Vanessa Gebbie's news

Weekly News 2 April

2010-04-02T13:24:00.000-07:00

Short Circuit Review
A lovely new unsolicited review for Short Circuit, from a Richard Hallows who runs a website and a publishing venture for short stories, and a competition for them too – called Spike the Cat, HERE.
Not only has he left a marvellous review of Short Circuit on his site, he also copied it to Amazon UK. Thank you, Spike the Cat. He says:

“I really can't recommend this book highly enough. I started carrying it round with me and taking it in the car so I could keep reading it. (When parked I hasten to add.) It is that good...”

Check out the link for the rest of the review.

The Fiction Workhouse
This time, the Fiction Workhouse site, complete with all the craft libraries and discussion places, is home to 28 undergraduate students from the English Dept of Stockholm University. It was good to fill the place again. Some neat flash writing has filled the forum with fresh ideas and connections, ready for more formal activities to come, in preparation for my two week stint over there in a few weeks time.

ACE grant.
I had a second meeting with my mentor Maggie Gee, on 22nd March, in London. I know where I am going with the rewrite now, and value her input and thoughts immensely. Those who know me well know I was trying to finish this piece of work for my father- who was brought up in the town in which it is set - to see it published. He has been a great supporter through thick and thin. A gentle, but tough individual now aged 94. Sadly, his toughness is escaping him. He has been diagnosed with short term memory loss, which is unlikely to get better and is causing him and us, great distress. He also has what might be an unforgiving medical condition.
I have had to make some difficult decisions – which in the end, are not difficult at all.
I have called a halt to the rewrite, have stopped most writing activities for the first time in eight years – bar encouragement for the Stockholm students and some accepted invitations - and have written to the ACE to keep them informed. Cancelling the visit to Anam Cara was the only very hard thing I had to do.
It is odd not being a writer any more, for the moment. I am wandering around a bit aimlessly, feeling blank. A writer has to be someone who writes…not someone who thinks about it.

The sweetest rejection...
In case readers of this little blogette think friends in this writing world publish each other willy nilly, which lots do, sadly, it is not always like that, me dears. I had the sweetest rejection today, from the lovely Tania Hershman, fiction editor of Southword.

Lecture, Sussex University.
I have already written the lecture I will be giving to the students at Sussex University later on in May – in case things get more awkward round here. I decided to talk about the real need for contradiction, inspired by Ali Smith and Jackie Kay’s quote:

“A writer needs self confidence and self doubt in the same measure.”

Cultural Tourism/Writing Other
The topic rolls on, in the comments on the post under this one. It seems a balanced debate – until you realise that it isn’t. And probably, it will never be allowed to be such.

D-Day
Thanks to the younger son who looked after his Gramps here in Sussex by the Sea, we went to the D Day Beaches last week accompanied by Col (Ret’d) Michael Bradley, of the Green Howards. Three days of visits to all the beaches, to iconic places like Pegasus Bridge and Café Gondree (where we had lunch with Mme Arlette Gondree, who was 4 in June 1944), to the cemeteries – Commonwealth, German and American (and noted such vast differences in our approaches to war dead…). But the highlights have to be those moments when Mike took us to farms, fields, copses and ditches, and described exactly what happened there. In that exact spot. By this tree. Including the exploits of Stan Hollis, the only VC of D Day. Marvellous.

CULTURAL TOURISM - WRITING 'OTHER' -

2010-03-28T07:46:00.001-07:00

Continuing the Really Interesting Elephant Trap Discussion About Creativity With Or Without White Peacocks Which Was Not Intended To Be A Debate At All, on Sara Crowley’s blog last week, HERE.

Zimbabwean writer Petina Gappah adds a considered post to the discussion thread, and finally, we have an actual piece of work to illustrate the issues. Maiba's Ribbon, by meself.
Petina says this:

“the characters were Zimbabwean only because the writer (says) so, even their names were wrong, a sort of pidgin Shona in a country with no pidgin! I was not offended by the stories, but I was amused ... amused in the way I am when I read Dan Brown's plastic characters. My reaction was not about "cultural" authenticity, it was simply a reaction to (…) writing that seemed to want the exotic setting without going for any kind of truth in the characters.”

That is good feedback. And an important learning point, among other important learning points - not to trust one’s sources of info on the internet. The names were found on this rather jazzy website HERE which lists Zimbabwean children’s names and their meanings. If they are incorrect, that is bad enough, but if they are ‘pidgin Shona’ that is worse - no wonder Petina laughed. It is sad if there is no other truth in the characters in her opinion - which matters - and as always, this writer will try to do better.
But this raises the question, how accurate do we have to be in general, as writers? Does it matter, in general? If the story worked as fiction for a few editors and their readers, where is the issue? Yes, it matters to me, personally, because I don’t like to get it wrong – but I’m learning, here.
Edited to add: the piece Maiba's Ribbon is leaning very much on those names, to paint character. And if those names are wrong, it might not work. I asked Petina Gappah the obvious question: "Where can I find out the right versions of those names?" and Petina has pointed out that actually Godfrey and Elizabeth would be as authentic, because English is an official language... and that challenges the writer here, to look again, and see how 'authentic' the characters are if I give them those names instead. Hmmm.

A bit of history: This story was published initially on Foto 8 online, (Foto 8 is a photojournalism magazine) to illustrate working with images as prompts for creative writing. It was included in a special series on Notes on the Underground edited by Clare Wigfall. And performed at Whitechapel Gallery last week - I'd forgotten that, couldn't be there...The point is, the fiction convinced well enough, until it hit ‘home territory’. And sure, that’s not exactly what I wanted to hear.
Petina makes the point that the story probably wasn’t intended for Zimbabwean readers – and she’s right, in that it wasn’t ‘intended’ for anyone at all. I saw the photo, knew roughly what the story would be – looked up the names before I wrote the flash. Then I was asked to send work to Foto 8 and so on..
But, and it is a big but - I ask myself the question – would I have sent it to a publication in Zimbabwe? The answer to that has to be ‘no of course not’. Then I ask myself why that is.
There are a lot of questions here, and I don’t have the answers.
• If you are moved by something and seek to understand it - is it OK to try and write a character from another culture, get it wrong unwittingly and hope to do it better next time?
• Is it somehow more ‘respectful’ to assume that you will never get it completely right, that someone will be offended, and therefore you should (as a writer) avoid otherness completely?
• Isn’t it by making mistakes that we learn?
• If we worry about offending, we’d never write anything, would we?
• If we don’t worry about offending at all, are we just being exploitative?
• Where should we worry and where shouldn’t we? Where is the cut-off?
• Are there some mistakes that are less easily forgiven than others?

Clare Wigfall, in her interview in Short Circuit, talks about The Numbers, the short story set in the Outer Hebrides which won The National Short Story Award in 2008. She created a fictive world that worked well at the highest level. Having visited the islands where The Numbers was set, after the story was published in her collection, (The Loudest Sound and Nothing, Faber and Faber), she discovered that in terms of voice, things were not exactly accurate. She knows that geographically, too, there were things ‘wrong’ if one was looking for facts. But, she says, sensibly,

“I never aimed at correctness. I just wrote fiction.”

Sometimes, writing is a minefield. People will be offended, when no offence is intended. How many times have I cringed, when ‘my’ subjects – adoption/abandonment are the most obvious - are tramped all over by writers who have no idea? I may cringe - but I have not been ‘offended’. If the writers asked, I’d give them the facts as I see and experience them. For example, I spent a few hours talking to the author Nicky Singer, researching for one of her novels.
"Other" is part of why we write. There’s something pushing us to make up other people… whether they are people who live our lives, in our homes, lives like ours, or others – I do the latter. And sometimes, as now, you have to stand up and be counted.

If you want to find out more about writing ‘other’, here are two thoughts –Petina Gappah’s course on Writing Other Lives with Faber has sadly come and gone, but it sounded great – maybe they will run it again -
And thanks to N for this great article by black writer Leone Ross on tackling a black main character, (she is black). A black male main character (she isn’t a black male). A gay male main character (she isn’t a gay black male). An American gay black male. (she isn’t American, but Jamaican. She only visited the US once, as a tourist. Florida. Nuff said.)

Cultural tourism. A minefield. And a large one. I hope we are all allowed to walk the edges, if we are brave or daft enough.

VISIT TO THE D-DAY BEACHES

2010-03-22T12:44:00.001-07:00

Very lucky to be spending a few days visiting the Normandy beaches in the company of Mike, a retired officer from The Royal Green Howards - the only British regiment to win a VC on D-Day.

This is the soldier who was awarded the VC - after being recommended for it not once, but twice, on D-Day. Sargeant-Major Stanley Hollis, VC.
Details of Stan Hollis's bravery can be found HERE - and there is a biography of this extraordinary man - details HERE

SEAN O'FAOLAIN SHORT STORY COMPETITION OPEN FOR ENTRIES - JUDGE SAYS 'I LOVE FLASH FICTION...'

2010-03-19T00:29:00.000-07:00

Official. Tania Hershman, judge of this year's Sean O'Faolain Short Story competition, gives her backing to very short stories. (see comments thread following this poast) Entries do not have to be right up to the word limit. Tania's own collection The White Road and Other Stories contains 50% flash fiction - and was commended by the judges of the Orange Prize in 2009. I think that could be a useful little himt there - and you heard it here first! Her comment says:

Thanks, V - could I take the chance to say how much I love flash fiction? Please feel free to send very short stories, that would make me very happy!

From the Munster Lit website then:

The Seán Ó Faoláin Short Story Competition is an annual short story competition dedicated to one of Ireland's most accomplished story writers and theorists, sponsored by the Munster Literature Centre.
First Prize: €1,500 (approx US $2000) and publication in the literary journal Southword.
Second Prize: €500 (approx US $650) and publication in Southword.
Four other shortlisted entries will be selected for publication in Southword and receive a fee of €100 (approx USD $130).
There will be a long list of twenty entrants published.

Judge: For 2010 Short Review founder and editor Tania Hershman.
Tania Hershman, a former science journalist, is the author of The White Road and Other Stories, (Salt Modern Fiction, 2008) which was commended by the judges of the 2009 Orange Award for New Writers. Her award-winning short stories, one of which has recently been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, have been widely published in print and online and broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Tania is founder and editor of The Short Review, a journal dedicated to reviewing short story collections. Her website is www.taniahershman.com and she blogs at TaniaWrites http://www.titaniawrites.blogspot.com

ASIAN SISTERS VERSUS THE COMIC NOVEL

2010-03-18T02:44:00.000-07:00

Erika Wagner’s article in today’s Times begins with the immortal words,

“Last time I checked, there are a lot of books about Asian sisters didn’t really count as literary criticism.”

Said by Daisy Goodwin, one of the judges of this year’s Orange Prize, who is fed up with reading novels concerning the exploits of Asian sisters, this made me laugh. It comes a couple of days after the debate opened up by Sara Crowley, albeit unwittingly, on her blog, (HERE and the post above this one) about ‘cultural tourism’. Sadly, people seemed intent on being grievously offended in that discussion, and needed to wave their subtexts in the air.
The Times, brave souls, risks the wrath of the ‘grievously offended’, and pokes fun at the current fashion for books peopled by Asian sisters. And there are obviously rather a lot about. Must admit, I hadn’t stumbled over any, yet, and The Times doesn’t exactly make me want to seek them out, either.
But the article moves on, far more interestingly, to why novels that make the reader laugh, are not winners of the literary prizes, when they are good stuff, well written, and hard to get right.
Daisy Goodwin:

“I think the misery memoir has had its day, but there are an awful lot of books out there which had not a shred of redemption in them,”

That is thought provoking. So much is in the eye of the reader – plenty of intelligent, astute readers loathe McCarthy’s The Road, and find it unremittingly bleak. I didn’t – I found it a hymn to the human spirit, tenacity in the face of annihilation. But there you go – it takes all sorts, thank goodness.
Wagner says:

“Comic novels — let’s call them terrific novels that happen to be funny — tend to fall through the cracks, especially where prizes are concerned. Publishers have to choose which books from their list to submit for a prize such as the Orange: is a book that makes a reader laugh really worthy of a prize?”

The article, HERE, makes good reading. And concludes with a list of Erika Wagner’s top ten comic novels:
Erika Wagner's Top Ten comic novels:
What a Carve Up! by Jonathan Coe
Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
Headlong by Michael Frayn
The Believers by Zoe Heller
Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka
Deaf Sentence by David Lodge
Moo by Jane Smiley
Digging to America by Anne Tyler
The Wife by Meg Wolitzer

I could add anything by Tom Sharp, Jerome K Jerome's Three Men in a Boat. Any more?

CHEERS!! THE NEW WRITER SHORT STORY COMPETITION RESULTS

2010-03-17T06:39:00.000-07:00

I was sent a total of 34 stories, all writers' names removed. They arrived on the day after I got back from Ireland, in early February, having just completed the first draft of the novel. The entire longlist. My wonderful job was to read these stories, selected by the readers of TNY from hundreds of entries, choose three winners, some 'highly commended' and some runners up.
This is what I did. I opened the parcel and sat with the pile of stories, all paperclipped together, on my knee. And I flipped from story to story, reading the TITLES and the FIRST LINES only. If my interest was piqued, out that story came, put to one side. I read those first.
I started three piles.
1)YES, a definite maybe.
2)MAYBE, a definite re-read.
3)NOPE, sorry, not this time.
When every story had been read twice(it took a week or so) and allocated to a pile, I took a break. Left them for a few days.
I then took the NOPE pile and over two days, read them all again. And again. And shifted a few stories up to the MAYBE pile.
Then I did the same with the MAYBEs, shifting a few stories up or down as necessary. Then the YES pile, again, making each one work hard, to convince me it was in the right place, by now, or down it went.
I ended up with five stories in the YES pile. And over three days they shifted position on the dining room table, until three separated themselves out as the top three.
But what a top three. They are so different. Chalk and cheese. Apples and bananas. Toffees and mintoes. Gin and beer. How to decide? Here, breaking each one down by craft element helped hugely. And - I'm putting this bit in bold - in the end, it was a sci-fi story that came out on top. Which gives me a real buzz! It is a terrific story.

Then, having given my decision to Merric Davidson of The New Writer - the fun of waiting to find out the names of the entrants - knowing that I would recognise lots of names - the town of the short story is a very small one. It is not even a town, it is a village. You can't do anything without the neighbours knowing!
Anyway - here are the names of the stories, and the names of the marvellous writers who wrote them. Many congratulations to everyone - I enjoyed them all.

SHORT STORY category
1st Judi Moore The Dark Side of the Moon
2nd Gill Belchetz Out of Holbeck
3rd MP Stanley Construction Over Water: An Elegy for Wanda

Highly Commended: Gabriela Blandy Borrowed Light; Hilary Fennell Not Like Us; Susannah Rickards Mudlarks.

Runners-up: Sophie Coulombeau Church Going; Caroline Freeman The Ginkgo Tree; Jacqui Rochford Red; Sharon Zink The Log Flume.

Longlist: Joanna Campbell, Paul Curd, Sarah Evans, Suzanne Ferris, Lynda Fletcher, Clare Girvan, Ghislaine Goff, Rhonda Grantham, Eliza Hawkins, Jonathan Haylett, Helen Hogan, Liz Hobbs, Helen Kitson, Nancy Le Nezet, Rebecca Mayhew, Kenneth McBeath, Teresa O’Brien, Ali Pardoe, Iain Pattison, Glenn Price, Eira Reed, Frank Talaber, Nemone Thornes, Mark Wagstaff.

Finalists: Tina Aidoo, Robert Atkinson, Gill Blow, Cyril Bracegirdle, Jo Campbell, Rebecca Camu, Jo Cannon, Thomas Croger, Franca Davenport, David Gibson, Jenny Gordon, Barbara Henderson, Anthony Howcroft, Karen Jones, Cliff Kitney, Hilary Lloyd, Ann MacLaren, Nina Milton, Prue Phillipson, Julian Ruck, Joanne Rutter, Aoo Sanusi, Adrian Sells, Fleur Smithwick, Chip Tolson, Nicholas Underhay, Judy Walker, Lisa Weir, Laura Wilkinson.

And yes, it is weird, seeing names of people I know in there. The standard, as they say, was very high, unsurprisingly.

So what was I was looking for? Not much - a good story, told well. A story that held my interest. Great characters, of course. Originality, quality of writing, and something that wouldn't quite let me go when the story ended.

WIN SARAH SALWAY's NEW NOVEL!

2010-03-15T15:15:00.000-07:00

According to Publisher's Weekly, Sarah Salway's new novel Getting The Picture, is rather good stuff. So after reading their review, here's a little comp to win a signed copy!
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Publisher's Weekly say this:

Getting The Picture refutes the adage about old dogs and new tricks in this breezy epistolary novel set in a British retirement home. Not that the residents of Pilgrim House don't know plenty of old tricks already: Salway's appreciation of her characters is refreshingly nonpatronizing—her oldsters have rich and naughty pasts, but live in the present, very much alive and eager to gossip, conspire, and seduce... relationships and characters evolve nicely in this lighthearted novel about family and lovers and the not-so-lighthearted secrets that separate them.

Sarah is a simply great writer. And something of a rarity, a generous-hearted one. (Although ALL the writers who read this blog are the same, right?!) Her chapter in Short Circuit is terrific, an object-lesson in finding inspiration. And she is running a mini-comp to publicise her new novel - about love in an old people's home...Yes! Can't wait.

What you have to do is this. Find/remember/the best quote you can about love and old age. And send it to Sarah at sarahsalway - at - googlemail.com or visit her blog HERE and even HERE at the relevant post - add it into the comments. Who knows - a signed copy of this book could be winging its way to you soon.
I thought I was being dead smooth, adding my own fave quote, which I thought was by T S Eliot. Apparently, it is also by several others... and what I hadnt noticed was ,its also Sarah's own fave. So no book for me then. (grump.)

"Those who love deeply never grow old; they may die of old age, but they die young."

It’s on a scrap of paper on my wall, scribbled as being by T S Eliot – but it isn’t! depending on who you believe, it is either by A. W. Pinero, Benjamin Franklin or even Dorothy Fisher! Hmph.
Anyway. Can I suggest, if you don't win - get your own copy...Amazon.com can send you one - HERE Salway is a special writer. But don't take my word for it - Neil Gaiman says so. Look:

“Sarah Salway is an astonishingly smart writer. Her fiction is always beautifully structured, touching and clever. She manages the trick of creating characters you care about in stories you admire. I can’t wait to see what she does next.”

—Neil Gaiman

.
(The Publisher's Weekly review of Sarah's new book is is Copyright of Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.)

GREAT DISCUSSION ON CREATIVITY

2010-03-13T00:23:00.000-08:00

There's a great discussion on different aspects of creativity on A Salted, Sara Crowley's blog, HERE
It tackles the Fiction/Autobiography relationship, quotes Lorie Moore, Janice Galloway, among others. It also tackles the knotty topic of cultural tourism. Good stuff.

REWRITING, EDITING

2010-03-10T01:37:00.001-08:00

Monday 8th March. The real start of the activity for which I have the ACE grant. My mentor, Maggie Gee and I, met at the British Library, near St Pancras. I had never, to my shame, been here – the largest new build in the UK in the whole of the last century. I was late. A tube train broke down at King’s Cross, holding up the system – typical!

Maggie (henceforth ‘M’ as in Bond, James Bond) had read through the whole draft manuscript – the first time anyone has done that. So her feedback was always going to be invaluable, and my ears were pinned back from the off. It was great - straight talking, no flannel, encouragement and an honest appraisal of where work was needed.

I am very aware of my limitations here, hence this working relationship thanks to ACE. I know a bit about writing short stories, and that is not helping me. Whoever tells you that a novel is a natural progression that begins with the short story may not be talking from experience, that’s my conclusion – there is little in common as far as I can see.

We talked for two hours. M had already spent at least 8 hours reading and making extensive notes…so I needed to listen, and ask, and remember. It felt exhausting. She must have been so too.

She made me ‘see’ the work through the eyes of the reader. To recognise the importance of narrative pull-through. To begin to see where, although there is a backbone to the work, it is weak in places needs strengthening. A very important relationship between two central characters, is very weak – maybe because it only appeared very recently. There are over 60 characters in two timeframes… many subsidiary – and that needs simplifying. I drop important characters and pick ‘em up later – or introduce a new important character too late when they need to be ‘present’ earlier on. All stuff that will hold up the reader – most of whom will read much faster than M, and each omission will stop them in their tracks.

