Vanessa Gebbie's news

Tuesday, 13 May 2008

"YOUR WRITING REMINDS ME OF WILL SELF'S"....The reality of having a book out...

This, chaps, is the reality of having a book out there.

Oh Mimi, and teams of Zoetropers, you are going to love this!

So Borders set up a reading slot, get books in, publicise it all over the shop. They advertise on their website, and on 'What's On In Brighton' websites.

They are seriously supportive of local writers. (In stark contrast to both the local 'award winning' independent bookshops I visited, who told me very bluntly, to go away. Not interested in 'award winning' local writers. ... Unlike Ullapool Bookshop! My brain can't work this out.)

I drive to Brighton for the reading at Borders ....

And not ONE person turns up.

This from the manager of Borders. As much as I can remember. We nattered for an hour. He's writing a novel, and is extraordinary. Whatever he writes will be strong, intelligent, pushing boundaries.

"What's going on? I just read a story in here...Your writing is edgy, as much as Will Self's. What's going on? The cover might be wrong, have you thought of that? It looks 'girly'. When actually the writing is strong, raw, really cutting edge..."

Yeah.

So what are the thoughts going round in my head?

1) I've worked for four years for this.

2) I won prizes in top competitions. Thinking they meant something. They don't. Except to the tiny world of the literary writing community. Bridport and Fish Anthologies aren't even sold in the good bookshops....

3) I found a brilliant, well respected publisher.

4)) What more could I have done?

Answers please, in comments. I fully expect the following:

a)Be younger.

b)Be more beautiful.

c)Have an interesting and public sex life.

d)And don't worry about the writing.

Well. This is reality. Not how I'd make it up, but never mind. I'll just carry on working, writing. I dont have anything else I want to do.

Monday, 12 May 2008

READING AT BORDERS BRIGHTON

Looking forward to reading at Borders, Tuesday 13th May, 6.30 pm.

I'm also nattering about creative writing, and about getting your work out there.

DETAILS OF BORDERS EVENTS HERE

Sunday, 11 May 2008

Nice Review

I am not shutting up shop yet!

Had a good review from Pulp.net. PULP.NET REVIEW HERE

Saturday, 10 May 2008

Interestiing blog: Tom Conoboy

This blog, by writer Tom Conoboy (whose name croppeth up regularly on competition lists) is always very interesting.

Recently, he mentioned a book that was so SO formative to me, L'Etranger, by Albert Camus. It made me think, how much are we 'formed' by meeting these books as teenagers (I 'did'it for A level) and how much do they hit home because they speak to something that is in us anyway?

Camus' themes circle round isolation, marginalisation. Those are mine. So I asked the question, and there's an interesting dialogue going on.

Friday, 9 May 2008

BEV JACKSON VISITING

Tomorrow, I'm going to London to meet up with writers from all over, in a pub. Among them is Bev Jackson, visiting from deepest darkest America.

Peeps may remember that a while back we discovered in an email exchange, and after some searching on the Net, that her late father's grave is in a US War Cemetery in Brittany, France. He was in the USAF and was shot down in WWII. Bev had photos of herself as a young girl with her father, but has no memory of him, sadly.

Long story short, Bev has arrived in the UK, en route to visit her father's resting place in France for the first time.

It's hard to type this without welling up.

READ BEV JACKSON'S BLOG TO READ THE WHOLE STORY... Including how she has just spoken to the only survivor of the plane... amazingly also called Jackson.

Bev and I work together on The Fiction Workhouse. Another writer there, Michelle Tandoc Pichereau, lives a stone's throw from the village in Brittany... so will also meet up with Bev. But the joy also is that the village are putting out the bunting for her, as her dad's a war hero.

Wonderful stuff.

So. Tomorrow, we meet, and she is coming to stay for a couple of days. I can't wait to meet her. The plan is to visit Charleston, and walk on the Downs, and have a picnic somewhere. And she has to put up with my cooking at a supper party tomorrow night!

Then I will see her off on the train to France, with a hug.

Bad Reviews

It's oh so easy to blog about the nice reviews I have had for Words from a Glass Bubble. But this is meant to be an honest blog, recording downs as well as ups for any writers who want to know what it is really like, this game. So here goes.

A reviewer disliked the book so much that the publication concerned declined to print the review.

That was, I have to confess, a bit of a shock. I've always thought I'd rather my work was seriously loved or seriously loathed... not ever EVER just 'liked'. And now that's been tested big time!

I am lucky. I had some generous feedback very fast, and will be eternally grateful that it was this way round.

But I am left wanting to know more... all the pieces bar a couple have done well in literary competitions. And yet...

I'm in a bit of a spin. Was it the aggregate that the reviewer disliked so much? Was it the tone, the mix of light and dark in each story, mixing laughter and tears? Was it the somewhat irreverent but important references to religious image? Did that offend? Did they read the titles, and see a story was called 'Fuck Magnolia', and put the book down thinking the story is about fucking? Did they assume a book of short stories would be light entertainment?

I will never know.