawn to stalk a woman he notices in a bookstore. Each story includes a reference to bees in some way, so you can play ‘spot the bee’ as you read. The book, published by Scopophillia, is available to buy from Tangent
Do you have a set writing process, if so what is it?I work from home most days. I wake early, grab my laptop and take it back to bed with me. The first hour of the day is often my most creative and productive, so I work as hard as I can in that time. Then I get up, make a coffee and retreat to my writing room where I’ll work on whatever’s most pressing – often journalistic deadlines have to be met first, but then I can pick and choose a bit, often doing a bit of research and blogging for my culture blog SkyLightRain.com to get my thoughts flowing. Some days I take a break mid-morning to go for a run or dabble with paint so I can mull over what I’ve been working on, then give it a tight edit before moving onto the next wordy task. The thing that often eats the most time is coming up with pitches and finding the right people to send them to – all essential in keeping a roof over my head!Which bit of your writing are you most proud of?I tend to be proudest of whichever of my pieces has most recently been chosen for publication. I recently had a poem published by streetcake magazine and that was a thrill, especially as poetry is a new area for me.What are you working on now? (apart from this interview of course)I’m working on a new collection of short stories, poetry and flashes on the theme of journeys, both physical (there are several train journeys in there for some reason!), and emotional. I’ve also begun making MP3s of some of my shorter works – I love doing readings and this is a fun way to get them out to a wider audience.Why do you like to write Flash fiction? I love the immediacy of it, and the work it demands of the reader, making ‘show not tell’ more crucial than ever. It’s exhilarating to sit down with a coffee and complete the first draft of something before the coffee goes cold. Notice I say first draft, for me a few drafts are usually needed to make sure it says exactly what I mean it to, though there are occasional dizzying moments when I read a piece back and find I wouldn’t change a word. Love it when that happens!On your website, under inspiration, are several artists - who is inspiring you now and why? who is your greatest inspiration?I’m a huge fan of all forms of the arts and love any artist who creates work that sows the seed of an idea for a work of fiction. Sculptor Carol Peace creates amazing pieces – her figures seem to be full of restrained emotion. I also love more abstract work, like the paintings of Adam Closs and the photography of Stephen Mason – their work contains so much energy I can use it to fuel my own work! I draw a lot of inspiration from travel too – being somewhere unfamiliar fires up my curiosity.Another inspiration question - what (or who) inspired you to take up writing & why?I began making up stories before I learnt to read, so I suppose it’s always been in me. My parents both love the arts, including literature, so it never felt like an unusual choice to me. It seemed to me to be a way of turning work into play, or vice versa. Not a bad way to make a living!You're running a workshop entitled - "Writing from art" - tell us a bit about that and the literary evening that follows itI’m really excited about this! It’s part of a literary/art fusion I’m putting together with Carol Peace. Carol is opening up her artist’s studio from 6-16th November, with a literary night on 7th November – seven writers will each read works on the topics travel, identity and home. It all takes place in the studio, surrounded by Carol’s sculptures, drawings and paintings. There are just 30 tickets available in all, so it will be a really intimate event. Tickets cost £4 and are available hereThe writing workshop takes place on the following Wednesday (12th Nov, from 2-5pm), and will look at how art has influenced writers through history, before leading participants through exercises designed to help you get in tune with yourself and the work around you, with the aim of transforming what you see into poetry and prose pieces. I think it will be a lot of fun! Tickets cost £12 (including tea, coffee and biscuits), available hereIn one sentence what is your best piece of advice for new writers?Writing is a journey – every draft leads to another, so don’t worry if the first is imperfect.Many thanks to Judy for these fascinating answers!October 20, 2014
Interview with Jacey Bedford
Jacey dropped in to the blog to talk about her writing -
Jacey Bedford lives behind a desk in Pennine Yorkshire. She's been a librarian, a postmistress and (for 20 years) a singer with internationally touring a cappella trio, Artisan. She's had short stories published on both sides of the Atlantic in anthologies and magazines before getting a book deal with DAW in the USA for three novels. She's one of the organisers of the annual Milford SF Writers' Conference and the Northwrite SF writers group.
She's a fairly recent convert to conventions, though this year has been busy with Eastercon, Worldcon in London and Fantasycon in York. She'll be at Bristolcon for the first time in October and returning to Novacon in Nottingham in November.
For anyone that hasn’t read them can you tell us a bit about your books
I write both science fiction and fantasy and have a three book deal with DAW in the USA. My first book, Empire of Dust is a star-spanning space opera about trust and betrayal. It's published in November 2014 and will be followed by Crossways in 2015.