That is THE most valuable lesson. To bring the reader into the equation – something I haven’t done much as a short story writer. Maybe it is easier to just ‘be’ the reader as writer for a short – to hold the whole in your head as a coherent balanced entity. Whereas for a novel, and a complicated one – it is not as doable, and you need a different mindset.

M reckons it is 80% ‘there’.

As my house is full of builders and electricians, and plumbers at the moment, I am working at a friend’s house – doing the minor stuff first. Letting the major stuff mull.

A rather nice name-check

2010-03-08T10:54:00.001-08:00

The Books Interview on The new Statesman, with Maggie Gee

Which contemporary writers do you read?

I read non-stop, and there are so many crowding each other out. Of writers between 25 and fortyish, I read and admire Adam Marek, Nii Parkes, Diana Evans, Marian Garvey, Salena Godden, Vanessa Gebbie.

The whole interview can be read HERE

Maggie's memoir, My Animal Life is published today.

SUNDAY TIMES SHORTLIST... MOSTLY BLOKES!

2010-03-07T00:13:00.000-08:00

Cue racing commentator -

"And coming up to the final furlong it is neck and neck between six champions - sadly we saw some excellent steeds drop out back there, but I've just checked and all seems well. Last seen making for the Queen's Enclosure bar, where I am sure they will be well looked after.
Now, all eyes are on these six. And we have to ask, what happened to the girls? And its Gappah holding the fort for the girls still, but outnumbered by the blokes - even one aged 77, which is quite unusual here at Goodwood.
I can see an enquiry coming up later in the month, but meanwhile, lets sit back and cheer these plucky steeds as they battle for position down the final straights...still a few nasty jumps to go, including the renowned A S Byatt Beecher's Brook, which has recently been widened...".

Congratulations to Short Circuit contributor Adam Marek, whose chapter entitled "What My Gland Wants: Originality in the Short Story" might just hold a clue to the success of these six. is that book on the ball, or wot?
Congratuations to Petina Gappah, (Whose story 'Midnight at Hotel Calfornia', from the collection Elegy for Easterly is listed as one of my faves in Short Circuit - 'tis deffo on the ball, that book!
Congratulations to C K Stead - who at 77 waves a flag for anti-ageists - good writing is good writing - doesn't matter who writes it.
Congratulations to David Vann
Congratulations to Joe Dunthorne
Congratulations to Will Cohu

Sunday Times Online article HERE

MEET THE POET WITH THE RED CAR - NUALA NI CHONCHUIR

2010-03-06T00:08:00.000-08:00

Nuala ni Chonchir's website is HERE. And, she blogs HERE.

VANESSA: Nuala - We're both short storyists - you are also an acclaimed and award-winning poet. Aagh. Hang on while I try to say summat reasonable.
I loved Portrait of the Artist with a Red Car. Why? I love that it is not coy, this stuff you do, these scenes you paint with your words, these thoughts you make come real and alive in my head. Without knowing the ‘how’. While being wrong-footed and delighted by the turns in the path along the way.
I love the way your words are beautiful but solid as well. How they stand there, like a toddler on braced legs, looking back at me unflinching and saying ‘You take me as I am or not at all.’
I love the sense I get when I read these poems, that I am intruding into the poet’s space, half-invited. It makes my senses prickle, as though I was creeping through your house at night trying not to be heard.

NUALA:Thanks, Vanessa. I think that’s a very vivid and insightful description of what poetry can do to a reader. My poetry comes from a hugely personal place, especially in the last few years when I have been on somewhat of a personal rollercoaster. I have found writing about it all (marriage breakdown, new love, fertility issues) has helped me cope in some way. Writing is woven into my life as much as my children are. It is just ever-present.

VANESSA:‘Body Gifts’ for example, each couplet beginning ‘I give you’. Less than 50 words, it is a small and perfect hymn to lovemaking and I love it! It is playful, as well, talking of

lip-flesh
made plump as twin seals.

And another hymn (you’ll have to excuse me, N – it’s just how I feel the words?) – ‘Aubade to an Extraordinary Life’ – a poem that begins

In the afterglow, I watch your bear-like doze

and weaves round to,

…the ordinary sharing and partings of life:
a dinner made together, lunches packed in schoolbags,

bedtime stories read, the call of Monday morning
that sees you bound for the train, me to my desk.

NUALA:I enjoy writing love poems – I like when they occur to me. The aubade form is usually about lovers parting at dawn and it struck me that my partner and I always separate in the wee small hours as he works nearly a hundred miles away. So I thought I’d try an aubade and make it positive. I don’t use forms much but sometimes they are fun to try.

VANESSA: Patrick Cotter, whose own work is fiercely honest and raw sometimes, I think, endorses this collection by saying ‘there is not only music in Ní Chonchúir’s words, there is dancing too. (…) But beneath the surface there is also substance as (she) explores the closest relationships with an honesty so raw it scratches.’
Maybe it is because I come at the words as a woman, I don’t find your words ‘scratch’. They burn, sometimes, but not scratch.

NUALA:He actually said ‘scorches’, so that matches what you felt. (Memo to self: buy new reading specs…V)
Patrick is a great poet and it is pleasing to have such positive words from him. I admire his sensual, sparky poetry very much. While I don’t think he’d call himself a feminist, he is one of those male poets who actually likes women and celebrates them. We are lucky in Ireland that we have a few of them!

VANESSA: As the mother of sons, the final stanza of ‘Other People’s Children’ comes back at me again and again for example, because you are saying this for me, and it brings tears even typing this:

And, I know, I will fail my sons somehow,
maybe all-how, but still I try
- try my flawed best –
or somewhere near to it at least.

NUALA: I re-read that poem today in preparation for a reading this Friday and it resonated with me too. I sometimes feel like a disaster as a mother (much too focussed on my need to write) but I guess I am better than some, not as good as others. Being a writer and a mother (especially when they are young and you live outside your home area) throws up a particular set of difficulties. You are always torn between scrabbling round on the floor/giving them time, or sneaking off to write and dream and read when you can. It’s an extremely hard balancing act and I’m struggling with it a lot just now.

VANESSA: And I love, and am happily jealous of, your ability to take the ‘ordinary’ that is never that – and paint it so it turns ordinariness on its head,

…still my baby labours in me,
adding lanugo and vernix
to her cornucopia of miracles,

I’m bowing down here to a poet who can make those words echo. Lanugo? Vernix? Come on! But you do, and I look again, and see it for what it is. Anything but ordinary – see? And extraordinarily beautiful.

NUALA: Thank you, Vanessa. I know what you mean. I love to read a poem with the words ‘Motorway’ or ‘tractor’ in them – seemingly unpoetic words – and find that they work well. Feck poetic words – poetry is in and about everything.

VANESSA: ‘Dancing with Paul Durcan’ made me laugh out loud at the beginning – it is like a game of Consequences. Having been at one of his readings, been totally seduced, and bought three books no less – yes, his poetry is ‘filthy with longing’. And you continue the conceit of this into ‘Dream after a Reading’ – underscoring both the metaphor as well as the very real sexual power of some writing.

NUALA: I’m a big Durcan fan – I admire and fear him, in a way; I’m always cowed by immense talent and he has a particular presence in person. The poem is a bit of imagined whimsy – I’ve never actually danced through a bookshop with Paul. Maybe one day!

VANESSA: I hope some records the moment for posterity... the bits that can be recorded, I mean...!
It’s hard to say which poem is my favourite. But after a lot of thinking, it has to actually be one that leaves these themes behind. That seems to me to be a loner here, or maybe it is just that it speaks to me in a different voice? The marvellous poem that begins with an image, an artist - Max Ernst - seeing things including the ‘menacing nightingale’ in a knot of wood. And finishes with the parent holding back truth from a frightened child, because

…I don’t dare to tell him that airplanes do fall,
that people condemn, and that there is menace in more
than paintings of children threatened by a nightingale.

NUALA: I’m glad you like that one, Vanessa. It’s one of those poems that started out in one place and ended up someplace else. It maybe follows Robert Frost’s idea that “like a piece of ice on a hot stove the poem must ride on its own melting.”

VANESSA: What a brilliant quote to finish up on. Thank you for writing these poems, Nuala. My life is richer for them.

NUALA: And thank you, Vanessa for being such an involved reader of them. It was lovely to hear your thoughts.

Nuala's collection is special. It won the Templar Poetry prize in 2009, and can be bought, among others, from the publisher HERE.

Templar Poetry is running their competition for short collections again in 2010. Details are HERE on their website.

"THE MAILMAN'S JUST BEEN..." - GREG McQUEEN OPENS A BOX - EXCLUSIVE!

2010-03-04T23:01:00.000-08:00

Here we are - Greg's visit to this blog, in his 100 Stories for Haiti tour - the book that was published yesterday, his brainchild. We've seen an earlier video of a slightly bemused Greg, shocked at the support for his idea on 23rd January... HERE.He thought it would be nice to have another video to share...
We've seen 400 writers submitting their work, for free... and 100 pieces selected for inclusion. We've seen the setting up of a 100 Stories natter site, the efforts of readers, editors, and dramas surrounding the original print publishers. We've seen Bridge House, a small UK indie publisher, jumping in to save the day. We've seen a salesforce of 100 writers, and the rest of the team, spreading the word via flacebook, twitter, blogs, word of mouth. We've seen the book listed on Amazon, Waterstones, and other online outlets.
What did I like about this project? It is not about anything other than helping Haiti. And that, in today's cynical old world, is nice.
Right. Get your tissues out, get ready to wipe an eye as a guy in deepest Denmark takes his daughters play scissors and opens a box...

2010-03-03T23:31:00.001-08:00

I'm reading at Short Fuse in Brighton, next Wednesday, 8.0 pm at the Komedia Theatre bar. The theme of the event is 'Hair', and I had just the perfect piece sitting on the PC. Also reading is Tania Hershman - lovely! I feel a spot of supper coming on...

(Wig pic from here)

STEVE ALMOND on SHORT SHORT FICTION

2010-03-03T01:39:00.001-08:00

"I want my heart broken, or at least punched pretty good...".

(Steve Almond, on reading short stories)
Writer Randall Brown wins a flash critique from Steve Almond - and he is generous enough to post the whole feedback, with Almond's permission, on Flash Fiction net. HERE
Do read - for other gems such as 'dont leave too much out...'!

SHORT CIRCUIT MEETS ELEPHANT...

2010-03-01T09:30:00.000-08:00

SHORT CIRCUIT is lucky to be spending a little time chez Sally Zigmond, at her blog Elephant in the Writing Room, linked down there on the right - a source of great advice and insights into this writing stuff.

I love the comments she opens the article with:

I’m not psychic but I often get a tingle about something. It can be positive or negative. In the case of Short Circuit (A Guide to the Art of the Short Story) I knew before I even saw a copy, let alone read it, I knew, I absolutely knew, it would be fabulous. What I didn’t know then, but know now, is how quickly it would become my Bible. I keep it on my desk and every time I dip into it I find something new, something practical and something inspiring. I’m not sure whether I actually believe in the existence of the much-vaunted writer’s block—although I do know what it’s like to lose confidence, but if it ever strikes you—whatever it is—just spent half an hour in the company of Short Circuit and you’ll be itching to pick up a pen.Promise.

The rest of the interview/conversation/ruminations can be read HERE. Thank you Sally.

2010-03-01T02:41:00.000-08:00

THAW – the new novel by Fiona Robyn
Fiona has decided to blog her new novel over the weeks to come… and I am pleased to have the first part here, as part of her great idea… blogsplash! You can read the synopsis, and the first part of Thaw here...

THAW: Synopsis
Ruth is thirty two years old and doesn't know if she wants to be thirty three. Her meticulously-ordered lonely life as a microbiologist is starved of pleasure and devoid of meaning. She decides to give herself three months to decide whether or not to end her life, and we read her daily diary as she struggles to make sense of her past and grapples with the pain of the present. "Thaw" explores what makes any of our lives worth living. Can Red, the eccentric Russian artist Ruth commissions to paint her portrait, find a way to warm her frozen heart?

These hands are ninety-three years old. They belong to Charlotte Marie Bradley Miller. She was so frail that her grand-daughter had to carry her onto the set to take this photo. It's a close-up. Her emaciated arms emerge from the top corners of the photo and the background is black, maybe velvet, as if we're being protected from seeing the strings. One wrist rests on the other, and her fingers hang loose, close together, a pair of folded wings. And you can see her insides.
The bones of her knuckles bulge out of the skin, which sags like plastic that has melted in the sun and is dripping off her, wrinkling and folding. Her veins look as though they're stuck to the outside of her hands. They're a colour that's difficult to describe: blue, but also silver, green; her blood runs through them, close to the surface. The book says she died shortly after they took this picture. Did she even get to see it? Maybe it was the last beautiful thing she left in the world.
I'm trying to decide whether or not I want to carry on living. I'm giving myself three months of this journal to decide. You might think that sounds melodramatic, but I don't think I'm alone in wondering whether it's all worth it. I've seen the look in people's eyes. Stiff suits travelling to work, morning after morning, on the cramped and humid tube. Tarted-up girls and gangs of boys reeking of aftershave, reeling on the pavements on a Friday night, trying to mop up the dreariness of their week with one desperate, fake-happy night. I've heard the weary grief in my dad's voice.
So where do I start with all this? What do you want to know about me? I'm Ruth White, thirty-two years old, going on a hundred. I live alone with no boyfriend and no cat in a tiny flat in central London. In fact, I had a non-relationship with a man at work, Dan, for seven years. I'm sitting in my bedroom-cum-living room right now, looking up every so often at the thin rain slanting across a flat grey sky. I work in a city hospital lab as a microbiologist. My dad is an accountant and lives with his sensible second wife Julie, in a sensible second home. Mother finished dying when I was fourteen, three years after her first diagnosis. What else? What else is there?
Charlotte Marie Bradley Miller. I looked at her hands for twelve minutes. It was odd describing what I was seeing in words. Usually the picture just sits inside my head and I swish it around like tasting wine. I have huge books all over my flat; books you have to take in both hands to lift. I've had the photo habit for years. Mother bought me my first book, black and white landscapes by Ansel Adams. When she got really ill, I used to take it to bed with me and look at it for hours, concentrating on the huge trees, the still water, the never-ending skies. I suppose it helped me think about something other than what was happening. I learned to focus on one photo at a time rather than flicking from scene to scene in search of something to hold me. If I concentrate, then everything stands still. Although I use them to escape the world, I also think they bring me closer to it. I've still got that book. When I take it out, I handle the pages as though they might flake into dust.
Mother used to write a journal. When I was small, I sat by her bed in the early mornings on a hard chair and looked at her face as her pen spat out sentences in short bursts. I imagined what she might have been writing about; princesses dressed in star-patterned silk, talking horses, adventures with pirates. More likely she was writing about what she was going to cook for dinner and how irritating Dad's snoring was.
I've always wanted to write my own journal, and this is my chance. Maybe my last chance. The idea is that every night for three months, I'll take one of these heavy sheets of pure white paper, rough under my fingertips, and fill it up on both sides. If my suicide note is nearly a hundred pages long, then no-one can accuse me of not thinking it through. No-one can say; 'It makes no sense; she was a polite, cheerful girl, had everything to live for', before adding that I did keep myself to myself. It'll all be here. I'm using a silver fountain pen with purple ink. A bit flamboyant for me, I know. I need these idiosyncratic rituals; they hold things in place. Like the way I make tea, squeezing the tea-bag three times, the exact amount of milk, seven stirs. My writing is small and neat; I'm striping the paper. I'm near the bottom of the page now. Only ninety-one more days to go before I'm allowed to make my decision. That's it for today. It's begun.

You can continue reading Thaw HERE. Or, of course, if you can’t wait to find out… you can buy it HERE!!!

WINNERS OF THE SCOTT PRIZE...

2010-02-28T11:32:00.001-08:00

Salt Publishing have announced the four winners of their inaugural Scott Prize for short story collections.
And they are:

Patrick Holland (Australia): The Source of Sound
David Mullins (US): Longing to Love You
Suzannah Rickards (UK): Hot Kitchen Snow
Tom Vowler (UK): They May Not Mean To But They Do

Many many congratulations to all of them, but especially to the two friends on the list - Tom and Susannah, whose books will be simply stunning.

For a link to Tom's blog, please scroll down on the right here...

ON POST OFFICES AND POETS, AND OTHER LITERARY NOURISHMENT

2010-02-28T02:55:00.000-08:00

£6.90. That’s what it cost to send my novel draft to Maggie. So that’s the first little bit out of the 'admin and etc' included in the ACE grant fund. It was a goodly parcel – 310 pages in the end. And when it was received at Gee Towers, I had an email to let me know (bless the lady) with the comment that it was so well packaged, I had a future with the post office…so that is a great relief. Something to fall back on!

I am slightly in limbo now, until March 8th, when we have our first meeting in London. So I am catching up on other things.

First on the list has been reading a final novel draft for a friend prior to it going to her agent. I finished that yesterday, finally – having enjoyed it SO much. It was hard to drag myself out of it to write the occasional note in the margin - “slows up a little here” or “I would have liked this information earlier…” A privilege indeed, and a great responsibility. I can’t wait to talk about it when it is on the chocks- It is a really marvellous tour de force, N – and lots of good luck, which you will not need!

Next I had a chance to read those great websites and blogs that people had kept telling me about and which I was saving up.

I was delighted to visit the website of poet Aonghas MacNeacail (which is probably Angus MacNichol to the non Gaelic among us). It is a wonderful place to spend a while – there are recordings of his work to enjoy in both English and Gaelic -
And I was delighted to see that he is doing his bit for Haiti – rather like the 100 writers who gave their work for the anthology (more on that this week) look at this, taken from said website:!

Poets for Haiti
Aonghas will be among '20 of the foremost poets in the land' performing to raise funds for Haiti, along with Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, and three other laureates, Gillian Clarke (Wales), Liz Lochhead (Glasgow) and Ron Butlin (Edinburgh), as well as Don Paterson (shortly to receive the Queen's Medal for Poetry), Sean O'Brien (winner of both Forward and TS Eliot Prizes), and such distinguished Scots as Alasdair Gray, Douglas Dunn, Jackie Kay and Kathleen Jamie, among others. The venue is Edinburgh's Queen's Hall, on the 28th February at 6.00 pm, and it should be quite a session!

It is his wife, BAFTA award winning actor/writer/director Gerda Stevenson who I must thank for this link… I gather she gave him the website for Christmas! Her own website is HERE . Do visit – I’m actively looking out for her name now – here are just two of the dramatisations she has done:

2009 – dramatisation of Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s novel Sunset Song,BBC Radio 4’s Classic Serial, Spring 2009.
2007 - dramatisation of Sir Walter Scott’s epic novel The Heart of Midlothian, BBC Radio 4’s Classic Serial, Autumn 2007. Nominated for the 2008 SONY AWARDS.

And last, but by no means least. The Sussex House Party on Friday night was stunningly good. Having been at the head of the table last time I went, now I was a mere mortal, as we guests sat round the feet of Virgina Woolf’s great-niece, the author Virginia Nicholson.
Here she is, pictured at Charleston farmhouse, home of the Bloomsbury set, and now home to the Charleston Festival and The Small Wonder Festival....
.
.
.
We chatted over huge glasses of prosecco first, and drifted to the table (black marble this time, very swish!) to enjoy a started of home cured ham and parmesan roulades on fresh leaves while we all introduced ourselves. Among the guests was an ex-headmaster who is writing a novel, a lawyer who is a screen writer, and the supplier of the starter who, quite apart from running a farm, is also working on her debut book – eagerly awaited by the agent who commissioned it. And of course, the host, Gilly Smith. Really interesting people, and the conversation sparkled. Virginia Nicholson was a generous and fascinating writer to share the meal with. She told us about the in-depth research she does for all her books. About her childhood and how she came to writing thanks to helping her late father, Quentin Bell, write a book about Charleston farmhouse. She is currently researching and writing her fourth book, about the lives of women in the 1940s - the generation of women who produced the children who would be the Sixties and transform things yet again. And it sounds really fascinating if incredibly hard work. (I’m not a researcher, and can’t imagine doing that in such depth each time I wrote something!)
Among her existing books is 'Among The Bohermians', and it sounds really fascinating. I came home and ordered it, to perch on the ever-growing pile for when I've finished the novel. Her website desribes it thus:

a rich and detailed exploration of the way of life of those men and women in the first half of the twentieth century – the majority of them artists, poets, writers and composers - who were brave enough to jettison Victorian conformity. Rebels and free spirits, these were the pioneers of a domestic revolution. Escaping the confines of the society into which they had been born, they carried idealism and creativity into every aspect of daily life. Deaf to disapproval, they got drunk and into debt, took drugs, experimented with homosexuality and open marriages, and brought up their children out of wedlock. In the spirit of liberty, they sacrificed comfortable homes and took to the road in gypsy caravans or moved into spartan garrets in Chelsea. Yet their choice of a free life led all too often to poverty, hunger, addiction and even death.
Among the large cast of flamboyant characters depicted in Virginia Nicholson’s book are such giants of the artistic scene as Augustus John, Jacob Epstein and Eric Gill, alongside their literary counterparts Dylan Thomas, Robert Graves and Arthur Ransome. Lesser-known (but no less colourful) characters include Kathleen Hale, Iris Tree, Philip O'Connor, Nina Hamnett and Ruthven Todd.

