VANESSA GEBBIE'S BLOG

Off to write in Ireland

2012-01-19T15:24:00.000-08:00

I am away for a couple of weeks, so here are some #StoryGym prompts for those who would like to use them:

Barnaby and the unicorn

Crazy like Nellie last Wednesday

Who says the world isn't flat? Grandad knows it is, because...

What was behind the door

The coward the mistress the spider plant

I wandered lonely as a daffodil

The death of Denzil Murgatroyd

WORDS, SOUNDS, MEANINGS

2012-01-14T04:29:00.000-08:00

OK, I was an odd child. I can remember, when I was just six years old, (we’d moved house, so I can pinpoint my age) lying in bed each morning before I got up and running through the words I knew - in case I forgot them. A task that never finished, of course - but a daily ritual all the same. I’d start by listing the things in each room in the house - and for some reason always got sidetracked by the word ‘table’, repeating the syllables over and over...Tay b’lll Tai bul Ta b’l, until they meant nothing at all. Then, I’d wonder about why sounds meant things... I was frequently late for breakfast... This is a TAY BULL.
Try it - say them, these syllables, say them over and over again. Tay Bull. Tay Bull - soon, the sounds become just themselves in the mouth of an animal who knows nothing but the sound made in that instant.

How on earth did these two sounds come to mean what we had breakfast on? Who decided? Who first stood by a plank in a cave (this is how the child’s thought process went, thanks to some rudimentary history of man...) put some meat or bread down on said plank and announced ‘TAY BULL’? This is a PLANK? Nope, it's the first TAY BULL
OK, I am not six now, but ten times that, and it still intrigues me. Look, forget the fact that we know the word comes from Latin, or whatever - someone was still the first person to link sounds to the thing we use to place stuff so it is not on the floor, a flat surface, plank for playing on, worksurface, eating surface. Ta Bu Lla. Tar Bull Uh.
This is a TA BULL LAH
How the hell did Tar Bull Uh mean that plank they were throwing stones on? And why did the other person nod sagely and say “Yup. Sure is...hey, Barnie, look at this Tar Bull Uh - one day Flintstone Chippendale next cave up will be making those and selling them for a mint...’’

The nerd in me likes looking that sort of stuff up and the etymological dictionary says this of my humble but puzzling word...
TAY BULL

TABLE late 12c., "board, slab, plate," from O.Fr. table "board, plank, writing table, picture" (11c.), and late O.E. tabele, from W.Gmc. *tabal (cf. O.H.G. zabel, Ger. Tafel), both from L. tabula "a board, plank, table," originally "small flat slab or piece" usually for inscriptions or for games, of uncertain origin, related to Umbrian tafle "on the board." The sense of "piece of furniture with the flat top and legs" first recorded c.1300 (the usual Latin word for this was mensa; O.E. writers used bord). The meaning "arrangement of numbers or other figures for convenience" is recorded from late 14c. (e.g. table of contents, mid-15c.). Figurative phrase turn the tables (1630s) is from backgammon (in O.E. and M.E. the game was called tables). Table talk is attested from 1560s, translating L. colloquia mensalis. To table-hop is first recorded 1956. The adj. phrase under-the-table "hidden from view" is recorded from 1949; under the table "passed out from excess drinking" is recorded from 1921. Table tennis is recorded from 1887.
table (v.)

But it doesn’t help, does it? I am still intrigued... and still run words through my head, and my mouth, until they mean nothing but their sounds. If you can do this with Tay Bull, oh lordie, how much faith do you have to have in other people, hoping that these sounds mean the same in their heads as they do in yours...This is a TAY BULL. It was once, etymologically speaking, a PLANK. Indeed, it was...or several...and before that it was a TREE... tuh REE... tuh REE
It’s too big to understand, this meaning stuff.
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In conclusion:-
TAY BULL by Flintstone Chippendale.

Publishers Weekly pre-pub review

2012-01-13T14:24:00.001-08:00

"The tenderness and generosity of this debut novel is strengthened by the precision and sharpness of its language."
and
"...this compassionate and sage depiction of a rural community gives the ... warmly fashioned characters the power of healing and forgiveness. "

A kind pre-publication review for 'The Coward's Tale' in the USA. Here, in Publishers Weekly.

HAPPY NEW YEAR - ROUND UP OF 2011

2012-01-01T05:30:00.000-08:00

On the basis that we must keep growing, not repeating the same old same old - for that way there be dragons - here is a list of things I did in 2011 that I’d never done before.

1. February. Became a grandmother. My granddaughter Millie was born on 19th February. Refusing to be called either Grannie, Grandma, Nan or Nanna, I am ‘Thingy’, pending Millie choosing what noise is appropriate.

2.March. Spent two weeks in Aldeburgh, on a reading retreat.

3. April. Spent a few days with a military historian, following in the footsteps of The Swansea Pals.

4. May. Read at The Brighton Festival Fringe

5. May. I lost my father, so for the first time I have no living parent, and it is an odd feeling. But it is life. Much missed.

6. May/June Ran a workshop for the first time at Anam Cara, my own brilliant writing retreat. (No, not mine, but where I go, myself...) The place is good, and calm, and creative. And healing.

7. August. Went on a play writing course

8. September. Ran a weekend writing retreat for women writers at the gorgeous Tilton House. First time I’d spent that amount of time with women, since my school days. Loved it. A fab group of 11 writers, we had a ball, thanks to the organisation of New Writing South.

9. October. Visited Sicily. Stayed in Palermo for a long weekend with great friends, and loved it. The rush of the mad traffic, the seedy city streets where a bombed out church from 1944 will still be teetering over a newer building, the trip to the much quieter beautiful Monreale with its stunning mosaics.

10. October. Short Story Commission - I’d not done one before. This came from the British Council - who commissioned a story exploring the achievements of women, for a EUNIC project run from Athens. Stories from many EU countries will be translated into Greek and published alongside the originals in an anthology to be launched in Athens on International Women’s Day. That’ll be a first - never been to the Greek mainland, and am looking forward greatly.

11. November. Had my first novel published, by Bloomsbury. A gorgeous hardback with foil-blocked jacket created by Holly MacDonald, reminiscent of the woodcuts of Eric Ravilious.

12. November. Taught flash fiction workshops, but, for the first time, shared with with Tania Hershman - something we'd been promising we'd do for ages. Had a great time at the Bridport Open Book Festival.

13. December. First ever reviews of my writing in the broadsheets, most notably in The Financial Times (where it was A N Wilson’s novel of the year) , The Guardian (where it was also a Guardian Reader’s best novel of the year), The Independent , There was also an interview by The Telegraph, another first!

14. On national radio for the first time - BBC Radio 3’s The Verb. A short story was commissioned, recorded by a gorgeous Welsh voice - and there was studio discussion.

It was a fine year, despite the sadnesses. All is OK. So - Happy New Year! Here is to an excellent 2012. May the year to come bring you good health, good friends, good times. Here's a daffodil outside my front door. 1st January. I wonder if it will bloom, or if the frost will get him?
V

SUNDAY SERMON - THE IMPORTANCE OF STORIES

2011-12-28T01:07:00.001-08:00

Susan Greenfield on Storytelling from The School of Life on Vimeo.

CHRISTMAS IN SOUTHWOLD

2011-12-27T02:41:00.000-08:00

...................................................Benacre beach, grass, feather, shadows
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........................................................... Old Father Time, Benacre
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......................................................Southwold beach, Christmas morning
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.......................................................Beach huts, Christmas morning
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..........................................................Toby, mouth of River Blyth
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........................................................Chris and I, Christmas morning walk
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......................................................Benacre beach, sparrowhawk rising
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....................................................Benacre bar
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...................................................Walking on the sliding cliffs
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......................................................Wood, pebbles, sand

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THE WRITING SMITHY

2011-12-18T11:11:00.000-08:00

And now for something completely different. I know only too well how hard it is to find the right people to work with as a writer, especially when seeking quality feedback and support. So, I invited novelist Jenn Ashworth and poet Sarah Hymas , not only experienced, well-published writers, but also experienced tutors,to talk a little about their place, The Writing Smithy, .

Vanessa Gebbie: For an aspiring writer seeking help, doing research to find the best place to spend what little spare cash they have, the world of writing consultancies can be a frightening, confusing place, chocca with all sorts of organisations promising to open doors, to change a writer's life. Why did you think there was room for another? Why did you start The Writing Smithy?

Jenn Ashworth: I had the idea floating around for a while - I'd worked as a freelance for other consultancies but had become uncomfortable with some of the working styles and policies I'd noticed. And even though there are lots and lots of consultancies offering services to writers, few of them are run by writers themselves and have the focus on process and rewriting that ours does.
Sarah Hymas: I had been working closely with writers for Litfest in Lancaster, as the editor of its publishing imprint, Flax. We offered one-to-one professional development sessions for writers we published and the feedback was, again and again, how useful the writers, at whatever points of their career, found the sessions The chance to talk candidly and confidentially with someone about your writing and career can clarify aspirations, definitions of success and so help with persuing the path you've chosen. I wanted to offer this to writers beyond the North West remit of Lancaster's Litfest. Plus, I really enjoy it myself!

VG: Can you say a little more about The Writing Smithy's focus on process, first, then as another issue - rewriting? They are so fundamental - once I'd learned the way my own brain worked, as a writer, I was away!

Jenn: I think partly this was a little bit of a reaction to what we saw as the 'get published quick' flavour of a lot of businesses doing this kind of work - of course we care about our own careers and most of our clients are very ambitious for themselves in that way too. But if the focus is on writing a synopsis, marketing yourself and so on - then where and when is editing, drafting, the long, slow process that learning to do something better involves being addressed? We do genuinely think that working on the writer as well as the writing itself is the most long-lasting form of help we can give other writers.

Sarah: Plus we find it fascinating! As you said, Vanessa, once you found how your brain works you were away. That exploration of ourselves is so unique and ultimately rewarding for all of us, and to be alongside someone tunnelling their own synapses is a privilege. Hopefully it's a continually evolving process too, so there is always something new to learn at all stages of our journeys as writers. Certainly that's what we believe. It's an essential part of creativity: the search for the new... both externally and internally. As for your question about rewriting: its long, slow and intricate. But as creative as the first drafting process - there's something like the art of wood carving in the precision that is needed in the rewriting stage: keeping true to the essence of the thing without chopping off the thumb!

VG: How do you work with a writer on their own process?

Jenn: I listen and observe a lot, and then ask questions that are aimed at getting the writer I am working with to examine the ways they instinctively or habitually go about things, and consider alternatives. I think it's just as important to understand why and when certain methods or techniques work as it is to know when they aren't, so I might also work with a writer to help them understand just why that brilliant paragraph or piece of writing works so well - to turn sucessess from flukes into choices.

Sarah: Yes, it is the questions that encourage the self-examination that are key, I agree with Jenn. And reading of course. How someone reads other people's work, what work you're drawn too, can also help to illuminate your instincts towards writing style and subject: what is it that we love about somebody else's approach to a subject we are interested in? How is our work different?

VG: So how do you guide them in the vital stage of rewriting a manuscript?

Jenn: the most important thing, for me, is before we even go near the writing - to help the writer I am working with articulate exactly what it is they are setting out to achieve. The writer sets the goals. I might ask questions aimed at getting the writer to clarify their goals, or encourage them to aim as high as they can, but writing is all about making decisions and I'm careful not to get in the way of that decision making process. All that's a lot more difficult than it sounds! I can and do give an honest reader's response to a manuscript and that might include some critical feedback, as you'd expect in a usual teaching situation, but my feedback is always aimed at helping a writer achieve what they want to - not my own idea of what makes good writing, or anyone else's.

Sarah: And that is always the crucial thing: to remove our own instincts and tastes from the process. It isn't about suggesting what would be good to write instead, but to flag up how everything builds towards towards that intention. And leave the writer to consider on the possible solutions, or to discuss those with them. I also think it's very useful to identify the 'nub' of a piece, be that the climax, anti-climax, key word or phrase in a poem that the writer believes to be holding it together. This can help with deciding on the shape of a poem: how to build up to that, fall away from it etc... Although having said that I'm always very keen to share with them other poets' work I love.

VG: Perhaps you can reveal a little of your own learning processes here - the things you've learned along the way that feed into what you are now doing for others?

Jenn: I've learned to get a handle on my own bad habits of procrastination and how to tune out distractions! Procrastination - motivation, these things come up very often and I feel I can speak a bit from experience! But I've also learned I need to be gentle with myself and that I need breaks - my concentration span isn't as long as I'd like it to be and that is what it is. Even if you can't totally eliminate your weaknesses, you can work around them!

Sarah: I think it's about trusting myself: I'm working on ideas and drafts even when it doesn't seem like it. When I'm walking or cooking or reading. And by understanding that you can give drafts the space they need to percolate. Patience is invaluable. After all, while it might feel like, it isn't heart surgery, everything can wait, really.

Thank you, both of you, for taking the time to consider my questions - all strength to you both, and to The Writing Smithy. Hats off, chaps - those writers who find you are lucky people.

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I hope that’s been useful - please feel free to spread the word. And to close - I love the ethos, as stated on their website -

Your work is yours – we won’t steer you in a direction you’re not happy with and although growth means change, we understand what it’s like to be a writer. We don’t want to turn you into something you’re not.

Writers, beware bureaucracy...The Story of not getting £150

2011-12-13T05:12:00.000-08:00

Postscript - another writer in the same position, different University, has waited since APRIL for her payment... this is unacceptable, isn't it? Why should writers be treated like this?
If you are reading this, and know of any other instances where Universities use and abuse writers, please let me know. Might as well make a list...with no names mentioned if you'd rather not.

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Writers, be aware of the issues that can arise if you agree to a commission.
Back in the summer, I agreed to supply two stories to 'Matter', Sheffield Hallam University's annual anthology of poetry and short stories, written by students on their Masters in Creative Writing Programme, and supported by published writers like me - who were to be paid £150.
Or so I thought. In October, (three months after the commission, delivery and acceptance of the work) I asked about payment. This was prior to the launch of the anthology in London, to which I was invited, and at which I was asked to read. I was asked to bring an invoice, which I did. Yes, I'd read, gladly, launch was held in London Review Bookshop, The Coward's Tale was about to come out, so timing was great.
They didn't offer travel expenses, but I thought - hey, nice event, good people - I'll support. Trainfare, tube, car parking, cost me just over £35.00. OK - I'll pay for that out of my fee. That will leave me with £115 clear. I even bought my own copy of the anthology at the launch - 'Oh we should have given you one of those ... sorry.' which cost some further ££ from the pot. No one suggested giving me my money back...
A few weeks later, having heard nothing, about the fee, I queried via email. The reply came back - Oh sorry, we cant pay you without an electronic invoice."
I zapped one back - slightly niggled - as no one had previously asked for it electronically...
Weeks pass. over a month. Unis often work on a monthly pay system - but no - nothing. So I queried again... and yes, it would be paid soon, it was in the pipeline.
Oh good. Jump up and down in glee at the prospect...Except nothing happened.
I queried again. (Now five months since the commission, delivery and acceptance of the work, and now post-publication, in an anthology they are selling, selling MY WORK... and I bought my own to support... am I feeling VERY silly by now?
So will they pay me this time? Nope - "Oh sorry, the Finance dept outsources payments to Northgate. They need to check your tax status among other things, before they can process the payment..." ie - The payment hadn't even been processed. They were sitting on it, just as they'd sat on it back in October, waiting for me to query again - and again - and again.

I'm afraid I got cross. My husband said weeks ago - "They will string it out until you give up, Ness - querying it will cost you more than the final sum..." and I didn't like to believe that. But now, yup- he was right. The behaviour of the university was simply rude, disrespectful, and I wasnt going to waste my time any more....apart that is from a final timewaster - writing this, to warn writers to get payment UP FRONT in these circumstances. The people with whom I dealt over the anthology, and my stories - the creative people, were really nice. Charming - but they weren't the Finance people, who scatter their emails liberally with indicators of who they'd like to be - FINANCE DIRECTORATE. (Huh? Accounts Dept would do, thanks...) Orwell would love this lot.

I pulled the plug, and lost my payment, which I'd never had anyway, suspect they were trying hard to make me give up ...and which The Directorate can now delete from their system, and pay a minion the same as I should have been paid, for the deletion.

But final laugh, a form arrived from the Directorate just now - for me to fill in - yet more timewasting, and I'd no doubt get something wrong, and have to wait, and not be told until I queried in January. February, March.... They hadn't even clocked that I'd pulled the plug.

Learn from my lack of awareness, and my silly trusting nature. And here is the form... sent 5 months late, from the Sheffield Hallam Finance Directorate, who could not direct a leaf down a stream. Enjoy!

Status Enquiry Form

Your answers should be in respect of the work you are undertaking for Sheffield Hallam University

1 Full Name
2 Nature of Business
3 Full Address & post code

4 Daytime tel number
5 Mobile Number
6 HMRC office and 10 digit ref eg 981/1234567890
7 What is the exact nature of work to be undertaken for the University

8 Name & address of location at which the work is to be done

Who decided this?
9 State the frequency of the work eg
a) hours of attendance
b) Days of attendance
c) Length of contract
10 What is the
rate of pay
frequency of pay
who decided this
provide a sample copy of your invoices to the university
11 Contact name at location or name of individual/team in SHU offering work
12 If written contract or other documentation setting out conditions of engagement please provide a copy
13 How was the contract obtained. Eg tender, advert other (please state)
14 Who decides what work to be done
15 Who issues instruction/guidance on what, where, when and how the work is to be done?
16 is your work checked?
If so by whom
17 Can you be moved from job to job if the universities’ priorities change?
18 are you required to abide by a code of practice or other regulations laid down by SHU?
If so please give details of any handbook or other literature issued (you may be asked for a copy later)
19 Are you entitled to holiday pay, sick pay or other benefits?
20 Are you personally obliged to do the work?
21 is there an obligation to provide someone else to do the work if you are unavailable?
If you are not obliged to send someone else do you have the right to do so?
In reality is it possible to send someone else?
Have you ever sent someone in your place
If so who and when?
Who paid the person at 21d
22 What materials/equipment is necessary for the job?

Who provides these?
23 are any duties performed other than on university premises?
If so what are they?
Where are they performed
What equipment is provided and by whom (at the other location)
24 if while you are undertaking the work you are dismissed can/do you expect a period of notice?
If so how much notice would you expect and vice versa
Is the notice contractual/verbal or understood?
25 Do you have other clients for whom you undertake similar types of work

How many in the last 12 months
26 Do you pay any specific insurance premiums such as public liability insurance?
27 Are you engaged as a teacher or a tutor?

If the answer is yes – continue
If the answer is no go to question 30
28 Do you give instruction on 3 days or more in any 3 month period?
29 Are your duties designed to lead to a certificate, diploma, degree or professional qualification?
30 I certify that the above information supplied by me is correct to the best of my knowledge and belief. Signed Date
Based on the answers provided a decision will be made as to whether PAYE/NIC rules apply
If you require any further information please contact: Northgate Payroll Helpdesk 0870 0668695

LOVELY BOOKS ARRIVE IN THREES

2011-12-12T08:52:00.000-08:00

Pressies to meself!!
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Three marvellous books by three writing friends - all three books clattered through the letterbox last week. So I shall tell you about them, and you must rush out and get them because they are terrific... just in time for Christmas.

‘Somewhere Else or Even Here’ (Salt Modern Fiction) is a Scott Prize winner and debut collection from A J Ashworth. I shall declare an interest here - I have admired AJA’s work ever since I first read her story ‘Overnight Miracles’ in the last Willesden Herald winners anthology New Short Stories 5, and was only too delighted when she asked me for a blurb quote for her collection. I said, using one of her own wonderful phrases -

‘The stories here really are shooting stars - ‘brilliant sparkling scratches’ against the night. A very gifted wrtiter. One to watch...’

The lovely Maggie Gee also blurbed as did Simon van Booy, winner of the 2009 Frank O’Connor Prize, who said:

‘With beauty, poise and fearlessness, A. J. Ashworth creates worlds that are chillingly real, exploring the raw human need for attachment and the fear of closeness in a way that is both tender and haunting. She is a fierce new talent.’

Nuff said, really. if you enjoy great short stories, get it. Easy.
Here it is on Salt Publishing’s website - HERE! Go get it!
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Next, ‘The Juno Charm’ (Salmon Poetry) the third full collection of poetry from Nuala Ni Chonchuir. Author of three short story collections, and a novel described by The Irish Examiner as ‘a gem’ - Nuala is one of the most prolific and consistently strong writers I know, working across the forms with apparent ease. I was delighted to welcome her on a recent blog-tour stop for ‘The Juno Charm’ - and she allowed me to include one of the poems - so go back a few posts to read the intriguing poem entitled 'Japanese Madonna'.
To quote from the description of the collection - in this book Ni Chonchuir

‘explores the worlds of two marriages - one waning one waxing - and the pain of pregnancy loss and fertility struggles’ ... ‘employs her signature sensual frankness...’. 'Sometimes irreverent, always vivid, this is poetry ripe with imaginative possibility and wit.'

And I love Mary O’Donnell’s quote, which says that Nuala

‘reveals herself as a witty and energetic purveyor of the happiness and pleasure that lie on the far side of common experience.’

A great collection. ‘The Juno Charm’ can be bought from the publisher and other places...but it’s sold out on Amazon, so ...

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Finally I have five copies (wheee!) of another poetry collection, and will be giving this to poetry-loving friends this Christmas. Bookseller, writer and general good egg Jen Campbell undertook a challenge over the weekend of 5/6 November, to write 100 poems in a weekend. She did this to raise money for EEC International, a charity that funds research centres looking into gene p63 and degenerative eye conditions associated with EEC Syndrome - (Electrodactyly-ectodermal dysplasia clefting syndrome) - which Jen has. It is likely that most people who have EEC syndrome will lose their sight. If a cure can be found for this degenerative eye sign problem, it will help thousands of people worldwide. Not just those with EEC.

The poems were written over 48 hours to tag-word prompts sent to Jen on Twitter. I knew that wonderful things can sometimes happen when a writer puts herself under pressure - sometimes - but these poems really are something quite special.

Here are two, with Jen’s permission.

No 35 (Tag word, “Collage”)

We find ourselves as decoupage.

