Welcome to my weekly Author Spotlight. I’ve asked a bunch of my author friends to answer a set of interview questions, and to share their latest work.
Today: Peter’s first novel, The Woodcarver’s Model was released by Pride Publishing in April of 2022 and was a four time nominee in the Goodreads M/M Romance Readers’ Choice Awards.
Following the success of the first book, Pride Publishing released The Declan Hunt Mysteries series which includes Mann Hunt (nominated for a Goodreads M/M Romance Readers’ Choice Award and recently translated into Spanish), Hoodoo House, (also a Goodreads M/M Romance Readers’ Choice Award nominee and now available in Spanish), and The Burnt which will come out in August of 2025 with Entwined Publishing.
2024 also saw the release of the critically acclaimed teen novella Not Not Normal, published by Lorimer Press.
His previous work was focused on writing for the stage, with award-winning productions of The Giant’s Garden, Newfoundland Mary, Bemused, and The Detective Disappears being produced across the country.
All of his novels are proudly set in Canada and are filled with humour and heart.
He spent many years working in palaeontology in remote locations including the Canadian Rockies, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.
Peter lives in Toronto, Canada with his partner of more than twenty years, Scott White. At heart, he is an incredible romantic.
Thanks so much, Peter, for joining me!
J. Scott Coatsworth: What was your first published work? Tell me a little about it.
Peter E. Fenton: Prior to writing novels I wrote for theatre. I had a number of plays professionally produced, which would be the theatrical equivalent of being published, I guess (although some of the plays are also in published form). I wrote primarily musical comedies with my partner, songwriter and lyricist Scott White. I am ignoring my first play, a disastrous comedy that I would like to forget. The first large scale production was The Giant’s Garden, a family musical inspired by Oscar Wilde’s The Selfish Giant. There was something remarkable about incorporating a children’s choir into the piece. (In total, the theatre company rotated four 25-voice choirs through the run of the show.)
As far as my first published novel goes, it was The Woodcarver’s Model. It followed adventure travel writer/photographer Rob Hansen as he wrapped up a job in war-torn Somalia and moved on to documenting life on idyllic Marsh Island off the coast of British Columbia in Canada. He meets and falls for the younger brother of an old friend. He quickly adapts to tranquil island life, but finds himself swept up in a local political scandal involving developers, corrupt politicians and a plot to destroy everything that the local inhabitants hold dear, all while Rob tries to convince his new-found love that he’s not part of the deception.
JSC: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever done in the name of research?
PEF: I remember calling up an ex and asking him for his opinion as to whether a person could be tied to a particular modernist-design chair securely enough to hold them while the chair was being set on fire. He successfully tested the tying up part on his current boyfriend. I was relieved when he assured me that he did not try to set his boyfriend on fire.
And then there was the call to my brother asking for his recommendations for a 1970s muscle car with a trunk large enough to hold the body of a short, overweight man. Oh, and it had to be available straight from the factory in bright red.
The disturbing thing was that neither of these peopled even question why I needed that information.
JSC: Do you read your book reviews? How do you deal with bad or good ones?
PEF: I tend not to. My partner does, however. He’s taken on the task of marketing my books and has to keep on top of things like audience response. He will tell me about the good ones to buoy my spirits, but knows full well that I am fragile. Although he does read me some of the bad reviews if they are strange enough that he knows they’ll make me laugh.
I was told long ago by my publisher’s marketing person NOT to respond to reviews, whether they are positive or negative. The reader is allowed to have their opinion, and to try and react to a comment in any way may only stoke the flames of discontent. I think it is great that someone took the time to read my book and cared enough to leave a review. And a few bad reviews make your accumulated reviews look more believable. Nothing smacks of review-bias like a list of nothing but 5 star reviews. I also acknowledge that reviews are subjective and sometimes the negative reviews are about strange things like the choice of font.
My partner suggested that if I was ever feeling down, that I should look up a book that I absolutely loved and look up the one star reviews. I was surprised to see that books written by extraordinary authors have lots of poorer reviews and often those reviews are simply about the reader having a certain expectation of a book, and their personal expectation not being met. Books with thousands of reviews all have one star reviews and lots of five star reviews. Ultimately, a book will find the readers that like the book, and those readers will become your loyal followers.
JSC: What do you do if you get a brilliant idea at a bad time?
PEF: I am known for pulling out my phone at any time and in any place to write down a line or idea, although I never do it at a play, concert of movie. That’s just rude.
My usual “worst” time is when I’m in bed, trying to sleep. For some reason that’s when my brain clicks into overdrive. A few years back, shortly after I tore an Achilles tendon and my partner didn’t trust me to get out of bed alone until I had proven myself (a devout klutz) to be crutch-trained, I came up with the perfect closing lines for the end of a book. I didn’t want to wake Scott to have him get me a pen and my notebook so I repeated the lines over and over again in my head. After 45 minutes, he stirred and I begged him to get me a pen and paper, and the lines were put into place. They ended up being the close to Not Not Normal. I WOULD keep a pen and paper or my phone by the bed, but I’d have to turn on the light, waking Scott up, so usually I tip-toe to the office and write down my thought, and then return to bed, and then get up and write down another thought, and then go to bed, and then get up again, and on it goes until my brain finally shuts down for the night.
JSC: What tools do you feel are must-haves for writers?
