SHARN HUTTON

Sharn Hutton talks about writing inspiration and the journey so far...

Dribblesome Teapots, that’s the only book I can really remember reading as a child, I think because I was enormously amused by it. Funny the things that stick with you, isn’t it? What I remember better are the books I became enthusiastic about as a teenager and going on from there. My first proper fandom of an author was Douglas Adams and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, which I devoured. I just loved those books and his funny, clever way with words.

After Hitchhiker’s, Terry Pratchett became a huge presence on my bookshelves. I think I’ve got virtually every Discworld book in my own personal library. My brother and I both became obsessed with him at the same time and would always buy each other the latest for birthdays and Christmases and you knew, if it wasn’t there when the unwrapping was done, there were stern words to be had.

Through Pratchett I discovered Neil Gaiman in the Good Omens collaboration. That is a book which I have read over and over. My family can’t quite believe my capacity for re-watching favourite films and rereading favourite books. I have this ability to switch off my recollection of it, partly down to that terrible memory of mine, but mostly because it means that I get to experience my favourite stories again and again and get to enjoy them all over.

More recently it’s been the Harry Potter series which has received this treatment. I have devoured the books, adored the films and have especially loved the audio versions, narrated by Stephen Fry. They’re just so entertaining. His ability to be all the characters is phenomenal.

I’ve enjoyed being immersed in other authors worlds for a lot of years and it was only really when I found myself suddenly out of the world of work after in a couple of decades, when the babies came along, that I thought to myself ‘what am I going to do with all this spare thinking time?’

Don’t get me wrong, having a small baby is super consuming in lots of ways, but I still had all this spare brain capacity to think about things. That was when I started plotting my first book, It’s Killing Jerry. I thought about it in spare moments, you know, doing the washing up or tidying or changing a nappy or whatever it was.

I’d keep adding to it and held it all in my head for years. It took seven years from the moment I started thinking about that story to it actually becoming a real book. Seven years! I learned an enormous amount through that process. I do love to learn new skills and have read many books on craft. I’ve taught myself huge amount about writing and I will continue to do that. I hope that every book I write will be slightly better than the last in one way or another. That’s my aim.

After Jerry I wrote a couple of stories for Angel Drake. Angel Drake is a feisty fun character who was inspired by another series I’ve really enjoyed by Janet Evanovich, Stephanie Plum. I’ve read loads of them and they’re such brilliant fun, I wanted to try to create my own English version - a sassy investigative, if accident prone, heroine.

Angel Drake is Going Solo is set in an English village called Pook Wallop (which was actually my childhood nickname) where she gets unwittingly embroiled in a series of robberies and teams up with Hester, a kooky local old lady. It was really fun to write and I had a second novel all planned out when a totally new idea hit me. An idea for a magical fantasy series.

I think from what I’ve said already about the books and audio books I’ve enjoyed, that it shouldn’t come as any surprise that I do like a bit of magical fantasy. This idea was about a boy who lived in a magical circus and suddenly finds himself unable to continue with what he believed was his destiny.

Turns out he’s no good at the family talent of making magical confectionery and during a disastrous attempt at it in the family caravan kitchen, he manages to set light to the big top and all but gets thrown out of the troupe. His only chance for reprieve is to run the circuit, which sees him take on a series of magical apprenticeships to find his true magical talent, the talent that will allow him and his family to stay.

I could see so much potential for this story that I sat down and I wrote a world encyclopedia for it immediately. It just seemed to fall out of my head. Loads and loads and loads of details and brilliant information about characters, acts and what his story arc was going to be and how he was going to rise to this challenge.

I just can’t leave it alone! Unfortunately, this does mean that Angel’s second book has been put on the proverbial back burner. I would like to get back to her at some point as she is such good value, but for the moment, I am writing about my magical fantasy hero, Phyllo Cane.

The first book, Phyllo Cane and the Circus of Wonder came out in February 2021 and the second book, which is called Phyllo Cane and the Magical Menagerie, was published at the end of July 2022. I’m getting to work on the next in series now.

 

 

If you'd like to contact Sharn you can find her on Facebook and Instagram - follow the links at the bottom of the page. Or, if you prefer, you can email her on the.writer.herself@sharnhutton.com.