TaniaWrites

Synchrotron-inspired flash fiction comp

2012-02-01T18:35:00.000Z

I had some lovely news waiting for me when we landed at Heathrow last night: I won the Light Reading flash fiction competition run by Diamond Light Source, the UK's national synchrotron. Don't know what a synchrotron is? Neither did I! It's a kind of particle accelerator, it whizzes subatomic particles around at very high speeds... and it's in Oxford. I'm thrilled...! You can read my 300 word story on the Light Reading web site along with the other entries. There was also a short story contest, for stories up to 3000 words. The results of that will be announced soon, and an anthology of the winning stories will be published, along with, I have been assured, other celebratory events! Thanks to everyone at the synchrotron, I learned a lot about what they do, it's absolutely fascinating. Maybe I'll get some high-speed electrons as part of my prize... (OK, that's a silly joke for someone with a physics degree, I apologise!).

Got some other nice news which I can't share yet, I've been shortlisted for another competition, which I had completely forgotten I entered! That's the way to do it, eh?

I'm delighted to announce...

2012-01-16T14:45:00.000Z

that I'm having another book! Now that the contract is signed, I can reveal that my second collection, My Mother Was An Upright Piano: Fictions, will be published by excellent Bristol publisher Tangent Books. It will be a collection of fifty or so very short flash fictions written over the past few years.

Because Tangent are well known for their art books, such as Banksy's Bristol: Home Sweet Home, about Bristol's most famous graffiti artist,

as well as the Naked Guide to Bristol

and two collections of short fiction from Stanley Donwood, who also happens to be Radiohead "artist in residence"

this physical version of my book is going to be a beautiful object, which will involve a local Bristol illustrator too. So, truly a local affair and I will be involved in every step, which I am very very excited about!

The book and ebook will be published in Spring this year, I will reveal more details as they are decided upon. It's been 3 and a half years since The White Road and Other Stories came out, and I finally feel ready for another book, and slightly better equipped than I was the first time to deal with everything that comes with a new book. We are planning some special treats, a limited edition and other things... what fun!

Nice news to start my sort-of year of poetry....

2012-01-12T18:07:00.003Z

I just got back from a lovely 24 hours at the heavenly Totleigh Barton Arvon Foundation centre to some nice news! My poem, (yup, a poem) Dreams of a Tea Seller has been commended in the Gregory O'Donoghue International Poetry competition. I am thrilled thrilled thrilled! I was too scared to even call anything of mine a poem four months ago, I felt utterly unqualified to even mention poetry. Now it seems that, perhaps, I am actually writing poetry. Delighted! Congratulations to the winners and all the highly commended and commended poems!

2012... calmer? Maybe.

2012-01-07T17:57:00.000Z

I'd like to first mention that I am writing this blog post with a fever of 100 degrees, so it may seem a little muddled, for which I apologise. But having this lurgy has at least meant I have time, sitting in bed, to contemplate, (and, perhaps, hallucinate, who knows?) and I want to record some thoughts. Which I may entirely rescind later...

The sharp-eyed amongst you may have noticed that I've changed my blog design. The "I'm so tired" logo seemed appropriate to me the minute I saw it. I am. 2011 was a busy year, with many ups and a few serious downs. Very very busy. I had about 20 stories and poems published, a record for me, I think. Which was just wonderful, I got (and get) immense amounts of gratification at every acceptance, which comes after many, many rejections, as every writer will testify. Some of the stories were published as a result of me being asked to submit something, some were commissions, both of which are quite new concepts to me and also very gratifying. To start the year with a story in Nature and end it in New Scientist is a thrill that will take some beating!

But the thing is, with submitting, with having quite a lot of work "out there", comes stress. The "will they, won't they"? waiting for answers, checking websites for competition results, has become something bordering obsessive. I'm not one of those who sends work out and then forgets. I can't seem to forget.

The other thing is that when I am writing something new, part of me is thinking "Well, where can I send this?" And that's not necessarily what I want to be at the forefront of my mind.

So, this year, I am changing tack. I am not going to be submitting short stories anywhere, with one exception. I will send a story to the BBC International Short Story Award. That's it. Really. Part of it has to do with the two issues I've just mentioned, and part with the previous blog post about China Mieville and mystery. I'm going to hold back a bit. I'm working on a new collection of science-inspired stories and I think it could be a good idea, if it does find a publisher, if a certain number of them haven't been previously published individually. Perhaps it will allow me to think of the collection as an entity, rather than each story as a discrete object.

Anyway, this is a new thing for me. I've been submitting lots and lots of stories every year for the past 4 years or so (for our own interest, Vanessa Gebbie and I kept a blog throughout 2007 detailing all our submissions, acceptances and rejections - and I made 155 submissions that year, that's almost one every two days...). It's time to experiment with a different method. See what happens. If I am asked to submit somewhere, then I will. But I won't send out work pro-actively. I already have about five stories scheduled to be published this year and some that I submitted last year that are still "pending", so there is potential gratification to be had.

What I will be submitting is poetry. I am very much a beginner poet (even writing that makes me feel silly, how can I be a poet?) and I am dipping my toe in this completely new world. I took two poetry classes last term and am carrying on with one this term, and have been really enjoying it although very daunted. The more I read, the less daunted I become, though - and fabulous writer friends like Sue Guiney, Sarah Salway and Vanessa, all of whom write prose and poetry, are very inspiring.

This is the one major change I've made this year - smaller changes already instituted include deleting my stats counters for this blog and my website, another source of obsession that seems unhelpful in the extreme. It's lovely to see who visits here and from where, of course, but do I need that information?

I have been getting some great invitations recently to do quite a lot of teaching this year - flash fiction workshops, mostly, in various locations, and a science-inspired fiction workshop, so maybe this will be my year of teaching? I'd like that, there's nothing that beats the joy on the face of someone who has never written flash fiction before after proudly reading out their first story! (More news about workshops coming soon). And there are some bits of Big News that I hope to be able to unveil shortly too... but for now I'm keeping shtum.

So, I wish you all a very happy 2012, whatever resolutions you have made or not made. May it be a year of creativity, fulfilment, energy and passion!

China Mieville and Preserving the Mystery

2011-12-24T17:10:00.000Z

I have read an entire, 400-page book today: Embassytown by China Miéville. And it has made me think. So, I thought I would record some of my thoughts here, for me and maybe for you too. This novel is his 9th book - 8 previous novels and one short story collection - and it is quite astonishing. And I might even say brilliant. It is a novel about language, about truth and lies, about simile and metaphor, set on another planet about humans and aliens. It is unlike anything I have ever read before, anything. It itself is a metaphor.

What's so amazing is Miéville's language. Look at this, the opening paragraph of the book:

The children of the embassy all saw the boat land. Their teachers and shiftparents had had them painting it for days. One wall of the room had been given over to their ideas. It's been centuries since any voidcraft vented fire, as they imagined this one doing, but it's a tradition to represent them with such trails. When I was young, I painted ships in the same way.

Anyone understand this? Anyone know exactly where we are, what's going on? How many words we've never seen before? Enough to signal we're in a new territory, literally and linguistically.

Perhaps this is familiar from science fiction novels, I don't know. I'm reading more and more work that is labelled "science fiction" but Miéville prefers to call his writing "new weird" and that sounds about right to me. Anyway, there are those readers who will no doubt be put off by this opening, or if not then by all the continuing novelty that swiftly follows. This is an introduction that is almost an anti-introduction. It almost says: "You will not understand me, but if you persevere it will be worth it". And it is.

Suffice it to say, Embassytown is an immensely complex novel which employs Miéville's new and highly inventive language and concepts to illustrate fundamentals about how we communicate, the need to be able to lie, and about love, friendship, community, safety, war and power. He doesn't provide definitions of his many, many new words, and that's what captivated me - I had to work hard, I couldn't skim anything, just to keep my footing, or at least one foot on the ground! And I loved that.

Now here's an interesting thing: I found the final 100 pages less compelling. Yes, it was a happy-ish ending, yes it tied up lots of loose ends. But I think it was more than that, I believe it was because I finally understood all the new words, got to grips with the novel concepts, which species was which, who did what. The mystery? Gone.

This made me think, of course, about my own writing. And also about the stories i am reading as part of the sifting I am doing for a short story competition. How often do you read a story that keeps you working hard? How much more compelling is it if the story doesn't give itself away too soon? However, the majority of the stories I've read for competitions not only give it away, they then add far too much information. Background, backstory... descriptions, explanations... All of which, for this reader at least, serve to push me away from the story. I think, Well, why should I keep reading? What's there left to find out? What's the mystery?

I do try and apply this to my own work, although it's harder to know how a reader who is not me will read it, since I am all-knowing (well mostly) about my own story. I tend to err on the side of too mysterious, too cryptic and minimalist, I think. But I think that it's better to err on that side, have your reader a little confused and curious than pile on information and lose their interest completely.

What helps (and here's a clumsy segue into the other thing I wanted to mention!) is having a trusted reader or group of readers read your work, not something I do that often anymore. "Trusted" is not easy to come by, and as Robin Black talks about in her excellent blog post over at Beyond the Margins, sharing work can lead to horrible experiences. She suggests that reading and commenting on a writing colleague's work should be "a process of honoring the fact that the piece exists at all, as opposed to shredding or praising it." I like this very very much, she gives eminently sensible advice and airs issues that are not often talked about public. Check out the blog post, On Reading One Another's Work.

I also highly recommend China Miéville's writings. I loved his short story collection, Looking for Jake (published in 2005 and reviewed on The Short Review here), which is weird but very different from Embassytown, and am going to seek out more of his books. I hear him speak recently at the One Culture science and literature festival held in the Royal Society in London and was extremely impressed by the way he talks about writing, about stories, about genre pigeon-holing. You can read a blog report of that event on the Royal Society's blog.

And perhaps, as 2011 draws to a close and 2012 approaches, next year will be a year of opening ourselves up to the mysterious in our writing? Of giving the reader some space to figure things out for him or herself? And of celebrating that in our colleagues' work too, if they share it with us. A giving-in to the not-knowing, perhaps. Because, really, what do we actually know? Happy holidays, everyone.

Story in New Scientist

2011-12-22T17:17:00.002Z

This has definitely got to be one of the highlights of my year - a year which began with my short story in science journal Nature ends with my science-inspired short story in science magazine New Scientist's Dec 24th print edition, available worldwide! It's not available online, so if you fancy reading it, I'm sure it's in your local newsagent, or whatever the equivalent is outside the UK. I'm unbelievably excited about this - they asked me for a story, which is something I'd dreamed of for years. Thank you, New Scientist! Happy holidays to all!

ADDENDUM: turns out it is published online too, on the New Scientist blog!

Workshop with Sarah Salway: Postcards to Yourself

2011-12-16T11:13:00.000Z

Thanks to Sue G for drawing my attention to this - so that I can draw your attention to it! Sarah Salway and I co-tutored an Arvon Foundation course in May so I know firsthand what a fantastic teacher/tutor/inspiring person she is. She is running a course entitled "Postcards to Yourself" together with Alison Piasecka, who runs Moving Thru Transitions, here in the UK in February, here are more details:

POSTCARDS TO YOURSELF in Othona, East Anglia 22-24 February 2012

A 3 day workshop led by Sarah Salway and Alison:

Wish you were … where?

Do you want to rediscover that creative spark you thought you’d lost and have fun exploring your life on the page through a varied series of short guided writing exercises? During this course, you’ll forget the grammar police, red pens and even neat handwriting as you give yourself space to tune your unique writing voice, liberate your imagination and use language as a map to support your journey to self-discovery and growth. You’ll write at your own pace, and with absolutely no need to share unless you want to. No previous writing experience is necessary.
For prices and more information click here

There is only space for 10 people, and the place itself looks stunning, so I would get your skates on... (anyone snowed in today? Very bright and sunny here in Bristol!). Have a lovely weekend.

Vote for your favourite particle-accelerator-inspired flash story!

2011-12-12T15:30:00.002Z

So, this UK particle accelerator, Diamond Light Source, held a short story and a flash fiction competition. And I went in for both. And now the flash fiction entries are all posted on the website, and you can vote. For your favourites. Not that I'm saying anything. Not that I'm happening to mention mine is called The Beam Line. (Others I know on the list are Pete Dominican and Kevlin Henney). This is just for your information. Right? Ok. Here's the website. (You do have to very quickly register to vote. Just so you know. In case... ) I'll be quiet now.

The Juno Charm visits the blog

2011-12-08T09:00:00.001Z

Photo: Emilia Krysztofiak:

I am very luck in that I have many multi-talented writer friends, one of whom is Nuala Ní Chonchúir - she writes short stories, novels, poetry. Nuala - who is the same age as I am - has published, umm, let's see, three short story collections (Nude, To the World of Men Welcome, The Wind Across the Grass), a novel (You) and now her fourth poetry collection, The Juno Charm, (the others are Molly's Daughter, Tattoo Tatu, Portrait of the Artist with Red Car). Do I feel inadequate? Is this about me? No, it isn't. It's about Nuala. Here's her full bio:

Born in Dublin in 1970, Nuala Ní Chonchúir lives in Galway county. Her début novel You (New Island, 2010) was called ‘a heart-warmer’ by The Irish Times and ‘a gem’ by The Irish Examiner. Her third short story collection Nude (Salt, 2009)) was shortlisted for the UK’s Edge Hill Prize. Her second short story collection To The World of Men, Welcome has just been re-issued by Arlen House in an expanded paperback edition. The Juno Charm, her third full poetry collection, was launched in November.

I am delighted to be hosting this stop on her blog tour for The Juno Charm, an exquisite, moving, lyrical, visceral - and often very funny - collection of poetry. Since I am a poetry novice attempting to write a few poems, I used this as a chance to pick my talented friend's brain, get some tips. I hope you'll find it interesting too - and it will whet your appetite for the book, which would make an ideal seasonal gift!

Tania: Welcome, Nuala! Your poems are a wonderful combination of very physical and visceral and soaring flights of language. You use some words I have never heard of (English words!) but didn't want to look them up, I loved the not-knowing. How do you write your poems? Do you search for words that are new to you?

Nuala: I’m now very curious to know what those words were!! [Tania: here are some of them: "jiddering", "drupe", "anchoritic", "lanugo", "vernix", "ocellated"] My poems are written when something flashes into my mind’s eye because of something I have read/seen/heard. Lots of thing interest me but in order to make a poem, a thing has to really grab me and nag at me until I write about it. Like most writers, I love to add to my word-hoard. I use the thesaurus and dictionary daily, when I write, because it’s important to me to always use the right word. I hope that by being a careful writer – meaning one who cares about everything from words to grammar to the overall feel and look of a poem – that I will eventually write something of worth. So, yes, I am always alert to new words and often that new word by itself will spark a poem. ‘Peabiddy’ – Flannery O’Connor’s word for peachicks (baby peacocks) – was a new word to me and it became the apt title to the poem ‘Peabiddy’ which is about my daughter Juno’s birth and my hopes for her. Here’s the text of it:

Peabiddy

The flaps opened and out you popped,
biddy-in-the-box, one wing raised
in a super-heroine’s salute.

We put you there, cock and hen,
rattling feathers and shrieking softly
under canvas in a midland field.

You, our emerald peabiddy,
the actual fact of you musters pride
as we watch amazed at your evolution.

How you stomp on sturdy legs and
perfect your calls: the eee-ow of your tribe,
the vowels and consonants of ours.

Safe passage – we cannot fly with you –
but our nest will always be here and
we can guarantee a soft landing.

T: Just a gorgeous poem, thank you! Many of the poems here deal with extremely personal experiences – sex, miscarriage, birth – is this something you feel that poetry helps you express in a way you can't in other forms – fiction or non-fiction?

N: My poetry tends to be about my life (other than when it involves narratives of other people’s lives, like van Gogh, Kahlo etc.). So it centres a lot on life events like birth, death, illness etc. My fiction tends to me more made-up, that is, not drawn directly from my life, but it will always contain parts of me – my opinions and experiences. I have written about all the same things in fiction (pregnancy loss, sex etc.) but I have transposed those things onto people who are clearly not me. It can be nerve-wracking, in that sense, when a poetry collection comes out because now people know all about the real, raw me, rather than the disguised, fictional me :)

T:Your poems seem to be in conversation with each other, reading the book in one go is a wonderful, complete experience. Was this in any way planned??

N: It wasn’t planned in that the poems were written over a four year period and they reflect what was happening to me and obsessing me over those years and before that. So the writing just grows organically out of whatever is going on, in this case marriage breakdown, divorce, pregnancy loss, remarriage, new love, new baby. So if it’s a conversation, it’s one with myself, trying to make sense of all the ups and downs of the past few years. The planning came later, then, in the ordering of the book – which poem to put where. That’s always a daunting experience but satisfying when the book has a narrative flow. I also ended and began with poems on a high note, to lure the reader in!

T: One final question? What advice would you have for a beginner poet , especially one who writes in other forms (i.e. me!)?

N: Read lots of contemporary poetry - find out what people are writing about and how they are doing it. Go to poetry readings and listen to your peers. Some poets read wonderfully and can be an inspiration. Learn a little about form - you don't have to write in forms but it's good to know a little about them. Maybe get a copy of The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms, edited by Eavan Boland and Mark Strand. Write about the things that possess and interest you, the things that are dear to your heart. You knit, Tania - I challenge you to write a knitting poem! Thanks so much for having me here today. Next week my virtual tour takes me to Mel Ulm’s The Reading Life blog in the Philippines.

****

Thank you so much, Nuala, for visiting the blog and for sharing something with us about your process and the writing of poetry, what it means to you. (I have the Mark Strand book so i am on the right track!) Nuala blogs at Women Rule Writer, where you can follow the previous and next stops on her tour. You can buy The Juno Charm here. Go on, you know you want to!

Flashing at the Bridport Open Book Festival

2011-12-01T10:27:00.001Z

I just spent four wonderful days in Bridport, a town near the Dorset coast, which may be small in size but is bursting with arts activities! I was honoured to be running two flash fiction workshops as part of the first Open Book festival with Vanessa Gebbie, and she has just done a great write-up of our time there on her blog, so good that I can't top it! Head over there to see what went on...

But just before you go - a big thank you to all those who came and wrote flash fiction with us, it was an honour writing with you. There seemed to be a kind of "religious" conversion taking place amongst a few who had never "flashed" before, and it was a joy to see - and hear - tiny stories by those who had never known that they could write such things. Such wonderful stories, too...!

Finishing Sarah Salway's Sentences...etc...

2011-11-25T15:59:00.001Z

So, I'm over at Sarah Salway's blog today, finishing her sentences.... And also in Bridport, running 2 flash fiction workshops at the Open Book festival together with Vanessa Gebbie (workshop one this morning was wonderful, thank you if you came along and flashed with us!) And thirdly, I'm thrilled to have been shortlisted, for the third year running, in PANK's 1001 Awesome Words contest, for my piece, The Tragedy of Tragic Men, to be published in PANK next February. Congratulations to all! The full list is here.

And finally, Ink Tears did a video interview with me, about short stories (of course!) and I was a bit nervous about being videoed, and then about seeing it, but Sara-Mae Tuson did a brilliant job editing it so I thought I'd share...:

Sir Paul Nurse and Poetry

2011-11-22T12:48:00.001Z

(Cross-posted with the Bristol University Science Faculty blog)

Photo: Royal Society

There were two great events held here in Bristol last night, one at the University and one at the Bristol Old Vic, and I was hoping against hope that I would find a connection between them to make this blog post flow! And... what do you know? I did. The first was Sir Paul Nurse, president of the Royal Society, Nobel Prize winner, geneticist, president of Rockefeller University New York... all-round very very interesting scientist and excellent talker-about-science! He was giving the Sir Anthony Epstein lecture at the Wills Tower, in the largest, cathedral-like space, which was packed to the rafters... His topic was "Great Ideas in Biology" and he was quick to point out that these weren't THE great ideas in biology but his pick of great ideas... although he felt that most people would agree on 4 out of the 5.

So, what were his great ideas? Well: The Cell, The Gene, Evolution by Natural Selection, Life as Chemistry (and Physics) and the fifth, possibly contentious one, Biology as an Organized System, by which he meant looking at the biological networks and how they are structured, looking at the flow of "information", at the system as an information carrier.