Tell us a bit more about the last book you wrote
I'm currently in the process of writing Crossways, the sequel to Empire of Dust. As is often the way of things in publishing, books aren't always released in the order you write them. Empire of Dust has been written and rewritten a number of times. Empire (and Crossways) feature psi-techs, humans implanted with telepath technology. They are creations of the megacorporations and their enhanced skills in navigation, engineering and communication are at the heart of the megacorps success, but the psi-techs pay a high price. They are indentured to the megacorps, looked after only as long as they toe the line. I've written about what happens when some of them face a moral choice that puts them on the wrong side of the megacorps and the law.
Cara Carlinni is on the run after uncovering corruption. Alphacorp can find their implant-augmented telepaths, anywhere, anytime, mind-to-mind, so even though it's driving her half-crazy she's powered down and has been surviving on tranqs and willpower. So far, so good. It’s been almost a year, and her mind is still her own even though she’s stuck on a backwater space station. At least she’s got a breathing space, or has she? When an Alphacorp ship docks, looking for her, Cara hitches a ride out with Ben Benjamin, a psi-tech Navigator. He may be a bit of a stuffed shirt, but at least he’s not actively trying to kill her, and since The Trust is Alphacorp’s biggest rival, she’ll take a chance.
Ben's not as straight-laced as he looks. He’s got a stubborn streak and he’s not afraid to bend rules and put the spirit of the law above the letter. Right now his career is teetering after losing a colony, and most of his team, to a fleet of raiders. He suspects boardroom betrayal, but has no proof. Cara and Ben are about to find themselves caught in a star-spanning manhunt, and if their enemies track them down, an entire colony planet could pay the ultimate price.
What did you learn about writing whilst writing the last book you wrote? To trust my instincts. I cut one of my earlier versions severely to please my (then) agent. Luckily I kept the old version because my current editor asked me to expand on this and deepen that - and most of what she asked for had been in that earlier pre-cut version.
Do you have a set writing process, if so what is it? I'm half pantser and half plotter, that is I start out writing by the seat of my pants, writing to discover more about the characters and what's happening to them. I generally have an idea of what the end will be - but at that point it's very vague. Four or five chapters in, with maybe twenty or thirty thousand words written, I sit down and try and take control of the plot before it gets out of hand. It sometimes means I end up rewriting the beginning, sometimes not. I don't plot in great detail, however, otherwise when I'm writing it I get a sense that I've already done it once. New ideas will always come into play and then I have to build them in or alter things as I go along. I'm a burst writer. I have done as many as ten thousand words in a day, but I can't keep up that pace for long. Like many other writers I fit my writing in around the demands of a day job, but luckily I'm self-employed (a music booking agent for folk musicians) so I can schedule my day to suit myself. I'm also an owl. I often work late into the night, but I'm pretty useless in the mornings.
Do you write a lot of short stories? Not really, no. I'd written three full novels before I wrote and sold my first short story. Novel writing and short story writing are very different. Both need discipline, but if anything, short stories need greater discipline to bring in a complete story with a beginning, middle and end in just a few thousand words. I always want to introduce too many characters and layer in a few sub-plots and you can't do that in a short story. I've probably only written about thirty or forty short stories and sold about fifteen of them.
Do you prefer the long or short form? How do you feel about Flash Fiction? I prefer long form, but if I'm writing short stories I actually like flash. I didn't used to be able to write a short story in under 7500 words, but I'm getting better at being more concise. I sold a 950 word short story to Nature Magazine a couple of years ago, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Panda, and it's resold and been reprinted a few times. It's in the Futures 2 anthology, coming out at Buzzymag.com next year and has been translated into Galician for the Spanish magazine, Nova Fantasia, where it's A Soidade do Panda de Longa Distáncia. How cool is that? Which character in your books do you most identify with and why? I don't know that I identify with any of the main characters from my books. They are very different from me, but each has traits that I can understand: Ben's sense of justice and his determination to do the best he can for the people who are relying on him; Cara's deep desire to find a safe place; Crowder's dedication to the Trust, Lorient's imperative not to compromise his own principles. I suppose the character who's most like me is Wenna, a supporting character who likes to organize things. You wouldn't know it from my desk, but I am an organizer even if, like Wenna, I don't have a prosthetic arm and do my job in space.