And I have a whole WEEK to fill with other things before the novel opens again--- it seems such a long time!

An Oscar...

2010-02-26T10:23:00.000-08:00

I have today been awarded one of the highest accolades a person can be awarded. An Oscar. Or rather an Oscar's Oscar - 'For Metaphoric Mechanics and Literary Lubrication.'

(I'd better explain - Oscar Windsor-Smith who Twitters here was one of the participants at the Get Writing 2010 workshop last Saturday. I think he enjoyed himself!) Thanks Oscar!

SOURCES OF FUNDS AND SUPPORT IN KIND FOR WRITERS

2010-02-25T00:33:00.000-08:00

SOCIETY OF AUTHORS - WEBSITE LINK HERE

The Authors' Foundation
The Authors' Foundation gives grants to authors whose project is for a British publisher. Grants can be to help with research costs, or to buy time to write.
Please note, the Authors' Foundation does not cover self-published authors as grants cannot be awarded to help towards the costs of publication.
The Roger Deakin Awards: one award in each round of grants will be made in memory of the environmentalist, writer and film maker Roger Deakin. This award offers funding to authors of creative works of any genre concerned with natural history, landscape or the environment.
The Elizabeth Longford Grants: Flora Fraser and Peter Soros kindly sponsor an award in memory of Elizabeth Longford every six months. Historical biographers working on a commissioned book will be considered for an award of £2,500.
The Michael Meyer Awards: one award in each round of grants will be made in memory of Michael Meyer, a generous benefactor, who wrote about the theatre and translated plays.
The Arthur Welton Awards: one award in each round of grants will be made in memory of the philanthropist and poet Arthur Welton.
The Great Britain Sasakawa Grant: one grant of £2,000 is awarded each year. Works of fiction or non-fiction about any aspect of Japanese culture or society, or set in a Japanese context will be considered. Preference will be given to works which help to interpret modern Japan to the English-speaking world.

WELSH ACADEMI BURSARIES WEBSITE LINK HERE
There are 5 different bursaries available in two categories, Buying Time Bursaries and Enabling Bursaries:
Buying Time Bursaries:
1. New Writers’ Bursaries can be awarded to writers who have not previously published a volume of their work. At least 10,000 words of prose of work-in-progress or 15 poems must be submitted with your application. If you have had work published in anthologies and periodicals, please send samples with your application - one copy of each item.
Maximum award: £10,000
2. Published Writers’ Bursaries are for writers who have already published a volume or more of work. At least 4,000 words of work-in-progress OR 8 poems must be submitted with your application. Please send one copy of a sample volume with your application. These will be returned if requested.
Maximum award: £10,000
3. Children’s Writers’ Bursaries are intended for writers for children and young people in Welsh and English. The Academi is keen to encourage the following in particular:
i. English-language writers whose work has a Welsh background
ii. Writers producing longer novels in the Welsh language.
Applicants should provide a representative selection of the work-in-progress.
Maximum award: £10,000
Enabling Bursaries:
4. The Miscellaneous Fund can offer small-scale support related to specific writing projects. Examples include travel costs, research, work in other languages, childcare, renting quiet space to write and other items. Capital grants (such as the purchasing of computers) are not available from this fund.
Maximum award: £2,000
5. Enabling Bursaries for specialist equipment (For Disabled Writers only) are awarded to assist Disabled Writers. Examples can include aid for the following:
i. to purchase specialist equipment
ii. to assist with particular travel costs
iii. towards secretarial assistance such as editorial work, typing, printing etc.
iv. for training opportunities relevant to your writing
The Academi can also consider applications for assistance with other issues affecting disabled writers.
Maximum award: £2,000

FROM THE LITERATURE TRAINING WEBSITE – LINKS TO OVER 100 SOURCES OF FUNDS – HERE

Also - HAWTHORNDEN CASTLE Hawthornden Castle Fellowship
Hawthornden Castle, The International Retreat for Writers, Lasswade, Midlothian EH18 1EG
Phone 0131 440 2180
Fax 0131 440 1989
Established 1982 to provide a peaceful setting where published writers can work without disturbance. The Retreat houses five writers at a time, who are known as Hawthornden Fellows. Writers from any part of the world may apply for the fellowships. No monetary assistance is given, nor any contribution to travelling expenses, but once arrived at Hawthornden, the writer is the guest of the Retreat. Applications on forms provided must be made by the end of June for the following calendar year. Previous winners include: Les Murray, Alasdair Gray, Helen Vendler, Olive Senior, Hilary Spurling.

I'd be happy to add to the list, let me know any other sources.

THE LEVERHULME TRUST HERE - gives £40 million per annum... Thanks to Tania Hershman for this link. Specifically:

grants for artists' residencies: These awards are intended to support the residency of an artist of any kind or nationality in a UK institution in order to foster a creative collaboration between the artist and the staff and/or students of that institution. The term 'artist' encompasses visual artists, creative writers, musicians, poets and other producers of original creative work.

"The resident artist should work in an interactive way with the surroundings, and contribute recognisably to the life and work of the host department or centre. Applications should come jointly signed from the artist and a representative of the proposed host group, as Principal Applicant. Individual artists seeking a residency may not apply directly to the Trust. "

(All the information is taken from the various websites. Before contacting anyone, it is sensible to check your eligibility, and check the information is up to date.)

The human side of applying for an ACE Grant

2010-02-23T14:52:00.000-08:00

I'd say it is a good idea to get to know the person in your area responsible for your ‘sector’ within the Art’s Council. I was able to meet with the Literature Officer for my area, and talk about the novel.

I actually emailed first, and was invited to drop in a copy of my short story collection, Words from a Glass Bubble and a CV to the regional offices. I added a copy of the Flash Fiction text book. I was meaning to ask about something smaller, something completely different – finding out whether there might be a grant available for travel to a conference. This nice guy breezed down to collect the envelope, and whisked me out for an unscheduled breakfast meeting in Costa.

It turned out that this was too small a sum. The Arts Council do not look at proposals for less than £1000.00. 'And anyway,' he said, 'these conferences are rather meaningless. An excuse for a jolly.' Hmm!

The conversation over a rather delicious cappuccino and almond biscuits turned to the novel. And to some of the ups and downs along the way – of which there have been a few. It was a very open, good conversation, telling him a lot about the various bits and bobs that have happened to some of the sections, mainly good stuff. This conversation was hugely supportive. It came round to the question of what I most needed help with, to finish it. Wow. This thing I’d been battling with for three years began to look solid. So what did I need most? Structure, definitely. Coherence?

I have to say, I am incredibly grateful for that meeting. It was his idea to focus on a mentoring process in which I would have a sounding board while I reshaped a finished draft. Did I know anyone I’d like to work with? Yes. That bit was easy.

The message was - OK, now go through the application process. He warned me clearly that there was a lot of competition for grants, and I may not be successful. But encouraged me to try.

The Arts Council website is stuffed with information. They are in the process of changing to online applications – but for me, you could check your eligibility online, forms and details could be downloaded, the guidelines (a 40 page book!) and you could ask for the application pack. Which was basically all that stuff in hard copy.

There are constant mentions of help available from the ACE staff. Phone numbers to ring, web addresses and so on. And it works - I did ring once to check whether I could apply to go to a writer's retreat outside the UK. Answer, 'yes'. And also, whether the proportion of 'in kind' and other funds was appropriate for the size of grant I was asking for.

The guideline book sets everything out systematically. If you follow the instructions, you will be fine – but they are complicated, lots of twists and turns as they cover each possible facet from all sides, often more than once. I found the budget section very hard!. You do need to have your wits about you and a second pair of eyes, at least.

My second pair of eyes was writing buddy Andrew Marshall, who is going to help evaluate the activity. And my daughter-in-law, who used to be something in the City- helped as well, especially with the budget.

And you only have 1000 words to spend on your proposal, which has to be quite detailed.

The forms were sent off, duly completed. After a while I got a call, from the Literature Officer I had had that breakfast meeting with – asking for a lot more information. The proposals had been sent to him, to assess.

I redid the proposal, ignoring the word limit, as advised. Adding in a lot more about me, about my proposed mentor, and why this choice. I suspect that the low limit is to help them sift the applications– and they ask for more if they want to know… but that’s just me supposing.

And a month later got the nice news. Again, any questions, fire away.

I mentioned this blog on the proposal – ‘an honest look at the ups and the downs’, . This grant is a definite ‘UP’! And it seemed a great idea to tell people about the grant process - good practice, or summat.

ACE GRANT

2010-02-22T02:56:00.000-08:00

Well, I will natter a bit about this lovely grant I have been awarded, from Arts Council England, funded by The National Lottery.
I often looked at individuals awarded these grants, and wondered all sorts of things - How? Why? What? When? and Where? mostly. What were they spending this money on? Was it pints of cider down the pub while drowning their sorrows at not being able to write today?

Now I know – so I can pass it on. Every penny has to be very carefully planned. Your activity needs to be set out in a very detailed proposal, which covers what you would like to do, why, how it will benefit you, and the public (that’s a hard one to answer!), and how it will be funded. You must set out in minute detail what funds you are asking for, and also the funds you will be supplying yourself via various means. This is a must. Including help in kind. If awarded, each of the pennies must be accounted for, exactly as the proposal.
So – if you are expecting pints of cider, they need to be requested up front, and just may not get a grant…. (!)

Here you go – this is my What.

My grant is to fund working with an experienced novelist. She will act as sounding board and mentor, while I polish and reshape the first draft of the novel. I am lucky to be working with Maggie Gee , a novelist whose own work I enjoy for lots of reasons. But in the context of this activity, it is her clarity of structure that draws me. As well as her themes – her seeking to make sense of things through her work… if that makes sense to anyone out there!

What I love about the conversations we’ve had so far, is the understanding that this is my piece of work. That I am in the driving seat. And for a novelist whose last novel is called My Driver that seems rather appropriate. I’m about to send my first draft – with all the issues I have picked up over the last fortnight… voice issues, bagginess issues, structural issues, aaaagh… to this lady. I have ironed out the inadvertent wifeswappings and home removals discovered in the last two weeks.

The list of questions I’m sending is almost as long as the novel!
Maggie was featured in The Guardian last weekend…HERE in pre-publicity for her forthcoming memoir, My Animal Life – an account of her life as a writer. This comes out in March and I am bloody lucky that she is finding the time to work with me. Here’s the Amazon page for My Animal Life.

And here’s what Claire Tomalin has to say about this book:
'Exceptionally interesting and brave - Maggie Gee's account of her life as a writer cuts to the bone as she relives triumphs, rejections, despair and renewal. It's a wonderful book, for its boldness and vigour, and for its piercing honesty.' Claire Tomalin

So, there you are. This is what I am being funded for -working with this amazing writer. Oh - and - eight days stay at Anam Cara Writers and Artists Retreat, in Ireland, to break the back of the work, later on. Any questions, fire away!

TEN RULES FOR WRITING FICTION

2010-02-21T12:10:00.000-08:00

From Guardian Online: Ten rules for writing fiction
Get an accountant, abstain from sex and similes, cut, rewrite, then cut and rewrite again – if all else fails, pray. Inspired by Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules of Writing, we asked authors for their personal dos and don'ts...

I have picked out some 'rules' I smiled at because I believe 'em too. But the whole article is wonderful, thought provoking, and good to read.

Only bad writers think that their work is really good. Anne Enright

Don't wait for inspiration. Discipline is the key. Esther Freud

Style is the art of getting yourself out of the way, not putting yourself in it. David Hare.

Defend yourself. Find out what keeps you happy, motivated and creative. A L Kennedy

(she has another about using stories from your family, friends, under the title Defend others. She means using their life events, characteristics, and disguising them so that the originator is unrecogniseable!)

Remember writing doesn't love you. It doesn't care. Nevertheless, it can behave with remarkable generosity. Speak well of it, encourage others, pass it on. A L Kennedy

Marry somebody you love and who thinks you being a writer's a good idea. Richard Ford.

The whole article is HERE

SUNDAY TIMES LONGLIST

2010-02-20T23:25:00.000-08:00

Well, what short story writer has not been waiting to find out how many big names are on the Sunday Times longlist? There hasn’t been much money in short stories, but it looks like things might be changing, with the £25,000 waiting for one of these lucky people. And the list includes several people whose work may be breaking through into the big time thanks to a lot of very hard work!

The full longlist for The Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award include:
• Richard Beard - James Joyce, EFL Teacher
• Nicholas Best - Souvenir
• Sylvia Brownrigg - Jocasta
• John Burnside - Slut's Hair
• Will Cohu - Nothing But Grass
• Joe Dunthorne - Critical Responses To My Last Relationship
• Petina Gappah - An Elegy for Easterly
• Jackie Kay - Reality, Reality
• A.L. Kennedy - Saturday Teatime
• Adam Marek - Fewer Things
• Charles Mosley - Constraint
• Chris Paling - The Red Car
• Ron Rash - Burning Bright
• Simon Robson - Will There Be Lions?
• Kay Sexton - Anubis and the Volcano
• Helen Simpson - Diary of an Interesting Year
• C.K. Stead - Last Season's Man
• Rose Tremain - The Jester of Astapovo
• Gerard Woodward - Legoland
• David Vann - It's Not Yours

I am particularly delighted to see three names on here. First a writing friend, Adam Marek,
whose work I love, and whose collection Instruction Manual for Swallowing I reviewed a while ago for The Short Review HERE
(Yay! Well done Adam!!! Ahem, I’ll calm down now…)
Second, Kay Sexton whose informative and entertaining blog is HERE and whose work I also (weirdly) reviewed for The Short Review HERE when it appeared as one of the stronger pieces in an anthology called Two Tall Tales and One Short Novel a few years back.

And thirdly, Petina Gappah, whose collection Elegy For Easterly has already won the Guardian First Book Award, and I think this blog has blathered on about her enough! But do a search on her name and you’ll find my review etc.

SUNDAY TIMES ARTICLE HERE
And do I wish I was writing short stories at the moment, not fighting with this novel, just because the market wants something called a novel from me...? YES!!!!! Dear market, please change....

READING, WRITING, ARITHMETIC, POETS ON TRAINS

2010-02-20T12:15:00.000-08:00

I love this stuff, sometimes! First,
a monthly spoken word event now held in the wonderful ambiance of an upstairs room at The Wheatsheaf, Rathbone Place, London – where apparently, my hero Dylan Thomas used to drink.

TOTD is run by a couple of writing friends from the old Fiction Workhouse days. The room is great – private bar, stained glass in the bay window, not too big, not too small. This event was a platform to publicise 100 Stories for Haiti, of which you will hear much more over the next few weeks as the guru Greg McQueen will be dropping in soon. So many of the readers were contributors to this brilliant anthology – Martin Reed, Jac Catanneo, Katy Darby (of Liars League fame). Jac also read a contribution for Joel Willans who lives in Helsinki – and Martin read Greg’s own contribution – about the morning he was moved to DO something to help. I read my contribution, Naming Finbar, and a second piece called Creative Writhing (no that’s not a typo) which took Martin by surprise, as it required him to stand in as an adolescent snake. I sold a couple of books after announcing I'd give a fiver from each sale to the Haiti appeal.

Do submit to TOTD. It’s a great event, and if you are picked you are invited to read your work. Submission details HERE

Then I caught the train through all sorts of odd places to get to Hatfield – eg, Potter’s Bar. I love that name. Who were the original Potters at the Bar? Did they get very drunk? Did they just potter? I ended up at a hotel shaped like a plane, on a roundabout in Hatfield – fell into bed and slept like a complete tree. (‘Log’ is too insignificant!).

Today, I was at GET WRITING 2010 - see HERE
organised by Verulam Writers’ Circle, held at the stunning de Havilland Campus of the University of Hertford. I was giving a workshop lasting one hour – in which I was to cover flash fiction, flash writing and writing prize winning short stories - It was quite a packed workshop! It seemed to go down well – and I was delighted to see so many blokes in the room – that is unusual, and rather nice. Great to meet up again with Jon Pinnock who blogs HERE and who is writing a hilarious series called Mrs Darcy and the Aliens – a sort of Jane Austen spoofette. Jon is part of the Verulam Writers. He’d also acted as postman, receiving boxes of books for me from Salt – (seriously, thanks very much, Jon).

I slipped into the back of the main lecture theatre to hear a talk by two publishing professionals. Very interesting to hear. Very necessary. And very hard to listen to. Phrases like ‘Brand Marketing’, and ‘cutting our lists,’ and ‘many writers will only be published in digital form in the future’ and ‘today’s writers MUST be prepared to sell their books themselves’. But it was realistic – and as I say, necessary to hear.

Book sales and signing went briskly during lunch. Both Short Circuit and Glass Bubble sold rather well!
And then after lunch, there was the announcement of the winners of the inaugural short story competition, and a talk from the final judge, Adele Geras. She spoke hilariously about surviving 90 titles. NINETY!! She did explain that some were children’s picture books with about a page of text… But in among the hilarity there were some real gold nuggets of pragmatism – sensible advice for writers on how to survive, mentally and physically. And she remembered to plug Nicola Morgan’s blog, Help! I Need a Publisher - as well, handing out cards.
I was so pleased – Adele was one of the first people who read Glass Bubble and gave me a ‘review comment’. I was so thrilled. And I made sure I went up afterwards and said thanks properly. Lovely lovely to meet her - poor woman, she had to put up with a hug.
And the poet on the train. Actually, there are three! I travelled last night with two, one of whom has been published on Ink Sweat and Tears. They attended Tales of the Decon, and were helping me not to get lost, which I do rather well. And our nattering was overheard by a young guy who also writes poetry, and was on his way to a poetry/guitar gig in a caravan near … guess where… Potter’s Bar! So good company all round.
Phew.

TOM'S VOICE MAGAZINE - ISSUE 10!!

2010-02-16T05:46:00.000-08:00

This is the other side of what I do - my magazine. Tom's Voice is an ezine , a rather special one, as it is only there for writing from those whose lives have been touched by addiction, in any way.
I created this little mag when I was teaching writing on a voluntary basis at a drugs rehab, 2004-07. The guys produced some marvellous work - it wasn't 'perfect' in some senses, but my God, it meant so much more than the pretty and 'perfect' twaddle that goes by the name of 'literature' these days.
Anyway. Here's Issue 10!!! With the majority of its content from submissions from the USA - simply marvellous.

And, please take a close look at the pic above. That's my desk. Tom's Voice Issue 10 is on the screen - and in front, are some bookmarks sent to me from a contributor to this issue, Aimee Dearmon. Aimee hails from Illinois, and she and some colleagues have formed a writing group , inspired by Tom's Voice. The bookmarks are theirs - and they have asked permission to call the group Tom's Voice. Needless to say, I am delighted, and hooured. So - meet the Tom's Voice Writing Group. of whom I am very proud.
TOM's VOICE MAGAZINE ISSUE 10, with contributions form Aimee Dearmon (in pic), and others, including fellow Salt author Matthew Licht and poet Jo Waterworth. With huge thanks to Zoe King, who uploads it for this untechy person.

(Oh also on desk, with the new Toms Voice bookmarks - a card saying 'Blessed are the cracked for they let in the light' - sent by a good friend who knows me well, and two fossils found on Charmouth beach. And on the wall behind the curtain - my promo poster for Words from a Glass Bubble, beneath the poster for the Frank O'Connor Festival 2008)

100 STORIES FOR HAITI

2010-02-14T09:30:00.000-08:00

Righto – this has to be one of the best things, 100 STORIES FOR HAITI!!! Raising money for The Red Cross for its work in Haiti following the earthquake. Visit the website HERE - discover the entire list of writers!

1 unstoppable man with a vision – Greg McQueen
400+ writers who submitted their stories
100 writers whose work will raise dosh for the Red Cross
2 publishers
1 publisher for the print anthology – Bridge House Publishing
1 publisher for the e-book – Smashwords.com

Publication Date – 4th March.

