Tuesday 3 November 2009

Sparks, Brighton


Good event, Sparks. A flash fiction and photography event held in the tiniest theatre you've ever seen, at Upsatairs at Three and Ten, Steine Street, Brighton.
I had the great pleasure of finally meeting and reading alongside Jonathan Pinnock, who blogs HERE. His story was clever, funny, and original... terrific stuff about canine mathematical geniuses.
Lovely to see Jac Cattaneo, as well, who took us back to 1984, and a very poignant different era in South Africa. I can't find a blog for Jac, but HERE is a story of hers, Bringing The War Back Home on Bartleby Snopes.
Sparks is the brainchild of Jo Mortimer, and HERE is her story Contructing Birds, on Smokelong Quarterly.
It was great to see James Burt in the audience of Beat blog. and also photographer John Biggs. I know John from a previous existence, when I was doing marketing...
I read a couple of pieces. STITCHES begins thus:
Late at night, when Ann has finally gone to sleep, Frank thinks of sex and unpicks the quilt on their bed.

and PIPPY SPIT, which begins thus:
I was an apricot. So was Anna. And my Mum, she was a big squishy grapefruit, because sometimes she had pips on the spoon in your mouth, but with sugar, she was sweet enough. My Dad, he was a crunchy red apple, one that had thick skin, so that you had to bite down hard, and wait, wait as your teeth clamped, for the pop of the skin and the spurt of juice down your chin. My brother was a banana.

Hence the banana pic above...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Those two extracts of yours make me long to hear more - of the first one, especially: intriguing.
Sounds like a wonderful evening. Had been wondering how it went, so glad of the report (& refs of other interesting writers to check out). Loved Brighton (Nice a little bit reminiscent, at least in spirit)!

Vanessa Gebbie said...

Thanks Minnie - strange little story indeed - a man with very odd bedtime habits.