It was all fascinating stuff, some of which I already knew a bit of, but always good to be reminded what a chromosome is, for example... with some great slides and historical perspective! I was then heading to a poetry event, so, I hear you ask, how are the two connected?? Well, it was at Great Idea Number 3, which you would assume centred around one Charles Darwin. But no, in fact Sir Paul wanted to focus on Charles' grandad, Erasmus, who was the first to talk about evolution (Charles later supplied the vast quantities of data to prove it). Not only that, apparently Erasmus - who was a colourful figure, so large that he cut an oval out of his dining table so he might sit rather nearer to his supper, and fathered 14 children - was a poet, at one time "one of the best known poets in England"! And not only that, he wrote much of his scientific reports in blank verse! (See Jenny Uglow on Erasmus Darwin's poetry in The Guardian). The Poetry Foundation gives us his poem, The Botanic Garden, and here is an excerpt:

“You taught mysterious Bacon to explore
Metallic veins, and part the dross from ore;
With sylvan coal in whirling mills combine
The crystal’d nitre, and the sulphurous mine;
Through wiry nets the black diffusion strain,
And close an airy ocean in a grain.—
Pent in dark chambers of cylindric brass,
Slumbers in grim repose the sooty mass;
Lit by the brilliant spark, from grain to grain
Runs the quick fire along the kindling train;
On the pain’d ear-drum bursts the sudden crash
Starts the red-flame, and death pursues the flash.—
Fear’s feeble hand directs the fiery darts,
And strength and courage yield to chemic arts;
Guilt with pale brow the mimic thunder owns,
And tyrants tremble on their blood-stain’d thrones.

Stirring stuff! Now the poets I went to see after this lecture, Luke Kennard and Tom Philips, did not deal directly with biology but I feel that Erasmus D would have enjoyed the evening, which moved from a searing critique/love poem about Portishead to a tale of the Murderer being taken for a haircut. I was immensely impressed by the whole event, organised monthly by Word of Mouth - highly recommended if you are in the vicinity!

So, an evening of poetry, biology and biological poetry, what more could I have wanted?

New Scientist & Beat the Dust

2011-11-14T14:54:00.001Z

I've been waiting years to be able to say this: New Scientist have asked me for a science-inspired short story to run in the December 24th issue! I am very very excited... it's a flash story inspired by my time in the biochemistry lab, we will see what New Scientist readers make of it! The title story of my collection, The White Road, which is inspired by an article from New Scientist, was published in New Scientist online just after the book came out and that provoked some interesting discussion....

I'm also delighted to have a flash story, Move Quickly Now, in the current issue of Beat the Dust, along with a playlist inspired by the story, which was a wonderful thing to be asked to do. A taster:

She said, “Move quickly now and we'll go together. No, don't look behind. No, don't.” He wondered but followed, only being small and not yet ready for disagreements. Or rather, not yet ready to see if this would be what he decided to be disagreeable about. He was a small boy who chose his battles carefully ....

Read the rest here.

Happy 4th Birthday to The Short Review!

2011-11-08T09:22:00.002Z

www.theshortreview.com

Happy birthday! This month The Short Review, the journal I founded and edit, turns four years old. In that time, 439 story collections and anthologies have been reviewed, by our forty or so reviewers worldwide, and over 250 authors interviewed... We all do what we do for love of the short story and to spread the word about as many short story collections as possible so readers can get hold of them, demand them from their local bookshops or libraries, buy them as presents.

Four years on, we are so overwhelmed with offers of collections to review that we have had to declare a hiatus in accepting new review copies so that we can catch our breath! A good sign, we think. A very good sign! How could you help us celebrate our birthday? Tell someone about a short story collection you love. Tell ten people. Spread it around!

This month's issue includes an unprecedented seven reviews of multi-author anthologies, which means that we are bringing you short stories by more authors than ever before! From women aloud to the bride stripped bare, the gold boy and the emerald girl, the best british and european fiction, what doesn't kill you if you're with the bears or on the Paris metro in nineteen seventysomething... and......

Giveaways - In honour of our birthday - and of the UK's National Short Story Week - we are giving away NINE books: 4 of the books we are reviewing this month - and an extra 5 short story collections! You could win Best British Short Stories 2011, Best European Fiction 2012, the National Short Story Week charity audiobook anthology Women Aloud - and Affirm Press's Long Story Shorts set of six short story collections, which includes Barry Divola's Nineteen Seventysomething.Visit the Competitions page to find out how to win.

Publication Day for Vanessa Gebbie's The Coward's Tale!

2011-11-07T09:00:00.000Z

Huge congratulations to my great mate Vanessa Gebbie who's fourth book ( hot on the heels of two short story collections and Short Circuit, a book of articles about writing short stories) The Coward's Tale, her first novel, is published today by Bloomsbury. First, the cover is absolutely gorgeous, isn't it? Second, I cannot wait to read it, I've sampled Chapter 1 and can't wait to get my hands on the rest... It's getting wonderful reviews already, which doesn't surprise me one bit.

Here's a taste for you:

‘My name is Laddy Merridew. I’m a cry-baby. I’m sorry.’

‘And my name is Ianto Jenkins. I am a coward. And that’s worse.’

The boy Laddy Merridew, sent to live with his grandmother, stumbles off the bus into a small Welsh mining community, where he begins an unlikely friendship with Ianto Passchendaele Jenkins, the town beggar-storyteller.

Ianto is watchman over the legacy of the collapse many years ago of Kindly Light Pit, a disaster whose echoes reverberate down the generations of the town. Through Ianto’s stories Laddy is drawn into both the town’s history and the conundrums of the present.

Why has woodwork teacher Icarus Evans striven most of his life to carve wooden feathers that will float on an updraft? Why is the undertaker Tutt Bevan trying to find a straight path through the town? Why does James Little, the old gas-meter emptier, dig his allotment by moonlight? And why does window cleaner Judah Jones take autumn leaves into a disused chapel?

These and other men of the town, and the women who mothered them, married them and mourned them, are bound together by the echoes of the Kindly Light tragedy and by the mysterious figure of Ianto Jenkins, whose stories of loyalty and betrayal, loss and love, form an unforgettable, spellbinding tapestry.The Coward’s Tale is a powerfully imagined, poetic and haunting novel, spiked with humour. It is a story of kinship and kindness, guilt and atonement, and the ways in which we carve the present out of an unforgiving past.

Visit Vanessa's Coward's Tale blog to find out more... and buy the book on Amazon here.

New stories and upcoming deadlines

2011-11-04T09:15:00.001Z

Yes, yes, it's been a while, where does the time go! A quick few links to recently-published stories:

Like Owls is published in SPECS, an annual print journal which is full of the weird and wonderful (my kind of thing). You can't read the prose poem online but you can watch a video of me reading it and read a short paragraph about how I came to write it.
All Activity is Silent is published in Issue 15 of kill author, an online journal also filled with weird and wonderful. (You can also hear me reading it on the site.)
And third for the weird and wonderful, The Watch My Father Wanted, in Metazen. Text only! These kinds of publications make me so happy, that there are others on my warped wavelength. They are full of gems, do check them out.

I've just had a story accepted by Beat the Dust, coming in November, and another by Metazen for December 8th Lovely, all lovely. To inspire - me and you! - here are some upcoming deadlines for story and poetry submissions:

Deadline Nov 30th:

The New Writer Poetry and Prose Prizes: for "fact, fiction and poetry" entry online or by post, open to all, prize fund £2500. Categories judged by Jon Pinnock (read my interview with him here), Sally Quilford (who produces a writing calendar) and Bill Greenwell.

Whispered Words: 1000 words max: "welcomes fiction and non-fiction. We accept prose of all kinds: literary, science fiction, children’s, memoir, essay, creative non-fiction. Theme: Whispered Words," entry online, open to all, 1st prize $1000.

Commonwealth Short Story Prize:Awarded for the best piece of unpublished short fiction (2000 – 5000 words). Submissions must be made by the author of the short story. Regional winners receive £1,000 and the overall winner receives £5,000. Entry online only, open to Commononwealth only.

Diamond Light Reading Short Story & Flash Fic Comp: Competition by UK synchotron (don't know what that is? Here's your chance to find out!): "we’re inviting you to submit a story of up to 3,000 words inspired by Diamond – the facility, the science and the people. There’s also a Flash Fiction prize for stories under 300 words. Stories can be in any genre and there is no minimum word limit. The top three writers will receive a cash prize, and these, along with those highly commended by the judges, will be published in an anthology of short stories." £500 first prize. Entry online only, open to all.

I'll stop there for the moment... got to go do some writing. Good luck to all!

Two great events and more coming...

2011-10-20T10:55:00.000+01:00

My blogging is suffering, sorry about that, but here's a quick post about what I've been up to. On Tuesday I was involved in 2 brilliant events -the first was part of Bristol University's new Inside Arts festival, a session about reading groups, some of whom had read my flash story Plaits - a very enthusiastic audience chatted with me and Tom Sperlinger about reading, about writing, about flash fiction, it was just wonderful, I really enjoyed it. And I gained some insights about my own story, which is always such a boost. (And it was lovely to finally meet Debs Rickard!)

I then rushed off to Bristol Foyles for the launch of the 2012 Bristol Short Story Prize, which is something very close to my heart, not just because I've been a judge for the past two years, but in great part because the prize's organiser, Joe Melia, is truly a tireless champion of short stories and of writers. I am so honoured to be involved (not as a judge this year...).

The launch kicked it all off so well - with readings by last year's winner, Emily Bullock (whose winning story, hearing it read by her, stirred me all over again), Bristol-based writer Alan Toyne (unforgettable descriptions of a sweat lodge) and the fabulous Jonathan Pinnock (read my chat with him here), who read two flashes, one of which was new to me, Canine Mathematics - and anything to do with maths always warms my heart!

I wound up the first part of the festivities by reading four flash stories - including one I'd never read out before that was picked by the audience: I asked them to shout out a letter of the alphabet and I found a story whose title began with "W". (I read We Watched Him On Our Screens which you can read here.)

The Bristol Short Story Prize is now well and truly open - get your entries in!

Coming up: It's a busy week for me, I have three more events, all part of the new Unputdownable Bristol Festival of Literature: Friday at 6pm at Henleaze Library we'll be finishing off the citywide short story... Saturday 4-5pm at Hooper House Cafe on Stokes Croft I'll be reading together with the excellent Pauline Masurel, Amy C Mason and Jules Hardy... Saturday 7.30-9.30pm at Hamilton House, Stokes Croft, the citywide short story will be revealed... and I'll be revealing how I avoid writer's block!

Interviewed by Tim Love aka LitRefs

2011-10-09T14:15:00.000+01:00

Just a quick post to direct you to Tim Love's excellent blog, LitRefs, a fantastic resource for all things literary. I've "known" Tim online for several years and he asked if he could ask me some questions - about our shared loved for fiction and science, about short stories, poetry, etc... Here's a taster:

What came first - Science or Fiction?
Definitely fiction! I started reading at a very early age, apparently,according to my mother (yes, she does say I was a prodigy, she is my mother)and stories were a big part of my childhood. Science came later, I havevague memories of reading some children's book about Famous Scientists buthave no idea when that was. It was at school that I fell for maths (gosh nowthat sounds odd). I just loved solving equations, loved theright-or-wrongness, the lack of greyness, although now I understand farbetter that science and the scientific endeavour are full of grey areas.

You can read the rest of the interview here. Thanks, Tim!

White Rabbit Live Lit Tea Party

2011-10-03T11:43:00.000+01:00

This is a recommendation for all you short story writers who can get to London, or Brighton - The White Rabbit's Are You Sitting Comfortably live lit events. It's described as "A cosy evening of cracking stories, cute cakes and comfortable chairs" but it is so much more! It's quite a Mad Hatter's tea party...

I was delighted to have one of my short short stories, Underground (previously published in PANK a few years ago - scroll down) chosen for their "Underground" themed night on Friday night, where it would be read by an actor. And I was invited to come along (they really like the writers to be there) and listen.

Well, I've been to live lit events before, but never one where the tables had proper cake stands filled with tiny homemade cakes, tea cups brimmed with sweeties (yes, gentle reader, I ate them all), and where the chip butties flowed freely! Not only were the readings - by organizers Gareth and Bernadette, actors and writers, and the guest reader, Fiona - excellent, but the atmosphere was wonderful, they constantly made sure that I was okay, since I'd come alone, and supplied with chip butties. After all the readings, we played pass-the-parcel! (Non-Brits, see here for explanation) with prizes! I felt well and truly back in the 1970s, in the best way - especially given the Wombles-themed story that came with soundtrack. I went home with a specially-printed copy of my story in a beautifully-made folder and a White Rabbit memory stick I bought with Gareth and Bernadette reading about 3 hours of stories.

A cracking evening, a delight for writers, a joy for anyone who loves stories and loves being read to - submit for their next themed nights, see The White Rabbit for more. I can't recommend this highly enough, thank you Gareth and Bernadette!

Aliens aliens aliens... and Mrs Darcy

2011-09-29T10:00:00.000+01:00

There are some books that I know I am going to love reading. There are other books I pretty much know that I won't. And then there are the third and possibly most delightful kind, the unknown unknowns, the ones that come at you from left field and - BAMM - you are smitten! Such a book is one Mrs Darcy versus the Aliens by one Mr Jonathan Pinnock, just published by Proxima Books, an imprint of Salt Publishing. I thought "mashups", I thought "aliens", I thought, "oh my goodness, no!".

I was wrong.

I giggled. I chortled. I couldn't stop reading. Not only is this an utterly wonderful story and oddly fitting with Jane Austen's characters (Lady Catherine‎ de Bourgh, an alien? Of course, silly me for not knowing that). I can't help but feel that Jane would be quite pleased.

I am delighted to have the alien...um, sorry, author here today. Let me tell you a little about Mr Pinnock. He studied Maths at Cambridge University (a fact that endears him to me already, without the aliens). Then, as his bio says, "he drifted into the world of software and has remained there ever since. He has written one book on software development and co-authored a further dozen, most of which are now almost entirely obsolete.In the last few years he has turned to writing fiction and poetry and has won a number of prizes and has had work read on BBC Radio 4. Mrs Darcy versus the Aliens is his first full-length novel."

I already knew I enjoyed Jon's short stories, having (anonymously) highly commended his story, Advice re Elephants, when I judged last year's Sean O'Faolain short story competition and was part of the judging team who shortlisted his story rZr and Napoleon for the 2010 Bristol Short Story Prize. It's clear from these that he has a rather wicked sense of humour and a sly wit. So, I have asked him a few tricky questions, on your behalf:

Tania: Welcome, Jon. I recently met a very interesting biologist, Rachel Rodman, who also writes, and she has come up with a whole theory about literary mash-ups, of which I believe your book is one. Her article is published in LabLit. She calls you and your kind (!) "literary geneticists" and, using Pride and Prejudice and Zombies as her example, says:

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is in this sense a genetically modified organism, derived from the ancestral Pride and Prejudice by the introduction of new (genetic) material taken from the unrelated "monster" genre. A small-scale comparison of the two texts supports this idea: all Grahame-Smith's modifications have parallels with genomic modifications performed (or harnessed) by laboratory scientists. Here, I examine six classes (Insertions, Duplications, Insertions with Duplication, Replacements, Over-expression, and Gain-of Function Mutations) of these modifications, and draw parallels with biological examples.

Her thesis is lengthy and erudite! So we will skip to her final thoughts:

These six sections consider only a few of the classes of Grahame-Smith's modifications. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is also marked by DNA inversions (in the form of transposed words and phrases), silent mutations (in the form of synonym replacements), and missense mutations (in the form of deliberately misspelled words), and so on. The molecular techniques used by Grahame-Smith have also been applied to other works, enabling the production of a range of genetically modified texts: Android Karenina, The Meowmorphosis, Jane Slayre, and others. These modified texts possess new phenotypes. Some are merely new twists of humor, curious for their own sake, like a mammal engineered to possess fluorescent skin. Others, more utilitarian, render the text appealing to new audiences, like a plant engineered for cold-resistance, enabling it to grow at new latitudes. The success of these variants – some commercial, some aesthetic – sets the stage for a new generation of literary geneticists, whose experiments will force the field in new directions. This new dynamic, converting the writing desk to a laboratory and the classic text to a model organism, may in addition pose its own ethical questions. We exist in a new era, exciting and disturbing, in which neither text nor genome is immutable, and in which humans, armed with new technologies, can force their evolution. [My emphasis]

Any reactions to this?

Jon: Right, here goes...*deep breath* Firstly, a confession: I've never actually read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. This was partly because I was miffed about its unexpected appearance at a time when I was struggling to find a way into my own book and also because I didn't want to be accidentally influenced by it. I did feel obliged to refer to it in my book, because it would have felt odd not to acknowledge its presence, and it did provide an opportunity for going off at an interesting tangent with Jane Austen herself featuring as a disenchanted writer of cheap zombie novels. And I swear I never knew there were ninjas in P&P&Z until I read that article, although one of Jane Austen's supposed novels that I refer to also has ninjas in it!

However, having read the article, I am actually quite tempted to buy the book now because it makes it sound like an avant garde literary exercise worthy of Georges Perec or Tom Phillips. I like to think that what I'm doing is slightly different, because what I've written is an entirely logical sequel to the original book, rather than a mash-up of it. I originally described it as the bastard offspring following a drunken one-night stand between Pride and Prejudice and the X Files, which I guess in genetic terms means that it's less the result of gene splicing than the outcome of some dubious experimental breeding programme.

T: Dubious experimental breeding, love it! Entirely logical sequel? Ha! Okay, we'll keep this short: I couldn't stop laughing when I read the book, did you have that problem while you were writing it?

J: You're far too kind! Well, I know you're not supposed to laugh at your own jokes, but I did let out the occasional guffaw, usually when something completely unplanned emerged. Or at one of Lord Byron's double entendres. I have a weakness for those, I'm afraid.

T: And: I know you wrote it Dickens-like (or soap-operatically) in instalments, do you think your process/the end product would have been different if you'd attempted to do it all in one go, whatever that might mean?

J: Good question. It's a bit hypothetical, because I can't really think of any other way to write. I didn't have any sort of plan at all when I started writing the serialisation - although a plot of sorts did present itself once I'd got a chapter or two in. The thought of having a pin board with colour-coded timelines on it - well, it's just too weird to contemplate. Some of my favourite bits of Mrs Darcy... came about because I found myself at midnight on the day before the next episode was due to go live with nothing to publish. However, as a way of working it can be more than a little stressful.

T: Well, stress keeps us going, doesn't it? I say, Whatever works!

Thanks so much for stopping by, Jon. To whet your appetite, here's a pic I took of the book in the horror section of Waterstone's in Cork... Find out more, including how to buy it, excerpts and other crazy stuff, at Mrs Darcy And the Aliens and more about Jon and his other writings at jonathanpinnock.com.

Less hopeless, thank you

2011-09-28T15:28:00.002+01:00

I feel better after writing yesterday's post. It wasn't journalism, it wasn't a post about how to get published/get an agent. It wasn't an objective post at all - it was just about how I was feeling. Several people in the comments thanked me for my honesty and really it was the first time I'd written a really honest blog post for a long time. It has become harder and harder to do that since people are actually reading my blog! (I'm very grateful, don't get me wrong, just a little shy.)

I try to stay upbeat here, but it's hard to be relentlessly positive when that's not what's actually going on. I think perhaps part of the "silence" of the blog title was my own silence about this and now that I've vented, got it out, I feel better. I did worry a bit that I was shooting myself in the foot, if any agents ever read the post that would be it for me. But sometimes you've just got to get it out.

And something certainly did get "out"! Yesterday, a few hours after the post went up and apparently completely unconnected to it, I heard from the assistant of the first agent I wrote to, 8 weeks ago, apologizing for the delay! I think she may have been overwhelmed by the gratitude of my response! So, what can we learn from this? That this agent, at least, is not in the "no response means no" business, and for this I am thankful.No guarantees, but the assistant liked my writing enough to pass them on to the agent.

Okay, that takes us back to some positive news. Here, on this very blog, tomorrow, I am hosting the almost-final leg in Jonathan Pinnock's mammoth "Mrs Darcy versus the Aliens" blog tour! Intrigued? Pop back tomorrow. And huge congratulations to my writer friend M on her book deal (more about that when I am allowed)! Good news all round!