The Anthology is now available for pre-order - I just ordered 4 - one for me, one for both sons, one spare...from the publishers, Bridge House – HERE
Take a look at their website – it’s a small concern, but there is some very good information on the website. Including four downloadable documents - advice on marketing your work - freely available to all writers, which is commercially switched on and generous of them. Thank you Bridge House!

• How to plan a book launch
• Press Release template
• Press Guide
• How to promote your work
and here's the cover!

VALENTINES DAY WITH LEMN SISSAY

2010-02-14T01:45:00.000-08:00

Not really! But Lemn Sissay has a wonderful poem on his website called ‘Invisible Kisses’, and ‘tis just great for today.
One of the verses goes like this:

If there was ever one
Who when you achieve
Was there before the dream
And even then believed;
Who would clear the air
When it's full of loss;
Who would count love
Before the cost.

You can read the whole poem HERE on his website.

(and I did get a huge bouquet of pink and white roses this morning, and a card that said I make my husband swoon… go figure.)

MORE SHORT CIRCUIT BLOG STOPS!!

2010-02-13T00:27:00.001-08:00

While I was away, there were two memorable stopovers for Short Circuit, on the text book’s blog tour which is drawing to a close this month. It has been a brilliant time with generous hosts, some very good searching questions.
In fact, so searching were some of the questions on one stop at Tom Conoboy's fascinating blog, that the discussion went on for three days… and turned into a tour de force interview/ discussion on short story craft, interspersed with eulogies for our old tutor who has not yet paid us(!).
The topics went something like this:
Time in the short story, resolution, the importance of reader-engagement with short fiction/reading for subtext, leaving room for the reader, plotting versus not plotting - Tom Conoboy Day 1
Appropriate language, the importance of character, opening a story, intuitve versus plotted writing, the issue of theme and the constraint of knowing what we are writing about - Tom Conoboy Day 2
Reconciling teaching craft with opening up creativity in students, the importance of a writer reading, reading, reading, my reading William Golding - Tom Conoboy Day 3

The importance of character’s names, using the senses in your writing, and the problem of procrastination – these were the focus at the stop with Nuala ni Choncuir, at her lovely blog Women Rule Writer.

Thank you both!

Art's Council Support, National Lottery Funding

2010-02-12T06:08:00.001-08:00

Regular visitors might notice a new logo. I am so pleased - have been awarded a grant to polish the great oeuvre, and my novel in progress now has the official support of Arts Council England and funding from the National Lottery. I am hugely grateful to them, and am looking forward with not a little trepidation to the next stage in the writing process.

One of the conditions of this lovely development is that I have to let people know about this support, and the logos will now be firmly affixed to everything to do with the great oeuvre. Part of my proposal was that I would use this blog to set out the process of grant application, and talk at intervals about my own use of the grant. Seems a nice thing to do, really. After all, the crossed fingers of the National Lottery could just as well be the crossed fingers of 'Please make my work as good as it can be...'!
If you would like to find out about Grants for the Arts, or any other aspect of the work of Arts Council England, please click on the logo over there.
And if you have any questions about the rather complicated application process I've just been through - do ask. I'll do my best to answer.

USING THE SENSES IN YOUR FICTION

2010-02-10T23:50:00.000-08:00

You know, when you are reading, that moment when the writer comes crashing through into the room, sits beside you on the settee and takes over? That moment when the writing suddenly becomes 'about the writer' and not about the story/novel?

Those moments, those self-indulgent moments, come most frequently I've noticed, in descriptive passages. Where the writer loses the plot, almost literally, and disappears up their own pen (!) in flights of fancy, almost listing the senses in an attempt to create something 'real'. And the effect is the opposite. To kill reality.

We are told on courses, 'Use the senses' - but that does not mean list them as if you are ticking them off on your fingers as you write!!
While I was away, there were two super stops on the Short Circuit tour - both of which I will flag later - but one, at Women Rule Writer, with the great Nuala ni Chonchuir, picked up on this - on using the senses. See here.
But this is great. Here is an article written by Bernadine Evaristo. Published in Mslexia, it is a marvellous look at using the senses in fiction. Complete with this great saying,

""Writing fiction is not an academic exercise but an imaginative one. Knowing all the literary terms and jargon is sometimes useful and might impress others, but it won’t make you a great writer. Understanding craft, however, whether it’s instinctive or learned, is another matter altogether."

And, from Nuala's blog, her question and my reply...

One of my favourite essays in the book is by Paul Magrs; I love the amount of solid advice he packs into his piece while maintaining a very down-to-earth approach. I think his advice might work best for experienced writers – novices may be scared by statements such as: ‘How come it’s only paragraph one and you are already up your own arse?’ (!)
A salient point he makes is, ‘Don’t forget to appeal to all our senses.’ (Using colour, food, sex etc. in stories.) What are your own feelings on the importance of including all things sensual in the short story?

Guardedly, V replies, it is important, obviously, to allow our reader to experience the world you create for them. But. How many pieces have I read where the senses have been a bit shoehorned in, almost as though the writer was ticking them off on their fingers as they wrote.

'The smell of the sea rose through the open window together with the raucous cries of seagulls tussling over some scraps on the pavement outside the café. The coffee this morning tasted so bitter. But it always smelled so good first – it was unfair. But then life was unfair. Hugo picked at a loose thread on his jacket sleeve – the rough tweed, browns and golds if you got close enough to it, felt rough under his fingers, like that old jacket of his father’s that used to small of tobacco and mint – his father always had Polos hidden in the pockets for the ponies…'

Blah blah blah…

blah blah blah...

see what I mean??!

Here's the link to the MSLEXIA article again - in case...
and HERE is Bernadine Evaristo's website.

IRELAND DIARY - 25 Jan to 10 Feb

2010-02-10T10:16:00.000-08:00

all roads lead to here!

The Road to Beara...25 Jan

What a wonderful experience, being ‘me’ for a whole two weeks. Right down to the fact that ‘me’ can’t count so ‘me’ booked for two weeks plus one day extra, plus two more days to travel. This was my Christmas present from the family- a chance to get away from things, to finish the first draft of the novel.
I stayed at Anam Cara Writers’ and Artist’s Retreat, spoken about many times here – in what has become my favourite room. And here is the view one morning, from my window...
There is a view over fields to Coulagh Bay, a huge double bed, a desk that never got used…because one of the things I discovered about my creative processes is that I need warmth. Physical warmth, to lull me almost to sleep. So – what better than to curl up with a hot water bottle…so please meet my extremely grown-up sexy bedmate. The Penguin.Here he is helping to edit something...

Yup. I worked for the whole two weeks, from 9.30 to 5.30 with a break for lunch, curled up here. Not sitting upright at a desk. And after supper, I worked again, in front of a roaring log fire, curled up with a glass of red wine or two, visited by Jack the Dog (the best editor in the business). Here is Jack the Dog, and the fire. Most nights I fell into bed by midnight. On a few nights I worked into the early hours.

What did I achieve? Lots! I’m not going speak about what I’ve done, but I had a great time, creatively. Some of it was very hard. Had to take some tough decisions. And other stuff was simply wonderful. I had a few of those magical moments where your plans go out of the window and the story veers off on its own. How I would KILL for more of those.
One thing I can talk about is the time when nearing the end, a very peripheral character from way back suddenly reappeared and took on what turned out to be a pivotal role throughout the book, necessitating a lot of rewriting and smoothing.

And I did it! Here it is, complete with Roget’s Thesaurus and a candle lit by Sue to celebrate, finished on Monday evening.First draft - done! Feb 8th

True to form, I decided immediately that one bit was wrong – so I got in the car and spent a few hours on Tuesday writing a replacement scene, in the right place for the character who was talking. Here. The man-engine building, Mountain Mine, Allihies.

I was alone at the retreat for most of the time, looked after splendidly by Sue Booth Forbes, without whom I would have now gone quite cuckoo – she is such a level-headed lady with more years of experience with this crazy writing world than I can count.
Then had a few days in the company (between scribbling) of Cauvery Madhavan, who is writing her third novel. See link below. She is writer of Paddy Indian and The Uncoupling – the latter published by both Black Amber and Penguin’s India wing. She took a pic of me putting a copy of Short Circuit on the ‘alumni shelves’ – the place where books written by Anam Cara residents are enshrined. Adding to the Anam Cara alumni shelves...Look closely and you will see Tangled Roots by Sue Guiney. The White Road and other Stories by Tania Hershman. Several books by Alex Barclay, and Cauvery’s novel The Uncoupling.

Some NICE THINGS happened in the world of writing – including an acceptance for the 100 Stories for Haiti Anthology which I plugged before going away. It is smashing to have work here with so many writers I know - Martin Reed, Jac Cattaneo, Joel Willans, Claudia Boers, Julia Bohanna, Nuala Ni Chonchuir, Tania Hershman, Sylvia Petter, Teresa Stenson, Alison Dunne, Lauri Kubuitsile - but a special mention and ‘wowee’ noise has to go to the wonderful Mr Willesden Herald himself, Steve Moran. Greg McQueen, the power behind the anthology, will be visiting this blog in the near future to talk about it. There will be lots more on that wonderful book later.

Martin Reed runs Tales of the Decongested, in London. A spoken word event – and on 19th Feb, several of the Haiti writers are reading their Haiti stories there to plug the book. Link below.
Another nice thing is a lovely invitation to give the annual lecture to the students and staff in Creative Writing at the CCE , University of Sussex, in May. And another to take part in Short Fuse during Brighton Festival. Both accepted with great pleasure.
I am waiting for the registered mail packet which will arrive tomorrow- the shortlisted stories for The New Writer short story competition. Looking forward to a read of someone else's work!!

Life carried on of course, while I was away, and I wouldn’t have been able to go without a rather wonderful husband, who took care of my Dad every day. AND took care of the cat, who developed a kidney infection before I went. Did you know you CAN take urine samples from a cat??? Yikes.
Toby took two A level exams. Fingers crossed. Plans were finalised for some orrible building work on the house, starting late Feb - which will hopefully end up as a nice new kitchen. With sexy black worktops. Grrrr.

Some links:
Anam Cara workshops scheduled for 2010.
Tales of the Decongested at The Wheatsheaf, Rathbone Place
Cauvery Madhavan – an interview on the BBC.

Finally, a pic for inspiration, maybe?? Now how did a lady's undergarment come to be hanging deliciously between a gorse bush and a gatepost...??!

A FEW WORDS FROM MY SPONSOR

2010-01-24T10:55:00.000-08:00

Did anyone see The Sacred Made Real at the National Gallery? It closed today, sadly, so if you missed it you’ll have to travel to Spain instead (what a chore!) and visit the many different churches, monasteries and cathedrals that loaned their works of art for this extraordinary and deeply moving exhibition of polychrome statues and paintings.
St Francis of Assisi featured several times, as statue and portrait. I’d forgotten the words so often attributed to him – aren’t they wonderful? Happy writing, and be kind to each other until St Ryan of Air brings me home to my study.

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change
the courage to change those that I can
and the wisdom to know the difference.

URGENT CALL FOR SUBS - FLASH ANTHOLGY FOR HAITI

2010-01-23T14:52:00.000-08:00

Some great guys are pulling an anthology together as fast as they can, 100 Stories for Haiti will be an e-book, and all profits to help the Red Cross in Haiti.

Get your flashes out, dust em off, polish and send, fast.

I am reliably informed that previously published work is fine - so long as you hold the rights.

100 Stories for Haiti
We want short story submissions to help raise money for disaster-stricken Haiti. Out of the submissions, 100 pieces of fiction will be chosen to appear in an e-book, the proceeds of which will go to the Red Cross.
If you want to send a short story, please follow these guidelines:
• Do not exceed 1,000 words.
• No stories containing graphic violence, death or destruction.
• Send all stories in the body text of an email to 100storiesforhaitiATgmail.com. Stories sent as attachments will not be opened.
Stories must be received by Monday 25 January, 2010.
Nick Harkaway, author of ‘The Gone Away World’, will be editing a story for the book as well as penning the introduction.
The book will be sold on SMASHWORDS, whose founder and CEO Mark Coker will be waiving the normal 15% commission.
100 Stories for Haiti will be published in mid-February, 2010.

More information HERE on I Really Should be Writing...and HERE on the e-book's very own website - fresh off the press. As it were.
Greg McQueen is one of the guys behind this project, backed by Mark Coker, CEO of e-book publisher Smashwords (see above for link).Here's Greg, talking about the project on YouTube

A great initiative, please spread the word, FAST!!

GORN

2010-01-22T15:53:00.000-08:00

I am gorn.
Or will be soon
I am not saying where,
I wish to be alone.
However, I will give a clue.
Or two.

GLIMMERTRAIN DEADLINE LOOMS - AND OTHER FACTS

2010-01-22T05:43:00.000-08:00

Glimmertrain is one of those I’ve never cracked – never so much as made their longest of longlists. Their latest Very Short Fiction Award closes for entries on 31 Jan – details are below.
They have a useful record of subs, via their website. I just checked to see what I sent them over the years, and I’m cringing! All those pieces I sent off (paid) when they were freshly written, when I thought they were simply great, in that first flush of creative bliss. No Nessie, they weren’t. You hadn’t added TIME into the mix. Looking at the titles now, I’m blushing - how embarrassing!
But - I also tried them with Words from a Glass Bubble, for a comp seeking stories about family. It got nowhere, but was later picked by Michael Collins for 2nd place at Fish, and it also got a finalist place at Willesden, picked by Zadie Smith.
I hadn’t even read Glimmertrain when I tried to find success there! Daft person. That was a few years back, I hasten to add. I now have, and even the look of the work on the page is nothing like mine. The style they seem to like is nothing like mine, the look on the page, even – the issues I read seemed to favour third person, dense prose, heavy on exposition.
Two morals of the story – read your target mag. Even if work is ‘good’, it won’t be successful everywhere – this thing is not a science. But do always send out your very best, remembering this - it is highly unlikely that your very best is the one you just wrote.
Here's the details.

VERY SHORT FICTION AWARD
Deadline: January 31
Prizes:
• 1st place wins $1,200, publication in Glimmer Train Stories, and 10 copies.
• 2nd-place: $500 and possible publication.
• 3rd-place: $300 and possible publication.
Results post on March 31. Winning story will be published in Issue 79.
Other considerations:
• Open to all writers.
• Length not to exceed 3,000 words. Any shorter lengths are welcome.
• Reading fee is $15 per story.
Glimmer Train Stories, represented in recent editions of the Pushcart Prize,
O. Henry, New Stories from the South, New Stories from the Midwest, and Best American Short Stories anthologies.

FULL DETAILS AND ENTRY ON GLIMMERTRAIN WEBSITE HERE

SHORT CIRCUIT - A PERSONAL RESPONSE

2010-01-21T03:59:00.001-08:00

Today, Short Circuit visits the lovely Sue Guiney, on her BLOG, HERE. I am just delighted to see what she says - the book has rattled her, creatively, in the nicest way possible. Thats simply great - its not a how-to book in the traditional sense. It is intended to challenge, to inspire, to get you thinking, arguing. Creating.
Thank you to Sue for a lovely article.
Sales on Amazon have been Ok today. A few sales have pushed Short Circuit to no 17 in the Books about Writing Skills category on Amazon UK. Higher than The Oxford Style Manual. Yippee. Thanks Suee!!

THE NEW WRITER -POWERFUL STUFF

2010-01-21T03:39:00.001-08:00

Let's celebrate Issue no.100 of THE NEW WRITER MAGAZINE!
An amazing achievement, and in the end,it is successful thanks to the quality of their advice, their stories, their poems. It just seems to get on with things, quietly, doing what it says on the tin very well, and has been a great resource for thousands of writers over the years. And, lovely people- this special issue contains a write-up of Short Circuit!
I'm delighted to be judging their current competition - the short story section. I will be getting a large parcel delivered mid-February - with mases of super stories selected for the shortlist by TNY's team of readers. I know it will be a very hard job selecting the winning few, but as usual, I will do my very best.
If you are looking for a magazine to subscribe to, that will give you a whole range of quality articles, recommendations, interviews with successful writers, alongside thought- provoking fiction and poetry, listings of current competitions, and masses of other must-have stuff for writers, HERE IS THEIR WEBSITE - Subscription details are there.
This is from that website:

The New Writer is a forward-looking magazine with a range of contributors, expert in their subjects. Whether you've just started to write or you're a more experienced writer wanting to explore new ideas and techniques, the practical and entertaining contents of the magazine equals essential reading. Can you afford to be without it? The team at The New Writer are committed to working with their readers to increase the chances of publication. That's why masses of useful information and plenty of feedback is provided. More than that, we let you know about the current state of the market and bring you the best contemporary short stories, cutting-edge poems, backed up by searching articles and in-depth features in every issue.

A powerful magazine, in the best way possible.
*
I was called a frighteningly powerful woman this week, and I hadn't laughed so much for ages. Made me think of an old advert for bath cleaning powder...
Seriously, peeps, no-one is less powerful than me. But I can be frightening - ask my sons...!

Carry on Camping – with Trusted Readers

2010-01-20T14:59:00.000-08:00

What is a trusted reader? It is someone you give your manuscript to, for close reading and comment – whatever it be. Short story, novel, novella, single poem, flash, poetry collection, flash collection - the list goes on.
There are no doubt many definitions, and timings – but for me, the peer critique process is one thing, useful when the work is in the process of revision, and the trusted reader is one of the final stops on the manuscript’s journey away from you. As you are letting it go – it is, if you like, that stage when you check your offspring is correctly kitted out for the long road ahead.
Have you packed the right clothes for all weathers, the right food, the right safety equipment, phone, the means to get cash, passport plus copies. Maps. Oh, and if you were my late Mum – a vest. (Vests had to go everywhere!)
Your trusted reader is metaphorically speaking, checking through the rucksack, making sure everything is as right as it can be made.

You wouldn’t entrust your offspring’s wellbeing to just anyone. You would not just stop the car, grab a passer-by and say, “go through this there’s a dear – will my child have the best chance possible?”

So. Having established that you need someone you can trust with your baby’s wellbeing, who might that be, if we are going down the analogy started above? (I’ve started, so I’ll finish…). Good friend of the family. Older sibling. Or even better, a godparent or the equivalent. Someone who cares that everything is as OK as it can be, and who may help you to repack if all is a bit chaotic in that rucksack. Who might even suggest a different tent, because the one you’ve put in has a hole in it.

Seriously, camping aside. You must choose your final reader with great care, and I suggest you consider the following:
Someone who knows you and knows your work.
Someone who is prepared to be honest with you, and who you listen to.
Someone who is an experienced reader in the genre you are working in, who knows what works and what doesn’t.
Someone you can trust.

Now we’ll get controversial. Should the trusted reader be someone you have worked closely with, in a writing group? The final decision on that has to be yours, but I would ask you to consider one thing. Is there a chance that the person you are considering might be jealous in any way of you?
Are you considering someone you have not met face to face? Perhaps someone you’ve worked with online? Again, controversially perhaps in this age of emails, forums, facebook, twitter and messaging of all types… if you are asking my advice, I’d say this. If you have not met them face to face, and felt completely at ease, think again. NOT that one then!
Even then, you can get it wrong. But knowing your trusted reader is important. Knowing that they have your interests at heart and would do nothing to harm you or your work, is important. Knowing that they would not hold back if they feel something is not right, is important. And knowing that when you are successful and your manuscript is picked up by a good publisher – they will raise a glass with you and mean it, is important too. Just as you will celebrate with them when their time is right.
On the other hand, there are superb professional consultancies around who will do the job for you. I would love to hear from anyone who has used one of these, and find out what the experience was like?
This wasn’t as easy to write as I thought. It just goes to show what a difficult thing it is to find a good trusted reader, and I hope it doesn’t mean that lots of writers just ask the person next to them on the bus…feel free to start debate, ask questions…

FANTASTIC RESOURCES FOR SHORT STORY WRITERS BOTH NEWBIE AND WRINKLIE!

2010-01-19T05:42:00.001-08:00

First, the most fabulous list of UK lit mags that accept short stories and flash fiction, together with links to their websites, information about print/web, and whether they pay (!) IS HERE on Tania Hershman’s blog. Get thee over there, and find a home for your work, fast. I have to say, I didn’t know we had so many lit mags on this side of the pond. Amazing! Thank you very much to Tania for doing the donkey-work, and for her generosity.

