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Some lessons are priceless.

 Just managed to grab time to watch my recently arrived copy of $9.99, an animated film based on Etgar Keret’s short fiction screenwritten by the man himself and directed by Tatia Rosenthal. I’ve only recently discovered Etgar Keret’s stories but am already a big fan of his work. The stop motion animation used in $9.99 perfectly captures the tone of Keret’s fictions, providing a visual medium in which the magical aspects of the stories are at home with the more realistic elements. $9.99 has far too many wonderful moments and characters to go into here and I wouldn’t want to spoil a minute of it for anyone yet to see…

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Judging a digital book by its digital cover

 There’s an interesting article discussing book covers in a digital age over on The Literary Platform, sparked by the release of the Odyssey Editions ebooks from the likes of Amis, Bellow, Nabokov, Rushdie et al which also triggered an apoplectic response from said writers’ publisher, Random House. While it will be interesting to see the outcome of the dispute between Random House and Odyssey over the ebook rights to some of the biggest names in literature, it was the covers of the titles that really caught my eye. In the Literary Platform article they explore the relevance of book covers to digital copies and argue that ‘cover art only sells…

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VE Day – #fridayflash

 Victory on Earth Day Praise Wisdom. I/We stand, my Conglomerates and my sentience, on the final arc of our war with planet designate Earth. I/We observed this hive of humanity across both space and time, watched what they were, what they are and what they will become unfold across focused oneirospheres. Where prior learning undertaken through the Martial Conglom had found humanity to be barbaric, witless race capable only of developing their culture into a horde that would spread it’s contagion into the stars, it took our multi-facet Conglom of Librarians to truly plumb their depths. Pride boils my breast not a little that it was my Caste and Conglom…

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Winchester Writers’ Conference Short and Short Short Story Competitions.

 Longtime readers of this blog will know that in 2009 my story ‘Rip Rap’ was awarded 2nd prize in the Winchester Writers’ Conference short story competition. Last week I received news that my short story ‘Where’s Tracy?’ made the commended list for the 2010 prize. Today I received the feedback for my two entries to the Short Short (under 1500 words) Story 2010 Prize. While filing away the certificate and comment sheets it struck me how good this set of competitions is. Winchester Writers’ Conference runs a whole host of competitions in the run up to the conference itself, from poetry to writing for children to autobiography via everything in…

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Short Story Challenge Day 157-164

 This week (21st July – 29th July) of the challenge I dipped into the following: The Love Theme Of Sybil & William by Chuck Palahniuk Great short from early in the career of the man himself, features a few key Chuck tropes and ‘odd’ dialogue. Interesting look at a writer finding his feet before going on to greatness, not least because it is one of the few things I have read of his that you could describe as tender. Also Known As– Tom Fillon (metazen) A cool story on one my favourite sites. Unreliable narrator and some tongue in cheek stuff about writers and the WIP made me smile. Liked…

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Me @ Chinese Whisperings

 I’m over on the Chinese Whisperings site today giving my take on the process of writing a collaborative collection of short fiction with nine other writers, nineteen if you count both the Yin and the Yang books coming out later this year. For those of you not already in the know, Chinese Whisperings is a series of conceptual short fiction collections published by eMergent publishing. The brainchild of editors Paul Anderson and Jodi Cleghorn, Chinese Whisperings will release not one, but two collections this year, the Yang book featuring stories written by ten male authors and the Yin book featuring stories written by ten female authors. My as yet to…

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Short Story Challenge Day 126 – 156

 Etgar Keret – The Nimrod Flipout (20th June – 20th July) As I have mentioned before, the throughly nice, thoroughly talented flash fiction author Nik Perring is a massive fan of Etgar Keret and it is his recommendation that lead me to pickup Keret’s ‘Four Stories’ collection recently. I was impressed enough with what I read there to slap down some more money for Keret’s 2004 collection. ‘The Nimrod Flipout’ contains 32 stories of varying lengths and I have to admit, was ideal reading for the first few weeks with our new baby Hanna. Reading time has been thin on the ground, so a collection of (largely) flash fiction slotted…

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100 Stories, six months on

 It’s been just over six months since the Haiti earthquake. Just six weeks after the event, 100 Stories for Haiti was published, the result of many hours of editing by Greg McQueen’s team of volunteers. Over 400 stories were submitted and whittled down to the hundred presented in the print and electronic volume. Proceeds go to helping the victims of the Haiti earthquake. I am proud to have my story ‘Impact’ included in 100 Stories for Haiti. Since publication in March this year, sales of the book have raised over £3,000 for the Red Cross relief effort in Haiti. While this is a great achievement, it would of course be…

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So much for that.

