Sarah's writing journal

I HAVE MOVED....

2010-10-15T09:30:00.002+01:00

Come and find me at my new home here...

Or sit with me on my bench blog.

GETTING LOST...

2010-10-13T08:18:00.002+01:00

An (old-ish) article of mine about the joys of Getting Lost has just appeared on the Psychologies Magazine website. Really happy to have it out there where I can find it because I am quite the expert at getting lost myself....!!

Another Poetry Competition...

2010-10-11T14:15:00.001+01:00

Expensive this one, but it is highly respected.

THE 2010/11 POETRY BUSINESS BOOK & PAMPHLET COMPETITION
(sponsored by NAWE)
The Poetry Business is now inviting entries for its 25th Book & Pamphlet Competition. Entrants are invited to submit a short collection of poems (20-24 pages), for the chance to win:
book publication & six free copies (for the overall winner),
pamphlet publication & 20 free copies (for three/four first-stage winners),
a share of £2,000 prize money,
a poetry reading hosted by The Poetry Business,
and publication in The North magazine.
JUDGE: Simon Armitage
DEADLINE: Last posting on Monday 29th November 2010 (or for online entries, 1st December)
ENTRY FEE: £25 (or £20 for Friends of the Poetry Business and North magazine subscribers). A £1 surcharge is applied to entries submitted online.
Enter online, download an application form and find full details on the Poetry Business website at www.poetrybusiness.co.uk.

Some publication news...

2010-10-05T10:01:00.007+01:00

I'm very pleased that one of my short stories, For the Sake of the Children, first published in Night Train was chosen for the Chamber Four Fiction Anthology, a selection of 'outstanding stories from the web during 2009/2010'.

You can download the anthology here and please do, not least because it's FREE!

Also I wanted to tell you that a poem I wrote during Pascale Petit's wonderful Monday nights at the Tate Modern is included in the pamphlet, Poetry From Art. This is only available from the Tate, but I really recommend you getting a copy. Not just for my poem, of course, but for those of the other contributors including Karen McCarthy Woolf, Naomi Woddis, Malika Booker, Rowyda Amin, Matthew Paul, Anne Welsh, Rebecca Farmer, Zillah Bowes, Cath Drake, Rishi Dastidar, Beth Somerford, Roberta James, Cath Kane, Kaye Lee, Lynn Foote, Seraphima Kennedy, Ali Wood, Julie Steward, Elizabeth Horsley, MJ Whistler, Andrea Robinson, Angela Dock, Beatriz Echeverri. Good stuff.

It really is such a privilege to walk around a gallery like the Tate Modern after hours thinking and writing poetry, but what gets me most is how good it feels just to sit and stare at ONE thing, rather than do what I normally do which is to try and see everything. Thank you Pascale!

Here's a poem I wrote in response to Anselm Kiefer's amazing installation, Palm Sunday:

Seeds

Down in the root ball of the ship
the plant collector is making a nest.

He counts his catch, tucks each seed
up in its own handwritten box, an ebony

cabinet ticking with paused hearts.
He dreams of growing a fresh desert

one day, of these dried moments
in the old land coming back to life.

His bones ache as he waters
the dust, while on the deck above,

sailors sleep, the wooden mast dances
again in perfect tune with the winds,

until reaching for water, it leans
too far, loses balance. White sails,

like baby gowns, christen the sea.

I also have poems in two more anthologies coming out soon, WordAid and South East Poets, but more on those shortly.

WHAT DO WOMEN WANT?

2010-10-04T19:39:00.004+01:00

Somehow I like it even better when it all goes a bit wrong - do LOVE Kim Addonizio and want to make my own videos now. The only recent one I've got is of me doing my party trick of sucking up a creme caramel directly from the plate and believe me, that is neither pretty or poetic.

TWO MORE WEEKS TO ENTER...

2010-10-03T18:19:00.001+01:00

THE TROUBADOUR POETRY PRIZE.

Here's a copy of the email I've just received in case you're interested in this excellent poetry prize:

Dear Poets

Some last-minute reminders in the run-up to our 2010 deadline as you're deciding which poems/how many to submit...

- shortest turnround of any major competition: poems in on/by Fri 15th Oct, winners know by Mon 22nd Nov, results by e-mail to everyone else after announcement on evening of Mon 29th Nov;

- no sifters/chuckers-out, both judges read every poem;

- not just £1000 top prize but 22 other prizes and the chance for every prizewinner to read at Troubadour Prize Celebration on Mon 29th Nov;

- every submission, whether one poem or ten, supports our fortnightly Monday night readings in London's liveliest, longest-running and best-loved literary landmark venue, now surviving without Arts Council support and relying increasingly on poets around the country and around the world to keep literature 'live' in London.

Do feel free pass on the word to anyone you know who's writing and who mightn't be on our newsletter lists. And many thanks to all those of you who've already submitted.

Best wishes

Anne-Marie
___

4th Annual Troubadour International Poetry Prize 2010

Judges: Gwyneth Lewis & Maurice Riordan
(Both judges will read all poems).

1st prize £1000, 2nd £500, 3rd £250, plus 20 @ £20 each
plus
Spring 2011 Coffee-House Poetry Season Ticket
plus
prizewinners' Coffee-House Poetry reading
with Maurice Riordan & Gwyneth Lewis
for all winning poets
on Monday 29th November 2010 at the Troubadour

Submission deadline: Friday 15th October 2010
See www.coffeehousepoetry.org/poems for previous winners & winning poems, 2007-2009;
See below or www.coffeehousepoetry.org/prizes for judges, rules and submission details.
___

Judges:

Gwyneth Lewis was the first National Poet of Wales (2005) and her words appear over the Wales Millennium Centre, opened in 2004. Educated at Ysgol Gyfun Rhydfelen, a bilingual school near Pontypridd, and at Oxford, Columbia and Harvard Universities, she has written oratorio as well as having written on clinical depression and 'Two in a Boat - The True Story of a Marital Rite of Passage', inspired by a sailing journey during which her husband was diagnosed with cancer. Her poetry collections in English include 'Parables and Faxes' (1995), 'Chaotic Angels' (2005) and 'A Hospital Odyssey' (2010, all Bloodaxe).

Maurice Riordan (b. Lisgoold, Co, Cork, 1953) is the author of three collections of poetry, 'A Word from the Loki' (Faber, 1995, a PBS choice), the Whitbread shortlisted 'Floods' (Faber, 2000) and 'The Holy Land'(Faber, 2007) which received the Michael Hartnett Award. A Next Generation poet, he has been Poetry Editor of Poetry London and is currently Professor of Poetry at Sheffield Hallam University, has translated the work of Maltese poet Immanuel Mifsud ('Confidential Reports', 2005), has edited and co-edited anthologies on science, space and ecology, and has edited a selection of Hart Crane's poems for Faber's 'Poet to Poet' series (2008).
___

Rules:

General: Entry implies acceptance of all rules; failure to comply with rules will result in disqualification; competition open to poets of any nationality over 18 years; no competitor may win more than one prize; judges' decision is final; no individual correspondence will be entered into.

Poems: Poems must be in English, must each be no longer than 45 lines, must fit on one page of A4, must be the original work of the entrant and must not have been previously broadcast or published (in print or online); prizewinning poems may be published (in print or online) by Troubadour International Poetry Prize and may not be published elsewhere for one year after Friday 15th October 2010 without written permission. No limit on number of poems submitted. No alterations accepted after submission.

Fees: All entries must be accompanied by fee of EITHER £5/ 6EURO/$8USD per poem, if fewer than 4 poems, OR £4/ 5EURO/$7USD per poem if 4 or more poems submitted; payment by cheque or money order (Sterling/Euro/US-Dollars only) payable to 'Coffee-House Poetry' with poet's name (and/or e-mail Entry Acknowledgement Reference, if appropriate) written on back.

By Post: No entry form required; each poem must be typed on one side of A4 white paper showing title & poem only; do not show author's name or any other identifying marks on submitted poems; include a separate page showing Name, Address, Phone, E-Mail (opt), Titles and Number of Poems EITHER @ £5/ 6EURO/$8USD each OR @ £4/ 5EURO/$7USD each; no staples; entries are not returned.

By E-mail: No entry form required; poems must be submitted in body of e-mail (no attachments) to CoffPoetry@aol.com; entries should be preceded by Name, Address, Phone, Titles and Number of Poems EITHER @ £5/ 6EURO/$8USD each OR @ £4/ 5EURO/$7USD each; acknowledgement will be sent to entrant's e-mail address showing Entry Acknowledgment Reference; send payment by post within 14 days quoting Entry Acknowledgement Reference; e-mail entries will be included only when payment received by post.

Acknowledgement/Results: will be sent to all e-mail entrants; postal entrants should include stamped, addressed postcard marked 'Acknowledgement' and/or stamped, addressed A5 envelope marked 'Results' if required.

Deadline: All postal entries, and postal payments for e-mail entries, to arrive at Troubadour Poetry Prize, Coffee-House Poetry, PO Box 16210, LONDON, W4 1ZP postmarked on or before Friday 15th October 2010. Prizewinners will be notified individually by Monday 22nd November 2010. Prizegiving will be on Monday 29th November 2010 at Coffee-House Poetry at the Troubadour.
___

Anne-Marie Fyfe (Organiser)
coffee-house poetry at the troubadour
www.coffeehousepoetry.org

Uh-oh....

2010-10-02T10:20:00.004+01:00

What's going to happen to all our old, unwanted letters?

Well, do not fret. Because I have just found out that help is at hand.

They are being collected at the Museum of Letters in Berlin, the only collection of letters in the world so far.

I have to say that finding out about this, and looking at all the photographs of letters, has given me an enormous gust of pleasure.

And it means that I no longer have to feel quite so sad when I see pictures like this...

THE WRITER AS ENTREPRENEUR

2010-09-28T16:55:00.004+01:00

I'm delighted to welcome Sue Guiney to the blog today. Many of you will know her work already - poet, dramatist, blogger and novelist. Her latest book The Clash of Innocents comes out at the end of this week, and looks fascinating:

Against the backdrop of Cambodia’s violent past and the beginnings of its new Tribunal for 'justice', a story of displaced souls unfolds. In Cambodia, innocents are everywhere. Everyone is innocent, or so they would like to believe – everyone, except the few who, for their own private reasons, take on the guilt of the many.

I took advantage of Sue's good nature (plus the fact that she was available because of promoting the book, she's the busiest person I know!) to ask her to write about something that fascinates me - how the writer can be an entrepreneur too. Here's what she says.....

Thanks, Sarah, for giving me this chance to visit your blog. And thanks also for giving me this opportunity to put down in a (hopefully) coherent fashion the lessons I’ve learned from my rather meandering and, admittedly, iconoclastic approach to my career.

