THE JAMES MASON COMMUNITY BOOK CLUB discussion

Author Profile: Carole Sutton

Reared in the county of Devon in England, my earliest memory is of the Exeter blitz in 1942. I married an Exeter man in 1960, and we reared our three children in Cornwall. My first efforts at writing consisted of creating stories for my toddlers. In Cornwall, we built our own sailing boats and, as a family, sailed the English Channel visiting ports along the French coast for our holidays.

We moved to the warmer climes of Perth, Western Australia, in 1981, and took up a small retail business. Ten years later, on retirement, we bought a large block in the foothills of the Darling Range and lived in a shed while we built our house. Finally, with house and land in order, I had time to indulge in my personal pursuit of writing, by attending a creative writing course. In 1995, Rawlhouse of Perth published my junior fiction book Gus, Sore Feet — No Collar, about a dog abandoned in the Australian bush. I’m sure all you newly published authors out there will know exactly what a thrill that was! I followed my beginner’s luck with short stories in anthologies, and wildlife articles with photographs in glossy magazines. But the novel was my real medium, and crime fiction became my passion.

If you would like to know more, check out my web site. There you’ll find more details about my books, and my fin, fur and feather friends. Meet Beaky, the real life dolphin that opened the prologue in ‘Ferryman’. Read a short story, Not a Bad Bag of Bones, by Bosun, my German shepherd who posed for the cover of Gus, Sore Feet – No Collar. See some of the photos taken of the emu chick I raised from 5 days old to adulthood, after his family perished in a dog-attack. Have a preview of what is coming next. Please take a look.

http://casutton.tripod.com/cazutt

Books.

My first novel ‘FERRYMAN’ took about five years to complete. It is set in Cornwall in the 1970s, and its true nautical flavour comes from my own experience in sailing those same waters. It tells the tale of a man wrongfully convicted of murder.

Back page:

Angela Dupont is missing. Despite the absence of a body, blood smears inside Steven Pengelly’s boat convince Detective Inspector Alec Grimstone that he has apprehended her murderer. But when Angela’s fresh body washes up two years later, Alec is shocked to discover he has convicted the wrong man. Steven, released from jail, is determined to find where Angela has been these last two years. He teams up with a woman searching for her missing sister.

Alec and Steven’s separate investigations take very different routes. When they arrive at the same destination, circumstances force old enemies to work together to solve the mystery, as another vibrant young woman goes missing.

‘Ferryman’ was short-listed for the Dundee International Book Prize 2007

My second novel, AND THE DEVIL LAUGHED, is set in Australia.
Back cover:
HANNAH FORD, an under-cover cop, takes a surveillance job in Draper’s Wharf. The small town on the banks of the Parramatta River in Australia has links to the drug trade, so the latest whisper goes. Her brief: to observe, report, and locate its source.

When she arrives, the town is in shock after the rape and murder of its local barmaid. Hannah, a rape survivor, could pull out, but she needs this job to prove her competence to return to the streets and full duties.

Threaded through the main story, is Hannah’s own account of guilt and rage born of her husband’s death, her rape and degradation that followed. In working to find the source of drugs in Draper’s Wharf, the line between her case and the murder enquiry is fading fast. Can she hack it, or is her worst nightmare about to be re-enacted, as she becomes the villains next target.

(Short listed for the Genre Fiction Award by New Holland Publisher 2007)

One piece of advice I’d like to pass on to emerging writers – you don’t have to write alone. You cannot judge your own work, you are emotionally too near to it. You need other people to cast their eyes over it and give you honest opinions. One way is to join a writing workshop. There maybe one near to you, where you can attend and meet other writers. Or, you can join an on-line workshop. Here you critique other people’s work, and they critique yours. Over the years, I have had enormous FREE help from both of these, and have made many writing friends.


www.internetwritingworkshop.org/
www.youwriteon.com/info/youwriteon-top-q...

DURING THE 5 YEARS IT TOOK TO COMPLETE YOUR FIRST NOVEL- DID YOU EVER FEEL YOU WOULD NEVER FINISH IT?

Absolutely! I rewrote it numerous times, I must have given it a dozen different endings before I settled on this one. But once I had the story out from beginning to end, rewriting became a pleasure. Polishing is the bit I like best.
Carole

Thanks - did you find the constant re-writing tedious? or did you feel a greater feeling for the book each time- and therefore rewriting was almost like getting to know the material better?

No,I didn't find it tedious. I'd leave it stuffed in the cupboard to brew, sometimes for months in between revisions. By then the story was almost fresh again. I learned a great deal about the craft of writing from other sources over that period. Now, each time I took the manuscript out I could put my new found knowledge into practise.

As well as getting to know the material better, I was also becoming more familiar with my characters, and seeing them in greater depth.

Carole, I can certainly understand the revision process. I'm in the middle of it now ... it's dragging, dragging and dragging on.

Do you have any mental notes or things that you are always on the look out for when going back over your work?

I'd also like to ask about your involvement with writing groups? How did you get the patience to wait for advice? I wouldn't mind participating in various workshops and groups but find them to be kind of slow. Any recommendations on how to work that better without offending anyone?

