Elegy for Easterly on Guardian First Book Shortlist

Quiet congratulations to Petina Gappah whose marvellous collection, Elegy for Easterly, has now made the Guardian First Book Award shortlist. Quiet, because I really want this book to win. You can read about Easterly, and the other contenders HERE on Guardian online.
And it is quietly lovely to note that one of the judges is a contributor to Short Circuit... Tobias Hill.

SHORT CIRCUIT - now available for pre-order

Short Circuit is now available for pre-order. On Salt Publishing's website, HERE (Look, I'm sorry about the photo of moi on the website there - really. It is a poser's paradise, that pic. Just concentrate on the BOOK!)
I would like to visit as many blogs as would like to invite us,... to talk short stories, about how this book came together, about the amazing generosity and passion of the contributors - and to share some writing fun with your readers. A few writng ideas... a different one invented specially for each blog!
Because it IS. It's hard work, but it is fabulous when it goes well - and this book is aimed at opening up that magic.
Email me, blog owners - vgebbie AT gmail DOT com

An essential read. Short Circuit is a collection of essays from writers who are passionate (and successfully!) about short fiction. A real gold mine of insights and ideas for aspiring writers and for those seeking a refresher. The Bridport Prize

Chance to critique a classic - 'The Ledge' by Lawrence Sargeant Hall

It's like having a mental work-out, critiquing a piece of work by a master. And given that we learn best and fastest by critiquing, NOT by having our own work commented on by others , a chance to join in a crit exercise like this is invaluable.
SO- get thee over to the public sections of Alex Keegan's Boot Camp. There, you will find a thread dedicated to the critique of one of my favourite short stories, The Ledge, By LSH (as above)
I spent an hour or so doing my critique of it, and rather as when one writes, different things rise to the surface. You 'notice' things, find things anew each time, with this one.
Whatever- whether you post or not - copy the story and READ. Take it to bits in the privacy of your own home... It is fabulous. (Actually, the text here has a few glitches, it was copied from the web somewhere... but it is still very very good!)

Public area of Boot Camp HERE

TIMING...

Story is all about timing, apart from anything else... get it wrong and you've spolied the story.
For a lesson in fantabulastic timing... enjoy Morcambe and Wise in a classic sketch. The Breakfast Sketch....!"

NUDE NOT NAKED

I wonder - if I just put 'Nude' up there, will the number of hits rocket? Funny little men in villages across the country playing havoc with the National Grid? But no! This is Nuala Ni Chonchuir's collection, Nude Salt Modern Fiction), and I am delighted to welcome her for the latest leg on her round-the-world tour. I'm meant to have three questions. Erm. I sneaked in a few more!
MOI: Hi Nuala. I am struck again and again by your use of language. Unsurprising perhaps, for a poet, and for someone who is avowedly 'in love with words'. A few examples that pleased me hugely:
"I've sat at my window all morning, staring at the untrustworthy spring sunshine hovering over the boulevard..."
"Monsieur Boucher wears a green banyan; his toes scallop from the bottom of the robe, and they are long, like a monkey's." (both from 'Mademoiselle O'Murphy')
and:
"She pushed her head back into the pillow and I looked up at the steeple of her nose, the wide church of her mouth and chin..." (from 'In Seed Time, Learn')
There are words that are perfectly poised - ('untrustworthy' sunshine, 'hovering' over the boulevard - his toes 'scallop', and references to the face of a lover drawn from religious architecture - 'steeple', 'church'... lending this particular scene a hallowed feel)
All these examples are unusually placed and yet perfectly right, in context. I get the feeling that in the hands of a lesser writer, these small miracles would fall flat. Tell me:
1) Are you conscious of this skill as you write? How do these words arrive on the page? Can you describe the process?
2) Is it something that might be learned - so that a keen-eyed writer can achieve a similar effect by astute editing?

NUALA: Gosh, that’s so hard to answer. I honestly can’t analyse where the words and sentences and images spring from. To paraphrase poet Michael Longley, if I did, I’d go there.
I think maybe a feel for putting words together in fresh ways springs from reading. I’ve been a hungry reader all my life and I’ve loved literary fiction since I was very young, so admiration of good writing has formed my own work, I think. I admire vibrant language in other people’s work and it always pleases me when it falls from my own pen. And that’s what happens – I don’t force this stuff out, it’s definitely an unconscious thing.
Incidentally, I was told in a master-class to ditch that sentence “I looked up at the steeple of her nose, the wide church of her mouth and chin..." One participant said it was over the top. She didn’t seem to like me much in general, so that was my cue to keep it. Anyway, I liked it so it stayed. An example maybe of knowing which of one’s darlings not to kill.
To answer the second part of your question, I don’t think it can be learned in any formal sense but writers can freshen their imagery and word choices in stuff they have written if it feels tired on a re-read.
I do think if you want to be a good writer you have to love reading, almost to the point of obsession. And you have to be able to read critically and learn from what good writers do.

