The Speculative Fiction Showcase is pleased to interview
Peter Sutton, author of
Sick City Syndrome,
A Tiding of Magpies and the forthcoming
Seven Deadly Swords as well as editor of
Far Horizons Magazine and the anthologies
The Hotwells Horror & Other Stories and
Infinite Dysmorphia.
First up, please can you tell us a little
about Seven Deadly Swords, your
forthcoming novel from Grimbold Books?
Ah the dreaded, “what’s your book about?”
question! Seven Deadly Swords is about Reymond, a farmer’s son who joins the
crusade in 1097 and travels to the Holy Land. It’s the story about how the war
changes him and the curse he falls foul of which sees him recur through history
until in the modern day he must confront his demons and the curse of the seven
deadly sins. It’s historical and modern fantasy entwined.
Many of your other stories have a horror
bias – is the same true of Seven Deadly
Swords?
Interesting question. The short answer is – I
don’t know! When I first started writing I was told that my stuff was dark and
weird and that was odd because I always assumed that I was writing fantasy,
modern, mostly first world sure but still fantastical. I seldom use the
supernatural, or rather the supernatural, when it does occur in my stories, is
usually not the point. I’m not a big reader of horror but I do like a good
horror film. My tastes in horror are more to the ‘weird’ when I do read it.
People who have read my stuff and compared it to Neil Gaiman (very flattering)
may be on the right track as I am influenced by the same writers as I’ve heard
him talking about – Jorge Luis Borges, John Fowles, G K Chesterton. Others have said my short writing is ‘magic
realism’ although I’m not sure that can be true as I’m not Spanish ;-) and
certainly that does come across in the first book, Sick City Syndrome. All of
that preamble is to say that my oeuvre is generally real life seen slightly
askance. That’s something that is within Seven Deadly Swords – but to a lesser
extent. With this one it’s history through a distorted lens. But horror? I’m
not sure – certainly the curse hinges on a horrific episode and the way it
affects him, his slow corruption and fear of losing himself fully to wrath is
pretty horrible. I guess the idea behind the Seven Deadly Sins is horror, isn’t
it?
Your first novel, Sick City Syndrome, talks about grief and loss in the context of a horror
(or ghost) story. The cover shows a tower block –are modern urban environments
changing how horror is written?
When I was writing the book I was telling
people that it was an “Architectural fantasy” the ghost angle, to me, was a
secondary part and an ambiguous one at that. However what was key to the novel
was ‘zombie’ buildings – empty and without use but not yet ‘dead’. There are
plenty in Bristol, the Carraigeworks and Westmoreland House on Stokes Croft are
the most recognisable (and have been empty since the early 80’s so certainly
for the entire time I’ve lived in Bristol) but there are others, just as old,
lurking in various places. These places are inherently creepy, I feel. Empty
buildings with half-forgotten histories have always been a magnet for urban
legends and that very much formed the environment of the novel. Isolation is a
key part of horror, as is a sense of something that is beyond the normal rules.
That is as true of modern urban environments as it is of a spaceship with a
dangerous xenomorph loosed upon it, or an Antarctic waste with a ‘Thing’ running
wild…
To expand on this question, much vintage
horror was set in country houses or, in the US, suburbia or rural areas. What
is it about modern cities that makes them uniquely eerie?
As above I don’t think they’re uniquely eerie,
and yet. Urbanisation has seen cities grow ever bigger and social changes since
the war has meant that there is less communal feeling. People may know their
immediate neighbours but no longer everyone on their street. You are never more
alone than when in a crowd and this sense of isolation is something we all feel
at one time and another. If you mix in malaises like drug and alcohol addiction
and crime (not exclusively urban of course) then cities can be frightening
places.
Your short story collection, A Tiding of Magpies, was published by
Kensington Gore and shortlisted for the British Fantasy Awards in 2017. You mention on your web-site that many of
your stories concern magpies – tell us more!
I wrote a short creepy story called ‘Roadkill’
which revolved around a child obsessed with roadkill and the counting magpies
song – “One for sorrow etc.” At some point later I revisited the magpie theme
in a story about a serial killer nicknamed ‘The Seventh Magpie” and also a ‘consequences’
story called Thunder & Magpies (my original title for the short collection
– which was changed, for the better, by my publisher) – threes the charm and I
realised I had a recurring motif so then I wrote a bunch of stories to fit that
motif and so a short story collection was born.
Wearing one of your other hats, you organise
events for Bristolcon, Bristol Festival of Literature and Bristol HorrorCon.
Tell us a bit about this and how it affects your writing!
When Bristol Litfest happened in 2011 I nabbed
some tickets to some events. On the festival feedback form was a ‘if you’d like
to volunteer’ contact – which I did, volunteering for the 2012 festival, at
which I ended up on the organising committee and running an event. It’s not a
coincidence that 2013 was when I started writing short stories – having
stewarded and attended lots of writing workshops and meeting lots of writers!
