Pete Sutton's Blog, page 43
July 29, 2014
Small Stories Guest Post
Really happy to have secured a chat with Nat & Sian of Small Stories. As you know (if you're a regular reader) it's an event I've read at and it's one that has enjoyed great success. I got to ask Nat & Sian a bunch of questions about what, how & why ...
Over to Nat & Sian
For anyone who doesn't yet know - what's the idea behind Small Stories?
The idea is to create a friendly, welcoming and creative space to encourage people to share their stories, their art and their designs. Bristol is such a creative city, with so many talented, interesting people, we wanted to put together an event where you can share and discuss ideas, and make friends!
How did you two meet?
We briefly worked together at a web agency in Bristol, and shared a passion for writing so we just stayed friends. We are both a little workaholic I think if we are honest, so we are always looking for new fun projects to get involved with.
How did the idea for Small Stories come about?
Nat: We were both working as copywriters, and complaining that writing for the day job was putting us off doing creative writing in our own time.
We decided we should do something about it, something that encouraged us to write a bit each month. I was writing a short story at the time, and Sian had just sent me the first bit of Perkalept. We needed something to keep us motivated to write - and so, Small Stories was born!
Sian: For me it was also inspired by my love of music. It's an area which constantly pushes you to do better, to put what you create out there and always have a new goal, a new gig to create tracks for. For me, I wanted to bring that feeling to a story telling night. I thought it would be great for Bristol to have a cosy little low-key event where writers could feel comfortable sharing their work and have something pushing them to write each month. Nat and I talked around the idea and it just so happened that we were both feeling the same.
A key part of Small Stories is the live drawing, where did that idea come from?
Nat: I think this was Sian’s idea! We both love the Scribble and Scratch events, and knew a few of the illustrators. Sian just suggested we illustrate one on the stories each month and I thought it was a great idea! We’ve now had Jordan Selig read his beautifully illustrated children’s book ‘The Bristowl’, and are discussing auctioning the drawings off for charity, so it’s really taken off!
Sian: I have to direct credit where it's due - this idea really came from a conversation I had with a friend, Tizz Chapman, who created the original logo design and also illustrated the second event for us. I was talking to him about Small Stories at the beginning of its creation and he just ran with it. That’s what Small Stories is all about; creative collaboration.
How do you choose what goes on the program?
Nat: There are so many great writers in Bristol, and as writers ourselves, we know a few creative types also. We ask that people get in touch and send us their story. We don’t have a theme, but we try and pick an interesting mix of stories each month that complement each other. We read them all, time them and then make the list! We also send them over to the illustrator to pick which they would like to draw. What they choose is as much a surprise to us as the rest of the audience on the night!
Sian: I try to create mini themes sometimes if I happen to notice one emerging from reading the stories. Like for Chapter 4 the first half seemed to resonate with a seasonal theme so I arranged the stories running from Spring to Winter in terms of their content.
It's not something anyone would really notice I don't think, I just like to do it anyway! If there isn't a connection, I try to vary them by length and by content. We've had a few regular writers who are very funny, so I try to put them at key moments of the evening like at the end of the night, to end the event on a really good note.
We've been really fortunate in that we haven't had to turn anyone away for bad writing yet! Bristol is full of really talented, unique writers with amazing stories to tell, most of whom just write for the love of it.
Who's your favourite short story writer (outside of the fabulous guests you have on your events)?
Nat: Mine is Raymond Carver for the brilliantly simple way he takes seemingly insignificant everyday events and hints at how they change people’s lives. It’s the bits he leaves unsaid that really make the stories powerful. I also love the fictional sci-fi writer Kilgore Trout whose stories pop up in Kurt Vonnegut’s novels!
Sian: I have to be honest; I don't read a lot of short stories. I've always been a massive-novel-that-takes-3-months-to-read kind of girl. But I did really like Angela Carter when I was at college. And I've read a few short stories by some of my favourite authors, Diana Gabaldon, Kate Mosse and Barbara Erskine. They all seem to have had a go!
What makes a good short story & what's better about short stories than novels?
Nat: I love that the writer has such tight control over what they tell us, and what they leave out. I think the best short stories leave a little to the imagination, through things left unsaid. They use a small amount of words to say something much bigger.
Sian: What make a good short story, hmmm, that's a toughie. The amount that you leave out I think. For me that's the hardest part but also the bit I like best. You have to be succinct but in a really interesting way.
What's on next month?
We're in the process of going through some of the great stories people have sent over, and they range from performance poetry to a touch of the theatrical! Our designers are also working on some steam punk and sci-fi themed logos and posters for our event on the 4th of Aug, and the Small Stories: Big Books event on Aug 25th, so it’s a busy and exciting month!
We will also now be hosting the event at Small Bar on the first of every month starting in August – Small Stories, Small Bar. Perfect!
What are your plans for the future?
We are planning to keep the event at Small Bar each month, but are looking into some interesting event collaboration with other Bristol creatives too. Next on the cards is the Small Stories: Big Books Event on Aug 25that the Lansdown in Clifton.
We are currently talking to Jordan Selig, author of The Bristowl about recording some of the stories from previous events. There’s also the possibility of a couple of events, and charity auctions of our illustrators work coming up at Watershed, so watch this space…
What do you think it is about Bristol that there has been such an explosion of cultural events?
Bristol is such a wonderfully playful, friendly and collaborative city. It seems to lack the cynicism of some cities. People here are very tolerant and encouraging when it comes to other people’s creativity, which makes for some great projects! There’s a social conscience to the artists here that makes it truly unique.
Small Stories contact info:
@smallstorybris
https://www.facebook.com/SmallStoriesBristolBirdcage (though we will be at Small Bar from now on)
Natalie Burns contact info:
@NBurnsy
http://knowledgeporridge.co.uk/
Sian Wadsworth contact info:
@Siany_23
http://twosconesandamilkshake.wordpre...
Small Stories: Big Books (wuith Ann & Jeff VanderMeer at the Lansdown) https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/small-...