 So much for getting some writing time for #WAG and #fridayflash last week. Another blur of nappies and night feeds and taking care of two other bundles of energy aged 7 and 3 respectively means writing time has been short. I have managed to get some reading done for the Short Story Challenge though, and will be posting a review of Etgar Keret’s ‘The Nimrod Flipout’ once I have enjoyed the final handful of stories. Mrs P bought me a great present today; a Book Journal from Moleskine. This satisfies both my notebook addiction and my nerdy need to keep records of what I read and enjoy, something the Short…

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‘Breaking Distance’ in print

 The July edition of The View From Here is now available, featuring my story ‘Breaking Distance.’ ‘Gorgeous, Eye Catching, Coffee Table Worthy! The View From Here – The Best of the Best in the new and emerging literary scene! Issue 25 features interviews with Jean Kwok and Isabel Allende, original fiction by Joshua Rapp Learn, Dan Powell, Michael Spring, original poetry by Oritsegbemi Emmanuel Jakpa, Philip Leslie, Sarah Faith Ethridge , Joseph Farley. This month’s guest writer is Literary Agent Annette Green. Issue 25 also includes book reviews of The Hundred Foot Journey by Richard C. Morais, The Maestro’s Voice by Roland Vernon, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet…

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Busy, busy, busy

 Been a bit mad here. Hanna is settling in nicely and the last couple of weeks have been a lovely blur of feeds, nappy changes and cuddles, lots and lots of cuddles. One cool thing has been my writing four flash fictions based on baby type stuff, three of them forming a themed trilogy. Plan is to sub these as soon as they are able to stand on their own. Metazen have accepted a piece of flash I subbed a while back. Really pleased about this as Metazen is a site I really enjoy reading and to be featured on their flash fiction page is ‘way past cool.’ So, with…

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Hadestown

 Every now and then, or every once in a while, or sometimes quite by accident an LP, or cassette album, or CD, or digital download will enter my life and I will have to stop everything I am doing and just sit and listen. In 1994 it was a taped copy of Jeff Buckley’s ‘Grace’ sent to me by my then-girlfriend’s brother which halted my walk along the canal to Uni lectures. I sat and listened, then blew off the lecture and went into town to buy the CD. In 2000 it was Unbelievable Truth’s ‘sorrythankyou’ which had me sitting in the car park of a motorway services, waiting for…

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Short Story Challenge Day 112 – 125

 Etgar Keret – Four Stories (6th June – 9th June) After reading Nik Perring’s excellent debut collection ‘Not So Perfect,’ I thought I would take a look at a writer Nik talks about a lot on his blog. Nik describes Etgar Keret as ‘brilliant. Possibly the best.’ Four Stories is a chap book style collection including a B. G. Rudolph Lecture in Judaic Studies given by Keret. The lecture provides insight into Keret’s background as the child of Holocaust survivors and the impact that has had on his fiction, while the four stories deal closely with the experience of being the child of survivors. As you might expect from the…

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Best Father’s Day gift ever.

 After what feels like a long nine months, Hanna Luisa arrived on Thursday 17th June at 6.12pm, weighing 8 pounds 9 ounces. She has mostly been busy sleeping since coming home but has managed to cram in some dancing with Daddy and kisses and cuddles with her two big brothers. As for me. I’m so happy to have such a special and lasting Father’s Day gift. I was given a lie-in this morning and woken with breakfast in bed. Best bit was having a cup of tea and a read of a couple of Mark Richard’s short stories while having a cuddle with my little princess. Normal blogging/writing service will…

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‘Breaking Distance’ and contraction kick-off

 My story ‘Breaking Distance’ is the front page story at The Front View. I have a soft spot for this story as it is one of the first I wrote as part of my Creative Writing Diploma with the OU. Stories tend to spring into my brain in different ways, perhaps prompted by a line from a song, observing something in the world around me, or perhaps from a picture or piece of art. ‘Breaking Distance’ was unusual, as it was the first story I wrote that came ending first. The closing image in the story was the starting point for me, appearing in my head fully formed. The job…

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All good stuff.

 Sorry for the lack of posts recently. Things are hotting up here, what with the imminent arrival of our new baby girl. The last week or so has been full of scans and midwife appointments, not to mention my taking Sooz out for lunch as often as possible to make the most of the last few maternity leave days before the birth. Due date is next Tuesday so if things stay quiet round here early next week you know that the little lady is finally making her entrance. In other news, a 100 Stories for Haiti event is being held tonight in Brighton in the UK, with many of the…

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