And, for those writers who are seeking a bit of tuition – Boot Camp, run by writer/teacher Alex Keegan, is re-launching. It is not called Boot camp for nothing. Boot Camp is an online writing group where you WILL learn to write well, where you WILL have to work hard, not sit on the sidelines and soak it up courtesy of others, where the leader is a multiple top level prizewinner and a writing teacher.
You WILL also have to pay. You take your choice, really – you can have the same tuition that started me off, taught me how to work. Or you can stay somewhere cosier, where you don’t pay, and are told you are marvellous by those who are not marvellous themselves.
This, from Alex:

Boot Camp is about work-ethic, producing work regularly
and meeting deadlines; critiquing author-anonymous stories with
ruthless honesty to a set scheme (using the Boot Camp Grid),
DISCUSSING critiques and NOT "agreeing to differ".
We discuss craft, have flash/story prompts every day, expect a story
per fortnight (as the absolute minimum).
Members keep a daily log of new words written, cumulative totals etc
and are strongly encouraged to set goals, meet them and exceed them.

RE-LAUNCH OFFER - Sign up in January, paying for February and get your January days free.
Interested writers should contact Alex on either of these addresses:
alex.keegan AT btinternet.com
Snowball136 AT googlemail.com
or on facebook, AlexBootCampKeegan

ROSES AND THORNS, LITERARY DINNERS, TRUSTED READERS, ART

2010-01-17T07:33:00.000-08:00

One of the first stories I ever wrote (sometime in 2003) is published on Rose and Thorn. ‘The Comeback’ is about Philip, a young artist, adopted at birth, who discovers his mother is a well-known actress. And she is coming to town, to star in a play intended to be her comeback…
Cue poignant story written by an adopted adult who was exploring her own feelings at the time. It was runner up in Good Housekeeping Magazine’s short story comp, 2003/4 judged by Alexander McCall Smith, winning me £100! Things could only go downhill, really! I thought this fiction game was a doddle – little did I know. You can read The Comeback HERE.
It is interesting, looking at this one now - can see how much I have changed as a writer. I almost don’t recognise the style, in parts. But it is lovely to have it published now. And lovely to see Anne Brooke in the same issue with a great piece.

Last night I was the guest writer at Sussex House Party, hosted by the indomitable Gilly Smith. Almost all the diners were experienced writers, mainly non-fiction. Piccie shows a writer (right) who has just landed a marvellous agent for her book, based on a fictious blog, but very based on fact. And a very successful writer, left, who has many many text books out there – and who is now writing her memoir. We nattered a lot about their work, and did some ‘intercourse’ character exercises, drank delicious wines, ate gorgeous locally-sourced food. Much interesting natter about the advisability or otherwise of making real people recogniseable in your factual work.
The third writer in the pic is Michael Gould, whose daughter Tara runs the Short Fuse spoken word event in Brighton. He held us spellbound with his memories of Mr West from Stamford Hill – a Burmese gentleman who told fortunes. Michael has self-published a novel entitled Filfy O’Durr (it’s from a dog’s perspective, ha!). I said I’d give it a plug:

And I am honoured that a writing colleague has asked me to be her ‘trusted reader’ - reading her final novel draft carefully before it is sent to the agent, feeding back any glitches. She sent a covering note with the manuscript – saying thank you – but also, saying how exposed she felt now that her work has been given to someone else to read for the first time. I understand completely, sadly. At some point I will put together a post about the dos and don’ts of selecting your trusted reader, based on my own experiences, both great and ghastly.

Lastly - final confirmation that The Return of the Baker Edwin Tregear, the story that won a prize in Fish this year, is to be included in an anthology called Art from Art, by Modernist Press, a boutique publisher from LA and New York. I recognise some of the names here, among them Elizabeth Graver whose story 'The Mourning Door' is stunningly good, if you can find it (Ploughshares), and Pedro Ponce, who was successful in The Calvino Prize last time round (I bombed this year!). Other names picked at random include John Morgan Wilson ,Anne Whitehouse,
Felice Picano, and Steve Rasnic Tem .

SHORT CIRCUIT BLOG TOUR - VISITS BOTSWANA!

2010-01-15T01:29:00.001-08:00

First a drink for the host, cos it's her BIRTHDAY!!! Happy Birthday to Lauri Kubuitsile - and many more of them.
Today, Short Circuit makes the journey all the way to Botswana, where it and I stay a while chez writer Lauri, on her blog Thoughts from Botswana.
Lauri asked me some terrific questions – here is one example, and one reply:

TFB: At the beginning and the end of the book you include this quote from Faulkner-
“Let the writer take up surgery or bricklaying if he is interested in technique. There is no mechanical way to get the writing done, no shortcut. The young writer would be a fool to follow a theory. Teach yourself by your own mistakes; people learn only by error. But when it comes right, it is the best feeling in the world.”
Why is this so important to you? Doesn’t this run head-on into the idea of writing a textbook on short story writing?
VANESSA: Exactly. It sure does. I think there has to be an element of total bewilderment allied to times of confidence/stubbornness if you are going to be a good writer. The swing between confidence and self-doubt sets up a dynamic that drives you onwards. Without the self-doubt we’d never bother to try to get better. Without the confidence in ourselves and our work we’d never have the faith to send work out.
Short Circuit is not a didactic ‘do this or else’ sort of book! The whole idea is to get away from the type of book that says ‘do this and you will become a writer fast’ and gives the budding craftsman/woman the impression that if they follow that ‘law’, they will cut a corner and become a great writer uber-quick. There is no substitute for writing and writing and writing, and reading and reading – and it takes a long time to get it right. I agree with the ‘teach yourself by your own mistakes’ quote.
But having a team of great writers and teachers all sharing tips and thoughts with you can only help on the journey – save a few of the pitfalls, sharpen your act, keep you on the straight and narrow, save you making fundamentally silly errors.

To read the rest, get thee over to Botswana, via Thoughts from Botswana, HERE and remember to leave a message to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Lauri before you leave.

CLARE BEST'S POETRY LAUNCH

2010-01-13T14:01:00.000-08:00

Back in December 2008 I listened to local poet Clare Best reading her work at the Needlewriters quarterly spoken word event in Lewes. I was moved, and w rote somewhat emotionally about her work, HERE on the blog. her bio back then mentioned a residency she had done, on an organic farm called Woodlands, in Lincolnshire.

Woodlands Farm is a 690 hectare mixed organic farm on the fertile Lincolnshire fens in an area known as South Holland. Situated five miles south-east of Boston the farm consists of level silt fields which were reclaimed from the sea by the monks of Crowland Abbey some nine hundred years ago. This is a landscape of wide-open skies and colossal skies – 'all sky and geometry' the poet John Clare once said.

How marvellous - a poem in your organic veg box each week!
Tonight was the launch of that collection of poems, published by Happenstance in a beautiful chapbook - Treasure Ground. A great evening - in the company of other poets - Judith Kazantzis, who I worked aith for a while. Catherine Smith, whose wonderful chapter on Myth and the Imagination in the short story graces Short Circuit. And Janet Sutherland, whose collection Hangman's Acre I am still marvelling over.
***
And another publication for me today, three more strange and tiny flashes from the forthcoming collection - Fruit Fly, Cuttlefish and Lacewing - can now be found on a terrific placemat distributed to cafes bistros and coffee shops in a few states in the USA! Loquacious Placemat can be found HERE.

BITS AND BOBS - ONE WORLD UPDATE, A PARTY, A NEW BOOK IN THE PIPELINE

2010-01-11T13:52:00.001-08:00

First, the great news that the One World Anthology, launched last year at Oxford Lit fest, has sold over 4000 copies and is into its second print run. It has been taken up by several university courses in the USA, one of which has requested that the contributors put together a short commentary on the use of cyberspace to bring a book together. So we’re all answering the same questions for the students.
Second, am off to the South Bank centre next week thanks to a fabulous and very exciting invitation from poet Lemn Sissay, and to see a screening of his film “Internal Flight” (BBC) and extend oodles of congrats to Lemn for his honour in the New Years List, an MBE for Services to Literature. 100% inspirational stuff – moral of the story: ‘do not write off kids who are given away.’ We are a bunch to be reckoned with. More on this after Monday’s ‘do’. More on Lemn Sissay HERE.
Third, the manuscript for book no 3 is done and sent to the publisher. Ed’s Wife and Other Creatures, now scheduled for a June publication date (to coordinate with other flash titles coming out from Salt – David Gaffney’s among them!) will be a collection of flashes and micros.
It will include this flash, just published on the wonderful Night Train, and also read at Sparks in Brighton last year.

SALT PUBLISHING - SCOTT PRIZE SHORTLIST

2010-01-08T14:43:00.001-08:00

This from Salt's blog:

The shortlist is announced of the inaugural Scott Prize for Short Fiction, an important new venture for Salt as we continue to discover and nurture new talent from around the English-speaking world. The prize forms part of Salt’s commitment to the short story, to debut collections and to our vision of new literature in English as an international endeavour.
From almost a hundred entries and a longlist of 25, 12 full-length collections have been selected and from these, 4 winning titles will be announced next month for publication in the summer. The standard of entries was incredibly high, with authors spanning the spectrum of writing styles and a fascinating range of subject matter. Reading them was a daunting but most enjoyable task; whittling them down to a shortlist almost impossible. However, we are delighted with the outcome, as follows:

1. Ben Cheetham: The Hate Club (UK)
2. Alexandra Fox: Roundabouts (UK)
3. Miriam Hastings: Demon Lovers (UK)
4. Patrick Holland: The Source of Sound (Australia)
5. Sandra Jensen: A Sort of Walking Miracle (Ireland)
6. Laurence Klavan: Family Unit and Other Fantasies (US)
7. Wes Lee: This Animal Kingdom and Other Stories (NZ)
8. Mary McClusky: Gift to the Dark Gods (UK)
9. David Philip Mullins: Longing to Love You (US)
10. Susannah Rickards: Hot Kitchen Snow and Other Stories (UK)
11. Tom Vowler: They May Not Mean To But They Do (UK)
12. Joel Willans: Buy Ma Biscuits or Kiss Ma Fish (UK)

Many congratulations to you all and best of luck as you go through to the next round.

Particular congrats to writers I've worked with at one time or another - Joel Willans, Tom Vowler (blog linked on right somewhere), Susannah Rickards and Ben Cheetham from the old Fiction Workhouse - and Alexandra Fox from my days at Boot Camp.

SHORT CIRCUIT VISITS THE SHORT REVIEW!

2010-01-07T15:32:00.000-08:00

The next stop on my bloggy tour is with The Short Review blog. And there is the chance to WIN a copy of Short Circuit, thanks to both Short Review and Salt Publishing for that! Editor Tania Hershman has a great essay in the book - actually, an essay that had one writer (an editor as well) messaging me this week to say it had completely changed her view of flash fiction, and above all, the flash writing process.
Tania asked me a very good question - would readers, as opposed to writers, find Short Circuit an interesting book? Would it make them read more short stories??? Get thee over there to find out what I said.

And visit The Short Review too! I reviewed a book called The Town of Fiction, by The Atlantis Collective. Review HEREAnd there are some terrific collections up this month - so much to read, so little time!

Reviewing this time was hard... I was very aware that I had a self-published book from a writing group in my hands. And in case any of the writers therein are reading this, take comfort from the fact that reviews are necessarily subjective, to some extent. And go read the review of Tales of the Decongested II - a terrific anthology which contains one of my fave flashes, one that takes the record for 'please read that one' requests. So I turn to it for a nice warm glow, to see nothing mentioned... except:

I loved some of the stories, and disliked others. Reading this collection is like a raffle where everyone wins something – it just depends on your literary taste. You could walk home with a gruesome troll figurine or with a real nugget of gold – and this totally depends on which page you open the book

See? That's me - the gruesome troll figurine! Ha!
My particular gruesome troll can be read, in part online, HERE... you'll have to imagine where the italics went!

MELENDEZ by MINNIEBEANISTE

2010-01-05T11:35:00.001-08:00

Luis Melendez self portrait (1746-7), Louvre (Paris)
Get thee over to the marvellous world of Minniebeaniste's blog, to read the most wonderful post about an artist I had never heard of. And soak up the words - not just about him, wonderful as he is - but words about how looking at things can open your eyes to seemingly unattached issues...invaluable for a writer.
thanks Min!

SHORT CIRCUIT BLOG TOUR ...GOES NUTS!

2010-01-04T11:51:00.001-08:00

In a desperate bid to save the nuts of the writing world, (especially mine...) Sara Crowley features Short Circuit on her blog A Salted today. HERE
Nuts? What IS she talking about? Well. you'll just have to read the interview! Thanks Sara, for some terrific questions!

2 PRINT PUBLICATIONS, 1 acceptance at NIGHT TRAIN

2010-01-02T11:34:00.000-08:00

A couple of great print publications for December and an acceptance from one of my favourite online literary journals. Something that never went away Edited by Perlita Harris with Chris Waterman, ISBN 978-0-9509901-9-4 Reflections on adoption. Published by AAA-NORCAP.
I have three pieces in here. One short story written in 2004, never published before. One excerpt from Cactus Man, which was solicited by the editors - lovely! And a flash. From the website:

Contributors tell it like it is in poetry artwork and prose. This highly original anthology brings together established writers, emerging writers and those who have never been published before, plus contributions from a range of celebrities including Kriss Akabusi, Jo Brand, Tracey Emin, David Gower, Lenny Henry, Richard Rogers, Alan Sillitoe, Clare Short, Meera Syal, Joanna Trollope, Gok Wan and Benjamin Zephaniah.
A number of established writers who are adopted or have been in care can also be found here. They include Nicole J Burton, Vanessa Gebbie, Valerie Mason-John, Zara H Phillips, Jacqueline Walker and Alex Wheatle. The artwork on the front cover is by birth mother, Lynne Byron, and inspired by her experience of relinquishing her baby to adoption.

I have a story in ORBIS 149 – and am delighted to share the publication with two poems by Kate Dempsey, who blogs at Emerging Writer HERE and who was kind enough to host me on my Short Circuit ramble ..sorry, blog tour, in December.
And a flash, “Stitches” accepted by Rusty Barnes at his great lit ezine, Night Train, for their Firebox Fiction slot. This was written at the writing retreat at the chapel in Wales this July and am soo pleased its now having a second airing.

ROUND UP OF THE DECADE!!

2009-12-31T04:16:00.001-08:00

Ten years ago we saw in the new millennium on a boat on the Thames, with the whole gang – friends and family. Moored directly beneath the Houses of Parliament, our little boat appeared on the front page of The Daily Mail the next morning, along with a few others! I’ll never forget the fireworks. The blackened faces of the men on the barges setting them off – looking like something from a Dickens film. The noise! How we couldn’t even hear Big Ben, towering over our heads, for the yells and screams of the crowd. And good old human nature – the snipes about the ‘river of fire’ the next day. How ‘poor’ it had been. Well I was IN it and it looked fairly spectacular to me.
I wasn’t even thinking about writing back then. I would have to wait another four years before I started writing, after reading W G Sebald’s Austerlitz. His obit is HERE, together with a great account of his ethos as a writer. That is what I was responding to... That was like a thunderbolt – I could do this. Here was a writer talking directly to me – telling me this was exciting, the ‘rules’ could be broken, and that a story could hold the reader suspended out of their world for while, if it was good enough. I wanted to do that. I could do that.
An aborted course at University led to me working online with another maverick for eighteen months, on and off. On and off because this was the hardest thing I had done, ever. I didn’t realise quite how hard. If there is one thing I have learned in this game it is that you have to work at writing if you want it to be any good, and that ‘good’ does not necessarily equate with publications and money. If it does then you have also been lucky.
I have had a little of that luck, and found myself in the right place at the right time now and again. It’s unnecessary to list the achievements as they are sitting there, my two books, soon to be joined by a third thanks to the marvellous Salt Publishing. Now I am teaching this thing I love, at workshops, lit fests, schools, now at university level. And the best bit? I am still learning myself, still finding it frustrating, annoying, marvellous.
I have learned a bit too about the world of writing. How most writers I’ve met are wonderful, interesting, fun, passionnate and generous both with their knowledge and their engagement with the work of others. I’ve learned that sometimes, generosity is not obvious and reveals itself a lot later. And that sometimes, people don a generosity outfit, but it’s cheaper than the genuine article, and after a while, the seams always give way.
High spots on the journey have to begin with the first publication. That first acceptance is such a milestone for any writer and mine will never be forgotten. David and Zoe King accepted a story called ‘Stinker and the Taff Vale Railroaders’ for his online magazine, Buzzwords. And here it is in Buzzwords archive, originally published there in May 2004, I think!
And allied to that, the generosity of the tutor (Alex Keegan) who worked with me for hours and hours on that story, for absolutely nothing - to show me how to deepen the story thematically, as well as how to sharpen it craftwise, turning Stinker into Spike, the main character in ‘Cactus Man’ (now anthologised three times). I will not forget that, either. Nor will I forget the numbers of other writers who write him off as a poor teacher, just because he bruised their egos. Mine too – and a lot else. But he taught me to write well. More than that, he made me see that you never ‘get there’ and if you think you have, you’re absolutely finished - I am eternally grateful.
The numbers of lovely writers I’ve met and who I am privileged to call my friends are too many to list. But I will mention Tania Hershman whose writing I have loved ever since I read a flash called Plaits back in 2006. I will also mention Julia Bohanna, who, without knowing it, has taught me one helluva lot and I am privileged to know her. And Andrew G Marshall, whose steadiness, support and friendship I value greatly. (Check out his forthcoming book.)
I have also come across a few writers who seemed great, but who eventually and sadly, showed their colours. One colleague stole work and was later found to have stolen from other friends. That episode underlined how very important it is to be careful with whom you work. Ten years ago, I couldn’t use a computer, let alone the Internet – now I know it is an amazing thing, a wonderful resource, enabling positive fast communication. But it is also an enabler for less pleasant habits.

Back to nicer ground! Ten years ago I did not know I had four full blood sisters. I now do, and have met three, and the fourth is pending. Exciting. See HERE for more. Finding out who your birth family is at my age is amazing. For a writer to be given this gift is mind-blowing. Not that it will get written, directly. But everything feeds you.

***

On the boat on the Thames ten years ago, was my eldest son, then aged 21 and his girlfriend. They are now married, he has his own business, and is doing fine. My youngest son was 7 years old. He is now getting offers from Universities to study marketing and business. My father was 84. He is still living in his own house. My husband was working, and planning to carry on for years and years – the best laid plans - he retired in late 2008, and we’ve lost a lot of his pension in this recession. We are a LOT poorer than we were ten years ago, than we have ever been.

But hey! I’m still going, busier than ever and working at doing something I love. A year ago, said husband and I went on the best holiday we’ve had. Booked and paid for before he retired – it now seems totally mad – but we went to Antarctica via New Year in Buenos Aires and visited the Falklands, South Georgia, and bits of Argentina and Chile– a dream we’d both had ever since we married, 33 years ago.

I saw calving glaciers and endless icebergs, whales swam round the ship and we walked in colonies of penguins that stretched as far as the eye could see. The world is beautiful.

What a way to go, eh!

The best book I’ve read in the last decade? Aaaagh. There are so many. But W G Sebald’s Austerlitz has to be the very best, for many reasons. And I’ve recently discovered William Golding again. Lord of the Flies is fine… but Pincher Martin and The Inheritors have to beat it hollow.

Here’s to the next decade. I wish you health and happiness and if you are a writer, I wish you staying power if not wealth. I like to be realistic. Cheers!

SUSSEX HOUSE PARTY – THE ART OF THE SHORT STORY

2009-12-30T08:42:00.000-08:00

Fabulous invitation! To eat, drink and talk about writing at the Sussex House Party, on January 16th. How fantastic is that?
The Sussex House Parties are the brainchildren of Gilly Smith, whose creative energy and entrepreneurial spirit equals three barns full of ordinary creative spirits.
Check out Gilly’s website HERE and be prepared to be both amazed and exhausted. Gilly has some fourteen books out there, including biographies of Nigella Lawson and Jamie Oliver. Founder of the incredibly successful Juicy Guides to Brighton, without which no self-respecting shopper, eater, buyer of property, etc etc would be seen dead.

The Sussex House party is a dinner event for eight guests only, held at her wonderful home set in the Sussex countryside. The guests will all be writers looking for a refresher, ideas, a buzz, the company of other writers.
The formula is simple, and brilliant, as all winning formulas are – make the guests a great, home-cooked dinner, start with a champagne reception to warm the conversation muscles, make sure wine flows. And the secret ingredient – add a published writer into the mix who adores what they do, loves sharing, and isn’t averse to a glass or five of bubbly.
And the stage is set for a terrific evening.
Check out the websites for further information
– the Sussex House party dinners cost £50.00 a head – including said champers and wine, and food (naturally) and said writer. Metaphorically speaking.

