Maurice Suckling has produced and directed plays for a number of British theatre groups. He has also worked as a radio and television scriptwriter and a creative consultant for a number of national and multinational companies. Since 1998, he has been working as a writer, editor, designer, voice director and project manager in the computer games industry. His first collection of short stories, Photocopies of Heaven (Elastic Press) was published in 2006.

When did you decide you wanted to be a writer?

I think I always wanted to be one. I always wrote stuff, little ideas, thoughts - that kind of thing.

The first story I really remember and was maybe worth remembering was called The Island of Blue Glass. I’m not sure how to explain it - it was a kind of surreal love story in which I wanted to never write the word love, because I thought there were lots more interesting ways of writing about the subject. I wanted to try and write a love story without clichés or laziness.

I never showed it to a publisher. Only a handful of people have read it. Amongst the people who read it were some of my brother Laurence’s students from across Europe. Some people wrote to me to tell me how much they liked it - so I suppose it was received well, if not that widely.

How did you feel about this?

It made me feel fantastic - that I’d communicated with people I didn’t know who lived thousands of miles away and that they’d felt something that made them want to write to someone they’d never met. I thought maybe I should write some more and see what else happens…

How have your personal experiences influenced the direction of your writing?

Everything I read, watch, listen to, everywhere I go, everyone I meet makes some kind of impression somewhere and it all goes in, and sometimes finds a way out. I tend to write about people who live now, are used to a technology-rich, consumerist-heavy and religiously- or spiritually-poor world. People like me, and people like my friends. Maybe that doesn’t answer the question.

To you, what are aliens?

Slimey green beings from other planets with lots of tentacles, though there are probably lots of different styles; some maybe wear human suits. I’ve never met any aliens (as far as I know) but I like writing about them because they are cool. They’re very pliable for dramatic purposes - invasion stories, horror stories, stories about the strangeness and surprising nature of the universe, and also, because of certain imagery and preconceptions about them in popular culture, they also have lots of potential for humour.