Over to Nat & Sian
For anyone who doesn't yet know - what's the idea behind Small Stories?
The idea is to create a friendly, welcoming and creative space to encourage people to share their stories, their art and their designs. Bristol is such a creative city, with so many talented, interesting people, we wanted to put together an event where you can share and discuss ideas, and make friends!
How did you two meet?
We briefly worked together at a web agency in Bristol, and shared a passion for writing so we just stayed friends. We are both a little workaholic I think if we are honest, so we are always looking for new fun projects to get involved with.
How did the idea for Small Stories come about?
Nat: We were both working as copywriters, and complaining that writing for the day job was putting us off doing creative writing in our own time.
We decided we should do something about it, something that encouraged us to write a bit each month. I was writing a short story at the time, and Sian had just sent me the first bit of Perkalept. We needed something to keep us motivated to write - and so, Small Stories was born!
Sian: For me it was also inspired by my love of music. It's an area which constantly pushes you to do better, to put what you create out there and always have a new goal, a new gig to create tracks for. For me, I wanted to bring that feeling to a story telling night. I thought it would be great for Bristol to have a cosy little low-key event where writers could feel comfortable sharing their work and have something pushing them to write each month. Nat and I talked around the idea and it just so happened that we were both feeling the same.
A key part of Small Stories is the live drawing, where did that idea come from?
Nat: I think this was Sian’s idea! We both love the Scribble and Scratch events, and knew a few of the illustrators. Sian just suggested we illustrate one on the stories each month and I thought it was a great idea! We’ve now had Jordan Selig read his beautifully illustrated children’s book ‘The Bristowl’, and are discussing auctioning the drawings off for charity, so it’s really taken off!
Sian: I have to direct credit where it's due - this idea really came from a conversation I had with a friend, Tizz Chapman, who created the original logo design and also illustrated the second event for us. I was talking to him about Small Stories at the beginning of its creation and he just ran with it. That’s what Small Stories is all about; creative collaboration.
How do you choose what goes on the program?
Nat: There are so many great writers in Bristol, and as writers ourselves, we know a few creative types also. We ask that people get in touch and send us their story. We don’t have a theme, but we try and pick an interesting mix of stories each month that complement each other. We read them all, time them and then make the list! We also send them over to the illustrator to pick which they would like to draw. What they choose is as much a surprise to us as the rest of the audience on the night!
Sian: I try to create mini themes sometimes if I happen to notice one emerging from reading the stories. Like for Chapter 4 the first half seemed to resonate with a seasonal theme so I arranged the stories running from Spring to Winter in terms of their content.
It's not something anyone would really notice I don't think, I just like to do it anyway! If there isn't a connection, I try to vary them by length and by content. We've had a few regular writers who are very funny, so I try to put them at key moments of the evening like at the end of the night, to end the event on a really good note.
We've been really fortunate in that we haven't had to turn anyone away for bad writing yet! Bristol is full of really talented, unique writers with amazing stories to tell, most of whom just write for the love of it.
Who's your favourite short story writer (outside of the fabulous guests you have on your events)?
Nat: Mine is Raymond Carver for the brilliantly simple way he takes seemingly insignificant everyday events and hints at how they change people’s lives. It’s the bits he leaves unsaid that really make the stories powerful. I also love the fictional sci-fi writer Kilgore Trout whose stories pop up in Kurt Vonnegut’s novels!
Sian: I have to be honest; I don't read a lot of short stories. I've always been a massive-novel-that-takes-3-months-to-read kind of girl. But I did really like Angela Carter when I was at college. And I've read a few short stories by some of my favourite authors, Diana Gabaldon, Kate Mosse and Barbara Erskine. They all seem to have had a go!
What makes a good short story & what's better about short stories than novels?
Nat: I love that the writer has such tight control over what they tell us, and what they leave out. I think the best short stories leave a little to the imagination, through things left unsaid. They use a small amount of words to say something much bigger.
Sian: What make a good short story, hmmm, that's a toughie. The amount that you leave out I think. For me that's the hardest part but also the bit I like best. You have to be succinct but in a really interesting way.
What's on next month?
We're in the process of going through some of the great stories people have sent over, and they range from performance poetry to a touch of the theatrical! Our designers are also working on some steam punk and sci-fi themed logos and posters for our event on the 4th of Aug, and the Small Stories: Big Books event on Aug 25th, so it’s a busy and exciting month!
We will also now be hosting the event at Small Bar on the first of every month starting in August – Small Stories, Small Bar. Perfect!
What are your plans for the future?
We are planning to keep the event at Small Bar each month, but are looking into some interesting event collaboration with other Bristol creatives too. Next on the cards is the Small Stories: Big Books Event on Aug 25that the Lansdown in Clifton.
We are currently talking to Jordan Selig, author of The Bristowl about recording some of the stories from previous events. There’s also the possibility of a couple of events, and charity auctions of our illustrators work coming up at Watershed, so watch this space…
What do you think it is about Bristol that there has been such an explosion of cultural events?
Bristol is such a wonderfully playful, friendly and collaborative city. It seems to lack the cynicism of some cities. People here are very tolerant and encouraging when it comes to other people’s creativity, which makes for some great projects! There’s a social conscience to the artists here that makes it truly unique.
Small Stories contact info:
@smallstorybris
https://www.facebook.com/SmallStoriesBristolBirdcage (though we will be at Small Bar from now on)
Natalie Burns contact info:
@NBurnsy
http://knowledgeporridge.co.uk/
Sian Wadsworth contact info:
@Siany_23
http://twosconesandamilkshake.wordpre...
Small Stories: Big Books (wuith Ann & Jeff VanderMeer at the Lansdown) https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/small-...
July 25, 2014
Guest post by Jamie Shultz
Jamie Schultz has worked as a rocket engine test engineer, an environmental consultant, a technical writer, and a construction worker. He lives in Dallas, Texas.
