Science, science, science...mmmm

I spent a day at a physics conference last week, had a great meeting today with the head of Bristol University's experimental psychology department, which involved discussions about caffeine and optical illusions, and tomorrow I am going in to the Nanoscience and Quantum Information Centre - ooh, I just love saying it! - where my short-story-writer-in-residence position will be based, to get signed up so that I get a swipe card and can actually get into the building. So: all systems go for the preparatory phase of my position. I'm applying for an Arts Council grant and can't begin until that has been processed, so will be spending the 6 weeks or so after the holidays finding my way around, meeting people, trying to determine the structure of what I will be doing. I have a lot of ideas, and am meeting the head of the University's Centre for Public Engagement in Jan too, to see if there is something I can do there. It is not just inspiring - it's over-stimulating. I have so many ideas whirling around in my head and am dying to get the time and space to set something down on paper. I am sure it will happen soon!

In the meantime, Bristol is snow covered, which was a lovely novelty this morning and is now rather slippy and slushy. Happy holidays to you all, see you on the other side! 

Short Circuit at Ride the Word: A Lovely Time Was Had By All

A wonderful time last night at the special launch event for Short Circuit hosted by Ride the World XX at Cafe Yumchaa! Here I am in full flow, reading three flash stories (photos courtesy of Elizabeth B):

The variety of readings was wonderful, with Vincent de Souza, Jay Merill, Short Circuit Editor, Vanessa Gebbie, Sarah Salway, Marian Garvey, David Gaffney, Lane Ashfeldt, Elizabeth Baines, and Alex Keegan... there was stationery porn (pens and paper), dodgy doings on the M62, and much much more. Wonderful evidence that Short Circuit is a book written by real writers, all of whom write very differently.

Several of those above were online friends I had not met yet, lovely to meet you in the flesh (and Bob J too!). Thanks to all who came, celebrated, bought copies, cheered us on! Jen Hamilton-Emery from Salt Publishing was there too, and as well as celebrating Short Circuit, she thanked everyone who helped Salt when it was going through hard times this year... and that thanks goes to so many of you. We all appreciate it.

Find out more about the must-have Short Circuit: A Guide to the Art of the Short Story on the newly-created website (umm...designed by me).

RIDE THE WORD Christmas Special 'Short Circuit' Celebration

Come along and hear me and some of the other contributors to Short Circuit, the Guide to the Art of the Short Story, read their own work at:

RIDE THE WORD Christmas Special 'Short Circuit' Celebration

Ride the Word XIX

Free Event at The CAFE YUMCHAA

When: Tuesday 15th December 2009

6.30 for 7pm - till 9pm

Where: 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, Catherine Smith

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)

Shameless self promotion & The Year of Flash Fiction?

Ok, here is the hard-nosed self-promotional author side of me coming out! If you have a gap in your Christmas/Chanukah/Divali/Yule present list and you're looking to buy something for someone who loves books, how about a Salt Bundle? My book is part of the "Contemporary Student" bundle, alongside Broken Things by Padrika Tarrant, The Brand New Dark by Mark Waldron, Sawn-Off Tales by David Gaffney and Third Class Superhero by Charles Yu.

More info:

This bundle suits them all, often tripping along the line of avant-garde or deftly plunging right in, this bundle longs for an open minded reader who wants to embrace the wonderful and the abstract- however dark it may be at times.

Buy it for the contemporary writer/artist/student in your life or keep it and expand your mind by treating yourself to a journey to all the strange and beautiful literary crevices it has never been before.

Buying each of these books individually would cost you £54.95 (RRP) so buying them in the bundle saves you nearly £20, a fine deal if I do so say so myself.

In fact, it all sounds so good, I think I should buy myself one! More info here.

Ok, shameless self-promotion almost over: I am thrilled that the fabulous Sara Crowley, the short story queen at Waterstone's Brighton, and a great writer, has unveiled a brand-new display case in the shop, devoted entirely to.... Flash Fiction!

I am thrilled to be there alongside the most amazing short short story writers: Lydia David, Amy Hempel, Barthelme..Now, my theory is that 2010 could very well be The Year of Flash Fiction. If so, Sara's display case is a vital part of the lead-up to this momentous year, as is the Bridport prize's new Flash Fiction category and (shameless self-promotion warning) my week of flash fiction on Radio 4 in June 2010, perhaps? You hear it here first - if we talk about it enough, surely it will come true!