PEF: Aside from writing skills that include imagination, keen observation of those around you, and a strong sense of language and rhythm, the other most important things are mental tools: patience, self-forgiveness, a willingness to fail, and a thick skin. My tool kit is only partly filled, but I’ll let you guess which ones are missing.
JSC: What are your favorite parts of publishing?
PEF: Sending the submission draft into my editor, knowing I’ll have a bit of a breather before receiving her comments; Opening the carton from my publisher and seeing the hard-copy of the book for the first time; Hearing from readers who tell me that my characters have entertained them, and distracted them from what the world has thrown their way.
JSC: What are your least favorite parts of publishing?
PEF: Falling into the pit of “what the hell have I gotten myself into” every time I think I’ve finished the first draft and discover a critical flaw in logic; Reading my work aloud at the release party—I have an inability to control my emotions, even after countless practice runs at home.
JSC: Name the book you like most among all you’ve written, and tell us why.
PEF: It would have to be the YA gay teen romance novella, Not Not Normal. Of anything I have written—the plays, musicals and novels—this is the only one where I’ve based a character on me. I am the confused, frightened, panic-attack-prone boy, Jordan. To this day I still struggle with panic attacks and a feeling of low self-worth. And, like Jordan, I have been lucky enough to have found someone who loves me for who I am, and has allowed me to become the person I want to be.
JSC: What was the first book that made you cry?
PEF: Tough question since I cry at everything. One book however, the biography J.M. Barrie and the Lost Boys by Andrew Birkin, had me sobbing at the deaths of Michael and Peter Llewelyn Davies—two of the children who formed the inspiration for Peter Pan. As an adult, Peter walked way from his successful publishing career and threw himself under a bus for reasons that were unknown. What had happened to him as a youth? His remaining brother denied that Barrie had ever done anything untoward to the boys as had been often questioned. But Peter was not the first to take his own life. It was Michael, his brother,  when he was a teen. He committed suicide with his boyfriend. The described image of Michael and his equally young boyfriend ending their lives by drowning themselves while they embraced each other, presumably because their love was forbidden, had me shaken for days. Nothing fictional has had the same effect on me.
JSC: What are you working on now, and what’s coming out next? Tell us about it!
PEF: I am currently writing the unnamed fourth installment of The Declan Hunt Mysteries. I’m having fun coming up with new ways to torment my main characters.
What’s coming out next is the third book in the series, The Burnt. There’s not much that I can say about this book without giving spoilers. It follows the growing relationship of Calgary private investigator and former cop Declan Hunt and his partner, Charlie Watts. We have seen their relationship progress from employer/employee to a romantic one, but they have yet to make the final leap.
In The Burnt we learn that finding work-life balance isn’t always easy when you’re sleeping with the boss. Charlie is feeling stressed as he studies for his private investigator’s license, starts taking on his own cases and tries to navigate his relationship with Declan. He thinks he can handle it, but every time their relationship is going well, work always seems to get in the way.
While Charlie investigates a threatening note that appears to be from a boy who mysteriously disappeared ten years ago, Declan tries to find the meaning behind the final words of a man who was brutally murdered. As Declan and Charlie navigate these mysteries, secrets from the past are exposed, Charlie is haunted by ghostly dreams, and Declan is forced to confront some terrible truths from a hidden past.
And now for Peter’s new book: The Burnt:
How far would you be willing to go to reveal the truth?
Finding a good work-life balance isn’t always easy when you’re sleeping with the boss. Charlie Watts is stressed as he studies for his private investigator’s license, starts taking on his own cases and navigates his relationship with Declan Hunt. He thinks he can handle it, but every time their relationship seems to be going well, work gets in the way.
While Charlie investigates a threatening note that appears to be from a boy who disappeared ten years ago, Declan tries to find the meaning behind the final words of a man who was brutally murdered. As Declan and Charlie work to solve these mysteries, secrets from the past are exposed, Charlie is haunted by ghostly dreams and Declan is forced to confront some terrible truths from a hidden past.
Ultimately, the truth will be revealed, but at what cost? And will Declan and Charlie be able to solve the mystery of where they want to go next with their relationship before things at work take a terrible turn?
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Excerpt
Charlie tossed and turned in bed. He got up to go to the bathroom, but something was wrong. He looked over and Declan was sound asleep, snoring softly. The only light in the room came from the alarm clock on Declan’s side table. The clock read three a.m.
Charlie scanned the room. He sensed he was being watched. If something was about to go down, Charlie had to be sure it wasn’t just his imagination.
There was definitely movement in the shadows beside the bathroom door. Someone stepped into view. It was Dave, the burned barista from Charlie’s dream the other night. The ghost sipped at his coffee, and as he stared at Charlie, something began to happen. A delicate shimmer surrounded Dave, then he began to shrink. Whatever was happening, it didn’t seem to concern him. He just stood, stared, sipped and shrank…and altered form. As his height diminished, his proportions changed. His skin was no longer blackened and tattered. Dave was changing into a young boy. Was this what he looked like as a kid? Charlie wondered.
Dave was also dressed differently. He wore a little sailor suit complete with cap. His skin had reverted to the fresh pink of a healthy young child. And Dave now had hair! It was long, curly and blond. The young Dave smiled at Charlie and winked, then ran into the shadows calling out, “Bye, Baby Bunting. Daddy’s gone a-hunting, to get a little rabbit-skin, to hide his baby bunting in. Find me!”
Charlie tried to scream, but nothing came out.