International Short Story Day

Today, the day of the shortest night of the year, is International Short Story Day, organised by those fine folks at Comma Press.

There’s loads of short story eventy goodness going (click here for all the details) but the one I’d like to point you towards is this one, in Nottingham, where my fab co-author of Freaks!, Caroline Smailes will be:

Short Story Night at the Broadway, Nottingham

7.30pm, Free event, Broadway Cinema, 14 – 18 Broad Street, Nottingham, NG1 3AL

Nottingham Writers Studio will be celebrating Short Story Day in style in the Studio at the Broadway Cinema. Join them for a FREE event offering fantastic author readings and a short story swap (please bring along your own favourite stories/collections to exchange). The evening will also include a charity raffle to raise money for Book Aid for Africa (http://www.bookaidforafrica.com/), with brilliant signed book prizes and general short story fun and love. With refreshments available from the Broadway’s Café Bar – how can you resist?

Authors reading on the night are: Nicola Monaghan, Caroline Smailes, Frances Thimann, Giselle Leeb, Alison Moore and Pete Davis.

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Also, I’m at Strictly Writing today, answering some questions. 

And, don’t forget to have a listen to my interview with Jaymay in yesterday’s post, about writing, because it’s very, very good!

Happy short story day, folks!

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ADDED: And to celebrate the day, I’m offering my 6 part flash fiction/short story writing course for only £89. Offer closes at noon tomorrow. 

In Conversation With Jaymay

I can’t tell you how excited I am about this post.

So, a bit of history. Jaymay has been one of my absolute (and I mean all time) favourite artists for a couple of years now. I can’t remember how I discovered her music, but I’m thrilled I did. She is brilliant.

When Caroline spoke to me about me contributing to her charity collection 100 RPM – stories inspired by music (more on that here) (click here for the US page) using one of Jaymay’s songs as a starting point for my story ‘Two Minutes’ (which I read here) was a pretty obvious choice. (I used Rock, Scissors, Paper, because I love it).

A couple of weeks ago, Jaymay was kind enough to have a chat with me. We spoke about writing and creating and being writers and hard work, and words, and loads of other cool and interesting stuff. She was brilliant and I was – Well, I was nervous if I’m honest.

And here it is. Our conversation. I hope you enjoy it. I know I certainly did. Just hit play…

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Here’s Rock, Scissors, Paper, in all its glory (with added dancing).
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQBbohv2goM]

And here’s Jaymay herself, showing you how to play it.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAxB4LeoeDc]

You can find more about Jaymay and her music here. And this is her youtube channel.

Do have a listen.

A huge thanks to Jaymay for coming on here and, as always, a huge thanks to you for reading.

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And, speaking of reading, this is me reading ‘Two Minutes.’

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnDLGbgtnyo]

And the trailer to the brilliant Happythankyoumoreplease.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG3qBqtX50o&w=560&h=315]

Cracks!

I’m delighted to welcome long time friend of the blog, and brilliant writer, Caroline Green here today, to talk about her new novel, ‘Cracks’ for teens. So, without further ado, here we go…

Hi there Caroline. Welcome to the blog! I’m thrilled to have you here.

It’s an absolute pleasure. Thank you for having me.

So, you have a new book out, ‘Cracks’. Congratulations! Could you tell us a little about it? Who’s it for and what’s it about?

Thanks! Cracks is aimed at young teens and is the story of a boy called Cal, who starts seeing cracks in the walls that no one else can see. He soon discovers that his whole life  has basically been a lie and ends up on the run in a dangerous and unfamilar world, with lots of different parties wanting a piece of him. All he really wants is to find out who he really is and where he came from.

What got you started writing it?

It sounds mad but I literally did wonder what it would be like if you saw the walls cracking open and no one else could see it. (Told you it was mad)

How long did it take to write?

That’s very tricky to answer because I started it a good while before I got a publishing deal for Dark Ride, my first book. I had to put it on hold for a good ten months so it probably ended up taking about twice that long in total.

And how did you write it? What’s the Caroline Green Writing Process?

I’m not sure I’ve really worked that out yet. I still feel as though I’m finding my way in a dark room whenever I start something new.

Could you tell us a little about your road to publication?

It was long…and very bumpy! I had one adult novel and one other children’s novel ‘under the bed’ before I signed with Piccadilly Press for Dark Ride. Having been rejected by almost every agent in the Writer’s and Artist’s Yearbook, I went directly to a publisher and was very lucky that it paid off. I have a brilliant agent now, but do think this approach is worth trying when you’re starting out.

The most important thing a writer does is…read. I’m always really surprised if I meet a writer who doesn’t seem to read a lot of books. I passionately believe that writers must be readers first.

Any advice you’d like to give to people just starting out?

As I mentioned above, try going directly to a publisher as well agents. I know there aren’t many who take submissions, but there are still some who do.

Make sure the book is the very best it can be first though. Don’t waste an opportunity by sending the manuscript out half finished or unedited. And just don’t give up. If you really want it, keep at it.

What’s next for you?

I’m near the start of my third book for Piccadilly Press. Still at the, ‘Oh God, how did I ever manage to write a book before?’ stage!

Anything you’d like to add?

No, just thanks again for having me over! xx

A pleasure! Cracks is out now and available from all good book retailers. Such as this one.

Interactions

On Wednesday, the wondrous Roast Books publishes a brand new short story collection, Interactions. I’ve been dipping into my copy and it’s fab. But it is no ordinary collection. No sir. This is illustrated and it’s been brought together by InterAct Reading Service, an award winning charity which aims to stimulate the minds of stoke patients through live readings in hospitals and the like. A brilliant idea, I’m sure you’ll agree. And it has people like Ruth Rendell and Seamus Heaney in it.

Click here to find out more. 

Things I’ve Been Thrilled to See

First, that 100 RPM, is selling well. That means money’s coming in for One In Four and, perhaps more importantly, more people are getting to hear about them and what they do. That makes me happy.
Second, that the brilliant Bookchase gave Freaks! (or rather, its cover) a mention yesterday, as one of the favourites of 2012 so far. And that makes me happy too.

Back on to 100 RPM – It might be a cool idea if the people included in there would video themselves reading their stories and pop them up on youtube so we can set up a playlist with the stories and the songs that inspired them. Here’s my contribution… You know what to do!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnDLGbgtnyo]