The Story Behind the Story with Author Robert Stutt of New Brunswick, Canada.

 

Let’s welcome Robert to the Scribbler

 

His debut novel was recentlypublished by 

Merlin Star Press. 

It's generating a lot of attention.

He has kindly agreed to ourinvitation this week to tell us about it.

Read on my friends.

 

 

Born andraised in Dundas, On, I have been a professional puppeteer and scriptwriter forfilm and television for over forty years, including ten years with The Muppets.I was a puppeteer on Fraggle Rock, The Jim Henson Hour, Sesame Park, The BigComfy Couch, Under the Umbrella Tree, The Friendly Giant and others. Ipuppeteered the lead character, Harry, on over eighty commercials for DSB, theDanish National Railway all shot in and around Copenhagen. I have performedlive at the Smithsonian, and with the Ottawa Symphony, and written over threehundred scripts produced for CBC, PBS, CTV and Disney. Most recently, I workedon an eight episode pilot called, Fernsby’s Cryptid Control. Puppet is my firstnovel.

I live inFredericton with my wife, Joanne, and my son, daughter and grandsons are alsohere. Life is good.

 

 

Title:Puppet - A Novel ofSuspense

 

 

Synopsis:

Amiable TVpuppeteer, James Tait, sits at the top of the children’s TV world. His show, BeaverTales, is a hit, and his puppet, Benny Beaver, is becoming a star. It was notalways so. From slinging dead cow heads at the lion park, to juggling withRussian killers, Jim’s puppetry career has been varied rather than profitable.Yet somehow he’s created a good life for himself, his wife and young daughter,and now, at last, his big break is here. At least until the police arrive onset and remove Benny in an evidence bag.

Jim’scontented family life is about to be swallowed whole by scandal, blackmail andmurder, because there is a dark secret underlying Benny and the show, a secretthat forces Jim to reassess his past and future, a secret that threatens hisfamily and leads deep onto the frigid backwoods of Quebec where Benny must finallytake his stand.

 

 

TheStory Behind the Story:

I think thatwriters are all compulsive to some degree. I’ve written a daily journal for thelast 53 years. I can’t not do it. Script writing under deadlines taught me thediscipline to sit down and do the work, and I had long told myself that when I“retired” I would write a novel. Puppet is the result. My goal was to writesomething I would like to read. Although the book is in the first person andmuch of it is my experiences, James Tait’s family history and his psyche arecertainly not mine. As for writing the book, I struggled plotting and gettingdown the first draft, but I loved rewriting.

 

 

Website: Please go HERE.

 

 

A questionbefore you go, Robert:

Whereis your favourite spot to write? Are you messy or neat ? Your beverage ofchoice? 

RS: I’m lucky enough to havemy own office/studio/museum in the house set up just how I like it. I switchoften between pen and keyboard. I hand wrote most of the first draft. I am ahappy medium between messy and neat, I think, and like to have a water bottlenearby.

 

Thank you for being ourguest this week, Robert. Congratulations on the novel. We wish you continuedsuccess with your writing.

 

And a BIG thank you toall our visitors and readers.