Which bit of your writing are you most proud of? I'm proud of being published in general. It's been a long-term ambition and at last I've achieved it. I'm not sure I could pick out one bit above the rest, though I did very much enjoy writing the twisty plot-related relationship between Ben, Cara and Ari van Blaiden, one of the book's bad guys whose presence drives a lot of the plot even though he's hardly on the page until the end.
Tell us a bit about how you got published? Did you go via a slush pile? Get an agent before a publisher? I had two agents who came and went before I got my deal by sending another novel, Winterwood, to DAW's slush pile myself. DAW's slush pile is huge and the editors' time is very limited, so I was lucky to have a personal introduction from the very talented Kari Sperring whose two books, Living With Ghosts and The Grass King's Concubine, are both published by DAW. Sheila Gilbert, my editor, made me an offer for Winterwood and then asked what else I had. After reading Empire of Dust she decided that we'd start with that one as she had an opening in her publication schedule for science fiction in November 2014. If we'd gone with Winterwood first it would likely not have come out until spring 2015. At the time I got the publisher's offer I was between agents, but I'd started sending out queries to get a new agent. I'd had some responses and been asked for full manuscripts by some agents but it was still early days. When I got my offer from DAW I emailed my top ten agent picks and asked that if they were interested they got back to me straight away because I would need them to deal with the offer that was already on the table. Unsurprisingly I got a lot of interest and, after long phone conversations, six offers of representation. They were all good, sound offers, but two were particularly attractive. In the end I went with Amy Boggs of the Donald Maass Literary Agency in New York. Amy is a young agent, enthusiastic, personable, and she has the might and experience of DMLA behind her, an agency which originated as a specialist agency for science fiction and fantasy.
In one sentence what is your best piece of advice for new writers? I can honestly say that without the lessons learned and the contacts made at Milford SF Writers' Conference I wouldn't be published now, so seek effective critique from fellow writers and learn from it. Many thanks to Jacey for her interesting answers!
Jacey Bedford lives behind a desk in Pennine Yorkshire. She's been a librarian, a postmistress and (for 20 years) a singer with internationally touring a cappella trio, Artisan. She's had short stories published on both sides of the Atlantic in anthologies and magazines before getting a book deal with DAW in the USA for three novels. She's one of the organisers of the annual Milford SF Writers' Conference and the Northwrite SF writers group.
She's a fairly recent convert to conventions, though this year has been busy with Eastercon, Worldcon in London and Fantasycon in York. She'll be at Bristolcon for the first time in October and returning to Novacon in Nottingham in November.
For anyone that hasn’t read them can you tell us a bit about your books
I write both science fiction and fantasy and have a three book deal with DAW in the USA. My first book, Empire of Dust is a star-spanning space opera about trust and betrayal. It's published in November 2014 and will be followed by Crossways in 2015.
Tell us a bit more about the last book you wrote
I'm currently in the process of writing Crossways, the sequel to Empire of Dust. As is often the way of things in publishing, books aren't always released in the order you write them. Empire of Dust has been written and rewritten a number of times. Empire (and Crossways) feature psi-techs, humans implanted with telepath technology. They are creations of the megacorporations and their enhanced skills in navigation, engineering and communication are at the heart of the megacorps success, but the psi-techs pay a high price. They are indentured to the megacorps, looked after only as long as they toe the line. I've written about what happens when some of them face a moral choice that puts them on the wrong side of the megacorps and the law.
Cara Carlinni is on the run after uncovering corruption. Alphacorp can find their implant-augmented telepaths, anywhere, anytime, mind-to-mind, so even though it's driving her half-crazy she's powered down and has been surviving on tranqs and willpower. So far, so good. It’s been almost a year, and her mind is still her own even though she’s stuck on a backwater space station. At least she’s got a breathing space, or has she? When an Alphacorp ship docks, looking for her, Cara hitches a ride out with Ben Benjamin, a psi-tech Navigator. He may be a bit of a stuffed shirt, but at least he’s not actively trying to kill her, and since The Trust is Alphacorp’s biggest rival, she’ll take a chance.
Ben's not as straight-laced as he looks. He’s got a stubborn streak and he’s not afraid to bend rules and put the spirit of the law above the letter. Right now his career is teetering after losing a colony, and most of his team, to a fleet of raiders. He suspects boardroom betrayal, but has no proof. Cara and Ben are about to find themselves caught in a star-spanning manhunt, and if their enemies track them down, an entire colony planet could pay the ultimate price.