I think this, standing on an escalator
leaning on your arm. We bend and
mould to fit. Adapt and layer over.

When you sleep, your limbs shed skin
like changing clothes. I could take them
to hang. Line the walls of a gallery.

We could spend the weekends walking
amongst ourselves
seeing how we’ve grown.

No 82 (Tag words ‘Mill” and “Holland”)

You want a shoulder tattooed tulip
looking back to time we spent there.

The thick air of autumn cafes
hand in hand with the canal.

Jen produced the books in a limited edition of 200, with cover brilliantly illustrated by Greg McLeod. If there any left, you can buy them via Jen’s blog HERE- If there are none left, you can read all about them, and her... at the same place.

Her first book (other than this one), the hilarious ‘Wierd Things Customers Say In Bookshops’ will be published by Constable and Robinson in April 2012.

IMAGINE...BRIDPORT OPEN BOOK FESTIVAL

2011-11-30T14:34:00.000-08:00

Imagine – a festival that includes a whole community – young and old, readers, writers and those in between. A festival that seeks to celebrate the written word in all its forms – poetry and prose, and which celebrates the performance of those words too. A festival that is not held in starry, glitzy and expensive venues, but in a working theatre space, a converted chapel - Bridport Arts Centre. Or in a room above a restaurant. Or in a café. And a festival that attracts not only local readers and writers, and emerging writers, and those who have emerged (whatever that be...) but also some of the best known names in the land.
Carol Ann Duffy, poet laureate. A L Kennedy, much lauded writer and performer. It doesn’t get better than that.

The Bridport Open Book Festival is the celebration of the written word that surrounds one of the most respected story and poetry competitions in the English speaking world – The Bridport Prize.
In 2007, this writer won a prize in the short story section, and we travelled down, my husband and I, all the way from Sussex. At the prizegiving lunch I met writers who had come from the west coast of the USA to collect a £50 prize – such is the respect for this award, and an indication of how much it matters to those whose work is selected. 2011 was no different. Several writers had traveled great distances for their moment of glory – a walk amid warm applause up to the Bridport Arts Centre stage, to collect a cream envelope from this year’s judges... see above - said poet laureate and said lauded writer/performer.

I was at Bridport to do a few things meself. Firstly, running two flash fiction workshops alongside friend and colleague Tania Hershman,
she of The White Road and Other Stories, and Bristol Science faculty, and much too much more to mention in one sentence! Friday’s session was held in a packed room above a rather nice restaurant called The Olive Tree, who supplied us with fresh coffee, pastries, cakes - and Saturday’s was in the school room attached to the Quaker meeting house. We had a brilliant time – participants left each session with at least three first draft flashes, and a sprinkling of story seeds and ideas for more. Lovely to work with T – and lovely to plan ahead for more workshops in 2012. I was particularly pleased that David Woolley came to a session – he is the new Festival Director, an acclaimed poet, and erstwhile director of the Dylan Thomas Centre at Swansea, and the Dylan Thomas Festival. We had an interesting and not-long-enough natter about prose poetry..., which he says, does not exist. Hope to be able to argue more intelligently next year if I go as a customer again!

Second, a lovely event scheduled for 6 pm on Saturday evening, showing how winning a Bridport Prize can lead to amazing things – my chance to compere an event – to interview colleagues who have gone on to be published, and to invite them to read their work. Judith Allnatt read to us from her second novel, the rather brilliant ‘The Poet’s Wife’ – about Patty, wife of John Clare. And short story writer Adam Marek, author of ‘Instruction Manual for Swallowing’ (Comma Press) read a new short story. I read from The Coward’s Tale. Q and A followed.

'Storm Warning' (second collection) was the adult title chosen for the Bridport Big Read this year (thank you!) and it was great to answer a question about mining – added to The Coward’s Tale – it does make me seem a bit of a nerd – o soddit. I am a nerd. Official.

Then, clutching a pint glass containing a local cider brew, we sidled into the main theatre for one of the main highlights of the Festival... Onto the stage came not only our poet laureate, clad in a flowing grey top, but a musician by the name of John Sampson who proceeded to floor us with his playing of penny whistles, recorders of all sorts, crump horns and goat horns, at one point donning a Mozart wig. Oh he was so clever. Acted with his eyes and had everyone in stitches. Or he had us on the verge of tears... as he accompanied CAD in her reading of some of her poems. She in turn accompanied us on a journey through the gamut of emotion – we laughed at her observations, and we nodded in understanding and in awe, and we cried. At least I did – when she finished with a poem about her mother. But they were good tears!
I certainly fell in love a little with Carol Ann – as did most of the other writers with me, both male and female. What a star! To recover, we found there is a jolly nice curry house in Bridport High Street. Six of us gathered there and stuffed our faces until late...

Saturday, and the second workshop. More great work, interesting exercises – including a science based ‘word cricket’ which had me scribbling like crazy... Then the prize-giving bubbly reception, lunch and award ceremony, watching the winners and runners up receiving their prizes from the judges. Smashing to see Euan Thorneycroft from A M Heath, the London lit agency who read all the finalists’ work (and my agent...proof if such was needed that The Bridport Prize really does change lives). Smashing to see friend and colleague Peggy Riley collecting her runner-up prize, and smashing to hear many of the winners reading their poems, flashes, and snippets of stories.
Back to The Bull Hotel in the High Street for tea, with Adam and Tania – which morphed into an early sarnie supper before the second highlight of the festival, A L Kennedy on stage – and said supper in turn morphed into early sarnie supper with said A L K. It was great to meet her properly – to be able to ask questions like ‘So what did the Austrians/German audiences think of ‘Day’?’ and stuff like that.

Her performance later, alone on stage, and shoeless, was terrific. Inspirational. Moving...I won't spoil it, if you haven’t seen her – suffice it to say that she is in love with words, and always has been. She is a quietly great actor, too – to hear her perform Goneril’s speech to Lear, while fixing a man in the front row with a gentle gaze – was absolutely unforgettable.
Sir, I love you more than word can yield the matter; 
Dearer than eyesight, space, and liberty; 
Beyond what can be valued, rich or rare; 
No less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honour; 
As much as child e’er loved, or father found 
A love that makes breath poor, and speech unable. 
Beyond all manner of so much I love you...

I should think the gentleman's wife gave him hell later... If you didn’t also fall in love with words that evening, you weren’t listening properly, sez me.

Then we repaired to a nearby watering hole to partake of the waters, easing past a badge-laden bouncer to take advantage of a lull in the evening’s jollities – until our table was removed by the bar staff, who warned us ‘it gets packed in here, just you wait...’
Brekkie at Hive Beach café on the Sunday, before taking Tania to Dorchester station – sitting outside in the sunshine, listening to the crashing of the waves...then walking on the beach and marveling at the cliffs. It was a wedding anniversary - I got home, knackered, to a huge bunch of flowers, and supper cooking...lucky me.

Thanks Bridport, I had a wonderful and unforgettable time. And before I sign off, this is the lady behind the Bridport Prize -the lovely and incredibly hard-working Frances Everett, who deserves an enormous round of applause!
---
Oh. PS - I had a poem shortlisted. This has now happened a few times - and not the same poem neither. Who knows - one day, I might end up with a pome in the anthology. I'd like that. There's a public challenge for me!

GARRISON KEILLOR, STANLEY SPENCER, CHAUCER, BRUEGHEL, DYLAN THOMAS ET AL...

2011-11-22T09:10:00.000-08:00

The Coward's Tale is compared to the work of many different people, in reviews out this week - in an attempt to explain what it is like. Among the comparisons are: "A Welsh version of Garrison Keillor"-

.This by Litlove, in a wonderful write-up on Tales from the Reading Room
David Rose, on his terrific Amazon review, likens it to Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood, (as do many) and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, but also says it is more reminiscent of the work of artist Stanley Spencer. Stanley Spencer's 'Resurrection'.
Writer Tom Conoboy compares the novel to another artist, this time, the visionary Brueghel, in a seriously in-depth analysis of the book on his blog. The Fall of the Rebel Angels, Pieter Brueghel the Elder

Marie Claire Magazine said it was "dazzling, vibrant and melancholy", and it is one of two titles in their November Good Book club special offers...
Psychologies Magazine calls it "Poetic..." and "an absorbing portrait of love, grief and humanity".
And if you would like to win a copy, go to Bookhugger, read a snippet and answer an easy question!

NUALA NI CHONCHUIR WEAVES 'THE JUNO CHARM'

2011-11-17T00:13:00.000-08:00

Isn't this smashing? I am delighted to welcome friend and vastly talented writer Nuala Ni Chonchuir who has popped across from Ireland to natter abut her new collection of poetry, 'The Juno Charm', out with Salmon publishing. She has kindlystopped off here on her blog tour. Right, I'll just pull up a couple of chairs...
Vanessa: So, multi-book person, poet, short story writer, novelist, tell me how you think the perspective of a poet, indeed any creative writer, changes when they start to see the world as a parent, not just as a 'free spirit' adult with no eye on the genetic inheritance and its future success or not.

Nuala: I'll restrict my responses to those of my poet self... I wrote poetry all along but I didn’t get serious about it until my late twenties, and I was already a parent by then (I had my first son at 23). I think as a parent you do see the world differently, because it suddenly becomes a scary place for your kids. Some of my work has been inspired by my kids: pregnancy poems, birth poems, charm poems that wish for happy lives for them. There’s a poem in this collection called ‘Two Children are Threatened by a Nightingale’ and it’s about 9/11 with reference to my son worrying about worldly dangers.
I would never censor myself because of my kids – in my experience, writers’ offspring have little interest in the writer parent’s work. I do hope they will read my books as adults and maybe understand me a bit more as a result.

Vanessa: I want to ask about all the poems, as they have your stamp of being mesmeric, many are seductive, and all seem beautiful to this reader ... but I will confine the question to one - hidden in the middle, ‘The Japanese Madonna’. I love that. Can you tell me about the images here - where does this come from? What's the 'story?'

Nuala: We had a spate of moving Virgin Mary statues here in Ireland – people were convinced the statues were rocking, crying etc. I have a great love for the BVM as an icon – she was one of the few women to feature prominently in the church of my childhood and I think we can claim her as a strong mother, whether we are religious or not. So I’m interested in her in all her forms and I came across a picture of a Japanese Madonna and thought, ‘Of course, why wouldn’t there be such a woman?’ She appeared to a nun in Japan and she wept and bled (apparently). So, she was a good story for a poem, in contrast to one of our own moving statues who just rocked. (You can reproduce the poem if you like.)

Vanessa: I do like! Thanks so much. And here it is - the little gem:

The Japanese Madonna

As Madonna of Akita
I was carved
by a Buddhist from
a weeping katsura.

I forsook kimono and zori
for an unpainted robe,
a European chin,
and an aristocrat’s gaze.

I dropped blood-tears,
my sweat stank of roses,
and I warned that fire
would fall from the sky.

In Ballinspittle
I was made of stone;
I just flexed my fingers
and rocked.

And one more, sorry, I can't quite let this go... the final poem, ‘The Writer’s Room’. It is very funny – I’d love to know about the photographs it was inspired by. But more importantly, you say the writer is 'unassailable' whilst keeping space for the prizes to come, on the shelves... loved that! But I wondered, you, the writer – how to stay 'unassailable'? How to you tackle the demons who tell you something is rubbish, not to write it? Or don't you suffer from those?

Nuala: The Guardian used to do a series of photos on a Saturday of writers’ rooms and there was often a po-faced description (from the writer) about the space, the muse and so forth. So I was poking fun at the kind of writer who seems to adore the idea of being a writer and comes out with a lot of egotistical rot as a result.
One of the writers said they were ‘unassailable’ at their desk and there is that feeling, when the work is going well, that you are safe in your working (yet imaginary) world.
Sometimes the voice that says something is rubbish is a sensible voice telling me to re-look at the work. I’ve written two unpublished novels (years of work) and they will never be published because they don’t deserve to be.
There are always doubts, about everything. Bringing out a new book is a horrible mix of fear and elation. Will everyone hate it? Will they get it? Confidence in the work waxes and wanes.

Vanessa: Many of the poems are wonderfully physical, sensual pieces of work. I think I made that point in our discussion on Red Car – some poems from that reappear here in The Juno Charm and it’s lovely that they may find a broader readership. I am finding increasingly that the process of writing is a physical one. I’m not talking backache and RSI here (!) but more the physical sensation, a sort of 'don't do this Vanessa,' warning when I am 'controlling' the work too much and not letting the characters/ words flow as they will, at least at first draft stage. Do you find writing a physical process?

Nuala: Yes, in the sense that I jig in my seat when it’s going well; I rub my hands together and laugh. I also get tingles when things start to flow in the right direction, or a logical connection happens that, up to that point, I hadn’t seen. Real tingles – hair-on-the-back-of-the-neck-rising stuff.
I read my work aloud all the time so I throw myself into it. I love that all-jigging, smiling, hair-raising feeling, I must say ☺.

Vanessa : I'm perennially interested to know this - but how do you know when a poem is being born? And how do you know when it is finished?

Nuala: Gosh, erm, it just feels like a poem as opposed to fiction. It has a shorter span as it plays out before me. I’ve written poems and stories on the same topics, so it’s not necessarily a subject matter issue. I guess something just hits me and it won’t go away until I write it down.
As for being finished, it’s done when I grow tired of tinkering and when its music sounds right to my ear when I say it out loud.
Thanks so much for having me, Vanessa, and for such intriguing questions. Next week my tour takes me to Co. Kildare and writer Niamh Boyce’s blog Words A Day. It would be lovely if people could join me there.

BIO: Born in Dublin in 1970, Nuala Ní Chonchúir lives in Galway county. Her début novel You (New Island, 2010) was called ‘a heart-warmer’ by The Irish Times and ‘a gem’ by The Irish Examiner. Her third short story collection Nude (Salt, 2009)) was shortlisted for the UK’s Edge Hill Prize. Her second short story collection To The World of Men, Welcome has just been re-issued by Arlen House in an expanded paperback edition. The Juno Charm, her third full poetry collection, is launched this week in Dublin and Galway.
Here is the link to the page on Salmon if people want to buy the book: HERE!
Credit:The portrait of Nuala is by Emilia Krysztofiak

Thanks for stopping by, Nuala. Lots of good luck with this wonderful collection.

Edit and added - I am really sorry - everyone who has left lovely comments, including Nuala herself, will see they aren't here. Maybe because I set up the post to be published automatically, Blogger is deleting anything new... many apologies. Thank you for your messages, and to Nuala - she had thanked people, and its all got blanked!

SIGNING WITH A DIFFERENCE - WATERSTONES BRIGHTON, 19 November

2011-11-14T02:16:00.000-08:00

Saturday morning, 19th November, I am doing a different sort of book signing at Waterstones Brighton! For every lovely reader who buys a copy of The Coward's Tale, I will write a short short short story...something whimsical and just for them, with their own name if they want, as the character. Must be nuts!
Photos from Twitpic here

(The book launch at Daunt Books last Thursday was wonderful! I will post something when I've collected photos from friends. Guess who didn't take a camera...?)

The Brit Writers discussion...

2011-11-13T11:09:00.000-08:00

Writers may be aware that there are ongoing discussions on several well-supported blogs, and on Twitter, Facebook and so forth, about the merits, or not, of the Brit Writers organisation.

One such conversation, preceded by the most reasonable list of questions which any organisation must be able to answer easily - is on Claire King's blog, here.

I don't propose to enter into a dialogue here, but suggest that all writers who are thinking of spending their hard-earned cash either entering their competitions, or submitting work for review and possible publication, might do well to read as much as they can before parting with any funds.

This is no different to the advice I'd give writers wondering whether to enter any other competition, or mustering the bravery to send a manuscript for assessment at any literary consultancy. You should always always always check the credibility of the organisations, and whether the claims they make are solid. Then armed with as much info as you can muster, make up your own mind.

Added: To help you - perhaps you might find this post useful: Debi Alper, who was initially pleased to be a judge for a Brit Writers competition, but who then withdrew her support, has collated several 'discussions' and links to them, in one blog post. HERE.

Contribution for 11 11 11 from Oscar Windsor-Smith

2011-11-11T03:05:00.000-08:00

Farewell Sweet Molly Brown on Every Day Poets

A VISIT FROM NUALA NI CHONCHUIR, TALKING ABOUT THE JUNO CHARM

2011-11-11T01:30:00.000-08:00

Isn't this smashing? My friend and vastly talented writer Nuala Ni Chonchuir has popped across from Ireland to natter abut her new collection of poetry, The Juno Charm, out with Salmon publishing. Right, I'll just pull up a couple of chairs...
Vanessa: So, multi-book person, poet, short story writer, novelist, tell me how you think the perspective of a poet, indeed any creative writer, changes when they start to see the world as a parent, not just as a 'free spirit' adult with no eye on the genetic inheritance and its future success or not.

Nuala: I'll restrict my responses to those of my poet self... I wrote poetry all along but I didn’t get serious about it until my late twenties, and I was already a parent by then (I had my first son at 23). I think as a parent you do see the world differently, because it suddenly becomes a scary place for your kids. Some of my work has been inspired by my kids: pregnancy poems, birth poems, charm poems that wish for happy lives for them. There’s a poem in this collection called ‘Two Children are Threatened by a Nightingale’ and it’s about 9/11 with reference to my son worrying about worldly dangers.
I would never censor myself because of my kids – in my experience, writers’ offspring have little interest in the writer parent’s work. I do hope they will read my books as adults and maybe understand me a bit more as a result.

Nuala: We had a spate of moving Virgin Mary statues here in Ireland – people were convinced the statues were rocking, crying etc. I have a great love for the BVM as an icon – she was one of the few women to feature prominently in the church of my childhood and I think we can claim her as a strong mother, whether we are religious or not. So I’m interested in her in all her forms and I came across a picture of a Japanese Madonna and thought, ‘Of course, why wouldn’t there be such a woman?’ She appeared to a nun in Japan and she wept and bled (apparently). So, she was a good story for a poem, in contrast to one of our own moving statues who just rocked. (You can reproduce the poem if you like.)

Nuala: The Guardian used to do a series of photos on a Saturday of writers’ rooms and there was often a po-faced description (from the writer) about the space, the muse and so forth. So I was poking fun at the kind of writer who seems to adore the idea of being a writer and comes out with a lot of egotistical rot as a result.
One of the writers said they were ‘unassailable’ at their desk and there is that feeling, when the work is going well, that you are safe in your working (yet imaginary) world.
Sometimes the voice that says something is rubbish is a sensible voice telling me to re-look at the work. I’ve written two unpublished novels (years of work) and they will never be published because they don’t deserve to be.
There are always doubts, about everything. Bringing out a new book is a horrible mix of fear and elation. Will everyone hate it? Will they get it? Confidence in the work waxes and wanes.

Nuala: Yes, in the sense that I jig in my seat when it’s going well; I rub my hands together and laugh. I also get tingles when things start to flow in the right direction, or a logical connection happens that, up to that point, I hadn’t seen. Real tingles – hair-on-the-back-of-the-neck-rising stuff.
I read my work aloud all the time so I throw myself into it. I love that all-jigging, smiling, hair-raising feeling, I must say ☺.

Vanessa : I'm perennially interested to know this - but how do you know when a poem is being born? And how do you know when it is finished?

Nuala: Gosh, erm, it just feels like a poem as opposed to fiction. It has a shorter span as it plays out before me. I’ve written poems and stories on the same topics, so it’s not necessarily a subject matter issue. I guess something just hits me and it won’t go away until I write it down.
As for being finished, it’s done when I grow tired of tinkering and when its music sounds right to my ear when I say it out loud.
Thanks so much for having me, Vanessa, and for such intriguing questions. Next week my tour takes me to Co. Kildare and writer Niamh Boyce’s blog Words A Day. It would be lovely if people could join me there.

"The Coward's Tale" is a gem...

2011-11-05T03:25:00.000-07:00

A few posts ago, I burbled about how delighted I was (and not a little relieved...) that A N Wilson had liked "The Coward's Tale", and his review in Readers' Digest was going to be positive.
It is indeed positive. It is "a dream review" to quote Sam Leith (@questingvole on Twitter). (Sam played an important role in the genesis of The Coward's Tale in his role as Lit Ed of The Daily Telegraph (may their pages never dim), back in 2007, when he ran A Novel in a Year competition. Not that this took a year, you understand. More like 6, but that's by the by.)

The first line of A N Wilson's review, 'This first novel is a gem', is the start of a list of very generous comments. But you'll have to go find Readers' Digest to read the rest. I'm far too modest to post any more here. (HA!!)

It is also good for the soul, in case one gets too la di da about all this - to see that a reviewer on Waterstones online found the novel 'Not my cup of tea'. Balance in all things, don't you think? There. That feels better.

'ANY HUMAN FACE' - CHATTING TO CHARLES LAMBERT

2011-10-28T06:22:00.001-07:00

VG: Hi Charles - I so enjoyed 'Any Human Face'. It is lovely to be able to natter to you here to celebrate in a small way the publication of the paperback! So. Can you tell me about that title, first of all... where does it come from?

CL: I’d already written the first few chapters when I came across this phrase in Marilynne Robinson’s 'Gilead' –

Any human face is a claim on you, because you can’t help but understand the singularity of it, the courage and loneliness of it.

I knew at once that I’d found the novel’s epigraph and title. Any is an ambiguous word in a way – it’s almost an antagonym in that it conveys a sense of what unites us and what distinguishes us – it’s singular, questioning and yet universal. At that point, the (very much) working title was 'Mug Shots', in reference to the exhibition of police photographs at the centre of the novel, but I knew that wasn’t what I wanted; if nothing else, the tone was entirely wrong.

VG: Yes - although it would have worked - it really jars! Too simplistic, perhaps, when the novel is anything but. It is quite complex. You do have to keep your wits about you, I find -all the different threads interweaving.

CL: By the time I read 'Gilead' (which I loved, by the way) I already had the three main narrative threads – based on Andrew, middle-aged bookseller, Alex, aspiring rent-boy, and the Girl – I was looking for something that would bring them together in a non-narrative way, and what Robinson was saying fitted perfectly. I was particularly attracted to the way she placed courage and loneliness side by side, as though they were two aspects of the same thing, because that was where the book was heading. I felt that I’d found corroboration.