The hopeless hopeful silence

2011-09-27T13:59:00.000+01:00

I'm recovering from a packed ten days, first at the Cork International Short Story Festival and then this past weekend at the Small Wonder short story festival. Both were wonderful, but the reason I decided to treat myself and go to both is rather less wonderful. I've been feeling depressed about the short story. Not about the short story itself, good heavens no! How could I, when reading short stories brings such joy into my life and writing them might even have saved my life.

No, I've been depressed about the "business" of short stories, and more specifically short story collections. It's only so much we short story writers and lovers can take of being told the same thing again and again and again... No-one reads short stories...No-one buys short story collections...No-one wants your work.. Oh, I don't like short stories... Then came the BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Reading cuts, which I found out about on my birthday. Charming. Sign the protest petition here. At least the comments by signatories are really heartening.

Then a few days ago someone in the audience at Small Wonder even asked one of the speakers why they write short stories since short story writers are "in the graveyard of writing", or something to that effect. You can imagine how I was feeling hearing that. We're in the graveyard of writing? We're dead? Who's dead? We write for the dead?

My first reaction is, No we're bloody well not, there are thousands of people worldwide who love reading short stories. Maybe even more than that. It was heartening in Cork to meet a wonderful Canadian writer, Deborah Willis, whose first collection was bought by Penguin Canada without an agent and was nominated for the Governer General's Award - and for her to tell me she is under no pressure to write a novel. Of course, in Canada you just say the words "Alice Munro" like a magic password if someone dares to suggest that you "graduate" from the little short story to the mightly novel.

Now, my rant here is not against novels - that would be utterly ridiculous. Some of my best friends are writing novels :) No, my rant here is that writers aren't being allowed to write whatever they want - and, more than that, what they are good at.

Second rant, and this relates to the title of this post and is more personal. I've been thinking it's about time I looked for an agent. I had a few meetings in 2009 when my book was commended for the Orange Award for New Writers, and everyone was very kind but I didn't have anything for them to sell. That made sense. Well, now I am 3/4 of the way through a new collection, biology-inspired fictions, funded by an Arts Council England grant, and so I thought this might be a good time.

I want to state categorically here that I fully expected the "I'm so sorry but we just can't sell short story collections at all right now". I figured there was a 0.0001% chance an agent would buck that trend. What I didn't bargain for was this: silence. Total and utter silence, from three agents. I wrote what I thought was a well-constructed query email, and I had a personal recommendation to each agent through writer friends and another agent. But... I was also completely honest about only wanting to write short stories.

No response. Nothing. And it's been 6 weeks or more...

And then last week I read about the new "no response means no" policy apparently being adopted by a number of literary agents. This equates to: if we don't write back, we don't want you. I am very thankful that I am not alone in find this quite shocking. You don't have a minute to even paste in a form reply saying "no"? Apparently, one agent said she employs the "no response" tactic because she doesn't like dealing with the "negativity" of having to reject people. Oh my.

I'd like to put my Short Review editor's hat on here. We receive a lot of queries asking if we might review a newly published short story collection, many more than we can, in fact, review (which is good news for short story collections). I have a form reply in which the first thing I do is congratulate the author or publisher - because, especially in this climate, I believe every short story collection published is a cause for celebration! I then explain how I will try and find a reviewer but it might not happen. It makes me sad, the number of collections we won't be able to review since we "only" review 10 a month. But I would never dream of ignoring an email. Never.

As editor last year of Southword, I had to pick 6 short stories for the issue. This meant rejecting hundreds of stories - a number of which were submitted by friends of mine. How did I feel? Sick. Because I knew exactly how it would feel to get that email, however kindly I worded it.

But to leave someone hanging, not knowing if the non-response is a sign that there is hope or not, is, frankly, cruel. I think it is deeply uncivilized. And if that agent thinks she is avoiding negative karma by not sending an actual rejection, she is mistaken. She should congratulate and applaud every single person who gets up the guts to write to her. Don't we all know how hard it is to move from "I'm trying to write" to "I am a writer", to take that leap into sending out your work to a publication, to then even contemplate the next step, the possibility of an agent taking you on?

Thankfully, there are a number of agents who have reacted to this "no reply means no" and said that they simply don't agree with this. I think we should vote with our feet - if an agent has a "no reply means no" policy, perhaps we should send them silence first, before they can send it back. And let's give ourselves a round of applause, for just putting ourselves out there.

It's not easy. I am trying to stop worrying so much about the "business" side of all this and get back into the writing. Thank goodness for all the amazing small presses out there who are publishing the books - not just story collections - that are the sorts of things that no-one thinks will sell. They are to be applauded too. As a very wise friend of mine said, mainstream publishing is a bit like Marks & Spencers - they aren't going to agree to sell a limited edition of your hand-painted belts unless it's a very special occasion. And if what you're creating doesn't even really look like a belt... well then.

In the mean time, I'm getting down to some writing. I'm going to stop caring if I'm making the right kind of belts. I'm going to let it all hang out.

ADDENDUM
I forgot to mention that this also comes after hearing many many stories from fellow writers of non-responses, not just to initial queries like mine, which didn't include an MS, but after agents have requested an MS to be rushed overnight to them, they are so excited about it! And then.... silence. Is this a good way to do business?

ADDENDUM 2

I am being told that 12 weeks is about standard for a response time, so it seems I was jumping the gun here. But this isn't just about me, this is about a principle which I do hope isn't becoming the norm. I've just had a response from an agent's assistant apologizing for the delay - it seems it's a complete coincidence that it came today, and I have thanked her profusely for just ending the silence. I don't mind waiting and waiting... not at all, I understand how large the slush piles are. I just needed to know that I hadn't sent my queries into a void! An autoreply, as mentioned in the comments here, would have helped immensely.

Newly published + Kindle Special Offer

2011-09-20T12:33:00.000+01:00

While I recover from and gather my thoughts - and my photographs - about the Cork Short Story Festival, here are a few new and rather nice things. It's a bit of a bumper month for me in terms of publication (a bumper year, actually - this makes it 14 pieces published since January):

I have a poem, Moss, in the new issue of Alba, the Journal of Short Poetry.
My prose poem, Timeless, written in memory of our lovely Cleo is published in .Cent magazine (Page 13), a stunning fashion mag which also has prose.
My short short story, Waving on the Moon, is in the latest issue of A capella Zoo, a fantastic print journal of magical realist and speculative fiction and poetry, it's well worth grabbing a copy!

I also have a few more stories and prose poems forthcoming in the next few weeks, in SPECS, kill author and Electric Velocipede. I'm immensely grateful too all these wonderful publications and encourage you to support them not just by reading what they publish but by also doing them the honour of sending them your work.

Lastly, Salt are doing a very special Kindle promotion right now which means you can purchase my collection for the Kindle for 86p or 99 cents! You can also buy books buy the Best British Short Stories, edited by Nicholas Royle, and books by the wonderful Wena Poon and David Gaffney, Luke Kennard and others... See the Salt blog for the full list. I don't have a Kindle but if I did, I would be overloading that Amazon whispernet thingy with all my downloads....

Okay, back to sorting out Cork festival photographs. In the meantime, read the blogs by Women Rule Writer, Orfhlaith Foyle, Ethel Rohan at Dark Sky Magazine and the official festival blog.

The Watch My Father wanted

2011-09-16T10:59:00.001+01:00

While I work on my Cork Short Story Fest Day 2 blog post, here's an interlude: I am delighted to once again have a story in the fabulous Metazen. It's called The Watch My Father Wanted, and, in keeping with Metazen's ethos, it's a little wierd. I like wierd. Thank you for listening.

Cork International Short Story Festival Day 1

2011-09-15T00:26:00.002+01:00

So, I'm here in Cork, again, at the Cork International Short Story festival (formerly the Frank O'Connor International Short story Festival) and I am just so happy to be here! To be amongst like-minded short story folk, listening to amazing writers read their stories and talk about stories - til Sunday night - is just, for me, sublime.

The festival kicked off with the wondrous Helen Dunmore, here she is. (I forgot to take my proper camera, tomorrow's pics will be better, I promise!)

She read a story from her collection Ice Cream, called The Polish Teacher's Tie, which I had only read a few weeks ago. It was lovely hearing her read it. Just lovely. And she talked about what it was like to win prizes... and not to win prizes! We had a very nice chat afterwards - she is dashing back to Bristol tomorrow, which is a shame, but - SPOILER ALERT - she is going to be the guest on the Arvon Foundation short story course I am co-tutoring with Adam Marek in Nov 2012, so I just wanted to introduce myself, say hi. I tried not to gush too much! She and I expressed our dismay at the BBC Afternoon Reading cuts (check out Wrath of God's latest blog post for more on that).

I was thrilled to finally meet my online friend and fabulous writer Ethel Rohan, who is reading at the festival on Friday - originally Irish, she now lives in San Francisco. We have published each other - I chose one of her stories when I edited Southword and she asked me to contribute when she was guest editor at Necessary Fiction, so it is just great to finally meet her and once again have that wonderful experience when an online acquaintance is just as great - if not more so - in person!

And then... the final readings of the evening, by Orfhlaith Foyle and Peter Murphy, Irish writers who knocked me - and the rest of the audience, I think - sideways with their astonishing prose. I felt flattened, in the best way, by their dark and powerful stories. Just astonishing. Seek them out! (You can read an interview with Orfhlaith on Nuala Ní Chonchúir''s blog here.)

Then we, as tradition dictates, retired to the local tapas bar to unwind. I am still wound though! Too much stimulation. Okay, must muster my strength for tomorrow. Check out the Cork International Short Story festival website to see what's in store...

Congratulations to the Sean O'Faolain Prize Shortlistees

2011-09-13T14:37:00.000+01:00

MunsterLit has just announced the shortlist for the Sean O'Faolain short story competition - congratulations to all! Winner announced on Sunday at the Cork International Short Story Festival:

Guy Barriscale (Donegal, Ireland)--'Jamesy'
Jeremy Castle (Tipperary, Ireland)--'The Smallest Window in the World'
P.G. O'Connor (Limerick, Ireland)--'The Haggard'
David O'Doherty (Cork, Ireland)--'Post Office'
Laura Rock (Ontario, Canada)--'Woman Cubed'
Martha Williams (Cornwall, UK)--'Wet Stones'

Brand new short story competition!

2011-09-12T22:34:00.002+01:00

Thanks to Women Rule Writer for this one: The Moth-Altun Short Story Prize is a new prize for a story of up to 2500 words. Entries by post or online. There will be one prize of €1,000. Entry fee: €8 Judge: Christine Dwyer Hickey Closing date: 31 March 2012 More details on The Moth's website.

Giveaways and great events

2011-09-06T10:01:00.000+01:00

I thought I'd give a plug to a few great things:

Rosa Mira books, the wonderful New Zealand publisher whose Slight Peculiar Love Stories e-anthology includes four of my flash stories, is having an e-book giveaway. Visit their Facebook page for details. It's worth it!

If you're anywhere near Stroud - or could be - check out Stroud Short Stories, a live lit event held every few months. Submissions for the October event close September 18th.

And if you are anywhere near Brighton - or could be - check out this exciting-sounding FlashLit Fiction event from StoryStudio: "Flash fiction night with a digital bent launches at this year's Brighton Digital Festival": Flash Lit Fiction takes place on Sunday 11 September at Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar on Middle Street, Brighton, from 7-10pm. Advanced tickets are now on sale £6 from Eventbrite website http://bit.ly/nlOpkW or more on the door.

Much to enjoy!

Guest editor at National Short Story Week

2011-09-01T10:36:00.001+01:00

I am delighted to be this month's guest editor over at the National Short Story Week site. I talk about some of my favourite short stories and story collections and what's coming up (a lot) in the short story world this month. Pop by...

My guest blog post: Noticing

2011-08-19T10:58:00.000+01:00

Every Day Fiction's Flash Fiction Chronicles blog asked me for a guest blog post quite a while ago and I just couldn't think of anything to write about. And then a few weeks ago I had a strange experience and it struck me that this was the thing for FFC... My guest blog post on Noticing is now up on the FFC blog. A taster:

A few years ago, I was told off by a fellow short story writer for not carrying a notebook around with me. I had foolishly assumed that when an idea came, if it was “good enough” I would remember it. I was already then at an age where memory is not as sharp as it was. And there is so much competing for our attention that ideas don’t stand much of a chance of being retained.

Read the full post here>>

Things that make me happy No 1: Hipstamatic

2011-08-17T12:20:00.000+01:00

(Taken with the Hipstamatic app on my iPod)

Upside down world

2011-08-11T14:04:00.000+01:00

It may be seen as ridiculous to be worrying about short stories - about fiction, about the arts in general - when looters are smashing windows around England, burning down buildings. It's a scary time. I feel it's been a scary time for quite a while now. How can I ask you to sign a petition to show Radio 4 how you feel about cuts to their Afternoon Reading slots when there are cuts that deeply and tragically affect people's ability to actually live? I can't really answer that question. I can only say that just because I spend a lot of time here talking about short stories, about fiction, about writing, doesn't mean I am not also doing other things, privately, that I don't shout about, to help in other ways.

I am finding it very hard to write this blog post. All I can say is that I don't consider the Arts "trivial", a "luxury" that should be put aside, that doesn't in some way save lives too, or make lives better, or hold a mirror up to our lives to show us who we are, who that Other is whose skin we can't normally get into, whose shoes we have never worn. Yes, this is partly because it's what I strive for, it's what I do... but it's also where I get comfort, inspiration, stimulation. It's what challenges me, opens my eyes, doesn't let me rest easy, coast along. Short fiction is my choice, but of course it's not the only choice. The thing is: if the Afternoon Reading is being replaced by more news... what's next? At what point will there be no choice?

Dirt Story

2011-08-03T10:55:00.000+01:00

I thought hard about the title for this blog post... did I want to attract the kind of readers I never normally attract??! What is this all about? Well, on my first visit to the excellent Wellcome Collection, a place which bills itself as "a free visitor destination for the incurably curious, exploring the connections between medicine, life and art in the past, present and future", to see their exhibition last year on Skin, I found the artworks and exhibits they had collected were really inspiring to me as a writer.

Then... I was asked by Danny at the Wellcome Collection blog to write a 2-part blog post about fiction inspired by science...

And then... I heard about the new exhibition, 'Dirt' (on til end August) and i thought, What if I write a flash story inspired by the exhibition and offer it to Danny for the blog? To my delight, he agreed. And the result, a short short story called Her Dirt, is now published on the Wellcome Collection blog. A quick taste:

She keeps her dirt, and at first her dirt is enough. But then it isn’t. So she takes to taking.

There is history here. A clean clean child. Or, rather: demands for a clean clean child. A pure-white home, a childhood washing and re-washing. Do you need to hear of distant mothers and of even further-spinning fathers?

You can read the rest here this is the first piece of flash fiction to be on the WC blog - please feel free to leave your comments there and let them know if there should be more!

On the subject of MORE short stories... the petition against the BBC's planned cuts to short stories on Radio 4 is nearly at 6000 signatures. The fight is not over, please sign if this is something you care about.

Off to London

2011-08-02T07:26:00.000+01:00

I'm off to the Big City today, various bits of business and pleasure - including the launch of Rob Shearman's third short story collection, Everyone's Just So Special! I hope the forecast temperatures don't actually manifest, sweaty London is not my idea of fun.

But I also hope I will have a chance to swing by Foyles, the new home, for August, of the PhotoStories exhibition. Here's me standing by my PhotoStory, We Watched Him on Our Screens, when it was exhibited at Saatchi's.

Rob Shearman also has a PhotoStory in the exhibition, as do Adam Marek, Clare Wigfall and 11 other fantastic writers. (The typographs are available for sale.)

Ok, I'd better go. Bye!

Celebrating the short story - The Short Review

2011-07-29T11:33:00.003+01:00

Don't forget to sign the petition against Radio 4's planned cuts to short story broadcasts if you haven't already! Over 5700 signatures so far...

Today's short story celebration brings you the new issue of The Short Review -ten reviews of short story collections (this month all single-author, which is a first)

and a bumper NINE author interviews with a fantastic slew of writers: Anthony Doerr, Helen Oyeyemi, Gay Degani, Edith Pearlman, Courttia Newland, Emma Newman, Polly Frost, Carol Novack and Adam Golaski! Read it all here: The Short Review

Short Stories that Help

2011-07-28T18:06:00.001+01:00

Two points about short stories today. I wanted to draw your attention to an excellent comment on the previous post by Hayley who mentioned that when depression left her unable to focus for long enough to read novels, short stories were recommended to her by a counsellor (Alice Munro was the first) and she has read them ever since. Has anyone else had this experience?

The second is how short stories can help in another way - the wonderful Metazen online lit 'zine is having a short story & poetry contest which is raising money for Somalian Drought Relief Effort (via East Africa Drought Relief Fund).Here are the details:

We will accept submissions with an accompanying fee throughout the month of August. All submissions will be considered and a winner and 3 runners up will be selected by our judges. Winners and runners up will get prizes. Yes.

So…you get to write, you get to win stuff and you also get to help support a cause. There is really no downside. Even if you lose, your karma will increase.

Please submit either one piece of fiction (limit 2500 words) or poetry (limit 2 poems).
There is no theme, we’re looking for something you’re proud of. Nothing filthy, nothing milfy, nothing too pithy. A little pith is okay. Not too much. Pith-ish.
Timeline: All submissions sent between July 24th and August 31st with corresponding paypal entry fee will be considered.

And here's what you can win:

First Place:

Publication on metazen.ca with accompanying commentary on your piece
10% of entry fees from contest
1 Copy of Frank Hinton’s “I Don’t Respect Female Expression” print and digital
1 DVD “MDMA” by MDMA Films

Runner Up (3 winners):

Publication on metazen.ca
(1) of the following:

- Fog Gorgeous Stag by Sean Lovelace
- Grease Stains, Kistmet, And Maternal Wisdom by Mel Bosworth
- Download Helvetica For Free . Com by Steve Roggenbuck

Get to it! Full instructions here.

Celebrating the short story - part 4

2011-07-22T19:25:00.001+01:00

Very brief short story love today, because my laptop battery's running out and the power cord is downstairs (lazy, lazy) - just to say that I am loving the comments left on the Save Short Stories on Radio 4 petition, which has now been signed by Deborah Treisman, Fiction Editor of the New Yorker! This demonstrates that the reduction of short story broadcasts on radio 4 is an international issue, affecting writers worldwide.

I think all the comments should be compiled into something... something to be sent around to mainstream publishers who are convinced there's no market for short stories, perhaps? Staying positive here, it's just heart-warming, reading all the responses. Apparently, Radio 4's Feedback programme will be dealing with the issue next Friday, July 29th, so do tune in. Have a great weekend - happy reading!

Celebrating the short story - Part 3

2011-07-21T15:20:00.001+01:00

One lovely thing that has emerged from the fight to stop BBC Radio 4 cutting its once-daily Afternoon Reading short story program to once-weekly is the wealth of wonderful messages left by those signing the petition to protest the cuts. Here are a few:

"Short stories are gems that light up our lives. Please retain them on Radio 4. Readers, writers and listeners all have our lives enriched by short fiction. I urge you to reconsider and then reverse this extraordinary decision."

"My father went blind in his later years and relied on audio recordings. Yes, there are audio books but the whole point to the radio is to have an opportunity to taste the unexpected."

"I've been learning English by reading AND listening to short stories. Reducing the short story output on Radio damages not only the pleasure of the listeners but culture/education/learning also."

Radio 4 has always been a beacon of light in the world of the short story - why turn off that light when it costs so little and achieves so much?

My husband doesn't really enjoy reading, but will happily listen to short stories on Radio 4 and will thoroughly enjoy them. If we're listening in the car we have stay there until the story is finished, even if we've reached our destination! Far too important to cut back.

"I LOVE the short story slot. I switch on my radio at 3.30pm purely for that and nothing else...I even listen to the end of Money Box Live so I don't miss the beginning of the story. It is the one moment in my day where I can switch off from everything else and enter another world. We all need stories: they make us understand the world in which we live. They persuade us to empathise, to see another perspective, to understand other cultures, to imagine ourselves in someone else's shoes. Stories are what make us human and interactive. Don't take them away."