Also, watch out for more news. There is a fabulous barn in the grounds, in the process of being converted into a writing retreat. With facilities tailor-made for writers looking for space and time to write alone in the most beautiful part of the South East. It will also be perfect for complete workshops for groups. I reckon this is one of the most exciting developments in the area.
Gilly is letting herself be inspired by proximity to Charleston Farmhouse - playground of the Bloomsbury set. This retreat will be anything but staid and boring - my guess is it will surround creative spirits with inspiration. Can't wait.
*
Stop Press: Virginia Nicholson, grand-niece of Virgina Woolf and granddaughter of Vanessa Bell, and author in her own right - of among others 'Singled Out' has confirmed for the February 26th Sussex House Party. Same deal - eight places only, £50.00 per head.

CREATING CONVINCING CHARACTERS

2009-12-28T12:18:00.000-08:00

Well, there I was, trawling for online articles on characterisation – specifically, the importance of drawing your reader into a ‘relationship’ with your characters – ie, making the reader believe in them, believe they are ‘real’ for the duration. Not everyone has a copy of Short Circuit - shame...
Without the belief of the reader my friends, you may write a nice story, but without the compliance of that reader, you are telling the story to yourself. In sex, there’s a word for that… which best not use here, OK?
So – whether or not YOU believe in your character is irrelevant. Actually. What you need, if you are still learning, as most of us are, is an indication that other people, readers, also believe. If you ask for feedback - including submitting to an experienced editor – and they tell you they don’t believe your character is real, or they ‘would not do/think/act like that’…… especially if they are good writers, experienced readers, don’t simply brush off their opinions. It is possible you’ve failed. Have the humility to think for a moment or two, that they may just have a point? Or you are in danger of - er- telling your story to yourself. Oops.

I digress. I wanted to share this article with you, as it seemed good stuff. On Fiction Writing - Convincing Characterization by Sandi Payne.

Or this one...actually, masses of different articles!

Or, you can just buy a copy of Short Circuit, and see what a group of top prizewinning writers have to say about it. Buy from Salt Publishing at 20% off. Cheaper than Amazon!!
Next craft article: dialogue. As and when.

URINATING MEERCATS...

2009-12-27T03:49:00.000-08:00

The best Christmas present, from my daft son. Wobbling meercats, which, if positioned carefully behind low shrubs, look as though they are having a quick pee...blissful and gigglesome. What daft pressies did others get, I wonder - or were your gifts all veeeery sensible?
Oh if I had the cash, I'd make these into widdly fountains, all four of em.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

2009-12-24T06:38:00.000-08:00

New beginnings. Hope. Clean slates. Innocence. Health. Whatever you believe personally, I wish you good things. Happy Christmas.

A bit of sex at work...

2009-12-22T11:44:00.000-08:00

Or a least, a poem about sex at work...HERE

A FEW CHRISTMAS GIFTLETS...

2009-12-22T03:52:00.000-08:00

A few Christmas gifties for you! Books and plays.
First, a list of extraordinary books HERE that have not ‘caught on’ for some unaccountable reason. Considered by their publishers and agents to be the best unread books of the decade, this list appeared in the Guardian online. So if you are looking for a quality read – do try something from here and let me know! Was there a reason why these didn’t take off – or have the reading public really lost out?

I have ordered Mutiny by Lindsey Collen. This is a précis of Mutiny’s section from the Guardian’s article.

Mutiny was published in 2001. It is her fourth book. She won the Commonwealth Writers' prize for the Africa region and was longlisted for the Orange. John Berger called Mutiny “a break-out and a breakthrough". She was published with great energy and commitment by Bloomsbury. She is an extraordinary woman whose own experiences of an oppressive political system and incarceration as a result of that system fed directly into the writing of Mutiny. The reviews she received were excellent. The novel is not an easy or comforting read; it is fierce and challenging but is utterly compelling.

Plays.
Dickens- one of the greatest storytellers, meets Callow - one of Britain’s best actors

You have until January 31st to see Simon Callow in two one-man plays by Charles Dickens at the Riverside Studios, Hammersmith. Directed by Patrick Garland, set design by Christopher Woods. A fabulous, different, quality performance.
Meet Mr Chops - the dwarf who wins the lottery and enters society, and Doctor Marigold - the cheap jack with a heart who sells tat off a cart. These monologues have not been performed in London for 150 years but they are so sparkling and relevant, they might have been written yesterday and Simon Callow is just perfect. Yesterday evening the audience included Sir David Attenborough, so that was nice - and totally irrelevant to this post!
Details HERE and tickets are not expensive chaps...I paid £18.00.
.
(pic of Simon Callow from the Riverside Studio's website)

SHORT CIRCUIT BLOG TOUR VISITS WRITING TUTOR UMI SINHA

2009-12-20T07:01:00.000-08:00

And today, we are half way through the blog tour! I'm delighted to be visiting the blog of writing tutor Umilla Sinha, better known as Umi. She was my tutor during the year I spent at Sussex University, in early 2003 - so was one of those who kick-started this lazy old bat into a writing career.
For this tour stop. Umi asked me to talk a bit about structuring short stories - about what advice how-to books could give beginners. Whether structure templates were a good idea. And about competitions - how I knew what to send where. That's easy - I didn't!
Her website is HERE. And her blog and my guest article, HERE. There's a fascinating article on the worthwhileness or otherwise of writing workshops... have a read.
The blog tour is not featured on Salt Publishing's website, yet. However... all is not lost. Short Circuit has its own website, thanks to the multitalented Tania Hershman - and the whole tour is linked there.

'STEAMPUNK RELOADED' - CALL FOR REPRINT SUBMISSIONS

2009-12-19T03:16:00.000-08:00

STEAMPUNK RELOADED, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer and to be published in fall 2010 by Tachyon Publications, announces an open reading period.

The sequel to the World Fantasy Award finalist anthology Steampunk will read submissions between December 15, 2009, and February 15, 2010. Any English-language story previously published in the past decade on a website or print publication is eligible for consideration. Our definition of Steampunk is fairly broad, so if in doubt, send it. Keep in mind that Steampunk has become much more diverse over the past few years, and we are very interested in non-traditional and multi-cultural points of view.

Submissions between 1,500 and 10,000 words should be sent in a Word or RTF document to steampunkII at hotmail.com. We don’t care about margins or format, but please cut-and-paste the first three paragraphs into the body of your email, include prior publication information, but do not include any biographical information about yourself. Alternatively, use snail mail by sending your work to POB 4248, Tallahassee, FL 32315. Snail mail submissions should be marked on the outside of the envelope as for Steampunk Reloaded consideration. No SASE is required if you prefer email response. You can send your email submissions before December 15, but we won’t begin reading them until December 15. All submissions will be responded to no later than February 28; please do not query about a submission prior to that date.

Payment will be on publication, at standard reprint rates of one to two cents per word, against a share of any royalties from the North American or foreign editions, as well as one contributor copy.

GUEST POST - ON STRICTLY WRITING

2009-12-17T01:47:00.000-08:00

Short Circuit and its editor make a stop today at the marvellous STRICTLY WRITING. An article, this one, rather than questions and answers - some research neeed. Very interesting what I found...

ALI SMITH and JACKIE KAY, ON WRITING

2009-12-17T01:33:00.000-08:00

These are from the talk by Ali Smith and Jackie Kay at Bridport Literary Festival 2009. And why, as a writer and a teacher, they strike me as so good.

“Imagination has no gender. It has no colour, no creed. No sexual persuasion. It is irrelevant what the writer is…”

I love this – how often do we hear that there is ‘women’s writing’ and men’s writing’. What tosh, whoever says it. There is writing. Full stop. Why aren't we honest and say there is writing that appeals to more female READERS then male, and vice versa? And that has to do with interests of the readers, and their values, and other things. Nothing to do with the writer.

“Voice is so important. Each story has its own voice. You need to find it, then you’re off.”

I love this – Find the voice of the STORY and you will find something fundamental. I wonder how many writers get stuck trying to find ‘their’ voice? I remember the thunderbolt moment when Jacob Ross (short story writer, novelist, tutor at a fab Arvon course) recognised my writer’s voice from a bit of scribble I’d just done – to me it was nothing like the pieces I’d submitted to the course. This was the thunderbolt. Voice is NOT for us to actively recognise. It's for others…

“A story goes off in its own direction – despite the writer. You are unaware of the thing.”

“A writer needs self belief and self doubt in the same measure”

Wonderfully put. If we just think we are marvellous, we put a stop on our learning. If we just doubt, we don’t fight for anything. It’s that swing between utter doubt and confidence that enriches and drives.

“Writing is 50% instinct, 50% editing. Let yourself go, then rein yourself in.”

“Reading and writing are opposite sides of the same coin”

“Form is a leap of faith – you don’t get to choose. If you try to choose form it will elude you.”

“If you’re going to write, you won’t escape it. Even if you leave it late.”

“A writer who shows you that you can do anything you like, is Grace Paley.”

WORDS and FRIENDS and PIZZAS and GETTING HOME VERY LATE

2009-12-16T13:33:00.001-08:00

Ride the Word was lovely, with ten of us Short Circuiteers reading, a lovely warm speech from Salt Director Jen Hamilton Emery, followed by a rowdy pizza party up the road - and a visit to a pub en route. Here's a few pics courtesy of Elizabeth Baines - pics of various doing readings - Tania Hershman, Alex Keegan, Elizabeth Baines, Lane Ashfeldt, David Gaffney, Sarah Salway, Jay Merill and meself, who acted as ringmaster again and read a bit from Edwin Tregear just to depress the hell out of the audience. I'm getting good at this. (Ringmastering, not depressing people...!)

It was lovely lovely lovely to see friends from the old Fiction Workhouse in the quality audience - Claudia, Alison, and a real surprise - a great one - Bob Jacobs - who used to be the technical lord behind the whole thing. Also there was Jon Pinnock, Emily Benet (we swapped books) and Selma Dabbagh. And it was great to meet Tom Chatfield, Arts Editor of Prospect Magazine. I was sorry not to have more time to natter - but the Short Circuit Christmas bash beckoned...
Here is a slice of pizza for all the writers who couldn't be there. We had a great time, catching up with old friends and cementing some new friendships, planning reading events, more books, all sorts!
Back on Gatwick Express, dropping Marian off in Brighton at half past midnight. Then I'm steaming along the A 26, half asleep, eight miles to home... and this...
which meant an unscheduled detour back to the coast, along to Newhaven, up to Lewes, and then home... a round trip of far too long at that time of the morning! Got home at 2.am. getting a bit old for all this...but it was a lovely event. Thanks to all who read, all who came to listen, to Jay and Vincent for the invitation, and to Jen for the lovely money for pizzas and wine!

FISHY OPPORTUNITIES FOR FLASHERS AND POETS

2009-12-15T02:57:00.001-08:00

From Fish Publishing:
FLASHERS HERE...
Poet John Hegley and writer/comedian Simon Munnery will judge the 2010 Fish One-Page Prize This deceptively challenging form requires stories of no more than 300 words. We will publish the best ten in the 2010 Fish Anthology, alongside the best short stories and poems from the other Fish competitions. The first prize is 1,000 Euro and the nine runners-up receive 50 Euro and five copies of the Anthology. All of the competition details are on the Fish Publishing website, linked above - including on-line entry and postal entry instructions.
POETS HERE...
Matthew Sweeney is the judge for the 2010 Fish Poetry Prize. He will read all of the entries himself, lest, as he says, one should get away. The competition closes on 30 March 2010 and results announced April 30. The best ten poems will be published alongside the short story winners in the 2010 Fish Anthology, and the first prize is 1,000 Euro. Entry is 12 Euro on-line or 15 by post. Again all details and entry possibilities online as above.

Good luck all.

Short Circuit visits Fiona Joseph

2009-12-14T15:16:00.000-08:00

The next stop on the Short Circuit blog tour is the bloghome of Fiona Joseph. HERE Some fantastic questions, which took me a long time to ponder - hence the lateness. Oops, sorry chaps!

SALT PUBLISHING's TOP 20 BEST SELLERS THIS CHRISTMAS - SO FAR .. .. ..

2009-12-14T10:16:00.000-08:00

Nice Chrismas pressies all round. Both Short Circuit and Words from a Glass Bubble are in the Salt Publishing Top 20. Yippee iy ay or summat. And it's a real party of good friends too - There's Tania and Elizabeth (with two entries!) and Nuala. Fab.

Here is the list, from front page of Salt Publishing's website, and links to the books, for those last minute extra Chrissie pressies you know you want to give - or get!! (My choices are the Shop Girl Diaries, and Contourlines (see below!). Both of which I will get tomorrow - as Emily is coming to the Ride the Word event, and Jen is hopefully bringing down Contourlines for me.

1. Emily Benet, Shop Girl Diaries
2. Neil Wenborn & M.E.J. Hughes (eds), Contourlines
3. Vanessa Gebbie (ed), Short Circuit
4. Chris Agee, Next to Nothing
5. Siân Hughes, The Missing
6. Elizabeth Baines, Too Many Magpies
7. Tony Williams, The Corner of Arundel Lane and Charles Street
8. Jasmine Donahaye, Self-Portrait as Ruth
9. Paul Magrs, Twelve Stories
10. Karen Annesen, How to Fall
11. Anthoy Joseph, Bird Head Son
12. Tania Hershman, The White Road and Other Stories
13. Nuala Ní Chonchúir, Nude
14. Olivia Cole, Restricted View
15. Eleanor Rees, Eliza and the Bear
16. Luke Kennard, The Migraine Hotel
17. Elizabeth Baines, Balancing on the Edge of the World
18. Vanessa Gebbie, Words from a Glass Bubble
19. Shaindel Beers, A Brief History of Time
20. Tom Chivers, How to Build a City

GEMINIDS SHOOTING STAR PARTY - DEC 13/14

2009-12-13T15:45:00.000-08:00

Get thee outside tonight or tomorrow night, wrapped up warm, and away from bright lights, towns. Preferably somewhere high up. And sit back and enjoy. Younger son Toby drove his Mum up to Firle Beacon, near Lewes. Perched on the Downs overlooking Newhaven in the distance. Lovely clear night. We saw between 25 and 30 shooting stars in less than 30 minutes! It was coooold.
They are the Geminids, and this is what I just found out, if you are interested:

The Geminids, the last major meteor shower of the year, will peak in intensity on Sunday night/Monday morning. Experts are forecasting up to 100 meteors per hour. Besides meteors, once a year photo opportunities await.
The Geminid Meteors are caused by the Earth racing through a trail of debris from a “extinct” comet called 3200 Phaeton. As the Earth orbits the Sun, it passes through this trail of space junk every December, reaching the thickest stretch of debris on the 13-14th. However, Geminid meteors can be seen over a week before or after that date. The bright streaks of light are caused by small particles of debris hitting the Earth's atmosphere and burning up on entry. The shower gets its name because the meteors seem to radiate from the constellation of Gemini.

CHRISTMAS 'RIDE THE WORD' - LONDON - TUESDAY - FREE !!!

2009-12-13T06:00:00.001-08:00

If you're in London on Tuesday, and are looking for something writery/readery/short storyish/poetryish/flashish/fun-get-togetherish - look no further!
RIDE THE WORD is a freebie event, but come early - venue not large, and the audience - - vast.
Hosted and organised by poet Vincent de Souza and short story writer and novelist Jay Merill, RIDE THE WORD is a monthly live literature event, held at different venues across London.
The Christmas Special is er-special. In addition to their invited readers, and the usual open mike slots, ten Short Circuit writers and Jen from Salt Publishing are there to read and to party. And other rather special guests -
Here's the invitation - do come and say hello!

CHRISTMAS SPECIAL
'Short Circuit' Celebration
at
The CAFE YUMCHAA
Tuesday 15th December 2009
6.30 for 7pm - till 9pm
45 Berwick Street, Soho, London W.1
With
Vincent de Souza,
Jay Merill,
'Short Circuit' Editor, Vanessa Gebbie
Salt Publishing Director, Jen Hamilton-Emery
Arts Editor of 'Prospect' Magazine, Tom Chatfield
and
Tania Hershman, Sarah Salway,
Marian Garvey, David Gaffney, Lane Ashfeldt
Elizabeth Baines, Chika Unigwe,
David Grubb, Alex Keegan
also
Floor Spots on first come first served basis
Hosted by
Jay Merill and Vincent de Souza
(nearest Tube: Oxford Circus, Tottenham Court Rd.,
All Oxford Street buses - to Berwick St stop)

Minnie on Normblog -

2009-12-11T09:44:00.000-08:00

Jack Kerouac Rd has nothing to do with Minnie Beaniste. But I liked the place, (Right by City Lights Bookshop, San Francisco), and I like Minniebeaniste's blog, and the pictures she conjures with her writing. Link down there somewhere on me list. I also like her outlook on life, as evidenced by her super profile today on the blog of the great and wonderful Norman Geras - Normblog. HERE.
If she lived next door, we would probably spend a lot of time in each other's kitchens, drinking first coffee, then something more interesting - giggling like a couple of teenagers. (Er - What's that cackle I hear???)
Here are just a f ew of the questions and answers which tell me that I love this lady, a bit.
What is your favourite piece of political wisdom? > 'Never believe anything until it has been officially denied.' (Claud Cockburn)
What do you consider the most important personal quality? > Imagination, because without it there can be no creativity, no invention and no insight, empathy or compassion - no civilization, in fact.
What personal fault do you most dislike? > Greed.
She is more than generous, mentioning this funny little blog of mine, here. Minnie, Thank you!
These profiles are terrific. They do allow a glimpse of the person behind the screen - I know Norm sends out a whole raft of questions, and asks you to select the ones you want to answer. So the choice you make is also interesting!
I was 'done' last year - my profile is here. Some questions and answers chime rather well with yours, Min!
Congrats on your profiling. And I'm trumpeting it for you me dear, even if you won't.

SEVEN DAYS LEFT

2009-12-11T03:15:00.001-08:00

Seven days left to enter The Willesden Herald Short Story competition. Always comes with a fair dollop of passion this one, it's run purely for the love of good writing and love of the short story form - and nowt else.
Past final judges have included Zadie Smith and Rana Dasgupta.
This year's winner, Jo Lloyd, went on to win The Asham Award for new women writers. Standards are high, and a couple of years back Willesden H were brave enough to decline to award the prize, for lack of suitable winners. There was lots of whinging about that.

I sent them a story that year. It WASNT GOOD ENOUGH (thats the key, peeps!) for the longlist let alone the shortlist, and it got absolutely nowhere. Then I used the Willesden Magic Formula list, available FREE on WH, HERE with huge thanks to the WH team to edit. And won 2nd at Fish this year with the edited version.

Mr Willesden Herald knows what he's doing. Good luck all! WILLESDEN HERALD - HERE.

THREE FIRST-TIME INTERVIEWERS

2009-12-11T02:22:00.000-08:00

These great bloggy tour stops with peeps who hadn’t done interviews before! They are all so good, here's a wee drink. Three straws please...
It was lovely, putting together the blog tour schedule for Short Circuit – it’s a text book after all and I wanted to know what peeps who have completed uni courses or not, might think of it. So, I am visiting several people who have never done an interview for their blogs before --- and here are three of them.
Jessica at Writers’ Little Helper, today. On editing. J says this in her intro:

"Short Circuit is the kind of book I wished was around when I did my Masters and Degree. This book has a different author for each chapter as they explore the important elements of a short story. Reading their writing process is more insightful to a writer rather than the 'How to' approach that you find in most creative writing books. As well as using the advice for short story writing I also believe you can adapt some of the ideas for novel writing too. The reading lists and short exercises at the end of each chapter are really great for writers block cures!"

Kate at Emerging Writer, yesterday.

And earlier, Sophie Playle. On everything!

I think you’ll agree – some fantastic searching questions, and I’m delighted. These writers are where Short Circuit will sink or float and it looks like we're fine so far! Thank you so much to you all.

MELIKA SALIHBEG BOSNAWI

2009-12-11T02:07:00.000-08:00

I am hugely privileged to be in touch with this Bosnian poet. I have her book, and she has sent me several pieces via email. This week, we swapped messages again. It is hard to do this. I feel so removed - anything I say cannot even brush the surface of her experience. But I try, and am grateful that I know her a little, and can share a little.
Please visit her website, HERE find out about a writer who records some of the worst moments in modern history, and its continuing fall-out. Read her biography. And like I do, feel humbled that you are a tiny trickle in this river of writing – in which Melika is a torrent.
Pdfs are available on the website. These lines are from the end of a poem about Sarajevo Rose War Rhymes.

A minute of silence for the souls of victims
in remembrance of whom
these War Rhymes,
Bosnian,
came into existence.
To be a living witness of that
living
literature.

Her book Sarajevo Rose is reviewed HERE by Adnan Mahmutovic.