VG: …Aha. isn't it a magical thing when a writer we may never meet in person seems to hold out a hand and shake the one that holds our writer's pen? As we've been discussing behind the scenes, this recurrent thread of loneliness that crops up again and again - that certainly seemed a very important theme. Was that deliberate - or was it something that emerged as you wrote? Looking back, was it always running beneath the surface layers?

CL: Yes, loneliness is certainly an issue in the book, and it’s something I absolutely hadn’t planned. I’d thought the heart of the book would be impotence in the face of mysterious, indifferent power structures (which is what I always seem to come back to!) But the more I wrote – and learnt - about Andrew the more his isolation seemed to be central to his understanding of the world. I’m lucky enough not to have experienced much loneliness these past few decades, and my memories of the kind of crushing, annihilating – and thank God, transient – loneliness I suffered as a teenager and in my twenties – a loneliness I remember now with a kind of shocked wonder – didn’t really help me with Andrew (although they did with Alex).

What interested me about Andrew’s life was the way being alone can simply happen, and bring with it a sort of resignation that damps everything down; the state of his flat is a case in point, as is the (I hope) rather poignant episode of internet sex, interrupted by the arrival of the stray cat. What I didn’t want to do, though, was give the impression that being gay necessarily leads to loneliness, any more than selling books for a living does, or living in Rome. It was important to me that Andrew, despite his passivity, be given a way out of his loneliness, so the way the novel ends didn’t just meet a narrative need by tying up loose ends; it made emotional sense as well. In a sense it brought loneliness and courage together just as the epigraph does.

Alex (by this time Sandro) also knows what it’s like to be alone, loveless, and in a foreign city, and there’s a sense of loss about the book that isn’t just to do with the fact that the first chapter ends with a murder. As the novel develops, there’s a death – and resurrection – of the spirit, if that isn’t too grand a term. I hope the feeling the book leaves in the reader isn’t of hopelessness, because that isn’t at all what I want and it wouldn’t do justice to Robinson’s epigraph. I like to think that courage can be rewarded, although it isn’t always, and that Alex/Sandro is as resourceful as I would like to be in his situation.

VG: I certainly didn't feel 'hopeless' at the end. The ending came as a shock - and I won't give it away (!) - but the overriding feeling is 'its the journey that matters, not always the end of the journey..' if that isn't too airy fairy. Much of the book is colourful, tantalising...and you take that with you at the end. Life is like that, I guess.

CL: I also found myself wanting the Birdman, a character who played a much more substantial part than I’d originally intended (although he also plays a central role in a still unpublished novel of mine, entitled The Apprentice, and set in a considerably darker Rome than the one in Any Human Face), to represent the sort of gregarious and accommodating affection I’ve found in parts of the gay world. He’s a mother hen, clucking over his chicks and meeting their needs, albeit in a fairly seedy way, and it’s only right that his affection be reciprocated.

VG: I loved the character of the Birdman - an immensely engaging figure, seedy or not. Hugely generous in so many ways, and something of an innocent - I liked the way he sits where several characters intersect. And yet, he is also isolated - maybe that is pointed up y the birds - I don't know. It's just what I felt. There are so many types of isolation in this story...culminating of course in the darkest - that of the Girl.

CL: The isolation of the Girl is of a different kind. It has nothing to do with loneliness and everything to do with the deliberate privation of freedom, and it’s mirrored in Andrew’s predicament in the second half of the novel. I don’t want to say too much about this for obvious reasons, but the tensions set up between a solitude that’s self-willed or, at least, self-created and one that’s imposed from without are the driving force behind the novel, and the point at which the personal and political, for want of a better word, meet.

VG: Reading 'Any Human Face' was a powerful experience. It transported me not only to the underbelly of a city I know only very slightly - but also across time, opening windows onto the lives of characters who I still think about, even though I read the book some months back. There are so many questions posed, and half-answered - especially questions surrounding the central images, portraits, photographs whose origin is suspect. I found myself pondering - who 'owns' ones face? One seen, once photographed - does our likeness belong elsewhere as well as to us? And it has echoes of ancient concerns about the soul somehow being damaged if an image of a face is taken...

.I'll stop nattering to myself! Charles, thank you so much for chatting, and for writing AHF. I do hope we are lucky enough to see the next novel in line before too long...

Buy the paperback 'Any Human Face' - now available on Amazon!
and
Follow Charles Lambert on his blog, HERE.

VAULT - DAVID ROSE'S ANTI-NOVEL

2011-10-22T05:41:00.000-07:00

A while back, Salt Publishing kindly send me a pre-publication copy of ‘Vault’ to read for comment and review. I started it and enjoyed it – but life kept getting in the way more than once or twice - as those who have followed the goings on in my life (version 2011) will know. ‘Vault’ has been sitting patiently on my desk, waiting for me to read it again this time with no interruptions – and with many apologies to both David Rose and to Salt, finally, yippee!

‘Vault’, published earlier this year by Salt under its Modern Fiction wing, edited by Nicholas Royle, is an anti-novel. What IS an anti-novel? Was this a clever device intended to catch the eye, or was it really something working against what we expect when we read a novel? I think that yes, on one level it really is an anti-novel. It works like this. The main character of this novel, (for it is one, and a clever one) steps out of the realm of fiction, clothes himself in fact, and thus clothed, peers back into the unfolding narrative as the facts of his life are shaken and embroidered by the novelist. What novelist? Not this one – not David Rose – but another character, a novelist we never meet, a novelist who is repeatedly taken to task by the ‘real’ main character for playing fast and loose with a life that needs no embroidering.
Sounds complex – no, not really. It is logical, there is a pleasing pattern to the pieces which reel out like something dancing round inside a zoetrope. Or, to use yet another analogy, it is a Moebius strip of a novel. Whatever image I use, it is a novel I much enjoyed, as much for its originality as for its prose, its balance, and of course, the story that underpins the whole.
David Rose has carved out a reputation as a gifted writer of short fiction, and it struck me more than once that those skills were strongly at play in “Vault”. The work is short and to the point, but it is also complex, and the reader does need to work to make their way through the maze. I like that! I must admit, though, had I not been helped by the description of the book on the back cover, I might have got a tad lost, and had to retrace my steps.
So, basically –
The main character is a cyclist who becomes a wartime sniper, then returns after the war to dispense aid and occasionally retribution. He then becomes a somewhat unwilling post-war nuclear spy, seems to me. Perfect material for a novel indeed, and sure enough, the novel is there, or sections thereof. Only he does not approve of the way his experiences have been embroidered, and cheapened, as his life has been turned from actual to fiction. So we have a pattern of ‘memoir’ then fiction – which switches to fiction then comment via memoir. The voices are distinct. The ‘novel’ sections are a little more 'writerly', as the unseen novelist stretches to make the events seem more exciting, more colourful. The voice of the memoir sections (for want of a better word) is flatter, factual. It is extremely easy to forget that one is, in fact reading a novel with a novel within it...hence the Moebius strip analogy – which probably does not hold water – but what’s wrong with a good jumble of ill-at-ease mixed metaphors when describing ‘Vault’, which does not lend itself to simple description?!
I am very glad I read this book. It is a very clever, very interesting, original short novel, which rewards a close read in spades. I can recommend!

You can read the first four sections here on the Salt website. You can buy it from the same place, and all the usual suspects online.

-----
Added: I have been nattering with David Rose since posting this review - and was fascinated by some of the info in one of his messages - so with permission, as this adds hugely to the overview of the book and refers to one of my own best inspirations, W G Sebald :

I haven't reread Vault since I wrote it, nearly 10 years ago, except to proofread, as I hate rereading my own work, so I forget sometimes that it may be more challenging than was intended; several people told me they read it twice, which may be worrying.
The initial idea was based on fact, i.e. someone responding to a novel of their life - you may remember it: the woman who claimed that W.G. Sebald had used her lifestory for his novel Austerlitz, which he admitted to.
That's all I had to work with - the unease at one's life, and more importantly, one's death being appropriated. The plot was constructed as I went along. I have done a fair bit of cycling, so decided to use that for authenticity, although the pre-war history needed research. As did all the rest - sniping, the battles scenes, the post-war CND marches, which I just remember...
I gather a lot more elements got mixed in as I wrote, the density accumulating in the writing act, which I am sure you have experienced, especially in your new novel.

PUBLICATION LOOMS!

2011-10-21T02:43:00.000-07:00

Well it does a sort of loomlet. 2 weeks to go. Launch party, publication date and how I feel about it all, over on The Coward's Journey.
And news of a glowingly positive pre-pub review on Booklist in the USA - which culminates thus:

The author’s Welsh upbringing is evident in everything from the lyrical cadences of her characters’ speech to the names of the small town’s neighborhoods and conjures a genuine sense of place. By using an ensemble cast to give multiple perspectives on the event that dominates the town’s history, Gebbie puts a prodigious narrative skill on full display.

Can't ask for more, really.

(Booklist, my friend Wikipedia tells me, is, " a publication of the American Library Association that provides critical reviews of books and audiovisual materials for all ages. It is geared toward libraries and booksellers and is available in print (ISSN 0006-7386) or online.")

SUCCESS FOR COLLEAGUES!

2011-10-13T01:04:00.000-07:00

Two erstwhile writing colleagues from The Fiction Workhouse of old (My online writing home for a few years - a small closed writing group) have contacted me with brilliant news. I am sooo pleased for them, hardworking writers both.

Chelsey Flood, first - writing now as C J Flood. I met her at Exeter at the launch party of the first Riptide Journal, loved her work, and when she said she did not have a writing group, but would like to work with a good one, invited her to join. Now, a few years down the line, and after time spent at UEA as well, she's emailed to tell me that she's landed a fantastic deal for two YA novels with Simon and Schuster and a German publisher. Both the English and the German rights went to separate auctions. 'Silverweed' (or whatever the final title is) is going to be a real hit! Chelsey blogs here, at C J Flood.

You can read an old bio, hear her reading her story 'The Grief Benches' here, on Route Online... Posted this because its nice to hear, and a good story - but also, look at that bio. We were all there once, with a few publications - then wham! Fab, and I am delighted!

Michael Logan next. I judged the Fish One-Page comp back in the dark ages, and awarded this story, I Will Go Ahead and Wait for You, First Prize. Michael doesn't live round these parts - currently, he is based in Kenya - and he couldn't attend the Fish prizegiving in Bantry - so I offered to read the story for him. We ended up corresponding, and he too joined the FW for a while. Michael emailed to let me know he had won Terry Pratchett's 'Anywhere but here, Anywhen but now...' novel competition and yup - another success. Here he is, (on the left) with Terry Pratchett and the other winner, also a Logan, coincidence!)
Michael's novel 'Apocalypse Cow' (fantastic title - a tale of zombie animals...) is to be published in May 2012 by Transworld. He blogs HERE.

Who says I can't pick a good writer when I see one!

BBC SHORT STORY AWARD BASH

2011-10-04T00:17:00.000-07:00

The 2011 winner, D W Wilson
Runner-up Jon McGregor
finalist Alison MacLeod
finalist K J Orr
finalist M J Hyland
And which event did I not include in the last post, held on Monday 26th in London, and to which I stumbled through a sudden downpour that had people making a dash for trains, doorways, in water that spilled over the pavement it came down that fast?

The BBC National Short Story Award Prize Giving Event. The short story world is very small -everyone seems to know or know of everyone else and I knew three of the shortlist. Alison MacLeod, Katherine Orr, and Jon McGregor. Jon and I share an editor, Alison is author of one of the chapters in Short Circuit, generous lady - and Katherine Orr I'd met at Small Wonder, properly. Stunning stories all.
A boozy bash, but I never knew short story writers and editors could be so NOISY! And BBC Radio 4s Front Row programme was going out live in the midst, so 'herding cats and asking a mob of crows to be quiet please,' seems to be a good analogy. Still, quiet we were. To hear speeches, including an odd confession from Gwynneth Williams, read from a paper tugged from her pocket, about how much she loves fiction and how vital it is...the applause was er- muted. Lions' den stuff, brave woman.

It was fairly nailbiting. Silence fell. We cheered to order as the programme was announced. And this year's prize went to Canadian writer D W Wilson. 'Front Row' continued with a recorded something or other, and we returned to the wine.
Great to see Clare Hey of Shortfire, Diana Reich, organiser of Small Wonder, reviewer David Hebblethwaite, writer Adam Marek - and of course the Bloomsbury team supporting Jon.
Congrats to all indeed.

THE GOOD LIFE

2011-10-02T07:25:00.000-07:00

This pic courtesy of The Paper Princess, Yasmine Hussain
.
Wednesday 28th - the first ever reading, nay, the World Premiere of The Coward's tale, courtesy of Damian Barr and the Aubin & Wills Westbourne Grove Literary Salon. Playing to a packed house, with chairs set among the jumpers, suits and hacking jackets, Eleanor Moran and I both read and then had a natter with Damian, took questions form the floor. It all seemed to go down well, I had a smashing time, dinner afterwards with some ardent followers (not of me, of Damian!) and back to my club. Ahem. Thank to the Bedford Four too, for coming down special!

I got to meet and natter to an artist I have admired for a long time - Greyson Perry. We met at Bloomsbury's 25th Birthday bash, which, in true style, covered the centre of Bedford Square in London in a marquee and filled it with over 1000 authors past present and future, publishers, agents, printers, literary reviewers, illustrators, and oodles more.

For Dutch courage, the lovely Claire King met me at The New Cavendish Club (I have associate membership thanks to my membership of SWWJ) and we downed a G and T before heading off eastwards in a taxi. I regressed, unashamedly, into a teenage celeb-spotter. Lovely to see my buddy Andrew, my agent Euan, my editor Helen, the paperback editor Tram-Anh (which means Wise One), and to meet Jane Rusbridge and Precious Williams for the first time, Marika Cobbold for the second time, Selma Dabbagh for the at least third time, Jeremy Osborne of Sweet Talk for the first time, to eat finger food by the best (including haggis in a roll - which for a hot evening, was amazing!) -drink endless champagne. Happy Birthday Bloomsbury, and here's to the next 25. Who knows, with luck and a following wind, I'll be there at the 50th. In my zimmer.
,
And here is the paperback cover sent to me by Tram-Anh. With a few tweaks, including adding Rhymney Beers to the hotel signs, its smashing!

TILTON HOUSE WEEKEND RETREAT FOR WOMEN WRITERS

2011-09-19T07:51:00.000-07:00

RECIPE FOR A GOOD WEEKEND.
Take one very beautiful house in a lovely garden, hidden away at the foot of the South Downs, once the home of the economist Maynard Keynes and his Russian ballerina wife.

Add eleven women writers, of all sorts. Here's ten of them - Beginners to established, poets and story-writers, novelists and playwrights. Performance workers and editors. Journalists and imaginers...
Mix gently.
Talke a gifted chef called John, who runs a vegan/vegetarian catering company called Cashew Catering, (not that many of us were even vegetarians, but happy to try...!) and a lovely farmhouse kitchen in which to experience zingy healthy tastes, like stuffed mushrooms, or fruit or savoury crumbles topped with nuts and seeds, fresh soups,

extraordinary brown breads, pretty salads topped with flower petals and whole flowers. Cous cous with roast vegetables, ad inf. Stir the writers in gently, with a large glass of something relaxing, white, red or maybe rose.
Put a writing tutor in the centre, who knows what its like to fight for time to write in among the other calls on one's time - partners, kids, other family, friends, housework ("What housework?" my family are yelling...) Who knows how hard it is sometimes to remember what a gift it is to be able to create.

And who knows how important it is to be given permission to do exactly what you need to do creatively - and to be challenged when you're ready and not before, shifted out of your comfort zone when you want to be challenged.
Leave to warm for 48 hours - two days and nights. At intervals, add in a workshop - with the best writing exercises the tutor knows, appropriate for everyone. Visualisations to open up new scenarios, voices, emotions. Word games to create new connections. Scenarios full of details left out, for you to fill in - to help create living, breathing characters. Maybe a Bedtime Story by the fire at the end of the day to lull you to sleep (or not, if it is funny...).
Throw in a private tour round Charleston Farmhouse, home of the Bloomsbury set, Virginia Woolf's sister Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, Roger Fry and later on Clive Bell.
Point writers in the direction of Berwick Church, where the Bloomsbury crowd created murals in which every face is one of their friends, or neighbours. Or go for a walk through the farmyard, skirting the fields, along the old coach road, across more fields, and back home.
Finally, add inspiring guests who will share a meal, and wine, and talk to us, then answer questions until the questions run out. Firstly, a successful female poly-talented writer actress and director, playwright, and novelist, Carole Hayman, she of the stunning Pre-Raphaelite hair, and co-creator of 'Ladies of Letters', among other things. (Who tells us that Fay Weldon reckons you ought to be able to write your novel in 3 weeks if you focus hard enough). Secondly, a top publisher. Helen Garnons-Williams, Editorial Director of Bloomsbury, to give us the insiders' view of the publishing world. What commissioning editors are looking for. The huge benefits of having an agent. And the topsy-turvy world that is e-books. (See us all chatting before Sunday lunch, on the lawn, in one of the first pics above.)

Check for consistency. Be told that every participant had achieved or surpassed their personal objectives. Feel very delighted, and enjoy all the new friendships made, the shared inspirations, the hopes to met again soon.
Retire to bed on the third day absolutely knackered.

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Leftovers can be enjoyed, gently warmed for a few days. Especially while reading unsolicited feedback sent to New Writing South, like these snippets:

Just a note to say how much I (and, I am sure, everyone) enjoyed this last weekend at Tilton. It was easily the best writing event I have attended in all respects and I came away inspired!

Just a quick thank you for a wonderful writing retreat - I think that you and Vanessa gauged it perfectly - well done!

I had no idea that this was the first writing retreat that New Writing South had organised - it all looked very professional but I'm sure there was a lot of hard work involved.
It was the best writing workshop I've been on - inspiring tutor, perfect setting, delicious and healthy food and lots of time and space to write. I feel as if I've come back with a treasure trove of energy and ideas to keep me going through the winter.
So thank you.

Look! My book!

2011-09-15T15:28:00.000-07:00

That's all - just a whole box of the beautiful Coward's Tales...sigh. Its gorgeous. Silvery shining leaves, feathers, river, a village and mountain, statue, old man and boy. And a rather stunning fish.
(Thanks to Stephen Moran for turning the pic round, otherwise you'd have had to look at the book backwards... like this...!
heee!
I'm allowed to be excited - 'The Coward's Tale' is on the Bookseller's Choice list for November, thanks to a nomination from the lovely people at the Torbay Bookshop. And it's been reviewed by A N Wilson for a future issue of Reader's Digest... positively, one gathers.

Anam Cara is booked for late Jan early Feb - I need to write!

INTERVIEW WITH NEIL BLOWER - THE REAL TOMMY ATKINS

2011-09-12T06:13:00.000-07:00

Neil Blower.

My second short story collection, 'Storm Warning' was written for my father, a man who was awarded the MC in WWII. He died in May, at 95. Dad was naturally a gentle man, and he never quite got over some of the events he'd witnessed and had to take part in. I wanted to explore in fiction the aftershocks of conflict, to show the different ways in which those caught up in conflict of many kinds can be changed - and I have been pleased with the response to my book.
But then I heard on Twitter of the novelist Neil Blower, who goes under the name @realtommyatkins - a guy who has not only experienced conflict first hand, but who has written a novel partly in an attempt to combat the after-effects - and I badly wanted to read his book. Thanks very much to the publishers for sending me a copy.
'Shell Shock, Diary of Tommy Atkins' is published by Firestep Press, and the publisher says this:

This short, diary-style novel, by a British army veteran chronicles the difficulties faced by Tommy, a 23-year-old squaddie, as he desperately tries to conquer post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) – shell shock. His over-emotional responses to the stresses of everyday life – post-office queues, a trip to Ikea, and his relationship with his family and girlfriend – eventually lead to alienation and suicidal urges.
Told in the vernacular, with humour and personal understanding, the story highlights the work of the Charity Combat Stress in rehabilitating returning troops.

'Shell Shock, Diary of Tommy Atkins' comes out from Firestep Press on October 1st. On Firestep's website you can read the very strong endorsements this book has already received from senior figures in the forces. It is a short novel, and certainly not sweet. It is a quick read, and one that most readers will find hard to forget. It is an important novel, and I'd urge readers of this blog to go off and buy it - you are also giving a donation to a fabulously worthwhile charity, Combat Stress. But more of that later.
Shell Shock's main character is Tommy Atkins - named of course after the nickname given to British soldiers in WWI.But this is not then, it is now. very much so. This particular Tommy Atkins, in his early 20s, has been discharged from the Army suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He goes home to parents whose marriage is fragile - and to a girlfriend, Shell, who adores him and is glad to have him back. The novel is set, as the title suggests, like a diary, and very quickly I began to experience that strange voyeuristic feeling - 'I shouldn't be reading this' - as if I really was reading something intensely private. Tommy chronicles his every day experiences - his attempts to find employment, his working relationships, his relationship with Shell, and with his parents, the ups and downs that gradually become overwhelming. Is it weak to admit I was in tears in places? I don't think so.
As a fellow writer, I was absolutely captivated by the voice. It is clear, unforced, strong as hell, natural and absolutely believable, just the voice of an ordinary guy caught in an extraordinary situation -that's why I sank so easily into the role of observer, I think.
I knew a little about PTSD. Among other things, my own writing tutor suffered from this debilitating, hidden syndrome - hidden because nothing 'shows' - we like our injured people to wear bandages and splints so we can see where the trouble is, don't we? And my own father must have suffered for sixty years from a mild form of the same thing, on and off - something that got in the way of his everyday life after he left the Army in 1946. And in those days there was no help - nothing was recognised. You were expected to get on with things. Which he did. But my goodness - life could have been so much better for those men...
Now, having read 'Shell Shock', having got to know 'Tommy Atkins' through his diary, and the raw honesty with which Blower portrays his character, I can recognise so many things which affected my Dad - and I've never really put two and two together in such a clear way.
Reading round the subject - somewhere I read Neil Blower's acknowledgement that this is not a 'literary' novel - as if it ever ought to have been. Forcing it into a literary jacket would have been absolutely the wrong thing to do. I appreciate what he's done, I have huge respect for this rather special novel, which will not be easily pigeonholed, thank heavens. I also discovered that he is doing a degree - and that he has recently discovered that he is both dyslexic, and suffers from a condition on the autism spectrum.

