Spring Awakening

Or, Stu comes back from the dead

I’ve just checked the date of the previous post on here and cannot fucking believe it was last September. I knew it had been a while but didn’t have a clue it had been that long. I was flat on my arse with shingles from August until Christmas, and after that I’ve been so bloody busy I’ve not had chance to even think about updating this. No matter though; I’m back for now and there’s a fair bit to report, some of it pretty seismic. Starting with…..

New Book Deal!

I am absolutely delighted to announce that I’ve got a deal with Ortac Press to write a book called Disappear Here: Bret Easton Ellis’ America, which will be out sometime late next year to tie in with the fortieth anniversary of the publication of Less Than Zero. It’s a social and cultural history of the US from the 70’s to the present as seen through the lens of Ellis’ novels, and also makes the case that his backlist provides a written cultural archive of late-20th century America that’s every bit as valuable as the visual one Warhol left for the decades preceding it. How it came about is far too long a story to go into here but it was largely accidental, kickstarted by an off-the-cuff chat with Becca Parkinson, to whom I’ll be forever grateful for her unwitting part in making this happen. It’s a dream project though. Ellis was the first contemporary writer I clicked with after reading American Psycho, aged about fourteen, in the early 90s and I’ve loved him ever since. Probably the single biggest literary influence in my formative years, and still a writer to whom my prose owes the biggest debt. It’s a huge canvas cos I get to talk about music, politics, film, sex, drugs, media, art…….I’ve been researching for six months and still haven’t started drafting yet (which I’m itching to do) but the time for that’s drawing ever closer……..

According to The Republic Of Consciousness Prize,

“Disappear Here promises to be a fascinating look at American society through the eyes of one of the most influential authors of the 20th century, by one of the most incisive cultural and political writers of the moment.”

and it ain’t up to me to argue !

3:AM Magazine

One of the main factors that got me thinking about this project was rereading Ellis’ backlist, again, while I was ill last year, waiting for the paperback edition of The Shards to land on my mat. I read that he was going to turn 60 in March 2023 and it got me pondering the question of his literary legacy and what it might be as things stand. The end result was an essay entitled American Cipher: Bret Easton Ellis At 60, which gives an overview of his career to date and explores, amongst many other things, the question of whether or not posterity will judge him solely for American Psycho, and how just (or otherwise) that would be. No spoilers here, but you can read the whole thing in the legendary 3:AM Magazine, with thanks to head honcho and all round literary dude Andrew Gallix (whose new book Unwords, published by Dodo Ink, is a far-reaching collection of pieces from his decade and a half plus spent at the (avant) vanguard of contemporary literary criticism) for having me.

Some recent publications

Very nearly forgot to mention these with my head being so full of other projects (as you’ll see), but the year got off to a good start publication-wise, with a piece entitled Enshittification in the most recent edition of Poetry Birmingham Literary Journal. Ostensibly it’s a review of Culture Is Bad For You by Orian Brook, Dave O’Brien and Mark Taylor, but it’s more of a critical analysis of the (many) barriers to access in arts-based careers for the vast majority of people, and why this has snowballed under a succession of fucking shitbastard Tory governments. If you check it out, pack your blood pressure pills.

I was also stoked as hell to have a poem included in Masculinity: an anthology of modern voices, published in January by the awesome Broken Sleep Books, who have been doing all kinds of great stuff on the poetry scene for a long time now and are well worth checking out.

What else?

I need to make this brief because I have a lot of work to do tonight and time’s knocking on already, but I’m currently hawking round the novel I spoke about last year, which has been renamed Keshed. I’ve got some great publishers looking at it at the moment and a few other potential options for if none of these ones bite, so watch this space. I’m desperate to get it out there, partly because I’ve worked on it for so long and I’m ready to see the back of it so I can focus on everything else that’s ahead (like the Entire Fucking Novel I have planned that would’ve been the next book if Disappear Here hadn’t, er, appeared. I’ve a full set of shorts sketched out too), but mainly because I still insist that I’m a better fiction writer than anything else and it’s what I love to do most. I love writing all forms for different reasons, but fiction has always been my happiest hunting ground and I’m not going to shut the fuck up about it until I’ve got something substantial out there and people have seen what I can do.

Keshed is an uncompromising realist novel about conformity, identity, masculinity, fatherhood and addiction. It’s also about class and belonging, how personality can be sculpted by circumstances beyond our control and the tragic consequences that can ensue when fragile individuals are overwhelmed by the impossibility of being forced to live under systems of work and government they have no wish to engage with. 

There’s a lot of noise in publishing at the moment about a lack of working class voices and northern stories; Keshed is about as unvarnished a portrait of life up here from the 70s to the present day as you’re likely to find. Imagine early Ben Myers writing Shuggie Bain, or Irvine Welsh doing Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. Or, as the best review I’ve ever had (from the spoken word performance last summer I did for Industrial Coast records in ‘Boro said:

“Arab Strap meets Barry Hines meets John Cooper Clarke.”

I might stick some samples up here if I don’t have any joy on the publishing front, but for now, if anyone’s never seen my fiction before, here's one about friendship and loss and twenty first century necromancy, which was published in a super-exclusive chapbook series a couple of years ago but now lives online at 3:AM.

Wish me luck…..

While all this has been going on, I’ve also sent a pitch to Bloomsbury for their 33 1/3 Series. The album I’ve chosen to write about is Transangelic Exodus by Ezra Furman, an artist whose work I’ve adored for ten years or more. She’s a phenomenally gifted songwriter and lyricist, and the most compelling rock n roll performer I’ve seen in thirty years of gig going. If I’ve been successful I’ll be here shouting about it before the end of June; if not, it’ll keep for another time. I’ve been in contact with Ezra a few times about it over the last few months and she’s been so helpful and generous with her time it’d be a shame to let it go to waste - not least because I’ve drafted 80% of the book already - and I may have other ideas what to do with it……..

Other upcoming stuff

Flagging a bit now, but watch this space for details of some new pieces from me in Prospect Magazine and The Quietus, and also a new zine to launch a new record label, but that’s secret for now.

And finally…..

There’s a shitload of other stuff I wanted to mention and some books I wanted to recommend but there’s just not going to be time to do it today. What it’s imperative to say, however, is that my band Kamien recently released our debut single via Bandcamp. P.I.G is a song about a woman who takes drastic action after suffering for too long as a victim of domestic violence, so all proceeds from sales are going to Refuge.

That’s yer lot

Apologies if this is full of typos and/or completely fucking incoherent but I’ve been at work all day and my brain’s wanting to get back to researching Disappear Here. More news on all the above as and when, and assuming I ever get time……If you know anyone else who might be interested in this (or my wafflings on Twitter) pls share the links - this is the second newsletter in eight months so they can rest assured their inbox won’t get spammed with shite. Or, if you don’t wanna, then, you know……don’t.

Over and out.

S x