The Day Got Better

It was not a great day. It started off hot, like all the other days recently. And the forecast says only: "Hotter than average", and "getting hotter." Outside is doing its impression of an oven. Dazzling sunlight. Not conducive to work. Not conducive to focus. So... after dealing with bureaucracy, trying to phone, trying to get people to reply, I retired to my cellar. But still, despite the several-degree-temp-drop, I still couldn't get down to anything.

Faffing ensued. Much faffing (phaphing?). I assembled some prompts for myself, odd phrases from poems and things like that, to kick start me. But - nothing. Just frustration. More Facebook, more online scrabble. And much, much less writing.

Ok, I decided to abandon it all and watch an episode of Eureka, a wonderfully odd sort of sci-fi series from the US. Love it! I thought that might stimulate the creative juices (watching TV is always "research into narratives and character development"!). And, well, it did. I got the prompts back out and wrote a poem, and felt cleansed. Ahhhh.

Then this afternoon, more and more heat. The air con had no choice but to become active, it was unbearable. Crabby. Very crabby we both were. And then plagiarism reared its ugly head - again. Not my work, but a friend's. Again. Awful, awful, awful. Again. Will this despicable person never learn?

A trip to the post office, where there was no queue but much aircon, made things better: two literary magazines, Electric Literature and Ninth Letter, and a review copy of J Robert Lennon's short story collection, Pieces for the Left Hand. Nothing cheers the overheated heart like great reading material!

And then tonight, the best of all: an email from the editor of an online mag saying that he doesn't normally do this, but he's "been enjoying my writing so much" and would like me to submit something. Love this. Love this enormously! It has happened a few times, and it is just the nicest thing, most surprising and delightful. The online mag, which I won't name in case the editor doesn't want it known that he has ever done this kind of thing, likes experimental fiction. Right up my street. Will keep you updated!

It's cooling down now and I'm cheering up. Night is falling. I love the darkness. Have a lovely evening.

Many sources of great lit and a question about horror

Lots to read, as ever! There's a new blog post up on the Short Review blog as part of Dzanc Books' 2009 Best of the Web anthology launch that I highly recommend you pop over and read. It's a guest post by M. Thomas Gammarino, one of the authors picked for BoTW, talking about his story, The Fridge. It's here.

Another source of lit: the latest copy of Irish lit mag The Stinging Fly landed in my postbox this week, and it looks great, with short stories by Aileen Armstrong, Jon Boilard, Philip Cummings, Catherine Finn, Alison MacLeod and Heather Richardson, poetry from Arlene Ang, Carolyn Jess-Cooke and others, and a fabulous article by Colm Liddy called "My Struggle ... to Grow Up and Be a Writer", which talks about how getting his first book deal affected him. I haven't read much of this Summer issue yet, am saving it!

And me-centred news: two flash stories have been accepted by the London magazine for their August issue, which I think will be science-themed, something that always thrills me. Lovely way to welcome me to England when we move at the end of August (although not to London, but who's quibbling?!)

Right now I am working on a new short story that I wrote the other day with the Manchester Fiction prize in mind. I was pretty surprised when 1600 words came out all in one go. Now I have to tweak and polish, haven't read it since, am a bit nervous in case I hate it. Always a risk! And inspired by the Waterford Film Festival competition for a short screenplay, I am adapting one of my published stories into a film (something my mother's been telling me to do for ages, okay, fine, I'm doing it), which is such fun: the story is there, but I have to think hard about how it can be told visually, with images instead of all those words. Loving it.

A question for all my dear blog readers: I am, as I mentioned a while back, attempting to only submit fiction to paying markets. I keep a close eye on Duotrope's What's New page and notice that the markets that pay, and often pay a lot, are the ones with titles like "End of Days: An Apocalyptic Anthology", "Fight On! Weird Enclaves and Black Pits", "Dark Moon Anthology: Zombie Short Stories", "Middle of Nowhere: Horror in Rural America", and "Zombology VI: The Undead Versus the Living Dead" - and that's just this week!

What does it say about the state of fiction markets that the horror markets pay their writers seemingly so well, but the literary markets, on the whole, don't?? Why not? Most importantly, what does this say about readers and what they are willing to pay for. Answers please.