MOI: So what reading do you really love to do? Who are your favourite poets? No - I will rephrase that. IF you could keep a single book of poetry in your possession, in the knowledge that you could not look at another for five years... which would you keep? And fiction book? (It does not have to be short stories!)

NUALA: Well, I came to Sharon Olds late (just last year, in fact) but she re-affirms for me the fact that women's sexuality needs to be aired in poetry and fiction. She makes me feel brave in my own writing.
And Baricco's prose is so elegant, spare and yet adorned that I strive to write as beautifully as him. I'd love to write a fairytaley story, like Silk, that people would remember for a long time. That book has a cult-like status among its fans but it's a real love it or hate it read, I find.

MOI: ‘The Blonde Odalisque’ by Francois Boucher was presumably the inspiration for Lousia in Mademoiselle O'Murphy. (I Googled!) Which came first, the idea for the story or you seeing the painting? And which painting, if any, inspired 'Juno Out Of Yellow'?

NUALA: It's basically the same painting, but the orignal one is called Mademoiselle O'Murphy. So yes, that's right. She was a real Irish girl who was Louis XV's concubine - the story is basically true. I've just given her a personality.
It was hearing about Louisa that inspired me first off - I searched for the painting then.
'Juno Out of Yellow' is a fictitious painting. I read about a girl having her portrait done by Nick Miller - she wondered in her article if it was vain to love a portrait of herself. That was my jumping off point.

MOI: Tell me what is feel like to have a growing shelf of books out there? Does each one feel as special as the first? Do you keep a special shelf for your own books and antholgies you appear in?

NUALA: It feels great to have five books under my belt and more on the way. The first one felt surreal and lovely but I'm most proud of the latest one, Nude - it just seems to me a maturer work and the stories fit together well.
I store my books on a shelf in my study - it makes them easy to find when I have to get them out for readings.
The anthologies and journals are all over the house. I keep most of them but some I give away.

MOI: Describe the room you write in. And if you eat when you write, what do you eat?!

NUALA: I have a study with yellow walls, a noticeboard, a filing cabinet and shelves of books. It's a ghost room at the moment because there is nowhere to put the baby in there while I write. So I've moved my desk to the sitting-room now and she sits in her little chair and I can talk to her while I work. Try to work.
I eat cereal bars and spelt muffins and drink decaf tea. That makes me sound saintly but I have been on a health kick for the last few years. I do love dark choc and the odd gallon of red wine. But I don't drink-n-write.

MOI: oooh that’s interesting... the 'no drink n write' thing. Have you never ever ever written summat after a party... something you don’t remember writing at all, but which was brilliant?!

NUALA: I wrote a story while under the influence years ago - it won the first story comp I ever won! After being edited, naturally. It's not brilliant though...If I make drunken notes they usually make no sense whatsoever the next day.

MOI: Nude is a very special book -I much enjoyed your stories! I can understand your pride in it. Not only a beautiful book inside, but such a gorgeous cover design. How did that come about? Was it the first design?

NUALA: Salt were very busy when my cover needed doing so they said if I had an image in mind they'd be open to seeing if it would work, to save them sourcing one. So I trawled the internet and, eventually, the handcrafted yummy-stuff site Etsy for a suitable nude. There I found Rachel Manconi's beautiful images for sale so I made her an offer on one pic and she said yes. Chris was happy with it so he used it. I love it!

MOI: And finally, what are you working on now? I know your novel comes out later... amazing lady that you are. After that???

NUALA: I am working on my next full collection of poetry which will be out November 2010 from Templar Poetry. I have a pamphlet coming out with them this November: Portrait of the Artist with a Red Car. Busy busy.
Thanks a million, Vanessa, for having me on this the penultimate stop of my tour & for supersonic questions. For my last stop I am back in the Antipodes, in Australia (see, a REAL round the world tour!) with Sylvia Petter AKA Merc at http://mercsworld.blogspot.com/

MOI: It is a great pleasure, N. One day, I will explain to the readers just how helpful you were over this stop on your tour. I look forward to reading the next, at Merc's place. And good luck with all your projects!
Nuala's website is HERE and Nude can be bought from all the usual suspects, including Salt Publishing, from their website HERE

ME AND TRACEY EMIN, JOANNA TROLLOPE, JO BRAND

What have Vanessa Gebbie, Tracy Emin, Joanna Trollope, Jo Brand, Alan Sillitoe, Lenny Henry, Gok Wan, David Gower and Kate Adie got in common?
Answer, all supporting adopted adults. But far more importantly, we have all contributed something for the book that will be sold on 30th November at a fundraising lunch for AAA-NORCAP. (Adults Affected by Adoption...)

