Sue

Yesterday evening I taught my weekly class at the library. After I’d finished, the head librarian took me to one side and told me Sue, one of the librarians there, had died. It was cancer and she hadn’t known she’d had it so the end was quick and relatively painless, which offered some degree of comfort.

But this was Sue. Happy, smiling, fun, lovely, helpful, chatty, and occasionally daft, Sue. I liked her. She was one of the good ones (people, I mean. All librarians are good).

It made me sad.

And I just wanted to mention it here.

(And please, if you do think something’s wrong, do go and see a doctor.)

Sweet Home

I’m delighted to welcome the very talented, and long time friend of the blog, AND all round short story good person, Carys Bray to the blog today, to talk about her debut collection, Sweet Home. I’ve yet to read it, but knowing her work (which I’m lucky to) I know it’ll be rather splendid. So. On we go…

 

Hi there, Carys, and welcome to the blog. It’s a thrill to have you here. So, your first book’s just come out. Congratulations! Could you tell us a little about it? Who’s it for and what’s it about?

 

It’s a collection of stories about families. Some of the stories are funny, some are sad and there’s a couple of modern fairy tales, too.

 

The book includes stories about a father who is reminded of his son as he watches the rescue of a group of Chilean miners, a mother who buys special-offer babies at the supermarket, a carpenter who sculpts a baby out of ice and a little boy who tries to engineer a happily ever after following the death of his sister.

 

I hope there’s something there for everyone.

 

‘Sweet Home’ is a lovely title. How did that come about?

I couldn’t decide whether to give the collection its own name or to name it after one of the stories. Eventually, I decided to name it after one of the stories. The story ‘Sweet Home’ is a story about an old woman who builds a gingerbread house at the edge of an English village, but I think the ‘Sweet Home’ title also works for the whole collection as most of the stories are about family and home.

 

What would you say all the stories in there have in common?

 

I think most of the stories are about the things that go wrong and right when people live together. I think fresh language is really important in short stories so I hope I’ve managed to tell the stories in an interesting way. I have quite a dark sense of humour which is probably evident in several of the stories – I like stories that are funny and sad, just like real life.

 


How long did it take you to write?

 

I started writing the stories when I began my MA in October 2009 and I finished writing them in the spring of 2011.

 

What’s your process?

 

When I was doing the MA I had to work to deadlines, so I used to stay up all night and force myself to keep writing. When I finished the MA I allowed myself to take a little longer. I also allowed myself to leave stories that weren’t working and come back to them later.

 

I usually start with one idea or image and then see if it’s got legs. I’ve got about half a dozen stories on the go at the moment, but I’m too busy to finish them, which is really frustrating!

 

What’s been the highlight of being a real, proper, genuine, author so far? (Is it cake?)

 

I do love cake (probably too much), but making little book cupcakes for my launch was probably not the highlight of being a real, proper author so far! I think the highlight has been the fact that I can hold the book now and know it’s full of words I arranged and ordered.

 

Any tips?

 

Read. That’s my tip. Reading is one of the best things in the world (along with cake) AND you can learn loads of really interesting stuff about writing when you read.

 

What’s next for you?

 

I’m working on a PhD and I’ve almost finished the first draft of a novel which doesn’t have a name yet. It’s a bit of a monster at around 120,000 words – the second draft may require a significant word cull.

 

Anything you’d like to add?

 

Yes! I really enjoyed Not So Perfect. And thank you for having me.

 


That’s very kind of you! Thanks. Wishing you all the best with it (and looking forward to giving it a read once I’ve got all this work off my desk!).

Writing Group

Six or seven years ago I was asked by the then regional head of libraries ’round my way (a lovely lady called Pat, if memory serves, which I hope it does) if I’d run a writing group/teach classes at a nearby library. That library was Bollington library. I said yes, and I’ve been doing it, and enjoying it, ever since. We’ve done all sorts, and the sorts of things you’d expect. There’s critiquing, workshopping, writing, homework (sometimes), a friendly and supportive atmosphere. And we’ve put together anthologies for charity (and raised a little money for them), held live reading evenings. All sorts. It’s lots of fun.

Recently though, our numbers have dwindled. Some people have decided that six years is enough for them. (I don’t blame them at all!) Others have moved away, been poorly, published their book etc etc.

So now there’s space!

So if you know of anyone in the south Manchester area (it’s between Macclesfield and Stockport) who might fancy coming along, do let them know. It’s £4.50 for an hour and a half (half five till seven every Tuesday) plus a small donation (usually about a quid) to cover the room hire.

If you could spread the word I’d be much obliged. Thank you!

(If anyone has any questions then you can give me a shout by using the form on this page.)

 

A 99p Recommendation

I know I’ve mentioned, with considerable regularity) that the Freaks! eBook is ONLY 99p (what do you mean you’ve not bought it yet??!), and, thanks to my brilliant publisher, it still is. It’s not the only one though. Oh no. There are many. One of which is the brilliant ‘Confessions of a GP’, which I’ve just finished reading, and I highly recommend it. It does, pretty much, what it says on the tin. It’s interesting, insightful, honest and, at times, very, very funny. It gets 5 stars from me.