Me and my poem

How nice it is - well, it's only happened once, so I can't generalize - but how lovely to wake up today to an email saying that my first published poem is in the latest issue of Contrary Magazine. It's called Baby in A Jar (thanks to Nik for the inspiration!). It is a great boost, especially on the morning after the day when I couldn't get down to doing any writing, when I went a little stir crazy, especially by evening (thanks to my Twitter friends who came up with helpful suggestions for what I could be doing instead!)

Anyhow, Contrary is a wonderful magazine, I have long been a fan of their poetry and short stories which all tend to have the dashes of oddness that I love. I am in the company of Arlene Ang ("Flowers prelude the smell of beer." Read her poem, Day of the Dead), Rebecca Lehmann ("The Managers are giving silver dollars to our childrenand telling them if they are good, they can have our jobs once we're dead". Read The Factory: An Elegy in Six Parts). Contrary also features reviews. So much to read, and so beautifully presented. A great source of lit.

Here's hoping today I'll be more productive. Have a good one.

Source of Lit: Billy Collins

I am coming late to poetry, as I near my 40th year, but boy am I glad I am coming to it at all. I just read American poet Billy Collins' 1998 collection, Picnic, Lightning, straight through, sitting here on the couch with a view of the Irish sea through the window. Billy Collins has visited Anam Cara several times, and he is often talked about, so I picked this off the shelf to see what the fuss was all about.

I have never laughed out loud while reading a poem.

Several times.

"Astonishing" is a word I might use. Plain, clear language, and a sense that the line breaks are absolutely the most natural thing in the world, that perhaps this is the way he thinks in his head, this is the way he - and maybe we - all talk. Natural, clean, clear, witty, wise, moving.

A poem about the Victoria's Secret catalogue, entitled Victoria's Secret. An excerpt:

And occupying the whole facing page
is one who displays that expression
we have come to associate with photographic beauty.
Yes, she is pouting about something,
all lower lip and cheekbone.
Perhaps her ice cream has tumbled
out of its cone onto the parquet floor.
Perhaps she has been waiting all day
for a new sofa to be delivered,
waiting all day in stretch lace hipster
with lattice edging, satin frog closures,
velvet scrollwork, cuffed ankles,
flare silhouette, and knotted shoulder straps
available in black, champagne, almond,
cinnabar, plum, bronze, mocha,
peach, ivory, caramel, blush, butter, rose, and periwinkle.
It is, of course, impossible to say,
impossible to know what she is thinking,
why her mouth is the shape of petulance.

And to contrast this with the poem My Life:

I am a lake, my poem is an empty boat,
and my life is the breeze that blows
through the whole scene.

I couldn't put the book down, I was mesmerized by the simple way Collins, who was US Poet Laureate from 2001-3, seemed to be just documenting his life, listening to jazz, writing, looking around him, and yet at the same time uncovering fundamentals and presenting them in a completely original and unique way.

I was particularly moved by his poem Lines Lost Among Trees, which is an elegy for the poem that came to him "while walking in the woods/with no pen/ and nothing to write on anyway":

They are gone forever,
a handful of coins
dropped through the grate of memory,
along with the ingenious mnemonic

I devised to hold them in place -

What writer doesn't know that feeling of having written something in her head, at night (as often happens to me, whole stories unfolding) and then, too lazy or tired to get up and write it down, hoping, hoping, that it is still there, in the morning or when you get back. But no, it's gone.

Reading his poems both demystifies poetry as something incomprehensible and high fallutin', and mystifies in the sense of inspiring awe at how he performs this magic using small words, words we know, strung together with such apparent ease. Oh, I know it's not easy, I know very well that these were not dashed off of an afternoon. But to make it look so. That is the art. That is the mark of astonishing talent. I am off to order some of his books myself. More on him here.

In Appreciation of Swiftly-Responding Lit Mag Editors!

This morning's response to my "surprise and delight me" request was the new issue of online literary magazine Elimae. Yes, I knew it was coming, but I had forgotten it was today - so it is possible to be surprised and delighted by something that you knew about, if your memory is a little faulty! I want to take a moment to appreciate Coop Renner, Elimae's editor. There is often much grumbling between us writer-bloggers about the slothfulness of magazines' responses to our submissions. Grumbling turns into gnashing of teeth when months or even a year has passed with no response at all. Why can't they just send out an email? we wail. Just to let us know if... maybe... or a direct no. How hard can it be.