Click here to read more comments... and don't forget to sign!

Some more story positivity - Vanessa's comment on my last blog post needed a bit more exposure:

...Philip Pullman, speaking last night in support of the Save Our Six Libraries initiative, came out strongly in support of story. And spoken story. And the importance of hearing fiction read, (he talked about children, but in context, in a celebration of language - and his remarks can equally be applied to radio, and adults...)

Yippee! Save the libraries too...

And finally, a great way to celebrate the short story is to send your own stories out into the world, so here are a few upcoming deadlines for you:

July 31st: Sean O'Faolain Short Story Prize: Judged this year by Ian Wild. Entry fee €15, US $20 or £15, up to 3000 words. Prize is €1,500 for the overall winner, €500 for 2nd prize and €120 for four shortlisted stories. Online or postal entry.

August 12th: Manchester Fiction Prize: Judged by Heather Beck, John Burnside, Alison MacLeod and Nicholas Royle . Entry fee £15, up to 3000 words. Prize is £10,000 for the overall winner. Online or postal entry. All work submitted for consideration must be the entrant's own original writing, and should not have appeared in print or appear on a website (including blogs and social networking sites) or have been broadcast, or be submitted for publication or consideration elsewhere, for the duration of the Manchester Fiction Prize (which is deemed to begin on the date of entry and end on Friday 14th October 2011)

Sept 21st: Glasswoman Prize: a work of short fiction or creative non-fiction (prose) written by a woman. No entry fee, 50 to 5000 words. Prize is $500 for the overall winner, €100 for 2nd prize and €50 for runner-up. Online entry. Subject is open, but must be of significance to women

More short story celebrating - Slightly Peculiar Love Stories!

2011-07-20T12:13:00.001+01:00

In the spirit of "less complaining and more celebrating" (although I urge you to sign the petition against the planned Radio 4 short story cuts) I'm delighted to have 4 flash stories included in the wonderful Slightly Peculiar Love Stories e-anthology from New Zealand-based Rosa Mira Books! How gorgeous is that cover, by the way?

To find out more about the book and its authors, check out Rosa Mira Books' blog, where the tireless Penelope has been blowing our trumpets for quite a while now. And then click and - for the very small sum of $10 - buy the ebook which Penelope describes as:

... full of rich and diverse tales — the savvy, the sad, the sharp, the tender, the triumphant, the fearful, the wistful, the dark, the light, the cruel and the kind. Stories of love. All slightly peculiar. But then, so is love itself.

Too true! I am delighted to be in such venerable company as Alex Epstein (we recently reviewed his flash collection, Blue Has No South, on The Short Review), Craig Cliff (read the review of his collection, A Man Melting),and Tim Jones ((read the review of his collection, Transported) - and many other writers I am looking forward to reading for the first time. Buy the book here.

Celebrating the short story

2011-07-19T15:11:00.001+01:00

Sometimes the world seems to be even more insane than usual. Here in my small corner, the BBC's decision to cut its short story programming to once a week, beginning in November, which is NATIONAL SHORT STORY WEEK, smacks of complete lunacy. If you are a short story lover, please add your name to the petition to show them that there are many, many who care. More resources here on National Short Story Week and read the article in today's Independent, Susie McGuire's blog post, Jonathan Pinnock's post, and Clare Wigfall's post on Booktrust.

BUT - the best thing to do in the face of the decision by one of the world's largest commissioners of short stories is to CELEBRATE the short story even harder. And one of the best ways I can think of is to tell you how amazing ShortStoryVille was this past weekend in Bristol. Organized by the Bristol Short Story Prize, it was a half-day of panel discussions and readings at the Arnolfini arts centre, with so many fabulous writers: Sarah Salway, Alison MacLeod, Janice Galloway, Stuart Evers, Helen Oyeyemi, Gareth Powell, Emma Newman, Patricia Fergusion, Sarah Hilary, and Amy Mason - and other guests - Bidisha, Scott Pack, David Hebblethwaite and Clare Hey - talking about short stories. Here are some pictures:

Bidisha talking to Sarah Salway, Alison MacLeod and Janice Galloway

Alison reading from one of her short stories from 15 Modern Tales of Attraction

Janice reading her short story, Where you Find It

Sarah reading from her story The Woman Downstairs

the panel I chaired on reading short stories, with Scott, David and Clare

Joe Spurgeon chatting to Stuart and Helen

Sarah, Gareth, Amy and me reading.

Bristol Short Story Prize winner Emily Bullock!

I did promise to write about our Reading Short Stories panel discussion but having been part of it, I am finding it hard to recall exactly what we talked about so I have to rely on others! What I do remember is Scott Pack telling us he began his reading-a-short-story-per-day Me and My Stories project because he was trying to break his fixation on reading a whole book in one go...David Hebblethwaite likes to read anything and everything and gives a story at least a page to grab him before he abandons it, whereas Clare Hey of ShortFire Press gives a story only a few sentences.

No-one, sadly, admitted to doing a little short story dance after reading an excellent story (no, I didn't really expect them too) and also there was no difference amongst the panel when reading stories online or in print. And in response to another, excellent, question, we all gave recommendations for further reading, including: Miranda July's No-One belongs Here More Than You (Clare), Nina Allen's A Thread of Truth (David), Ryan Boudinot's The Littlest Hitler (Scott) and Anthony Doerr's Memory wall(me).

For more, visit Vanessa Gebbie's blog to read her take on the day...And don't stop celebrating the short story, despite the apparent lunacy around us!

Help Save Short Stories on BBC Radio!

2011-07-18T13:02:00.003+01:00

Following swiftly in the footsteps of the first short story festival in Bristol, UK, ShortStoryVille, which was hugely successful - comes the distressing news that BBC Radio 4, which until recently broadcast a short story in the Afternoon Reading programme 5 days a week, which was then reduced to 3 days a week - and now will be only once a week. This is the BBC - who only a few years ago was proud to announce the BBC National Short Story Award, and on their website say:

The BBC National Short Story Award, managed in partnership with Booktrust, continues to serve as a reminder of the power of the short story and to celebrate a literary form that is proving ever more versatile in the twenty first century, enjoyed not just on the page, on air and increasingly on every sort of screen, but also in flash fiction events, short story festivals and slams. The short story has moved beyond the revival of recent years and is now experiencing a golden age.

BBC Radio 4 is the world's leading broadcaster of short stories and a staunch and long-time supporter of the form. Short stories are broadcast every week, attracting over a million listeners.

BBC- you are a "staunch and long-time supporter", don't let us down now!

The Afternoon Reading has for many many years been a showcase not just for well-known writers but for new voices - on a personal note, it was my first "big break", the first time I felt I was taken seriously as a writer, coupled with the joy of hearing my story, The White Road, (later the title story of my first book) brought so wonderfully to life. Not only that, the payment the writer receives is no paltry sum and has formed a significant part of my writerly earnings in the years since.

There are many, many writers, listeners and readers who are very concerned about this development. Writer Susie McGuire and Ian, organiser of the UK's National Short Story Week, have formulated the following:

The new Controller of Radio 4, Gwyneth Williams, will be a guest on FEEDBACK on BBC Radio 4 next week. How very timely.
Would you add your name to a letter/question to ask her?
Would you pass on this email to other writers who care about the health of the short story…?

The more of us, & the better known the writers who sign it, the more likely it is to have some effect.

If so, please find below a short, polite question, proposed by Ian of http://www.nationalshortstoryweek.org.uk

Reminder: info on her decision to cut the short story’s presence on Radio 4 outlined here http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2011/07_july/10/radio4.shtml

If you’d like to add your signature, please email YES to
ian AT shortstoryweek DOT org DOT uk

& cc to me: info AT susiemaguire DOT co DOT uk

NB – It would be really helpful if you could reply within 24 hours so that the question can be lodged as soon as possible. This is by no means the *only* action interested parties can take, but it’s a start, and I hope you might add your weight to it with this (and further suggestions are welcomed)
thanks
Susie

*******************
Proposed question:
We were surprised and disappointed to learn of the decision to reduce the short story output on Radio 4 to once a week from next spring. Radio 4 has been a great champion of the short story for many years. It is one of very few places in the UK where both new and established writers can have their short stories broadcast to a large audience, and where radio listeners can enjoy readings of the short story form. This move comes at a time when interest in the short story is growing, but paid opportunities for short story writers are still scarce. Could Gwyneth Williams please explain:
1) what has led her to make this decision?
2) whether the short stories on Radio 4 extra will be new commissions or repeats of existing recordings?
3) how this decision fits with the BBC’s sponsorship of the National Short Story Award (and indeed if this will continue?)

If you are moved to do so, please take action, following the instructions outlined above. Signatories so far include:

Clare Wigfall

Sara Maitland

Philip Pullman

Nicholas Royle

Vivian French

James Robertson

Michael Holroyd

Jane Rusbridge

Dr Charles Smith

Sarah Hall

Sarah Hilary

Vanessa Gebbie

Jill Dawson

Lucinda Byatt

Maggie Gee

Sarah Sheridan (Soc of A, Scotland)

Tania Hershman (Ed, The Short Review)

Helena Nelson (publisher, Happenstance)

Morag Joss

Lola Perrin

Jules Horne

Suzanne Bellenger

Richard Beard (Nat Academy of Writing)

Ali Bacon

Nicky Parker, (Publisher, Amnesty)

Dan Powell

Ian Cundell

Kathleen Langley

John Courtney-Grimwood

Wendy Ann Greenhalgh

Alison Wells

James Wall

K E Bergdoll

Linda Cracknell

Jonathan Pinnock (also see his FB links)

Sarah Salway

Alison MacLeod

Louis Winters

Emily Dubberly

Karen Whiteson

Griff Griffiths

Sara Schofield

Ian Macpherson

Stella Burchill

(and counting...)

Please join us!

ADDENDUM: There is now an online petition here - please sign!

Short stories help

2011-07-13T14:00:00.000+01:00

There are so many things to write about. Thank you, first, for all your lovely comments on my post about Cleo, and for your wonderful emails too. It gets a little easier each day. And short stories help me, as they always do. I just read The River Nemunas from Anthony Doerr's astonishingly wonderful collection, Memory Wall. I didn't know the story would be about death and grief, and it tackles these so lightly yet so powerfully, and it felt absolutely true, absolutely right to me, now, even though it is about a 15-year-old American orphan living in Lithuania with her grandfather. That is the power of fiction, isn't it?

I am busy preparing for ShortStoryVille on Saturday, for the session I am chairing on reading short stories. Is there anything you would like me to ask our three panel members, Scott Pack, David Hebblethwaite and Clare Hey, all of whom are readers but not short story writers? I have quite a list of questions myself, but more are welcome, leave a comment here. A whole day of short stories is definitely keeping me going right now, I love nothing more than talking about them and spending time with other people who love nothing more than talking about them. I'm also reading later, together with some other wonderful local authors, and haven't decided yet what to read. I will leave that til the last minute. Something older, something new, perhaps something with a cat in it, but then there's the risk I will blubber, so perhaps not.

I will write about my time at Hawthornden soon, but here are a few pics as tasters until then:

Cleo, RIP

2011-07-10T21:41:00.000+01:00

Our beautiful cat Cleo, who adopted us 7 years ago, was hit by a car yesterday and killed. It's hard to write this. She was a perfect writer's companion, gorgeous, feisty, and loved to sleep in my shed. Cleo, we miss you. Wherever you are, I hope you always have a place in the sun.

ShortStoryVille - Bristol's first Short Story festival!

2011-06-30T13:35:00.000+01:00

Now, if you are in Bristol, anywhere near, or prepared to travel for the love of the short story on July 16th - then do it! ShortStoryVille is the brainchild of Joe Melia, the organiser of the Bristol Short Story Prize, and will culminate in the awards ceremony for this year's prize, all held at Bristol's Arnolfini arts centre. The entire afternoon leading up to that event is filled with short story goodness, including some of my favourite writers: Janice Galloway, Alison McLeod, Sarah Salway, Sarah Hilary, Stuart Evers...! I am very honoured to be part of it, and can't wait to be in the audience for the events I am not participating in. Just check this out:

12.00 – 1.00 Women and Short Stories - panel discussion chaired by writer, broadcaster and critic Bidisha. Often ignored in ‘greatest’ and ‘best of’ lists in other areas of literature, it is widely acknowledged and chronicled that women have led the way in the development of the short story. Is there something specific to the form, missing in other genres, that enables women writers to be taken as seriously as their male counterparts? Are short stories the most emancipated form of literature? Bidisha explores the bond between women and short fiction with 3 of the UK's most celebrated short story writers: Janice Galloway, A lison MacLeod and Sarah Salway. Tickets £3

1.30 – 2.30 Reading Short Stories - panel discussion chaired by acclaimed short story writer Tania Hershman. Is there an art to reading a short story? Is it very different from other forms of fiction? Does it depend on where a story is read: a collection, single story in a magazine, on an ereader? Tania is joined by three passionate short story readers- book reviewer and blogger David Hebblethwaite, Clare Hey, former editor at HarperCollins and founder of trailblazing, digital-only short story publisher Shortfire Press and Scott Pack, publisher at The Friday Project, influential blogger, commentator, reader, and creator of the popular meandmyshortstories blog. Tickets £3

3.30 – 4.30 Helen Oyeyemi and Stuart Evers - Editor of Venue magazine, Joe Spurgeon, interviews two of the UK’s most exciting writers. Helen Oyeyemi’s Mr Fox (Picador) and Stuart Evers’ Ten Stories about Smoking (Picador) are two of this year’s most anticipated books of short stories, both taking a different approach to the linked stories tradition. Helen and Stuart will be signing copies of their latest books in the Arnolfini bookshop after the interview. Tickets £3. Sponsored by Venue magazine.

5.00 – 6.00 Choice Cuts - The Bristol area pulsates with an abundance of brilliant short story writers. Sample some of the finest exponents’ stories, including Patricia Ferguson, Tania Hershman, Sarah Hilary, Amy Mason, Emma Newman and Gareth Powell. Compered by poet, publisher and performer Bertel Martin. This is a free, ticketed event and likely to be very popular so please book early.
Light Studio – Following on from their brilliant exhibition last year, Henbury School art students present original mixed media prints inspired by Nastasya Parker’s short story ‘The Meek Inherit’ published in last year’s Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology. Free, no ticket required.

Dark Studio – Showing throughout the day, Fairfield School’s Year 11 animation students adaptation of Craig Hawes’ short story ‘Pictures in the Dust’ published in the Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology Volume 2. Free, no ticket required.

Reading Room – Display of magazines and journals that publish short stories - one aspect of the vibrant and diverse world of short story publishing. Lots of real gems on show.

The 2011 Bristol Short Story Prize Awards Ceremony will be the closing event of the festival.

Tickets available from Arnolfini box office : phone 0117 9172300 or visit www.arnolfini.org.uk

We are extremely grateful for the funding and sponsorship help of Arts Council England, Bristol City Council, Venue magazine, Arnolfini and The Bristol Hotel in making this exciting event happen.

I really hope to see you there! I am so excited about this happening in my home city - short stories and more short stories...

Writing Science Into Fiction

2011-06-26T21:05:00.002+01:00

THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED, SADLY. I HOPE IT WILL BE RESCHEDULED.

I'm still contemplating my month's retreat, not quite ready to write about everything yet, still settling down, but here's some interesting info in the meantime, an event after my own heart:

Imagination and interpretation: Writing science into fiction

Starts: 6pm on 20 July 2011
Finishes: 7.30pm on 20 July 2011
Venue: The Royal Society, London

Speakers: Pat Barker CBE, Philip Sington
Chair: Prof. Sally Shuttleworth

Join Pat Barker CBE and Philip Sington in a discussion about representing scientists and science in contemporary fiction. Both authors have imaginatively used the archives of early 20th century scientists as the basis for major works of fiction. They will reveal what attracted them to these historical sources in particular, and discuss the pleasures and pitfalls of interpreting modern science in fictional worlds.

The event is free and all are welcome to attend. No ticket or advance booking is required - doors will open at 5.30pm and seats will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis.

Quick, I have WiFi!

2011-06-10T16:06:00.001+01:00

I've been working very very hard and enjoying myself immensely here at Internet-free Hawthornden Castle:

I won't jinx anything by talking about it too much yet, since I have another 10 days to go. I have escaped for the day into the Big City for a little Internet surfing (and, yes, an afternoon film, very decadent). Just wanted to plug a few lovely things I have been involved in over the last few weeks:

The wonderful Jen Campbell interviewed me about... short stories (there's a surprise) over at her blog. She asked some tough questions. A little snippet:

I get a kick from a great short story that is unlike any other reading experience, and I read everything, novels, poetry, non-fiction. But the short story discombobulates me, shakes me, moves me, in only a few pages or less, and it is these short stories I find I carry around with me, like whispering voices, for months, even years. I don't forget a short story I have loved.

And a few weeks ago I was interviewed over at the excellent Shortfire press about, umm, yes, short stories:

I prefer a 'messy' story that may not be perfect but takes risks to a carefully written and 'safe' story that never strays into dangerous territory – and 'danger' can mean something incredibly small, but something risky nonetheless. I'd rather be slightly confused for lack of information than given far too much information and know exactly what's going on, what's happened and what's going to happen.

I was so honoured to be included in this amazing project, Photo Stories "an experiment in writing, photography, and design" - all the writers involved picked a photo, wrote a 500-word story inspired by that photo, and then a designer combined the photo and the story into a third, brand-new entity, a "typographic print" - and all the typographic prints are being exhibited at the Saatchi gallery in London RIGHT NOW (and no, I haven't seen it, sadly I missed the launch). If you are in London, head down there. But even if you can't, the typographs are for sale, check out the website. You can see the typograph of my story here.

Another few bits of story news - I have several flash stories in a new ebook anthology coming very soon, Peculiar Love Stories, being published by Rosa Mira Books in New Zealand. I have to say, I realised I tend to write a lot of very peculiar love stories! Check out the publisher's blog here.

And the antipodean theme continues - a brand new and very very odd flash story, Disease relics, has just been published in volume 1 of Australian online mag Inky Squib, (scroll to page 4).

OK, time to head back to the castle. I will write more about the experience when I get home at the end of the month. I will leave you with this thought: porridge and creativity, is there a link?

Bye for a while

2011-05-23T10:33:00.000+01:00

There's no time, there's never enough time - to tell you what an astonishingly good week I had last week tutoring my first Arvon course with Sarah Salway! To tell you how much I learned... how much fun we had. I'm off now to the Hawthornden Castle Writers Retreat in Scotland for 4 weeks, with very very very little Internet access (maybe the odd dribble of it) - taking no fiction with me to read at all, a "short story fast" - wish me luck! See you all back here at the end of June, happy writing!

Litmus, Comma Press' "Short Stories from Modern Science" anthology

2011-05-15T22:55:00.000+01:00

I'm off tomorrow to co-tutor an Arvon Foundation short story course together with Sarah Salway at The Hurst, am very excited! Before I go, I wanted to let you know that Comma Press' second science-inspired fiction anthology, Litmus, will be published on June 2nd, and includes my short story, We Are All Made of Protein But Some of Us Glow More Than Others, with others by Adam Marek, Alison MacLeod, Annie Clarkson, Stella Duffy, Kate Clanchy and more, all specially commissioned.There will be several launch events, so stay tuned!

(Beautiful cover, isn't it?)

Andrew Oldham Visits

2011-05-11T23:39:00.002+01:00

I am delighted to welcome award-winning writer and poet Andrew Oldham to the blog today to talk about his debut poetry collection, the beautifully-titled Ghosts of A Low Moon, published by Belfast press Lapwing.

I decided first, as is sometimes my wont, to ask Andrew the questions I have asked writers as part of my writing&place series, mainly because I am very nosy! Welcome, Andrew!

Tania: Where are you?
Andrew: I cannot be exact. I am always shifting. Where I was is now somewhere new. I have gone from concrete to earth. From grey to green. From valley to moor living. I am in the wilds. I face the north wind and laugh. I am on the moors on top of the Pennines. I am the ancient mariner.

T: How long have you been there?