I’ve wanted to be a writer since I knew how to read. My first piece written for public (ie my class of fellow 7 year olds) was an adaptation for “the stage” of my favourite novel at the time – I’m ashamed to admit that I can’t remember its name, but I know it had something to do with mice. But it took me well into my forties to begin to believe I could write anything worth showing to anybody else. My first publications were a short story and a poem, both in the same year, in different magazines. I was 44. But here I am today, eleven years later, with 2 novels and a poetry play published, another poetry collection completed and a full-length play in development. I say this not to toot my own horn, but to show that it can be done. Now, as my second novel, “A Clash of Innocents”, is being published by the new publishing firm of Ward Wood, it’s a good time to look back and see what I can offer up as advice:

• Take your creativity off the page and put it into your life

We are all creative people, and writers are especially good at creating characters. Use that creative energy to create yourself. Think outside the box and let your imagination run free as you contemplate your own life. I suppose the rebel in me has always made me think that I can do things differently, I don’t have to do anything exactly the way everyone else does it. Agood example of this was the creation of my poetry play, “Dreams of May.” I had been taking my writing seriously for several years at that point, working on a series of short stories which eventually – and surprisingly - became my first novel, “Tangled Roots.” But at the same time I was writing more and more poetry and braving more and more open mics. Was I a poet? A short story writer? A novelist? Who knew? All I knew was I was writing and it felt good. I was trying to get my poems published but I realized that the poems which seemed best received by audiences were not necessarily the ones being accepted by magazine and journal editors. It made me question why, think about the differences between hearing and reading a poem and then I thought, “hey – why not turn my poems into a play?” I had never heard of anyone doing such a thing, but it didn’t stop me. I literally got a few friends together to help me get it done, and the result was a two-week run in London’s Pentameters Theatre. I also created a text which I assumed I would Xerox and hand out to people coming to the show, but another friend convinced me to send it to a small press who, quite shockingly, decided to publish it. Presto, I was suddenly a poet with a book published and a playwright. That bit of creativity helped me to become the person I had always wanted to be and to live the life I have always wanted to live – namely a life spent in the practice and contemplation of the literary arts. I used my “flair for words’ (as an early English teacher once said) to create Sue Guiney, The Writer. I guess I’m my own best creation.

• There is no one way to get something done

I’ve made all sorts of choices that have seemed sketchy at the time. I didn’t get a creative writing degree. I chose not to look for a big publishing house but to publish my first novel with a small press – and even though that press went bust, I’m today publishing with another small press (though one I know will be better run). I no longer have an agent. I write across several genres without focusing on any one of them. I’m not saying that others should make these choices, just that there are many roads that lead to the same place. My yoga teacher always says, “there are no shoulds.” I think she’s right.

* Dare to be bold and don’t edit your actions

Some of my most successful and rewarding ventures have been ones that I supposedly should not have been able to do at all. As I mentioned above, I wrote and published a poetry play and produced it against all odds. This was wonderful in its own right, but it also It led to my first publishing contract and then the formation of my arts charity, CurvingRoad (www.curvingroad.com), which has led me into a world of theatrical pursuits that I had never dreamt of. Over the past five years we have produced a photography exhibition and four plays, one of which was a West End World Premiere. There was no way that I ever had imagine I could accomplish such a thing. And all of these efforts have impacted each other and have led to new ones. In other words, don’t let the rational you stop you before you get started. Now that I think of it though, maybe it’s not that I have been so bold. Maybe it’s just that I’ve allowed my own naivete to lead me down paths I should have known not to go down. In other words, don’t let the rational you stop you before you get started.

• Be truthful with yourself about your goals

Don’t be ashamed of being ambitious. It’s the only way to get anything done. But be realistic. If you want to go for fame and fortune, terrific. But write the sorts of things that will get you there. I decided I didn’t need to have my face on the side of a bus, so I’ve stuck to writing things that are not necessarily mass market sellers. But I demand excellence of myself, just as we all should. I can’t tell you how many times I read and reread a sentence. I know I’m no artistic genius, but I do finally believe in my own abilities and force myself not to settle for “good enough.” It’s not easy. It takes more patience than I normally have and so I ‘ve also realized I need help. I rely on trusted readers to tell me when it’s not good enough and when I’m ready to move on. To be honest, I have paid people to do this for me. It may seem like a luxury, but it really isn’t. Sometimes an objective outsider is the only one to tell you the truth. It doesn’t have to cost a lot, and when you think of how much time you invest in your writing, throwing a bit of money into the investment as well really does make sense. I worked long and hard on “Tangled Roots,” and it was the help of a paid tutor which pushed me towards the level of excellence that I was able to achieve with that book. I have worked just as hard, though not as long, on “A Clash of Innocents,” and I have relied on outside readers with that as well. Whether other people agree that it is up to the standard of my first book is yet to be seen. Pretty scary! But I believe in it and know that I couldn’t have done any better on it, and I suppose that’s my real definition of excellence.
I alsoBut I do promote myself as much as I can bear, because I admit that I do want to be “known” and interviewed and asked to be on panels and workshops (still working on that last bit). I do want my work to be read by people other than those who already know me. And, as long as we’re being truthful, I do want/need an occasional evening when a room is full of people congratulating me for a job well done (ie my wonderful book launch on 30 September!).

• Step away from your desk

Writers are by nature shy. We like to sit alone, playing with words and creating worlds in our heads. But you need to force yourself to go meet writers and readers. Go to readings, launches, conferences. Embrace that awful verb: to network. This is always torture for me, but I’m never sorry. My latest publishing contract grew out of a conversation I had at a poetry reading with a woman I had known through my first publisher, but who I got to know better through Facebook. Going out into the world forces you to say out loud to strangers, “Yes, I am a writer.” And believe me, that was the hardest, but most important step of all.

I’ve rambled on too long. Thanks for sticking with me. But I do believe that with flexibility, imagination and old-fashioned gumption we can all live our dreams. It’s taken a while, but I know I’m finally beginning to live mine.

THANKS SUE!

I love this piece - there is so much here that makes sense. May we all step away from our desks a little, dare to be bold, and above all, live our dreams!

You can order A Clash of Innocents from the Book Depository here

DO YOU HAVE A CHILD GOING OFF TO UNIVERSITY?

2010-09-20T07:02:00.000+01:00

Well, here is a story I wrote especially for (me and) you....

Meanwhile back at home

Veronica Comrie has to call home three times and when eventually her mother answers, she’s breathing heavily and asks Veronica to hold on while she sits down. ‘Where have you been?’ Veronica asks, clutching her tear soaked tissue. She is going to ask her mother to come and pick her up. She hates college. Choosing law was a big mistake. ‘On the running machine,’ her mother says. ‘Running machine?’ says Veronica. Veronica’s mother hates exercise. ‘We put it up in your bedroom, along with the weights and the yoga mats,’ says Veronica’s mother. ‘I feel like a new woman. Or that’s what your dad keeps saying.’ Veronica tells her mother that she has to go a lecture now, but that she’s fine. Really. It’s only when she puts the phone down that she realises her mother hadn’t asked.

When Colin Hiscox’s dad picks up the phone, Colin thinks at first he has the wrong number. His father answers in French. ‘Sorry about that,’ Colin’s dad says. ‘It’s these foreign students we have staying in your room.’ Three girls, Colin’s father says. Apparently it brightens the house up to have some young folk around again. Even Colin’s mother is loving it. And the money comes in useful. ‘We are becoming quite fond of garlic,’ Colin’s father says. Colin hears laughter in the background. He can’t remember the last time he heard laughter in his parents’ house. Or whether he’s ever knowingly tasted garlic. And he’s certainly never been allowed girls in his room before.

‘Your room is your room for life,’ says Jerome Connor’s mother. ‘I have kept it just as you left it.’ ‘A bloody shrine,’ Jerome’s father adds from the upstairs extension. ‘She wouldn’t even let the neighbour’s niece stay there. Poor girl had to sleep in a tent in the garden.’ ‘It’s your room, Jerome,’ says his mother. ‘Now the neighbour refuses to talk to us,’ his father continues. ‘And will you be back to us soon, son?’ says Jerome’s mother.

‘Ferrets,’ Jane Brown’s mother says. ‘If it was kittens, or even rabbits, I might be happier. But what’s he going to do with ferrets? Keep them down his trousers?’ Jane’s busy smiling at the blonde guy from her economics class. ‘And they smell,’ says Jane’s mother. ‘I can’t go into your room without an oxygen mask. Not to mention the noise. It’s scrabble, scrabble, scrabble all day and night. And knock, knock, knock as he builds more and more cages.’ Jane stops smiling. ‘My room?’ she asks.

John Jenson’s father has built bookcases along the far wall of John’s bedroom to fit in every copy from John’s booklists, both primary and secondary reading. Every night, he works his way through them. Sitting at John’s old desk, he grinds his teeth through timed essays from the lists of titles John emails him, before sending them to an independent tutor to be marked. John hasn’t told him that he’s making up the essay titles, that the books lists are from several years ago, and that John isn’t at university any more. He’s working in a sandwich shop. He’s happier than he’s been since he started school and his father learnt to read alongside him.

Susan Carter’s father has turned her bedroom into a refrigerated storage space for his butcher’s shop. Meats that need to be hung are left on large hooks he’s drilled into the ceiling. ‘It might be a bit cold,’ says Susan’s mother, ‘but your bed is still there and we’ve shuffled everything round so no blood will actually drip on you when you sleep. I honestly can’t see what the problem is.’

When Chris Leslie’s mother rings, there’s a familiar background noise he can’t quite identify. ‘I’m cleaning your room,’ she says. For a minute he’s filled with fury. But then he recognises that sound. It’s the down pipe gurgling. Chris used to lie in bed listening to it, imagining surfing the water’s waves until it took him out of there. Out of the family. Out of the house. Out of the town. For the first time since starting college, he feels homesick. ‘I’m just cleaning because…’ she says. ‘Shhh,’ he tells her. He wants to listen to the pipe.

AN INVITATION FOR YOU...

2010-09-19T14:23:00.005+01:00

Poetry from Art
Launch of a pamphlet anthology: Poetry from Art

Saturday 25 September 2010, 18.45–21.00

You are invited to the launch of a pamphlet anthology: Poetry from Art at Tate Modern introduced and edited by Pascale Petit

These twenty-four poems were written on Pascale Petit's Poetry from Art summer course in the galleries at Tate Modern, the third of three six-week writing courses this year. These ongoing creative writing classes, open to both advanced poets and beginners, are held on Monday evenings and are in their fifth year.

The pamphlet includes poems after Mona Hatoum, Francis Alÿs, Joseph Beuys and Mike Nelson.

A still from Francis Alys's video work, Tornado, from which some of the poems were written.

The contributors are: Karen McCarthy Woolf, Naomi Woddis, Malika Booker, Rowyda Amin, Matthew Paul, Anne Welsh, Sarah Salway, Rebecca Farmer, Zillah Bowes, Cath Drake, Rishi Dastidar, Beth Somerford, Roberta James, Cath Kane, Kaye Lee, Lynn Foote, Seraphima Kennedy, Ali Wood, Julie Steward, Elizabeth Horsley, MJ Whistler, Andrea Robinson, Angela Dock, Beatriz Echeverri.

The event will be introduced by Pascale Petit.
Free entry, readings, great views and wine.

Tate Modern Level 7 East Room
Free, no bookings taken

Sadly I won't be able to attend the launch, but please do go, and please buy the booklet. There are some wonderful poems there. More information here.

You MUST read this book...

