Nancy Lee Badger Interviews Author James Hutchings

Please welcome author James Hutchings all the way from Australia! His book, 

They Say the Sirens Left the Seas, is a collection of poems, often fantasy-themed, and was released on May 26.

Please tell my readers a little bit about your book. 

It's a collection of 46 poems. It has a particular emphasis on poems that tell a story, particularly in the fantasy genre.

When did you start writing toward publication? 

I wrote a novel in the early 2000s that's best not spoken of, but I've been writing and submitting continuously since 2010.

I started submitting stuff (turned out to be crap) in 2007, and sold the good stuff starting in 2010. Practice makes perfect! Do you have any rejection stories to share?

I got a rejection email for one of my poems which said that "There were several amusing parts in this poem, but it’s not consistently funny throughout, which is what I’d be looking for in a humour poem. I think the problem (as I see it) is that you’re often vague or allusive; specific details tend to be funniest." This would have been a lot more encouraging if the poem was meant to be funny.

What is your writing routine like?

I've heard some writers say they can only write in a particular room, or only at a particular time of day or something, but I've never had anything like that. At the moment I mostly write last thing in the day, but I'd be happy to change this if circumstances required it. I've done a lot of writing on bus or train trips.

Me, too! With a husband and several volunteer 'jobs', I try to get 'stuff' out of the way, then write until something else interrupts. Are you a member of any writing organizations and, if so, have they helped?

I've been a member of a few different face-to-face critique groups, as well as online ones, and have found them mostly useful. However I've never been a member of bigger, fee-charging organizations like Writers Victoria. I've found that, at least for an amateur like me, the cost isn't worth what they offer.

Please share THREE fun facts about you that most people don’t know:

1) I have three nipples (the third one is small, and looks like a birthmark or a pimple, but it's a nipple).

2) This isn't really a fun fact, but it's a strange fact. Some local neo-Nazis called Australia First recently decided (falsely), that I was the author of an anti-Nazi blog. They published my photo, name, address and even date of birth online (I assume they found them on facebook). I went on local radio with the real author of this blog to prove that we were two different people- but even after I did this they kept insisting that I was really him! I've actually had to get lawyers to threaten to sue them.

3) I used to dance like no one was watching, but everyone stared at me.

What’s next for you?

Later this year I hope to put out two more ebooks: one based around a long poem set in my fantasy city of Telelee, and the other around a long Western poem called 'Confession of a Bounty Hunter'. At the moment I'm working on a longer poem, set in the distant past and with a fantasy-like atmosphere, but no magic or monsters.

BOOK BLURB

The last dragon faces his death...
A magician bases his life on a misheard word...
A teenager goes looking for his friends' girlfriends, none of whom have ever been seen...
46 poems by James Hutchings.

Excerpt:

The Cat and the Toad

At the dawn of the world on a tree-sheltered road

an agreeable cat met a horrible toad.

When the cat saw its neighbor it fearfully shook

for in those days all creatures would act as they looked

and the toad was all warty, and bulging, and slimy.

The trembling cat mewed a terrified "Blimey!"

(more vigorous oaths had not yet been discovered)

and looked at the evil made plain on the other

one hideous sin for each hideous feature.

"Oh please do not kill me, most wicked of creatures!"

it begged without hope. But the toad thought awhile

then it gave what might almost have been called a smile

and it said, "You may keep what you carry within

but if you are to live, you must give me your skin."

Now the cat had no choice, though it bitterly cried

but to take off its fur and to put on the hide

of the venomous toad, and no creatures had made

such a villainous threat, such a terrible trade.

Then the cat hopped away where it once would have strode

for the toad was a cat, and the cat was a toad.

This explains why the toad, though so utterly charmless

is gentle in nature and totally harmless

while cats appear graceful and splendid and good

but would murder us all in our beds if they could.

(Disclaimer: This only refers to other cats. Your cat is lovely of course).

Thanks! 

How can my readers 

buy your book? 

SMASHWORDS     AMAZON

MORE ABOUT THE AUTHOR

James Hutchings

James Hutchings lives in Melbourne, Australia. He fights crime as Poetic Justice, but his day job is acting. You might know him by his stage-name 'Brad Pitt.' His work has appeared in Daily Science Fiction, Heroic Fantasy Quarterly and Wisdom Crieth Without among other markets. His ebook collection 'They Say the Sirens Left the Seas' is now available from Amazon, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble and DriveThruFiction.

