Chris Priest: My Writing Hero
What follows is a very brief email exchange I had with the author Chris Priest (of The Prestige and Inverted World fame, among many others), around the time of the self-publication of my first collection of short stories, The Glass Weaver’s Tale and Other Stories.
To this day, I remain embarrassed that I had the gall to approach him in the way I did.
I think his response says alot about the man.
His death was a great loss to science fiction and liturature in general.
On 11/11/2020 14:59, Guy Riddihough wrote:
Dear Chris
A long, long time ago (perhaps around the time of The Glamour), you came and chatted with the Imperial College SF club. There is a picture in an old photo album of mine that shows you and all the people who turned up (perhaps five or six), and I'm one of them.
I had recently read The Affirmation and considered it one of the best fiction books I had ever read. I still do.
I ever since wished I could write something even a thousandth as good. Well, given the stack of rejection letters I have received over the years, I think the answer has to be "no." Still, I have come to the decision that I am going to self-publish some of my short stories, anyway, and let the reader decide.
One reader I would like ("like" isn't the word in my head) to read the collection is you. You probably don't have time, and that's OK, too. I will either make not a ripple at all, or by the time of my third (or fourth, or fifth, etc) book, I will have earned enough of a reputation that I would consider contacting you again.
Very Best, Guy
PS A movie adaption I would love to see is of A Dream of Wessex. I think it could be gripping.
On 11/11/2020 16:13, Christopher Priest wrote:
Dear Guy
I don't remember the Imperial College thing. That doesn't mean I doubt it, or what you say, just that early onset dither is setting in. I do remember I was GoH at Picocon one year -- would that be it? Another time: I was at Imperial College at the beginning of the 1990s, but spoke to no one. I spent a day in the library researching Tesla while I was writing The Prestige. I gained a lot of material from that -- his diary is there, as I recall, and much else. I have generally good feelings about Imperial. It was where H G Wells grew up and became literate in science.
Don't be offended, but the answer to your request is no. If you're hoping I might say something that would help the book along when it's published, I never do that for anyone. Friend or foe, good or bad. It's an iron policy based on an unfortunate experience many years ago. If you've already had the books printed, and are looking for a review, then I don't have an iron policy but I'm never happy writing reviews. Occasionally, I get a request from a magazine, but in general I steer clear of doing it.
But please DON'T feel bad about asking, and don't be discouraged. It's not a bad idea -- it's just that I'm not the one to do it. I understand and sympathize, though.
You mention The Affirmation. (Thanks for what you say.) That book came out as an orphan. My editor at Faber had retired, and he had been replaced by a spotty young whiz-kid from Eton. He loathed my books. The publisher did absolutely nothing to get copies into the shops, and the review coverage was slim. They showed no enthusiasm for the paperback edition, offered it half-heartedly, with the result no one wanted to bring it out. It all happened at a low point in life generally, so I was pretty glum about the whole thing. Then, by some miracle I was chosen to be in the "Best of Young British Writers" promotion -- it came out of the blue and I had no idea what was going on. As a direct result of that Faber finally managed to get a paperback deal.
(They then ruined everything by remaindering all my books, including The Affirmation, a month before the promotion began. You will often hear "stupid publisher" stories from writers. This is one of my favourites, and it always gets a laugh.)
The point is that forty years later The Affirmation is still in print and selling quite well, so books can make their way without endorsements, and so on. Never under-estimate the power of readers' word-of-mouth. This is in my experience the one thing that makes a book sell.
Good luck with the project, though. Let me know how you get on?
All best wishes
Chris
Postscript
I sent him a copy of The Glass Weaver’s Tale and Other Stories late in 2023, not knowing he had terminal cancer.