I’ve been going to BristolCon for a few years and last year they needed more
committee members and I stepped up. When Bristol HorrorCon was announced I got
in touch with the organiser and offered my services. This year it’s being run
by a different organiser and I’m no longer involved – it’ll be very different I
guess but I hope still a success. At all of these events it’s possible to rub
shoulders with experienced, published writers, take part in workshops and
panels and certainly if I’d not been involved I’d probably still just have a
vague ambition to ‘write someday’.
Is there a firm distinction between modern
horror writing and the ghost stories of the past by people such as M.R. James
and Sheridan Le Fanu?
Tastes change, social mores change, society changes,
horror changes – James’s stories (I read the complete collection earlier this
year – I’ve read no Le Fanu) are somewhat quaint now but use recognisable tropes. So
a different flavour? For sure – you wouldn’t get extreme splatterpunk or
bizarre in the past, but a distinction when comparing apples to apples? Not so
much imho.
You are a member of Bristol North Writers.
How does this contribute to your writing process?
We meet twice a month. The first meeting of the
month one of the members runs a workshop aimed at improving an aspect of
writing – be it description, character, plot etc. The second meeting we
critique each other’s work. Both are
very useful. Having your work critiqued can of course help, but more important
is critiquing others. This teaches you to read critically and spot the common
mistakes that you yourself have probably been making too. Several of the short
stories in A Tiding of Magpies were critiqued by the group.
Much (though not all) contemporary horror
appears in the form of short stories, anthologies or collections. Why do you
think this is?
Does it? I’ve never really thought about it
that way. I note that horror has become ever more niche as crime has gobbled up
its market so I’m guessing there are less venues, publishing-wise, to get
horror out there? But plenty of anthologies still for writers to get their
horror stories into. Certainly attending horrorcons makes me think that there
is still a thriving market for horror literature!
What films are you watching at the moment?
Any favourites?
My taste in films is as eclectic (and niche?)
as my taste in books. I quite like the modern horror that’s been coming out –
The Babdook, It Follows etc. Although even though I enjoyed Get Out and A Quiet Place both had problems for me storywise. I very much enjoy a ‘good’ bad film
and recommend that people in the Bristol area check out Bristol Bad Film Club
(@theotherbbfc) who are showing Tammy and the T-Rex in June. The best films
I’ve seen in the last few years are Swiss Army Man by the Daniels and Rams by Grímur
Hákonarson. I also very much enjoyed The Ritual, adapted from Adam Nevill’s
book and Annihilation adapted from Jeff VanderMeer’s book. I like Wes Anderson,
Jim Jarmusch, Werner Herzog, both McDonaghs, Martin & John (although 3
Billboards was problematic with its depiction of racism) and Taika Waititi – I
watch a film most weekend nights.
Do you read Fortean Times and are there any
Bristol Forteana we should know about?
I haven’t read Fortean Times for a while. I
used to read it monthly and went to the UnConvention a few times. There’s a
book called Bristol Curiosities by Julian Lea-Jones which has some Forteana in
it iirc. Also the much lamented former events mag Venue used to run stories
that had some Fortean interest.
What horror (or other writing) are you
reading at the moment? Or do you read totally different genres?
I’m an eclectic reader –my taste is generally towards
genre, but niche within - like I said
earlier I’m not a big reader of ‘horror’ per se but of the sub-genre of the
Weird. I was a big fantasy reader in my teenage years and twenties and I read
widely in the genre then but now read a lot less fantasy. I probably read one
non-fiction book to every two fiction books and I always have a short story
book on the go – I read three short stories every time I finish a novel.
Currently I’m reading the complete Roald Dhal, before that I read and very much
enjoyed Hollow Shores by Gary Budden. The novel I’m currently reading is Q by
Luther Blisset – a historical romp set in the mid 1500’s, before that I read
Sunburnt Faces by the Israeli author Shimon Adaf. My last nonfiction book was
Paralysed by Fear – the Story of Polio by Gareth Williams (which all
antivaxxers should be forced to read!) and before that was The Feather Thief by
Kirk Johnson which was a gripping tale of true crime and fly fishing lure-making
which I’d highly recommend. Recently
last month or so I’ve also read some crime (The Ploughmen, The Far Empty), some
scifi (The Spaceman of Bohemia which is excellent and Ted Chiang’s Stories of Your Life and Others, also excellent) and some litfic (of which I’d recommend:
If I fall, If I die and A line made by walking).
About Peter Sutton:
Pete Sutton has a not so secret lair in the wilds of Fishponds,
Bristol and dreams up stories, many of which are about magpies. He’s had
stuff published, online and in book form, including a short story
collection called
A Tiding of Magpies (Shortlisted for the British
Fantasy Award 2017) and the novel
Sick City Syndrome. He wrote all about
Fishponds for the
Naked Guide to Bristol and has made more money from
non-fiction than he has from fiction and wonders if that means the gods
of publishing are trying to tell him something. Pete is a member of the
North Bristol Writers.
You can find him all over social media or worrying about events he’s
organised at the Bristol Festival of Literature, Bristol HorrorCon and
BristolCon.