2010-09-17T09:09:00.003+01:00

Nik started a great book recommendation meme yesterday, and Benjamin Judge joined in. AND BOTH RECOMMENDED ME! Thanks guys.

And to add my pennyworth, here are five poetry books I've read and loved this summer:

1. Furniture, by Lorraine Mariner. I came across Lorraine's work first when she read last during a packed Oxfam reading. Packed with readers, that is, and I'd heard some good things but to be honest I was a bit jaded by the time Lorraine stood up. Not for long though. The minute she started a poem about Stanley, an imaginary boyfriend, who has to go because 'nothing in our relationship has ever surprised me', she had charmed everyone in that room. I rushed to buy her book after the reading but she had already sold out. Even if it wasn't for the fantastic series of poems in the narrative voice of 'Jessica Elton', this collection would still be on my favourite shelves.

2. I wrote about Simon Armitage's Seeing Stars here and I have been coming back to it again and again this summer in admiration and yes, envy.

3. Human Chain by Seamus Heaney is my newest acquisition but I've already read it three times. A lot of the poems are dedicated 'i.m' but the whole book feels 'alive and living' in the best ways. I am sure there are a lot of references here I'm missing, but the joy of it is that it makes me want to read more, rather than just making me feel stupid. And in the meantime, the words are so beautiful I am enjoying just tasting them. In fact, I could almost lick every page of this book like 'Lick the Pencil':

'Lick the pencil' we might have called him
So quick was he to wet the lead, so deft
His hand-to-mouth and tongue-flirt round the stub.

4. Source, by Mark Doty is a good accompaniment to Human Chain, in that both seem to focus on what is left of the human being when the material elements are stripped away. Where is our place in the world? And how do we learn to see things through our own eyes rather than other people's? There is a lovely 'Letter to Walt Whitman' here that I read twice before I realised I was holding my breath each time. And then I raced to the page myself, wanting to write as directly as Mark Doty does here.

5. Not a poetry book but a book for poets that I have come to very late, Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers has made me look at nearly everything differently this Summer. The book describes Wabi-Sabi as 'a beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete,' and is a practice rather than an end result. The tension it describes between the meanings of Wabi and Sabi is perhaps the most exciting one thing I've read for a long time.

And now I'm off to add a few of the books recommended on other blogs to my reading list. Good idea, Nik!

Back to earth....

2010-09-15T09:54:00.003+01:00

Somehow when I got back to Kilimanjaro, I thought I would throw myself back into life with renewed energy. I have climbed a mountain, don't you know? So many people have asked if I've been writing about it, if I am already planning a new trip etc etc etc. But it hasn't been like that at all.

I think I've just been plain old exhausted. However, there's something else too.

Maybe it's because I'm a September baby, but I don't think I'm unusual in feeling the urge to sign up for something new at this time of year. A new class, learning a new skill. New shoes even.

This year however it seems I'm happy just to let it all drift by. There's a feeling that I need to let the whole experience settle down because I don't want to lose it before I've had time to ingest it properly.

It's a good feeling.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

2010-09-08T15:47:00.004+01:00

Us at the top of Kilimanjaro - around 8.45 on Tuesday morning!

I took lots of photos but unfortunately had my camera stolen at Nairobi airport so these are thanks to my sister (the one in the red jacket)...

It was an amazing, emotional, inspiring, exhausting trip. Of all the things I expected, FUN wasn't on the list. But that's what we had.

Every night when we arrived at camp, our wonderful porters sang and danced for us...

So after the first day, we surprised them by making up a song and singing it back to them every following night too! Not exactly rocket science, 'Four happy hikers climbing on a cliff, and if one happy hiker should accidently fall....' was one. But at least we can say that we did somehow sing our way up Kilimanjaro! Also we taught them an elaborate game of 'My grandmother went to market...' and played Rock paper scissors in return.

I'm going to write more later, and hopefully have some more pics, but this is just to say that we're safe, and happy, and to thank you ALL for your good wishes.

And if you're considering ever climbing Kilimanjaro, one thing to say to you .... DO IT! Happy to answer any questions you may have.

RIGHT, SOME OF US HAVE A MOUNTAIN TO CLIMB....

2010-08-23T07:49:00.001+01:00

William Blake famously said: Great things are done when men and mountains meet.

So I'm off to Kilimanjaro to meet my mountain. I shall see you all when I get back.

Wish me luck, and here's something for you to watch and listen to...

REVENGE - A 50 WORD PHOTOSTORY

2010-08-22T07:38:00.001+01:00

She planned it before he died, so at the right moment they took his body away. The drop of blood they returned was bigger than she expected, but she hung it up in the sitting room, and turned to the fashion channels. No more sport, she whispered. My turn now.

DREAMING WITH LYDIA DAVIS

2010-08-21T07:36:00.000+01:00

STUCK - A 50 WORD PHOTOSTORY

2010-08-20T07:32:00.001+01:00

She sees the light at the end of the tunnel, but she’s been comfort eating so much she can’t get out. And it’s safe with her chocolate and her sweets. So she watches the light thinking that tomorrow she’ll change her life. But now, she’ll sit here. Eat some more.

CAUGHT - A 50 WORD PHOTOSTORY

2010-08-19T07:16:00.000+01:00

He fell over in the middle of the labyrinth. They said it didn’t matter, but he stumbled again as he got up. For the rest of the week he felt lost. It was as if he was blindfolded. He dreamt of walking round. And round. There was no way out.

FLOODS IN PAKISTAN

2010-08-18T12:43:00.002+01:00

I am pasting and copying the whole of this email from the Azaaz organisation about the floods in Pakistan in case you are like me and want to help but are not sure what to do or where to go...

Dear Friends,

A humanitarian catastrophe of terrifying proportions is unfolding in Pakistan, with a fifth of the country under water, and millions of people homeless and desperately needing assistance.

Some relief efforts are underway, but the international response to the mega-disaster has been irresponsibly slow and weak -- the UN has urgently appealed for $460 million of vital aid, but just 40% has been delivered.

Relief workers warn that without an immediate increase in aid the death toll could sky-rocket. We can help by sending funds directly to the most reliable aid organizations, and by pressing our governments to step up their efforts. Let's show our leaders what generosity looks like, and demand that they join us. Click here to send a personal message to key donor governments

And click here to donate to the relief effort.

After visiting the flood stricken areas, a visibly upset UN General Secretary, Ban Ki Moon, said “This has been a heart-wrenching day for me. In the past, I have visited many natural disasters, but I have never seen anything like this.”

Thousands of towns and villages have been washed away -- roads, buildings, bridges, crops. Now people are stranded on tiny islands surrounded by flood waters. With no clean water to drink, cholera, diarrhea and other sicknesses are on the rise, threatening the millions of people who have lost their homes and livelihoods.

The international response so far has not matched that of previous large scale disasters. Organisations like UNICEF and WHO have said they lack the funds to provide adequate assistance.

The governments of the world need to do more, and we can lead by example. Let’s stand with Pakistan at this time of crisis, and ask important donor governments to do the same.

Click here to donate.

Click here to send a message.

Our community has risen to the challenge of awful disasters before. In 2008, Avaaz members raised over 2 million dollars for the victims of Cyclone Nargis in Burma. Earlier this year, $1.4 million was raised for the victims of the earthquake in Haiti. Our ability to move quickly in times of crisis can make the difference between life or death for people struggling to cope with disaster. Let’s show the people of Pakistan that people and governments around the world stand with them in this awful crisis.

With hope,

Luis, Iain, Mia, Ricken, Paul, Giulia, Ben, David, Graziela, Pascal, Milena and the rest of the Avaaz team

More information:

UN Chief’s heart wrenching appeal for Pakistan flood victims.

Pakistan floods fail to spark strong global aid.

Death toll rises from Pakistan flooding.

Avaaz Burma Cyclone relief -- http://www.avaaz.org/en/highlights#burma

Avaaz Haiti Earthquake response -- http://www.avaaz.org/en/highlights#emergency_response

GETTING THE PICTURE REVIEWED ON BOOKEYWOOKEY

2010-08-18T06:00:00.002+01:00

It is like a visual art installation in which each message is an image or object we can pick up in our hands.

You all know the Bookeywookey website, don't you?

It's a brilliant place for book reviews and interesting people and things to do with the mind. Just my kind of thing, and it's been a great joy to me that its creator, Ted, has become a friend since he read and was so kind about Tell Me Everything a couple of years ago.

But that didn't make it any easier when I knew he was going to review my new book. I wrote to him saying that he should say what he thought.

And then I regretted it but luckily didn't send the email saying 'Actually I didn't mean that. Say what I think....' or something worse.

But hurrah, hurrah, he 'got' it.

You can read the review here, but here's some of what he says:

The novel's leitmotif is a photograph and a negative, if you will: the superficial versus interior knowledge of another person. The snapshot one gets when knowing someone only from the outside in a single context, versus who they are inside, who they are when they relate to their intimates, who they are to themselves in their fantasies, and sadly, who they become when there is no one to whom they show their deepest selves. As a literary device the letters and messages are an appropriate form for this novel in that they are like snapshots, you need more than one to know the whole story. And while a nude picture is literally revealing, it does not necessarily give the viewer an intimate relationship with the subject. However the subject themselves possesses that whole story and so posing for that photograph feels a kind of risk, perhaps akin to the risk we take when we tell someone we love them, or the risk artists take when they put themselves into their work. That is the reverse image contained in the novel, the risk that it takes to be known. This is not just the artists' journey, it is everyone's and this novel's message is that the risk is worth it.

And in other happy dancing showing off news, last week on twitter, William Gibson tweeted that he had Getting the Picture on his reading list and then I got an email saying that a certain British philosopher is planning to take it on holiday with him. Not going to name him because the names are dropping fairly heavily in this post already (Oh but OK, if you insist, A d B may be some of the letters.... )

Anyway that's probably enough of the showing off now, Salway. Back to happy dancy writing!

ON OVERCOMING SHYNESS....

2010-08-17T07:57:00.005+01:00

One of the posts I've had the most personal responses to recently was one in which I mentioned my shyness and the cure that's helped me, Bach's Rescue Remedy.

I posted this photograph on Facebook as a joke about my forthcoming Kilimanjaro preparations, but it does seem to make a difference for me.

And here are some of the other things that help me overcome shyness when it comes to readings and public speaking etc ...

1. Making a note of all the things I've missed in the past because of it. And how much I would have enjoyed them. So I don't want to miss more in the future. Do I?

2. This tip I read which is that a speech should contain a fact, a feeling (created by talking about the senses) and an action. Just thinking about how I am gong to include this gives me some kind of structure apart from just panicking.

3. Remembering that no one else notices how nervous I am. Just bluff it out and smile. Also remember that people actually want me to do well. They are not the enemy. Although strangely easy to forget this sometimes.

4. In my head unless I'm careful, I often have a scenario going on about how I'm going to trip over, that I will start crying, that ... etc etc. The strange thing is that these thoughts are almost a little comforting - as if it's not really going to be as bad as that. How could it be? But that's all a bit negative, so I try to think instead about what people (the audience) want to hear. How can I give them that? Just replacing the first scenario with this calms me. Gives me something other than myself to think about, because it's not about me anymore. It's about everybody else. I remember listening to a talk by Dr Wayne Dyer in which he said that he sat in his dressing room before any presentation asking 'how could he serve'? Well, I don't have dressing rooms, and I'm not so sure about the serving, but I like the sentiment.