A: The moors and the hills have always been in me. Flat landscapes and valley living makes me sick. Makes me sad. I dream of hills. I have always been here. I always will be here. It is not a question of time or life. I am part of the landscape.

T: What do you write?
A: I write fiction, I write poetry, I write journalism, I write about the things I see, the things I hear, the things that have been or could be.

T: How do you think where you are affects what you write about and how you write?
A: It affects me. It is in my blood. The Spanish call it duende, we call The North. If you place your ear to the ground you can hear it.

Very lovely answers, thank you. Moving on to Ghosts of a Low Moon, I asked Andrew a bit about his process:

T: How did you go about putting this collection together? Did you consciously work on it as a complete entity?

A: No, I don't think as a poet putting together a first collection that you can afford to see your first collection as being written as a complete entity. It would mean that I would write the entire collection and then seek to get the individual poems printed in magazines to get a track record of publications behind me. I didn't start writing poetry thinking that I would have a collection, I was just happy to be published in magazines. It would mean I would have to stay true to the contents of that original collection, and I move on as a poet, I would just end up with a manuscript that I would constantly tinker with. During the editing though I did pull threads together in a manner that would pull the collection into a single entity. This meant writing new poems along the more established track record poems. I am now writing a second collection and I am conscious this time of writing within specific themes and forms, with an eye not just for magazines but for poetry publishers as well. Publishers do want you to have a track record in magazines regardless of which collection you're on, it shows a necessary and vital interaction with poetry industry and readers.

T: How do you write? A particular place/time?
A: I used to write in the mornings and late evenings but since becoming a father I've had to negotiate time between nappies, feeding and toddling. However, rather than killing any creativity as Cyril Connolly said it has sparked it. It has meant that I spend more time with my notebook rather than my laptop because it is faster, easier to carry around and doesn't end up with a small child grabbing it and licking it. Sometimes the old ways are the best and easiest. This means now I build up several early drafts in my notebook before going to a final edit on the laptop. It means that in one afternoon I can go from notebook to laptop in a final edit. Then print out poems, read them, leave them to cool for a month and then edit again. This means I can produce a large quantity of poems in my laptop sessions. The rewarding this is that I can discover poems I forgot I wrote in my notebook. At the moment, I don't write in a specific place. At my old house I wrote on a step near the top of the stairs due to the light and quiet space around it. We moved, again down to fatherhood and a desire to go back to my rural roots. I have selected a space in the orchard behind our house which will be the home of my office and has wonderful views over the orchard and the hills beyond. I like the quiet there.

T: What inspires you as a poet?
A: Poets I read do have an impact on my writing, a few poets I enjoy reading are, Ruthven Todd, Wallace Stevens, Carlos Williams, Tom Raworth and T.S. Eliot to name a few. Though Eliot is seen as deeply unfashionable by some of my contemporaries, such was his dominance of the twentieth century, many poets I know have turned their backs on him. I think it is a shame to turn away from any poetry, fiction or non-fiction. There is so much to read and so little time! There are poets I know who I talk with on a regular basis and the conversations we have do have an influence on my reading if not necessarily on my writing. I know in Ghosts of a Low Moon that the major influences were the road trips I went on around the UK and USA, that the people I met and the stories they told me came through on the page time after time. I can't pin it down more than that as it would become a fruitless journey, inspiration is so fleeting, a sense rather than an act of logic. Logic tends to boil things down to mechanics rather than senses. That would be a dangerous journey to take.

Thank you so much, Andrew. To leave you with a little more inspiration, Andrew has kindly allowed me to reprint one of the poems from his collection, Geometry, a title sure to appeal to me!

GEOMETRY

by Andrew Oldham

Some grey, wet afternoon in the lower set,
The blackboard is full of size, shape and lengths.
Two girls sit behind me; one smiles, smirks
and asks to see the length of my middle finger,
the circumference of my forefinger and thumb.
She looks under the table at my shoes, turns red.
Eyes widen at they look at the space my fingers conjure,
the empty round circle hangs in the air between us.
They’re adding me up and subtracting my volume,
I go red; stare at the board, stare at their legs,
polished and matt, one set bare, one set in tights.

Thanks so much for stopping by, Andrew. You can buy Ghosts of a Low Moon from Lapwing and find out more about Andrew on his website.

Congratulations are in order!

2011-05-09T19:30:00.002+01:00

There's nothing greater than being able to congratulate my smart and talented friends, and there's a lot today! First, the wonderful Lauri Kubuitsile is shortlisted for the highly prestigious Caine Prize for African Writing for her short story “In the spirit of McPhineas Lata” from The Bed Book of Short Stories published by Modjaji Books! Winner announced in July, fingers crossed, Lauri!

Second - huge congratulations to Andrea Ashworth and Jon Pinnock who, along with Cassandra Parkin, are the three winners of this year's Salt Publishing Scott Prize for debut short story collections. Their collections will be published in November, the UK's National Short Story Week. Can't wait to read them!

Addendum: Third lot of congratulations, to Tom Vowler, whose collection, The Method, has been shortlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize, alongside collections from Helen Simpson, Polly Samson,Graham Mort and Michele Roberts. Winner announced in July. Read my interview with Tom here.

May Short Story Month Giveaway

2011-05-02T18:57:00.001+01:00

Following up on my earlier post about the Fiction Writers Review's idea to celebrate Short Story Month by giving away a short story collection, here is the collection I am giving away -to one lucky person who comments on this blog post, picked at random after May 31st! And here is the review of the book that I wrote for The Short Review in 2008.

All Over by Roy Kesey (Dzanc books, 2007)

Reading Roy Kesey's collection made me happy. Re-reading it soon after made me even happier. This is not because Kesey's stories are hopeful or optimistic. It is because this is a writer so clearly in love with language and rhythm that it is a delight to experience what he does with words – both those we are familiar with and those I suspect he invented.

The 19 stories range in length from one to ten pages. Several were previously published in literary magazines such as McSweeney's and Opium, publications with a reputation for clever, sharp, irreverent writing. While Kesey's work does fit this description, this is not cleverness for the sake of it. In almost all the stories, even those that on the surface appear utterly absurd, he is unearthing the complexities of our world, the messes we make of it, and the small moments of joy.

This is no easy book; Kesey's reader is required to work hard. He strips down to the essentials; there are few names or places here, anything that might anchor us. There were several stories that, however hard I worked at them, I couldn't squeeze any meaning from at all. This doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the wordplay and the flow of language, I just had no idea what I was supposed to understand here. But the struggle to make sense of the worlds he has created is well worth the effort, though, because most of the stories give and carry on giving on each subsequent reading.

In Fontanel, a story I found very moving, what we presume is a fertility doctor or gynaecologist is describing to an unidentified listener the collage of pictures he creates for each and every birth. As he talks about each picture, we slowly realise all is not what it seems. This “collage” contains images not only of the couple about to give birth, their first child, the wife's mother , but “the gas station attendant who is friendly and serviceable and pretends not to notice the wife's screams”, “the taxi driver scrubbing the back seat of his taxi”, “the aneastheologist, resting for a moment in the break room, imagining new sorts of pain”.

Wait begins as the ordinary story of a flight delayed due to fog. The omniscient narrator pans across the departure lounge, dipping in and out of passengers' thoughts. The language throws out clues that here, too, we are not in reality is we know it: “Airline personnel daydream of islands, and speak urgently into handheld radios though this is only for show: the batteries have been on backorder for years”. As the hours pass, disasters accumulate, the passengers form alliances and organize distractions, until the entire situation crumbles.

Kesey's stories often begin with some semblance of order and then descend into chaos, but the endings are by no means uniformly hopeless: they manage to satisfy while also, in many cases, being suprising or shocking. Kesey's characters sometimes get what they want, but not in the way they - or we - may have predicted. There is an allusion to war or some other, larger event in many of the stories, as if to remind reader and protagonists alike that, although we may imagine we are in control, there is always something greater than us.

All Over is the first release from Dzanc Books, a non-profit small press whose stated aim is to “to advance great writing and champion those writers who don't fit neatly into the marketing niches of for-profit presses”. With this book, they have set themselves a high standard. This is an astonishing debut collection by a writer who deftly uses language, rendering it both spare and rich, sentences and paragraphs reverberating long after the book has been put down. Kesey's keen eye slices through pretence and artifice and although we may not always comprehend his writings on the surface, in our bones we know what he writes are truths.

This collection had a profound effect on my writing. Tell me why you should be the one to win it...!

George Saunders on writing

2011-04-30T17:50:00.000+01:00

Yes, I know, this could go on and on... I could quote pithy wisdoms for ever, but George Saunders is one of my favourite writers and I like this! And it seems to be telling me to stop thinking about it:

...we “decide” how to write by doing it over and over, all the while trying to avoid nauseating ourselves—and then we look up afterwards and maybe try to figure out what we’ve done, and what we, therefore, must “believe” about writing.

Read the rest of the interview over at BOMB magazine's blog.

On Being A Writer by John Siddique

2011-04-28T13:46:00.001+01:00

My fellow Salt author, John Siddique, has just published his 4th collection of poetry, Full Blood, and is interviewed wonderfully over at Sue's blog today. As well as finding his answers about putting together his collection fascinating, I loved the poem from the book that Sue had included in the blog post and asked for permission to publish it here too. I think it fits so well with what we've been discussing here... and so beautifully written, too. Stunning! Can't wait to get my hands on the book, and hopefully also host John in person at a real (yes, non-virtual!) event in the summer.

On becoming a writer

Learn to sit and be invisible,
surround yourself with ordinary
things. Take no notes in public.

A glass of water with your coffee
will let you sit for longer.
Never appear interested in the talk.

Be plain on the outside. Inside
your mouth is a diamond; never
speak of it before you set its ways in ink.

© John Siddique 2011
Taken from Full Blood (Salt Publishing)
ISBN 9781844718245
Available at your Bookshop, Library & Online Store

My writing process: what I'm learning

2011-04-27T11:56:00.003+01:00

I just looked at a story I hadn't looked at for 5 months - the editor of the anthology it was commissioned for made excellent suggestions - and tweaking it was so much easier than when I'd just wrote it. I could see where I'd overwritten, where I had put in "pretty" language just for show and not for the story. I was not attached to it anymore, it wasn't my latest "baby", so I could strip all that away without regret. Let it lie, put it away, for at least a week
I shouldn't show a first draft to anyone, I need to make sure I am happy with it, I'm not trying to please a group, or even any one other person. Write what I want to write
I am not going to submit so many stories for publication, will hold stories back for my new collection. Don't worry about being published.
I wrote a new story yesterday in one sitting, while playing online scrabble, alternating between writing and playing my turn (see recent New Yorker article about possible benefits of distraction). Distraction helps me stay in the zone, don't feel guilty about needing that
I am reading so much and it all inspires me to try new things, things that may not be what the market "wants", but which I love to write Don't worry about the market
I am reading Collected Stories by a 90-year-old author and seeing how what she wrote changed over nearly 60 years. Give myself time and space to evolve

May Short Story Month Giveaway

2011-04-23T21:14:00.001+01:00

While I keep on pondering the process of writing a short story, here's an interlude. I had an email recently from the Fiction Writers Review about this wonderful intiative, which I will definitely be taking part in. The only question: which collection to give away??!

Inspired last year by the Emerging Writers Network—who inaugurated May as Short Story Month three years ago—and the Big Poetry Giveaway for National Poetry Month, Fiction Writers Review is excited to launch our second year of The Collection Giveaway Project: a community effort by lit bloggers to raise attention for short story collections. Warm thanks to FWR Contributing Editor Erika Dreifus, who suggested FWR as a home for this project last year and will not only be participating on her own blog, but will also be helping FWR run the project right here.

To participate in Short Story Month 2011: The Collection Giveaway Project , here’s what to do:

(1) Post an entry on your blog recommending a recently published short story collection (or two, or three).
The post can be long or short, a review or merely a rave. The one requirement is that you, the blogger, have read and loved the book(s) in question.
(2) Offer a copy of the book (or each book) as a giveaway to one lucky person who comments on your blog.
You can choose the winner through a drawing, or by the wittiness of his/her remarks, or by whatever criteria you choose.
NOTE for blogger-authors: You can absolutely give away a copy of your own collection—but in an effort to keep this as much about community as publicity, please also offer to give away a second book that isn’t one of yours.

(3) Announce the winner(s) on May 31, 2011, and arrange to send out copies of any books you are giving away.
If you’re participating, drop Erika an email at erika [at] fictionwritersreview.com to let us know. We’ll add you to the list of participating blogs/sites and link to you from this frequently updated page on our site.

Check back May 1 for the official launch, but we’ll update the list throughout May!

Revising short stories Part IIb

2011-04-22T17:11:00.002+01:00

So, now that the whole issue of revising/rewriting is on my mind (see blog post Part II), I just came across this: American science fiction writer Robert Heinlein's 5 Rules for Writers

Rule #1: You must write.
Rule #2: You must finish what you write.
Rule #3: You must never rewrite (unless to editorial demand, and then only if you agree)
Rule #4: You must mail what you finish.
Rule #5: You must keep the story in the mail until someone buys it.

Yes, Rule 3 jumped out at me! Anyway, one of the blogs that quotes these "rules" carries on to say:

That's it. So simple, so hard to do. The killer are all five rules.

#1 kills those who think they want to be a writer but just can never find the time.

#2 kills those writers who are so afraid of having anything finished.

#3 kills everyone because of the huge myth that rewriting is critical. (Myth fostered by universities and people who can't write a saleable word).

#4 kills every writer with any kind of fear.

#5 kills every writer who thinks that someone else's opinion is more important than their own.

I find that quite fascinating. Especially, yes, Number 3. These rules were written in the 1940s, but I don't think anything has changed. Perhaps the "rewriting" myth has just become even stronger given the increase in academic creative writing courses? What does it mean "never rewrite"? Does he mean there is no such thing as a first draft, just a written story that's good or no good? Perhaps if we didn't spend so much time "working on" one story we would write much more and "hit" the target more often?

Robert J Sawyer explained Rule #3 in 1996 thus:

This is the one that got Heinlein in trouble with creative-writing teachers. Perhaps a more appropriate wording would have been, "Don't tinker endlessly with your story." You can spend forever modifying, revising, and polishing. There's an old saying that stories are never finished, only abandoned — learn to abandon yours.

If you find your current revisions amount to restoring the work to the way it was at an earlier stage, then it's time to push the baby out of the nest.

And although many beginners don't believe it, Heinlein is right: if your story is close to publishable, editors will tell you what you have to do to make it salable. Some small-press magazines do this at length, but you'll also get advice from Analog, Asimov's, and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.

Lots of food for thought, for me at least. What does this say to you?

Imagination is More Important Than Knowledge: Science-inspired fiction and poetry open mic night!

2011-04-20T11:59:00.000+01:00

A wonderful time was had by all last night at the Grant Bradley gallery at Bristol University's Changing Perspectives science-inspired fiction and poetry open mic night. I was host for the evening and, to kick the whole thing off, read my stories Experimentation (from the lab coat I'd written the story on for the Changing Perspectives exhibition) and Healing Wounds.

I was then more than delighted to hand the mic over to 14 readers, who read short stories, poems and excerpts from longer works, all in some way taking science as their starting off point. We moved from oxo cubes to cockroaches, aspirin to drowned cities, speculative Wessex fiction to gifted children, Brian Cox (!) to Pingu the penguin.

I have to say that I don't know about anyone else but I found it all extremely inspiring! We had such a range of readings, across many "genres" (although I hate labels), different styles and tones and subject matter. I loved it all: thank you to Jo, Cath, Stewart, Mary, Mazzy, James, Caleb, Amy, Franca, Tom, Colin, Gavin, Andy and Katrina!

Becky Jones - PhD student from the biochem lab I've been embedded in and organizer of the Art of Science competition - and I had the impossible task of picking just four people to give these wonderful books (above) to, so congrats to Jo, Caleb, Amy and Franca - but really congratulations to everyone, it was a wonderful celebration of using science as inspiration, whether you have any scientific background or not, none is necessary. As Einstein said: Imagination is more important than knowledge. I think he would have enjoyed last night.

Revising short stories discussion Part II

2011-04-17T17:12:00.005+01:00

(This blog post is very long, so I thought I'd turn it into a PDF too. See it here - please come back and comment afterwards! PDF with Parts 1 &2 here)

This began here...and it's become such an interesting discussion, focussing mainly on revising short stories, that I have been mulling it over and reading more about how different writers "do it", a kind of informal survey. I've asked members of my writing group, and there are brilliant comments on the first blog post, and I've been reading Paris Review interviews. I think what results is that there is no one way to do this. Revising/ reworking/re-dreaming your story is as much art as science.

Here's a selection of views on the subject - it's a long blog post but incredibly useful, for me at least. I am going to try a selection because I haven't found the way for me yet. I'd love to hear more from any of you - what works, what doesn't, any other ideas!

Here's what various writer friends said, on this blog and elsewhere:

I think too much and usually want to incorporate everybody's comments and suggestions, and the process becomes too analytical instead of heartfelt. I actually end up becoming sick of the whole thing and losing whatever emotion or soul I initially had, going into it ... I myself find that my best work are always written in white heat and rarely need to be tinkered with after the first draft. White heat...writing in the zone...lucid dreaming...starting with a fresh page...seems all very "right brain" to me. Left brain = editor head, while right brain = creator head? (Michelle Tandoc-Pichereau)

There is a state that I have on occasion got into (not very often, I wish I could) in which the words just flow: I come up with a sentence and it just leads to another and another and I look at the words on the page and think, where did that come from? Like I said, writing doesn’t often work like that for me. But when it does, I find it really hard to revise what I’ve written. It is what it is: either it comes out perfectly formed (I wish!) or I find myself completely at a loss as to how to fix it. The thing I can’t get back is the voice, the fluency. I also have a different way of writing, much more usual for me, which I don’t especially recommend, which is tortuous and painstaking and slow. But when I write like that rewriting is not a problem: getting the first draft out is the hard bit, and after that I feel like I know what I’m doing. (Emma Martin)

Robert Olen Butler does suggest that before revising anything substantially one should go into 'lucid dreaming' mode. I do do this before I put even one word on a first draft following an impulse of a story, and also before revision. Especially if something struck me as very off during a read through. I don't know if my experience revising a novel is of any value...perhaps it will open up the discussion, but since I am revising in chunks, perhaps talking about process might demystify it a bit.

E.g. I just went through one of the chapters in my novel yesterday. It's about 11,000 words. It's a very long chapter. There are some huge problems with it. The altercation between father and son sounds 'off', stilted, a little unreal. Also, I wanted to work in a couple of other threads that had been swimming and surfacing in various other sections and which I wanted woven more tightly in here. The chapter hadn't remotely done that.

In the past, a read-through with these many flaws engendered an overwhelming disgust, which I was then unable to swim past. It usually ended up with me partially chucking the story. For me, I'm not sure there's much of a difference between revising for a short story versus novel, except that in a novel, you can't afford to chuck it away. That would mean chucking away almost two years of consistent work!

The difference now is perhaps that I do make immediate mental notes as to the concrete things I think are not working. Then I go away. Let those feelings of disgust fade away. Usually takes about a week or so, during which I do other things. Read, chase my kids around, that sort of thing.

When I go back to read through again, if those same mental notes I made still ring through, I trust them. I revise based on that map. I almost without fail never think about craft elements. I don't do the checklist of plot/voice/structure etc. that there's some inordinate slippage into when I read someone else's story. So I think this is one fundamental difference between being a reader of my own work versus others. Having said that, I don't think craft elements don't work its way into revision. I think they become an organic part of a flaw. They are manifestations of a disease, not the underlying cause. Fix the underlying cause, the manifestation through 'voice' or weak plot etc. also goes away. (Elaine Chiew)

Early on in a serious writer's life, the taking apart of a piece and reassembling it, following advice from peers is absolutely crucial. It's key to developing an instinctive grasp of craft, and allows us to be analytical in our stride rather than stop-starty, editor head v creator head. We need to learn to prevent those two modes of approaching work from being at odds with each other.

After a while I've found they work alongside each other invisibly, and when they do, that pulling apart and adding here and there will make a story less fluent, because when it was first written, the two were engaged, and if we revise with one head on, the story gets lopsided. ...So there comes a time when this is no longer the best mode for reworking pieces. It may work for some stories, but others need to be written again from scratch, to achieve that fluidity and unity.

