About the Author

A deeply scary look, at a deeply scary person

Well, my name is Peter Emuss and I'm a student at Bath University. Strangely enough, I'm not doing a course in English or Creative Writing; I'm three years through a four year course in Computer Science. "Why on earth are you doing Computer Science?" I hear you ask. Trust me, it's a question I find myself asking on a fairly regular basis. It seemed like a good idea at the time and now I've got this far, I'm strangely reluctant to give up. However, that's a boring subject and I'm quite interested in keeping you entertained on this site.

I first discovered writing properly just before I left for my gap year. I wrote a short story and discovered that, not only did it make some kind of sense, it was fairly interesting as well. I started travelling and discovering the myriad wonders of the world, only to find myself writing about normal people who live in England in my spare time. Three years, one novel and several drinks later, I decided I had a large enough collection of works to set up my own website.

My fiction ranges widely, but I have to say the type of story which I most often write is the unfinished one. One of my best friends, Caroline Childs, gets very het up at me for stopping in the middle, which is as good enough reason as any to continue not finishing. I like to think that my short fiction mostly follows the style of the immortal Roald Dahl's 'Tales of the Unexpected', but it has its own flavours and nuances: humorous, solemn, heart-warming and heart-rending all in their places. My influences include Christopher Brookmyre, Carl Hiassen, Roald Dahl, Stephen King and Joss Whedon, which brings me neatly onto my fanfiction.

In my opinion, poorly done fanfiction is an insult to the creator. To use a character that has been lovingly constructed and developed by someone else is to accept a great responsibility and it is imperative that an author does not abuse that responsibility. If you have not the talent to keep your story canonical and the characters perfectly formed, then you have no business writing. Good fanfiction is a difficult art.

I was deeply distressed by the death of the Buffyverse (the world inhabited by the television shows 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and 'Angel'), especially by the cliff-hanger that was left with the last ever episode of Angel. It sort-of wrapped up the series, while leaving the characters in a perilous situation. This set the creative cells of my brain to thinking what could happen next, if there were to be a sixth season. Then the plot bunnies started inundating me.

I must explain. Plot bunnies are where the ideas come from. They are little white rabbits, not unlike those in 'The Book of Bunny Suicides', who creep up on unsuspecting authors and shoot story ideas into their heads. Using peashooters made from McDonalds straws. It's all true, honest!

Sometimes the idea is small, like a character trait. Sometimes it's a bit bigger, like a sudden knowledge of how your story's going to end. And sometimes, just occasionally, it's the ideas and plots for a 15+ episode season for one of your favourite television shows. My Virtual Season 6 so far can be found here. I can tell you from experience, the big ones always come when you've got university work that needs to be done. The plot bunnies don't want me to finish this course.

I would love to be a professional author. I'd love it to pieces (publishers, take note!) and my dream is that one day my novel will be published. When I finally get around to sending it out, of course. However, my personal opinion quotes the great Eric Morecombe, "I'm playing all the right notes. Just not necessarily in the right order." I will always look to improve, but no matter what, I like to have fun (so why the hell Computer Science?!) and I hope that I will continue to play the notes in the order that pleases me best. As opposed to pleasing Andre Previn.

As I write this, it is 2.00pm on 18th August, 2005 and it is my 21st birthday (all presents gratefully accepted). It may seem a bit depressing to some that I am sitting inside on my birthday, writing random words at my computer, but this sums up my attitude to the craft. It is my panacea - part relaxation, part enjoyment and part ego-boost.

Ah, yes, the small matter of my ego. My writing is driven by my ego. I will quite mercilessly rip the piss out of myself and invite all and sundry to do the same for most of my alleged 'poetry' (I know my limits!), but one of the reasons I write is because I know that I'm good at it. I write because I know I can produce something that's worth reading and the pride of knowing that there are people who do read my work is indescribable. This means that I have to know what people think of my writing. Whether you think it's good, bad, average or just plain weird, I have to know. Please do send me feedback.

I think that's about it actually. Me in a nutshell. I could talk about my love of Leicester rugby club, my wonderful friends and family, Colchester Royal Grammar School or my quite extraordinary laziness, but I think, for the sake of your attention span, I should finish. Those who are still interested, I do have a blog, which contains (very) occasional rambles and more photos of my life as well as interesting links.

Hope you enjoy the stories.

Peter Emuss