5. Have the first few lines ready, and prepared. And how I'm going to finish. And to practice this a few times in front of the mirror. Smiling. And bluffing it out (with a few drops of rescue remedy to hand..).

What tips do you have? Let's compile a list.

REALITY TELEVISION - A 50 WORD PHOTOSTORY

2010-08-16T06:56:00.000+01:00

They prefer to live in the past. Of course, they’ve heard about televison, how strangers can come in to your house, how sometimes people cry over these strangers. But the villagers can’t understand. It’s busy enough already. In each family enough drama. In each house enough talk. Real connections. Love.

HOW TO GET KIDS TO LIKE GALLERIES - ANOTHER POSTCARD FROM GHENT

2010-08-10T11:40:00.003+01:00

One of our highlights during our trip to Ghent was a visit to the S.M.A.K. gallery, and not least finding this amazing room for kids to hang out in - The Factory.

With comfy chairs to watch art videos, or just to read one of the art books in the bookshelf...

A table to use for drawings and art, or even to draw on!

And because it's called 'The Factory' (love this collage of words, btw, I think I should paint it on my own writing room wall!) ...

It had its own Andy Warhol's...

Inspiring in every way!

ON HOW MUCH I LOVE DENTON WELCH

2010-08-06T16:18:00.003+01:00

Thrilled to be able to talk about Denton Welch and the meaning his book Maiden Voyage has for me on Norman Geras's blog recently.

You can find my piece here.

Also thrilled to get this wonderful Amazon review for GETTING THE PICTURE from Tania Hershman too.

THE EMPORER'S NEW HAIRCUT - A 50 WORD PHOTOSTORY

2010-08-05T06:15:00.000+01:00

Harry doesn’t really believe the hairdresser when he says this is the latest cut. Even when he sees the result, Harry leaves a tip. The laughter in the salon follows him out to the street. A child points at him. It’s good to be ahead of fashion, the hairdresser said.

ANOTHER POSTCARD FROM GHENT

2010-08-04T06:06:00.001+01:00

Finding poetry outside book covers makes me happy.

Even though i couldn't understand what they say, and one of you may write in to tell me they are actually an advert for toilet paper, these poems in unexpected places.

Let's have more poems.

Everywhere!

CAUGHT IN THE NET - a 50 word photostory

2010-08-03T06:59:00.002+01:00

He wants to know how she found out. He was so careful. But she accused him straight away. He hadn’t even got into bed. She doesn’t say she saw the grid marks on his naked body. That she recognised the chair he’d got them from. That she’d sat there too.

YOUR FIRST POSTCARD FROM GHENT - WISH YOU WERE THERE...

2010-08-02T06:12:00.006+01:00

We've just had a weekend in Ghent (our compensation tickets for getting stranded in Brussels in the Eurostar pre-Christmas disaster). Nothing better for me than wandering round a new city and getting a creativity fix.

One of the things I love doing is searching out independent artisans, craftsmen and artists, and this time we got lucky when we walked into Els Robberechts's hat shop (I can't seem to link to it, but here's the website - http://www.acesoir.be/ or second time lucky, try this.)

That's my new hat she's got on the counter by the way. She gave me a little lesson in how to be a hat wearer, and although I'm not sure I'm there yet, I'm looking forward to experimenting, especially with such a beautiful one.

And she allowed us to peek into her studio upstairs ...

Just as exciting, we met her husband, the master tailor Aravinda, who showed us some of the secrets he hides in his ties. Love it - these are exactly the women my character, Martin photographs in GETTING THE PICTURE. And I shall look at all tie-wearing businessmen with a new curiosity.

And to reassure Els if she happens to see this, this picture below is definitely not going to be the fate of my hat. He obviously wasn't wearing his right...

SUMMER READING

2010-07-28T07:49:00.001+01:00

Bliss....

On Hardship (and Kendal Mint Cake) - a 50 word photostory

2010-07-27T09:43:00.006+01:00

They start the explorers off with cosmetics. Ranulph Fiennes drops out when he’s caught crying because they’ve discontinued his perfect Chanel lipstick. Then Sir Edmund Hillary faints because his corset is laced too tightly. Bear Grylls lasts the longest. He’s spotted trying the gladiator sandals, his glittery false eyelashes fluttering.

(More fifty word photostories here.)

(pps You all did know I'm climbing Kilimanjaro, right?....!)

IS THERE ANYTHING MORE SCARY?

2010-07-26T09:18:00.002+01:00

... than members of your family reading your books?

Luckily Rach approves!

STORY DOLLS

2010-07-22T08:27:00.009+01:00

Today is the first handover between the artists and writers involved in the Tunbridge Wells Art Gallery project, to be exhibited at the start of the next year.

I have written already about the ideas that didn't make it to the final round, (here) so here's the one that did.

Please welcome for her first outing anywhere apart from my radiator at home one of my little STORY DOLLS...

The idea is that each body part represents a different part of the story. Either you can leave the story as it is, or you can use it to write something new from it. Or you can swop in another body part and make a completely different story. Rather like those women who used the dress patterns could make up different parts of the doll's dress and therefore create a new story for the doll every time they used the pattern.

And here's one of my stories from the doll above..

PEOPLE LIKE US

I tell the guards I didn’t do it, but they tell me that’s what people like us always say.

Except in the papers there was no ‘us’, there was only me. EVIL BUS DRIVER’S ROYAL KIDNAP ATTEMPT.

I didn’t even know who she was at the time. Thought she was just another dumpy old mad woman. We got those a lot round here. Especially after 10am when they can travel for free.

‘Help me,’ she’d begged. ‘My train is late, and I must get to my sick mother.’

Everybody knows the Queen Mother is dead, they said at the trial, but I didn’t know she was the Queen then, did I? And it was the sick mother bit that got me too. I always go that bit extra to help customers. Plus it was a question of pride. I wanted to show that buses were better than trains.

There’d been a fuss going on at the station. The Mayor and lots of camera crews were there, so I wasn’t surprised that the trains were late. I took her through the back way where my bus was waiting. Behind us, someone started blowing a trumpet. There was no way the passengers on the 5.45 were going to get in on time so I could make it to the hospital and back.

Her hat blew off as she climbed on board. Perhaps I should have twigged then, but I was trying to work out who her voice reminded me of.

‘This is exciting,’ she said. ‘Much better than judging boring hanging baskets. And of course we have private buses at Windsor but not so thrillingly dirty.’

I was about to get cross because I have high standards of cleanliness, when I saw the police lights behind and the helicopters above.

‘Oh, this always happens,’ she said then, ‘just when I’m having fun.’

The others on the prison floor tell similar stories, but no one ever believes us. Not people like us.

She visited the prison this afternoon though. I watched from the window as that new warden escorted an anonymous dumpy woman in need of help through the side door. And then I heard the sirens.

They’re already making up a new cell.

***

To be honest, I'm rather worried about my little story dolls and hope they get a good reception. Luckily I'm much more excited though to see what the others in our group have come up with. I feel very lucky to be involved in this project.

Dummy - a 50 word photostory

2010-07-21T17:38:00.004+01:00

She makes Claude at evening class. At work she boasts that she has a new man. A fencer. He can’t come to drinks, she says, because he’s always sharpening his sword or washing his moustache. She laughs at him. It’s much better than when they used to laugh at her.

(This is one of the fifty word stories I write to accompany my photographs. You can read more here, or write a 50 word story of your own and add it in the comments box. But be warned - they are addictive!)

AFTERNOON IN THE HOUSE

2010-07-19T09:30:00.011+01:00

Last week was an amazing time for meeting new people who now feel like old friends ...

(with Lia Leendertz and Joe Melia)

and starting new projects ...

(Catherine Smith and I promise that no animals or short stories were harmed in the creation of our new no longer mythical 'thingy', shortly to be announced)

and which culminated in an amazing evening in Bristol at the Bristol Short Story Prize celebration, won by super talented Valerie O'Riordan (seen here trying to escape from my clutches...)

It was such a great evening, wonderfully organised by Joe Melia, and happily coinciding with the birthday of short story queen, Tania Hershman. As she was one of the judges, I feel really grateful she invited me to speak. I had a few wobbles - not least because I was chronically shy as a kid (like so many writers it seems). So much so that I once locked myself in the bathroom and refused to come out just because my mum had asked a 'friend' round to play with me. The friend had to go home eventually, much to my relief as I could get back to my books and cuddling up with the dog. Anyway, I have learnt to control it most of the time (the wonders of the internet and best shyness cure EVER) and I'm particularly glad I came out of the bathroom this time, because I had a great night and met lots of lovely writers including Clare Wallace, Claire King, Jonathan Pinnock and many many more who I know I am going to enjoy reading more of, and about, in the future.

But this week is a bit quieter. A time to settle down and process some of the new thoughts, ideas and projects that are currently swimming round my head. I'm reminded of this poem by Jane Kenyon, who just always says it right.

AFTERNOON IN THE HOUSE
by Jane Kenyon

It's quiet here. The cats
sprawl, each
in a favored place.
The geranium leans this way
to see if I'm writing about her:
head all petals, brown
stalks, and those green fans.
So you see,
I am writing about you.

I turn on the radio. Wrong.
Let's not have any noise
in this room, except
the sound of a voice reading a poem.
The cat's request
The Meadow Mouse, by Theodore Roethke.

The house settles down on its haunches
for a doze.
I know you are with me, plants,
and cats - and even so, I'm frightened,
sitting in the middle of perfect
possibility.

Beautiful, eh? That perfect possibility...

You can buy the Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology here, and I strongly urge that you do. This is GOOD writing - short stories at their best. And so varied. Even those people who are determined they don't like short stories will find something to love here.

AN ANGEL AT MY TABLE

2010-07-16T06:56:00.003+01:00

Recently I have been watching Janet Frame's An Angel at My Table again, for about the squillienth time.

Is there a better film - or indeed book - about being sensitive and writing? Or about sensitive writing?

And when I went on Youtube to look up some scenes to put up here, then this is exactly the one I would hope to find because it sums up so exactly my fears (and I know not just mine) about standing up in public:

Almost, but just not quite, unbearable. That's what you would call what happens next in the film.

Of course, this has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that I'm going up to Bristol today to present the prize at the Short Story Prize there. Actually, it really hasn't. I've read most of the stories that will be appearing in the anthology now. And I can tell you that they are absolutely sensational. It's going to be a real honour to meet everyone, and to get to talk to the writers.

And of course to help make the winner deservedly happy.... Sometimes I really really do love my life!

ONE GOOD REASON TO LIVE IN TUNBRIDGE WELLS...

2010-07-15T06:16:00.000+01:00

The Trinity Arts Centre...

Love this idea of volunteers from local schools organising this evening:

Sat 17 Jul 2010 7.30pm

Join us at Trinity for a special showcase night night with some of the best local bands and solo artists around.

the sound project aims to give local unsigned bands a platform in a professional venue to showcase their talent. It is run on a non-profit basis by a group of young volunteers from local secondary schools.