INTERVIEWED ON ROSE AND THORN BLOG

2009-12-09T11:35:00.001-08:00

I was interviewed a while back by Kathryn Magendie, of Rose and Thorn, and the interview has gone live today. HERE
One of the best interviews, this - with one of the most searching questions - 'Are any of your stories letters to someone?' I love that question, and found myself losing a bit of my punch as I replied...
Anyway - returning the compliment, Kathryn Magendie is interviewed herself, HERE

To the Senders of Certain Extension Emails -

2009-12-09T04:46:00.000-08:00

As you know, I am working hard on my poetry. Here, inspired by the thousandth email offering me a dick extension, is a poem. Or not...

RETURN TO SENDER

To the echoing beat of a coppery gong
that plays in the dark in my head
I lie awake the whole night long
counting pixels and widgets instead

I think it’s the fault of the stresses
from emails unbidden and rude
They offer extensions - and not for my hair -
for parts my bod does not include

I wish I could say to the senders
“a big dick would not suit me at all,
do say where you think I should put it –
perhaps it should go on the wall?”

On the other hand, this is the message
I’ll send them, whoever they be -
“Please check out the length of YOUR willies
before you come bothering me.”

BEHIND THE SCENES AT SALT!

2009-12-08T02:44:00.000-08:00

WEBSITE! BLOG TOUR! PLANNING!

2009-12-08T02:18:00.000-08:00

First, a huge thank you to Tania Hershman, multi-talented woman of many parts, for creating a fabulous website for Short Circuit. She even managed to wave a wand and buy ‘theartoftheshortstory’ domain name. I really love that. I love the way ‘heart’ appears in that name – as that’s where the best writing comes from! Have an explore, let us know what you think, and watch for news and views. HERE it is.

The first news and view to go up is the blog tour itinerary, as follows. I have included links to Nik P who was so keen to get going that he posted his the day after the book came out!! And Sophie Playle’s interview was stunning – some wonderful questions. Thanks Sophie and Nik. Im looking forward to the next stops.
16 November Nik Perring
5 December Sophie Playle
10 December Emerging Writer
11 December Writer’s Little Helper
14 December Fiona Joseph
17 December Strictly Writing
20 December Umi Sinha
4 January Sara Crowley
7 January The Short Review Blog
15 January Lauri Kubuitsile
21 January Sue Guiney
27 January Nuala Ni Chonchuir
29 January Tom Conoboy
1 Feb Jon Pinnock
15 Feb Sally Zigmond’s Elephant in the Writing Room

Planning – I am of course using Short Circuit as a set book in Stockholm next term. I will also use the work of many of my favourite writers including Ms Hershman as examples of the best – from Carver to Calvino, Constantine to Keret. But the other set book will be the anthology ‘Freedom’, compiled by Amnesty International, and reviewed on Short Review HERE.
And Guardian Online HERE
With short stories by some of the world’s best writers including A L Kennedy, Petina Gappah, Helen Dunmore, Yann Martel – based on clauses from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – if that doesn’t appeal to the ‘yoof’ of Stockholm, I don’t know what would.

William Golding - 'Pincher Martin'

2009-12-07T12:55:00.000-08:00

Reading this - (from Wikipedia)

Pincher Martin is the third novel by William Golding (author of Lord of the Flies). When it was originally published in the United States, its title was changed to The Two Deaths of Christopher Martin, but later it was returned to its British name. It develops the themes introduced in Lord of the Flies concerning the cruelty at the basic nature of mankind underneath the thin veneer of civilization. The name "Pincher" comes from the Royal Navy tradition of giving that nickname to any sailor with the surname "Martin".

Mesmerising stuff. Flagged by Golding's biographer as his best writing. I am retreating into its pages when I want to forget things.
From Golding's website:
The most extraordinarily imagined of all Golding's works, this is the anti-hero as hero; fighting a lone and hopeless battle for survival as a castaway on a bare rock in the North Atlantic, with ingenuity, courage and -- most terrible of all -- a growing awareness of the real nature of the struggle he is engaged in. The story contains some of Golding's most forceful writing: the eye-opening practicalities of such a situation, the memories of a bitter and ruthlessly selfish past, the complexities and simplicities of being human, and above all the utter refusal to accept defeat even at the hands of God - all are portrayed here with an immediate and physical exactness that precludes detachment. The novel is a modern Faust.

NORCAP lunch at House of Commons

2009-12-07T07:40:00.000-08:00

On Monday last, I attended a fundraising lunch in aid of AAA-NORCAP (A charity which helps Adults Affected by Adoption - in case you were sending me off to Alcoholics Anonymous...)
It was a fascinating affair - the keynote speaker was journalist and fellow-adoptee Kate Adie. Also present and correct were poet Lemn Sissay, Alan Sillitoe, Sillitoe's wife the poet Ruth fainlight, and feisty MP Clare Short.
Clare Short of course gave up a son for adoption in her teens, and was reunited with him recently. Lemn Sissay was brought up as the only black child in a northern UK children's home, and only discovered his name and heritage much later. Alan Sillitoe donated a handwritten musing/letter for the silent auction. The letter began, "I dont think I'd ever have been adopted..." and it goes on to talk about what a grubby little tyke he was. Lovely warm letter.
Lovely event. I was accompanied by my husband, by fellow-adoptee and good friend Jo B who was so supportive when I was searching for my family, and with lovely writing-friend Sue Guiney.

An anthology has been produced, "Something that never went away" - with contributions from some 30 adults with links to adoption. Either mothers who gave their children away, or children who were given up - as I was. Supporting 'big name' contributions are fantastic - from Tracey Emin (drawing with autobiographical saying), Jo Brand (Cartoon featuring Madonna on the prowl for more kids to adopt), the letter from Alan Sillitoe, another from Joanna Trollope, a poem from Lenny Henry, and things from Kriss Akabusi, Gok Wan, Meera Syal, David Gower, Richard Rogers. And there are a few of us writers, described as 'established' whihc is nice. Nicole J Burton, Valerie Mason-John, Zara H Philips, Jacqueline Walker, Alex Wheatle. And me. I was asked to contribute something, sent a flash piece and a copy or two of my book for raffles and things. A trustee of the charity asked for more. So I have three bits in there. And am very proud of it.
I now have the Sillitoe letter, the original, and shall treasure it. Chris has the Jo Brand cartoon and will treasure that. It makes him laugh.

Carver's 'Collectors' - a synopsis.

2009-12-07T05:05:00.000-08:00

The male narrator is out of work, cannot settle. He is visited by a vacuum cleaner salesman (Aubrey Bell) who produces a card with a Mrs Slater’s signature, saying she has won a free carpet shampoo and vacuum.
'Mrs Slater doesn't live here' says the narrator. At this point the reader has been 'set up' to see the narrator as 'Mr Slater'. But Carver is playing with us.
It is a wet day. Bell feels ill. Narrator gives him water and aspirin, asks him to go. Bell - somewhat aggresively - asks if he is speaking for Mrs Slater – and stays to do his job. He demonstrates his equipment, vacuuming a bed, a pillow, showing the resulting detritus on filters - and shampooing a carpet with green liquid detergent.
In context, those are almost the incidentals.
A letter is delivered. Bell contrives to use his bulk and the machine to prevent the narrator from collecting it – and picks it up himself. The question of whose home this is has already arisen. The question of who the narrator is has also arisen. One might assume he is ‘Mr Slater’ but it becomes evident he is not. The narrator seems detached. ‘Its not my mattress’ he says of the bed. His description of the bedroom is very odd – as though he was seeing it for the first time.
‘There was a bed, a window. The covers were heaped on the floor. One pillow. One sheet over the mattress.’
He never says he is Mr Slater. Not only is he prevented from collecting the letter from the doormat – but he allows the letter (bearing the name ‘Mr Slater’) to be taken away at the end of the story, asking only ‘You’re sure that’s who the letter’s for?’

Questions of identity run deep through this story, and I guess that’s why I was drawn to it.
I was/am also fascinated by the notion of ‘collector’ here. The narrator is prevented from being a ‘collector’. Bell is the only physical ‘collector’ in the piece. But the ‘collectors’ here are not only vacuum cleaners, or those who collect letters – but Death. And writers, ironically. Bell makes many comments through the story, about the habits of writers: firstly, W H Auden (who wore slippers in China because of corns). Then Rainer Rilke, (who lived in other people’s castles thanks to benefactors) then Voltaire, with uncomfortable mention of his death mask. Not his real name - 'Voltaire' used over 150 pen names during his career.

The story is all about identity, or lack thereof - at no time do we know the narrator’s name. We assume he is Mr Slater, until he does not argue when the letter to ‘Mr Slater’ is taken away at the end.
Carver’s story is a hugely fascinating, deceptively simple, dealing with existential questions. It was and remains one of my favourites. The weight of themes - non-belonging, displacement (embodied in the reference to Rilke), of physical discomfort, the fragility of the body and our certain mortality (embodied in W H Auden and to some extent in Bell as well as the breakdown of the body to dust throughout) underlined by Voltaire's dead gaze... are mesmerising. That's what short stories can do in the hands of the masters.
**
The above is a vast oversimplification - whole academic papers have been written on this one. If you don't already have 'Short Cuts' do get it. It contains nine stories, including the amazing 'A Small Good Thing'.

Toby scored a try

2009-12-06T16:44:00.000-08:00

Last rugby game of the season, and this Eastbourne College team beat Brighton College 34-0!
Brighton College's Wikipedia entry says this: "One of the strongest performing co-ed sporting independent school (sic) in Sussex, Brighton College's major sports are rugby..." and goes on to say something about being the strongest in England. What happened today then?!
(Tobs is 8th from the left, and 8th from the right.)

Tania Hershman on Radio 4, again

2009-12-06T16:33:00.000-08:00

Tania's great story 'Drinking Vodka in the Afternoon' was broadcast last night for the second time on Radio 4. Terrific characters, great story, which has found success in several venues. It's listenable-to for a while on the BBC i=Player. HERE.
And in the summer, Tania is to have a whole WEEK of flash pieces broadcast, also on Radio 4.
Go on, have a listen! And do drop her a line to tell her how marvellous these characters are.

The Collector

2009-12-06T15:53:00.000-08:00

A very short story for you to read, linked on this blog a couple of times. Inspired by the occupation of 'vacuum cleaner salesman' Aubrey Bell in Raymond Carver's story 'Collectors' (who does not have OCD in my copy...) and published online in Green Silk Journal in late 2005. I love Carver's work. His characters are terrific, his dialogue wonderful, his marriages ghastly... a door to door vacuum cleaner salesman is a wonderful occupation for collecting bits of dead marriage via bodily detritus. Yik. And they do use filters, white and black. It's what vacuum salesmen do. Amazing and freaky to witness. Where does all the guff come from? No -don't answer that.

The Collector -

He is completely, utterly bald, the vacuum cleaner salesman. Shining. No hair anywhere I can see. No eyelashes, no eyebrows, smooth, pink cheeks like a baby, and clean, white, podgy hands.
“Mr and Mrs Braithwaite, I am privileged to introduce you to the Homevac system.”
Jane, my wife, has a problem with cleanliness. Compulsive disorder. It started when we were newlyweds… she washed her hands three times, drying between the fingers with a clean towel each time, putting the towels in the machine. “I don’t feel clean unless I do…” The bathroom is scrubbed every time it's used. Top to bottom. God knows how much bleach we get through now. The house is dusted , vacuumed twice, three times daily. Clean sheets every day, top and bottom. And if I touch her, if we… clean bedding straight away. Sheets in the wash. Now it's stopped, all that. We both have to wear underpants in bed.
She extra-cleaned the house today because we had this salesman coming. We wear out vacuum cleaners regularly. They burn out. The motors. Jane says they aren’t made for domestic use. I know they are. It’s just we don’t use them domestically. Her hands are red raw. “Why the hell didn’t you wear rubber gloves?” I say. But she’s never been one for rubber gloves. Says you can’t feel if there’s dust on things. Dust? How in God’s name do you feel dust?
He reminds me of a spider. A big, fat spider flexing its legs, waiting to spin.
Jane is hovering, watching, waiting to see this magic machine that will allegedly make her house so clean you could eat off the floor. Or eat the bloody floor. We can’t eat anything until he’s been and gone. It would untidy the kitchen. She'd have to wipe everything down, polish the chrome…
I’ve switched out of this. But something makes me look at Jane. She’s looking worried. Distraught. The spider (I don’t even know his name) is leaning out of the chair, assembling his machine on the carpet. He’s lining up black cotton or paper filters, like small coffee filters, on a side table.
“Soon, Mrs Brathwaite, you will see how your own bodies are betraying your every effort to keep your home sanitary…” he spits out the word ‘sanitary’ as though it is covered in old blood. Jane has gone pale. The machine is a large, silver canister, a hose, and interchangeable nozzles… I’m thinking it's exactly like any other vacuum. The spider gets up, bends with a grunt to plug it in, fits a filter over the hose and attaches a nozzle.
“Right,” he says. “Shall we start with your husband’s chair?”
“I don’t think so…,” I’m about to say… but the machine has been switched on, a high whine…Jane is pulling me upright, and I’m standing, watching this ill-fitting man sweeping the nozzle slowly, deliberately over the place where I’ve just been sitting, the chair cover pulling taut as the vacuum passes it.
“So strong…,” he soothes. “Can I ask you… when was this chair last brushed, cleaned, vacuumed?”
“Only this afternoon,” says Jane, biting her lip. I am willing there to be no dust…
The spider finishes, switches off the whine, detaches the nozzle, and takes the filter away from the hose with two fingers, holding it up for inspection, curling his lip. “Mrs Braithwaite,” he says. “Do you see this?”
He places the filter on the side table. There is a white circle in the black…he looks at me, and says one word,
“Bodies.”
“Look here," I say…" there’s all sorts of things come out of a chair if you suck hard enough… the stuffing, cotton, dust from the wooden frame…" (I’m searching frantically for things to make white dust that isn’t me…). He looks at Jane and says two words.
“Men’s bodies.”
She looks shocked, appalled. “What IS it?” she says, looking at the filter, not too close… one hand over her mouth like a mask.
“Dust mites. Dead dust mites. Dead skin. Dandruff. General bodily detritus. Tiny hairs. If you analysed this… (I wouldn’t suggest…) traces of faecal material maybe. It has been known. The bed? You sleep together?”
Jane’s eyes are huge. “Well, yes, I…”
He sighs. Picks up the machine, and Jane follows him to the hall, up the stairs. I listen for the whine.

****
Finally, after vacuuming the mattress with his nozzles and collecting me, my bits, in his filters, he comes back downstairs.
Lined up on the side table in my sitting room are half a dozen black circles, covered in white deposits. The spider sits back in his chair, strokes on the filters with a forefinger, lifts the finger, inspects it… for a second, I think he’s going to put it to his mouth, or smell it… but he says…
“There’s no rush. We have a policy. No hard sell.” He begins to collect the filters together, stacking them carefully one on top of the other, slides them into a white paper wallet, and seals it, licking the flap with a pink, wet tongue.

Jane is wringing her hands. “But we would love to buy your machine, Mr…. Please?” she’s saying as he unscrews the hose, curls it onto itself, packs the cylinder away.
He stands, suitcase in one hand, the wallet in the other.
“Thank you.” he says, walking to the front door. And I just watch my wife crumble, following him, saying, “Please? I need…”
And I sit down in my chair again, and wait.

CALLING ALL CREATIVES - .CENT MAGAZINE

2009-12-05T02:49:00.000-08:00

A call for submissions ...
.Cent magazine is a beautiful, heavy, punchy magazine that comes in its own slip cover and costs an arm and a leg to post, it is that heavy. I hadn't heard of it, until I saw a call for submissions - each issue is a compilation of original work from artists of all kinds.
This from their website:

.Cent is here to celebrate creativity. It is that simple. The process, the people, the products.
We like being different so at .Cent we ask the creatives themselves to write the content instead of working with journalists. This way, readers hear all about fashion, beauty, art, music, design, illustration, architecture, literature, film, gardening, food, and more. The editorial content comes from the creatives, about what inspires and excites them, in an emotive language directly to the reader.

A call for subs, people. get to it! here's the email from the power that be.
Hello from .Cent magazine. We hope you are all well.

Currently .Cent is working on the forthcoming issue ‘Sense of Purpose’ that will be released in Spring 2010. The Guest Editor for this edition is Keith Reilly, founder and Creative Director of the club and record label Fabric.
For those who haven’t received this biannual creative writing email before then I'll briefly explain: the contents of every new issue of .Cent is split up into chapters. Every chapter has a title chosen by the Guest Editor. For each chapter we encourage writers to submit work that interprets its title. Chosen authors’ work will be printed in the magazine, leading a chapter's content.
For issue 15 the chapter titles are:

Cause and Effect
In Pursuit of Beauty
Improbable Perfection
Simplicity of Form

If you’d like to submit your writing then the brief is as follows:
• Strict maximum word-count of 350.
• Submission deadline is Monday 4th January 2010.
• You can submit poetry/prose/script.
• You may submit to as many chapters as you wish.
• Submissions and published work are on an unpaid basis.
• Please state if work has been previously published elsewhere. The work will still be considered however we’d like to know in advance.
• Please feel free to interpret the title as you wish, although it is worth bearing in mind that .Cent will select the piece that best encapsulates the chapter theme.
• The chosen submissions will be printed in the issue. If it is yours then you will be sent a magazine and tears.
• Submissions that are not selected to be printed in the magazine could potentially be published on the website.
• .Cent reserves the right to make the final decision.

To submit work:
• Please email submissions to natalie@centmagazine.co.uk by no later than 4th January 2010.
• Please state how you would like to be credited. Therefore, your name as you would like it to appear in print + mention a website? Or a current project? Perhaps published work? However we can support you.
• Please include within the submission your contact details- email, postal address and phone number.

Good luck!

KNIGHT CREW - Nicky Singer

2009-12-04T14:25:00.001-08:00

Last night I popped over to the Jubilee Library in Brighton for the launch of 'Knight Crew', a novel for young people by a friend, Nicky Singer. Benjamin Zephaniah has endorsed the book, calling it,
‘A story for this generation . . . written with love passion and intelligence.’ It was lovely to see so many kids from our local community college, they have been working alongside her to produce marketing materials for the forthcoming opera based on the book!
Nicky's first children's book Feather Boy won the Blue Peter Children's Book Award and has been shown on national television, winning a BAFTA Writer's Award. It is now being adapted for the London stage.
Knight Crew is a modern retelling of the King Arthur myth, set today and peopled by gangs of hoodies.
It is also to be an opera for young people, sung mainly by young people, to be performed over three days at Glyndebourne in the Spring. Nicky has been working on the libretto. HERE is the detail.

THE BEST WATERSTONES??

2009-12-03T13:44:00.001-08:00

It is entirely possible that Brighton Waterstones is simply the best one in the UK. They have a dedicated short story collection bookcase, where the collections are displayed front cover out - all of them. The collections are not all by the larger publishers, the larger names, although there are superb works there by Carver, Yiyun Li, Janice Galloway, A L Kennedy. There are also books by less well known writers, and from great independent publishers, such as Salt. Yay! Nuala ni Chonchuir's book 'Nude' is there, as is 'Glass Bubble'. I feel very honoured and very proud.
We have Sara Crowley to thank for this display, and for the choice of books.
So, whilst raising a glass to Waterstone's Brighton for the space and freedom, here's another glass to Sara. Who, in case you don't know, is a very very interesting writer.
Sara blogs HERE and I have shamelessly nicked the photo from her blog.
And just to embarrass her, here is a little about the lady, who does tend to hide her light under a bushel now and again, so I will switch on the spotlight for a bit...

Sara Crowley's novel in progress - Salted - 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. Her short stories have won prizes and been published in many lovely places, some of which are linked on her blog. HERE She reviews for Waterstone's Books Quarterly, Pulp Net and The Short Review and has written nonfiction articles for a variety of publications including Writer's Market.

Congrats on those lovely things, Sara. Here's to your next amazing achievements. And a heartfelt thank you for all you do to support the short story.

ELEGY FOR EASTERLY _ THE WINNER OF GUARDIAN FIRST BOOK AWARD

2009-12-03T02:45:00.000-08:00

Many congratulations to Petina Gappah, whose terrific collection Elegy for Easterly has been named as winner of the 2009 Guardian First Book Award. Announcement HERE
Petina and I 'met' while working on the One World Anthology. We didn't get on!
But whether or not one is mates with a writer doesn't (or shouldn't ) make one's response to their work any different - and we both liked each other's work.
One of the stories in this collection - a story called 'Midnight at the Hotel California' (what a title!) is among my favourites. Its up there on my list in Short Circuit alongside a few others by writers like Carver, Englander and Yann Martel. So tis lovely to know she's been recognised at this level. Congrats again.
Here's Petina Gappah's website and here (from her website), is the opening sentence of that story:

It is hard to remember that there was ever a time when you could buy a half dozen eggs, a packet of Colcolm sausages, two loaves of bread, a packet of Tanganda tea and still have change from a ten dollar note for two Castle Laagers and a packet of Everest.