What did you learn about writing whilst writing the last book you wrote? To trust my instincts. I cut one of my earlier versions severely to please my (then) agent. Luckily I kept the old version because my current editor asked me to expand on this and deepen that - and most of what she asked for had been in that earlier pre-cut version.
Do you have a set writing process, if so what is it? I'm half pantser and half plotter, that is I start out writing by the seat of my pants, writing to discover more about the characters and what's happening to them. I generally have an idea of what the end will be - but at that point it's very vague. Four or five chapters in, with maybe twenty or thirty thousand words written, I sit down and try and take control of the plot before it gets out of hand. It sometimes means I end up rewriting the beginning, sometimes not. I don't plot in great detail, however, otherwise when I'm writing it I get a sense that I've already done it once. New ideas will always come into play and then I have to build them in or alter things as I go along. I'm a burst writer. I have done as many as ten thousand words in a day, but I can't keep up that pace for long. Like many other writers I fit my writing in around the demands of a day job, but luckily I'm self-employed (a music booking agent for folk musicians) so I can schedule my day to suit myself. I'm also an owl. I often work late into the night, but I'm pretty useless in the mornings.
Do you write a lot of short stories? Not really, no. I'd written three full novels before I wrote and sold my first short story. Novel writing and short story writing are very different. Both need discipline, but if anything, short stories need greater discipline to bring in a complete story with a beginning, middle and end in just a few thousand words. I always want to introduce too many characters and layer in a few sub-plots and you can't do that in a short story. I've probably only written about thirty or forty short stories and sold about fifteen of them.
Do you prefer the long or short form? How do you feel about Flash Fiction? I prefer long form, but if I'm writing short stories I actually like flash. I didn't used to be able to write a short story in under 7500 words, but I'm getting better at being more concise. I sold a 950 word short story to Nature Magazine a couple of years ago, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Panda, and it's resold and been reprinted a few times. It's in the Futures 2 anthology, coming out at Buzzymag.com next year and has been translated into Galician for the Spanish magazine, Nova Fantasia, where it's A Soidade do Panda de Longa Distáncia. How cool is that? Which character in your books do you most identify with and why? I don't know that I identify with any of the main characters from my books. They are very different from me, but each has traits that I can understand: Ben's sense of justice and his determination to do the best he can for the people who are relying on him; Cara's deep desire to find a safe place; Crowder's dedication to the Trust, Lorient's imperative not to compromise his own principles. I suppose the character who's most like me is Wenna, a supporting character who likes to organize things. You wouldn't know it from my desk, but I am an organizer even if, like Wenna, I don't have a prosthetic arm and do my job in space.
Which bit of your writing are you most proud of? I'm proud of being published in general. It's been a long-term ambition and at last I've achieved it. I'm not sure I could pick out one bit above the rest, though I did very much enjoy writing the twisty plot-related relationship between Ben, Cara and Ari van Blaiden, one of the book's bad guys whose presence drives a lot of the plot even though he's hardly on the page until the end.
Tell us a bit about how you got published? Did you go via a slush pile? Get an agent before a publisher? I had two agents who came and went before I got my deal by sending another novel, Winterwood, to DAW's slush pile myself. DAW's slush pile is huge and the editors' time is very limited, so I was lucky to have a personal introduction from the very talented Kari Sperring whose two books, Living With Ghosts and The Grass King's Concubine, are both published by DAW. Sheila Gilbert, my editor, made me an offer for Winterwood and then asked what else I had. After reading Empire of Dust she decided that we'd start with that one as she had an opening in her publication schedule for science fiction in November 2014. If we'd gone with Winterwood first it would likely not have come out until spring 2015. At the time I got the publisher's offer I was between agents, but I'd started sending out queries to get a new agent. I'd had some responses and been asked for full manuscripts by some agents but it was still early days. When I got my offer from DAW I emailed my top ten agent picks and asked that if they were interested they got back to me straight away because I would need them to deal with the offer that was already on the table. Unsurprisingly I got a lot of interest and, after long phone conversations, six offers of representation. They were all good, sound offers, but two were particularly attractive. In the end I went with Amy Boggs of the Donald Maass Literary Agency in New York. Amy is a young agent, enthusiastic, personable, and she has the might and experience of DMLA behind her, an agency which originated as a specialist agency for science fiction and fantasy.
In one sentence what is your best piece of advice for new writers? I can honestly say that without the lessons learned and the contacts made at Milford SF Writers' Conference I wouldn't be published now, so seek effective critique from fellow writers and learn from it. Many thanks to Jacey for her interesting answers!
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