For the sixth and final event of the season, the project invites some of the best local bands to record a live album at the theatre.

Headline and support acts will be performing in the main auditorium. Acoustic acts will be performing in the foyer before and after the main show.

7.30pm Authentic Acoustic
A local talent performs in the foyer
Acoustic Stage

8.10pm In Tyler We Trust
Thumping bass and driving beat
Alternative Rock
Drum n Bass

9.00pm Sevenscore
Thom Yorke meets John Lennon
Alternative
Acoustic Rock

9.50pm The Good Ship Band
Infectious brand of indie-folk + memorable tunes
Folk Rock

10.40pm Midnight Music
More acoustic acts to enjoy in the foyer
Acoustic Stage

Acts are subject to change. Please check the website for the latest line-up.

£6 in advance | £8 on the door
Buy Now Online

For line-ups visit: www.facebook.com/saturdaysoundproject

A MESSAGE TO OTHER PLANETS...

2010-07-14T07:39:00.000+01:00

Don't ask me why, but I have been mulling over the message I might want to send to our friends in outer space recently.

This is the one President Carter put on the record sent out on each of the Voyager spacecraft launched in 1977:

This is a present from a small distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts and our feelings. We are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours. We hope someday, having solved the problems we face, to join a community of galactic civilizations. This record represents our hope and our determination, and our goodwill in a vast and awesome universe.

I don't know why but that seems almost unbearably hopeful and nostalgic to me now. Like watching old episodes of Star Trek. and remembering how, as a kid, I would always rush to the window after. Just to gaze.

So what would you put in your message? And what music would you include in your space capsule?

IF YOU ARE IN LONDON TONIGHT, THIS LOOKS GOOD

2010-07-13T06:38:00.001+01:00

Days of Roses will be hosting a special event as part of the Oxfam Bookfest on Tuesday July 13, at 91 Marylebone High Street, W1, five minutes from Baker street tube station, starting at 7. Admission free. Donations encouraged. Do check this out. Featuring:

Faber's Jo Shapcott, with her new collection Of Mutability
http://www.faber.co.uk/author/jo-shapcott/
http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth152

Guardian Music's Laura Barton, with her debut novel Twenty One Locks
http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/laurabarton

Oxfam's Poet in Residence Todd Swift
http://toddswift.blogspot.com/
http://www.salmonpoetry.com/seaway.html

Malene Engelund
http://www.clinicpresents.com/2010/04/malene-engelund.html

Gareth Jones
http://www.tall-lighthouse.co.uk/p_gareth-jones.html

Robert Selby
http://www.robertselby.co.uk/

Retta Bowen
http://www.tall-lighthouse.co.uk/p_retta-bowen.html

Laura Forman
http://www.poetcasting.co.uk/?p=27

and music from Mr Dupret Factory
http://www.myspace.com/mrdupretfactory

HELP WITH YOUR GRAMMAR

2010-07-12T06:46:00.001+01:00

One of the subjects I got asked most about during the last year as the RLF Fellow at the LSE was about grammar. Always as if it was a dirty secret. Something people should be ashamed of. So although I've written about it before on here, I thought it might be useful to pass on some of the best sites I've found on the internet.

1. Grammar Girl. Who knew that grammar could ever be so entertaining, let alone ‘quick and dirty’ but this is someone who loves her stuff and wants you to love it too. Just be warned that this is an American site, so you may need to double check the British usage.

2. Royal Literary Fund Fellowship Although primarily designed for students, these pages offer some good, clear advice about grammar, structuring an argument and how you can prepare yourself for writing.

3. Plain English More than thirty years ago, the Plain English Campaign started their campaign against official ‘gobbledygook’. They offer a series of free guides on their site covering subjects such as letter, report and even business email writing.

THE GOLDEN GIRLS ON WRITING

2010-07-11T07:11:00.001+01:00

Enough guinea pigs, thank you!

2010-07-09T09:36:00.002+01:00

Feel really chuffed to be able to say that my pilot on-line group is now full, with a waiting list. I do love you lot - for those that didn't sign up, we'll let you know how it went when we get to the other side!

OTHER LIVES - A FIFTY WORD PHOTOSTORY

2010-07-09T07:02:00.001+01:00

Sharon takes pictures of pebbles. She’ll move on to shells one day, or even the sea, but for now the pebbles are too fascinating. She imagines lives for them: the dreary stoniness of the grey ones, the soap opera dissatisfaction of the holey ones. And snap, she captures it all.

PEACE FOR CHILDREN AFRICA

2010-07-08T06:44:00.004+01:00

Hello I’m Sarah’s daughter, Rachael Salway, making a guest blog!

I’ve just spent the last month in Kampala, the capital city of Uganda, and it really was an eye opener. I originally went to solely volunteer in an orphanage for babies called Sanyu Babies Home.

However on going along to this other organisation as a one-off with a friend who spent a lot of time there last year, I got completely absorbed. The organisation is called Peace for Children Africa and started off as an outreach programme in the slums, founded by two intuitive lovely young men called Paul and Martin who grew up in the slums of Kampala themselves. They luckily received a couple of donations, alongside all their own savings and managed to build a centre to home some of the kids they counsel in the slums that are most in need of an escape.

The centre currently hosts just under 25 children, ranging from 3-21 in age, and despite their age gaps they all just act like family to each other. They could not be more grateful and positive despite the fact their situations are still so far from perfect. Martin and Paul really have changed the lives of so many of these lovely children, and they want to expand the centre even more, and buy a place just outside Kampala so they can help many more children who at present have little chance to achieve their dreams.

Most of the children at PCA are lucky enough to be sponsored to go to school and in the evening and at the weekends Martin and Paul ensure that the children have a lot to keep them going like dance lessons and acrobatic lessons, as well as teaching them skills like wood carving that will help them in later life. It is only thanks to support from kind people that these kids are given these chances, but they are still only just scraping by at the moment.

Martin and Paul’s work doesn’t just stop at the children at PCA. They still continue their outreach programme in the slums every Wednesday and Friday, teaching the children basic lessons and giving them a free meal. They offer counselling to any child that desires this, which is understandably a depressing majority. They’ve also recently decided to set up training sessions with the local police force to educate them on how best to handle the children in the slums, as due to their situation the crime rate is high but the police are not very sympathetic to their situation and can be quite corrupt in their manners. Martin and Paul always welcome any new suggestions and could not have kinder hearts with their only desires being to help these kids in any way possible. PCA isn’t as well known in Kampala as it should be and it still needs as many visitors, volunteers and donations as possible!

They are currently working on the website to make it easier to give donations by Pay Pal but if you find any problems with the website or want to email Martin and Paul regardless, they will be happy to receive it. Giving to these children will be a decision you will never ever forget. Even giving just £10 will buy one mosquito net which could potentially save a child’s life in the prevention of malaria.

Thank you so much for taking your time to read this.

LOOKING FOR GUINEA PIGS....

2010-07-07T12:18:00.006+01:00

WE WILL DO FOOLISH THINGS, BUT WE WILL DO THEM WITH ENTHUSIASM (Colette)

It was a bit like Ernest Shackleton's famous expedition advertisement, except with more reward and less danger, but just over a year ago, I put up a tiny post on here asking for people to do the Artists Way with me.

It was my first taste of an internet writing group and to be honest, I wasn't sure how it would work or whether it would work at all. But it did. And I hope that everyone who went on the journey with me found it as inspiring, amazing, extraordinary, surprising and useful as I did - and those adjectives refer to the work and talents within the group as much as the benefits I personally received from doing the exercises.

So now, I'm trying something new again.

I'm working on a new book and workshop idea, and I'm looking for guinea pigs to try out some of the exercises with me. Like The Artists Way it will be 12 weeks long, it will start in September, be internet based, will involve writing but you do not have to be a writer at all at all. We will concentrate on writing and working with your family stories, and hopefully writing new ones.

You can join in wherever you live, whatever age you are, however much talent you think you have or don't have, and whenever in the day you have time to do the exercises, join in the discussions etc.

PLUS IT IS FREE!

However there are conditions. As Molly says in my novel Tell Me Everything, "there are always conditions."

My conditions are:

* That you will do your very best to participate in and finish the 12 weeks
* That you come with an open mind to at least try the exercises
* That you do a brief email interview with me afterwards about how it goes
* That you will be prepared to share some of the work that comes up during the 12 weeks - with full approval of which pieces and the context in which they will be used
* That you will think about using your real name for this, although pseudonyms can be given if necessary
* That - apart from the interview and the pieces agreed for possible publication - you will keep the exercises, discussion and other participants in confidence to ensure a safe place for everyone
* That you think, despite the above, this sounds interesting and fun!

So anyone up for it? Either leave a comment or email me on sarahsalway @ gmail . com (but without the spaces!) - all I'm looking for at the moment is an expression of interest, but I will be limiting the group numbers-wise rather than making it a free for all so don't leave it too long.

SEEING STARS BY SIMON ARMITAGE

2010-07-07T07:14:00.002+01:00

I've been sharing some of my favourite new poetry books recently, so as soon as I read Simon Armitage's SEEING STARS I knew I wanted it to be my next choice up here.

It's a series of dramatic monologues, speaking direct into your ear and conjuring up such pictures in your mind. As the blurb says 'Here comes everybody: The man whose wife drapes a border-curtain across the middle of the marital home... an orgiastic cast of pie-worshippers at a Northern scultpure farm ... a Christian cheese-shop proprietor in the wrong part of town."

As that may suggest, some pieces made me laugh out loud...

At the annual Conference of Advanced Criminal Psychology, Dr Amsterdam and myself skipped the afternoon seminar on Offending Behaviours Within Gated Communities and went into town to go nicking stuff...

(From The Delegates)

But others were more dreamy...

When you ask me what time it is, it's purple. And when the alarm goes off in a morning it's a sort of metallic, minty green, like the noisette triangle in a packet of Quality Street - a particular favourite of mine but hard on the teeth. And when you say you love me, and whisper your love for me, personally, into my inner ear, it's custard-yellow embossed with a bold red heart, lie a door I once saw in an otherwise dried-up town on the side of a hill near Salamanca.

(From The Overtones)

To be honest, I'm still not quite sure what Simon Armitage is writing here - poems, or prose poems, or even flash fiction. They are nicely eccentric though, and by about half way through I felt fiercely and strangely protective of them. I think this book is going to spawn a whole new generation of copy-cats but if that's so, I hope they manage to keep some of that perfect balance of extraordinary imagination and empathy.

Then slowly but slowly I opened my fist to the unknown. And out of the void, slowly but slowly, it came: the pulsing starfish of a child's hand, swimming and swimming and coming to settle on my upturned palm.

(From I'll be There to Love and Comfort You)

I couldn't find any clips of Simon Armitage reading any of his poems from Seeing Stars on Youtube - but I did find a video of him deconstructing The Smith's "This Charming Man'. I'm not putting it up here because it may just put you off him for ever, but if you're interested look here, but don't say I didn't warn you...

Better still, read this book instead.

