.CENT Magazine

My contributor's copy of .Cent Magazine (LINK HERE) arrived today. A4 horizontal - thick paper, beautifully produced, 134 pages, a second supplement, all in a boxed cover. It is a lovely thing to have, and to be in. There is not much fiction, so I am very honoured. The whole is a veritable treaure-trove of amazing images and articles all around the theme set by this issue's guest editors, greyworld -( Link to Greyworld HERE- urban installation artists)

Theme: "The Spaces In between" - a perfect theme to get yours truly scribbling.

NEW WEBSITE!!!!

I have a new website. I have often wondered why creative people have some of the most staid sites about. My new one is most definitely NOT staid. MY NEW WEBSITE HERE Send me a message, and look at the graphics on the 'contact me' page!!! I might even reply.

Sunshine, books, Fish

Five days unbroken sunshine, in Ibiza since last Thursday. Plenty of paellas, beers in the sun, and a chance to read.
Read The Reader by Bernard Schink - do read this one, it's simply fantastic. Superb writing, and it raises such questions. One of those you can't finish then start another book immediately after.
Also read The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry, because it had won The Costa Prize. Remind me to contact the writer and tell him how an adoptee actually IS. (Nothing at all like his character). And remind me to ask him politely not to use adoption as a plot device. It is tired, cliched, transparent.
The book is flawed. The whole rests on the reader's ability to believe that an arthrictic old lady who can no longer play the piano thanks to her painful fingers, can find the wherewithal to write reams and reams of beautiful prose as a 'secret memoir before she dies.'
It also rests on one's ability to believe that this old lady (incarcerated for the greater part of her life in a mental institution) has exactly the same vocabulary/voice as her consultant psychiatrist.

I also came second in Fish. Which is a joy and a lovely thing. I get a week in my favourite place on this planet and e300, which will cover getting there.
Stereo fish, as a celebration.

AWAY FOR A FEW

Here's a few pics taken in Cork, during the Frank O'Connor Festival last year.










well - you didnt expect pics of readers and chair filled rooms, did you? Nah!

The HORROR of sending off a manuscript

For those who think this writing thing gets easier...I am sending off a manuscript today. I have been delaying, tweaking, reprinting the covering letter, changing the order of the pages. Changing the order again. Thinking out loud that this is a hopeless thing to be doing. Why bother. They won't even comment, let alone reply.

Explanation: Anyone who knows my background might understand this: I must be mad to be writing anything, sending anything out. Because rejection and a very deep-seated fear of it are at the root of who I am.

Don't we all react badly to rejection? Sure. But for some of us, the prospect of it is so appalling that if you looked at it head on you'd never do anything.

So I carry on. What else is there? Except to let others know that they ain't on their own if they feel the same.

TEA-SHOP WITH TANIA THEN DOWN THE PUB WITH RANA DASGUPTA

Lovely day for writing innit?
So was yesterday. I met Tania Hershman at St Pancras station, straight off Eurostar, from the retreat in Belgium she won in the Biscuit competition. Clever lady. As I waited I browsed the shops, looked for Salt books in Foyles... not one. 'Harangue them!' T texted. Maybe I should have.
T and I had tea at Peyton and Byrne, whose cupcakes look... like toys. They look as if they are actually made to float in the bath. Unreal, like illustrations in a children's book! (see pic above)
Lovely to catch up with T. Lovely to see that she is looking OK, if tired. (I was worried, because I'm an inveterate mother hen). She is having a story performed TONIGHT by Liar's League HERE

Thence by magical hated Underground tunnel to Picadilly and Costa Coffee in Lower Regent Street for the Willesden Herald Short Story Competition award ceremony, in the company of this year's judge, Rana Dasgupta.
What a brill event. Sponsored by Pulp.net, the prize was this year the coveted grail of short story writing (the Willesden Herald MUG) and a bit of cash.
Readings by three shortlistees, Jo Lloyd from Wales, Margot Taylor from Somerset and Jill Widner from the other Washington, USA. Also present, shortlistees Claudia Boers and Jenny Barden. The MUG is too precious to photograph, so here is a pic of Lord Willesden-Herald perusing a back copy of his media empire.
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Rana Dasgupta (Website HERE) took the floor, reading from his new novel, Solo. HERE. The novel ( this man's writing is endorsed by Salman Rushdie) tells the story of Ulrich, a 100 year old man in Bulgaria. Atmosphere, setting, character, intrigue, pathos... Rana Dasgupta

"And the runners up are...Jill Widner and Ben Cheetham."
Drum Roll...
"...and the winner is.....Jo Lloyd!" her story 'Work' leads the anthology, and the opening sentences are on the back cover. Not bad for a first publication, Jo. Many many congratulations.
Bought a copy of the brilliant looking Willesden Herald NEW SHORT STORIES 3

Then got it signed by as many winners and shortlistees as I could find in the crush.
Then a whole bunch of us went to the pub. Including the judge. Now that is a lovely thing for the guy to do.
Great to natter at length to Mrs (Lady) Willesden-Herald. These guys are simply great. So even though Mr Willesden herald would probably say 'No ta', I have elevated them both to the peerage. (Which means they will now be peered at. That's all it ever means anyway in real life innit?....)

Then home on the train. And read two stories: 'The Imperfect Roundness of Things' by Claudia Boers, and 'Ebb Tide' by Margot Taylor.

Much much enjoyed. The end of a poifick day.

Jade Goody

A poll on AOL asks if people find the coverage of Jade Goody's last days distasteful.

I clicked no - I follow with interest. I find it moving, what she's doing. A person who made money out of the strange celeb culture we live in, despite her celeb status being a bit questionable - actually doing something prety brave, in my book.

The results of the poll were as follows:
Yes, it's wrong: 61%
No, I follow with interest 28%
Don't know 11%

I wonder how many of the 'it's wrong' voters were happy to watch her when she was doing absolutely zilch in terms of anything meaningful but being 'entertaining'? And now she is actually doing something serious, tough, they are judging the coverage of her last days as 'wrong'.

Food for thought. Maybe I should not read articles, or think about her. But I do. And am.