Writers on Wednesday: Pete Sutton
Welcome to another great Writers on Wednesday interview. This week I am chatting with Pete Sutton, author, one of the organisers of the Bristol Festival of Literature and editor of Far Horizons magazine ...
Tell us a bit about yourself …
I’m
a relatively recent fiction writer. I spent 20 odd years writing for an RPG,
eventually becoming its “creative director” – but a few years ago I felt it was
time to move on. I’d been involved in the Bristol Festival of Literature (and
still am) and a vague “I’d like to write a book one day” eventually became –
“”I’m going to write a book” and eventually – “I’ve written a book”. I’ve found
that writing the book was the ‘easy’ part!
Tell us about your most recently
published book?
As
well as being a writer I edit Far Horizons magazine (which has an Australian
publisher) and the latest published book is a slim collection of stories from
folk who were involved in the RPG I was talking about, but who are all now
published writers in their own right. The book is called Former Heroes and is
available from Amazon worldwide. As the title alludes to the stories are all
about people, and in one case a place, that used to be considered heroes. I
commissioned and edited the stories, but managed to get one of my own in there.
I’m not sure if that’s bad form for an anthology or not :-)
Tell us about the first time you were
published?
Here
in Bristol there is a national science fiction convention, BristolCon. They, in
conjunction with Wizards Tower Press put a call out for stories for a Steampunk
anthology called Airship Shape and Bristol Fashion. It came just about the time
when I’d started trying to write short stories. I sent them my fourth ever
short story (although, of course I had been writing RPG “stories” for many
years – the short story form is, of course, different.) I used the call for
stories as a prompt to write a story, I didn’t expect it to be published. It
was my first short story sale. I’ll always be grateful to them for seeing
something in the story and giving me a lot of heavy editorial help to make it
publishable. That book continues to sell well and I’ve even earned royalties
from that story, which is nice.
Having
that editorial help at the beginning of my ‘career’ (if you can call it that
yet) made a big difference and is one of the reasons why I became involved in
Far Horizons. Our aim at the magazine is to take unpublished and self-published
writers and give them editorial help on their short stories, to make them
publishable.
As writer, what has been your proudest
achievement so far?
As
a writer? I think it was winning a short story competition judged by Jeff
VanderMeer who is an author I admire and whose tastes in stories and books have
been a big inspiration. Jeff, and his wife Ann, bring out these massive short
story collections and must read thousands of stories a year. To be able to
write something good enough to win a competition judged by such a hugely
talented and experienced writer and editor made me very proud.
What books or writing projects are you
currently working on, if anything?
Where
do I start? I’m writing a short story serial for Far Horizons called Tales for
the Ferryman. I’m midway through a second novel whilst the first is out with
publishers & agents. I’ve just taken part in a round robin for Australian
Horror Story. I have stories coming out in Fossil Lake 3 & Sproutlings soon
as well as a tale in The Speculative Bookshop’s forthcoming anthology. My
writing group are working on a second anthology, our first – North by
Southwest, was published here in Bristol by Tangent Press. We are also taking
part in a Flash Fiction Slam during Bristol Festival of Literature and in
something called “Sanctum.” That’s an amazing project by American Artist
Theaster Gates which is a 24 hours a day for 24 days sound installation in a
bombed out church in the city. I am perpetually busy, which is a good thing as
a writer I think.
Which do you prefer? eBooks or Paper
Books? Why?
I’ll
read anything. It’s totally situational – both have their place. I like the
tactile nature of physical books, the smell of old books, instinctually knowing
how much longer you have to go, the sheer artistic beauty of some books. But
for travelling having a small library in my pocket can’t be beaten. When I
travelled the States a few years ago e-books weren’t yet a big thing, it had
just come out and the publishing industry was being a bit sniffy about it. I
pretty much had to have an extra suitcase just for the books. Humping that in
and out of the hire car and onto planes wasn’t fun. I’m a voracious reader and
often read several books a week. Especially when I’m between writing projects
(which happens less and less – but I read in between writing nowadays).
Indie Publishing, or Traditional
Publishing?
Again
I think it’s situational. With what I’ve published so far I’ve pretty much been
a hybrid author, and see that continuing. Some projects need the big support
system of Trad publishing, others can be brought out with nothing more than a
laptop and a desire to create something. Spotting which is which is the key.
Aside from your own books, of course,
what is one book that you feel everybody should read?
I
think every writer should read Wonderbook by Jeff VanderMeer, as that’s the
best ‘on writing’ book I’ve ever read (and I’ve read a lot!)
For
fiction? That’s a tough one, there’s so many, I’d be asking – the best book in
which circumstance? I’m really bad at these sort of questions – I’m not even
sure I can pin down the one book out of the hundred odd I’ve read this year
that everyone should read! I have a review blog and at the end of every year
list the books that get my top rating – here’s last year’s - http://bit.ly/1P2uYm3
Finally … is there anything you would
like to say to your readers in Adelaide, Australia?
Hello
from the other side of the world!
Links
.
@suttope
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