Coop Renner puts them all to shame. Not only does he send personal and gentle rejections, he replies within 48 hours, often within only a few hours. I don't know what sacrifice he has made in his life in order that he can do this, but I do know that it has elevated him to mythical status in the eyes of many of us. We feel appreciated, our needs understood, even if we are rejected and rejected and rejected again. And again.

I was one of these rejectees who felt almost apologetic, sending flash story after flash story and receiving swift but polite "This doesn't quite fit" emails. I kept on sending them, and was utterly astonished when, a few weeks ago, the prompt response was actually

"Let's do this for the May issue, which should post about the 15th of the month. It's almost a poem."

Shocked, surprised and delighted. Here it is, my almost-poem, Up Far and Everywhere (thanks Nik for the inspiration). The whole issue looks wonderful, some names I know, some I look forward to getting to know.

Submit to Elimae. Vote with your feet/short stories. Thanks, Coop.

Source of lit: Local Writer Friends

It is not often I mention people on this blog from my offline life (!!). Here are two: My friend and writing group member, Nadia, has a flash story, Photographic Memory, up today at Every Day Fiction. This is her first published short story - so raise a glass and toast the newly-published writer! May this be the first of many, many more! (And do go and read the story, it's wonderful).

This picture below is me and my book, and my friend Yael and her book. Taken last night in a cafe after a reading we'd been to by American author Marita Golden. Afterwards, we went and discussed how great it was to go and listen to an author, while sitting there and thinking, I am an author too. Is there anything more thrilling? I don't think so.

Source of Lit & National Poetry Month

One of the things that helps me when I am feeling anxious*, as I seem to be a lot these days, is reading. Reading fiction, or non-fiction, immersing myself in someone else's world. And the effect lasts after I stop reading, it is most definitely a calmative, so I thought I would bring you a couple of things I have been enjoying reading lately.

National Poetry Month begins today in the US and I've been thinking a lot about poetry lately - reading it and writing it so I'll start with some of that:

A Brief History of Time is Shaindel Beers' new collection (published by Salt), and this woman is a poet after my own heart, combining science with the human condition in original, surprising, wryly amusing and exquisitely painful ways. From the title poem:

I’m sure it’s an electrical impulse that travels
our most twisted neurons, axons, and dendrites — or
why would we fall into the trap of doing the same thing
the same way and expect different results, which is
one definition of insanity ? This would explain why my father is
still married to my mother, even after she tried to knife him
just days after coming home from jail
for two other attempted murders.

Shaindel is currently doing a virtual book tour, On the Hood of a Cutlass. The interviews are fascinating, illuminating. Check it out.

Ink, sweat and years is the online poetryand prose journal Ink, Sweat and Tears' first annual print anthology and I am delighted to be included with my first ever poem. Apart from that, it's a wonderful read, with excellent contributions from my writer colleagues Frances Gapper, Sarah Hilary, Alex Keegan and Nuala Ní Chonchúir.

Alex Irvine's story, The Truth About Ninjas, in Barrelhouse's latest issue, issue 7, with its eye-catching red and black cover, just blew me away - both utterly mad and completely sane, a philosophical treatise. With ninjas. Brilliant!

Pank magazine's annual print edition, Pank No.3, looks so gorgeous, it's a little hard not to be dazzled, but the writing is just as dazzling. A combination of poetry and prose, it includes such gems as Ten Things I've Told People About Daschunds Sure They Cared, by Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz and Because Magicicadas Have No Eyes by Rosanne Griffiths. I have only just started reading it, am restraining myself so I can savour it slowly.

Thirty Years of Prosperity for Every Fifteen Years of Hard Work by Matthew Derby was published in Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art, Issue 45, which arrived in my mailbox a few weeks ago, along with issue 46, a bonus for entering (and definitely not winning) their short story contest! I had never read the Columbia journal before, but when I saw that the contest was being judged by Diane Williams, whose collection, Excitability, I am reading and loving its experimental and often surreal prose, I knew this mag was for me. Matthew's story bore that out, both odd and poignant, or perhaps oddly poignant. Once again, am trying to read these slowly... so much to read, so little time.