AAA–NORCAP
Literary Fundraising Lunch 2009 The invitation says:
Join Kate Adie OBE for drinks on the Terrace and lunch in the Churchill Room, House of Commons 30th November 2009.
Kate Adie OBE, journalist, ex-BBC News chief news correspondent, adopted adult and author of ‘Nobody’s Child’, is the guest speaker.

A book of contributions from writers and artists – including Tracey Emin, Gok Wan, Alan Sillitoe, Joanna Trollope, Clare Short, Alex Wheatle, Benjamin Zephania, Valerie Mason John, David Gower, Lenny Henry, Jo Brand and – er - Vanessa Gebbie will be sold on the day. As well as our original contributions going under the hammer.
Allow me a squeak - Wowee. (Although it is a shrewd guess that Tracey Emin's drawing might raise a few pennies more then summat from moi!)

I am putting a gang together to go, so if anyone would like to join me, plus (so far), two friends (both writers) email me via my website HERE if you don’t know my email addy.

Full details of the AAA-NORCAP Literary Lunch, Churchill Room, House of Commons, 30 November: HERE http://www.norcap.org.uk/frl.htm

ENDORSEMENTS FLOOD IN FOR 'SHORT CIRCUIT'

An essential read. Short Circuit is a collection of essays from writers who are passionate (and successfully!) about short fiction. A real gold mine of insights and ideas for aspiring writers and for those seeking a refresher.

The Bridport Prize

At last! The definitive guide to writing short stories, put together by a team of experts who are passionate about this most elusive, maddening, beguiling and ultimately satisfying of art forms.
Cleverly constructed - a book which you will want to dip into for years to come. And a book which will do much to raise the status of the short story in contemporary fiction.

Carole Buchan, Asham Trust

Once a lover of the short story opens Short Circuit one quickly realises it is indispensable ... to a degree that has one asking why hasn't it been done before? Like all the best story anthologies the essays and interviews are varied in style and structure and possess all the attractiveness and excitement of good gossip.

Pat Cotter, Frank O’Connor Award

How refreshing to have a book on creative writing that is neither abstract theory nor banal 'how to'. What we have instead are insights into the short story from a marvellous variety of accomplished writers; an invaluable resource for anyone tackling this tricky but highly rewarding literary form.

Paul Munden, Director, National Association of Writers in Education

Here is a ‘How To’ book that is hard to put down. If there is anything you still need to know after reading the varied authors here, you probably haven’t read it properly. Read it again. Not that you’d need to, wisdom and insight hop off the page like light on water.
This book lacks the aridity of a textbook. The writers give of themselves and their experience, and information, advice and insight is fortified with example. Respect is given to the process and to the reader.
There is a mystery at the heart of writing. It’s the experience of characters and stories developing lives of their own; of characters arguing with their author and creator, of stories going places the writer did not know about. It is the marriage of this mystical, that a writer must learn to listen to, and the craft that a writer must learn, that makes fiction sing and dance on the page, and one of the joys of this book is the illumination given to this vital process.

Clem Cairns, founder, the Fish Prize

Vanessa Gebbie has compiled an indispensable guide to crafting the short story. The subjects represented here--all written by contemporary authors--will stimulate advanced writers and instruct newcomers. There's nothing like hearing from people who have learned a technique or a way of approaching a problem through experience. These authors are generous with what they know, to our benefit.

Alice Elliott Dark, Writer in Residence at Rutgers-Newark University author of ‘In the Gloaming’ and ‘Naked to the Waist’.

This is rich book- full of insight and interest. 'Short Circuit' will be a essential addition to my undergraduate book list- it is written by those who have first hand understanding of the problems, as well as invaluable knowledge of the craft of writing short fiction.

Gill Lowe, Senior lecturer in Creative Writing, Ipswich University.

This is a generous book, rich in ideas. It’s a practical book, giving a kick start to the imagination with its suggestions for overcoming the tyranny of the blank page, and it’s also a realistic book. Short Circuit updates Chaucer’s advice about life being short and the craft long to learn, without ever losing sight of why it’s worth the effort.
As a teacher of creative writing, I recommend it to students. I believe in the apprenticeship system and this is an excellent manual. As a writer, it reminds me why I write, and why there’s nothing else I would rather do.

Bridget Whelan, lecturer in Creative Writing, Goldsmith’s College

As full of inspiration as it is of sound advice. An invaluable tool-kit of a book for practitioners and scholars of the short story.

Mike McCormack, lecturer, MA in Creative Writing, NUI Galway.