ME: Neil was kind enough to natter to me for the blog - through his publicist. So thanks, Neil! First, can you give us a bit of background about yourself, your time in the forces and since?

NEIL:

I joined the army in 1999 and served five years with the Royal Tank Regiment, taking part in operations in Kosovo and the Iraq war. After I left the army I did a number of minimum wage jobs including security which I stayed doing until I decided to go to University. The thing about working in security is that over a 12 hour shift, especially nights, you have a lot of time to kill, so I read. I read books on everything from politics to history to physics, I'd always been a keen reader but mostly fiction. I wanted to know everything about everything, I'm convinced this has something to do with being around death and violence because before Iraq I had never really been interested in academic pursuits.

ME: I very much enjoyed reading 'Shell Shock, the Diary of Tommy Atkins' - I also found it very moving. What do you want your readers to feel after they've read your novel?

NEIL:

I hope they don't think it's garbage ha ha. Seriously though, if people read it and have a better understanding of what our soldiers have to face, not just at war but when they come home as well then I'd be happy.

ME: I read that you've suffered from PTSD yourself, and were advised to 'do something creative' to combat the stress. Was it a deliberate decision on your part to write fiction, as opposed to non-fiction/memoir? If so, why?

NEIL:

Yes it was very much a deliberate decision. I've always been into books since childhood. Then after I left the army and was told that creativity may help my condition that was the my first thought, I also played about with screenwriting. It started off as a hobby really, then I thought, maybe I could do it for real and someday get published, then it became an ambition and not to sound like a cliche, a dream. There's lots of things I want to write about, not just war or the military, but I think for me it's a good place to start.

ME: 'Shell Shock' is a real eye-opener. Two scenes in particular have stayed with me - firstly, when the Army doctor tells Tommy he's no longer under his care, almost 'abandoning' him. And second, when Shell's friends ask about killing. Both those scenes seem to underline the huge gulf between Tommy and others. Can you talk a bit about writing those scenes?

NEIL:

Well the bit about the Doctor is true, once you leave the forces that's it. You are someone else's problem. It's nothing personal, that's just the way it is. Like with the married accommodation, once you leave - you have to move out. Like many things in our society, it;s the rules that need changing. And as for the question about killing, I've had that a number of times "did you ever kill anyone?" I think with our general perception of war this is an obvious question, albeit a very insensitive and sometimes ignorant one. The vast majority of people will never, ever be put in a situation where they will have to end the life of another human being and I think this is why people ask. Also it has been glamourised and romanticised to a certain degree on TV and in films. In the new Bond films and the Bourne Franchise for example - the hero is a killer and has to live with it. I did write those scenes to highlight the gulf between soldiers and civilians.

ME: As I said on Twitter, I think Shell Shock is an 'important' novel. Were you aware of its importance as you were writing it - and if so did that help or hinder?

NEIL:

As I was writing it, I just wanted to make it as good and truthful as possible (and finish it). It was only after we started to get feedback and reviews that its importance crossed my mind and it's not really for me to say. I'd be very, very proud if it is considered an important novel though.

ME: You're doing a degree at the moment, I think, in English Lit/Creative writing? What's that like?

NEIL:

I'm really enjoying it, the learning feeds into my work, knowing what's gone before and being in that environment has really helped not only my creative side but my knowledge base as well. I'm the first person in my family to ever go to University so I'm proud just to be there.

ME: Tell me a bit about the dyslexia and the autism spectrum issue. If these had been picked up earlier on what difference would that have made?

NEIL:

I was absolutely mortified when I found out. I wanted to be a published author - how would this ever happen now? But then I thought, you know what, I can do this, it will happen. I don't think it would have made a difference if it was picked up earlier, I'd not really been in a situation where it mattered, it just means I see things differently than other people that's all.

ME: I hadn't heard of Combat Stress, the charity and I bet I'm not alone. I gather a not insubstantial donation (£1) is given to the charity for each copy of your novel that is sold...Would you like to say something about it and the work it does?

NEIL:

Combat Stress do a fantastic job. I think they are starting to get a higher profile. But I also think that over the coming decade PTSD will be a major issue in this country, the amount of people who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan coupled with the intensity of the fighting means that the number of PTSD sufferers will go through the roof and this in turn affects the NHS, welfare, crime, so it's important we recognise the condition and the organisations that can help.

ME: Anything else you'd like to natter about?

NEIL:

Ha ha, there's lots I could talk about but I'll save that for my novels. I just hope people enjoy Shell Shock and get something from it. And for in depth info about PTSD please see the website of Combat Stress .

ME Thanks Neil, very much, and loads of good luck with 'Shell Shock', and the next piece of work.

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Other reviews of 'Shell Shock' include this, on rearparty.co.uk

Copies of 'Shell Shock - the Diary of Tommy Atkins' can be bought from the usual suspects, including the Publisher, and Amazon-HERE. Don't forget, you are also giving a donation to Combat Stress, who are doing a fantastic and difficult job...

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Neil Blower is a British author, screenwriter and novelist based in Manchester.
He joined the British army when he left school and served five years with the Royal Tank Regiment. Serving on operations in Kosovo and the 2003 Invasion of Iraq.
Neil is currently studying for a degree in English literature and creative writing at the university of Salford.
His first book - Shell Shock: The diary of Tommy Atkins will be released in paperback October 2011 by Firestep Press - an imprint of Firestep publishing.
He is now working on his second book - My subject is war. A collection of short stories exploring the realities of contemporary conflict.
Neil is an avid reader, his favourite writers being Hemingway, James Joyce and Joseph Conrad.
He goes to the gym regularly and boxed in the army and is a big fight fan. He is also a big fan of film, anything from blockbusters to indie films. He is also a keen skier.
Neil is engaged to married to his partner of eight years Samantha, they live in Manchester with their young son.

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And finally -having read this book, and talked with Neil, I decided to give all royalties from 'Storm Warning' to Combat Stress.

A week of #StoryGym

2011-09-02T00:20:00.001-07:00

Last time I was away from Internet for a while, writers Tania Hershman and Claire King kindly stepped into the breach and invented suitably interesting prompts for the daily #StoryGym workout on Twitter, for those writers who want to.
Away again, so here's a week or so's worth just for fun!

1. Caught in the eye of the storm, carrying a child...

2. What was in the suitcase left on platform 12...

3. Her man the poet, her man the liar...

4. They meet in The George at Stamford, by mistake...

5. Supper served in a petri dish...

6. A small explosion in the garden shed...

7. He climbed to the top of the highest hill and howled...

8. "Tell me why the grass is green," he said, chewing his nails...

9. What was behind you when you looked in the mirror...

Have fun!

ARVON THEATRE COURSE, THE HURST, 15 – 20 August.

2011-08-27T12:04:00.000-07:00

What a busy, amazing week! Here are a few notes, scribbled hastily on site, when I wasn't either creating the next stage sensation (!!) nattering with the other students,reading, walking, eating, drinking or sleeping...
Tutors: Laura Wade, a highly successful playwright, and
Ola Animashawun from the Royal Court Theatre, who also runs Euphoric Ink, check it out - a hotspot for tuition and play development ...Here is his short intro to playwriting, courtesy of the BBC

The week went like this:
MONDAY: A long drive from Sussex. Correction. A long long drive from Sussex. (5 hrs including 2 stops.) My room, a single study-bedroom named after Wilfred Owen is in The Clock House, (the social hub of The Hurst) and has the most wonderful view.
We are fifteen students, a good mix of male and female, and of all ages. Most have already written plays in one shape or another. I haven’t. Unless you count the play I almost got expelled from school for, in early 1066 – but let’s not go there.
The Hurst is looking really lovely – I was last here in late 2007 on a fiction course – the place feels familiar, the subject not at all – I am uncomfortably at sea.
The first dinner is cooked for us – curry, fruit salad. After tonight we will be cooking dinner ourselves, in teams of four. You wash up on the night before you cook, and I notice the first difference between now and 2007. Washing up is much more of a chore – they have taken away the dish-washer.
After washing up is a Health and Safety talk, followed by a ‘breaking the ice’ session with the tutors, Laura Wade and Ola Animashawun, both of whom seem very nice, supportive, fun and full of info.
Bed early, in Wilfred Owen. This is oddly appropriate, as my play has to do with WWI. Spooky!

TUESDAY: Workshops with both tutors are held each day from 10 am to 1 pm – today's is a mix of writing exercises, warm-ups, interrogating our thoughts and our initial ideas for plays. It seems different to the fiction course, in that there is no sharing of our own creative ideas, the plays we are wishing to write - unless someone volunteers what they are working on. We are actually encouraged not to share...good for them, much kinder!
Interestingly, we talk about premise, setting the ‘message’ of our as yet unwritten plays into a single sentence that encompasses character, action and outcome. The fourth element of premise is the writer’s passion for the subject...
It seems that there is far more advance planning, at least as regards structural stuff, and premise, - less to discover as you write, only that might be a bad perception.
During the afternoon, we have free time to write, or to do whatever we like. I take a copy of Caryl Churchill’s ‘Far Away’ into the grounds, find a seat with the most fabulous view over Houseman’s rolling hills, and read it at least three times. A real eye-opener. Surreal, strong, wacky and frightening. Love it.
I start my play. Well, I write some dialogue between two characters, before wondering if I am writing the right play. Then I feel that this must be the good old imp on the shoulder who tries to stop plays getting written as well as stories and novels. I have a kip and try to ignore him.
Join in the cooking, and make a very boozy tira misu for eighteen. There is a special guest this evening, April de Angelis, who, if I was more into the world of play writing, I would realise was a very well known and revered figure. She is very funny, generous, interesting and entertaining about the work she has done for about thirty years! The best thing she says is that she writes to discover – sets out with minimal idea of what’s going to happen. I sigh with relief. Here's a link to some of her plays, from Faber and Faber.
But I also realise that there has been talk several times today about young writers – excitement about young writers. Talk of plays written for older actresses – but no talk of older women starting out as writers of plays...ho hum. C'est la vie. As with fiction, I guess you just have to be as good as you can be, and hope for a modicum of luck!
I revise a poem before bed.
Hornets invade the bathroom outside Wilfred Owen, attracted to the light. They are vast – never seen these things before. Real four-engine jobs. It transpires there is a nest and the Hornet-Exterminators of Clun have been out once already. They can’t be very good at it. I chew my toothbrush instead of brushing properly. Sacrilege.

WEDNESDAY: Today’s workshop is an introduction to the structure of plays. We look in some depth at Caryl Churchill’s ‘Far Away’, which I liked very much. We dissect the play, look at its unusual structure, see how it is absolutely right. We do a great exercise, looking at the life of Michael Jackson, and deciding how we would individually create a play about his life. It quickly becomes obvious that you need to be aware of the premise of your play before you can attempt to write it...and once I’ve realised that, I invent a play of great genius set during the inquest into his death, with Elizabeth Taylor as one of the major characters...Broadway here I come. Another eye-opener.
We are asked to consider our own main characters, for tomorrow’s session – and possible structural decisions.
I have my first one to one tutorial this afternoon, with Ola. I am now able to articulate the premise of my play, and the setting, and when it takes place. It is met with approval, I am given loads of encouragement, and when I ask, am warned of possible pitfalls.
I spend a happy couple of hours on ‘my’ seat in the grounds, reading ‘Blood Wedding’ by Lorca. Then had a lovely walk on my own up out of the grounds on to a track through hills, and farmland – this really is the most gorgeous countryside. Clun, the village nearby is meant to be one of the quietest places in the UK. Apparently, although A E Houseman wrote A Shropshire Lad in the 1890s – his poems were among the most popular for WWI soldiers to take away to war, to remind them of England...although for many, it must have been an England they had no experience of. Lots of thinking about my play, en route.

Tonight, the tutors are in charge of the evening’s event – Laura goes first, helped by Simon, one of the students, and they read us a play she has been commissioned to write by the Australian Philharmonic Orchestra, based on the Kreutzer Sonatas of Beethoven and Janacek, and Tolstoy’s novella of the same name. And Ola, who does not write plays himself, does a sit-down comic turn, introducing two articles he has written – one about how to read plays –fascinating! Loads of time for questions and natter.
Hornets are back after dark - on the landing outside Wilfred, holding a loud conversation about light fitments. Yikes. I leave them to it. (No, they aren't quite that big. That is a queen hornet, apparently.)

THURSDAY: The workshops are on characterisation. Two thirds of the morning is spent on exercises and games, all of which feed into the recognition and development of character, the importance of a character’s objectives and obstacles to their achievement thereof. In one game, called ‘Touch and Go’ – we are all in a circle round one person, crouching in the centre. We have to touch them, and wait for the instruction ‘Go!’ and run – the person in the centre has to try to ‘catch’ our hands before we do so. If she succeeds, whoever is caught joins them in the centre. Much laughter and tension – and afterwards, we analyse the major components of the game, and come to the conclusion they are the major elements of drama. Tension, progression, anticipation, collaboration, using the senses...and so on. (Delighted to find I can still bend in the middle and kneel on the floor...) Another walk...
I begin to write my play in earnest during the afternoon, finding the voice of my main character, and selecting a scene from what will be close to the end – I start to write a short soliloquy to leave for the final evening’s celebration, tomorrow. I won’t be there, sadly, as a family holiday starting Saturday means I have to get back home tomorrow evening.
I have my second one-to-one tutorial, this time with Laura Wade, who asks some very pertinent questions, and opens up all sorts of possibilities for my main character.
Most of the team go off to the pub in the evening, a few of us don’t – me included. Spend the evening writing that short soliloquy - what a goodie two shoes. But it definitely isn’t easy, this play writing stuff. I struggle to get it to say what I want to, in the right way.

Hornets? Yup. In the kitchen...We persuade them into the back pantry and lock the door on them. The Hurst is a beautiful estate, way out in the country. There are old buildings aplenty, several old residential/smallholding properties, and too many ancient trees to count. A few hornets is nothing! Its a privilege to be here.

FRIDAY: This morning, we take a look at dialogue. There I was thinking it is approached the same way as direct speech in prose – again, I’m way off beam. We do an interesting exercise (again – they were all interesting, actually!) in which we recall phrases we associate with someone we know well and write them down. Someone else has to guess who the person is/was. Good game! Then we chat to our main character – us, we, the playwrights. (Or not...) and that really was good. Both voice-wise, and also for attitude, personality. A focus on sub-text came next, and an in-depth analysis of Scene 1 of ‘Far Away’ – useful, eye-opening stuff. Then we have a look at classic play structures, and the last half hour or so is spent on a sweep-up Q&A session.

I have to leave after lunch, sadly, as I’m due at Heathrow early for the start of a family holiday in the morning, and don’t fancy getting up in the early hours to do the drive. I have to leave a thank you note for the tutors – and also I leave a couple of pages of script with Nick, a 20-year-old fellow student who has done some acting, and is exactly the right age for my main character. He has very kindly agreed to read for me this evening – I am sad to miss this occasion, very much. It will be the only chance to hear what sort of things some of the others have been working on.
I leave at 2.30 pm. I forget it is an August Friday afternoon, and get stuck on the M 42, discover you can’t get off and then on to the M 40 easily – despite it being about half an inch away on my map. I visit the outskirts of Stratford, then Warwick, entirely by mistake, eat Kentucky Fried Chicken at some point, drive on autopilot and get home at 10.15.

As I go to sleep I wonder if the hornets are outside Wilfred’s door again.

Overall.
I was on autopilot because I hadn’t realised just how tired I was. It has been a really fantastic week at The Hurst - it’s been challenging, interesting, fun and inspirational. And a lot of hard work – right out of the comfort zone, but the feeling of being at sea got better as the course progressed! The company has been excellent, the tutors absolutely great. I’ve learned a lot, I hope - and now it’s down to me.
One of the unexpected benefits of the course was rediscovering how scary it can be for a student on a writing course, and how vulnerable you can feel. I hadn’t forgotten – but it is always useful to be reminded...

PLAYS, POETRY

2011-08-14T11:06:00.000-07:00

I'm off to The Hurst on a play-writing course with the rather lovely Arvon Foundation - well out of my comfort zone. I shall report how I got on...
Equally out of the comfort zone, but something that occasionally works, is poetry. I received my contributor's copy of 'Envoi' last week - among the first tentative steps into print for my poems. What I can't work out is this - why is it harder to share a poem than it is a flash, a story? But it is! So in order to knock the corners off that one - here is one of my Envoi poems, and its genesis.
'Beara litany' was written at Anam Cara writers' and artists' retreat after a visit from Irish poet Paddy Bushe (that link is one of many..), who gave a reading to my short story students one evening. It was an extraordinary experience. Just a handful of us and this real live poet! I asked the students to respond to the reading before they slept - however they wished. And I wouldn't ask another writer to do something I wouldn't do myself, so...sat up in bed at midnight to write something. Nothing came, I was so tired - then a few lines from one of Paddy's pieces did their work.
He'd written a response to the ancient Song of Amergin, which in turn is taken from one of the most ancient Irish texts - and which contains something that sounds like a mantra - the opening four or five lines of his echoed that mantra - quite mesmerising.

This is the song itself.

Am gaeth i m-muir
Am tond trethan
Am fuaim mara
Am dam secht ndirend
Am séig i n-aill
Am dér gréne
Am cain lubai
Am torc ar gail
Am he i l-lind
Am loch i m-maig
Am brí a ndai
Am bri i fodb fras feochtu
Am dé delbas do chind codnu
Coiche nod gleith clochur slébe
Cia on co tagair aesa éscai
Cia du i l-laig fuiniud gréne
Cia beir buar o thig tethrach
Cia buar tethrach tibi
Cia dám, cia dé delbas faebru a ndind ailsiu
Cáinte im gai, cainte gaithe

Then there was Paddy's response, in English, a gorgeous piece to listen to. Then my response to his, below, written by a rather tired writer (often the best time to write - we're too tired to self-censor...). I read these lines back next day, and liked them. They encompass all those things I love about the place I go to write, the countryside, its myths and legends, its hard history, wildlife in abundance. No wonder the early settlers found it impossible to turn round and set sail again.:

Beara litany
After a reading by Paddy Bushe

Am the heron’s hunchbacked flight
Am the song of the tagged sea-eagle
Am the roots of Ogham stones
Am horizon’s blurred conjoining
Am a hundred shades of shadow
Am the sparrowhawk’s cry
Am the cattle on the strand
Am the gannet’s lightning psalm
Am skeins of smoke over Coulagh Bay
Am the language of the turf
Am the grieving man at dawn
Am the rain’s punctuation
Am the stubbornness of the Hag
Am attrition of wave and wind
Am the strength of limpets on the praying rocks
Am Kilcatherine’s slumbers
Am the dance of boulders
Am the fraying noose of history
Am the mourning of the sparrows
Am the ocean’s ceaseless hymning

.
Published by Envoi, August 2011.

WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT THE COWARD'S TALE...

2011-08-11T12:49:00.000-07:00

Maggie Gee says:

“Tender and gripping – a brilliantly written epic”

Salena Godden says:

“A Russian doll of a book, layers within layers, histories, ghosts, superstitions and secrets. This book shines a light through the material of human nature, our successes and failings, strengths and weaknesses, pride and vanity and love. The Coward’s Tale is timeless. Storytelling at its best. It's a wonderful read.”

Damian Barr says:

“A rich seam of fables conjuring a community bound together by tragedy and secrets. Everyone knows something about someone but only one man knows everything about everyone. The Coward's own tale is the bravest of all.”

Charles Lambert says:

"The unlikely but entirely legitimate child of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Dylan Thomas, The Coward's Tale invests everyday life with a quality at once whimsical and heroic."

Mari Strachan says:

“A lovely book. It is compulsively readable. Her poetic writing is meticulous in its apt and close observation. She writes about her flawed characters with such warmth and kindness, making of them archetypal characters hewn out of the history of small towns the world over.”

---------

Thank you very much indeed to Maggie, Salena, Damian, Charles and Mari for reading The Coward, and for saying such gorgeous things.

AN INTERVIEW WITH CLARE HEY OF SHORTFIRE PRESS -'Taking the story out of the collection...'

2011-08-05T00:05:00.000-07:00

Shortfire Press is a digital-only publisher specialising in short stories from new & established authors. Its founder, owner, editor and general good egg is Clare Hey, who I met at ShortStoryVille in Bristol a few weeks back - and between us we cooked up an interview swap. So here is Clare - telling you about herself, about her press, about her other day job as freelance fiction editor working at some great publishing houses...she is quite a power-house! Shortfire has exclusive short stories by some stunning writers, among them Niven Govinden, Tiffany Murray, Salena Godden, Sarah Hilary, all carefully selected for your delectation. It ain't easy to join that list - your work has to really sparkle. But I asked Clare to give writers, especially those who may be new to submitting, a few tips...

Welcome to the blog, Clare. Firstly, could you tell us a bit about yourself?

I'm an editor by day and a bitter-drinking Yorkshire lass by night. I moved to London ten years ago to go to university and have been here ever since, working in publishing since I graduated. My first job was at HarperCollins, where I stayed for eight years, working my way up to Senior Editor, commissioning some great books. I left there eighteen months ago and have since been a freelance editor for lots of big publishers, and am currently working at Simon & Schuster as a fiction editor. Oh, and running Shortfire Press too!

Tell us about Shortfire!

We are an independent digital-only short story publishing house. We specialise in stories from both début and more established authors, and boast some amazing award-winning writers on the site. The thing we do differently is that each story is downloadable separately, so you can try just one story for just 99p. All our stories are exclusive to us and brand new - and we hope the site is a place for readers to discover the best writers around today.

What gave you the idea for Shortfire Press?

The idea came about as I've always been a fan of short stories and I suspected the advent of digital publishing would offer new opportunities for short stories. So, in a moment of inspiration whilst on holiday I decided to marry the two and to take the story out of the collection, if you like; to make stories available one by one for 99p. The mission is to bring the short story to everyone!

How did you select the very first story, and what was it?