Website: jamieschultz.net
Twitter: @JamieDSchultz
I asked Jamie what he'd learned by writing his latest book, the third in the series that starts with Premonitions
Over to Jamie
What I Learned About Writing By Writing My Latest BookJamie SchultzI’m currently in the process of wrapping up a draft of the as-yet-untitled third book in the series that begins with Premonitions, and to say it has been educational would fall rather short of the mark. I’ve churned out a lot of words in my time, but in writing this book I think I’ve learned more in a shorter time than ever. Before I get into the list, an important bit of process background: I write to an outline. I’ve tried writing with and without, and let me tell you, the results are gruesome without—the story rapidly devolves into a meandering, mucky mess. Especially with the Premonitions books, there are so many threads and characters, each with their own arc, that if I don’t make some effort to coordinate beforehand, I end up with an ungodly, unreadable mess, a ton of threads that don’t tie off at the end, and character arcs that sort of just… dangle.
That is not to say that my outlines are generated in an exactly linear fashion. They start that way, but then they break. I end up overhauling them maybe three times in the course of writing any given book. In the process of repairing them, I end up tagging different characters with different colors, bolding bits that need extra attention, highlighting in garish yellow changes I have to go back and make—by the time the book is done, the outline looks like spam email from an insurance salesperson.
This is all a normal part of my process, and I’ve gotten used to it. However, with this latest book, I’ve learned a whole pile of other things. These are, in convenient list format:
1.) Any time I write the word “somehow” in an outline, I am, in fact, creating a cosmic ass-beating for myself down the road a ways. That is because a whole lot of nasty can hide under the word “somehow,” and when you turn it over, the stuff that comes crawling out seems like it must have come from some endless, TARDIS-like pocket universe, because there’s no way it should have been able to fit under that single word. In the outline, it’s easy to say something simple like, “Somehow, Alice gets her hands on the fabled newt skeleton of yore,” or whatever. In the actual writing, the naive author (me) realizes just before writing that chapter that a) Alice doesn’t actually know where the damn thing is, b) it’s guarded by sixty men, and Alice doesn’t have anything more than her trusty knapsack with lunch in it, and c) it turns out Alice doesn’t actually have any reason to be over in the general vicinity of all this nonsense anyway. Oops. The ripples formed by trying to fill in that “somehow” end up radiating through the rest of the manuscript, forward and backward, sometimes obliterating thousands of words with their wild undulations.
Moral of the story: “Somehow” is bad, bad outlining. That word is trying to tell you something, probably something important, but it’s a small word and it can only speak in a whisper. Ignore it at your peril.
2.) Sequels are, like, hard, man, particularly sequels to the first book you’ve sold to a publisher. It feels like you’ve just run this exhausting, exhilarating gauntlet—finished a manuscript, polished it to a flawed but glorious gleam, found an agent to represent you, found a publisher, waded through contracts and then another edit and a line edit and a copy edit and proofreading, and the whole time everybody’s telling you how great your book is and you’re super excited and then:
Oh, hell. What do you do for an encore? In my case, I had an outline for the second book and a germ of an idea for the third, but after all the excitement of the first, it seemed impossible to follow up. The expectations were one thing (Oh God, what if the first one was a fluke?), but there was a whole other nest of snakes associated with sequelness. How do you keep what was special about the first one without becoming repetitive? How do you make sure your characters grow, but still have room to grow? How do you deal with the grim horror of maintaining continuity? I have joked that I now need a concordance for my own series to be able to write it without screwing up, and I’m only on the third book. I have no idea how authors with ten, twelve, fifteen-book series keep all this stuff straight.
I have, however, finally realized that if I don’t get organized, I am DOOMED. To this end, I have gone back and rewritten the outlines for previous books to be consistent with how the books finished up. That way, I have a (mostly coherent) record of what happened in which order, and I can easily refer to it when I get in a bind. That misses a bunch of the details, though, and I am still figuring out how to get those sorted in some convenient way. For the nonce, the search function in Word is my friend. If you have any cleverer ways to track this stuff, I sure would like to hear them.
3.) By the time all the dead-end threads, missteps, extraneous characters, and just plain crap is weeded out of the manuscript, I will have written 20%-50% more words than show up in the first finished draft. I thought that was a series of aberrations at first, but now I’ve realized that’s just how it goes. An outline is just a skeleton, and by the time I start to put the flesh on, I often realize that there are bones in that skeleton that just don’t belong. Sometimes, I have to put a lot of flesh on before I realize that the beast in question doesn’t actually need a fifth leg. Sometimes I have to put a lot of flesh on it before I even recognize the fifth leg as such. I thought it was a neck for a second head or something.
I’ve abused that metaphor quite enough, I think.
The point is twofold. First, a strictly mechanical one: I need to build in enough time to write more than to a strict word count. Second, and probably more important: I need to give myself time and license to explore. The outline is a scaffolding that I use to build big old sloppy word sculptures. If it turns out that the sculpture would look a whole lot better with less stuff over here and more over there, I need to be able to try that out. Change the scaffolding, glob some stuff on over there, and see how it looks.
That’s where some of the best bits come from, anyway.
Website: jamieschultz.net
Twitter: @JamieDSchultz
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I asked Jamie what he'd learned by writing his latest book, the third in the series that starts with Premonitions
Over to Jamie
What I Learned About Writing By Writing My Latest BookJamie SchultzI’m currently in the process of wrapping up a draft of the as-yet-untitled third book in the series that begins with Premonitions, and to say it has been educational would fall rather short of the mark. I’ve churned out a lot of words in my time, but in writing this book I think I’ve learned more in a shorter time than ever. Before I get into the list, an important bit of process background: I write to an outline. I’ve tried writing with and without, and let me tell you, the results are gruesome without—the story rapidly devolves into a meandering, mucky mess. Especially with the Premonitions books, there are so many threads and characters, each with their own arc, that if I don’t make some effort to coordinate beforehand, I end up with an ungodly, unreadable mess, a ton of threads that don’t tie off at the end, and character arcs that sort of just… dangle.