Lovely unsolicited article about Short Circuit

2009-12-02T12:14:00.000-08:00

I missed this one! The writer Tom Conoboy, who keeps a blindingly sharp and intelligent blog, has not only read but written up his initial impression of Short Circuit. HERE
Tom scares the pants off me, he is an academic and analyses texts with a rapier. But he is also an extremely able writer, and so I valued his opinion on Short Circuit.
Nice! Exactly what I want - it's giving even a writer like Tom, who is currently studying for a PhD in American Literature, food for thought. Thanks Tom.

I have invited myself onto his blog for a stay in the new Year, to discuss Short Circuit in more depth. meanwhile, I'll put up with quotes like this from him:

I think it may become a definitive work.

I’ve read half a dozen or so of the essays so far, and skimmed through the rest, and there is good stuff here. I’m not usually very good with ‘how-to’ manuals, mainly because I won’t be told ‘how to’: the contrarian in me instinctively makes me do the opposite of what I’m told, even if I agree with the advice. That’s Calvinist atheists for you – we do a good line in nose-cutting.

Anyway, the advice here is good, in large measure because it isn’t dogmatic. At one point in her article, Lane Ashfeldt says: ‘I have no wish to waffle mystically about ‘inspiration’ here. A book on the craft of short story writing should provide more concrete advice than that.’ Agreed, and I think she goes on to provide that advice admirably, but what I like about this collection of essays in general is that what you don’t get is the usual collection of ‘thou shalts’ and ‘thou shalt nots’ of writing craft advice, the sort of nonsense that tells you to write two pages of drivel show in order to avoid telling the reader that ‘Johnny was in a fearful temper because he had a bad case of piles.’ No, what we have here is measured, considered advice on a range of subjects.

'HELP FOR HEROES' SKYDIVE

2009-12-02T08:22:00.000-08:00

I am supporting my younger son, Toby, in his fundraising venture to raise £15,000 for Help for Heroes.
Tobs is seventeen, and in his last year at school. Whether or not you support the crazy offensives we've got ourselves mired in, the guys who go off and fight aren't that much older. In fact, Vijay, a great guy who was at school with Tobs will be going to Afghanistan after Christmas with the 4th Rifles, (previously the Royal Green Jackets).
When you're seventeen there's a lot of partying, and a lot of hard work trying to get to the right next step educationwise, or workwise. And this Mum is quite proud of her guy who wants to spend some of his time organising a fundraiser for something as worthwhile as this.
They are doing a skydive in the spring, and I gather that there are members of staff at T's school signed up, students, and parents.
Help For Heroes is a charity set up to help the guys who are wounded on our behalf, and their families. HERE it is online -
Three of Toby's mates walked the Southdowns Way earlier in the year, raising thousands for the same cause. They are a good bunch.
So although I wouldn't normally put fundraising widgets on here, I am making an ex ception.

There is a widget on the blog, over there, up top----->>> if anyone feels moved do add a wee bit to the total, HFH will be grateful.
Thanks.

WALTZING, STALLIONS & WALTZING STALLIONS.

2009-12-01T13:42:00.000-08:00

Where do you go for a waltzing lesson? Vienna of course. The best place in the world for learning to spin and turn, slip and slide, grip and glide. With one's husband, naturally, and one's older son and daughter in law. Two Gebbie couples, one instructor, and a dancing school called Talmeyer. I have to say, if you are going to Vienna (and we were, an early Xmas pressie from son and wife, who can't be with us for Xmas this year) a waltzing lesson is a stunningly good fun addition to the menu!
The waltzing horses are of course, the Lipizzaner stallions , seen at the Spanish Riding School. but although it was a beautiful sight, in a beautiful and historic building, and golly were we lucky to get tickets - I felt sad for these animals. There was something undignified about the thing. So there's a stallion running free. Not waltzing.
Vienna is gorgeous, stunning architcture - but I couldn't quite get the image of swastikas hanging from high windows out of my head. A small pilgrimage to Juden Platz and the Rachael Whiteread memorial to 65,000 Austrian Jews, victims of the Holocaust was good. But reading that local business people are complaining that their trade is damaged by proximity to the memorial, demanding it be removed - was not good.
The memorial is a 'library' of stone books placed in reverse on stone shelves. Spines (and therefore names) hidden. It is strong, and beautiful, and resonant.
Continuing the celebration of things Jewish, the Annie Liebovitz exhibition was hosted in Vienna by the Hundertwasser House. Nick wanted to go, and boy was I grateful he did. Those iconic portraits of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, of the great and good of stage and screen. Movers and shakers in politics, royalty. And so many personal photos, some harrowing, some joyful.
And don't mention the Sacher torte...

ELEPHANTS AND GLASS BUBBLES

2009-11-30T12:52:00.000-08:00

The lovely Sally Zigmond has posted her analysis of the title story of 'Words from a Glass Bubble' on her brilliant blog, The Elephant in the Writing Room HERE
She calls it taking a microscope to the story, and it is done incredibly well. Sally says some nice things about my work which you have my permission to skip...but it was she and her colleague Jo Good who gave me my first breaks into print, in their magazine QWF. (QWF is, sadly, no more.) And not just me. Many writers have them to thank for their first 'real' publications!
Reading through her insightful analysis, I am so grateful to her for the time and effort she put into this. But also...what a wonderful resource Sally has created for the aspiring short story writer. To have a piece of work that has done OK out there analysed like this for free and gratis, is fab. So whether or not you 'like' the story, get thee over to Elephant in the Writing Room. Make a copy of the story (you have my permission!), and her analysis. Feel free to disagree, to dislike, to argue. And use her headings to analyse another story - maybe one of your own?
And the other thing it does, this exercise - it reminds me how much we gift our work to the readers when we put it 'out there'. And like a gift, we cannot control how the user will use it. One commenter sees a phallic symbol in my description of a statuette. Fair enough. I can't say I put that symbol there consciously, but if he sees that, then its fine by me! I'm only the writer. Not the reader. And I do not control the space between us, thank heavens. I am immensely moved that people read my work, and find it interesting enough to debate!

A word in your ear....

2009-11-30T11:38:00.001-08:00

You know those little chats good friends have with you? Well, please take this as one of those, if what follows applies to you.

You attend a talk, a workshop, a reading event. You contact the speaker/writer later, and say how much you enjoyed the talk/reading/workshop. And how much you want to learn about writing. The speaker/writer replies, thanks you for your nice message, and gives you a link or two to places where you can learn interesting stuff about writing.

You write to her again, to say thanks. How interesting. But you also attach some of your work, two full length stories, and say, 'Be honest. Give me some feedback. What do you think of these?'

The word in your ear is Please please don't do this. Entrusting me with your work may be a lovely thing to do, but you don't know me from Adam, or Eve. First of all, you don't know that I will treat your words with respect. You don't know that I won't 'do a Bruton' and use your ideas and plots for myself. Your ideas are precious.

But also, you are making an assumption. You are assuming I have a couple of hours to spare, with nothing else to do to fill them. You are assuming that I do not have my own work to do, my main work - my writing. You are assuming I will do your critiques unpaid, instead of the critiques I might be doing on a paid basis for other writers.

All I am doing is asking you to think...

STOCKHOLM CALLING...

2009-11-26T03:33:00.000-08:00

Fab news - I have been invited to tutor a creative writing course at Stockholm University next term. Using Short Circuit as one of the text books.

WILLESDEN SHORT STORY COMP.. CLOSING 18 DEC

2009-11-25T06:41:00.000-08:00

Stephen Moran, on Facebook: Somebody send some classy stories to the Willesden short story competition. Pretty please. Otherwise I'll have to shoot myself.

I think Stephen is saying that a lot of the entries so far are dire. Not all... some are smashing - but not enough of them. SO GET YOUR STORY IN!!

Details HERE

Short Circuit shifts apace... Orbis says yes.

2009-11-25T05:27:00.000-08:00

Short Circuit is selling well at Salt Publishing, every day new orders are coming in. Lovely. And on Amazon it is selling too... currently it is:

#31 in Books > Reference > Writing > Writing Skills!!

And I had a short story accepted at Orbis.

The New Writer Prose and Poetry prizes - deadline looms.

2009-11-25T04:51:00.000-08:00

Lovely invitation, to be final judge of the short story section of THE NEW WRITER: Prose and Poetry Prizes
You've got a few days to get your story in!!!
From the website: GUIDELINES

Short stories up to 4,000 words and novellas/serials up to 20,000 words on any subject or theme, in any genre (not children's). Previously published material is not eligible for entry. Entry fees £5 per short story (TNW subscribers two entries at same fee). £15 per Serial/Novella.
Single poems must be previously unpublished with a limit of 40 lines. Entry fee: £5 for up to 2 single poems (TNW subscribers 4 poems for £5).
Collection of poems (6-10 poems) can be previously published. No line limit. Entry fee £12 per collection.
Essays, articles and interviews up to 2,000 words covering any writing-related or literary theme in its widest sense. Previously published material is not eligible. Single entry £5 (TNW subscribers two entries at same fee).
All work should be clearly typed, double-spaced (poetry should be single-spaced), on white A4 paper and paperclipped. Entrants may make as many submissions as they wish but please include your name, address, title of entry, word count and category on a separate cover sheet with every entry. Preliminary judging will be carried out by The New Writer editorial board with guest judges making the final selection so there should be no identifying marks - apart from the title - on the entries. Entries are non-returnable. A full list of winners will be sent provided SAE is enclosed.

The Bridport Literary Festival and The Bridport Prize, 2009

2009-11-24T12:23:00.000-08:00

What a wonderful few days- staying in Bridport, meeting up with old friends, meeting new ones, attending some but not enough wonderful readings and talks. Running a sold-out workshop on opening up creativity, going to the fab Bridport Prizewinners’ lunch at the Town Hall, and becoming a compere for a brand new event - introducing the winners of the short story section of the Bridport Prize after the lunch. Phew.
Chris and I then drove up through the Dorset and Somerset floods to a secret destination (ho ho) and had a couple of nights and superb dinners… and it is now back to normal.

Highlights then:
Supper with Frances, (organiser of the B Prize) followed by the most hilarious event with itinerant poet Elvis McGonagall. -Elvis McGonagall himself -Weak with laughter, I had giggly-stomach ache for hours. He is a regular fixture at the Festival. Worth going for him alone, I’d say!

The launch at Waterstones of Candy Neubert’s novel Foreign Bodies (Seren).
Candy is my co-compere and is also highly important, being chief poetry reader and poetry shortlister for the B Prize.

An astounding talk by Horatio Clare about tracing the migration route of the swallow from South Africa to his family barn in South Wales. He with backpack only…This from a great review of the resulting book, Just One Swallow, from The Guardian:

“Clare (is) brave, modern, multicultural and open-hearted approach to travel itself. If he is not an explorer cut from the mould of Redmond O'Hanlon, he is at least an adventurer of the metropolitan kind. He enjoys a fleeting sexual liaison with an Ivorian beauty in Brazzaville. He is fleeced by hash dealers in Casablanca. He loses all his belongings in Spain. In Marrakech - where else? - he falls head over heels for a British-Asian from Rochdale and vows to marry within hours of meeting her. When he gets back to England, one is barely surprised to hear that his family seeks to have him sectioned.”

Whole review HERE
The double act of Ali Smith and Jackie Kay, this year’s judges for short story and poetry. -Ali Smith- They read, they laughed, they discussed, they talked, read some more… the audience at the Bull Hotel wouldn’t let them leave. And it was after that talk that I queued up to have books signed, and gingerly offered Jackie Kay a copy of Words from a Glass Bubble. (Why? Because we are both adopted adults, and both found birth parents on Google!) She was lovely, and accepted. And she demanded that I sign my book for her at the same time as she signed one for me, so amidst giggles, we synchronised signatures and messages. Amazing!

The Workshop. Wow. “Where do stories come from?” I asked… and hopefully answered the question – EVERYWHERE!! (Except by nicking other people’s entire stories, naturally – we did cover plagiarism. I’m getting good at spreading the word on that one.) We had a great time, aided and abetted by lots of props like earrings gleaned from Bridport’s charity shops, photographic books, fossils (found by ME on Charmouth beach), copies of newspapers, Big Issues, maps, and other delectables.
The lunch. Yum. this is a pic of the lunch, from the Bridport website. All pics taken by Dee (sorry Dee, dont know your surname!) The person standing up is reader Jacky Wyatt, who chose my story as a potential winner in 2007.
And the highlight for me...
The story prizewinners: Meeting Anna Britten again (ex- Fiction Workhouse) who is a runner up! And Annemarie Neary (who I met in Bantry earlier this year at the Fish Prizegiving, where she came 3rd), also runner-up. And Teresa Stanton, recently met vis Nik Perring’s blog, also runner up. Sad not to see Nick Hogg, who was also runner up… its quite a party of writing friends this year. And the wonderful winners. First: Jenny Clarkson, with her very first ever subbed story. Quite perfect!! (Ahem – take note.) Natasha Soobramanien second, and all the way from Colorado, Nancy Nye, third. this is Jenny Clarkson, the winner of this year's bridport First prize, chatting to the shortlister, Jon Wyatt.
The Big Event was a hoot. For the first time there were all three top winners in both poetry and story. Plus half a dozen runners up. And they ALL got to read. And Candy and I talked from thrones high on a stage about what winning a prize had done for us.... look! My throne. Being inspected by Ali Smith and Jackie Kay. See, I'm not making it up!!

Lots of books sold. A box and a half of Short Circuits and Bubbles went to good homes...fab.
And this is the secret hideaway we went to… if anyone wants a quiet and very special top quality bed and breakfast with 5* cooking in the evening, look no further: The Parsonage at Muchelney, Somerset Website HERE

Short Circuit Blog Tour, first stop!!

2009-11-16T05:32:00.000-08:00

Well, we're off on a blog tour, and it is the gorgeous Nik Perring who hosts an interview on his blog today. (I've always had this thing for younger blokes. Sigh...)
Mrs Gebbie - behave!
Oh, OK then...
We will have some 20 stops, and true to form, I haven't got dates arranged. So if you've been kind enough to invite us to visit, please air the spare room a while longer while I get my act together!
Meanwhile, here's Nik and me, and we natter about Miracle-Gro among other things...

I AM GOOD ENOUGH TO EAT OFF... (!)

2009-11-15T15:53:00.000-08:00

Har! Three pieces from my forthcoming micro-fiction collection, Ed's Wife and other Creatures are appearing on a literary placemat in the USA.
I follow in the hallowed footsteps of Nuala Ni Chonchuir, who had a very short story on the debut placemat at Loquacious Placemats, published by er... Twisted Thistle productions.

Loquacious Placemat. The only outlet for literature that you eat off. Deliberately!

NAWE Conference 13-15 November.

2009-11-15T15:30:00.000-08:00

The National Association of Writers in Education conference was lovely. More than a hundred writers who also teach writing at universities and schools gathered in a hotel called Chilworth Manor, near Southampton. The marvellous, inspiring company of writers I knew, and the joy of meeting new ones.
Great to spend time with Alison MacLeod, Professor of Contemporary Writing at Chichester University - she of the amazing writing skills, amazing teaching skills, and the generosity to write for Short Circuit. Alison’s website HERE.
Great to catch up with Peggy Riley again from Kent Live Lit, who blogs HERE
Great to see Sarah Butler, erstwhile writer-in-residence for the Circle Line (!) who has a packed website HERE and who whizzed down from London to do a presentation on writing to a setting.
And NAWE leading light Graham Mort, who was winner of Bridport 2007, among a thousand other things including directing the PhD writing programme at Lancaster, website HERE who also contributed a chapter to Short Circuit.
And smashing to meet the dynamic and totally amazing Gilly Smith – pour yourself a large gin, sit down and read about her HERE on her website
Amazing lady. She also teaches CNF at the University of Brighton.

Sarah, Alison and I were all running presentations/workshops at the same time yesterday, which was very saaad as I’d have loved to go to both their sessions. But I did go to some extraordinary ones – I’ll pick out a couple. First, one run by two tutors over from Columbia College, Chicago, who gave such an intense workshop…intended to illustrate the way they conduct their four-and-a-half-hour student workshops… only this was in one-and-a half! Next, a session on the influence of the visual arts on fiction… a look at ‘reality’ as portrayed in art, film, and the use of drawing techniques in fiction workshops. And one on maps in fiction, the importance of knowing your setting well -and how you can map out a real setting, using GPS to introduce a web of sound, accessed by students with iPods as they explore… I tell you there are some amazing influences on the next generation of writers out there.
I ran a flash fiction workshop, for some 25 participants. Funny, so many people seemed to have sidelined their own writing, in order to teach it. (Warning... take note!) That seemed sad. So much of my planned workshop went out of the window as we focussed on super flashes, and I used Tania Hershman's work 'Plaits' as a prompt, which produced some extraordinary and very good pieces. Sold all but one of the Rose Metal text books I had left.
Two whole days of presentations, workshops, discussions and events. Keynote talks/interviews/readings from novelist Graham Swift and poet Wendy Cope. Quite fantastic really. (Actually… V retired to bed before the poetry… and went and wrote her own. I find it so hard to do that at home. Why do hotel bedrooms work?!)
And of course, the launch, for which Jen Hamilton-Emery battled through the high weekend winds to Southampton all the way from Cambridge. The launch of Short Circuit was lovely, in the huge mini-theatre of the hotel… complete with cinema screen, rows of chairs, vast lectern. We had a quality audience and offered them short readings from the book, generously introduced by endorser, the Director of NAWE, Paul Munden. Sales were brisk, orders filled in, and it gave Jen and I a warm feeling to know that our book was winging its way to the best of homes all over the country.

CALLING ALL EYORES...

2009-11-12T07:48:00.000-08:00

Susannah Rickards has posted on the thread below to say this:

V, I'm in serious talks with some web designers to see how much it would cost to set up a One Stop Shop website for Indie Publishers, where readers can browse the books and then buy direct from the publishers (maybe eventually buy from the site - but that's down the line.
It would be a place where medium and small publishers can publicise their new titles and existing stock. It can feature interviews, reviews. Much more magaziney and overtly shop-like than T's Short review but with a similar ethos. To support and foster the small presses.
With Facebook, Twitter and writer's forums it wouldn't take long for word of mouth to spread about it and I bet Guardian Review, LRB. TLS would all give page space to the launch of such a venture.
I think it's time for the tinies to fight the big boys in the playground. Strength in numbers....

Susannah would love to hear people's response to this idea, especially from Eyeores who think it can't work, so we can foresee and resolve problems before it's set up.

My response would be this. Fantastic idea. I want to know WHY the small publishers arent doing this themselves?

SMALL PUBLISHERS v AMAZON – THE FACTS

2009-11-12T00:18:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Nicola Morgan’s wonderful helpful (and often funny) blog Help! I Need a Publisher, here are some facts and figures about Amazon and how their tactics are helping to close down small publishers. And while they line their own pockets, they keep funds from writers as well as publishers.
Lynne Mitchell of one of the newest and smallest of small publishers, Linen Press HERE, talks about the struggle to keep going, and says:

The financial challenge for a small publisher is formidable. Let me give you some figures:
- One book costs £4 to produce because I do small runs of 1000. I refuse to compromise on quality and I use environmentally friendly paper and ink.
- I charge £10 a copy
- Amazon takes 60% and I pay £1.75 to replace the book. If you do the sums, that's £6 for Amazon, plus £1.75 p&p, and the £4 production costs, so I am actually paying Amazon £1.75 for every book they sell. If readers ordered from my website I would make £6.
- The big book stores charge me 50% mark up get a book onto one of those tables where people stop and browse. If I sell a copy, I make £1.

Frightening, isn’t it? READ THE WHOLE POST HERE

I’d like to see all writers dropping their Amazon adverts and links, please. WHAT are we doing??? They aren’t helping anyone but themselves, they aren’t good employers, nor are they ‘green’ in their practices. For the sake of a penny or two, writers. DROP THE LINKS. And pass on this message, and the facts above to all the writer-types who blog.
Anyway, if you want a copy of Short Circuit or Words from a Glass Bubble please go straight to the publisher HERE. And get a 20% discount on the price, which for once is more than the dreaded monster chargeth.