Tim Pieraccini lives on the South Coast of the UK, with 2,000 books and an even greater number of DVDs. When not writing, or attempting to reduce his TBR pile, he can be found videoing performing arts students and editing the results. He is the author of Yes, a short book on spirituality, and No Way To Beehive; the Story of the Sweet Pills (Cheer Down Press, 2027). He also made a number of short films and a feature-length film with an all-female cast, All Heart, which is on YouTube. His writing has been published by Flame Tree, the Triangulation Anthology, Doctor Who Magazine and Dragon’s Roost Press. The Triangulation story, F Sharp 4, featured in The Best of British Science Fiction 2018.
He describes himself as an incurable romantic and a terminal optimist. And a feminist. A lifelong fan of Doctor Who, and of SFF in general, he has also taken an active interest in classic literature and would number George Eliot (Middlemarch), Mrs Gaskell (Wives and Daughters), Hermann Hesse (Siddhartha) and Charles Reade (The Cloister and the Hearth) among those who’ve produced favourite books – even if he’s actually spent more time reading the works of Stan Lee and collaborators…
Among modern authors, most read are: Barbara Kingsolver, Zadie Smith, Lidia Yuknavitch, Elena Ferrante, Cormac McCarthy, Ali Smith, Sally Rooney, Martin Amis, Claire Keegan…
Tim is also an artist and was well-known in Blake’s 7 fan circles for illustrating a large number of zines and newsletters. He also wrote stories for the same outlets, notably a Fifth Season. His complete capitulation to the charms of Marvel Comics in the mid-70s resulted in a steady stream of home-made comics, none of which now survive, but he hasn’t entirely given up on the idea of doing another series, someday.
Favourite films include A Man For All Seasons, Dead Poets Society, Shadowlands, 84 Charing Cross Road, Stage Door, Wonder Man (1945), Wonder Woman, Three Colours: Red, The Devil Rides Out, Les Demoiselles de Rochefort, The Bishop’s Wife, The Holly and the Ivy… well, where to stop…?
Musically speaking he admires Bob Dylan more than anyone else, with second place going to George Harrison (and his first band, of course – and the Wilburys are good, too). Tim was a teenager during the punk/new wave era, so many favourites come from that period: The Stranglers, The Jam, Elvis Costello, Blondie, The Buzzcocks, Joy Division. There are also some guilty pleasures from that era, like Smokie and Showaddywaddy.
Why write? Because it’s impossible not to come up with characters and situations and stories, and it seems a waste not to write them down. And it’s (mostly) fun!
And if there’s a single guiding principle behind what Tim writes, it would be this: people are complicated.