I have been dipping my toes into the waters of science fiction and fantasy with a subscription to Interzone, the UK's SF&F magazine, and have found a lot to love in the issues I've received so far. A story that stands out from the April 2009 issue is A Clown Escapes from Circus Town by Will McIntosh, which once again challenged my shameful preconceptions about what SF&F is. Moving, surprisng, and highly imaginative. This is just great writing, no matter what genre shelf it is shoved onto.

On the non-fiction front, Slightly Foxed arrived this week, what an interesting journal. It is comprised of articles which are sort of book reviews, but are actually much more than that. Slightly Foxed is, in their own words: "a rather unusual kind of book review, informal and independent-minded, and its readers tend to be independent-minded too –people who don’t want to read only what the big publishers are hyping and the newspapers are reviewing. Each issue contains 96 pages of personal recommendations for books of lasting interest, old and new, both fiction and non-fiction – books that have inspired, amused, and sometimes even changed the lives of the people who write about them." I am really enjoying it.

And finally - tomorrow I have the honour of hosting Sue Guiney's Space-Time Virtual Book Tour to celebrate the paperback release of her excellent novel Tangled Roots, which gets better every time I read it. We will be talking physics, physicists, fiction and what we can learn from the characters we create. Prepare your questions please, and come back same time tomorrow. Thank you.




*If you are a writer and anxiety is something you are familiar with, there is a new private Facebook group for people like us to discuss it. Message me through FB for more info.

Writer Service Announcement: Upcoming Deadlines

What do you think of the new look? I just discovered (after the rest of the world, it seems) that Blogger's own templates are not the only templates... there are loads of free templates out there for the taking. This one is called Rotterdam and is designed by Pannasmontata. I love the picture, something very calming about it.

On to the Writer Service Announcement. Here are some upcoming short story competition deadlines you might want to know about. (As usual, all links open new windows/tabs, so feel free to click all of them without fear.)

Feb 14th: Writers & Artists Yearbook: 2000 words, win £500 and a place on an Arvon Foundation writing course worth £575. Online entry. No fee.

Feb 15th: The Binnacle 6th Ultra-Short competition: 150 words, $300 in prizes, min $50. All finalists published in beautiful ultra-short edition. (See my blog post). Online entry. No fee. 2 stories max.

Feb 28th: Summer Literary Seminars: 25 pages (approx 5000 words), winners receive publication in Fence magazine, as well as the participating literary journals in Canada, Russia, Kenya, Italy, and Lithuania. Additionally, the winner will have the choice of attending (including airfare, program fee, and housing) one of the SLS-09 programs – in Vasto, Abruzzo, Italy (May 15-30); Vilnius-Nida, Lithuania (July 20-August 4); or Nairobi-Lamu, Kenya (December). Online entry. $15 fee.

March 6th: Symphony Space Selected Shorts: 600 words, "a single short story that contains a surprise", win $1000 will be read as part of the Selected Shorts performance at Symphony Space on May 20, 2009. Online entry. $10.

March 20th: Fish One-Page Short Competition: 300 words, win €1000, nine runners-up €50, publication in Fish anthology. Online entry. €12.

(opens Feb 15th) March 31st: 10th Raymond Carver Short Story Comp: 6000 words, "a single short story that contains a surprise", win $1000, $750, $500, 2 Editor's Choice prizes $250, publication in Carvezine. Online entry. $15.

March 31st: Press 53 Flash 750 words, short short 1500 words, short 5000 (see site for other categories). previously published pieces are accepted. Win glass trophy and publication in anthology. Online entry. $15.

March 31st: Bristol Short Story Prize 3000 words. Win £500, £300, £250 (plus Waterstone's gift cards), 17 runners-up receive £50, publication in annnual prize anthology. "We also welcome stories in any style- graphic, verse, genre-based, etc., etc." Online entry. £7.

March 31st: Jane Austen Short Story Award 2000-2500 words, inspired by Jane Austen or her writing. Win £1000, 2 runners-up £200, all three win week's writing retreat at Chawton House, 15 shortlisted win £40, publication in annual prize anthology. " Postal entry. £10.

There is no harm getting your story in early, as Women Rule Writer mentioned in her very useful post about judging a short story comp. That said, I am always a last-minute-entry kinda gal. That's just the way I work..


