Bye

I thought Dr Who was great, and although I enjoyed it, I did wonder what had happened to The Royle Family; the subtleties of writing and humour in dialogue seemed a bit forced.

Anyway.

List time.

As you’ll well know 2008 wasn’t a particularly great year for me, through one thing and another, and another, and another. But it wasn’t without some good bits and great books.

The best of which, I’d say, were:

(Non Fic)

The Ghost With Trembling Wings. - Scott Weidensall

(Fiction)

The Graveyard Book – Neil Gaiman

Out of a Clear Sky – Sally Hinchliffe

(Blog Story)

Taking Life For Granted

(Short Story Collections)

Willful Creatures – Aimee Bender

The Girl in the Flammable Skirt – Aimee Bender

The White Road and Other Stories – Tania Hershman

The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God and Other Stories – Etgar Keret

(Telly)

(Music)

And if I had to choose an absolute winner, the best discovery of the year, it would HAVE to be Aimee Bender (with Mr Keret, Tania Hershman and Mariee Sioux all very close behind). I think she’s just wonderful.

So there you go. I hope one or two of you find something you like/love from my little list.

Hols!

24 Wednesday Dec 2008

Posted by nikperring in Christmas message

≈ 5 Comments

Well, folks it’s holiday time. I’ll do a round up of my faves from 2008 shortly. In the meantime I’d like to wish everyone who comes here (and their own) all the best for the holidays. Have a lovely time.

Pretty Picture Post

19 Friday Dec 2008

Posted by nikperring in Fiona Robyn, The Letters

≈ 8 Comments

Mr Postman brought me this earlier. I’ve a feeling I’m going to like it.

Big thanks to (fellow red ipod loving) Fiona for posting it.

Great stories forget about the rules of physics

17 Wednesday Dec 2008

Posted by nikperring in Kelly Spitzer, short stories, Tania Hershman, The Short Review, WomenRuleWriter

≈ 7 Comments

Love that line. It rings true with me. You can see more like this over at Kelly Spitzer’s blog, as she plays word association with Tania Hershman.

And while I’m talking of Tania, the new issue of The Short Review’s out.

I noticed WomenRuleWriter picked up on the same quote as I did. It’s this:

“I think that a “story” has to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. There has to be a situation, and characters, and the characters have to DO things — things that have an effect on the situation and the other characters — and the characters must be changed by the effects of those things. A lot of modern fiction is just vignettes, not stories — the difference is that the characters don’t take any action, or there isn’t an end” – David D Levine

And I’m not sure that not having an ‘end’ is a bad thing. I like it when I know the characters carry on after the story’s finished, and I like vignettes; being shown a situation can be every bit as affecting and big as being taken on the journey of a story. I’m not disagreeing with him totally, he has a point. I quite like the sound of his collection too…

What do you think?

Thursday Was Cool

14 Sunday Dec 2008

Posted by nikperring in flash fiction, Give me strength, short short story, The Rocky Monster Show

≈ Leave a Comment

I went to see a local school’s version of The Rocky Monster Show on Thursday, and it was brilliant. Utterly brilliant. Now, I’m going to be every so slightly bias because it was directed by my beloved, but really, I’d have loved it anyway. Great songs, great script, great costumes and great routines. Top, top stuff.

And it’s reminded me that I do mean it when I say that I want to write a play one day. (Actually, I need to figure out how one does it first, and, as a point of possible and/or debatable interest, a screenplay was the first major project I worked on.)

***

I’m surprised and pleased that, after well over a month, people are still downloading the short, short story I wrote for Halloween. To be honest, I was surprised when it was being downloaded a week after. Just shows, you never can tell. (I just hope those who are listening to it like it!)

Reunion

11 Thursday Dec 2008

Posted by nikperring in friends, reunion

≈ 2 Comments

I met up with a very old friend last night, someone I’ve been friends with since I was 11. It was the last opportunity I’d get before he and his family moved to America. And I’m not sure what I want to say about it, but I do want to say something.

On one hand I’m thrilled for him. Thrilled that he has a wonderfully nice wife and now a baby. And thrilled that he’s able to emigrate, that he’s able to start a new life with his family.

But I’m also sad. It’s a real end of an era. We’re grown up. We’ve moved on. We’ve lives of our own. And there’s a big part of me that wishes it was me moving (it’s something that’s been talked about, but talking’s different to doing, isn’t it?).

I also saw, quite plainly, how different my life is to most other ‘normal’ people’s. Now, I like being different and I love doing what I do (and I’m not sure I’d be any good at doing much else). I think it just feels odd when I compare.

So that’s it, I think.

Welcome to the world, A. And all the very best, to the three of you.