I launched with three short stories: 'Topple' by Laura Dockrill, 'Summer in the City' by Nadifa Mohamed and 'It Snows they Say on the Sea' by Elizabeth Jenner. I asked Laura and Nadifa to write stories for me as I'd worked with them both before (I edited Laura's amazing short story collection Echoes, and I commissioned and edited Nadifa's Black Mamba Boy, which went on to be included in pretty much every shortlist going - which was nice!). Elizabeth's story came to me through a mutual friend, Ben Johncock, who said it was the best story he'd ever read. I hear this a lot and was sceptical, but he wasn't wrong. Elizabeth's story is now our bestselling story - and the fact it was the first piece of writing she's ever had published makes it even more special.

Tell us about the subs process - and your selection process.

I'm looking for amazing writing, great plots, evocative settings, and a freshness of voice. I want our readers to be able to trust that every story they download from Shortfire will be a corker, so I am pretty picky in choosing which stories to go for. I'm happy to take on a writer who is not well known - I want to discover the writers of tomorrow as well as featuring the best writers of today. For more details about the ins and outs of submitting, visit the subs info on Shortfire's website.

What makes the short story so perfect for this - length of course, but what else?

I feel like short stories are undergoing a renaissance of a sort and digital publishing is part of that. They are ideal for reading when you have a set amount of time - a train journey, or a lunch break - and they are just great full stop! I don't really buy into this whole idea that people have less time so they want to read shorter works. But whatever brings people to Shortfire, I'm happy!

I love discovering work from new writers - if there is a new writer who is a bit scared of submitting to you, (and indeed anywhere good) what would you say to them?

I hope no one would be scared of submitting to us! I would say make sure your story is as perfect as you can get it. Then be bold! Yes, you'll get rejections, but hopefully along the way you'll get some useful feedback. But do your research. Make sure you read the submissions guidelines and that your story fits what the publisher is looking for. If they say they don't do SF, then don't submit SF - the editor isn't going to look at it and think, Well, this is not what we're looking for but it's so amazing I'm going to turn my publishing house upside down to accommodate it. And read some of the stuff the publisher does publish - it's the best way to find out what they are looking for. But, in the end just go for it!

What are you reading in your spare time?

One of the best things about my job is the free books so I always have a massive to-read pile. At the moment I'm reading Helen Oyeyemi's new collection of stories, Mr Fox - it's so original and impressive. I've got Seeing Stars by Simon Armitage for my hols (I've got a bit of a crush on him), as well as The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna and The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver. That should keep me going for a while!

I loved Oyeyemi's Mr Fox. I devoured it in a train journey and a morning, and it's one of those books I can't wait to read again. There's so much in it...but back to you! Anything else you'd like to natter about!

I was once nervous about approaching a famous and rather aged writer, and was worried about what I'd talk to her about. Then someone told me that she liked to talk about the same things as the rest of us: cats, food and sex. So that's been my mantra ever since!

Love that! Do you write stories yourself?

Nope. And I hugely admire anyone who does.

Thanks Clare, for that glimpse into the world of Shortfire Press. Readers and writers of short stories - get over there to download some extraordinary pieces of work, and to check out the submission guidelines. And while you're at it, you can read my own interview, alongside others. Check out Stuart Evers...and dip into a short masterclass in short story writing, with Marcel Theroux! A veritable goldmine.

MORE THEATRE NEWS, CURRENT COMPS CLOSING, ADVICE ON APPROACHING AGENTS, WRITING, JUDGING, MENTORING, WINNING BOOKS!

2011-07-31T13:52:00.000-07:00

THEATRE

Dr Faustus at The Globe - the best! Beg or borrow a ticket, if you are remotely theatre -orientated. And even if you aren't this could convert you. I still find myself thinking about it. We went last week, having managed to get two tickets in the gallery, not together, though - even though I bought them weeks and weeks ago. The reviews are that good. For a very good description of the performance see Ros Barber's blog.

Another must-see if you are at the Edinburgh Fringe – FEDERER VERSUS MURRAY - A new tragi-comedy by Gerda Stevenson about war on several levels, man versus wife, nation against nation and Scotland versus… the Swiss master. From a claustrophobic flat in Scotland to the Swiss Alps via Afghanistan we follow Flo and Jimmy on a painful, and at times farcical journey, complete with war-paint, featuring live music and an outstanding company of Scottish artists. ‘Hilarious and heartbreaking’ (Herald), ‘A beautiful, uncompromising and genuinely moving play’ (Live Theatre).
Good luck too, to the 'Federer versus Murray' team. I’m v much hoping Gerda Stevenson and Andrew G Marshall and Ignacio Jarquin (see post below) will find time to touch base.

COMPS
• Sean O’Faolain Short Story Competition deadline extended another two days - means they haven’t got the right number of entries usually – get them in!
• Manchester Short Story prize – you have another tn days to get your story in!

Bridge House are also running a short story competition details here.

HOW TO APPROACH AGENTS

Here is a really good article, from the mouth of a top guru, on how to approach an agent – diamond advice from Bill Hamilton of A M Heath on Mslexia website - and it is not with a letter that lists two writers you write like! Forget that hackneyed advice. Read this. This website is a mine of really good information and advice for writers.

SHORT STORY COMMISSION
I have a new short story, ‘Ed’s Theory of Souls’ and a flash piece, in this year’s Matter Anthology, from Sheffield Hallam MA. They will appear alongside work by the students and work from fellow guest writers David Gaffney, Paul Farley and Colette Bryce.

LIGHTSHIP JUDGING
I was impressed with the look of the Lightship competitions, terrific initiative, backed by terrific names – Andrew Motion, Cynthia Ozyck – to name just two, so was rather pleased to be invited to be final judge for their One Page Competition 2011/12.

EASTBOURNE JUDGING
Am also final judge for New Eastbourne Writers 2011 short story competition.

TEACHING
Smashing to be invited back to Ipswich, as visiting tutor on the short story module of the Creative Writing degree at UCS (University Campus Suffolk). Autumn term fixed, spring term pending.

PRIVATE TUITION
I have been enjoying doing a bit of private tuition via email for a writer in India. Isn't it marvellous how we can do this! I never fail to marvel and enjoy.

WINNING BOOKS
I won the Booker! No really, I did –a Twitter Booker competition for a spoof title that could have won the real Booker if it existed! ‘The Bigamist’s Manual’, a non-existent title, won me fourteen signed Booker nominated novels. Whizzy or what?

TRIP FOR WRITERS TO WW1 BATTLEFIELDS in 2012
I had such a good few days with military historian Jeremy Banning, that I am putting together a group visit to the Somme in the autumn of 2012, especially for writers, led by Jeremy. 4 days, I expect, staying in a B and B. We are a group of six so far, four women, two men. Let me know if you are interested in finding out more.

BANANAS ! 'CARUSO AND THE MONKEY-HOUSE TRIAL' - OFF TO EDINBURGH FRINGE

2011-07-28T05:33:00.000-07:00

‘Caruso and the Monkey House Trial’ is off to Edinburgh for the Fringe. Come along and join the fun – and gasp at the talent displayed in this one-man-show! And it’s a good thing that actor and tenor Ignacio Jarquin likes bananas – he has to eat one during every performance.
‘Caruso and the Monkey House Trial’ is a sparkling one-man ‘play with opera’ which opens at the Edinburgh Fringe next week. It really is something worth going to if you are there –quite spellbinding as the audience becomes the jury, watching as Jarquin re-enacts the events that led to the singer Enrico Caruso’s high profile trial, accused of pinching a lady’s bottom at the New York Central Park Zoo.

In a pre-Edinburgh run at Brighton Festival Fringe, ‘Caruso and the Monkey House Trial’ was short listed for the best play award, and Ignacio Jarquin was singled out for his quality performance. He has a clear strong voice, and acts the part of Enrico Caruso, world-famous Italian tenor, superbly. And not just Caruso – he literally leaps from singer to policeman, from judge and lawyer to ne-er do well ‘private secretary’, and from affronted forty-something female to a depressed monkey. He inhabits all his roles with great aplomb and not a little humour. (It is as the last character that the bananas are consumed...)

We went last night – to The Nightingale Theatre, in Brighton. An hour of drama interspersed with songs from well –known operas, all building into a fab experience that had my husband, who isn’t used to making positive comments without payment, saying ‘That was very good indeed, wasn’t it. Great...’

Singing unaccompanied is not easy. Jarquin makes it look and sound easy thanks to his lovely tenor voice. His acting abilities, and of course the play itself, written especially for him by Andrew G. Marshall, bring Enrico Caruso, that marvellously larger-than-life singer from a hundred years ago, alive again. This performer is great at involving his audience, at one point singing directly to individuals, who become for that instant, ladies firmly in Caruso’s sights!

Well known not only for his voice, but also for his love of the ladies, Enrico Caruso makes a terrific subject for a play with song. Well done to both playwright and to actor/singer. Congratulations, and have a great run at Edinburgh Fringe.

ON SHORT STORIES, PHILIP PULLMAN SAVING LIBRARIES, POETRY AND BEDSIDE TABLES...

2011-07-25T00:04:00.000-07:00

Celebrating the short story!

Following the cuts in short story broadcasts announced by BBC Radio 4, there has been a real upswelling of protest. So far no-one from the Beeb has explained why we need yet more current affairs instead of a well written, well told short story a few times a week. So, in case you are feeling bereft already, here are a few suggestions to put things right.
First get thee over to Tania H’s blog, where the celebrations of shortstorydom have filled the last week – with links, ideas and general jollity. And link s to several short story comps closing soon...If things have moved on on the blog, scroll back to 22nd July and on.
Second, if you are on Twitter, join in #StorySunday to receive myriad tweets sending you to wonderful short stories to read online. Share your own favourites too. And if you want to write them, I tweet a (hopefully) interesting prompt each day - #StoryGym.
Third, discover the fun that’s going on at Scott Pack’s 365 Stories, where he is reading and reviewing a short story every day. Some big names are getting short shrift!
Fourth - check out the 2011 Small Wonder Festival -
for a glorious few days in deepest Sussex, dedicated to the short story - so many marvellous writers coming this year!
And last but most definitely not least - visit the blog of Prof Patty McNair of Columbia College, Chicago. to read among other things - a wonderful series of in-depth articles by successful short story writers discussing such topics as 'why'? and 'What about money'? and 'the relationship between short and long, for writers' and 'the importance of getting the endings right..'.

Philip Pullman in support of the Save Our Six Libraries Campaign

Last Wednesday evening, off I went to Queen’s Park Community School NW6, to hear Philip Pullman interviewed by Maggie Gee, in support of the Brent Save Our Six Libraries Campaign. Funds are needed for a judicial review into the proposed closures. I’m the daughter of a librarian. Library books were everywhere in our house, an ever-changing galaxy of stories, information, worlds to discover. When I was growing up, going to the library was as important (if not more important) than food shopping. There was always tinned spaghetti if Mum forgot...

The Pullman-Gee show was a gem of an event! In conversation with Maggie (who it turns out once occupied Kensal Rise Library in a previous closure threat...) Pullman gave some insights into his inspiration. He spoke about his love for the old stories, myths, and legends. The classics. He spoke about reading them out loud to his students when he taught, and lamented the fact that kids at school today do not have the chance to hear whole books read to them, instead they are given sound-bites to learn for tests. He spoke about language, and listening. About writing when young, and how ideas take time to surface – how he read a particular article and it sowed a seed of intrigue, and ‘what if’s echoed and wouldn’t go away, and it surfaced a long time later as the wonderful Northern Lights. He talked about writing a scene to find out what would happen, to learn about his characters. I was hanging on his every word like a teenage groupie. He read, not from the trilogy but from ‘The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ’ – which I have read, but didn’t enjoy. Maybe I will try again sometime. So glad I went. Nice to touch base albeit briefly with the Willesden gang.
Afterthought– as he started to read, towards the end of the interview, the heavens opened, and rain thundered on the roof of the school hall. And even our best known atheist cast an eye heavenwards...

Just an old bedside table
It is a strange time. I am sorting out my father’s house, where he lived with increasingly unrelenting dementia, with our support, for the last two years, until he moved into a home in March. He died on the evening of my birthday not many weeks ago.
I’m finding the oddest things in the oddest places. And not finding some things at all.
But he kept intact all his war memorabilia, his papers and diaries, and four years worth of letters back and forth from where he was on active service, between him and his bride. He wrote marvellous letters.
I found in the roof an old bedside table, painted white, with a single small drawer. The base of the drawer was covered in multicoloured crayon scribbles – and in the middle, careful but wonky capital letters spelled out my name. I’m trying to pin it down, searching memories, rooms. Was I three, maybe four? I used to write my name like that on everything – under the kitchen table, behind the bedhead, low on the wall in the hallway, or on the flagstones of the terrace. Maybe I was staking a claim. “I am here. This is me.”
And it strikes me that’s what we do as writers, isn’t it, and maybe when I was three, or four, I was only doing what I do now. When we write, and when it is published, we are saying, ‘This is me.’ And when we’ve gone, if our words survive, it’s a bit like leaving graffiti on a wall saying, very simply, "I was here".

Poetry -
really delighted to have a poetry acceptance at Tears in the Fence, a print journal of poetry, prose and reviews. It is fun, building a CV in a different skill – reading and learning something I will never understand, (I hope not anyway – if you understand something there’s nothing else to discover...) but which works sometimes. It seems this thing works when you don’t try too hard. Maybe the trick is to wait until something moves you, then write down what comes? Who knows? And here is some great advice on Mslexia website, on preparing your poetry for submission, the third of three great articles from Jane Holland:

Reviews of Storm Warning

Charles Christian on Ink Sweat and Tears this week - calls it a must-read.“Gebbie's skill (and of course she is at home in this format, she's contributed to a couple of books about the art of short story writing) is to keep the tales (which range across history from the religious persecutions of the Reformation to the First and Second World Wars and on to the armed struggle in South Africa) firmly grounded on the individual and their experiences and impressions. And, this is where something magical happens for despite the awfulness of everything her characters witness and experience, along with the inevitable sadness and despair we also see the genuine humanity peeking through. The compassion, the gallows humour, the recognition of the ironies of life - in fact all the stuff (bad word I know) that makes people human, that keeps people going even in the face of death.”
For the whole review scroll down to Thursday July 21st.

Benjamin Judge on Bookmunch wasn’t quite so keen, starting with a warning, “Can you recommend a writer, and maybe even their book, but still be wary of it and its existence?” and he finishes a very keen-edged and thought-provoking review (for the writer, anyway!) with a decent pat on the back: “Gebbie should be praised for taking on a near impossible subject to satisfy her readers with. That she almost manages to pull off such a difficult trick is down to her skills as a writer.”

Meanwhile Scott Pack, on his 365 Stories project mentioned above, read the first three stories, (one full length story and two flashes) of the collection. ‘The Return of the Baker Edwin Tregear’, (Review 31) was given four out of a possible five stars: “A novel's worth of story in a handful of pages.” Things then went downhill fast, as Storm Warning, the title flash, got a two-star rating (Review 37), but Pack was kind, and said “she is a really good writer. I just didn't click with this one. It happens.” The next, ‘Gas Gangrene’, (Review 41) crept up to three stars... “This is a decent piece of ventriloquism from an interesting writer. This collection of stories inspired, informed and influenced by war is proving to be a rewarding read the more I venture in...” and I was able to relax again. Much later, Pack reviewed the title story of Words from a Glass Bubble, (Review 170), and I’m back up to four stars again, as he said among other things, “Sweet and sad - a charming tale to warm your heart on Father's Day.” Interesting. I didn’t think I did ‘charming’, but I bow to Scott Pack’s better knowledge of industry nuances!

My thanks to all three reviewers – for taking the time to read my work, and to think about it. Appreciated.

AMAZING MUSICAL MAPS!

2011-07-20T00:19:00.000-07:00

I was asked by Bloomsbury to make a map of the town invented for The Coward's Tale - and to help myself orientate everything, I put in all the main characters - expecting Bloomsbury to take them out and just make an ordinary map. Instead, they liked the idea and left all the characters in, surrounded by beautiful illustrations that echo the book's cover.
Then they asked for a line or two for each character... so I thought - ah! Wouldn't it be fun if...and then wouldn't it be even more fun if there was music? Now what music should it be??

The Coward now has a Musical interactive Map!

The Amazing Musical Map is waiting to be opened, listened to - and there might be something else - characters hidden, waiting to speak... To find the Map turn on thy speakers, put on they wellies, grab a brollie and get thee to The Coward's Journey Blog, HERE
and follow the directions...

The Coward's Journey has recorded every step in the process of getting this novel ready for publication - since acceptance. All about working with Bloomsbury, the editing processes, copyediting, writing catalogue copy, writing acknowledgements - and all the rest. This is a very exciting bit!

BRISTOL SHORTSTORYVILLE 2011

2011-07-18T06:16:00.000-07:00

The inaugural Bristol City celebration of the short story took place over the weekend, in the run-up to the announcement on Saturday evening of the winners of the 2011 Bristol Short Story Prize. Held at the Arnolfini Centre, right on the harbour, ShortStoryVille was a series of readings, panel discussions, interviews and general good stuff, all focussed on short fiction, in a spacious cinema, well lit stage, comfortable seats, a huge and perfect space for the event. Lovely café upstairs, excellent bookshop for buyings and signings - it was a real joy to be there. So many people I know, whose work I love – and meeting new writers – what could be better? A whole bunch turned up from the old Fiction Workhouse. (Stunning news from so many of the team who worked together a while back. See end.)

ShortStoryVille!!! First up was a panel – Janice Galloway, Alison MacLeod and Sarah Salway, chaired with aplomb, humour and verve by Bidisha.
The event sparkled with great readings from the three writers’ work – focussing on sex and general mayhem – and I loved in particular Alison wowing us with her unforgettable images of ball lightning, from her story ‘Discharge’. Sarah revisited ‘The Woman Downstairs’ (last read at her daughter’s school with unexpected results...) and Janice read from ‘Where You Find It’ – it is SO great hearing writers read their own work – especially when they do it as well as these three. Then ‘Crafty’ topics ranged from an exploration of their writing processes, to revision, to how long does it take, to structure – if that sounds dry, it was anything but. It became a celebration of the differences that lead to success. For example, Sarah will be working on multiple pieces of work at any one time - whereas Alison tends to have one on the go. But there were similarities too - they were all three ‘full of voices’ – Janice Galloway writes ‘to get the voices out of my head’. Janice, I’ve decided, is a sort of wise female Billy Connolly – she is so sharp, funny, and irreverent – I could have listened to her all day. When an audience member asked her whether she was musical – she agreed – seeing no division between music and words.
The event finished with a thunderous round of applause from an audience of mainly writers, I suspect, all fizzing with new enthusiasm, utterly inspired.
If I take just one of the many wonderful thoughts they shared, it is Sarah’s quiet acknowledgement that characters in strong short fiction have within themselves the seeds of their own destruction. Isn’t that just perfect, and a little shivery?

After a short break, there was another panel event, this time on the reading of the short story – chaired by Tania Hershman, who has donned stunning new shoes for the occasion, only to find that there was a table-cover that hid them...(but we did see them later when she read!) Panellists were Clare Hey of Shortfire Press , Scott Pack of the Friday project whose other blog 365 Stories is exploring a new short story every day for a whole year - he blogs here and lastly but not leastly David Hebblethwaite who reviews books and blogs about it here -
Those of us who write short fiction know you need a reader who is prepared to pay attention – as opposed to skimming for ‘what happens’. So it was fascinating to hear how these three experts approach reading a short story, what switches them on and off, whether they have any rituals, or preferred places to read them, how many they read, and so forth.
Clare Hey for example, says she knows within three sentences whether a story is worth reading - she is an experienced editor – really knows her stuff, check out Short Fire above– it is a lovely resource. And don’t we all know how very important are those opening lines? Scott Pack says he does a lot of short story reading on the loo, admitted to with much laughter - he also gives stories short shrift if they don’t grab him. (I hate to think what he does with the redundant pages...ahem...) and David enjoys reading anywhere/everywhere. This panel was a very valuable one – unusual to find this topic aired in such depth.

Then there was lunch – A chance to relax over a beer, and a chance to say hi to Clare Hey, and time to ask her to do a Q and A session for here, sometime.

The third event of the afternoon saw two stunning writers talking about their work. Stuart Evers (With whom I read at Brighton Fringe back in May) and Helen Oyeyemi. Oh wow. Both read – Stuart from his debut collection ‘Ten Stories About Smoking’, in its amazing ciggie box packaging from Picador – and
Helen read from her fourth book, ‘Mr Fox’. Which, by the way I am half way through. READ!!

Then into Choice Cuts – a chance to hear some local writers reading their work. Here was Tania H and finally those fab shoes! And here was Patricia Ferguson, Gareth Powell, Amy Mason, Sarah Hillary and a new writer Emma Newman. A terrific, inclusive and fab event compered by Bertel Martin.

Then, the event the whole afternoon had been leading to – the Bristol Short Story Prize: a glorious civic occasion, with the Mayor welcoming everyone to the prizegiving, and Bertel Martin, Chair of the judging panel giving the prizes. Last year's winner, Valerie O'Riordan actually introduced an event earlier in the day - but her piccie is here because it belongs here! It was a nail-biting few moments, as writers' names were called, those who had had work chosen for the anthology, as finalists from a strong field. Many many congratulations to Emily Bullock, whose story ‘My Girl’ won First Prize. here she is, with Alison Macleod, Bertel Martin and the Mayor of Bristol. More details about the prizewinners here on the Bristol Prize Website.
And then on to the bookshop, for a reception to celebrate not only the Prize but for this writer anyway, a celebration of the whole great event.

Cherry on the cake – remember a military historian called Jeremy Banning who took me to France earlier this year? (blogged here...) Turns out he and his wife are good friends with Joe Melia, Mr Bristol Short Story Prize himself, and his wife – so a lovely chance to say hello again. I’m planning a writers’ visit to Flanders, led by this wonderful guide, next year – contact me if you would like to come.

And finally -

Fiction Workhouse – this little group, closed, invitation only, (no beginners, troublemakers chucked out fast, life’s too short!) ran from spring 2007 – autumn 2009. And obviously, at Bristol we swapped news about the successes of members - novels, short story collections, agents, prizes –writers progressing, getting stronger - good good stuff, the product of hard work plus not a little talent. What a terrific team we were. Look at this lot:

Ben Buchholtz’s novel comes out later this year with Little, Brown.

Elaine won the Bridport Prize in 2009 ... she has an agent - watch this space.