That is not to say that my outlines are generated in an exactly linear fashion. They start that way, but then they break. I end up overhauling them maybe three times in the course of writing any given book. In the process of repairing them, I end up tagging different characters with different colors, bolding bits that need extra attention, highlighting in garish yellow changes I have to go back and make—by the time the book is done, the outline looks like spam email from an insurance salesperson.
This is all a normal part of my process, and I’ve gotten used to it. However, with this latest book, I’ve learned a whole pile of other things. These are, in convenient list format:
1.) Any time I write the word “somehow” in an outline, I am, in fact, creating a cosmic ass-beating for myself down the road a ways. That is because a whole lot of nasty can hide under the word “somehow,” and when you turn it over, the stuff that comes crawling out seems like it must have come from some endless, TARDIS-like pocket universe, because there’s no way it should have been able to fit under that single word. In the outline, it’s easy to say something simple like, “Somehow, Alice gets her hands on the fabled newt skeleton of yore,” or whatever. In the actual writing, the naive author (me) realizes just before writing that chapter that a) Alice doesn’t actually know where the damn thing is, b) it’s guarded by sixty men, and Alice doesn’t have anything more than her trusty knapsack with lunch in it, and c) it turns out Alice doesn’t actually have any reason to be over in the general vicinity of all this nonsense anyway. Oops. The ripples formed by trying to fill in that “somehow” end up radiating through the rest of the manuscript, forward and backward, sometimes obliterating thousands of words with their wild undulations.
Moral of the story: “Somehow” is bad, bad outlining. That word is trying to tell you something, probably something important, but it’s a small word and it can only speak in a whisper. Ignore it at your peril.
2.) Sequels are, like, hard, man, particularly sequels to the first book you’ve sold to a publisher. It feels like you’ve just run this exhausting, exhilarating gauntlet—finished a manuscript, polished it to a flawed but glorious gleam, found an agent to represent you, found a publisher, waded through contracts and then another edit and a line edit and a copy edit and proofreading, and the whole time everybody’s telling you how great your book is and you’re super excited and then:
Oh, hell. What do you do for an encore? In my case, I had an outline for the second book and a germ of an idea for the third, but after all the excitement of the first, it seemed impossible to follow up. The expectations were one thing (Oh God, what if the first one was a fluke?), but there was a whole other nest of snakes associated with sequelness. How do you keep what was special about the first one without becoming repetitive? How do you make sure your characters grow, but still have room to grow? How do you deal with the grim horror of maintaining continuity? I have joked that I now need a concordance for my own series to be able to write it without screwing up, and I’m only on the third book. I have no idea how authors with ten, twelve, fifteen-book series keep all this stuff straight.
I have, however, finally realized that if I don’t get organized, I am DOOMED. To this end, I have gone back and rewritten the outlines for previous books to be consistent with how the books finished up. That way, I have a (mostly coherent) record of what happened in which order, and I can easily refer to it when I get in a bind. That misses a bunch of the details, though, and I am still figuring out how to get those sorted in some convenient way. For the nonce, the search function in Word is my friend. If you have any cleverer ways to track this stuff, I sure would like to hear them.
3.) By the time all the dead-end threads, missteps, extraneous characters, and just plain crap is weeded out of the manuscript, I will have written 20%-50% more words than show up in the first finished draft. I thought that was a series of aberrations at first, but now I’ve realized that’s just how it goes. An outline is just a skeleton, and by the time I start to put the flesh on, I often realize that there are bones in that skeleton that just don’t belong. Sometimes, I have to put a lot of flesh on before I realize that the beast in question doesn’t actually need a fifth leg. Sometimes I have to put a lot of flesh on it before I even recognize the fifth leg as such. I thought it was a neck for a second head or something.
I’ve abused that metaphor quite enough, I think.
The point is twofold. First, a strictly mechanical one: I need to build in enough time to write more than to a strict word count. Second, and probably more important: I need to give myself time and license to explore. The outline is a scaffolding that I use to build big old sloppy word sculptures. If it turns out that the sculpture would look a whole lot better with less stuff over here and more over there, I need to be able to try that out. Change the scaffolding, glob some stuff on over there, and see how it looks.
That’s where some of the best bits come from, anyway.
July 22, 2014
BristolCon Fringe
Last night's BristolCon Fringe was very enjoyable
Andrew Goodman read from his book Tiberius Found a story about a seemingly ordinary boy who discovers his whole life has been a lie on his 16th Birthday.
Ken Shinn read a story called "Hillraiser" which involved Benny Hill as a demon
As usual these readings will be podcasted later.
Andrew Goodman read from his book Tiberius Found a story about a seemingly ordinary boy who discovers his whole life has been a lie on his 16th Birthday.
Ken Shinn read a story called "Hillraiser" which involved Benny Hill as a demon
As usual these readings will be podcasted later.
The Cons are coming!
So August is always a busy month and this year looks no different -
First up is Nine Worlds, one of my favourite Cons from last year and one I'm really looking forward to this year.
I'm on the program –
Writing the Inhuman: more yeti than human...1.30pm - 2.45pm
County A
From Frankenstein's creation to Lady Stoneheart, literature is constantly probing the the boundaries between the human and the inhuman to ask: who is the true monster?
Panel: Pete Sutton, Adrian Tchaikovsky, David Mumford, Laure Eve, Jennifer Williams
And will be doing a reading as part of the "New Voices" sessions - as yet I don't know if that will be Friday or Saturday
The weekend after is LonCon and again I’m on the program there –
Old New Classics: The Off-Beat and Indie Comics of YoreSaturday 13:30 - 15:00, Capital Suite 14 (ExCeL)When people discuss the Golden Age and Silver Age of Comics the conversation is often dominated by the emergence of the superhero in both DC and Marvel. However, from its inception comics were always a fertile breeding ground for fun, weird, and alternative stories.
What influential, under-appreciated comics from the past deserve a higher profile today? What kind of comics would people like to see more of now, that were plentiful in the past?
Are we more progressive in comics today, or re-learning to embrace the medium?
