RIGHT Thats enough of that... and NEWS

Snap out of it.

Sorry Mimi (for those who don't know, Mimi is a writer who pops in here, either as Mimi or Anonymous, and glories in my downturns...)

Sorry Mimi... but out of the desert comes forth water.

I was curled on the bathroom floor, have a good session of what girls do best, (crying over a spilt photograph), when I cursed mood swings, and a light went on. (metaphorically, Mimi... know that word??)

See I'd started the day roaring with laughter at a prizewinning story of a writer called Joel Willans (check him out, and look for a story that came second in Derby), and less than two hours later I was a weepy mess.


But what a great creative mess!

So in the midst of the anxt, I emailed Salt with an idea for the flash collection, and they came back... with a yes.

YES second book on the chocks.

sorry Mimi....

Quiet Weep....

Dear old Mimi, she's going to be chortling over this one.


It is looking less and less like the cover Salt spent so much time on will actually BE the cover.

The agency can't track down the photographer, but a person there who knows him well says he is unlikely to approve it because of the colourwash and text over the image.

It's one of his favourites.

I understand that. I wouldn't want someone editing my work without my permission, and I wouldn't want them to turn a piece into something other then itself, if itself was already as I loved it. (grammar, woman!)

So. Yes, I just went and cried.

And yes, it's awful, as all the promotion's been done with that cover, and it has built up recognition already. And yes, it won't be the same without it.

But hey.

Worse things have happened.

and I'm handwriting invites to the launch today... so lets hope the Foundling Museum doesn't fall down.



.

BRIGHTON COLLEGE WRITERS

Great afternoon. I spent most of it in the excellent company of writers from the Lower Sixth at Brighton College, a local Independent School.

What a buzzy, mature bunch they were. Incisive, focused, sharp as razors. An impressive group of young people.

We talked about the processes of creating fiction, about commercial versus literary writing, about 'why' they wrote (and they all knew with no prevarication). They showered me with questions, and there just wasn't time to do as much as Id have liked!

But we did do a little flash writing.

So hopefully they have a useful tool in their writers' toolbox for beating blocks and silly voices that say "you can't write THAT!"

They are editing the internal school magazine, running a short story competition, and I'm delighted to be judging.

CELEBRATE PATRY FRANCIS

SPREAD THE WORD.....

Today, January 29, bloggers and writers all over the 'net are helping to promote the paperback release of Patry Francis' novel, The Liar's Diary.


Patry is a talented author who was recently diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. She's had several surgeries, and her prognosis is good. Her debut novel The Liar’s Diary came out in hardcover from Dutton last spring. The trade paper release is Tuesday, January 29th; however, given that Patry won't have much energy to promote the release, a large number of blogging authors are banding together to do it for her. This is going to ROCK THE BLOGOSPHERE!

FULL STORY HERE FROM WRITER MARIANNE STAHL

NB:

In support of Patry Francis and this remarkable blog initiative, Penguin Group USA would like to offer 15% off the paperback edition of The Liar’s Diary when purchased online from us.penguingroup.com until 2/15/2008.

On the shopping cart page, enter PATRY in the ‘coupon code’ field and click ‘update cart’ to activate it.

BOREDOM ROCKS!

I had a fascinating conversation last night with a creative friend, an artist.

I was grumbling (I do that well…) about the constant noise in my head. The ‘need’ to work at editing, critiquing, running The Workhouse, planning workshops, running workshops, reading and feeding back to students, debating writing craft on a couple of other writing sites on the web, meeting up with my face to face writing group, making time to have one to ones with writing colleagues, embarking on learning about poetry with David,

Etc etc.

And what am I NOT doing?

You’re there. I am not writing. Other than twiddles, flashes, the occasional longer short story.

Then, a ‘lightbulb moment’, applicable to me, and to a million kids, or more, and to every person who wants to be creative in any medium, but who fills their time because it's meant to be ‘a good thing’ so to do.

My friend told me of a talk she’d heard from children’s author Shirley Hughes, in which she bewailed the ‘loss of boredom’.

Boredom is bad, these days. Don’t let the kids be bored or they’ll do something dreadful. Don’t ‘do nothing’ yourself… you’ll get bored, and that’s awful. It’s a killer.

But Shirley Hughes was arguing the opposite.

We NEED to accept periods of ‘nothing’. Because it’s in those periods that creativity is at work at its most potent, and will bubble something to the surface, when you least expect it.

Think about it. Don’t ideas seem to pop up when you go for a quiet walk? Or when you are half asleep, in the early morning, or late at night? Or when you are driving? Ironing?

Kids need to daydream. Not have their every waking hour filled with noise, image, chatter. That leaves no room for the imagination to work.

Perfect examples:

Me, and my rushing around ‘being a writer’, actually stopping the process in its tracks!

A boy I met recently who wouldn’t accept that he could create a dialogue exchange between classical characters, because the film says….

A younger boy who got stuck in a storyline, and left the room. I thought he was frustrated, and had given up.

He came back ten minutes later. “I’ve got it! I know what happens next!”

“Wow,” I said. “What’s the secret?”

“I went for a walk…..”

The VEXATION OF TAXATION

My accountant tells me that my competition wins, such as they are, are subject to tax.

Can anyone out there advise if this is right?

FLASHING!

I'm taking a morning workshop at The South, turning people into flashers in three hours.


Can't wait!

WORKSHOP INFO HERE