Other news: It has been Rejection City over here at TaniaWrites since the new year began. I never mention all the rejection just so you can think I have a 100% success rate! Duotrope, the best friend of any writer who loves statistics that may or may not mean everything or nothing, tells me my acceptance rate is actually 25%, which sounds about right. So, anyway, this morning I woke up to a rejection and an acceptance, which just sets the day up beautifully! The rejection was for a flash story that was one of the five accepted for publication by Pank, a new magazine I found a few weeks ago and mentioned in my Source of Lit a few weeks ago. A new venue, I am delighted... but am dubious as to whether they have actually accepted all five flashes, which were sent in one document. I am sure they will set me straight later on, but for the moment let's assume it's all of 'em, yippee!

Addendum: I just heard back from Pank, they are accepting all five flashes for publication. Wow! That makes up for January's rejections.

Source of Lit - Online and Off

I am not very well. It's been several weeks of virtual hibernation, not really going out of the house because that raises anxiety levels. It's a combination of stress and hormonal imbalance, and I am now taking stuff and seeing people who are helping, as well as helping myself by laying off the coffee (shame) and sugar (hmm...chocolate?) and, well, not doing very much. I haven't felt well enough to concentrate on any writing, although stories are forming themselves in my head so I hope something might emerge soon, but I have, as always, been reading. So, here are a few recommendations for some wonderful sources of lit I have been enjoying:
(All links open a new window so feel free to click 'em all!)

• "The Accident", a short story by Allan Reader in Memorious, an online lit journal new to me (thanks Matt Bell for the recommendation).
• "I Never Asked You", a poem by Lee Stern in Pank Magazine, another online&print lit journal I have just stumbled upon.
  
• "The Drunk as a Kind of Beautiful Wolf", a prose poem (I think!) by James Grinwis, also in Pank.
• Ninth Letter, a print journal the size of a telephone book, stunningly designed, and with wonderful writing. I can't link to any of the content here, but I highly recommend buying an issue.
• "An Unhappy Man", a six-sentence long flash story by Nik Perring published in Six Sentences.
  
• "Pump and Ladder", a short short story by Howie Good in Issue #9 of Drunk and Lonely Men
• "Cigarette Vignette", the winning short story in the Vignette Press short story contest, by Bernadette Rafferty. Now published in print as part of their Mini Shots.
  

Happy reading!

Source of Lit: Something for the Weekend

A few recommendations for great reading that I've enjoyed this week (links open new windows so feel free to click 'em all!):

Flash fiction
Missing by Marcia Aldrich, Vestal Review
You Should Know This by Meg Pokrass, Dogzplot
The Meaning of Life by Tom Robbins, Conjunctions

Short Stories
Her Ennead by Matt Bell, Storyglossia
The Dynamics of Windows by Kuzhali Manickavel, Subtropics

Poetry
Allegory by Kiki Petrosino, Contrary magazine

Books
My Life at First Try by Mark Budman

Have a wonderful weekend.

Source of Lit

Taking my inspiration from the wonderful Emerging Writers Network, I thought I'd mention just a few of the sources of great writing I've been enjoying recently:

Flash fiction:

The Deadline by Stefanie Freele in the newly launched Gander Press Review

The Table by David Erlewine in Smokelong Quarterly

The Collector of Shiny by Sara Crowley in Every Day Fiction

Going to be Like Miss Marple by Frances Gapper in Wigleaf

Two Minute Silence by Sarah Hilary in Smokelong

Short Stories

Used to be by Elizabeth Baines in Carve

Poetry

A Stone for Your Shoe by Vanessa Gebbie in Every Day Poets

Three Poems by Harvey Molloy (thanks to Tim Jones!)

Books

Tangled Roots by Sue Guiney - I had been looking forward to reading this for ages, and was most certainly not disappointed, with its perfect blend of physics, family dynamics and wonderful writing! I will post a proper review soon.

Absent Kisses by Frances Gapper - a wonderful collection of fabulous, funny, odd and moving flash stories.

Day
by A L Kennedy - am half way through and I am blown away by this book, the prose, the characters. Unbelievable.

The Scent of Cinnamon: and Other Stories (Salt Modern Fiction) by Charles Lambert. I've only read a few stories but am loving this collection, it is surprising, dark, witty.