Scott Edelman (M), Smuzz, Allan J. Sim, Peter Sutton, Barbara G.TarnOn Sunday 17th I’m off to Edinburgh Fringe – where I’ll be watching plays, comedy and some book stuff (I have tickets for both Jeff VanderMeer & Nik Harkaway) – I’ll be blogging the Fringe this year – more details later.I get back from the Fringe and have a day or two rest then on Monday 25th Ann & Jeff VanderMeer will be doing an event (tickets here)Small stories in association with Bristol Festival of Literature, Wizards Tower Press & BristolCon present:An evening with Ann & Jeff VanderMeer
Calling all short story aficionados, Time Travellers, Steampunkers, Weirdmongers and Purveyors of Rare and Discredited Diseases. Small Stories have teamed up with Bristol Festival of Literature, Wizards Tower Press & BristolCon to bring you an evening with husband and wife publishing powerhouses Ann & Jeff VanderMeer.
Ann & Jeff will be in conversation with Cheryl Morgan and will be answering those short story questions you've always wanted to ask an award winning editor and author. There will also be a chance to get your books signed.The following day Jeff VanderMeer is being interviewed about his Southern Reach series & novel career at Mr B’s Emporium, tickets hereThen, although not in August, I’ll be at FantasyCon in York – not sure of Program as yet.& of course in October it is Bristol Festival of Literature and BristolCon at which I’ll be doing “stuff” (details when I get them) – so busy times ahead.
First up is Nine Worlds, one of my favourite Cons from last year and one I'm really looking forward to this year.
I'm on the program –
Writing the Inhuman: more yeti than human...1.30pm - 2.45pm
County A
From Frankenstein's creation to Lady Stoneheart, literature is constantly probing the the boundaries between the human and the inhuman to ask: who is the true monster?
Panel: Pete Sutton, Adrian Tchaikovsky, David Mumford, Laure Eve, Jennifer Williams
And will be doing a reading as part of the "New Voices" sessions - as yet I don't know if that will be Friday or Saturday
The weekend after is LonCon and again I’m on the program there –
Old New Classics: The Off-Beat and Indie Comics of YoreSaturday 13:30 - 15:00, Capital Suite 14 (ExCeL)When people discuss the Golden Age and Silver Age of Comics the conversation is often dominated by the emergence of the superhero in both DC and Marvel. However, from its inception comics were always a fertile breeding ground for fun, weird, and alternative stories.
What influential, under-appreciated comics from the past deserve a higher profile today? What kind of comics would people like to see more of now, that were plentiful in the past?
Are we more progressive in comics today, or re-learning to embrace the medium?
Scott Edelman (M), Smuzz, Allan J. Sim, Peter Sutton, Barbara G.TarnOn Sunday 17th I’m off to Edinburgh Fringe – where I’ll be watching plays, comedy and some book stuff (I have tickets for both Jeff VanderMeer & Nik Harkaway) – I’ll be blogging the Fringe this year – more details later.I get back from the Fringe and have a day or two rest then on Monday 25th Ann & Jeff VanderMeer will be doing an event (tickets here)Small stories in association with Bristol Festival of Literature, Wizards Tower Press & BristolCon present:An evening with Ann & Jeff VanderMeer
Calling all short story aficionados, Time Travellers, Steampunkers, Weirdmongers and Purveyors of Rare and Discredited Diseases. Small Stories have teamed up with Bristol Festival of Literature, Wizards Tower Press & BristolCon to bring you an evening with husband and wife publishing powerhouses Ann & Jeff VanderMeer.
Ann & Jeff will be in conversation with Cheryl Morgan and will be answering those short story questions you've always wanted to ask an award winning editor and author. There will also be a chance to get your books signed.The following day Jeff VanderMeer is being interviewed about his Southern Reach series & novel career at Mr B’s Emporium, tickets hereThen, although not in August, I’ll be at FantasyCon in York – not sure of Program as yet.& of course in October it is Bristol Festival of Literature and BristolCon at which I’ll be doing “stuff” (details when I get them) – so busy times ahead.
July 17, 2014
Why isn't there a minister for men?
On Facebook during the latest cabinet reshuffle a friend posted a link about the new minister for Education, who also has the role of Minister for Women and Equalities. One of the comments in the discussion was about how the Minister for Women was a side show for a full time role.
Although this is actually a step up from what it was before this reshuffle where the minister for women wasn't even a cabinet post - http://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/new-minister-for-women/#sthash.plALEjCh.dpbs
Commenting on this someone wondered why there wasn't a minister for men? I thought it'd be obvious but luckily the New Statesman ran a piece on this so I posted that link - http://www.newstatesman.com/media-mole/2014/04/why-isnt-there-minister-men
Apparently though having a minister for women and not one for men was a "double standard". This I don't understand at all. I am reminded of my post for Literature Works - http://www.literatureworks.org.uk/Book-Features/Special-Features/Thrillers-are-from-Mars-Romances-are-from-Venus which resulted from a similar argument about gender inequality.
When the default option is "a man does it" and there is institutionalised inequality then an attempt to redress that inequality by using positive discrimination and/or special representation is NOT a double standard. It is an attempt to redress the balance.
However seemingly the role should be called Minister for Gender Equality because, you know, think of the poor men! With their privilege, their unequally higher pay, their over-representation in positions of power, their facing of everyday sexism Of course the Ministry for Equality should also really ensure that White & Straight people are fully represented, wouldn't want them to be discriminated against would we?
Mind you, if the person who was making the point, was trying to say that the problem was similar to the point I made in the Lit Works post, that by saying women's issues were ONLY of interest to women (and therefore, by implication, 'beneath' men's consideration) then I may have been in agreement. But it was difficult to believe this as he made his point by using a sexist joke, which, by the way is never OK. I would also say that the fact there is a "Women's Fiction" and not a "Men's fiction" comes from a different place & marginalises women rather than seeking to provide parity.
I am a white man and understand that I therefore have a privileged position because the world is generally run by white men. What I can do, the least I can do, is not to sit by and be a polite bystander and call people out about it when they are being sexist, racist or homophobic.