THE CURE - A FIFTY WORD PHOTOSTORY

2010-07-06T07:11:00.001+01:00

She is so determined to overcome her fears that she swallows the mixture the local so-called witch sells. It’s made from unicorn’s tears and grass stains, tastes like a rainbow, is called fairyheart. She’ll do anything to get more of it now, even the most frightening things in the world.

You can read more fifty word stories here

THE WAR OF ART - STEVEN PRESSFIELD

2010-07-05T07:38:00.001+01:00

As a writer, I like to think I come in peace.

I shy away from books or websites or teachers that talk about things like War or Battles or Bootcamp and especially Hard Work.

But I was persuaded recently to look at Steven Pressfield's The War of Art, and hey, I loved it.

Now Steven Pressfield is a bestselling author, but this book feel so authentic you can tell it hasn't been all easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy-let's-just-write-and-make-money for him. The chapters are small but hard hitting. And they do hit hard - right at the smelly dark secrets most of us think we are hiding in our writing process.

Here's a flavour:

Are you paralyzed with fear? That's a good sign.

Fear is good. Like self-doubt, fear is an indicator. Fear tells us what we have to do.

Yes! Punch those fists in the air right now. Oh but then, he brings me back to earth with the following quote. How does he know what I am thinking, and why isn't he being nice any more?

We get ourselves in trouble because it's a cheap way to get attention. Trouble is a faux form of fame. It's easier to get busted in the bedroom with the faculty chairman's wife than it is to finish that dissertation on the metaphysics of motley in the novellas of Joseph Conrad.

Oooo... now, of course, I've never actually been busted in the bedroom with the faculty chairman's wife, but I do recognise that feeling of 'actually, I'm a bit bored, I might just start an argument with someone' or getting myself into a little bit of a panic that I can 'share' with friends, or God forbid, twitter.

The WAR in this book is against resistance, and he's right. Resistance isn't our friend. In writing or in anything else. And he pin points exactly - for me - the places where I might be giving into it, albeit unconsciously. I found it so useful, and know I'll go back to it again and again.

But if there's one thing about this book I could love Steven Pressfield forever for, it's this:

In the hierarchy, the artist faces outward. Meeting someone new he asks himself, What can this person do for me? How can this person advance my standing?

In the hierarchy, the artist looks up and looks down. The one place he can't look is the place he must: within.

March on!

MY FANTASY MUSIC FESTIVAL

2010-07-04T13:57:00.005+01:00

Hugh arrived back from university on Friday bringing with him a good game - to design your fantasy music festival. Three days. Rules include no dead people, but you can have bands that aren't currently together.

No dead people? (Of course this led us into subsidiary thinking - were some musicians we wanted to include dead or alive? - useful site here for such questions)

So here is mine - line up changes possible, but more or less my fantasy music festival:

Friday:

Headliner: Radiohead

The National
Pulp
Frank Turner

Blitzen Trapper
Mumford & Sons
Dixie Chicks
The Streets

Saturday:

Headliner: The Smiths

Blondie
The Ramones
Curiosity Killed the Cat (original)
Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Elvis Costello
Roxy Music
The La's

Sunday:

Headliner: Leonard Cohen

Frightened Rabbit
Tom Jones
Catatonia

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros
The Verve
Saint Etienne

So there you have it. Finish on LC, and we all go home depressed but full of poetry and soul.

So, would you come?

There's also going to be lots and lots of poetry, Nigella will demonstrate cake making, we may do some river swimming and we all get to grow some of our own vegetables.

Do not just snipe at my choices, btw. Would love to find out your fantasy music line ups.... It's much much harder than you think. And funner too.

TWITTER WRITING PROMPTS

2010-07-04T06:48:00.001+01:00

Here's a selection of the daily writing prompts I've been putting up on Twitter. Take one day by day if you like, or use them all in one piece (I'd like to see that!), or give yourself ten minutes for each one and have an hour writing marathon, but most of all enjoy!

* Today she will swim to work....

* Early Girl, Cherry and Big Boy fight it out in the tomato patch...

* Two or three things I know for sure (D Allison)...

* The worst pun I have ever heard...

* She has decided to get her life sponsored ...

* Ice cream stick art...

Dark - a 50 word photostory

2010-07-03T07:27:00.003+01:00

Her friend Tanya has a night-light.

When the dark comes, a lit-up ladybird keeps Tanya safe.

Susie’s mum is cross. Susie should grow up and not be scared of everything. And stop telling stories.

Every night Susie lies alone, watching the light disappear. Listens out for footsteps. Says nothing.

This story is exactly fifty words long. It's part of a series of 50 word stories I've been writing to accompany photographs I take. Sometimes the photos and stories are a direct match, other times there's something about the photo that sparks off an idea. I'm not sure why I started doing them, but I know they have helped me to look a little bit harder. To take the kind of frame Anne Lamott talks about in Bird by Bird and apply it to bits of my life that I wouldn't otherwise notice.

You can read more 50 word stories here.

MY NEW WRITING MASCOT

2010-07-02T10:09:00.005+01:00

IT is a truth universally acknowledged, that a writer in search of a good muse, must be in want of an elephant...

So let me introduce you to SALWAY THE ELEPHANT, amazingly made for me by Kay Sexton.

Kay put in an absolutely perfect mini-self for the Science museum project, and I was so impressed I hinted (actually begged) for her to make something for me.

The strange thing is that Salway the Elephant (you have to call him by his whole name otherwise he gets upset) does help me write. Finding a place for him to sit every day helps with the settling before I get down to the business. And now I can't wait for my next reading and hoping for someone to ask me the question, 'Do you have any writing rituals?'

Well, I'll say, there is this pink elephant...

But actually, since we're on the subject, do you have any writing rituals?

And does anyone else out there have a writing mascot they would be prepared to share?

If you're interested in what happened to all the mini-selves at the exhibition, Stitch London have been recording the whole thing on their blog. An amazing enterprise. I do like the cider drinkers, although disappointingly mini-Rachael and me have been "very well behaved", apparently.

I am in awe of this particular teacher, who still remains in control of her mini-class:

Can't you just tell she is the sort of teacher those children will remember fondly for the rest of their lives? There only needs to be one.

BOOKSHELVES

2010-06-30T11:33:00.004+01:00

I stole the video above from Alex's marvellous Blog on the Bookshelf. I don't know why I like watching it so much, but maybe because it's like a game I don't even have to play myself. It's curiously mesmeric. Perhaps it's hypnotising me into alphabeticising my bookshelves?

MICHELLE LOVRIC'S BOOK OF HUMAN SKIN...

2010-06-25T11:12:00.004+01:00

... is just a brilliant novel. Honestly. Read it this summer, and then get yourself along to the Wellcome for one (or both) of these events...

SKIN EXHIBITION

Wellcome Collection | 10 June–26 September 2010

Michelle Lovric will present a lecture about her Venice and Peru-based novel,
The Book of Human Skin, at the Wellcome Collection on Saturday July 3rd at 2.30pm.

She will also lead a personal guided tour of the exhibition on Wednesday July 28th at 2pm.

Admission to both events is free, but it is advisable to pre-book an e-ticket for the July 3rd event:

http://www.wellcomecollection.org/whats-on/events/skinbound.aspx

HE JUST LIKES ATTENTION - A 50 WORD PHOTOSTORY

2010-06-16T07:22:00.001+01:00

There’s nothing wrong with the boy, his mother says, apart from liking attention.

So they ignore his dresses, the songs he screams, even his self-inflicted injuries. But when he replaces the faces in every photograph with his own, they worry.

He's deserves a better audience, says his mother.

MOVE OVER FRANKENSALWAYS...

2010-06-15T06:05:00.001+01:00

So here are Rachael and me....

No really! These are our little stitched selves for an exhibition coming up at the Science Museum, and they are looking for YOU to put yourselves in too. Find out more here.

There's still time to make an exhibition of yourself. Just. But if you do, please send a picture - would love to make a collage of stitched blog readers.

And in case, you're wondering, Rachael does really have lips, but I rubbed her lipstick off. Hmmm, teenagers nowadays.

Here's what we really look like.

Not much difference really....

ANOTHER POETRY BOOK TO TRY...

2010-06-14T07:40:00.001+01:00

There were some great comments to help find new poetry, after my last post about it (here), and here's another book to try...

Bodywork by Dilys Rose.

Thanks to Catherine Smith for this recommendation, because although I came across Dilys Rose's work when I was living in Edinburgh (she's a fantastic short story writer too), I hadn't heard of this collection.

The poems here all focus on the human body, and many are fresh takes on particular, very particular, illnesses - Baker's Itch, Mat Hatter Syndrome, Beethoven's Ear, Grace Darling's Lungs, Weaver's Bottom, Clergyman's Throat, Sailmaker's Palm (all of which have notes at the end to explain more. Weaver's Bottom for example is a form of bursitis, often caused by long hours of sedentary work. Shouldn't that be Writer's Bottom?)

But through a series of persona poems, absolutely perfectly drawn, often with real humour but never cruel, a whole world is created, both real and imaginary. It's like reading a mix of Jane Austin and Neil Gaiman. Perfect!

Here are some of my favourite lines:

her name was whatever you fancied
her eyebrows a twin-peaked cliche
her mouth was a magnet
her tongue swung between sweet chariot and Uzi
her throat was a tool of the trade

(from Obituary)

and...

Hers isn't a bit like those she's seen
in grand old paintings of her namesake -
all pale and quivery on a plate
like junket or blancmange;
a sweet treat at the end of a feast.

(from Aggie's Boob)

And here's one of the poems from the Collection, and another here.

Enjoy!

THE BRISTOL SHORT STORY PRIZE

2010-06-12T10:36:00.005+01:00

How could I not love the Bristol Short Story Prize?

Most of the pictures on their website are of people writing and reading short stories on benches!

So it's a particularly thrill to be invited to speak at their prize presentation this year.

You can find out more, and read an interview that I did with the talented Ellen Grant, a writer and student at Bath Spa University here. I particularly liked her last question: 'And finally, would you rather be re-incarnated as Samuel Taylor Coleridge or Samuel L. Jackson?'.

However, nothing really beats an interview I once did in America during which I was asked, 'what sort of cake are you?'

WISH YOU"D GONE TO RHS CHELSEA FLOWER SHOW THIS YEAR?

2010-06-09T08:48:00.006+01:00

Well, this won't tell you much about it, but it made me laugh. Cleve West, Joe Swift and James Alexander-Sinclair take us round the show their way (but don't do the pirate speak I thought they were promising. I'm very disappointed about that, ooar me hearties. Maybe next year....?)

James has a good blog here btw, and he also can sometimes be persuaded to organise coach journeys via Twitter. Follow him and demand tickets. It's about time we had another.

TOO MUCH TO DO?

2010-06-08T09:21:00.003+01:00

I've been working with the Teuxdeux to do list website for some weeks now and it's just perfect. It even looks pretty. Can't recommend it enough, apart from the fact that it doesn't get through my tasks itself when I'm doing other things.

Or make coffee.

ON KNOWING WHAT NEW POETRY BOOK TO BUY....

2010-06-05T11:32:00.007+01:00

Further to yesterday's quote about trying new things, I'm going to start putting up my thoughts here about the poetry collections I've been reading.