There's one story in my collection that I rewrote, from scratch each time, about twenty times - different settings, different story telling modes. The version I ended up with was the only one that didn't feel clunky though it didn't get half way towards what I wanted it to say. But fiddling around with early versions led nowhere. It just had to come from a new sheet of paper. (Susannah Rickards)

Oh goodness, I absolutely know what it is to write a story - a decent but still a little saggy story - and post for critique, come away with lots of useful, thoughtful suggestions and then use said thoughts and suggestions to KILL my story forever....Revision takes away the heart beat, the life of the story, and replaces it with coldness. But it shouldn’t have to meant that. It's to do with lightness of touch maybe. So as not to disturb the magic that's there whilst cleaning/shining lightly? (Sara Crowley)

I am really into walking ... as were the Surrealists, because it concentrates your thoughts, focuses them, and frees them up at the same time, your head has space and there's a rhythm.I find myself dipping in and out of ideas while I'm walking, I get so tuned in that ...I am practically a danger to myself and I don't notice anybody! It's all very routine, I choose virtually the same route every day, and I feel like it's just me and my creative process. I am not great when it comes to revision, I can get it all down on the page to begin, and then I go through and edit all the basics and then I get stuck. Very stuck.

And I'm so glad this has all been brought up here because I thought I was on my own with this. The more I dilute a piece with unsparing editing (which I something I am not averse to with my poems) the more I can't be bothered with it anymore. I have so many stories that I've done nothing with and probably never will, or maybe even can't do anything with, it's a shame. And ... I've had work taken apart by peers and haven't been able to mould it back together... it is weird, with the poetry I absolutely brutalise it sometimes. And that feels ok, maybe I have better instincts with poems because I'm more confident with them? I think a writer's main strength is instinct, trusting instincts and intuition, editing as you go along, getting caught in the heat of the moment. After that, there's a sober period where you look back on what you've done and doubts creep in... I think that by avoiding that hangover period after a first draft maybe that's key to seeing again with fresh eyes.(Melissa Lee-Houghton)

I find it hard to explain because it's more about (warmly) feeling something is right on the page rather than (coolly) cerebrally ascertaining something is right. It's a difficult question to answer because our feelings are ultimately produced in the brain and so, even though I say I'm revising by using my feelings, it is actually the brain that is doing it. When I write or revise it definitely feels more like an intuitive act rather than something that is consciously being controlled or directed. I also tend to revise as I write (as well as after I've 'finished' something) so the writing mode/editing mode are not too different for me. I hope this makes sense! (A J Ashworth)

I sort of think that if there are going to be changes then the whole thing has to start again - else, it's all a bit like trying to untie veins and plonk them somewhere else - the circulation gets messed up, and worse! (Rachel Fenton)

For me, some stories begin with an idea or mood. Words develop around that, but the original seed has to stay. Other pieces begin as bits but gradually acquire a heart. Others begin with a character in search of a plot. I don't think it's always right to re-trace one's steps when re-writing (a story can start on one track and end up on a completely different one) but it's worth remembering what made you want to write the piece in the first place. And not just remembering - keeping those early sketches and drafts. (litrefs)

Because of my sporadic writing schedule I tend to write in short bursts and can sometimes rewrite a paragraph twenty times from scratch. It always boils down to whatever works for you though I guess. One time I wrote a novella and after an edit I got a 3000 word story out of it (that one still stings a little) but as long as you get something you're happy with at the end I don't think it matters how you get there. I don't mind working for months to get perfection. (Alex)

I'm rubbish at working on/revising short stories. There's something in me that insists on the flow of the piece in its entirety, so every time I edit a part of the story I go back to the beginning and read it through again until I hit another part that 'doesn't work' according to the vision I have for the piece. Edit, and repeat. It takes far too long I'm sure, there must be a better way. (Clare King)

I am very jealous of anyone like [David] Vann who can write a first draft as a final draft. My process tends to involve writing in excess of what the story requires and then a trimming back to a shape that best fits the story revealed in the first draft. This can mean cutting out a third to a half of what I've written, shaping the rest as I polish.

This not to say that extra writing is wasted. The extra work gives me a deeper understanding of the characters, while the trimmed sections go into files for use later. I trawl through them from time to time for character stuff and description that will serve the story I am drafting or as a spring board for a new piece.

A little time consuming but the whole process is kind of like writing a block of text then scuplting it into shape, knocking chunks of it off as I go.

An interesting method of editing is Andrew Cowan's, I have heard him in interview explaining that he writes his first sentence, then redrafts that until perfect then writes his next and redrafts that until perfect and he continues this process for whole novels. Now that's what I call time consuming. (Dan Powell)

My method of revising/editing is as chaotic as my creative process. I was taught that you write (the first draft) for yourself, and revise with the reader in mind. But (for me) it's not that simple and there may be many drafts because it's in the process of writing, that I find a sense of my story and the revision process is about making sense of that story. Even if it's a short story, this often turns out to be a long process, especially when my thoughts on what I've written shift, which is inevitable over time. On my blog, I've been likening the process of revising/rewriting/editing to knitting; being prepared to unravel, pick up dropped stitches, rework the pattern, but really I think it's more instinctive than that, more like the creative process involved in painting. I know it's right when it feels, looks and sounds right. (Diane Becker)

What works for me is leaving it for a long time and then entering the text in a new creative headspace, almost rewriting it even if I might just change one paragraph to get it right. Dreamy creative is better than analytical in my world ... You have to leave your FEELINGS in even if you're clutching the red editing pen at the same time (Louise Halvardsson)

Appreciating the strength of analysing the craft and applying that analysis to the editing process is fine. However - I do think we need to be flexible - and not slaves to any method at all. I think we need to embrace as many ways of doing this thing as we can, and understand that what will work one day, on one piece of work, may not be right for another, on another day.

I guess that when we get a way down the track, our understanding of our own drafting process can encompass some of the 'revision' process, as we go. So what comes out, has already been subconsciously smoothed.

I also think that might work for short fiction, flashes, shorter short stories - but the more complex a piece of becomes, the less likely it is to work well. So consideration of structure, how far it is working to deliver the end product you want, arches over the craft elements within. Thats how I approached revising my longer work recently. I think...(Vanessa Gebbie)

The received view seems to be that you are in a creative/right brain state for stage one (writing) and in an analytical/left brain state for stage two (revising) – there should be an unconscious creative burst followed by an analytical going over. But I think in reality it's more complex than that, as this discussion shows. To be honest, I don't feel such a big difference between the two stages. Maybe I'm just doing it 'wrong' - but when I write and also when I evaluate what I've written, I try to think it and feel it at the same time. (Emma)

I used to be all about the emetic first draft – I just got it all out on the page, beginning to end, before I edited a single word. Then I'd look at the thing as a whole and make big changes. Then the next rewrite would be smaller changes, and smaller and smaller until I'm just fiddling with individual word choices.

I've slowed down a bit over the past few months, both in terms of my overall output and how quickly I write each sentence. Now I find that my first drafts are slower, but with each draft I change fewer things. Maybe one day I'll get to the point where I perfect each sentence before moving on, but I doubt it. I prefer to find my way through the story as I go, rather than plan it all out beforehand.

That said, I love editing and rewriting. The blank page still scares me a little, and there's comfort in knowing that I have the framework of a story already there. (Kirsty Logan)

And here are quotes from other writers and an editor, most from Paris Review interviews, about what they do - and don't do:

Marilynne Robinson:

If I write something and don't like it, I basically toss it. And I try to write it again or I write something else that has the same movement. But as far as going back and working over something that I've already written -- I really don't do that. I know there's a sentence that I need, and I just run it through my mind until it sounds right. Most of my revision occurs before I put words down on a paper.

Truman Capote:

I am a completely horizontal author. I can't think unless I am lying down.... I don't use a typewriter. Not in the beginning. I write my first version in longhand (pencil). Then I do a complete revision, also i longhand. Then I type a third draft on yellow paper, a very special kind of yellow paper. No, I don't get out of bed to do this. I balance the machine on my knees.... When the yellow draft is finished, I put the manuscript away for a while, a week, a month, maybe longer. When I take it out again, I read it as coldly as possible, then read it aloud to a friend or two, and decide what changes I want to make and whether or not I want to publish it. I've thrown away rather a few short stories, an entire novel and half of another. But if all goes well, I type the final version on white paper and that's that.

Hemingway:

I always rewrite each day up to the point where I stopped.... I rewrote the ending to Farewell to Arms, the last page of it, 39 times before I was satisfied.

Jorge Luis Borges:

Interviewer: When you wrote your stories did you revise a great deal?

JLB: At first I did. Then I found out that when a man reaches a certain age, he has found his real tone. Nowadays I try to go over what I've written after a fortnight or so, and of course there are many slips and repetitions to be avoided, certain favourite tricks that should not be overworked. But I think that what I write nowadays is always on a certain level and that I can't better if very much, nor can I spoil it very much, either. Consequently I let it go, forget all about it, and think about what I am doing at the time.

William Faulkner:

Let the writer take up surgery or bricklaying if he is interested in technique. There is no mechanical way to get writing done, no shortcut. The young writer would be a fool to follow a theory. Teach yourself by your own mistakes; people learn only by error. ...

Sometimes technique charges in and takes command of the dream before the writer himself can get his hands on it. That is tour de force and the finished work is simply a matter of fitting bricks neatly together, since the writer knows probably every single word right to the end before he puts the first one down. ... The quality an artist must have is objectivity in judging his work, plus the honesty and courage not to kid himself about it. Since none of my work has met my own standards I must judge it on the basis of that one which caused me the most grief and anguish, as the mother loves the child who became the thief or murderer more than the one who became the priest.

Georges Simenon:

Adjectives, adverbs, and every word which is there just to make an effect. Every sentence which is there just for the sentence. You know, you have a beautiful sentence - cut it. Every time I find such a thing in one of my novels it is to be cut.

Interviewer: is that the nature of most of your revision?

GS: Almost all of it.

Interviewer: It is not revising the plot pattern?

GS: Oh, I never touch anything of that kind.

Gary Fisketjon, editor-at-large at Knopf. He has edited the works of Raymond Carver, Bret Easton Ellis, Patricia Highsmith, Cormac McCarthy, Jay McInerney, Tobias Wolff, and Haruki Murakami.:

[I]t all starts with the editing, which is when I see most clearly what distinguishes this particular book. […] In my comments, what I hope to do is akin to giving the author a fresh look at something that has been labored on so long that certain things have become invisible. Countless thousands of decisions factor into the writing of any book, and it defies mathematical odds that each and every one was the best decision; but after someone has rewritten sentences and chapters or whatever God knows how many times freshness is hard to come by[… That] can occur when the book is finally set in type, as opposed to whatever computer typeface was used on earlier drafts: suddenly a writer will say, Well, that looks funny, or doesn’t read right, or whatever. This is another means—though merely visually—of getting a fresh or different look at something one has looked at so many times before.

Dorothy Parker:

It takes me six months to do a story. I think it out and then write it sentence by sentence - no first draft. I can't write five words but that I change seven.

Eudora Welty:

Often I shift things from the very beginning to the very end. Small things - one fact, one word - but things important to me. It's possible I have a reverse mind and do things backwards, being a broken lefthander. Just so I've caught on to my weakness.... I do [rewrite considerably.] Some things I let alone from the first to the last - the kernel of the story. You know enough not to touch something if it's right. The hardest thing for me is getting people in and out of rooms - the mechanics of a story. ...I find that very challenging, especially to describe an action that I don't do very well myself, like sewing.

Alice Munro:

I don't grasp it very readily at all, the "it" being whatever I'm trying to do. I often get on the wrong track and have to haul myself back... I could be writing away one day and think I've done very well; I've done more pages than I usually do. Then I get up the next morning and realize I don't want to work on it anymore. When I have a terrible reluctance to go near it, when I would have to push myself to continue, I generally know something is badly wrong. Often, in about three quarters of what I do, I reach a point somewhere, fairly early on, when I think I'm going to abandon this story. I get myself through a day or two of bad depression, grouching around. And I think of something else I can write. It's sort of like a love affair: you're getting out of disappointment and misery by going out with some man you really don't like at all, but you haven't noticed that yet. Then, I will suddenly come up with something about the story that I abandoned; I will see how to do it. But that only seems to happen after I've said, No, this isn't going to work, forget it.

...The whole process might take up to a week, the time of trying to think it through, trying to retrieve it, then giving it up and thinking about something else, and then getting it back, usually quite unexpectedly, when I am in the grocery store or out for a drive. I'll think, Oh well, I have to do it from the point of view of so-and-so and I have to cut this character out, and of course these people are not married, or whatever. The big change, which is usually the radical change...

I don't know if it makes the story better. What it does is make it possible for me to continue to write. That's what I mean by saying I don't think I have this overwhelming thing that comes in and dictates to me. I only seem to get a grasp on what I want to write about with the greatest difficulty. And barely. ... I can see the ways a story could go wrong. I see the negative things more easily than the positive things. Some stories don't work as well as others, and some stories are lighter in conception than others. They feel lighter to me.

Just in compiling all this I feel better, better about not knowing what I am doing, how I do what I do when it works, how to fix something when I feel it just isn't working. I especially feel heartened by that last quote from Alice Munro. I think perhaps it in some way this and other people's comments validate my feeling that I need to not focus too hard at the thing I am working on - although I "look away" by playing online scrabble rather than going for a walk or to the grocery store! Well, I am still working this out. Anything that you do that no-one's mentioned? Let's keep this discussion going.

Addendum:
I was pointed towards Wells Tower's revision process, here's a quote from an interview in the Iowa Review:

Sarah Fay: You revised these stories for eight years. Is that right?

Wells Tower: Something like that. I did such violent revision to the stories that my editor started to worry about me. To some extent the revisions were informed by trying to make the story better, but it did get to a point where I would just keep revising and revising and revising not out of any real editorial intelligence but just because I wanted to be a better writer than I am. My feeling about revision is that we don’t really know what our stories are about even after the fifth or sixth draft. It’s not until I’ve got some distance from a story that I can look at it and see that there is actually a real emotional problem that the story is hinting at. Then the process of revision is about choosing characters, and scenes, and moments, and style that will get at that emotion in the most effective way.

SF: You’ve said you revised the story “Retreat” kamikaze-style.

WT: It was originally published in McSweeney’s from the point of view of the younger brother. The younger brother is this smartass who is pretty sympathetic, and his older brother is this terrible blowhard. The older brother behaves badly and continues to behave badly and is ultimately punished for his bad behavior by ingesting a possibly lethal bit of rotten moose meat. To me, that seemed like a flat line on the moral complexity curve. When I revised it, I thought it would be such a better story—a more interesting assignment—to try to tell it from the standpoint of the unsympathetic character. So that’s what I did.
SF: Do you treat all of your revisions as “assignments”?

WT: I did similar things with a lot of the stories. Often I didn’t look at the first draft when I went back to revise. “Revision” was writing a new story, trying to germinate a new story from the initial bit of inspirational DNA.

A first: Two Stories in One Day

2011-04-15T13:38:00.002+01:00

I'm laid up with a flu-type thing, no voice at all but much wooziness, which means, to my immense sadness and frustration, I won't be chairing the session on short stories at the Cambridge WordFest tomorrow with Vanessa Gebbie and Andre Mangeot. Dammit. If you are near there, tickets are going fast, it'll be great!

To cheer me up, today witnesses a first for me: two stories published in one day: In triplicate in Metazen and Tiny Unborn Fish in the science-themed issue of Litro. Very nice news, both are fantastic publications I've had the honour of being published in before, do support them. Litro is also a print publication, "100,000 copies are distributed monthly around London and the UK, including in underground stations, libraries, galleries, bars and cafes, as well as online."

I am now going to spend a quiet weekend reading. I just devoured the new Fred Vargas book, An Uncertain Place, totally wonderful. And new books by writer friends recently received include Melissa Lee-Houghton's A Body Made of You and Meg Pokrass' Damn Sure Right. I can't see the carpet around my bed, it is heaving with books... as it should be. Nice.

Carol Emshwiller on the Bat Segundo show

2011-04-14T21:51:00.001+01:00

Carol Emshwiller is my new favourite author - I've been devouring her short stories and one of her novels, I love her surreal, fantastical prose. She has just turned 90 and we just did a wonderful email interview to accompany the review I am going to write of her Collected Stories - despite the fact that she is losing her sight. An amazing person, we had a lovely email chat. She was really interested in my writing, so much so that I just sent her a copy of my book - even if she can't really read right now, I just like the thought of it being on her shelves.

And now I am listening to her being interviewed on the Bat Segundo show, and it's 50% her laughter! And 50% a fascinating insight into a very long writing life, that is most definitely still continuing. A little taste:

"I think I don't plan ahead but the plot is in my fingers....I know enough not to be nice to my characters."

Listen to it all here - or read excerpts here. Highly recommended!

Win beautiful books - come and read your science-inspired fiction and poetry!

2011-04-08T11:11:00.000+01:00

(cross-posted with the Bristol University Science Faculty Blog)

On April 19th at 6pm at the fabulous Grant Bradley Gallery in Bristol, I am hosting an open mic night for fiction and poetry in any way inspired by science. This is part of the amazing Changing Perspectives month of exhibitions and activities bringing together art and science.. This event is completely FREE to attend (but booking is required, click here) and you can win one of several great prizes, including these books:

Radioactive: Marie and Pierre Curie, A Tale of Love and Fallout by Lauren Redniss

Periodic Tales: The Curious Lives of the Elements by Hugh Aldersey-Williams

When It Changed: Science Into Fiction, an Anthology edited by Geoff Ryman

The White Road and Other Stories by Tania Hershman (yes, that's me)

I will be judging, and the theme of the evening can really be interpreted however you like - any genre, any style, as long as something scientific in some way was the inspiration. (I wrote more on my thoughts about this on the Wellcome Collection blog)

To prepare for the open mic, I will be jointly running a science-inspired fiction workshop on Wed 13th April, which once again is completely FREE, at the Grant Bradley Gallery, 2-4.30pm - booking is required, see here. Come and write!

Dublin Review of Books flash contest

2011-04-06T22:52:00.002+01:00

While I am contemplating my follow-up blog post on revising short stories, here, thanks to the excellent Nuala, is news of a flash fiction contest well worth entering:

The Dublin Review of Books has announced its second Flash Fiction Contest. They say: "The prize will bring recognition to distinguished flash fiction writing from within Ireland and around the world."

Winner receives €1,000. Second and third place will each receive €100. The top three stories will appear in The Dublin Review of Books.

Final judging will be made by authors James Ryan, Eilis Ni Dhuibhne and an editor from the drb.

GUIDELINES:

• Submit up to 3 flash fiction stories of no more than 500 words apiece. Work must be previously unpublished. Simultaneous submissions are not accepted. Copyright will remain with winning authors. The drb reserves the rights to use winning entries up to one year after publication.

• Manuscripts must include a cover letter containing name, address, e-mail address and/or telephone number, and the title of each work.

• Entry fee is 10 Euro per story. Payment can be made through our PayPal account when submitting an entry.

• Deadline for submissions is June 5, 2011 at 5 pm Dublin time. Entries received after this date will not be read. Only winning authors will be contacted.

• Winning stories will be announced September 30, 2011.

• Writers may submit through our online form (see details at www.drb.ie) .

• Submissions may also be made via email. Please include surname and first name in the subject line. If submitting via email, please paste stories in the body of the email AND send as an attachment in one of the following formats:

.DOC (Microsoft Word)

.RTF (Rich Text Format)

EMAIL ADDRESS

flash@drb.ie

Changing Perspectives - videos inspired by science-inspired fiction

2011-03-29T17:18:00.001+01:00

The launch on Friday of Bristol University's Changing Perspectives art/science exhibition at the Grant Bradley Gallery in which I have several art pieces (my first time ever attempting a piece of artwork featuring some of my stories) was great fun! Do try and get down there if you are in Bristol - and check out all the events during this month long celebration of art inspired by science.

If you can't make it, here are two brand newly-commissioned films inspired by two of my short stories - which in turn were inspired by science. Enjoy!