Like I said in my review of Invisible. Stories make the world, if representation is important in our fiction it is doubly important in our political system.
The Time Machine play - a review
HG Wells's The Time Machine - adapted for the stage by Robert Lloyd Parry performed at The Brewery Theatre Bristol.
(Photo: Kevin Jamieson - http://www.nunkie.co.uk/photos_machin...)
This was a pretty last minute decision on my behalf, to go and see a play but I'm glad I did. Parry tells the story of the Time Machine from the garden of a suburban villa in 1895 at night. The Time Traveller has returned from his adventures with the Eloi and Morlocks and is recounting them to the audience.
Parry has kept the essence of the book, as well as Wellsian turns of phrase and has spun it into a surprisingly physical performance (considering he is recounting the tale) that works effectively. Even if you know the plot well Parry's performance brings it fully alive and there are few places where attention slips.
The brewery theatre is an interesting building, next to a rather splendid cafe. Shame that they got a torturer to design the seats though, the most uncomfortable I've ever been in any theatre in my life, which sadly distracted me from the play. If the play had been at all dull I doubt I would have endured the discomfort for the entire thing. Luckily Parry is never less than entertaining.
If you're a fan of Wells then I'd recommend you to go and see this play before it disappears off the circuit. More details of where & when are here: http://www.nunkie.co.uk/schedule.html
Picture & Photograph taken from the Nunkie Theatre's website
July 15, 2014
Mind Seed - 7 tips for a new publisher
Today's guest post comes from Dave Gullen:
[image error]
Dave is the author of the fantastic Shopocalypse & Open Waters. He's launching a new anthology called Mind Seed and dropped in to have a chat about publishing anthologies. Something that I'll be paying close attention to as NBCWG prepares to make its first anthology (more on that later).
Over to Dave
7 Tips for a New Publisher - The Mind Seed Experience
[image error]
Mind Seed was my first experience as an anthology editor, publisher, typesetter, and commissioner of art, everything to do with production of a book from concept to finished product. I had some good help, but I was involved in every stage and I did much of it myself. Was it complicated? In places, though much of that was because I’d never done it before. Was it difficult? Sometimes, but I made some of those difficulties for myself. I learned a huge amount. It was hard work but it was good fun. I lost sleep, I’d wake up in the middle of the night with a list in my head. I’d definitely do it again. There were two things I knew about publishing before I started. You need a good cover, and you need good editing. And you need good stories.So - Among the many things…Mind Seed is the third anthology from my writing group, the London, UK based T Party. Early in 2013 one of the group, Denni Schnapp, died. For many of us this was out of the blue and, although the group is twenty years old, this was the first time we’d lost one of our own. It had been a while since the last anthology, so I suggested we do one now, for Denni. From the outset this was intended to be a group project, with invitations to contribute from other writers who knew Denni. Denni was a biologist, a traveller, and she wrote SF. Living things fascinated her. The anthology needed to reflect that, and also to be a celebration.Looking back, the whole project was a learning process. Things I thought would be hard were easier, and vice-versa. Other things I thought would be hard were even harder. Rejection was very difficult. From the outset, because of the origins of the anthology, I really hoped everyone who wanted to contribute would be able to do so. In the end that simply was not possible. Some stories were just not going to work.There’s so much to say, so I have concentrated on what I think are the big things. Otherwise, we’d be here all day. I could write a book…
1. Editorial. In some ways this was the easy bit. I’ve a lot of experience of critique from the writing group, and I had some help – my co-editor was Gary Couzens, editor of the award-winning Extended Play: The Elastic Book of Music, and other anthologies. We both knew what we liked and were happy to say so. While some stories needed little work, others needed some work, and some to-and-fro. Without exception that was a straightforward process. Obviously negotiation was involved, but we got what we wanted. Any request needs to be justified. From anthology theme through to the editorial detail: Know what you want, and explain why you want it.
2. Arrangement. Story order is important. This is one of the things I learned from Gary. There are a few basic guidelines: you need to lead with a great story, and if you have a novelette-length story, as we did, then that often sits most comfortably somewhere in the middle. Apart from that, there are multiple ways to arrange story order. As the story we chose to open with was very close to the modern era, and Denni’s story, which we wanted to end with, was far-future, we decided that with those anchor-points, our story order should move further and further away from today, and into the future. It’s as much about gut feel as design, but I think the rule here is: Think about flow and balance, theme and concept, mood, length, and tone.
3. Proof-reading. Dear God, you have to get this right. Books might survive a poor cover but they will live and die by bad proofing. Obviously a conscientious writer will proof their own work, but spotting mistakes in your own writing is not easy, you know it too well and so you see what is meant to be there rather than what you actually wrote. Gary and I proof-read the stories but we also knew that wasn’t enough. I’m lucky in that my partner, fantasy writer Gaie Sebold, spent many years proof-reading as part of her day job. As soon as she heard about the anthology she more or less insisted that she be allowed to proof it. We were happy to oblige. Get a professional proof-reader.
4. Cover art. This was brilliant. It was exciting and wonderful. Eventually. I’d originally hoped to use a cover from Mick Van Houten, one of my favourite cover artists. He was very happy to let me re-use the cover I asked about for free, but the book publisher put various obstacles in my way. I didn’t want any constraints on what we could or could not do with the book, so decided to commission original art.I found Ian Stead from the work he did on the Mindjammer RPG and thought his style fit perfectly with the anthology. Ian was the brilliant bit, because he came up with an amazing cover and was fantastically accommodating with text layout and changes to detail in the cover. Seeing the final version was one of the highlights of the whole experience. Ask any publisher, editor or agent and they will tell you: Good cover art still sells books.