Thanks!

Hi Tod,

Maybe you should shop around for a workshop that suits you better. The fact that some are slow may reflect that writing a book is a slow process. If they review it at the fast rate of one chapter a week – that’s still a lot of time passing. I have learned much from working with groups. In particular, I have grown a thick skin for critiques can be cruel.

For my first experience with a group, I joined a Writing Course. At the end of that 8-week session, a number of us wanted to continue the group but concentrate on our budding novels. Our mentor, a retired literary agent, agreed to run it as a private group. We met weekly in a quiet corner of the local pub, where we each read out our chapter for discussion. It had its comical moments when some embarrassed reader had to huddle in to read out the sexy bits in a quiet voice, so as not to disturb nearby punters. Sometimes we’d get some very funny looks.

Many years later that group has dwindled to three stalwarts and we continue without our mentor, who has moved on. All three of us are now published, but we still get a buzz from working out the plots of our next book and discussing our chapters together. At the same time this was going on, I joined an on-line writing workshop and ran my chapters through them before showing them to my ‘live’ group. Early detection of something silly saved me many a red face!

The on-line workshop I joined is the Internet Writing Workshop – Novels L – you can find it here: www.internetwritingworkshop.org/ It’s a free site – costs you nothing, and is a terrific place for writers. Here you can submit your chapters for your peers to review. You, in turn review other people’s work. The writers vary from novices to well-published writers who know the value of getting other eyes to look over their work. Keep up the revision work, Tod – that’s the best part. You have the story down from AtoZ – all you have to do is polish, polish, polish it.

Hi Carole,

You touch on some very dark subjects. How difficult is it to write about these things and do you find yourself sometimes lost in the world you create? Do you have things you do to unwind such as watching comedy?

Thanks, Carole,

I appreciate the tips and advice. I have great, thick skin but lack real patience ... that's probably what I need to work on most.

I'll check out the resource mentioned, as well as try to connect in other ways.

Tod

Carole wrote: "Hi Tod,

Maybe you should shop around for a workshop that suits you better. The fact that some are slow may reflect that writing a book is a slow process. If they review it at the fast rate of one ..."

really wonderful anecdotes Carole!!! and thanks for website!
Gary's question seems quite intriguing - the separation between the writer as a person and the writer and her/his characters

Hi Gary, Tod and Rick
Gary, I wondered which of my two books you thought touched on a dark subject, it could either of them! I think the genre one writes in is a very personal one. I can’t write romance, for instance. For my ‘dark’ bits I like to know they are at least realistic, for this reason, I can’t write vampires either! As a crime writer dealing with the nastier side of life, I like to move the emotions of a reader without being gratuitous, or too gory.

I do find myself lost in the world I create. Once the muse gets going, and my mind follows the character of the moment, planning his/her next action, and getting thoroughly into the head of that character, I tend to be a walking zombie. Later, I find things in funny places, the box of tea in the fridge, or the bottle of milk in the oven. Once I even prepared two different dinners for one night, I dished up a salad, while the earlier prepared roast beef cooked all by itself in the oven. That really foxed my husband!

As for winding down, I find walking the dogs along trails in the Australian bush, or along the beach is as good as any.

TV comedy does not really appeal. I used to love the old British comedies during the Sid James / Benny Hill era. Now, I tend to watch Brit or Australian crime series, and constantly evaluate the characters and what makes them tick. Bit of a busman’s holiday, I suppose, but at least they keep me awake.

Tod, do you mean patience with yourself, to sit at the computer and work at your novel, or do you mean patience with you subject matter, that having got your story down you find it hard to revise? I found the way out of that was to put the MS away and start another story, and only when you are confident you have most of the second story down, when you feel ready for a break, go back and revise the first one. Well, it works for me.

http://casutton.tripod.com/cazutt

Actually, neither :o)

I'm high strung and love to continually work, read, think ... I always have to be doing something.

I find it hard to wait on feedback and responses. This can be the untimely death of a new writer when you're waiting on the response to a query letter, critique, or review.

I just need to learn my lesson and calm down. It's fun to be excited about your work AND other people's work too ... but I shouldn't let it keep me up at night.

At least you know your own problem, that's half the battle to finding a cure!

Carole wrote: "Hi Gary, Tod and Rick
Gary, I wondered which of my two books you thought touched on a dark subject, it could either of them! I think the genre one writes in is a very personal one. I can’t write ro..."

Thanks Carole. That is really fascinating how involved you get in your writing. I envy that.

THE AUTHOR FORUMS HAVE BEEN GOING SO VERY WELL- I HAVE DECIDED TO KEEP THEM OPEN UNTIL 12/19- AND THEN BEGIN NEW ONES
I HOPE EVERYONE HAS GOTTEN AS MUCH OUT OF THEM AS I HAVE

was sid james in any of the "Carry on" films?

As far as I am aware Sid James was in all of the Carry On films as well as sit-coms like Bless this House -- Sid with his cockney accent and dirty laugh was one of my favourite entertainers of the time. I see there is a book out about him "Sid James-Cockney Rebel." Its a new biography by Robert Ross. It should make interesting reading for those who like that era.