Suprisingly delightful - my story rebroadcast on Radio 4 tonight

Thanks to Miriam, I discovered yesterday that my short story, Drinking Vodka in the Afternoon, which was first broadcast on Radio 4 in 2007 as part of a week of Afternoon Readings commemorating the 50th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik, was being rebroadcast tonight! It was wonderful hearing it again, and now the story is available on BBC iPlayer for the next 7 days, in case you want to have a listen.

Hearing it again was like being back with old friends. I was deeply attached to my main character, Mary Margaret, the first character in any of my stories that stayed with me after this one was finished and compelled me to write more. I have... the other pieces haven't found homes yet, maybe it's all supposed to go together, I don't know. And, before you ask: No, not a novel. No!

Thanks to Teresa for the Kreativ Blogger award, I have had one before but each time it is a great boost, that some of what I am waffling on about might be of interest to someone else.

And: following several comments about lack of readability of my new blog design, cool as it was, I have managed to tweak the template so that it is clearer - I hope! Dad, can you read this??

Fiction and science and science fiction...

I had a great meeting on Friday with a physicist from the Uni's physics department, briefing me on an upcoming physics conference which he is hoping will inspire me to write some fiction. (This is the first step towards the start of my writer-in-residence position which I will take up at the University's Science Faculty in January. What form it will take -and who will fund it! - is still up for grabs.)

It is always a thrill for me to go into a science department! But what was interesting about this visit for me, as someone who studied physics 20 years ago and really didn't have what it took to be a physicist, is that this time I was looking at everything differently. My "eye" has changed.

For example, someone was stripping posters off the walls in preparation for a new coat of paint. Something about the remnant (see pic left) spoke to me, but not because I understood the equations. It was something more aesthetic, less about learning and knowledge than about symbols, patterns, shapes, colours.

As we walked to get coffee in the common room (is that the term?) he showed me some of the posters on the walls talking about the team's current research. Wonderful terms jumped out at me: Catastrophe Optics! Quantum carpets! And while I am most definitely fascinated by the science itself, it was another part of me, the writer part, itching to take these phrases, to twist and turn them, to make them my own.

In describing to me the Aharonov-Bohm effect, whose 50th anniversary the conference is to celebrate, he drew this on the board:

My first thought? Not - Oooh, look at those magnetic fields! But: It's an eye. I am seeing things differently, and, more than that, I am now allowed to see things differently, to see them however I want. And that is truly thrilling.

The most moving part of the meeting was when we talked about my short story, The Painter and the Physicist. It was read out at a Liars League event, and you can hear the actress read it or read the text here. Now, I thought I had made this up. I did. I made it up. I had no knowledge of anything like this, of anything that concerned the thrust of the story, in which the Painter asks the Physicist what colour he imagines electrons, protons, neutrons to be. So - imagine my astonishment when this physicist said that he and his colleagues have spent much time discussing what colour they think an electron is! Chills went down my spine.

This has happened before, me making up a story and then someone telling me that it happened to them. And it's ALWAYS freaky. And yet, in some way, gratifying. I can't really say why.

Finally, today's lovely news: there is a story I have been trying to write for YEARS. I mean this (as Vanessa and others can testify.) It is basically about a mother dealing with her son's very bizarre behaviour. I tried it in so many ways, coming at it realistically, trying to find out why the son behaved the way he did, showing it to many, many writing groups. Never hit it. Then I was inspired by reading Paddy O'Reilly's wonderful short story collection, The End of the World (my review here) to try a brand new structure, and suddenly a new language appeared, something more experimental, more visceral. Aha!

This happened after my book was finalised, so I held on to it. And now it has been accepted for publication by Electric Velocipede - a (paying) print magazine that wanted something "a little weird" and that I have been wanting to make it into for quite a while. Stories published in  Electric Velocipede and the magazine itself have won Hugo and World Fantasy Awards - THE  awards for so-called "genre" writing, (sci fi, fantasy, speculative, steampunk and other categories) which actually, I have found since setting up the Short Review, reward some of the most wonderfully-written and imaginative fiction I have had the pleasure of reading.

Reviewing the Logorrhea anthology (edited by Elec Velocipede's editor, John Klima) shattered my shameful misconceptions of "genre" fiction, and it has been a dream of mine for quite a while to cross this artifical divide myself. I liked to think I was writing "literary fiction" and aimed my stories at lit mags that fit this  - but once I released myself from these self-imposed restriction, I discovered a whole new world. I now subscribe to Interzone, the UK's leading sci fi magazine and love it. Open your mind!

Now EV's 4 issues for 2010 are full already, so my story, Under the Tree, won't be published til 2011. That's something to look forward to.