5. Typesetting. I’d no experience of this but by looking at existing books and reading around I found enough information to understand what I needed to do. (Lulu has much good advice – more of Lulu later.) In the past I’ve done a lot of costume and armour design, working mainly in leather. This might not sound useful, but I learned about proportion and balance of items within a space.As this was my first project I didn’t want to be overambitious and decided to do layout in Microsoft Word. By default I use .RTF format and I could do everything I needed.A very important thing to remember is that odd-number pages are always the right-hand page of a book. Therefore things like the title page, acknowledgements, table of contents, and the first page of each story, will all be on odd-number pages.Word Section Breaks let you do useful and professional things such as have different headers on odd and even pages, drop the headers on blank and title pages, and span page numbering across sections.One thing I restricted myself on was choice of fonts. I could have embedded fonts in a PDF for the publisher, but at the time I felt I was already doing enough new things. So I restricted myself to the supported fonts the publisher accepted, and selected two that worked well together (again, there’s advice available out there). A few important things are:- Set your document page size to the book size before formatting.- Odd numbers on the right.- Don’t use too many fonts. Simple tools work well. Do your research, design a simple theme, and stick to it. Pay attention to detail.
6. Publishing. I started out intending to use Lightning Source. Many of the UK small press and other publishers use this advanced service, including Clarion, who published my SF novel Shopocalypse.Unfortunately my registration was not straightforward, and I never heard back from them. I decided to look at Lulu. My short story collection ( Open Waters , theEXAGGERATEDpress) was produced on Lulu, so I knew you could create a very nice product.Publishing on Lulu was straightforward, once you have everything ready you just press the buttons and there is plenty of opportunity to revise and check what you’re doing. Before releasing Mind Seed to the world I ordered a copy as a final proof. It was definitely worth it – I needed to tweak the spine and back cover design, and of course it was lovely to get to hold of the real thing!Lulu also offers distribution via Amazon, B&N, Ingrams, etc., so you get a full and proper distribution service. I am sure there are other very good services out there, and I’d like to take another look at Lightning Source, but for me: Lulu was a good experience.
7. The Road Goes Ever On. There’s always something else to do.- We’re planning an official launch at LonCon3. With over 8,000 people attending we’re hoping to sell some books!- I need to create E-book and PDF versions.- And then there’s publicity. This, perhaps, is one of the hardest jobs of all, and one where there is the least advice. What I’ve learned from this book, and others, is that no one event will do the job. Publicity is a process.
Those three essential things I thought you needed at the outset are still very true, and there are plenty of other things too. None of it is horribly difficult, but there’s lots of it. In the end it comes down hard work, vision, and attention to detail. Don’t cut corners, there’s lots of good advice and help out there, use it, and go make some lovely books you can be proud of!
[image error]
Dave is the author of the fantastic Shopocalypse & Open Waters. He's launching a new anthology called Mind Seed and dropped in to have a chat about publishing anthologies. Something that I'll be paying close attention to as NBCWG prepares to make its first anthology (more on that later).
Over to Dave
7 Tips for a New Publisher - The Mind Seed Experience
[image error]
Mind Seed was my first experience as an anthology editor, publisher, typesetter, and commissioner of art, everything to do with production of a book from concept to finished product. I had some good help, but I was involved in every stage and I did much of it myself. Was it complicated? In places, though much of that was because I’d never done it before. Was it difficult? Sometimes, but I made some of those difficulties for myself. I learned a huge amount. It was hard work but it was good fun. I lost sleep, I’d wake up in the middle of the night with a list in my head. I’d definitely do it again. There were two things I knew about publishing before I started. You need a good cover, and you need good editing. And you need good stories.So - Among the many things…Mind Seed is the third anthology from my writing group, the London, UK based T Party. Early in 2013 one of the group, Denni Schnapp, died. For many of us this was out of the blue and, although the group is twenty years old, this was the first time we’d lost one of our own. It had been a while since the last anthology, so I suggested we do one now, for Denni. From the outset this was intended to be a group project, with invitations to contribute from other writers who knew Denni. Denni was a biologist, a traveller, and she wrote SF. Living things fascinated her. The anthology needed to reflect that, and also to be a celebration.Looking back, the whole project was a learning process. Things I thought would be hard were easier, and vice-versa. Other things I thought would be hard were even harder. Rejection was very difficult. From the outset, because of the origins of the anthology, I really hoped everyone who wanted to contribute would be able to do so. In the end that simply was not possible. Some stories were just not going to work.There’s so much to say, so I have concentrated on what I think are the big things. Otherwise, we’d be here all day. I could write a book…
1. Editorial. In some ways this was the easy bit. I’ve a lot of experience of critique from the writing group, and I had some help – my co-editor was Gary Couzens, editor of the award-winning Extended Play: The Elastic Book of Music, and other anthologies. We both knew what we liked and were happy to say so. While some stories needed little work, others needed some work, and some to-and-fro. Without exception that was a straightforward process. Obviously negotiation was involved, but we got what we wanted. Any request needs to be justified. From anthology theme through to the editorial detail: Know what you want, and explain why you want it.
2. Arrangement. Story order is important. This is one of the things I learned from Gary. There are a few basic guidelines: you need to lead with a great story, and if you have a novelette-length story, as we did, then that often sits most comfortably somewhere in the middle. Apart from that, there are multiple ways to arrange story order. As the story we chose to open with was very close to the modern era, and Denni’s story, which we wanted to end with, was far-future, we decided that with those anchor-points, our story order should move further and further away from today, and into the future. It’s as much about gut feel as design, but I think the rule here is: Think about flow and balance, theme and concept, mood, length, and tone.
3. Proof-reading. Dear God, you have to get this right. Books might survive a poor cover but they will live and die by bad proofing. Obviously a conscientious writer will proof their own work, but spotting mistakes in your own writing is not easy, you know it too well and so you see what is meant to be there rather than what you actually wrote. Gary and I proof-read the stories but we also knew that wasn’t enough. I’m lucky in that my partner, fantasy writer Gaie Sebold, spent many years proof-reading as part of her day job. As soon as she heard about the anthology she more or less insisted that she be allowed to proof it. We were happy to oblige. Get a professional proof-reader.