Anna won a supplementary prize at Bridport 2009. Her agent loves her novel - watch this space.

Joel’s collection was shortlisted for the 2010 Scott Prize. He was also shortlisted for the inaugural Bristol Short Story Prize and shortlisted for the 2009 Southern Cross Literary Competition.

Susannah’s short story collection ‘Hot Kitchen Snow’ won the Scott Prize in 2010. She has an agent.

Sarah has a top crime agent and keeps on doing exciting things – watch this space...

Tania’s collection ‘The White Road and other Stories’ was commended by the judges of the Orange Prize for New Writers in 2009. She is writer-in residence at Bristol Uni Science Faculty.

Valerie O won the 2010 Bristol Prize

Sara’s novel in progress was chosen as one of the four finalists in the Faber/Book Tokens Not Yet Published Award, and she is the winner of Waterstone's 2009 Bookseller's Bursary.

John H’s short story collection was shortlisted for the Scott Prize 2011 – he has won a place to study for an MFA in San Francisco.

Me, and 'The Coward's Tale', soon!

And I'm sure there are other successes for Workhousers - Let me know if you know of more that belong in this list, of if I've got the details upside down, it wouldn't be the first time!

Update - from Chelsey Flood via email (edited by me) : "I completed my MA at UEA, an extract of my novel, 'Silverweed', was awarded the Curtis Brown Prize for 'best writing' as chosen by a panel of CB agents. I have since got an agent... Catherine Clarke at Felicity Bryan. My novel is YA. In March I was awarded funding from the Arts Council to complete my novel, and have just finished the second draft. I also won a place on the Arvon/Jerwood Mentoring Scheme - I was mentored by Bernardine Evaristo."

so many congrats to Chelsey...

Another update: Jo Cannon's marvellous collection Insignificant Gestures, came out this year. Nominated for both Edge HIll and Frank O'Connor Prizes - a fab collection of short stories. Many apologies to Jo for missing this one - I only endorsed it... blame my brain at the moment.

Credit - All the photographs in this post were taken by Sylvie Kruiniger.

Nicholas Hogg - The Hummingbird and the Bear

2011-07-14T02:41:00.000-07:00

I love reading new books by writing colleagues, and was really looking forward to the second novel by Nick Hogg, whose first, ‘Show Me The Sky’ (Canongate) is a clever and brilliantly written missing person thriller.
No sooner had I opened novel number two, sent by the publisher (Corsair), than it was borrowed and taken on holiday to Portugal by my son and daughter in law. Poor Nick Hogg has had to wait for a family verdict, and I had to read a sea-stained slightly sandy book!

The words on the cover are these:

How do you fall in love with the right man when you are not the right woman?

“A timely and moving examination of passionate love.”

So. N. Hogg Novel number two, ‘The Hummingbird and the Bear’ starts off down a well-trodden path, and whereas the undeniably beautiful cover and the quote lead the reader to think the main character will be a woman, and the book her sad love story - maybe a deliberate ploy to attract a target market, who knows - the narrator is not a woman at all, but actually a spoken-for bloke, called Sam Taylor. Sam is ‘something in the City’ and engaged to Jenni. In the opening scenes then, Sam Taylor falls for Kay, a spoken-for other woman, at a mutual friend’s wedding. The story proceeds at a gentle pace, lulling the reader into what appears to be a predictable forthcoming sequence of events built round love, betrayal, faithfulness and not.

I should have trusted this writer more. Nick Hogg is a far better writer than that, and his characters are made of sterner stuff. This novel may begin gently, but it does not stay that way for long as his main characters reveal their true selves and excitement and tension builds.
Sam Taylor is an interesting, multi-layered and original character who increases in complexity the further into the book one gets. And Kay too, the woman who steals his heart in the most arresting way, is his equal. Hogg is clever – he bases both of them on the foundations of stereotype, so when we first meet them, we think – ‘Oh right, that’s who we are dealing with’ – in this case, a well-heeled, quite nice bloke, and a bored but attractive wife of an older US businessman. But this impression is soon blown away. In Sam and Kay, Hogg has created a couple who are absolutely made for each other, a modern equivalent of Romeo and Juliet, in a way – with all the attendant conflicts and drama, descending into unexpected violence – and as Sam has to dig deep to find reserves of strength he maybe didn’t know he had - their story becomes something compelling. The drama plays out against the backdrop of Obama's election, and the diurnal conflicts of the financial world.
I actively enjoyed Hogg’s prose in his first novel, and this one is no different, from a writer’s point of view, just enjoying what another writer is doing. He is a craftsman. His ability to make his characters and settings come to life is second to none. You feel you are there, watching from the sidelines, unable to intervene. A strange feeling, and one that is hard to elicit, certainly from this reader. From London, to New York, from New York to Mexico - this novel sweeps you on an unexpected and often breathtaking journey.

The one thing I would say is this, please don’t let the cover put you off. Pretty girl, fuzzy outlines, pretty blues, bright lipstick, rain on window, lacy tracery with birds, and hearts, and that few lines of description, just do not reflect the book I’ve read. It’s like they put the wrong cover on. I would not have picked it up in a bookshop, and would have missed a really strong read. ‘The Hummingbird and the Bear’ becomes a real page-turner. It will probably be made into a film – I can just see its potential.

Read it!

And by the way - my family agree.
-----
This is NIck's first novel. Read that too.

MEETING MY PUBLICIST and DOUGHNUTS!

2011-07-13T04:21:00.000-07:00

The amazing experiences of working with the Bloomsbury team towards publication of The Coward’s Tale continue apace. Yesterday, it was my turn for publicity planning, so I was off for a smashing lunch at Patara in Greek Street (go, it’s lovely!) with Anya Rosenberg, Head of Publicity at Bloomsbury, UK.

So I walk in with a box of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts... and had fish cakes with a cucumber and sweet chilli dip, salmon fillet in a wonderful, light jus, fragrant rice, jasmine tea in a glass pot with flowers floating...

Oops, sorry. Got carried away there.
Anya knows that I do a lot here online and elsewhere, myself – but we spoke about the launch of the book, whether to hold the launch at a bookshop or somewhere private, and the implications of both decisions. We spoke about what happens with review copies when they come in (mid-September!), who she sends them to and what happens next. We spoke about literary festivals, about readings, about website stuff, about blog tours, about possible features here, articles there.
But the most extraordinary thing, too. One of the happenings in ‘The Coward’s Tale’ has echoes of an important Jewish tradition. Anya wanted to know if that was deliberate? And the answer is, although I am fascinated by Judaism for personal reasons, no. It is a coincidence, not there deliberately at all. And a lovely one – that makes me very happy. Here's a clue:

Planning and lunch, over, we repaired to the Bloomsbury offices, where the doughnuts were delivered to Helen, Erica, Alice, Holly and of course now, Anya – Erica’s been posting about cakes and Bloomsbury – another rich tradition that needs to be upheld!

EARNING IN HALF-HUNDREDS

2011-07-10T08:35:00.000-07:00

Writers don't earn a lot - forget visions of J K Rowling in her castle - that doesn't happen to many, honest. But this week has been good as weeks go.

A few hundred quid plus expenses for working at Winchester - and they put me up, fed me and watered me all weekend, like a prize petunia - so that's great.
Another hundred plus a half-hundred for a short story commission, from a much-respected University, for their annual anthology. The editor loved the story I sent as much as I loved it, so all well and good - details in due course.
I am giving a lovely writer feedback on another chapter of her novel. Half-hundred per chapter.

Mind you, not all weeks are like this. Mostly, they are barren, sandy wastelands peopled by hungry husbands and sons crying for food. Well, kind of. They are waiting for the ££ to roll in! Fink they will be waiting a long time!

WINCHESTER WRITERS' CONFERENCE

2011-07-05T09:04:00.001-07:00

Welcome welcome to the new-look blog. And yes- – I am experimenting with colours – mainly so the link to Twitter can be seen on the right up there... it kinda faded away on the old background.
Yes, I am an official Twit. No comments please. I shall be tweeting something called Story Gym every day, sometimes twice – with ideas for making connections that could end up as a story.

But Winchester Writers’ Conference was a wonderful few days. Am absolutely delighted with my time there.

Winchester in Bullet Points
• 400 delegates, from as far away as the Antipodes.
• Return to student days – living in a hall of residence for the duration, eating in the lovely dining hall, surrounded by buzzy lovely like-minded people!
• Endless fascinating conversations, networking, swapping ideas and tips.
• Too many speakers to count, including well-established writers, editors, agents and publishers.
• SUCCESS! Many writers found an agent. At the plenary session alone there were six writers from last year with books out or forthcoming from excellent publishers as a direct result of meeting their agents for the first time at Winchester last year.
• A complete lack of pretension. A celebration of writing in all its myriad forms.
• Supportive – encouragement for the newer writers, a guiding hand for the ones struggling up the slopes, and help with professional issues for those teetering higher up.
• Honesty. Straight appraisal of work. From other writers, from editors, agents. Especially work writers think is ready to pitch. Is it? No one wants you to make mistakes at this delicate time – get it right!
• Variety. A blizzard of opportunities to listen and learn about anything and everything to do with writing. Writing for children and young adults. Crime writing. Historical works. Women’s magazine fiction. Commercial work. Poetry. Memoir. Literary work. And all the rest.
• Inspirational keynote speakers. Barry Cunningham, one-time marketing guru from Bloomsbury who now runs Chicken House Publishing, and who discovered JK Rowling – telling a packed auditorium how, and why, and drawing lessons for everyone from his experiences. And Geoff Holt, sailor extraordinaire, writer of stunning memoir for which he had to type over a million characters with a single finger. He is disabled. And sailed right round the UK... putting most people’s get-up-n-go, including mine, to shame.
• Marvellous book-fair, run by indie bookshop P G Wells of Winchester. Who sold squillions of books, of all sorts shapes and sizes. And I love them even more because they are stocking my ‘Short Circuit’ after the conference!
• Writing competitions – eighteen of them. Prizes to be won – and many of the comps are backed by publishers, agents, the local press – the winners are taken very seriously. This years winner of a 1000 wd short story comp run by the Hampshire Chronicle won free attendance to the conference. And went home with an agent for her novel....
• Jane Wenham-Jones. The smashing after-dinner speaker at the awards dinner – author of three chick-lit novels, and two ‘Wannabe a Writer’ volumes – Jane is a scream, and beneath the fun, a very useful and supportive writer to know.

What was I doing? Quite a bit –
• a short story workshop split between 3 hrs on Friday evening and 2.5 hrs on Sunday morning. A small group – intense, hard work, and fun.
• A short story master-class – one hour of tips and strategies, advice and discussion.
• A flash fiction talk – last minute replacement of a speaker who was unfortunately unable to attend because of illness – but it went well – I got them writing as well as listening!
• One-to-ones with writers who had sent the opening of a short story, or in one case, of a novel.
• And attending the plenary session, the prize-giving for the comps, the glitzy dinner following.
• Walking up and down the campus – its on a slope! All those steps, but I felt v healthy by the end.

This was the 31st Winchester Writers’ Conference. I last attended with some friends in 2004, raw, newbie, starting out, and with little confidence for all my bluster. I enjoyed it, and came away with more confidence in what I wanted to do. It hasn’t changed. It is a very good, positive and nurturing experience, in a world in which so much of writing can be less than. That is down to the founder and organiser, Barbara Large MBE. A nicer person you couldn’t hope to find – caring absolutely that no disadvantage ought to stop a writer writing, if that is what they want to do. A deep bow and a salute to Barbara! I have no idea if that link back there is current, but it will tell you a little about this remarkable and very self-effacing lady.

Next year, one week earlier, it will be the 32nd Winchester Writers' Conference. I am keeping my fingers crossed that I am invited back to speak. Pretty Please, organisers? But whether I am there or not, the team of speakers will be amazing - writers, put it in the diary for 2012!

ESCAPE TO SCOTLAND

2011-06-21T10:55:00.000-07:00

Escaped for a few much-needed dolittle days to one of my favourite places for walking, and thinking and visiting friends who run excellent guesthouses - Ullapool, on the north west coast of Bonnie Scotland. And my goodness it showed off all its bonnieness to us while home got rained upon big time.

One of the highlights was a trip over to Handa Island to see the puffins - how anyone could remain sad when faced with these comic birds who behave like demented wind-up toys, is beyond me. I think puffins must have been the inspiration for Murakami's Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.
You will have to take my word for it that there were puffins. My new Blackberry wasn't clever enough to take close-ups, although it was doing most other things with abandon. There were also great skua, Arctic skua, guillemots, razorbills, kittiwakes, pippets, skylarks, and lots more, not forgetting views to live for.
The old crofters' cottages are now tumbles of stone in the ferns, covered in fabulous lichen growth.
Goodness knows - old floats, now rusted? Giant chocolate truffles? (Thanks to Julia B for the idea). Or just something amazing and photogenic on a beach near Achiltiebuie? finally, we always stop off at Culloden to pay our respects to the clan MacLean - all my men, husband and sons together, are MacLeans. There is a marvellous new visitors' centre there - stunning contemporary architecture echoing the line of the hills behind.

Writing news: Riptide have accepted the three short memoir pieces mentioned below. Had a short story commission for a rather nice anthology - more on that later. And a good writing workshop this afternoon at one of my old schools, Brighton and Hove High, where a group of girls stay behind to write after school. Now that's dedication.

BUSY DOING NOTHING...

2011-06-12T07:11:00.000-07:00

Doing nothing...or am I? I am so used to having The Great Oeuvre to focus creative energies on, and now it’s all done and dusted (apart from cover quotes both here and in the US) I feel a bit directionless. There are plenty of ideas for the next Great Oeuvre in my head and some writing done. But I do not feel the time is right for that, and won’t rush at it just for the sake of having something in the pipeline.
I am rather busy at other things. My darling Dad died recently, (he was 95, and it was time) and organising his funeral, my head spinning trying to get it right, is exhausting. But funerals or not, life goes on. And so does the writing life.

Doing nothing? I had a look at what actually is going on.

1. Teaching, lit fest events

• Just back (see post below) from leading a week-long short story workshop in Ireland.
• Making notes for the workshops and masterclass for Winchester Writers’ Conference from 1st - 3rd July.
• Watching the numbers grow for my Women Writers’ residential weekend at the gorgeous Tilton House in September. (Stop Press: I’m delighted that Carole Hayman will be our guest speaker on the Saturday...and Helen Garnons-Williams, Editorial Director of Bloomsbury, is speaking after Sunday Lunch - about what editors really look for, how agents work with publishers, and lots more diamond stuff).
• Asked to do two workshops at Bridport festival instead of one... and to organise a third event. More of that later.

2. Short Story competition judging.

• First, Society of Women Writers and Journalists (SWWJ) and their annual Vera Brittan competition. Entries came from members only, and I read them all. A fascinating exercise. Members come from all branches of writing, non-fiction and fiction – the stories were often surprising and great fun to judge. I was then a guest at the SWWJ Summer bash held at The New Cavendish Club, together with the poetry judge, Lady Sandra Howard – we both gave short addresses to the multitude as we announced the winners. (Check out the SWWJ's newly-announced International Life Writing Comp, on the website by the way. There is a lot of money to be won...)
• Second, I’ve agreed to judge the annual short story competition for New Eastbourne Writers – details are on their website, with rules and paypal links. HERE. I will only be reading the shortlist, as I gather entries will run into the hundreds!

3. Poetry

• ‘Litany’ and ‘Disused Copper Mine, Sunday’- poems inspired by and written on the Beara in West Cork, have been accepted by Envoi for their next issue. I am celebrating quietly. About time I took poetry a bit more seriously.

4. Memoir

Riptide journal, edited by Ginny Bailey and Rosie Flint, down there in Exeter, is theming their next issue. They are seeking short stories featuring Devon, somehow, and unusually for them, they are also seeking short memoir pieces. I sent them a short comic memory from my Exmouth childhood, and a few more are being considered. Details on their website (which features short stories by among others the talented David Gaffney...) here: and see the other submissions links for fiction sub guidelines. This is a very nice print publication, with high standards.

5.Theatre

A new departure for me – plays. Whilst on my trip with Jeremy Banning to The Somme and elsewhere earlier this year, I started writing a play, I think. Well, I was writing at night, tired, and what came out was not prose, but a conversation between three men...and as soon as I stopped and looked at what I was doing, I froze. I don’t know enough about making plays and something must be pulling me to try it... Plans are already afoot for me to collaborate with a couple of seasoned playwrights later this year – most challengingly, the objective of one collaboration will be a play based on the chequered experience of tracking down my family. I need to learn! The Arvon Foundation is an obvious place to find a good residential course – so another chunk of The Coward’s Tale advance will go on a Theatre week at The Hurst, John Osborne’s home... learning the basics from those who know best. How to choose a course when one knows nothing of the work of any of the tutors? Ask around first. I did, and here’s the course I’m doing.

.

Doing nothing? Don't think so. But looking at that lot has made me tired... just off for a snooze...

SHORT STORY WORKSHOP - IRELAND

2011-06-05T07:42:00.000-07:00

A week-long workshop at the marvellous Anam Cara Writers' and Artists' Retreat, with participants who had travelled from Holland, Luxembourg, the UK and Ireland itself. Their standard was very strong. I worked them very hard - three and a half hours each morning, a mix of flash writing games, discussions about theory, writing exercises that could, if used well, lead to complete stories, regular time spent analysing short fiction by well-known writers (stories selected and brought along for the purpose by the team, and used as guinea-pigs for both 'reading as writers' and our critiquing skills) and regular critiquing of the participants' own work. We focussed closely on revision skills, and put everything into practice as soon as possible! Afternoons were for their own writing, thinking, focus - visits, sometimes.
A word about the group critiquing...we deliberately protected precious first drafts from the onslaught. We spent the first few days dissecting old pieces they knew weren't working - giving the writers a chance to start new pieces each day, a chance to revisit and make sharper, but mostly to gain a little distance from their 'babies'. (It was forcing the issue, really - normally, I'd push for weeks of time elapsed..)And we critiqued to a pattern, by craft element, backing everything up with text examples. It seemed to work really well.
Five writers, and by the end of the week, at the last count, 14 new full-length short stories completed to at least second draft stage. (I think...) Umpteen pieces of flash fiction, many of them ready to get out there...and a hoard of story seeds. Some poetry, prose poems, some written commentaries. We all had one-to ones, one held at a local pub, another on a long walk... some intrepid souls had swum in the river, some had walked and walked some more. Some visited the Stone Lady to have their stones 'read' there were massages, reflexology for the non-ticklish.

We talked competitions, markets, collections, publishers, agents, how the writing of short fic can help with novels and novellas... and a hundred other things. I don't know about them, but their tutor is tired out...and very happy with the formula, especially regarding the group feedback. And delighted at the amazing output!

MORE SPARKS FROM GEBLER'S ANXT...

2011-05-26T00:05:00.001-07:00

Blogger has graciously arranged to return the discussion comments that followed a post sparked by a recent article by Carlo Gebler, entitled in part What You Might Lose By Becoming a Writer. Add them to the coments that peeps kindly rewrote - and we have quite a flood of thoughts from writers of all kinds, reacting to his somewhat depressed ourpourings. Makes interesting reading for any writer. Do we really know what we are getting into?
Post and discussion is here...

THE STORY OF A GARDEN

2011-05-24T02:12:00.000-07:00

Driving into Brighton along the Lewes Road, you are driving through a community. Endless little shops. Things for sale displayed on the pavement, passing by in a blur when the lights change. Caffs. A small funeral director on each side of the road. Glimpses of terraced streets running to the left, the right. Bus stops. Kids. A church or two - a hall, Mums pushing buggies into a porch, going somewhere good. Furniture shops - second hand and new. Launderette, I expect - although I might have made that up...Not a lot of green. A few trees struggling to hold their heads up... and quite a way further on, past the intersection with Elm Grove, a wide space, the levels, a park where the fair sits down for a rest once a year, otherwise it is one of Brighton and Hove's lungs, green and peaceful - kind of - as peaceful as you get in Brighton.... Tall tall old trees, with gracious and rather lovely regency terracing overlooking....rather different to the street you've just driven down.

Back on Lewes Road, between two of the side streets there was a patch of derelict ground. An eyesore. A place where maybe you wouldn't want to walk barefoot... certainly wouldn't want to let your kids play...It had been like that for a very long time. Various 'For Sale' notices appeared now and again. Then one day, things changed. On the earth, a chair or two. A painted table. Then some raised beds - a notice declaring this a Community Garden - making use of a dead space for a while - always people there, kids, people growing things, somewhere to meet, colour, sound, and it was funny to watch how people like me, who were only passing through in their cars, slowed down to look - glimpse something nice...it lifted the spirits.

Growing things on a bit of borrowed ground - sounds idyllic...until the owners of the site took the gardeners to court. And the gardeners attended court unrepresented...not that that would have made a difference, probably. This was the outcome.

I was particularly cross to hear someone saying the ground was contaminated... and that's why they were pulling the garden down. What rubbish. The diggers and bulldozers, driven and organised by workmen wearing not one mask between them... fling the earth (much of it topsoil brought from elsewhere for the raised beds) high in the sir, scattering dust far and wide. If there were contaminants, they are sure as hell in the lungs of the locals by now.
Cost of destroying the garden... a lot.
Cost of creating the garden... nil.

Sad. We all lose out when things like this happen.
Pics from HERE and from the Community Garden's own website, complete with lovely gallery - where you can read the whole story...HERE

ARE MFAs/MAs "RUINING FICTION"?

2011-05-22T02:00:00.000-07:00

'Are MFA Programs Ruining American Fiction?'--- and by extension, are all writing progs ruining fiction in general? That is the title of an article I read recently. My reply? Nah of course they are not - on the contrary, they are encouraging, and helping, and honing.. aren't they - anything that brings new writers to publishers is good, if you ask me. But it is an interesting debate, isn't it? How do you mark manuscripts without imposing some criteria? I'm sure, if a student is clever, and wants to get good marks, they submit work they know fits the criteria, whether or not they intend to write like that in future. I'd love to reproduce an email from a fab young writer of my acquaintance, frustrated but amused at having to send in work they would 'not write off my own bat in a million years, and never will again' - However - I digress. That's the system, and if you want the qualification, you play the game. And you learn, despite yourself, probably, on the way. And my fab young writer may well be taking in all sorts of things that will feed the communication of all her amazing creations at a later date. But the article underlines a truth - you can be taught all sorts of craft - how to make your prose fine and dandy - but no one can teach your brain to come up with interesting and original stuff. Can they?
Article is in full, HERE
Here are some quotes....