What are you waiting for? Go check it out. (It’s also available as a paperback, and I think it would make a rather splendid Christmas gift.)

Birthday Girl

It was my mum’s birthday yesterday (I almost posted a picture here but thought better of it – so she doesn’t kill me). It was good. I got to see my brother and his other half (the baker of the incredible cake), and today my sister and her husband and my nephew arrived from overseas. So, yes. All in all a happy couple of days. And at some point soon, we’re going to feed the ducks, like we used to when we were little. And I still managed to write, which is a nice little bonus.

Stories Plus Actors

First off, a big thanks to all who entered the competition to win a copy of Janina Matthewson’s ‘The Understanding of Women’. The draw’s been made now and the winners are SarahGraceLogan, and Kirsty. Congrats to you both. I’m sure you’ll love it. And commiserations to those whose names weren’t pulled out of my biscuit tin.

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A few months ago a few of the stories from Freaks! (the eBook is still only 99p!) got the Stories Aloud treatment. In a fire station, somewhere in the depths of Oxford, the brilliant Julie Mayhew (who’s a top writer as well as actress) and Steve Hay, performed those stories. And those performance of those stories were filmed by my partner in fictional crime, the ever brilliant Caroline Smailes. And here they are. The visual quality isn’t so great but, happily, the audio is. (Plus, I’ve just discovered that I can’t actually upload the video files here…)  So here’s the audio from the night. I hope you enjoy them. I certainly did.

Soup, read by Julie Mayhew

Before I Lost You, read by Julie Mayhew

Magic Beans, read by Steve Hay

The Understanding of Women

I’m thrilled to welcome the very lovely and very talented Janina Matthewson to the blog today, to talk about her novella (available as an eBook now), the wonderfully titled ‘The Understanding of Women’. I’ve been dipping into it all week and very much loving what I’ve read.

Janina’s very kindly offered a free copy or two. Simply pop your name into the comments box and I’ll pull names from a hat next week.

 

 

Hello Janina! And welcome to the blog! A pleasure to have you here. So, you’ve just published (as an eBook) a novella, ‘The Understanding of Women’. Could you tell us a little about it. Who’s it for and what’s it about?

It’s about a guy called James who has an almost supernatural ability to read people. He’s only ever met one person who was a mystery to him, a girl called Imogen, who he fell in love with and then lost. So he tries to track her down, with the unsolicited help of an ex-girlfriend only he can see.

I guess based on the assumption that if you have similar tastes to me, you’ll probably like what I do, people who’ve enjoyed things like Pushing Daisies, Slings and Arrows, Ruby Sparks or books like The Tiny Wife, and hopefully Not So Perfect will enjoy this too.

 

Why did you write it? What got you started?

It started as an exercise, really, to get myself working better. At the beginning of this year I had a few weeks where I was becoming incredibly frustrated with my writing. I was working on a play but I didn’t have much time to spend on it, and whenever I did I felt like I was writing scraps that may or may not eventually fit in to the story they were supposed to belong to. I started feeling like I would never be able to finish it, and then that I’d never finish anything. So I decided to set myself a challenge to write a small novella, as that felt manageable, and I hoped would help me gain momentum for the play as well. Which it did.

 

Will it actually help people understand women?

Sometimes I suspect that we don’t actually want to be understood, so I hope not! People are very strange creatures, both men and women; perhaps it’s better to simply understand that we do whatever it is we do, and not waste energy trying to figure out why.

 

How long did it take you to write?

I blacked out one day for my initial splurge of writing – that was the idea behind the exercise. So in the couple of weeks before that day I did a lot of planning, and then wrote the bones of the story out in one burst. At that point it was only about six thousand words, I think, and obviously incredibly rough. Over the next five months or so I rewrote it several times, with a few weeks in between each rewrite.

 

What was your process?

I guess I’ve already explained what my process was on this one. What I found really interesting about how I set about this was the impact of deciding days in advance when I was going to work and how. So saying, “On this day you will write this many words about this,” turned out to be a really good way of getting it running in the background before I’d actually started actively working on it. I found I had ideas and plans without having been aware of having had them or made them.

 

When not writing novellas we’ll most likely find you…

Physically I’m often trying to find interesting London cafes and pubs to take people when they visit from New Zealand. One of my favourites is the Teahouse Theatre in Vauxhall, which is also a brilliant place to get some work done.

Virtually I’m at myrednotebook.com and on twitter as @J9London. I also  write for Work In Prowess, Best For Film, and AWOT.

 

What’s next for you?

I’m working on a novel at the moment, it’s currently on its severalth draft and has been a lot of fun so far. Also, I have plans to take the play I wrote this year, Human and If, to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival next year, and hopefully stage it somewhere in London too.

 

Anything you’d like to add?

I have been amazed and delighted by how ready people are to support me and my wee book. So to everyone that’s bought it, to everyone that’s said kind things, whether to my face or behind my back, thank you. There have rarely been beams bigger than the ones that have recently been on my face.

 

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Janina is one of many New Zealanders living in London. She can’t remember the first story she wrote, but it probably involved a unicorn. She writes in many different forms and reads in still more. When she’s a real person she’d quite like to live in a house with a rooftop garden.