'We are All Made of Protein but Some of us GLow More than Others ' from richard ocallaghan on Vimeo.

Read the short story of the same title that inspired this piece here.

'Like Flowers' from James Murray-White and Steve Mazillius on Vimeo.

New flash story in Metazen

2011-03-28T21:23:00.000+01:00

I am totally and utterly bloody thrilled to be in the fabulously nutty Metazen with a new flash story, Retreating, I Retreated. Love Metazen. Love it. (5th story published this year already, I feel like that might be a record.) Got another story coming out in Metazen mid-April. How lucky am I?

Photos of the Writing Shed

2011-03-24T11:43:00.001Z

Very interesting discussion on revising short stories going on in the last blog post - and I am going to write more about that, I think it's a vital topic. But while I mull and gather opinions, here are the shed pics I've been promising this for a while! The writing shed is finally ready - and it is bliss! Here is a pictorial journey from start to finish:

Existing shed in the garden when we moved in...

...was a little cluttered...

We moved all the clutter out, and our wonderful builder, Simon, started work on the insulation...

...until it looked a little like a sauna.

Then I started moving my things in, including my crucial Einstein "Imagination is more important than knowledge" poster...

and all my short story collections on the shelves above and below the window...

Look at all those lovely books!

Simon even made me a special inner door for extra privacy. And a corner nook where I can work standing up (like Hemingway).

and also a desk.

Now all that remains is for me to spend lots of time in there and produce work worthy of such a shed!

Revising short stories - science or art?

2011-03-22T19:51:00.001Z

So, I've long subscribed to the theory of revising that says you need to do it with your "analytical" head on, that it's not a creative act, almost more of a scientific one. This is the type of revision I always felt I should be doing. But I rarely do and I feel guilty about that, as if I'm not a proper writer, or something. This week I took a first draft of a story and sat in my writing shed (yes, pictures soon!) for 2.5 hours, with NO INTERNET and did that kind of analytical revising, trying to "fix" or "solve" issues my writing group had drawn my attention to. Boy was I pleased, I had written some new scenes that did seem to do this, how wonderful!

Then I read it the next day, and felt that something was really wrong. I had put in more of this, less of that, plugged some gaps, but the whole nature of the story had changed. It had had a sort of magical and non-closed ending and now it was no longer magical, it was very harsh. I showed it to my writing group again and they all, without prompting, said the same: they preferred the first version. So, by approaching it analytically, I messed it up completely.

Since then, I've been canvassing opinion from writer friends about their processess. I don't even want to call it "revision" (which does remind me of school). Let's call it "working on" a short story. It seems that I should have asked sooner, because it might have saved me some guilt! Quite a few writers go back into that dreaming "zone", that creative space, to work further on a story, rather than switching hats and turning on some Editor with a capital "E". So, what do you do?

One friend looked through the Paris Review interviews and found this from Marilynne Robinson:

"If I write something and don't like it, I basically toss it. And I try to write it again or I write something else that has the same movement. But as far as going back and working over something that I've already written -- I really don't do that. I know there's a sentence that I need, and I just run it through my mind until it sounds right. Most of my revision occurs before I put words down on a paper."

What works for you? I think the message here - I assume - will be that different tactics work for different people. Let's share some!

New Yorker and Janet Frame on creativity

2011-03-19T22:20:00.004Z

I am always on the lookout for different ways to approach creativity and especially writing, this odd thing that we do, and this weekend I found some excellent quotes in the New Yorker and in Janet Frame's astonishing and often sublime The Daylight and the Dust: Collected Stories.

The New Yorker article by Dana Goodyear is about Barry Michels, a kind of therapist to the Hollywood entertainment industry, but about work, not about their fraught love lives, etc... So much of Michels' counselling techniques made sense to me, got me thinking. For example, when dealing with a screenwriter who couldn't write, "Michels ...told the writer to get an egg timer. Following Michels' instructions, every day he set it for one minute, knelt in front of his computer in a posture of prayer, and begged the universe to help him write the worst sentence every written". The writer thought this was stupid and pointless. But, what do you know? It worked... "six weeks later, he had a 165 page script... when the movie came out the writer won an Academy Award". There surely can't be a more compelling way to start an article!

Michels and his colleague are working on a self-help book that basically involves "patients [being] told to visualize things going horribly wrong". Not sure about that, but this spoke to me:

"By far the most common problem afflicting the writers in Michels' practice is procrastination, which he understands in terms of Jung's Father archetype. 'They procrastinate because they have no external authority figure demanding that they write,' he says [Ah, does this ring a bell? Sure does! T] 'Often I explain to the patient that there is an authority figure he's answerable to, but it's not human. It's Time itself that is passing inexorably...Every time you procrastinate or waste time, you're defying this authority figure.' Procrastination, he says, is 'a spurious form of immortality,' the ego's way of claiming that it has all the time in the world. Writing, by extension, is a kind of death."

What Michels' makes his client do, in the face of this, is sit in front of their computer for a fixed time each day and say "I am surrendering myselt to the archetypal Father, Chronos. I am surrendering myself to him because he has hegemony over me." An interesting suggestion, I may well try that. You can read the whole article here.

Talking about procrastination and time wasting, I was very struck by a story in the Janet Frame collection, the daylight and the dust. I had never read anything by her, I got this collection out of the library, read the first story and though, This isn't for me. Yet, I kept renewing it, something telling me not to give it back yet. And whatever that something was (Father Time??), it was right. I read a story from the middle of the book and was absolutely blown away. Her writing is stunning, poetic, rhythmic, hard-hitting, moving, shocking. It really really spoke to me, I loved what she did with language, I could hear it singing to me in my head and for the first time ever I was compelled to read a story out loud

One of the stories that I wanted to mention here is the Pleasures of Arithmetic. Basically a two-page flash story about the mind-numbing effects of television:

"Each night in each of these ten living rooms there are ten times how many people watching the same programme, receiving news bulletins (the diminutive of bullets, listening to the same music, and in the end thinking the same thoughts, in the end hosts only at the point of a gun to thoughts donated to them by courtesy of the television company... Thoughts in identical clothes... dull suspicion, criticism, my house is yours....

'What we need,' said the politician, 'is unity.'

'Our aim,' said the poet, 'is like-mindedness'."

A cautionary tale against abdicating our own thoughts in favour of mass mind control - the remedy is to be found in another story, One Must Give Up, in which the narrator gives up the newspaper, the radio, the television:

"I am now a maker of my own news, a distributor of my own time. I receive news which no-one thought to broadcast on radio or film for television or report in the newspapers. I choose for myself again. it is long since I knew such freedom. Tight-lipped runners arrive bearing word from far countries - from friends two streets away. The cherry tree is in flower."

I love that line, that news has become something that comes from "friends two streets away". Frame hammers the message home beautifully at the end of the story:

"Fact or fancy. There comes a time when one must rely on one's own news, images, interpretations, when one must resist the pressure upon one's house of conforming, orthodox, shared seasons, and use the panel in the secret room, make one's escape to fluid, individual weather; stand alone in the dark listening to the worm knocking three times, the rose resisting, and the inhabited forest of the heart accomplishing its own private moments of growth."

Just typing that has made me shiver all over again. This was written in an age before Facebook which purports to bring its users "news" constantly, but in this ever-streaming babble, where is the sound of the "worm knocking" or our own heart's "private moments of growth"?

ADDENDUM
I couldn't find a Janet Frame story online, but here's a radio interview with her on YouTube.

Tonight at Wise Words!

2011-03-16T09:03:00.000Z

First, a new flash story of mine is in PANK magazine's March issue: That Small Small Inch. Love PANK, I can't wait to read the rest of the issue.

And tonight, (Wed 16 March) if you are in London, I am taking part in Jay Live, sharing the bill at the Wise Words festival with these fabulous writers: Jay Merill, Elizabeth Baines, Sarah Salway, Catherine Smith and Susannah Rickards! We are reading at at 6.30pm The Luxe, Spitalfields,, and it's FREE! .. THE LUXE Spitalfields 020 7101 1751 is at 109 Commercial Street, E1 6BG Liverpool St tube. Here's the info. Hope to see you there!

Nice short story and flash news

2011-03-11T16:04:00.000Z

The loveliest news is that I got a reply from Professor John Mullan in response to my email about the Culture Show's 12 New Novelists program - asking whether it might be possible to do it for short story collections (see earlier blog post). He said:

"I do sort of agree with you - at least with the idea that it would be great to do a programme on the contemporary short story. From my point of view, it rather depends on whether the BBC want me to any more such book programmes. If and when they come to me for ideas, the short story is one thing that I'll suggest. I'll let you know if it ever happens."

I think that's very positive - now we just need the BBC to step up. Am awaiting a few more email replies from those who might be able to take it further. Fingers crossed!

And on a more personal note, I just found out that I'm a semifinalist in the Vestal Review Ten Years in Flash Fiction contest and my flash story, Maneouvres, for which I have been trying to find a good home for about 2 years, will be read by the final judge, Steve Almond! There's nothing like the feeling that a writer you greatly admire will be holding your work (or staring at it on screen, of course). Lovely. Winner announced March 31st but this is a great boost, especially for an older story I had almost given up on. Congrats to my fellow semifinalists: Doug Cornett, Tessa Mellas, Greta Schuller, Ronald Jones, Cynthia Litz, Lili Flanders, Bruce Rogers, Tasha Cotter and Madhu Narayan.

Sinus update:

Half face is still slightly swollen but I was recommended Neilmed through Twitter (thank you, you know who you are!) and started using it this morning, things seem to be improving.

Few upcoming deadlines for you

2011-03-10T19:51:00.000Z

Three weeks until March 31st and here are 2 lovely comps to send your darlings to before that date:

Short FICTION is accepting submissions for its 5th annual Short Story Competition from 1 January - 31 March 2011. This year's prize money is increased to £500. Stories must be no longer than 6000 words. All submissions must be unpublished in print or on the web. Also new this year, we invite entries from writers at any stage in their career. Award-winning Irish writer, Gerard Donovan will act as final judge. Mr Donovan is the author of three novels, including the much-landed Julius Winsome, and the story collection, Country of the Grand. A £10 entry fee allows entrants to submit up to two stories; all entrants receive a copy of the journal with the award-winning story in it (which itself retails for £10... effectively making the competition entry free). All stories submitted will be considered for publication in the journal. Please note: no changes to stories can be accepted after submission. The winner of the competition will be announced on our website no later than 1 May 2011.

Bristol Short Story Prize: (for which I am one of the five final judges again this year):
Stories can be on any theme or subject and are welcome in any style including graphic, verse or genre-based (crime, thriller, science fiction, fantasy, romance, historical etc.). While there is a maximum word count of 3,000, it should be pointed out that there is no minimum. The 20 shortlisted writers will be invited to an awards ceremony in Bristol on July 16th 2011 when the winners will be announced and the BSSP Anthology Volume 4 will be launched. Prizes and anthologies will be sent to any shortlisted writer unable to attend the awards ceremony.
Prizes :
Ist- £1000 plus £150 Waterstone’s gift card
2nd- £700 plus £100 Waterstone’s gift card
3rd- £400 plus £100 Waterstone’s gift card
The other 17 writers who feature on the shortlist will be presented with a cheque for £100.

All 20 shortlisted stories will be published in both print and ebook versions of Volume 4 of the Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology.

So, for a grand total of £17 if you enter both comps, you could win £1500 +£150 waterstone's vouchers and you get a copy of SHORT Fiction too. Frankly, I think it's not a bad deal... I might see what I've got to send to SHORT Fiction, since this year it's open to all writers. And I'm looking forward to reading your stories for the Bristol Prize - remember, short is sweet too, give us something to read that we can't put down!

Good luck!

Short Story Collections on TV?

2011-03-09T12:44:00.000Z

So, I'm at home today with bad sinus pain across one side of my face, and to take my mind off it all I watched the wonderful Culture Show episode for World Book Night about 12 debut novelists, including the excellent Jenn Ashworth. It was wonderful to watch a whole hour celebrating first-time novelists, hearing about their books, about their stories. But all the way through, that little voice in my head which is rarely satisfied kept whispering "What about debut short story collections? Where are the short stories?" Now I understand that this was a programme about novels - but the phrase "literary fiction" was used several times, and the novel is not the only form under that heading.

Several of the new novelists featured write short stories - Deborah Kaye Davies' short story collection, Grace, Tamar and Laszlo the Beautiful (reviewed on the Short Review here) won Wales Book of the Year in 2009 and she is also a published poet. I think it was Evie Wyld who mentioned in her interview on the show that she wrote short stories but wrote this novel because she was told that "publishers don't want short stories". No surprise there then.

Instead of grumbling and moaning too much, I wrote a tweet on Twitter asking who would like to see a similar TV show about short story collections - and the roar of response was deafening! It really cheered me up, and fuelled by this I fired off 3 emails to people I know with BBC connections, and also to John Mullan, the host of the Culture Show episode and very well known for the Guardian Book Club. As I write this I remember that he was the person who interview short story goddess Lorrie Moore last year about her must-have Collected Stories, an event I went to and which will stick in my mind as one of my short story highlights. So I have no doubt at all that he appreciates what an amazing short story can do.

I am writing this blog because doing all this in 140-character bursts on Twitter is rather restricting, and also to canvas more opinion. There was one tweet in reply which seemed to think there was quite enough short story coverage on radio and TV but I don't think those of us who disagree are just being paranoid. What do you think? Please comment below, perhaps I might need a petition in order to get the BBC - or another TV channel (Sky Arts? Mariella?) on side, so don't hold back!

Short story up on Necessary Fiction

2011-03-07T10:09:00.000Z

I was delighted when Ethel Rohan, March's guest editor over at Necessary Fiction, asked me to submit a story for the Irish-themed issue. I spend a lot of time in Ireland, my father and stepmother live there, and some of my most amazing writing-related moments have been at Anam Cara, the heavenly writing retreat in West Cork. The story that is now published, Graveside, represents a first for me: it is the first time I have had a story published with a character who has appeared in a previous story - Mary Margaret of Drinking Vodka in the Afternoon, which I was commissioned to write for Radio 4 for a week of stories in 2007 commemorating the 50th anniversary of the launch of the Sputnik satellite. And she wouldn't leave me alone, she kept clamouring for more about her. In Drinking Vodka... she is 16, in a small Irish village. This new story takes place many many years later. I don't think you need to have read the first story... I hope not. Anway, it's here. Thank you Ethel!

Also, I was stunned to find my book on this Booktrust list of 10 British short stories, in the glorious company of writing mates Vanessa Gebbie and Adam Marek, and the wondrous AL Kennedy. That's made my month, if not my year!

Sue Guiney's far East tour

2011-03-06T21:41:00.000Z

I haven't written much about me on here lately, not had a lot of time, but i am working up to it! In the meantime, I am loving my friend Sue Guiney's blog posts from her Far East book tour for her Cambodia-set novel, A Clash of Innocents. She's writing and uploading pictures like the one on the left - and videos. You feel like you are right there with her. Check it out!

World Book Day - addendum

2011-03-02T22:21:00.000Z

I just heard about Nicola Morgan's wonderful idea for World Book Day - while she understands that giving out 1 million free books should have a positive effect, she also wants to boost authors and publishers by getting people to buy a book in honour of WBD. Do go and read her blog and perhaps even pledge to join in!

World Book Day Event in Bristol

2011-03-02T17:33:00.003Z

I'm delighted to be taking part in a World Book Day celebration here in Bristol, on Saturday night at the Grant Bradley Gallery. Here are the details, do come - and if you'd like to take part, there are contact details at the bottom of this blog post!

The largest Book Give Away Ever attempted!

World Book Night at the Grant Bradley Gallery

Hosted by the Bard of Windmill Hill Trevor Carter

Saturday 5^th March 2011

Join us this Saturday 5.30 - 7pm at The Grant Bradley Gallery to collect your FREE copy of Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin

Laura Chase’s older sister Iris, married at eighteen to a politically prominent industrialist but now poor and eighty-two, is living in Port Ticonderoga, a town dominated by their once-prosperous family before the First War. While coping with her unreliable body, Iris reflects on her far from exemplary life, in particular the events surrounding her sister’s tragic death. Chief among these was the publication of The Blind Assassin, a novel which earned the dead Laura Chase not only notoriety but also a devoted cult following.

Sexually explicit for its time, The Blind Assassin describes a risky affair in the turbulent thirties between a wealthy young woman and a man on the run. During their secret meetings in rented rooms, the lovers concoct a pulp fantasy set on Planet Zycron. As the invented story twists through love and sacrifice and betrayal, so does the real one; while events in both move closer to war and catastrophe. By turns lyrical, outrageous, formidable, compelling and funny, this is a novel filled with deep humour and dark drama.

The evening’s events will also include:

A live set by local singer song writer Barry Walsh
Performance poetry by the Bard of Windmill Hill Trevor Carter
Readings from the Blind Assassin
A chance to meet and discuss your favourite books
A display of local publishers books

If you are interested in doing a short presentation on your favourite book or reading, we would be delighted to hear from you. Please contact Trevor Carter windmillbard@aol.co.uk to tell us about your choice of book and arrange a slot. We look forward to hearing from you!

DRINKS & REFRESHMENTS PROVIDED!!!

Tom Vowler Talks

2011-02-24T16:43:00.003Z

Well, my writing shed is nearly ready so I ask you to suspend disbelief and picture me and my guest today, Tom Vowler, sitting in there, sipping tea (or G&T... or beer) and chatting. Can you picture it? Here's what Tom looks like, if it helps (even though there is sea behind him, please disregard the ocean).

Tom is the author of the excellent and Scott-prize-winning collection The Method and Other Stories, published by Salt in 2010, and the forthcoming novel, All that Binds Us, which is a dark psychological thriller set on Dartmoor. On the subject of locations, I thought I'd first ask Tom the questions I've asked all those who've taken part in my Writing & Place series. And then we have a chat about his short story collections.Enjoy!

Tania: Where are you?

Tom: A stannary town on the edge of Dartmoor, in south-west England.

Tania: How long have you been there?

Tom: Just over a year, having been a decade in Plymouth.

Tania: What do you write?

Tom: Literary fiction, I suppose, though my agent has just described my novel as a psychological thriller. Short stories too.

Tania: How do you think where you are affects what you write about and how you write?

Tom: I actually moved here in order to finish my novel, which is set in the uplands of the moor. Visiting once a week didn't allow me to immerse myself fully in the landscape, which, for me, is one of the main 'characters' of the book. Research became a delight, learning about Dartmoor's history, its people, the flora and fauna. Watching the changing seasons, writing scenes where they occur, has given me a profound affection for the region, one I hope has permeated my fiction. Scenes in the moor's pubs were meticulously researched. :)

Tania: Yes, Tom, I have no doubt about that! Ok, onto The Method and Other Stories. Having just re-read the title story, it made me think of a question for you. I recently commented on a friend's blog post about the old chestnut, "writing what you know" and I said Well, while I believe in making things up, it's hard to write what you don't know, and perhaps writing and knowing are actually unconnected. What's your take, given that you the main character in your story goes to the most extreme lengths to get to know the main character in his novel...and you have actually moved house in order to better research yours?

"My own approach to research had never been this committed; if I wanted to write about something, I’d read about it. I’d Google the hell out of it and then use my imagination to make notes and diagrams, charts with lines linking characters, the complex worlds they occupied, their beliefs, histories, idiosyncrasies, what I thought they ate, how they voted. I’d construct their lives, give them voices, breathe life into them. I thought that was enough. But then, at a meeting with my publisher, the issue of authenticity arose." (From The Method)"

Tom: I had some fun with that story, although it’s worrying how many people think it’s autobiographical in some way. It’s largely tongue-in-cheek, but does throw up questions on research and its thoroughness. The inspiration came from reading about the extent an actor had gone to for a part in search of authenticity, something we as writers also strive for.

Writing what you know is well and good, but would soon make for stolid fiction; you’ll quickly run out of subject matter, emotional experiences, anecdotes. And so we must venture into unfamiliar worlds, whether literally or vicariously, in order to assimilate the themes and people we’re writing about. Annie Proulx is a good example, someone who totally immerses herself in a community during composition, giving her a sense of dialect, of customs, the minutiae of a culture.