“MFA grads with nothing to say are now able to say it more skillfully, (HA!! love it!) but authors were pretty good at being boring before university writing programs came along and would surely go on being boring if every MFA program were wiped off the face of the earth. The programs don't make them dull, even if they also can't make them interesting.”
“Lucidity, striking word combinations, evocative descriptions, inventive metaphors, smooth transitions and avoidance of word repetition, does not necessarily lead to more interesting or appealing books.”
“Anything that helps good writers publish more good books is fine by me, and the programs at the very least provide teaching jobs for talented authors who might otherwise have difficulty making a living because their work is insufficiently commercial..”

Really interesting article – very thought provoking, and I enjoyed the read because it does not come down heavily one way or the other but gives a good overview of arguments for and against.
Read, inwardly digest and discuss away then. But here are my own views...
I am slightly interested in the assertions in author bios that they have a degree, masters, M Phil, PhD, or something else, in Writing – mentioned as if it gives weight to the work that would otherwise not be there. Maybe all it is saying is ‘My work has been found worthy by others, not just my Mum’, a bit like listing publications and other successes. Or maybe I am jealous – but I don’t think so. I AM however, very jealous of the company they kept for a few years. I AM jealous of the space they had - both actual and metaphorical - to write, the permission to create, the synergy that builds up in a group of writers, the tussle, the buzz, ideas flying, the challenges thrown out from their peers and betters. The opportunities and permission to discover and try new things. I AM also jealous of the network opportunities missed, because as we all know, in this game one helluva lot depends on contacts. And to teach at a university, one needs to have a university qualification - and so the circle tightens...However.
I know many writers who teach at the highest level, have worked with some and found them extremely exciting and inspirational teachers- and would love to spend regular time with them, chewing over craft issues, discussing a piece of contentious work – published or not - and I almost did just that, once, some years back. But it didn’t go as planned.
The truth is, that had I stayed on a well-respected course, I would not have written ‘The Coward’s Tale’, as I was told not to, and for me, not writing it and doing something more acceptable for the course, wasn't an option.

But I am therefore completely unqualified in Creative Writing. But please note, I am not unqualified to write. Or to create.

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'THE COWARD'S TALE' HAS A MAP!

2011-05-19T10:52:00.000-07:00

Copied from The Coward's Journey Blog, linked over there somewhere, where I am following all the stages to publication in November...Brilliant! Now I know where I am, and where I''m going. I have a map - and so do my characters. It is very interesting, as I said before, and none too easy, to create a map of a fictitious place. It made me see where characters had turned right to go left, if you follow me... (I wouldn't if I were you!) Beautiful, isn't it? All the main characters are located carefully, close to the place that means the most to them. So - clockwise from the top, you have:

Tommo Price, by the tunnel on the old coal line
Laddy Merridew, on the Brychan Estate (that's his gran's house...)

below them there is:

Icarus Evans in his caravan, surrounded by feathers

continuing round the edge, there is:

Peter Edwards, near Deep Pit (closed...)
James Little, by his allotment which he digs at night
Ianto Jenkins, the beggar, close to Ebenezer Chapel where he sleeps on a stone bench in the porch
Judah Jones, near the park where he finds silver leaves

moving left there is:

Factual Philips, at the Public Library, where he is Deputy Librarian and is probably reading The Collected Adventures of Sherlock Holmes on the quiet...
Tutt Bevan, the undertaker, off for a walk, soon,
Baker Bowen, in his house at the bottom of Steep Street, doing anything but baking

and at nine o'clock there is:

Matty Harris (and his wife Eunice, who will be red-faced with fury at being left off the map)
Mrs Bennie Parrish (who will be delighted to be included...)
Nathan Bartholomew, at The Cat Public House - where he's a lodger

and last but not least, for the last shall be first...

Half Harris, at 11 Maerdy St.

Bless 'em.

BRIGHTON FRINGE - FLASH FICTION SLAM, THIS SATURDAY, WITH DAMIAN BARR

2011-05-18T03:47:00.000-07:00

Brighton Festival Fringe Flash Slam Saturday May 21st, 8 pm – hosted by the somewhat incomparable Damian Barr at Hendrick’s Horseless Carriage of Curiosities /– Jubilee Square, Brighton.

The Festival Fringe website says this...

The ultimate short short short short story competition! Well-known writers Niven Govinden, Vanessa Gebbie and Stuart Evers read their Flash Fictions aloud and judge yours! Strict rules apply. Your story must be 3 minutes or less. Your story must be entitled ‘the End’. Prize: £100. Free entry: names drawn randomly on night. Complementary decadent libation included

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Damian Barr is a journalist, Radio 4 playwright, Host of the Soho House Literary Salon and cultural entrepreneur among other things...
Stuart Evers is the author of “Ten Stories about Smoking” (Picador) among other things...
Niven Govinden is the author of “We Are The New Romantics” (Bloomsbury) and Graffiti My Soul (Canongate)

Full details and booking info HERE >>> Brighton Fringe website

Conundrums...

2011-05-15T10:45:00.000-07:00

I am deeply indebted to Oscar Windsor-Smith for another coveted award - not only did I get an 'Oscar', a while back, but I now have a Versatile Blogger Award... thank you Oscar.
We are meant to pass it on to a million others, and also to divulge seven little-known facts about ourselves. The first I won't do - and if it's one of those things that visits at midnight and strikes one dead in one's sleep - so be it. The second, I guess I better had - or it would have been churlish to accept the award.

1. I once ate half a worm. My best friend ate the other half. It was a sort of bonding thing - we were six. I can let you know worms are very gritty. And a bit slimy too.
2. I had a common childhood operation at the age of seven. I smuggled my teddy into the room where I was sedated, no one noticed, and it came with me onto the operating table. Said teddy fell off said operating table in mid-operation. Surgeon was a father of small kids, and unthinkingly bent to pick it up... chaos ensued as he had to re-scrub...
3. I wrote my first play at 14 years old. Called "Randy Cilla and the Beautiful Sisters" it was a highly hilarious and rude reprise of Cinderella. The best character was Zipper (Buttons...?) or maybe it was The Hairy Godmother. I came close to being expelled from my boarding school for that masterpiece.
4. I had tea once with Dannie Abse. He was invited to the school to talk to us gels about being a poet. I informed him he wasn't much of one, because he said he threw his drafts away. I think we ate sponge cake.
5. My favourite short story, Cactus Man, written in 2004, explores what happens to the psyche of an adopted nice guy when he discovers his father was a rapist. Did that new knowledge allow a darker side of the bloke to manifest itself? In 2008 I discovered my own birth father could be a very violent man...so far, I have not developed psychopathic tendencies.
6. I used to bite my fingernails. I was told not to, as it was unsightly and unhygenic. I bit my toenails instead. Not to be recommended.
7. I often wonder about that worm...

ON THE OTHER HAND – WHAT YOU MIGHT LOSE IF YOU BECOME A WRITER...

2011-05-12T03:15:00.000-07:00

The mother of a highly successful writer sang her offspring’s praises to me recently – for writing the sort of “rubbish” (her word, not mine) that masses of readers want to read – said offspring earns a lot from their writing – but wouldn’t choose to read that stuff themselves as (quote) they “have standards.”

I did not sleep easily after that. My head was/is full of questions. What is the logical outcome of this... a highly literate, Oxbridge-educated (is this relevant??) writer who has chosen to write the kind of books they look down on as a reader?? Of course, they have a perfect right to do so. And every reader has a perfect right to read exactly what they wish. However. What happens to lasting literature if those who might well attempt to write it, never do because it makes them no money any more? But you don't need an education to be a writer of meaningful words, do you? I was churning over these conundrums in my head... and my continuing sleeplessness was fuelled by my recent reading of a fascinating and very sad article by Carlo Gebler – entitled “A Life in Literature – or What You Might Lose by Becoming a Writer”.

Here are a few quotes from this article. Comments from self at the end. And a link to the whole thing, which ought to be required reading on all CW courses if you ask moi.

Carlo Gebler:

In 1982 or maybe 1983, I published my first short story, called “The Speech of Birds.” ...The Literary Review paid me thirty pounds...I had come by publication honestly. I had worked hard. I had learned things, and I had put those things into practice. My interest in writing was also honest. I was a passionate reader.

I wrote all sorts of things. I worked as reader and wrote reports. I wrote novels. I wrote reviews. I wrote plays. I wrote scripts. I wrote all kinds of things. I made some money....I became a writer and teacher.

Today, I am 56. I hardly read any more. Not like I did....(There is) no time for the proper function of my imagination. ...That capacity has not been killed... my attitude has changed.

I never simply enjoy the act of reading anymore. My authorial intelligence is totally and fully engaged. When I read, whatever I read, I examine and analyze.

I read primarily to steal. This attitude applies not just to books but to everything. In every situation ... there is another part of my personality that is scrutinizing my experiences and thinking two terrible things: What’s in this for me? And: Can I use this? Can I put it in a story? Can I put it in an article?

I am also bitter. ...I am so fucked off with how the world has gone to the dogs and in particular that little bit of the world I think I care about most, which is the Kingdom of Literature...

Self – comments.
I am so saddened by the overall lack of joy here. The apparent self-harming low level of self-esteem in the ghastly admission that he reads now for money and ‘to steal’, not for enjoyment or for mental food. What has the writer's life done to the spirit of this man? The drift from the great pleasure of learning, writing better and better, becoming published, spreading one’s wings, achieving goals – and ultimately - the life of the writer as prisoner of the system. And a system he never meant to become part of, or agrees with.

The complete article is HERE on Some Blind Alleys

Looking for a writing group with tuition??

2011-05-10T09:15:00.001-07:00

This is where I learned. It's called Boot Camp, for good reason. There's a special offer on, see below, message from the tutor.

Boot Camp numbers are currently on the low side so we are offering a new deal
to allow interested writers to try the BC experience.
The first four weeks free (no grid) to NEWBIES.

(The grid is a spreadsheet based on craft elements...)

Or (again NEWBIES only)
£100 up front for membership to the end of August (includes grid)
Please contact AK on alex.keegan
AT
btinternet.com
or go to BootCampKeegan on Yuku.com.

IBIZA OUT OF SEASON

2011-05-08T10:01:00.000-07:00

GEARING UP FOR WEEK-LONG WORKSHOP IN IRELAND

2011-04-28T10:58:00.000-07:00

SHORT FICTION at ANAM CARA 28th May - 4th June
The flights are booked, the car is booked, the ideas are flowing for creative exercises - and I'm told there are a couple of places left.. so forgive me if I put a bit of promo here! Don't read on if you are allergic to shameless adverts.

A chance to explore in depth the craft of short fiction in all its challenging guises, in one of Ireland’s most creatively exciting venues, Anam Cara Writers' and Artist's Retreat. A chance to focus on acquiring skills that will maximise the chances of your work rising to the top and standing out for the right reasons not only in publication slush piles but also in competitions.
This will be a focused, collaborative workshop retreat during which you will create not only complete new work and the seeds of many new stories, but you will also discover tried and tested strategies for editing and revising your existing work to make it as good as it can be.
Although biased towards the art and craft of short fictions, we will also be able to explore the relevance of the craft issues to longer works.

For some idea of how gorgeous Anam Cara Writers' and Artist's Retreat is...this is the view from the back of the house... with a little artist's license!

Link to photos of inside the house itself
and

Link to photos of the grounds - some of the nooks and crannies you can hide in to write, the waterfall which drowns out all your worries...

Also from the website:

"She is a great teacher, bursting with enthusiasm and knowledge, and I found her supportive and generous..."

Alison Fisher, who went on to win the 2010 Bridport Prize. Which probably had nothing at all to do with working with me...who is to say?

More info from Sue Booth-Forbes, contact links on the website

REVISING YOUR WORK

2011-04-25T02:48:00.000-07:00

There is such an interesting, very useful, three-part discussion about revision, rewriting, self-editing - call it what you will, on Tania's blog. Many different writers, all saying how they approach this subject. True, it is directed at short fiction - but so much is relevant to longer pieces of work. Inasmuch as my own current work is reaching the end of its preparation process, and inasmuch as it started life as a series of discreet sections, I chime with much of what is said in these discussions - I share many of the processes described.
Here are the links - the posts and subsequent comments are very valuable.
Part I (also available as a PDF)
Part II (Also available as a PDF)
PART IIb
But there are some differences, of course, as there always will be where a group of writers share their processes. In working on each of the separate pieces between late 2006 and early 2010, I started after a while to do a lot of editing as I went, revisiting the work of the day before and seeing things I didn't like, changing them until it felt better... and using those pages as a jump-off point to continue with that day's writing. And I'd often stop, go back over a paragraph, a few lines of dialogue, shake my head and change them. It became a physical process. I could FEEL when the train was leaving the rails - ie its own rails, and being pushed by the writer. That's when I stopped and rewrote.
It was a very different process to writing a stand alone short story, for this writer. When I started 'The Coward' I was a writer who staunchly believed in writing a first draft right through before looking at any of it with a view to revision, as that's how most of my shorter pieces were approached. With some notable exceptions of course...but in the process of this work I changed completely! And, I believe, I saved myself a lot of time - but perhaps that's a different issue? Perhaps the end result would have been the same.

This pic? The stages of revision of the whole manuscript, AFTER the first draft of the novel was completed. Starting in March 2010, finishing in Oct 2010 -re-creation of one character, then plot tweaks, and the all-important structural revision, where I needed to see the whole thing in one spyglass, over and over and over. Then the revisions became smaller, then tinier, a word here a word there...read through for sound - working towards a cleaner and cleaner product. Because that's what it became. Emotion left the room, and only the words mattered. Getting them right. The top few layers are Bloomsbury-led, tweaks and copyediting proofs. The final layer is the uncorrected proof pages recieved last week- and the uncorrected proof book itself, all ready to go out! Very exciting.
It's a salutary thing though. My manuscript was c 250 pages in length. It didn't vary much. The finished book is 380 pages - 130 pages longer - maybe due to different typeface, less lines to a page... ! Even though I feel horror at my use of precious paper in revising here -I don't know how else I might have done it - and I console myself that the pile could have been a lot higher.

SAYING TA...

2011-04-24T09:46:00.000-07:00

I blog about putting together the acknowledgements page for The Coward's Tale, over on the other blog.

Lovely thank you pic from here

INTERVIEWED BY TIM LOVE

2011-04-21T16:11:00.000-07:00

I met Tim Love, who I have 'known' for a few years as a colleague online, last week - he forewent a few days with his family at Centre Parcs to come and listen to Andre Mangeot and me reading and nattering at Cambridge Word Fest last Saturday. And I am delighted to be the subject of a rather good interview on his blog, HERE What do we natter about? Could I have done this writing stuff faster? What about teaching - does it hep or hinder? The pros and cons of writing groups. Triffic stuff.
Thank you Tim, very much,

SHORT STORIES - HOW, WHY, and ARE THEY A GOOD TRAINING GROUND FOR NOVELISTS?

2011-04-19T01:14:00.000-07:00

We’re coming towards the end of a fascinating and rewarding series of discussions on the short story, hosted by Professor Patty McNair of Columbia College Chicago. Who is ‘we?’ – Patty McNair herself, of course, together with Gerard Woodward, recently short-listed for the Sunday Times short story award, Gina Frangello, Dennis McFadden, and me. We discussed the 'why' of the short story, and the 'how', and whether short fiction was a good training ground for the novel, as many CW theorists seem to suggest.

Here is a series of links to the articles - all absolutely fascinating, from practising, well published short story writers, some of whom do a lot of teaching of this thing called writing.

HOW THE SHORT STORY?? “Do you decide to write a short story, or does a story decide to be written?”
Prof Patty McNair herself said,

“HOW the short story? WRITE the short story. Then REWRITE the short story. And WRITE it again. James Thurber said, “Don’t get it right, just get it written.” I’ll second that and raise him: “Don’t get it right, just get it written, and THEN get it right.” That’s HOW.”

ARTICLE HERE

Gerard Woodward

“Memory and extended memory offer a bewilderingly, near infinitely vast amount of potential subject matter. There can never be any excuse for not having anything to write about – writers’ block is just a kind of narcolepsy brought on by an inability to deal with the vastness of one’s extended memory, either through fatigue, lethargy or depression.”

ARTICLE HERE

Dennis McFadden

“Does writing a “successful” story have anything at all to do with creativity? I think not. Creativity does, however, have everything to do with how the short story... When we wonder does the author decide to write the story or does the story decide to be written, is the story willed into existence or is it a matter of spontaneous combustion, doesn’t the answer depend upon just how creative that particular author is?”

ARTICLE HERE

Gina Frangello

“short fiction is a trickier paradox. The writing is even more “channeled” through the writer—even more intuitive, obsessive and raw because it remains fresh, is not stretched out over years but rather over a few days or weeks—and yet because of the length the writer is permitted fewer digressions, fewer missteps, wherein every word must be crucial and resonant. This would seem hard to swing when the story is writing you! But perhaps the reverse is true. All work—novels or stories—will be revised and edited by the writer once the first draft is complete, and I’ve often found that the stories that simply pour out in one or two sittings require surprisingly less editing than those that I really pondered meticulously over a long stretch of time.”

ARTICLE HERE

Self

“I write in a state of ‘knowingness’ – ‘awareness’ – but I do not plot. When I get towards the end of the first draft, I can ‘see’ the ending, with little detail.”

ARTICLE HERE

WHY THE SHORT STORY?

Patty McNair "In the early 1980s, I found this little book: What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. I know you know it. Raymond Carver. And regardless what you think about Carver or that literary generation’s minimalism or Gordon Lish or any of these things, I am not afraid to admit that these stories opened up a world to me. They were manageable (some no longer than those tiny stories in my SRA books long ago) and moving. They were brutal and they were fearless. I didn’t know that stories could do that. I didn’t know you could tell these things, say them out loud."
ARTICLE HERE

Gerard Woodward

“I began to see that one couldn’t approach the short story with the same imaginative gear of a poet or novelist, you had to have the unique, special, short story head. Without this apparatus you were unable to see either the potential for short stories in the world around you, or to write them.”

ARTICLE HERE

Dennis McFadden

“In the end, it probably comes down to goosebumps....On the other hand, much as I enjoy novels, I don’t recall a single goosebump ever caused by one...”

ARTICLE HERE

Gina Frangello

“The short story is an incredibly diverse form. It combines the best of various other literary art forms.”

ARTICLE HERE

Self

“Who needs mind-altering substances when you have stories? Do novels do that quite so well? Mostly, no. because the author is doing the filling of the world for you, to a large extent. They are making you live the dream they had themselves. Whereas with a good, well-written story – it plants seeds. They grow inside you.”

ARTICLE HERE

IS THE SHORT STORY A TRAINING GROUND FOR THE NOVEL?

Patty McNair "I hate this idea. I hate the idea of making a whole class out of little, tiny stories. Of teaching students to write short. (As though people who text and tweet and blog and shorthand through most forms of communication need us to encourage them to keep it short!)
Okay, don’t get me wrong. I love the perfect short-short. Adore it. Think “Bucket Rider,” by Franz Kafka; “The Porcelain Doll,” by Leo Tolstoy; “The Story of an Hour,” Kate Chopin; “Hills Like White Elephants,” Ernest Hemingway; “Girl,” Jamaica Kincaid. These are stories I turn to often, stories I learn from and I use in teaching. I have my own short-short stories, too, in The Temple of Air. “The Joke.” “Deer Story.” “Hand Thing.” But you know what? I had to write hundreds of pages in order to write these two and three page stories. I had to write long long long in order to really do the short-short thing." ARTICLE HERE

Gerard Woodward

“I think it is a big mistake to think of the short story as a practice ground for the novel, a stepping stone towards the longer form. This is because the two forms tend to work along opposite lines of force to achieve their effects. The novel is all about filling big narrative spaces, while the short story is all about suggesting those spaces and using the restrictions of space and time to powerful effect.”

ARTICLE HERE

Dennis McFadden

“Unquestionably. Undeniably. Until the cows come home. Bear in mind, however: the novel is every bit as much a training ground for the short story."

ARTICLE HERE

Gina Frangello "...While much can be made and dissected of the difference between the story and the novel, the real difference here—the essential difference—has to do with what a writer wants out of his or her career vs. what the market wants. The short story can be mere “training ground” for the novel if the writer sees it that way. However, such writers should keep in mind that writing a novel is no neat guarantee of selling a book for good money at a big New York house either. Deciding to write “to the market” is a risky endeavor..." ARTICLE HERE

Self

“I wonder if a successful writer of short fiction may find it hard to write a novel, because they need to unlearn so much. However, when they finally do, I wonder if they might write a better novel than they would if they were not short story writers first.”

ARTICLE HERE

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CAMBRIDGE WORD FEST

2011-04-16T11:34:00.000-07:00

Today was green rooms, and seeing fleeting glimpses of faces that looked rather familiar and important - but might just have been passing traffic wardens. Today was meeting poet and short story writer Andre Mangeot with whom I was sharing an event at the Word Fest, and enjoying nattering very much both during the event, and after over lunch in the garden. Although our work is very different, we seem to be exploring similar themes. There was a good audience, lots of faces, lots of listening and lots of questions. Andre read extracts from two stories in his second book of fiction, 'True North' - a marvellous collection in which the reader is transported to many different countries as Andre explores themes of betrayal and identity and the fragility of dreams. I read 'Letters from Kilburn' from 'Storm Warning' - it seemed to go down well.

Today was saying hello in person to the 'crabbit old bat' Nicola Morgan, whose blog Help! I Need a Publisher is a must for all aspiring and not-so-aspiring writers..., and finding out that she didn't seem crabbit at all - her event preceded ours, in the Cambridge Union Dining Room - a nice sized room, with atmosphere aplenty. And today was meeting up with writer, poet and IT guru Tim Love whose Litrefs blogs and archives are a goldmine of info on all aspects of the written word as far as I can see, who came to the event and with whom I spent a happy hour on a guided tour of Cambridge after lunch. Thanks Tim! And he's already blogged about the event - see link back there!
Today was also having a guided tour of Audley End House on the way back. Altogether a good day.