4. Cover art. This was brilliant. It was exciting and wonderful. Eventually. I’d originally hoped to use a cover from Mick Van Houten, one of my favourite cover artists. He was very happy to let me re-use the cover I asked about for free, but the book publisher put various obstacles in my way. I didn’t want any constraints on what we could or could not do with the book, so decided to commission original art.I found Ian Stead from the work he did on the Mindjammer RPG and thought his style fit perfectly with the anthology. Ian was the brilliant bit, because he came up with an amazing cover and was fantastically accommodating with text layout and changes to detail in the cover. Seeing the final version was one of the highlights of the whole experience. Ask any publisher, editor or agent and they will tell you: Good cover art still sells books.
5. Typesetting. I’d no experience of this but by looking at existing books and reading around I found enough information to understand what I needed to do. (Lulu has much good advice – more of Lulu later.) In the past I’ve done a lot of costume and armour design, working mainly in leather. This might not sound useful, but I learned about proportion and balance of items within a space.As this was my first project I didn’t want to be overambitious and decided to do layout in Microsoft Word. By default I use .RTF format and I could do everything I needed.A very important thing to remember is that odd-number pages are always the right-hand page of a book. Therefore things like the title page, acknowledgements, table of contents, and the first page of each story, will all be on odd-number pages.Word Section Breaks let you do useful and professional things such as have different headers on odd and even pages, drop the headers on blank and title pages, and span page numbering across sections.One thing I restricted myself on was choice of fonts. I could have embedded fonts in a PDF for the publisher, but at the time I felt I was already doing enough new things. So I restricted myself to the supported fonts the publisher accepted, and selected two that worked well together (again, there’s advice available out there). A few important things are:- Set your document page size to the book size before formatting.- Odd numbers on the right.- Don’t use too many fonts. Simple tools work well. Do your research, design a simple theme, and stick to it. Pay attention to detail.
6. Publishing. I started out intending to use Lightning Source. Many of the UK small press and other publishers use this advanced service, including Clarion, who published my SF novel Shopocalypse.Unfortunately my registration was not straightforward, and I never heard back from them. I decided to look at Lulu. My short story collection ( Open Waters , theEXAGGERATEDpress) was produced on Lulu, so I knew you could create a very nice product.Publishing on Lulu was straightforward, once you have everything ready you just press the buttons and there is plenty of opportunity to revise and check what you’re doing. Before releasing Mind Seed to the world I ordered a copy as a final proof. It was definitely worth it – I needed to tweak the spine and back cover design, and of course it was lovely to get to hold of the real thing!Lulu also offers distribution via Amazon, B&N, Ingrams, etc., so you get a full and proper distribution service. I am sure there are other very good services out there, and I’d like to take another look at Lightning Source, but for me: Lulu was a good experience.
7. The Road Goes Ever On. There’s always something else to do.- We’re planning an official launch at LonCon3. With over 8,000 people attending we’re hoping to sell some books!- I need to create E-book and PDF versions.- And then there’s publicity. This, perhaps, is one of the hardest jobs of all, and one where there is the least advice. What I’ve learned from this book, and others, is that no one event will do the job. Publicity is a process.
Those three essential things I thought you needed at the outset are still very true, and there are plenty of other things too. None of it is horribly difficult, but there’s lots of it. In the end it comes down hard work, vision, and attention to detail. Don’t cut corners, there’s lots of good advice and help out there, use it, and go make some lovely books you can be proud of!
Happy St Pinnock's day!
St Pinnock of Liskeard (also known as St Pinnock the
Flamboyant, St Pinnock the Pungent and St Pinnock the
Trouserless) is the patron saint of Milton Keynes,
Heligoland and headlice. He is also patron of nuisance
callers, PERL developers and the worried well. St Pinnock
is noted for the so-called Miracle of the Unwanted Cheese,
wherein he succeeded in making an entire village’s cheese
surplus disappear on a regular basis. He was canonised a
few years after his martyrdom at the hands of a group of
local dairy farmers following a dramatic fall in sales to
neighbouring communities. His feast day is July 15th
Flamboyant, St Pinnock the Pungent and St Pinnock the
Trouserless) is the patron saint of Milton Keynes,
Heligoland and headlice. He is also patron of nuisance
callers, PERL developers and the worried well. St Pinnock
is noted for the so-called Miracle of the Unwanted Cheese,
wherein he succeeded in making an entire village’s cheese
surplus disappear on a regular basis. He was canonised a
few years after his martyrdom at the hands of a group of
local dairy farmers following a dramatic fall in sales to
neighbouring communities. His feast day is July 15th
July 14, 2014
New Book Giveaway
New Book giveaway!Solaris Rising 3
Edited by Ian Whates
Available in paperback & ebook in UK September 2014 & US August 2014
Whates has gathered together some of the most exciting talents in SF to put together this latest bumper anthology. Whates's mission statement is to prove that SF is the most exciting and inspiring of all the genres. With contributions from Gareth L Powell, Alex Dally MacFarlane, Chris Beckett & Ian Watson this is an essential addition to your SF bookshelf. And you can win one of two copies here by answering this very simple question. How many Solaris Rising anthologies have there been before this one?
as always - answers to BRSBKBLOG@GMAIL.COM
Winners will be announced on July 31st - Good luck!
Book giveaway winner
Lat month I ran a giveaway for the second book in the Art of Forgetting series by Joanne Hall. contestants were asked to name the first book. Many people got the right answer - The Art of Forgetting: Rider. But there can be only one winner. Congratulations to Saffron Gardenchild from Manchester. The book will be winging its way on to you very soon!
Pete Sutton's Blog
- Pete Sutton's profile
- 13 followers
Pete Sutton isn't a Goodreads Author
(yet),
but they
do have a blog,
so here are some recent posts imported from
their feed.
![[image error]](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tLB5XzsYLe0/U8U4TudxGhI/AAAAAAAAEXM/gHrV2QmY8Ec/s1600/David+Gullen.jpg){kind=link}
![[image error]](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-njW6DT0UXgM/U8U3rdEDDEI/AAAAAAAAEXE/zHfNg9NbXlY/s1600/Min+Seed.jpg){kind=link}