Not Not Famous - 011 - Daniel Sheen
embrace the Infamy
WHAT ARE YOU?
A boy who’s God is teenage and feral, a dark shape with glowing edges—a bashful kid, tender and soft and naive, but also moody and intense and detached and constantly listening to a monologue that no one else can hear. I get grease stains on absolutely everything.
WHAT KEEPS YOU UP AT NIGHT?
The thought that I might die before completing my debut trilogy of novels. Despite my age, I suffer from various bits of my body going mysteriously wrong, but this year has been harder than most, and honestly the thought of dying without completing my story really freaked me the fuck out. These books are my everything. I want to thank these books for being my friends. I will miss writing them. I will miss remembering these people who never existed.
WHAT WAS YOUR WORST REACTION TO A REJECTION?
Well, I’ve now spent the last 4 years expanding my favorite short story that was brutally rejected in 2020 into a 998 page manuscript. That will show ‘em lol! But seriously, I don’t really mind rejections. Obviously some hurt more than others, but in general, at least it means I’m doing something with my life. I’d rather have a hundred rejections than be sitting here not having sent out a single submission, you know?
WHAT ARE YOU AFRAID OF EXPOSING IN YOUR WORK?
That I have no idea what I’m doing. That I am completely untrained. That I just sat down one day and started writing and I haven’t been able to stop. But also. How my brain works. How lacking the filter is between my thoughts and my keyboard. How obsessed I am—with childhood, with nostalgia, with longing and homesickness, with all the things I cannot have, with what it might mean to never grow up. But on the other hand, at least I’m honest about my obsesssions. And who knows, maybe I can play that out to my advantage. Maybe I’ll be one of them artists who become enthralled by a single all-consuming theme, circling it like a starving hawk until the day I die, shaping my entire life into an altar of unflinching devotion for this one thing, this only thing, and through that devotion—the making of that one thing, into everything—perhaps that’s how I’ll touch the universe.
WHAT WILL YOU DO IF YOU RUN OUT OF IDEAS?
To be honest, I can’t really see that happening. I have a brain cursed with the silly mind pictures. No matter what happens, they just keep on coming. This is not to boast or anything. It’s likely I have undiagnosed issues lol.
WHAT ARE YOU HERE TO PLUG?
Hmm, because I am a very small and newly formed thing within this vast literary world, and because I’ve spent most of this past year either being ill, or frantically editing my books, I actually have very little of my own stuff to plug right now, even though there are many things in the pipeline. Obviously there’s my Pushcart nominated story ‘Predator,’ which is still for sale in the ‘Dirt in the Sky’ anthology from Filthy Loot. And of course, there’s all the free-to-read stuff on my website. But apart from that, most everything else is still in the works. Although the 86-page zine I just spent near about 2 years on is almost ready. This zine—which includes 38 brand new pieces of art—is going to be an atmospheric tie-in with my novels, and I’m hoping for a summer 2025 release. In the meantime, I’m waiting on three big novel writing competitions to get back to me, and I’m also waiting on news of two rather niche short stories. Apparently so much of the publishing industry is about waiting lol. And lastly, I’m working on a little bit of prose for a very special zine that’s coming out of LA early next year, plus I’m slowly fleshing out the outlines for the sequels to my trilogy, because it seems like I’ve lost all control of the people in my head, and so I reckon there might be a total of 5 books in the series now. So fingers crossed that’s the next 15 years sorted for me (I’m a very slow writer!).
In terms of non-literary stuff, there’s a load of DJ sets up on my SoundCloud, of which the ambient set (at the top of the page) is one of the best things I’ve ever made. Plus, I have a weird shoegaze/ambient EP up on Bandcamp. It’s very cheap. Please buy it, haha.
But if we’re talking about other people’s stuff, here are a few of my fave things from this year:
BOOKS:
The Lookback Window, by Kyle Dillon Hertz.
The Gallopers, by John Ranson.
My Heavenly favourite, by Lucas Rijneveld
God’s Own Country, by Ross Raison.
Runt, by Niall Griffiths.
Ripcord, by Nate Lippens.
Anyone’s Ghost, by August Thompson.
The World of Normal Boys, by K.M Soehnlein.
Army of Lovers, by K.M Soehnlein.
Looking Glass Sound, by Catriona Ward.
MUSIC:
Fred Again and Brian Eno – Secret Life
Jon Hopkins – Ritual
Marcus Whale – Ecstasy
Gregor Schwellenbach – In E
sea + i – past earth
Daniel sheen is a queer multidisciplinary artist and writer. He is obessed by modern fairy tales, homesickness for places that don’t exist, and longing for things he can never have. He is currently writing his debut trilogy of novels.
@danielsheenuk on twitter
@disaffected.youth on instagram
danielsheenwrites on tumblr