And, yes, moving house to be near the setting of my novel was a big commitment, but meant I could actually write scenes where they took place, or an hour after visiting them. The alternative was to go there only fortnightly and read about the place in between, which is always going to give you a second-hand account. I now have a profound love for the wilderness I’ve spent two years writing (among) and about.

But research isn’t always so edifying. The same book involved studying the darker aspects of human behaviour and I was glad not to do this first-hand.

Tania: I just noticed, rereading the excellent Seeing Anyone, the scientific imagery, "the earth's curvature", "like a distant star", "the Doppler effect", "a shape hidden within an optical illusion" . Does this reflect what you were reading at the time? Tell us more!

Tom: Good question – the scientist in you coming out! There was nothing overtly contrived in this, but I do have a wholly amateur curiosity in astronomy and physics (until their enormity and scope overwhelm me), and it’s likely some influence occurred there. On a conscious level, I suppose we search for the language, the imagery, to best describe a feeling or behaviour, and this works best for me if the simile or metaphor is somehow juxtaposed with its partner. And so with this rather elegiac story (and indeed with Staring at the Sun), I used aspects of the physical, scientific world to flank the most abstract, metaphysical of matters: love.

Thank you so much, Tom. You finish your tea (or G&T... or beer) while I tell the folks, whose appetites have surely been whetted, that they can purchase your book directly from Salt, or from Amazon or the excellent Book Depository and read the recent review by Melissa Lee-Houghton on The Short Review. That's all for today, dusk is falling over the shed. Pictures soon, I promise!

Quick shout out

2011-02-22T13:15:00.000Z

I had a wonderful time last week at the launch of my great friend Sue Guiney's poetry collection, Her Life Collected. There were several highlights to the event at the Lumen United Reform Church and Community Centre - the first being hearing Sue read a number of poems from the book, some very funny indeed, since she had decided to stay away from the "divorce, death and doom" poems for the night! The second thing that made it a very special event was finally meeting up with our blog friend Lauri Kubuitsile, her of the Thoughts from Botswana blog. Sue, Lauri and I had conducted a three-way blog chat about writing over the past few months, and meeting Lauri was just like carrying that chat over from the blogsphere into real life! And continue it the next day wandering around London (well really from one cafe to another one a few steps down the road...)

The third interesting aspect of Sue's launch was that it was also an open mic night, which the Lumen centre holds regularly, and I decided to take the plunge and read one of my poems for the first time. I'm quite used to reading my stories, although that was extremely scary the first few times. But poetry? With line breaks? Ok, it's a 6-line poem - which will be published in Alba shortly, otherwise I would never have had the guts to presume to read amongst the poets. But I was really worried I'd screw up the line breaks somehow, I'd read it all wrong, even though I wrote it. Mad, eh?

Well, it went fine. Six lines, it was all over pretty quickly! And I was glad to have done it. Lauri also read, as did Sarah Salway, so short story writers were well-represented. I still wouldn't call myself a poet, but one day, maybe...

Talking about Sarah, who I had a lovely time with in London, chatting about the upcoming Arvon short story course we will be teaching in May....She and I - together with fabulous writers Elizabeth Baines, Susannah Rickards and Catherine Smith - are reading at Jay Merill's Salt Publishing short fiction event at the Wise Words festival in Spitalfields, London, on March 16th. See Sarah's blog for the info.

2011 Sunday Times EFG longlist is out!

2011-02-20T15:03:00.000Z

The longlist for the £20,000 Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award - the richest prize for a single story (although only open to published writers) - has just been announced. An interesting list, it seems on first glance to be that there are more Big Names on it this year, maybe the Big Names realised that this is a serious amount of money and it would be foolish not to go in for it! Delighted to see Short Review authors Rob Shearman and Clare Wigfall there, along with Kevin Barry and Yiyun Li. Here's the full longlist:

Fabian Acker 'Nirvana'
Kevin Barry 'Fjord of Killary'
Meira Chand 'The Pilgrimage'
Will Cohu 'East West-West Coast'
Anthony Doerr 'The Deep'
Michel Faber 'In the Woods with a Dead Dog'
Roshi Fernando 'The Fluorescent Jacket'
Tibor Fischer 'Possibly Forty Ships'
Xiaolu Guo 'Life by Accident'
Sarah Hall 'Vuotjarvi'
Tobias Hill 'Not that it Matters'
Susan Hill 'Crystal'
Yiyun Li 'The Science of Flight'
Hilary Mantel 'Comma'
David Miller 'Fuck Being Happy'
Robert Shearman 'History Becomes You'
Erin Soros 'BC Almanac'
Louise Stern 'Black and White Dog'
Gerard Woodward 'The Family Whistle'
Claire Wigfall 'Professor Arvind'

You can read more about the longlisted authors here. I am particularly intrigued by Fabien Acker, who won "the BT award as science writer of the year", and Yiyun Li's story, because it has science in the title! Good luck to them all, the shortlist will be announced in a few weeks.

Live Q&A tonight on Thresholds

2011-02-17T09:44:00.000Z

I'm doing a live Q&A tonight on the fabulous Thresholds short story forum - do come and ask me something! Here are the details of how to join in:

I hope you will join us, tonight between 7:30 and 9:00 p.m. UK time, for our LIVE online Question and Answer session with the prize-winning writer and editor of THE SHORT REVIEW, Tania Hershman. Tips and Hints for helping the session to run smoothly: 1) Members need to be logged in to submit questions. 2) Questions are to be submitted using the Comments Box, below Tania's announcement. 3) Please submit separate questions, in separate comments boxes. 4) Use your REFRESH button occasionally throughout the session. For those unable to be with us, questions can be submitted in advance, using the Comments facility at the bottom of Tania's announcement. Further details about the event and links to some of Tania's stories can be found in the announcement on the front page of THRESHOLDS. http://blogs.chi.ac.uk/shortstoryforum/?p=3699 Hope to see you tonight!

Coming to you live from...

2011-02-14T17:54:00.001Z

... my new writing shed! This is my first time in here, and although I had the most virtuous plans for it to be Internet-free, what do you know? The wifi actually gets all the way down the end of the garden! I might try and do something about that at some point, but while I am connected, i wanted to blog and say

WHOO-HOO!

So this is a bit of a Valentine's Day love post. A shed love post.

I've wanted a writing shed for years and years and years... and now, finally, I'm in it. There was a shed here when we bought this house, that was definitely one of the main attractions, but it needed to be insulated, so now it looks a little sauna-like, all pale pine, floor to ceiling. (Check out these amazing sheds in the meantime.)

Right now it just has electricity and a desk in, nothing else, because we're going to decorate, so no pics for the moment. It will have a single bed because I have come to understand the creative importance of being horizontal and thinking with one's eyes shut. (And napping). And our wonderful builder, Simon, is going to build me shelves including one that will allow me to work standing up when I need to. Seems a good idea for the back.

Anyway, that will happen soonish. But...here I am already! And I can hear the birds. And I can't hear much else except my fingers banging the keyboard. Any tips from you writers-in-sheds? Are you all web-less? Should I? Really...? Yes, yes, I know.

Ok, it's a bit chilly now. I couldn't manage to carry the radiator down the garden myself, but really need to, since it's February in England. I will sign off now. From the shed. The writing shed. Wheee!

It's Story Sunday!

2011-02-13T12:07:00.002Z

A little thing I started on Twitter a few months ago, StorySunday asks anyone to tweet a link to someone else's short story that's published online. It's basically for me to get new recommendations of stories... and if anyone else happens to enjoy it, then that's great! Anyway, here's my #storysunday widget, you can click on the links even if you're not on Twitter...

Best British Short Stories 2012 Wants To Hear From You!

2011-02-10T11:25:00.004Z

I mentioned a while ago that Best British Short Stories is back, resurrected by my publisher, Salt Publishing, and edited by Nicholas Royle. He has just finalised the list of stories for the first edition, the 2011 edition, which will be published in April 2011 (see the list here - I'm delighted that it includes No Angel by Bernie McGill, which I chose as 2nd prize winner in the Sean O'Faolain competition), quite a mammoth task, he is to be applauded! And now he wants to know what British short story writers are up to this year.

Similar to the Best American Short Stories model, Royle will be reading stories that have already been published between Jan and Dec 2011. He told me he wants short stories published "anywhere, could be in American publications or wherever. And not just literary mags – anthologies, newspapers, online etc." But before you get excited and start firing off your beautiful publications to him, he cautions: "People need to be selective, ie not like I was when sending to Giles Gordon & David Hughes for Best Short Stories, way back." If all of us bombard him with everything we have published this year, he will be swamped. So wait, think about it, be choosy. And check out the anthologies Nicholas has already edited (to start with, read The Short Review's review of '68: New Stories from Children of the Revolution).

And then, when you're ready, send them to:

n.royle@mmu.ac.uk or hard copies to Nicholas Royle at Manchester Writing School, Geoffrey Manton Building, MMU, Rosamond St West, Manchester M15 6LL

Good luck!

Addendum: As the lovely and generous Rachel Fenton pointed out in the comments, you could also recommend someone else's story!

Jo Cannon's Far-from-insignificant Short Story Collection

2011-02-03T12:55:00.000Z

It's a fantastic thing when a friend whose writing you greatly admire has a book published! Jo Cannon's first short story collection, Insignificant Gestures (Pewter Rose Press, 2010) is one of those short story collections that provoked in me a physical reaction. I gasped as I finished a story, I had to put the book aside, I felt something in me was roiling and unsettled by Jo's powerful stories. It's hard these days after reviewing so many collections for me to find unique adjectives to describe what stories do to me, but I find Jo does something quite different in her writing, somehow a melding together of experiences as a GP and travels in Africa. The results, which are sometimes quite odd and surreal, are stories with characters you can't shake once you've finished the story, situations which are both deeply affecting and also, in small ways, hopeful.

I'm delighted to be hosting Jo as part of her Virtual Book Tour! We had a chat about writing. Here's what she told me:

Tania: When did you first know/decide you wanted to be a writer?

Jo: I don’t really see myself as a writer, Tania! But in primary school, long before I wanted to be a doctor, my ambition was to be an author. Failing this, I would be a show jumper – the horse, not the rider. The time came when I accepted I would never swish my tail in a show ring. But I didn’t relinquish the hope that one day I would write a book. I wrote numerous novels in those days, in exercise books with the top half of the page devoted to illustrations in felt pen. Mostly twaddle about running away with gypsies or ponies, or both. I didn’t start writing stories again until my mid forties. I needed time to collect better material.

T: Why short stories? What does the short story do for you, as a reader and as a writer?

J: The short story seems to be the genre that comes naturally to me. I made a couple of attempts at novels, but they were sewn up after 3,000 words. Time is an issue, of course. My writing tends to be intense and sporadic, so Insignificant Gestures took five years to write. Had I embarked on a novel I would have literally lost the plot. But I also think my job has pushed me into short stories. Every surgery feels like a collection.

T: What does the word "story" mean to you?

J: At the simplest level a story is a tale made up to entertain others. Ideally a short story should be intense and complete. It must be authentic, so that the reader understands how it feels to be someone else. The language should add meaning, for example, through metaphor. I admire this in other writers, but still have a long way to go!

T: How does a story come to you? Stories come to writers in many different ways: an image, a first line, a voice. What's yours?

J: Usually it is an emotion. Either one I have experienced, or that someone, telling their story, has transferred to me. Sometimes the heart of a story is a powerful, often troubling memory – not always my own - which I exorcise, and give meaning, by turning into fiction. Other stories begin with a dreamy "What if?" For example, sitting in a traffic jam and considering what would happen if I never got out.

T: How long did it take to write all the stories in this collection, and how did you decide what order to put them in?

J: The collection contains about two thirds of my work. Some earlier stories seem clumsy now, and I discarded them. When I considered that they might have a wider readership, some seemed too exposing of real people’s lives, or my own. My publisher rejected a few, chose which story to go first, and also decided on the collection’s title. I tried not to have too many first person narratives together, and followed sad stories with upbeat ones. I separated linked stories, but not too far, hoping the reader might be surprised to recognise the character from a previous incarnation. Eve appears at different ages and her stories are in chronological order, scattered through the collection, ending with her death. The book ends with Jam, which is a metaphor for Eve’s life, and life in general.

T: How does it feel knowing people are reading your book?!

J: I’m over-awed! And thrilled, of course. The book has already sold more than I, or my publisher, expected. I’m aware that a reader has expended a few hours of his or her life, and some hard earned dosh, on my book and I sincerely hope they feel it was worth it.

T: What are you working on now?

J: My ‘other’ job is really busy just now, so writing time is limited. And book promotion activities – like writing blog interviews! – are surprisingly time consuming. I feel the collection should get my best boot out into the world. But when all this settles down, I hope to get back to writing short stories again. I’ve learned so much in the last five years, I’m excited to think where the next five will take me.

Thank you so much, Jo, for those insights. We're exciting about where the next five years take you too! Find out more about the book and Jo's stories on her website, Jo Cannon.

Coming soon... blog interviews with Tom Vowler about his short story collection, The Method, and Andrew Oldham on his poetry collection, Lapwing.

First acceptance of 2011

2011-01-31T22:18:00.000Z

I had one day in December when I got 4 rejections in 24 hours. That wasn't much fun. I can handle them one by one, but that was a bit like being whacked... and then whacked again, and again! Well, 2011 is off to a better start with the first acceptance, sneaking in just before January ended: my poem, Moss, will be published in the next issue of Alba: A Journal of Short Poetry. So, my 5th published poem, what does this mean?

I've been reading the excellent Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Prose Poetry and feeling very inspired about poems that look a little like prose but aren't. Then J and I went to the TS Eliot prize shortlistees reading and I was blown away by Simon Armitage's odd and darkly humourous pieces from Seeing Stars, and Sam Willett's poems from New Light for the Old Dark (neither of whom, sadly, won). And then I bought Jo Shapcott's Costa-winning collection, Of Mutability, which is astonishing, and which suddenly taught me something about line breaks, the power of the word chosen to end a line, the word chosen to begin the next. Wow.

So I am being beautifully bombarded (by choice) on all sides by poetry, perhaps it's no surprise when sometimes that's what comes out when I write. I am remembering that as a kid it was always easy for me to makes up rhymes to impress classmates (it was the only thing I did that did impress them - my maths skills weren't really very cool). Maybe I am tapping into something that was always there? Whatever it is, I am enjoying playing around with other forms, all other forms. I am going on an Arvon Foundation course in Writing for Radio in the summer - another form that really appeals to me - and one of the tutors is Simon Armitage, so I am very excited about that! The other is Sue Roberts, executive producer for BBC Radio Drama in the North, I am really looking forward to meeting her too.

And on that note - yes, the wonderful Sarah Salway and I are teaching an Arvon Foundation course on the short story in May, and booking is now open! We'd love to meet you...!

Thought lab life was dull and boring? Think again!

2011-01-26T10:02:00.001Z

One of the scientists at the lab I am writer-in-residence in sent this around yesterday and I think it's wonderful! It's for all of you who think science is about hard fact, about right and wrong, about automatons in lab coats who reveal the truth of existence on a daily basis. Umm, no, not quite...

Upcoming deadlines

2011-01-20T13:37:00.007Z

It's been a while since I did one of my "writers' service announcement" blog posts with some upcoming deadlines, and I am feeling pretty congested today and not up to anything more thoughtful, so here are some places to send your very talented short stories (and the odd poem). Good luck!

Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine contest deadline Jan 31st.

£5000 1st prize , £1000 2nd prize, £ 500 3rd prize, 20 commended entries £50. "‘Medical’ is to be interpreted in the widest sense, including the nature of the body, and anatomy; the history, evolution, current and future state of medical science; the nature and experience of tests; the experience of doctors, nurses and other staff in hospitals and in the community; the experience of patients, families, friends and carers in these situations; the experiences of acute and long-term illness and dying, of birth, of cure and convalescence; the patient journey; the nature and experience of treatment with herbs, chemicals and devices used in medicine". Entry maximum of 50 lines not including title or blank lines. Entry fee £6, entry online or by post. Open to all.

Orlando Prize contest deadline Jan 31st. (women only)

poetry (90 lines), creative non-fiction (4000words), short fiction (4000 words) & Flash fiction(1000 words). £1000 1st prize in each category .Entry fee $15. Women only. Online entry only.

Readers' Digest 100 Word Story competition deadline Jan 31st

£5000 1st prize in each category. Entries should be an original, previously unpublished story of exactly 100 words (excluding title). There is no limit to the number of entries you can make. No entry fee. Online entry only.

Lumen/Camden Poetry Competition deadline feb 14th

£5000 1st prize in each category Poems up to 40 lines. £2.50 per poem, 6 poems £10. Poetry must not be previously published. Judge: Carol Ann Duffy, Poet Laureate. Proceeds to the Cold Weather Shelter. Pamphlet publication collection of winner's poems - 50 free copies plus a reading.

Binnacle Ultra-Short Story deadline Feb 15th
"We are looking for prose works of 150 words or fewer and poetry of sixteen lines or fewer and fewer than 150 words. All works should have a narrative element to them. Please include the work in the body of the email message, if possible. A minimum of $300 in cash prizes will be awarded, with a minimum prize of $50. Please submit no more than two works total, prose and/or poetry." No entry fee. Online entry only.

Vestal Review Ten Years in Flash Fiction contest deadline Feb 28th (extended)

£100 1st prize, 2nd prize £ 50. Guest judge Steve Almond will award the first prize of $100, the second prize of $50, and the third prize a signed copy of Mark Budman's novel “My Life at First Try” [I interviewed mark about his fabulous "novel-in-flash" here] and publication in Vestal Review. Results will be announced at Vestal Review website on or about March 1, 2011.Entry fee $4. Open to all. Online entry only.

Redivider Journal First Annual Fiction Contest deadline March 1st
1st prize: $1000 +publication; 2nd prize: $250; 3rd prize: $100. Max word count 8000. Entry fee is $15 and includes a one year subscription to Redivider. Open to all. Online or postal entry.

Fish Publishing One Page Story Prize deadline March 20th
1st prize: €1000 +publication; 9 runners up published in anthology. Max word count 300.Entry fee is €14 online or €16 postal entry. Open to all

Bristol Short Story Prize deadline March 31st [I am one of the judges]
PRIZE MONEY HAS DOUBLED THIS YEAR! 1st prize: £1000 +£150 Waterstone's Gift Card: 2nd prize: £700 + £100 Waterstone's Gift Card; 3rd prize: £ 400 + £100 Waterstone's Gift Card; 17 finalists £100. Max word count 3000, no minimum. Entry fee £7. Open to all. Online or postal entry.

The Collagist 2011 Chapbook Contest deadline April 15th

1st prize: publication by Dzanc Books, plus $250 and 25 author copies; 2 Honorable mentions, possible publication. Entries will be accepted in all genres, including short stories, flash fiction, novellas, poetry, and non-fiction. Manuscripts for all genres should be between 35 and 80 pages in length. Previously-published excerpts or individual pieces are acceptable as part of your entry, but the manuscript as a whole must be unpublished. Entry fees: $15:; $20: Includes contest entry fee plus a copy of the winning chapbook (only available to U.S. entrants) Includes contest entry fee only. Open to all except relatives, close friends, and former students of the judge, Matt Bell.

Addendum: A few more!
Treehouse Press Three-in-One Chapbook Contest deadline March 15th

First, second and third prize winners will each be published in a chapbook by Treehouse Press in September 2011. Winners will receive £100, £75 and £50 respectively, as well as 20 copies of their chapbook. Each entry must contain 3 short stories by the same author (between 10,000 and 15,000 words in total). Winning entries will each have their own chapbook published. Stories can be in any genre. We welcome experimental work, cross−genre work, work that combines text and image, graphic short stories (ie. comics). Treehouse Press will not select winning entries based on race, sex, gender identity, sexuality, religion, age, nationality, physical ability, or geographic location. Quality of work is what we're looking for, as well as work that reflect our ethos.. Entry fees: £10/$15. Open to all.

Short FICTION's short story competition, deadline is 30th April
First prize £500. Word limit is 6,000. Judge: Gerard Donovan. Here's the link. Open to writers at any stage of their career, so ones with books out too. Entry fee: 2 stories for £10, which includes copy of the journal's next issue (which costs £10).