You can find more information 

about James here:

BLOG    Goodreads 

Goodreads  

Interview With Author James Hutchings

Today I am interviewing James Hutchings. His book, The New Death and others is a collection of fantasy short stories and poems and was released on September 27^th, 2011.

Please tell my readers a little bit about your book.

It's a collection of stories and poems, 63 pieces in all. It's only a bit over 41,000 words in total, so most of them are quite short. Most of the stories are fantasy, but there's some 'general fiction' in there as well. The style ranges from funny to very grim. I'm much more influenced by older writers like Tolkien and Robert E Howard. In fact, I've never read any of the Harry Potter, Twilight or Game of Thrones series, or most other popular modern fantasy authors.

I do not think I have ever met anyone who has not read Harry Potter! When did you start writing toward publication?

I did a Bachelor of Arts majoring in creative writing and media, but I didn't do anything with it after graduating. Years later I created a fantasy city called Teleleli or Telelee as a background for role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons. Once I finished I realised there wasn't any demand for it. My ex suggested I use it as a setting for stories instead, and that's how I got started. I wrote the pieces in The New Death and others over about a year, from September 2010 to September 2011.

Many people have no idea how long it takes to create a work of fiction. On that note, do you have any rejection stories to share?

I got a rejection email for one of my poems which said that "There were several amusing parts in this poem, but it’s not consistently funny throughout, which is what I’d be looking for in a humour poem. I think the problem (as I see it) is that you’re often vague or allusive; specific details tend to be funniest." This would have been a lot more encouraging if the poem was meant to be funny.

Oh, no! How funny…or not. I hate rejection letters unless they are filled with constructive criticism. The show must go on. What is your writing routine like?

I make myself write every day. I think if I tried to write, say, three times a week, that would actually be harder, because it would be too easy to put it off and say I'll do it later. If it's every day I 'have' to write now. I usually write at the end of the day before I go to bed (actually early in the morning).

I used to work 3^rd shift and found writing before sleeping through the day was relaxing, knowing I accomplished ‘something’. Will you share some encouraging words for authors still struggling for that first contract? 

Self-publishing through Amazon and Smashwords has become much more common, and much more potentially rewarding, to the point where it's likely to be the 'default option' for writers in a few years.

I have written for two small publishers, but I ‘took the plunge’ recently with DRAGON IN THE MIST and SOUTHERN FRIED DRAGON, both self-published. What’s next for you?

The main thing I'm working on right now is a poem set in the old West, called 'Confession of a Bounty Hunter'. I've been encouraged to write a novel set in the fantasy city of Telelee, which is the setting of a few of the stories in 'The New Death and others'. I have a lot of background for this world, because I blog every day and most of it is setting detail. I also have a half-finished novel called 'All-American Detectives', which is a combination of a detective story and a story about superheroes, which I'll probably come back to in the future.

BOOK BLURB

Death gets a roommate...

An electronic Pope faces a difficult theological question...

A wicked vizier makes a terrible bargain...

44 stories. 19 poems. No sparkly vampires. There's a thin line between genius and insanity, and James Hutchings has just crossed it - but from which direction?

A little bit about the author

James Hutchings lives in Melbourne, Australia. He fights crime as Poetic Justice, but his day job is acting. You might know him by his stage-name 'Brad Pitt.' He specializes in short fantasy fiction. His work has appeared in Daily Science Fiction, fiction365 and Enchanted Conversation among other markets.

Excerpt from THE GOD OF THE POOR

In the beginning of the world the gods considered all those things which did not have their own gods, to decide who would have responsibility and rulership.

"I will rule all flowers that are sky-blue in colour," said the Sky-Father.

"I will listen to the prayers of migratory birds, and you all other birds," the goddess Travel said to him. And so it went.

At last all had been divided, save for one thing.

"Who," asked the Sky-Father, "shall have dominion over the poor?"

There was an awkward silence, until the Sky-Father said,

"Come - someone must. Those with no gods will grow restless and cunning, and in time will cast us down, and we shall be gods no more."

"Not I," said blind Justice, and her stony face flashed a momentary smirk at the thought. "Why not Fame or Fortune?"

"Darling I don't  think so," said the sister goddesses together.

There was a long pause. The gods shuffled their feet and avoided one another's gaze. At last a voice broke the silence.

"I will," said Death.

How can my readers buy your book?  

You can find more information about James Hutchings and The New Death and others by

visiting his blog at http://www.apolitical.info/teleleli.

The New Death and others is available on

Amazon 

Smashwords  

Barnes & Noble  

Thanks for visiting with me today, James.

Nancy Lee