Seeing this, by the brilliant Cara Fielder, on the Waterstones blog made me very happy, as I’m sure you can imagine.

She says: “This is the set of short stories for the alternative community and indie world. A real must read.” which probably makes her my new favourite person.

And she has her own blog as well, which is definitely worth a nosey. Thanks, Cara!

And if you’d like to, you can buy Freaks! here.

I’m not sure. But, whatever it is, it’s pretty intense and pure and affecting. And great art too.

Here’s the story (found, courtesy of Debbie, here):

“Marina Abramovic and Ulay started an intense love story in the 70s, performing art out of the van they lived in. When they felt the relationship had run its course, they decided to walk the Great Wall of China, each from one end, meeting for one last big hug in the middle and never seeing each other again.

At her 2010 MoMa retrospective Marina performed ‘The Artist Is Present’ as part of the show, where she shared a minute of silence with each stranger who sat in front of her. Ulay arrived without her knowing and this is what happened.”

And here’s the video:

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More excellent writing advice here, this time for the magnificent Pixar. (Thanks to Dan Powell for the heads up.) Clicky here for the list.

I’m sure I’ve posted this here before, but, as I was reminded of it this week, and, as I think it’s absolutely wonderful advice to anyone wanting to do something creative seriously (and knowing just how hard that can be), I thought I’d pop it up again. Enjoy. You have great taste. Make good art, folks.

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Happy World Book Day, one and all. I’m busy here trying to write one, and helping others with theirs but I thought it might be a cool thing to recommend one to you good people (feel free to join in!).

And, today, I’m going to suggest you get your hands on a copy of Andrew Kaufman’s latest, Born Weird. (And keep your eyes peeled here, there’ll be more on it very soon.)

This, courtesy of the splendid Sarah Salway, is brilliant.

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I watched Ruby Sparks last night and I”m pretty certain it’ll end up being my film of the year. Granted, I don’t watch all that many – and I’m a long way from being anything close to being an expert – but I thought it was utterly delightful. The acting and the shooting of it were all first class but what impressed me the most (while also making me more than a little bit jealous) was the sheer quality of the story and the writing. I’d not seen all that much of Zoe Kazan before, save for loving her in Happythankyoumoreplease, so that’s going to change. She’s an incredible talent and I really can’t wait to see what she does next. If it’s half as good as this it’ll be wonderful.

So, the film. Calvin is a novelist who’s enjoyed huge success with his first novel but that was a little while ago and he now finds himself struggling somewhat with his writing as well as his romantic life (he’s struggling to get over the ending of a long-term relationship). So he writes his ideal woman as a character. And then she comes to life.

A bit of a surprise to begin with, for obvious reasons. But he’s not complaining. She’s everything he’s wanted. Calvin then discovers that, as she’s ‘his’ character he can get her to do whatever he wants. And there’s the genius. I’ll not give anything away here because you really should watch this yourselves, but I wouldn’t disagree with what (from wiki) ‘online film critic Chris Pandolfi from At A Theater Near You called it “an intelligent commentary on the creative process, insecurity, controlling behavior, idealism, and the fragility of the male ego. It’s all rather ingeniously combined into one of the most likeable films I’ve seen all year – a fantasy, a character study, and a cautionary tale all rolled into one’. 

Sublime and brilliant. And it would, I’d say, definitely hit a nerve with any writers out there. I wish I’d have written it.

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Long time friend of the blog Ali Bacon has a new book out. It’s called A Kettle of Fish and looks rather good, and when I heard about it I asked Ali if she’d like to come over here to give it a wee mention. Which she has kindly agreed to do, with the BONUS of talking about something I love very much: typography. So, without further ado, here’s Ali…

Going into print

Hello! What’s this, I hear you say, the flash fiction maestro hosting a novelist? My excuse (if I need one) is that when I read Nik’s Not so Perfect a couple of years ago, it was an excellent reminder of the importance of the physical attributes of a book: – short shorts stories in just the right wrapper, what could be better? The format definitely adds to the enjoyment. And then I ended up publishing my own novel paperback. Could I make a decent job of the physical entity?

Of course in the first instance, my Scottish coming-of-age-novel A Kettle of Fish (Crow Road with fish rather than fireworks?)  was picked up by an e-publisher, but I was still keen for the jacket (or cover image as we now say) to be striking, evocative and in keeping with the book as a whole. It also happened that my graphic designer daughter had just gone free-lance and since my publisher was happy for me to provide the cover art (subject to approval), we set about designing her (and my) very first book jacket. I won’t go into the details right now, although working with a designer (blood relative or not) was an interesting process in itself involving all kinds of choices I hadn’t thought about before. In the end the one thing which was my suggestion and ended up in the finished product is the typeface we used for the title, the romantically named Forgotten Uncial  which provided the celtic look I was after (and was free). Typography, don’t you just love it?

But then came the realisation that an e-book just wouldn’t be enough if the novel was to be read by all my friends family associates and the reading world at large, and so a print edition was called for, using a POD publisher. At this point things got messier. I noticed that lots of self-pub books went for a b/w spine and back cover bearing only plain text. Having agonised for quite some time on the look of the front, I wanted the full wrap-around experience. More work for the resident designer! And although I knew about the problem of web images, screen resolution etc, I’d forgotten it’s just as difficult to get a true colour match in print – cue many emails to the POD provider on paper quality and the demise of several ink cartridges. In the end we had the print cover in a darker tone than the e-book image, although you probably don’t see the difference here. And I love that fish on the spine!

That just left the inside, and admit to a bit of a failure here, not that I’m unhappy with what I got but I really didn’t have time (e-book was due in October and I wanted the print edition to follow asap) to experiment, and in the end I went for the ‘safe’ option of 12 point Times New Roman.  Better bland than irritating, I say. And as a final flourish I did manage to get my little fish on the title page (and only wish I had thought of using the same motif for the chapter headings).

So what’s the book about? I think I’ve been here long enough so you’ll have to find out on my website or of course you can always buy a copy (what a good idea!) – a mere £1.99 for the e-book or £8.99 for the full tactile experience, from Amazon.

If anyone wants to know more abut the design process, look out for a longer article in a future edition of What the Dickens Magazine. And finally, the design house (hers not mine) is still going strong and can be contacted at Carrot-Top-Design

Thanks Nik!

This is, without question, the funniest thing I’ve seen this year (found courtesy of the lovely Jen Campbell). I haven’t laughed like that in a long time. Which probably says a lot. Enjoy!