I was at a talk at Sussex University a couple of weeks ago by Chris Hamilton-Emery of Salt Publishing and he was talking abut how many people are writing poetry as compared to reading it at the moment. Then I got (from the excellent Happenstance Press) a copy of the useful How (Not) To Get Your Poetry Published which makes a similar point.

So I got all hot under the collar about this, until I was talking with a friend who made the point that actually it's very hard to find out what kind of poetry you might like to read. There are novel reviews, even short story collection reviews, by the dozen but not that many actual poetry collection reviews. Or mainstream ones anyway. You can't even browse in your local bookseller because most - although not all - have limited selections, and these are mostly the popular anthologies. So how do we know where to even begin if we're not going to poetry readings, talking to poets, and reading literary journals? And let's face it, not all of us are. I'm not as often as I'd like, for starters.

Hopefully you'll all write in and prove me wrong, and that would be great because I can start a list of places to go to find out new poets to read, but in the meantime, I'm going to start putting up here some of the collections and poets I've been enjoying - or not enjoying - recently to give you a flavour of what's out there. Please do let me know your suggestions too - and why - so again we can share the good news, and even those of us who write poetry can read some more too.

First up is Caroline Bird's Trouble Came to the Turnip, not because it's my favourite ever collection but to be honest, because it was the first from my 'special shelf' that came to hand. The fact it was on that 'SS' in the first place though shows I value it!

Caroline is disgustingly young, born in 1986, but has already won masses of awards and written plays for the Royal Court, stories for the BBC etc etc. She also runs workshops in schools, and there's an enthusiasm and vitality here that I can imagine the kids loving. I did too. She's a prime example that accessible poetry doesn't mean dumb poetry.

Even the titles make me smile - 'The Leprechaun Thinks It Matters', 'A Gentlewoman's Pornography', 'My Lovely Legless Acrobat', 'The Fairy Is Bored With Her Garden', 'My Love Made Me a Hat', and of course the title poem itself, but this is a book of more than just titles. Listen to some of the images:

It has been scribbled in the stars,
we will all trade our brains for lava lamps.
The ones with the thinnest eyebrows will survive.
(It will come to Pass)

or

The mementos start off small.
The jelly baby that you never ate
that's gone all hard and statuesque.
(Remains)

Once you stop playing with the pencil on her website (and be warned it took me a long time to get over the novelty of it but then I'm easily pleased), you can read some of the poems from this collection here, and here, or listen to Caroline read a poem here ...

TRYING NEW THINGS

2010-06-04T08:58:00.000+01:00

Try a thing you haven’t done three times. Once, to get over the fear of doing it. Twice, to learn how to do it. And a third time to figure out whether you like it or not.
Virgil Thomson

SANCTUARY - A 50 WORD PHOTO STORY

2010-06-03T07:34:00.002+01:00

But what do you do in there? Melissa asks.

Think, he replies.

Don’t be ridiculous, she says. You can't think without me to tell you how to.

He doesn’t say he disagrees. Later though, in his shed, he thinks about how she’s wrong. He swears the shed moves slightly. Nodding.

This story is inspired by Shedworking, the book.

More 50 word stories here.

A SHED OF YOUR OWN...

2010-06-02T07:30:00.001+01:00

And for the second day of our Shedworking celebration, here are just some of the famous people who have created beautifully in their sheds.

SHEDWORKING, The book....

2010-06-01T07:26:00.001+01:00

And about time too...

It's no secret that one of my most treasured posts - as well as the RLF Fellow at the LSE - is Literary Editor of Shedworking magazine, so I'm delighted that the book by Alex Johnson comes out this week.

So to celebrate, this blog is having a week of Shedworking matters.

To begin with, today is all about the details of the book itself. Take a peek...

And you can buy a copy here, or better still order it from your local independent bookshop.

WRITING PROMPTS ROUND UP

2010-05-31T16:51:00.003+01:00

Here we go, a selection of the daily writing prompts I put up on Twitter. Follow me here, but do say hello so I can follow you back!

* A banker takes a holiday...

* An argument conducted through Facebook statuses (stati?)

* Fish and chips always taste best when...

* An exhaustively detailed account of opening the curtains...

* I'm in the mood for ....

DYING - A 50 WORD PHOTOSTORY

2010-05-29T06:54:00.002+01:00

It was on Monday when Joe first saw the colours surrounding people. The red round Mrs Robins was so strong he couldn’t look at her. His friend Caryn was yellow, like sunlight. He ran home. Gasped as he saw the bright beautiful white light coming from where his father waited.

More 50 word photostories here.

CURLING - A 50 WORD PHOTOSTORY

2010-05-28T06:48:00.001+01:00

Toast crusts make your hair curl. She tells her daughters this, watching the way they both cram their mouths full, put their fingers up to their heads hopefully. It’s just a way of getting you to behave, she wants to yell. But she cries instead. Tells them they’re good girls.

More 50 word photostories here.

PRICKLY - A 50 WORD PHOTOSTORY

2010-05-27T06:43:00.001+01:00

Graham tells her she should be softer. What has she got to lose? But he doesn’t know the last man she loved left her in debt and still hurting. It’s only recently she’s started to trust again. She rubs her arm, feels the goosebumps like small prickles under her skin.

More 50 word photostories here.

HUNTED - A 50 WORD PHOTOSTORY

2010-05-26T06:35:00.003+01:00

She told Harry she was an expert rider. Even rode point-to-points. Such fun, she said, tossing back her hair. She thought he’d only be a one-night stand. Not her Mr Right. Mother’s desperate to meet you, he tells her. She’d almost given up on me meeting a proper horsey girl.

More fifty word photostories here.

STRAIGHT THINKING - A 50 WORD PHOTOSTORY

2010-05-25T06:32:00.002+01:00

She’s learning to change her mind. She’s putting all the old twisted thoughts behind her, and concentrating only on positive happy things. Like puppies. Who grow into barking dogs. What about daisies? Chains to tie you down. Rainbows. Which automatically mean rain. Babies. No, she doesn’t want to go there.

More 50 word photostories here, and do feel free to leave your own 50 word version in the comments section.

TWITTER WRITING PROMPTS

2010-05-24T15:10:00.002+01:00

I've got a bit lost with putting up on here my daily writing prompts from Twitter, so here's a random selection.

Take, enjoy, write - and don't judge me. It's fiction!

* She knew she shouldn't have pretended to be a doctor...

* He thought everyone else would be in fancy dress...

* Stood up by John Logie Baird...

* Things I don't want to own any more...

* The splinter...

* Making breakfast for a stranger ...

* My cupboards have been rearranging themselves without me...

* He has started to dress like Cheryl Cole ...

FILLING THE WELL - A 50 WORD PHOTOSTORY

2010-05-24T14:27:00.003+01:00

Who would have thought they would miss water? After the decree about only drinking wine, there were celebrations. Everyone came into work late the next morning. And the next. Until they cursed at Chardonays, moaned over Merlots. I don’t like to tell you what they did to the Pouilly Fuisse.

More 50 word stories here.

Which way to the winner?

2010-05-22T17:12:00.002+01:00

Thanks for all your entries to the competition to win a signed copy of Natural Navigator book.

I pulled out a correct winning entry and the book will be searching out its way very soon to Rachel Green...

Congratulations, Rachel, and if you didn't win and are still intrigued by the book, it really is very good - you can buy it here.

WISE WORDS FROM RAY BRADBURY, AND A WRITING EXERCISE

2010-05-21T11:30:00.004+01:00

The current edition of PARIS REVIEW magazine, has an interview with RAY BRADBURY which is well worth searching out and reading.

This bit struck me most though, not least because it is what I am always telling my students:

You can't write for other people. You can't write for the left or the right, this religion or that religion, or this belief or that belief. You have to write the way you see things.

And of course, if you are authentic your beliefs may come across. But they will not be forced. And they will matter.

So how do we do this?

In the interview Ray Bradbury suggests this great exercise - again students of mine may recognise it, but it's good to see that RB himself uses it. I've adapted it for here:

TEN THINGS:

Make a list of then things you hate. Write a poem or story really ranting about them.

Now make a list of then things you love. Celebrate them in your writing. Go over the top. A love poem to your electric lightswitch.

And lastly combine up to five things from each. Combine them in such a way the reader doesn't realise this is an exercise. Can you swop them? Form a passion for something on your hate list, or mock a precious thought or object.

Whatever happens, you will have created a piece with energy and life. Plus it's fun. Which is never a bad thing.

LIKE BEES TO HONEY...

2010-05-20T07:00:00.007+01:00

WELCOME TO CHAPTER 30 OF CAROLINE SMAILE'S WONDERFUL NEW BOOK....

Open publication - Free publishing

AND BECAUSE YOU'RE BOUND TO WANT TO READ MORE, YOU CAN BUY THE BOOK HERE....

OR GO BACK TO READ RIGHT FROM THE BEGINNING AT CAROLINE'S OWN BLOG HERE...

AND CARRY ON READING THE REST OF THE BOOK HERE

THANKS FOR BLOG HOPPING. DO TAKE SOME CAKE WITH YOU AND COME BACK SOON....

Oliver Sacks on Writing | Oliver Sacks | Big Think

2010-05-18T09:52:00.001+01:00

Oliver Sacks on Writing | Oliver Sacks | Big Think

Another treat for you...

2010-05-18T07:04:00.001+01:00

Remember this competition, and the winner, the most amazing HOLEN SABRINA KAHN?

Well, Holen very kindly sent me this beautiful card of the quote, and has allowed me to share it on here...

I should have mentioned that the beautiful translation given by Holen (and used above) is by Marilyn Kallet.

I do urge you to visit both Holen and Marilyn's sites. I found them both extraordinary.

WHEN STORIES COME TO LIFE...

2010-05-17T15:00:00.002+01:00

One funny thing about a blog is that you are often sending thoughts and stories out into the darkness, particularly when there aren't many comments about them. So it's always a welcome shock to find that people have not just actually read my stories but have done something about them. Remember this Fifty word story?

Well, last week I was contacted by a design student called Chris Ford, who has produced this wonderful animation based on those fifty words.

I'm delighted.

Hope you enjoy it too!

ON IMPROVING OUR STORY TITLES

2010-05-15T06:32:00.001+01:00

OK, I'm still smarting at one review - a very OLD review admittedly but I remember every single word - that suggested I could improve the titles of my stories. Anyway, I've just been thinking about a title for the current story and not coming up with much.

So reading these song titles cheered me up tremendously.

What about:

You Were Only A Splinter As I Slid Down The Bannister Of Life

or

I've Been Flushed From The Bathroom Of Your Heart

and how about this one

Velcro Arms, Teflon Heart

There are more here. Lots and lots more actually. Which is your favourite? I'll eat my hat if someone doesn't opt for:

C’mon Down off the Stove, Granny, You’re Too Old to Ride the Range

Somehow I don't think my titles are all that bad!

Closing date for Natural Navigator Comp..

2010-05-13T09:50:00.002+01:00

Oops, sorry. I AM now officially rubbish at competitions. Just to confirm that the entries for the Natural Navigator book competition (see below) will close on Wednesday 19th May. I will pick one of the winning entries, and Tristan will send the book. To the right address. And not getting lost on the way....