BOOK REVIEW - New Short Stories 5

2011-04-13T14:59:00.000-07:00

BRIEF REVIEW
New Short Stories 5 – the twelve finalists from Willesden Herald 2011.

This is a strong collection, and for anyone who wants to see what sort of stories make it to the final cut in a really worthwhile short story competition (as opposed to the other sort...) it is a necessary purchase, I’d have thought. But even if you are just in it for the read, there is something here for everyone.
This year’s final judge was Maggie Gee – she says this of the pieces she chose:

“Every human type and taste is here – sad, funny, fresh, sharp, gripping, sour and sweet – delicious small mysteries ...”

This year’s winning story, ‘Out of Season’ by Irish writer Mary O’Shea, is simply the best short story I have read in a long time. It is difficult to think of another story with such delicate tracery, exploring quite so unflinchingly a difficult subject that is mauled so often by lesser writers. That tracery may be delicate, but it is iron-wrought and beautiful in the real sense of the word. This story is at the same time poignant - achingly so, but with not one scrap of sugar or sentimentality - and absolutely uplifting. This is what short fiction is about. This is by a master of the form.

‘Apartment’ by Y J Zhu is one of two equally placed runners-up. Zhu, ‘a native of Beijing China, who now lives in San Francisco’ gives us a closely observed tale of time passing, time past, and asks the question ‘where, and what, and above all with whom, is ‘home’?’ The other is ‘Homecoming’ by Alex Barr, who now lives in west Wales. Interestingly, this is another story about belonging, or not – and asks similar questions to Zhu’s story, although the setting, Manchester, is more familiar.

The nine other stories are worthy finalists, and a strong field created by some real rising stars. In no particular order then - There is the hugely poignant ‘Gusul’ (a washing ritual, for the dead), by the Swedish-based Bosnian writer Adnan Mahmutovic - a story I know well, and find more moving each time I meet it. There is the spare and enigmatic writing of Teresa Stenson - whose previous successes include a Bridport prize - in the marvellous ‘Blue Raincoat’, the shortest story here at less than four sides, and one of the most intriguing. There is A J Ashworth’s extraordinary, exciting and memorable ‘Overnight Miracles’, a psychological drama/sci-fi mix about a woman desperate to recover what is lost. There is the harrowing but beautiful ‘The Bedroom’ by Michael Coleman, who seems to have packed a novel’s worth of experience and emotion into a few pages. And David Frankel’s ‘The Place’ with its marvellous voice and vulnerable main character, keeps on intriguing long after it is read. There is another vulnerable character in Emma Martin’s ‘Victor’ – making this reader wonder if strong beliefs make people easy targets. All these stories are thought provoking – raising questions, asking the careful reader to look again at what seems ordinary. Adrian Sells has a look at the onset of Alzheimer’s in the closely observed and sensitively written ‘Thingummy Wotsit’, and Angela Sherlock’s ‘Set Dance’ is gentle, very well observed, well voiced, and very funny, as it follows two middle-aged Irish farmer brothers to the fair, in search of women. Lastly, and not least, and at almost thirty pages, by far the longest piece of work here: ‘Dancing with the Flag Man’ by Nemone Thornes – a dark coming-of-age piece.
There is indeed something for everyone – this is a very good collection, putting many anthologies in the shade. Highly recommended.

CONSIDERING THE SEASONS

2011-04-12T12:06:00.000-07:00

On the trail of cyclical events, I stumble over the four seasons. It is hard not to, especially living where I do - the seasons are defined, each has its own characteristic colours, sounds and smells.
Some people like the definite seasons – summer or winter. When you know where you are, unless nature plays its ever-increasing tricks on you. Summer is usually warm. Ish. Winter isn’t. And some, like me, prefer the in between seasons, spring and autumn. When things are more fluid, the edges are blurred, when temperatures are not so predictable but there can be pleasant surprises. And conversely...
But this is not a diatribe on the seasons, weather-wise. Not really. It is to do with cycles of creativity.
Perhaps each of our creations goes through its own cycle. Perhaps it begins in winter when there is little or no growth, when you can see nothing moving, and all seems dead. And, like winter, perhaps there is something stirring beneath the surface...
Maybe whatever it is pushes through finally in its own springtime. When it is strong enough to be considered, looked at. When it is new and fresh, and brave, and won’t leave us alone, even if we wanted it to.
Perhaps in its summer, it grows fast. Maybe its colours and scents deepen and become richer. Now is the time we know what we are doing, where it really has taken off, and follows its own paths. Maybe in the heat of its creation it grows untidily and will need pruning.
And it is in the autumn, when it is ready – after trimming, and shaping, when the fruit is ripe and ready to harvest.

And when it is, oh doesn’t the creator feel empty, and tired? And doesn’t each creation take its own time, and grow to its own rhythms?

The COWARD'S JACKET

2011-04-11T03:59:00.000-07:00

This is the final jacket for 'The Coward's Tale', thank to the genius and patience of Holly MacDonald, Assistant Art Director at Bloomsbury.
if you compare it with the version on the right, play spot the changes! The characters of the little boy (Laddy Merridew) and the old chap on the left (Ianto Passchendaele Jenkins) have been tweaked several times, until they felt right.

WILLESDEN HERALD PRIZE RESULTS

2011-04-08T08:29:00.000-07:00

New Short Stories 5 - the 12 finalists immortalised in print - 'Every human type and taste is here - sad, funny, fresh, sharp, gripping, sour and sweet - delicious small mysteries that suddenly reveal their secret hearts.'

Smashing event, as always, held this year at Willesden Library Centre - and even more special this year because Maggie Gee (she of the rather lovely quotes on books...) was the Willesden Herald Short Story Competition final judge. And even more special again because the line-up is truly international - look -

1st Prize:
"Out of Season" by Mary O'Shea (Ireland)

Equal runners up:
"Apartment" by Y. J. Zhu (USA/China)
"Homecoming" by Alex Barr (Wales)

For the complete list of finalists, all of whom have their work in this year's anthology - please see The Willesden Herald itself HERE-
And, if I may- it was even more special again, because Liar's League and WHSSP had teamed up. Six of the finalists had excerpts of their work read/performed.

I was there pretending to be my friend and colleague Adnan Mahmutovic, whose very moving story 'Gusul' (washing) was a finalist - but he was teaching in Stockholm, so sadly couldn't be there. Smashing to see lots of writer-type friends there, and to meet some new faces (facebook faces!) especially the uber-talented A J Ashworth, whose story excerpt, dramatised by Sarah Le Fevre, kept the room totally silent and spellbound. And even though I know Adnan's 'Gusul' well, I found the excerpt, (dramatised by Elizabeth Bower) incredibly moving.
All three of the winning stories had excerpts dramatised. So when the decisions were announced in true MG style, giving careful generous validation to each and every writer - we felt as though we knew them already - and worthy winners they are too.
Off to the pub afterwards... 'Oh alright, just the one G and T then...' and lots of natter, networking, and absorbing talk to Nick Rankin (Mr Maggie Gee) about his latest book - on the Royal Marine Commandos, due out from Faber in October. And the one before that, Churchill's Wizards, about subterfuge and camouflage in conflict... perfect. Amazon had a bashing this morning.

Thanks to all the Willesden crew, smashing event. And thanks to Lane for a rather lovely B and B experience.

FOLLOWING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE SWANSEA PALS

2011-04-05T04:44:00.000-07:00

We picked up the trail of the Swansea Pals Battalion (14th Battalion, Welch Regiment) in the tiny village of Septenville - little more than three or four farms on a side road, where they were billeted on 1st July 1916. As we approached the village a male hen harrier rose from the furrows on our right, disturbed by the sound of the car. The old brick barns sat exactly as they were almost a century ago - it did not take much of a leap of the imagination to see the bricks a brighter red, the pointing clearer, and to see the battalion - the officers settling down to supper in the farmhouse, and other ranks eating supper in the farmyard- washing under the pump, arguing over the best corners in the barn. Taking the chance to write a letter home.
I spent five days in the excellent company of military historian Jeremy Banning, following the progress of the Swansea Pals Battalion through the battlefields of WWI. I wanted to literally go where they went, stand where they stood, see the roads they marched along to the front, see where they fell. From Septenville to Rubembre. From Rubembre to Herissart...Franvillers on 3rd, Heilly... Heilly was the site of a large casualty clearing station, the wounded brought from the front by train, ambulance.... And up the rise is Heilly Station cemetery. Men were dying too fast for the gravediggers to keep up. Many graves are home to three bodies. I couldn't help wondering if the Pals saw, heard, smelled the chaos.
There was no rest for the Pals at Heilly. Orders came that the 38th Div would relieve the 7th, and on they went to Fricourt. The Citadel. 5th July, 6th July, 7th July, they were in the support trenches here, the final training - and suffered the loss of four officers, accidentally wounded whilst practising the throwing of percussion bombs. I wonder if they also knew that those in charge higher up had been sent home, follwing the failure of the first wave of attacks here?
Their objective, and ours, was this irregular patch of woodland, this nearest section called the Hammerhead, and the stretch running away to the left. It was attacked by the Welsh over 7th to 12th July 1916 - but the attacks before the Pals got there had not been a success.
Jeremy and I stood on the ridge at Danzig Alley Cemetery, looking down on the village of Mametz, and the wood that bears the same name, over to our right in the gloaming. It was cold. The Swansea lads moved up to the front line, White Trench, on 8th July. The attack was planned for the following day, as we ourselves would visit the following day. In the end, the attack was delayed by twenty four hours, and I can imagine the tension, as those who chanced a glimpse of the terrain looked across open ground to where it slipped away in a thirty foot 'cliff', down to the open wide space (now a series of open fields) they would have to cross to the trees, where the enemy was waiting.
From Wikipedia - inaccurate - I think the fighting concentrated actually in the wood itself, but you get the idea.

The 10 July attack was on a larger scale than had been attempted earlier. Despite heavy casualties the fringe of the wood was soon reached and some bayonet fighting took place before the wood was entered and a number of German machine guns silenced. Fighting in the wood was fierce with the Germans giving ground stubbornly.
The 14th Welsh (Swansea) Battalion went into the attack with 676 men and after a day of hard fighting had lost almost 400 men killed or wounded before being relieved.

Mametz Wood by Christopher Williams*
Today, the wood is privately owned, and there are man-traps deployed as it is used for hunting. We weren't meant to be there, and I was apprehensive - appropriately. We slipped and half-fell down the 30 ft 'cliff' from White Trench to the field, and after a few moments consolidation, walked fast straight ahead, taking care not to step on the crop. Reaching the edge of the wood, we did not go too far in...There are many hundreds of bodies still in Mametz Wood, in two mass graves, according to those who know. Their names are on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing.
This is from an account from Pte Sweeney, 1st Lincolnshire Regt.

"In Mametz Wood there are not hundreds of dead, but I should say thousands as it is very big. When we started attacking this wood the trees were so close as they possibly could be but you should see it now, you can see straight through it quite clearly."

Over the five days, we stood in many cemeteries now tended by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, marvelling at their beauty, their peace. The endless stories, if you listen to the breeze in the willows, the names, dates, inscriptions. The brilliant white of endless headstones against the green of the turf - the flowers from our little islands. Aubretia, tulips, Christmas Roses, Daffodils. But no cemetery was as beautiful as Mametz Wood with its endless wood aconites and early bluebells. And where German machine-gunners and snipers had hung from their ropes high in the trees, and where the Pals got caught in a bombardment by our own artillery, and where there was carnage - the low mist lifted to show a sky reaching almost to the ground, glimpsed between new trees where the wood was narrowest, several generations on from their splintered ancestors, growing up from a carpet of stars.

One of the bodies never found is that of the young runner, Watcyn Griffith, Private 26402 17th Bn., Royal Welsh Fusiliers. He was the younger brother of Wyn Griffith who wrote ' Up To Mametz Wood'. We went to find his name, at Thiepval. And we did. But he's there in the wood somewhere, with many of my Swansea Pals, who over the five days of my visit, I came to think of as 'my boys'. Is that daft? I doubt it. Most of them were younger than my own sons -and it felt good to be with them for a while.

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*Mametz Wood by Christopher Williams is the property of Swansea University.

EDGE HILL PRIZE LONG LIST

2011-03-30T02:11:00.000-07:00

Nice news to start the day - 'Storm Warning' is on the long list for this year's Edge Hill Prize for short story collections, together with collections by fellow Salt Publishing writers - 'The Method' by Tom Vowler, Martin Bax's 'Memoirs of a Gone World', 'True North' by Andre Mangeot, 'Hot Kitchen Snow' by Susannah Rickards, 'God of the Pigeons' by Jay Merrill, and 'The Half Life of Songs' by David Gaffney. Also on the list are two books by other writing friends: 'Not So Perfect' by Nik Perring, and 'Insignificant Gestures' by Jo Cannon. Whizzy.

UNDER MILK WOOD - DYLAN THOMAS

2011-03-29T11:21:00.000-07:00

I like this - it shows that Under Milk Wood does not have to be read by a Richard Burton soundalike. Listen! How to create a community of characters without a jot of spare sound...Marvellous stuff. (Apart from 'Larrygub'! ...)

VISUAL VOICE?

2011-03-23T00:43:00.001-07:00

What is 'visual voice' in fiction? Simple - the effect of layout, formatting. What the reader sees when they open a book, even before they consciously 'read' the words for meaning.
I am sure there must be a technical term for what I am talking about - if there is please let me know. But I can't find it. To explain - I have just finished going through the copyeditor's changes to the manuscript of 'The Coward's Tale', many many of which were necessary, and the novel will be better for them.
But then I started wondering about some - all absolutely correct, grammatically - because they changed my perception of the words, before I even got to them - just seeing them coming in the sentence (this required a leap of consciousness, heightened awareness of what I was feeling) was changing my attitude to the prose.
I'd better give you an example. In many cases, I had created single words out of two words that would normally be hyphenated, or stand alone. "Coaldust' as opposed to 'coal dust'. Or conversely, I had broken normally joined words into two. "Can not" as opposed to 'cannot'.
My lovely copyeditor had quite rightly corrected them. But as I was reading back, these changes were changing the way I read the work. They were altering, sometimes subtly, sometimes not, the inflections in each sentence, the voice in my head as I read. Take a look at 'coaldust' and 'coal dust' and say them out loud, and really listen. With the first, the emphasis falls on the first syllable, quite strongly. With the second, the emphasis falls more evenly over the two words. So there is a shift in the musicality of the sentence.
But more than that - especially with hyphens - they are so correct. And look at the way I write - I use dashes. Ellipses. Too many hyphens on a page where where there are deliberate dashes calls attention, even more than usual, to the punctuation. At least, it did , to me. So I gave a few pages of 'before and after' to a couple of intelligent readers who know my work. 'Which reads more comfortably'?
Answer, the 'incorrect' one.
So I suppose what I am saying is, cultivate awareness of the effects of everything. Correctness for the sake of it can clash with what the words are saying, changing the visual voice of a piece of fiction. If it needs to be correct, then marvellous. If it doesn't -have at it!
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To give a good example from work that is not my own, see Jon McGregor's 'Only The Dogs'. And see the layout of the sections, the white space useage, whole long chapters where the last sentence of each paragraph hangs unfinished before white space. Technically, incorrect. But correct that and you'd ruin the novel, because you'd ruin the voice.

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ALDEBURGH IMAGES

2011-03-20T13:20:00.000-07:00

I had the best of times, staying in the little house built for Nellie, housekeeper to Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears, on her retirement - in the grounds of The Red House, Aldeburgh. Now preserved by the Britten Pears Foundation, The Red House is open to the public during the season, and 'Cosy Nook' ( bless Nellie - that is the name she chose for her house) is either used for music students, for performers at various festivals, or, it is for rent to those who don't mind not being on the beach, or in somewhere more commercial. It was very quiet indeed, with a good woodburning stove, walking distance from all the views above, pitch dark at night. Spooky! But I got masses of work done, reading about WW1. Every day after a few hours immersed in the carnage, I put on walking boots, shut the door and went out for three/four hours, with binoculars and camera. Bliss.

Sue Guiney - one amazing writer, one amazing journey.

2011-03-19T03:25:00.000-07:00

Sue Guiney, poet, novelist and friend, gets more quietly amazing by the day. She is taking her novel A Clash of Innocents on tour - no, not here at home - but Cambodia, where the novel is set. And elsewhere... please do follow her amazing journey - today's episode - receptions with royalty and the children of Anjali House...

A Clash of Innocents can be bought in lots of places, Ward Wood Publishing, Amazon, or here BOOK DEPOSITORY.... get one now!!

New Sun Rising - call for submissions

2011-03-19T00:42:00.001-07:00

Here's something good - a call for subs - fiction: short story, flash, poetry, images - celebrating Japan. To help just a little at this difficult time for the Japanese people.

That's Greg McQueen up there, the guy behind 100 Stories for Haiti, and 50 Stories for Pakistan - listen. Good guy, good message.

Subs details in full can be found here www.booksthathelp.org but here's a precis:
All work relevant to Japan, please.
Short stories to 7500 wds (ONE only per submitter please)
Flash fiction under 1000 wds, micro, cell-phone stories (Please send max of 3)
Poems, under 40 lines, max of 3.
Haiku, max of 5.
(You may mix poems and flashes, as long as the total number of pieces doesn’t exceed 3.)

Back and white artwork and photography.
Manga - max 5 pages.

Home again, home again...

2011-03-18T16:58:00.000-07:00

Two weeks away, out of touch in so many ways, and it has been fun. Drove back slowly today, knowing the writing world in all its various shades of diamond sparkle would soon be falling round me. The world keeps on turning, people keep running, writing, exchanging information, on and on, even when you ain't there – and when you get back to normality, (oh the noise, the meaningless chatter - it has been so quiet in Suffolk…!) there is a lot of catching-up to do. But overall, thanks to the world of writing for being there, even when I’m not!

OK. Some catch-ups.

1. Congrats, first of all to Jacky Taylor and to Linda McVeigh, in particular, for their shortlisting in the Asham Award . Whether or not they win the prizes to be announced at the Small Wonder festival in Spetember - they will be published alongside such luminaries as Petina Gappah (Guardian First Book Award 2009) and Kate Clanchy (National Short Story prize 2009) in the 2011 Asham Anthology.

2. Congrats too, to fellow discussee (is that a word?) Gerard Woodward, on his Sunday Times shortlising. Here’s his booklist - The most fascinating discussion on the short story, hosted on the blog of Professor Patty McNair of Columbia College Chicago, continues – a few of us nattering away, with long time lags, like a transatlantic phonecall - especially interesting is ‘HOW’ the short story? Want to know how one of the very best around does it? Gerard said a week or so back, ‘it starts with memory’:

3. Interview 1 – with Jon Pinnock asking the questions (thanks Jon!)– mainly about Storm Warning, and why a war book, and how, on the Salt Publishing Blog: here

4. Interview 2 – with Jen Campbell on Not the Six Word Novel (thanks Jen!)– the first of four interviews in celebration of Salt Publishing

5. Belletrista – a featured story from Storm Warning, called ‘The Wig Maker’, kindly supplied by Salt – on this journal for women’s writing, online.

6. Teaching and talks. Some kind invites, from Sussex Writers, and Cambridge Wordfest, Anam Cara Writers’ Retreat in Ireland, Winchester Writers’ Conference, New Writing South in Sussex again, and lastly, Bridport, Dorset.
Here’s one-
WEEKEND FOR WOMEN WRITERS: I am facilitating a weekend writing retreat at Tilton House, Sussex (Maynard Keynes’ Sussex home) in September. New Writing South had booked this gorgeous but gorgeous house for the weekend (Fri 16 Sept 4 pm to Sun 18 Sept 4 pm). Why just women? Because we all have multiple roles which can conflict with our need to be creative beings. Boss/Work Colleague. Wife. Mother. Sister. Daughter. Friend. Sometimes, they get in the way. A whole weekend to feed the soul in the company of like-minded women, in one of the most inspirational places I know. No blokes. Apart from the cook…ha!

7. The Binnacle:
I received this tiny parcel, all the way from the University of Maine at Machias – the second issue of The Binnacle to have my words somewhere inside. Don’t think magazine, or journal – think box – with cigarette card-sized stories… perfect for teaching, for inspiring, for sharing…

8. Judging The Theodora Roscoe/Vera Brittain Short Story Competition.
I have a whole box of manuscripts to read, entries from members of one of the oldest sciety of women writers in the world - The SWWJ (Society of Women Writers and Journalists. Standard fairly amazing. It is going to be a toughie, this one...to do by mid April...

I will tot up the results of being away - the reading done, the walks walked, the work with Bloomsbury achieved thanks to visits to a cafe with wifi and many bacon butties to pay for said wifi... in a few days. With homage to Benjamin Britten and Nellie. What? Sorry, you'll have to wait and see!!

Time out and a poem.

2011-03-06T01:42:00.000-08:00

Money - it's just wampum, beads, dried fish or stones. One portion of my advance has been spent on two weeks alone in a small hut with no access to the Internet, in a beautiful garden. I shall take a pile of books, a few bags of foodstuffs, my favourite pillow. Walking boots, anorak, warm hat. A bottle of red wine or six. After one scheduled call on Tuesday from my copyeditor, I shall put my watch in a drawer.
I will leave a poem by Aneliya Siderova*, in the meantime, borrowed from that fine place, Ink, Sweat and Tears.

Bridges

On Thursdays I cross the bridge over the railway
On Fridays I cross the river bridge

On Saturdays, there are no bridges to cross.

* Aneliya Siderova is Bulgarian and lives in London. She would like to be a teacher but works as a cleaner. She has been writing poetry in her native tongue for some years and Bridges is her first poem in English.

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COVER!

2011-03-05T02:57:00.000-08:00

Well, I was going to wait until a few tiny tweaks were done by the wonderful Holly of Bloomsbury, who is doing this work of art by hand - but as it appears in the Bloomsbury catalogue, yer tiz! I love it, love it. We are having fun going backwards and forwards making the two characters a little tattier, and less clean cut.
No photo could do the jacket justice.. the six leaves either side of the title are hand blocked in silver, and it is a thing of real beauty.
Thank you so very much from the author to the artist.