SO WHAT DO YOU DO WITH THE IDEAS THAT DON'T QUITE WORK?

2010-05-13T07:26:00.002+01:00

(And have a sneaky look at the final piece and meet Bertha here!)

So how does the creative process work?

Of course if there was one quick answer to that, there wouldn't be any point in being artists, or writers, or scientists. We could just programme the computer and let it go. But there's no doubt it's addictive to keep trying to uncover our own creative processes.

Several times on this blog, I've written about how I sabotage myself with trying to do too many things at once. One of the exercises in Barbara Sher's book, Refuse to Choose has been useful beyond belief in helping me address this.

So to show how it works for me, I'm going to explore the process involved in one particular project, a collaboration between four writers and four artists for an upcoming exhibition at the Tunbridge Wells art gallery based on objects held in the basement there. I wrote here about how I decided to use a collection of dolls patterns, some cut out of old newspapers, as the object I was going to work with.

But what was I going to do with them?

I carried the idea of the dolls patterns in my head, the photographs on my phone, my notes in my daily journal. I thought about poems. About stories. About short plays. The best way to describe what was going on in my mind was chaos. It wasn't pretty to live with.

But I stuck with it, using what Twyla Tharp calls scratching. It is absolutely astonishing to me, every time, how if you can hold an idea in your head then you pick up more and more ideas and images that make it more substantial. It is a form of magnetism. And when you start to attract the right metals, there is that same buzz like an electric shock. Ping!

My final itch came when I visited the V&A's Quilt exhibition and read the beautiful story about a quilt still retaining its mosiac of paper templates cut out of love letters.

But what should I do with all the other ideas. The ones I've been convinced at separate times that they were RIGHT.

Cue Barbara Sher, and her journal idea.

Barbara Sher suggests that rather than just dismissing the idea, or following each new lead like a headless chicken, we can write it down in our journal. Play with it there, write exactly what we liked about the idea, the sources that drew us to it, and to dream too. Write about it as the bestselling, Turner or Booker Prize winning, world changing idea we thought it was for even jsut one minute.

So here - presented rather nervously, I must admit - are three ideas I've recorded in my journal but have dismissed for this particular project. I would dearly love to do something with them one day though, so having them outlined so clearly really helps. It's not something I've tried before reading Barbara's work, trusting on the invisible compost approach but running in danger, if I'm honest, of filling up with so many ideas I couldn't get any space to breathe. Here, at least, I get them OUT!

Above is one of a series of paper cut out dolls I was thinking about. Each dress made from a different newsmedia - financial, cooking, travel, interior, fashion - and with an apt caption.

And this comes from the idea of erasure poetry, something I've been playing with a lot recently. Instead of particular words, I was thinking about inserting different versions of the word 'doll'. Changing 'facts' so they mean something quite different.

Those first two ideas I spent a bit of time on, cutting and sticking like a demented playschooler, but just to show it doesn't have to be so complicated, here's my scribble for taking the concept of patterns being sent in an envelope - sometimes across the world - and what those patterns could mean to the receiver. Here I was thinking of stories, in the form of instructions, for making worlds, or lives, or even stories.

And what idea did I choose?

Hah, you'll just have to come to the exhibition when it opens!

WIN A COPY OF THE NATURAL NAVIGATOR!

2010-05-12T06:54:00.001+01:00

However many times I rave about Tristan Gooley's book, The Natural Navigator, I will still find something new to say. Just as everytime I read it, I learn a new trick, a new myth, a new story idea.

This time, it's made me think about how many times I've stifled a natural desire to play through a tendency to read too much theory about it. Something interests me, hey, I will go straight out and look for experts or classes or websites to tell me about it.

Because if I'm honest, many many times I buy the books and I don't even read them. It's as if I am buying the time or desire to be an expert in the subject. As if the book will miraculously leak its knowledge into my brain.

But anyway, I am digressing, following a scenic route (although I feel somehow Tristan approves of scenic routes). Why I'm thinking about this, is something he says about how, in his desire to find out about navigation he took and passed many many courses before he started wondering about what he was doing:

"In the midst of studying books at night about air law and learning how to find my way using radars, I came to the ackward realisation that this technical detail had little in common with the passion that had been within me since early childhood.... it was the sense of connection that the journeys brought that really excited me, the contact with the world around me.... In a bid to gain the skills to undertake the journeys I dreamed of, I had been forced into another world, one as removed from my romantic impulses as can be imagined.'

And I think why I love this book so much is that Tristan Gooley is so good at getting across - and back to - his original passion, not just for navigating but for travelling in the first place. As he says,

'We travel not only to escape, consume and copulate, but also to think and create. Jean-Jacques Rosseau wrote, 'When I stay in one place I can hardly think at all.'

(above is the cushion in my writing room, probably one of my favourite possessions)

And now I'm delighted to say that Tristan has offered this blog a chance to win a signed copy of his book. All you have to do is to answer this question:

Which of the following is untrue...

Drivers have blamed satnav for:

a) driving into the wrong country
b) getting stuck in a country lane
c) nearly driving off a cliff
d) all of the above

For obvious reasons, you'd be better sending your entries to my email address - sarahsalway -@- googlemail.com (obviously the dashes and spaces are to confuse the spam robots, not you guys so just leave them out!).

Good luck!

WRITING PROMPTS ROUND UP

2010-05-11T06:48:00.001+01:00

Ooops, a little late in putting these up. Many apologies.

Mon: The secret gold mine in her garden

Tues: She has become an angry knitter

Wed: Her fingers start talking without her

Thurs: She sees the dog vote. It even winks at her.

Fri: The decline and fall of Emily Scrivens

And just a reminder, you can get these daily from my Twitter account.

PUMPKIN'S PROGRESS

2010-05-10T10:50:00.000+01:00

The earth is moving....

CALLING THE ARTISTS TO EAT

2010-05-09T17:29:00.004+01:00

OK, it might not be the only one, but how tempting is the idea of buying this bell to call family to supper, as supposedly used by Grace Higgens, housekeeper for the Charleston Bloomsbury set?

It would be a good story anyway. Although maybe not one worth nearly £500.

WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU DON'T VOTE?

2010-05-04T08:25:00.006+01:00

The novel, SEEING, by the Portugese writer, Jose Saramago, is surely the ultimate book to read in election week.

Set in a mythical country, it starts with an election in which hardly anyone in the Capital turns up to vote. The Government hold a second election, threaten the populace who, to the politicians' satisfaction, queue up outside the election booths, but when the vote is counted, eighty three percent of the votes are blank. This isn't against the law, and no one is legally obliged to say how they voted, but the Government turn against their people. No one likes to be made a fool of.

They declare a siege on their capital, before they realise that they are in fact still living there. So they move to a different city, at night, in silence. The capital is no longer the capital until the people who live there remember their duty. Or at least until the Government can catch who is responsible for the movement that has become known as 'blankers.'

Trouble is there seems to be no ring leaders, and the only aggression comes from the Government itself. In fact, if anything, the blankers show that peaceful co-operation is stronger than any resistance.

Something needs to happen.

Then the Prime Minister is sent a poison pen letter pointing the finger of blame at one woman. At last the Government has a scapegoat. Three policemen are sent back into the capital for a secret mission - to catch this woman and force her to take responsibility. The trouble is that the Superintendent has a conscience. A statement he read once won't leave him alone:

"When we are born, when we enter this world, it is as if we signed a pace for the rest of our life, but a day may come when we will ask ourselves Who signed this on my behalf?
"

A metaphor running through this book is blindness.* What happens in a country when everyone goes blind, apart from one person? She can see perfectly. Therefore, the book points out, she has to be dangerous. The rest of the population are content to allow other people to see things on their behalf.

It's not an easy book to read - both in the terms of content and also style. The paragraphs run on for pages sometimes, allowing no break. The dialogue is not laid out line by line as someone speaks, but often a whole conversation between several people will form part of the same sentence. But this is a perfect example of form following theme. No one stands out. No one can be separated from the masses. It's hard to get a grip on the story.

It reminded me of the wonderful film, The Lives of Others, in its handling of the tricky question of what is goodness. I thought it just brilliant. And I picked it up at just the right time.

Come Friday morning, the one question I don't want to be asking is: 'Who signed this on my behalf?"

(* as explored in Blindness.)

NEW FACEBOOK GROUP

2010-05-03T13:24:00.003+01:00

At the beginning of the year, when I was going to get organised, before life hit me with a great big wallop of reality as it often does, I had taken the first steps to starting a mailing list. This is still in progress, so thank you for all those who signed up but as you will have spotted, nothing much has happened on that front!

However, in the meantime, I've started a facebook group specifically for my writing news.

Do come and join me there, if you want.

Identity Parade

2010-05-02T16:40:00.002+01:00

Selected poets from the new anthology Identity Parade reading a poem each:

WRITING PROMPTS ROUND UP

2010-05-01T10:45:00.003+01:00

1, But not even to save your life...?

2. The trees have been dreaming again.

3. Things that once scared me but don't any more.

4. His flat is crowded with life size models of celebrities.

5. The hotel room speaks.

Enjoy!

More prompts here: Daily Writing Practice and some thoughts about using them. I put these prompts up daily on Twitter, Monday to Friday, follow me here.

ON NEVER GIVING UP

2010-04-29T07:50:00.000+01:00

OK, so we all probably know that not getting desperate about rejection is one of the key traits a writer needs. One of my heroines, Maya Angelou, said: "We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated."

And one of the best ways to learn anything is to practice.

Which is why I am trying to grow another giant pumpkin for the allotment show. (Yes, I do see that this is a pathetic attempt at trying to claim that the time I spend on the allotment is 'work'...)

Anyway, my last attempt was in 2006 as I blogged about here.

This is my pumpkin then. NO! Not the big one, the little one hiding behind....

And so, let me introduce this year's baby ...

I will record its progress here. It's work, you know.

WHERE AM I TODAY?

2010-04-28T07:13:00.007+01:00

Or maybe the better question might be, who am I today, because I can't tell you how pleased I am to be the guest of writer, Stephanella Walsh who runs The Creative Identity Website.

She asked some great questions which really made me think about my writing identity:

What is your greatest writing fear?

What is your greatest writing extravagance?

So now I am going to turn those two thoughts over to you, dear blog readers.

What are your greatest writing fears, AND extravagances....?

I'd love to know.

Do put Stephanella's site on your to be visited regularly list too. She has great information, promps, advice. I really like her style and energy.

AND she's running a short story competition here, deadline is 30th June, and the theme is IDENTITY.

If you need an inspiration kickstart and live near enough to Manchester, there are still some places left on her Creative Identity workshop, details here.

This is what makes me SO happy about the internet. The friendships, the inspiration, the wonderful, wonderful wonderful people there are out there doing wonderful things - and all of which I might have missed out on if it hadn't been available at my finger tips. And far from being passive, as all of these sites above show, there's a wealth of creative inspiration out there.

Phew! How lucky are we? It's one big sweetie shop!

HOW I LOVE LIBRARIES

2010-04-26T06:58:00.008+01:00

AND LIBRARIANS TOO, OF COURSE!

So I was supposed to be in Ireland this week, but for volcano reasons, it didn't work out.

Gutted wasn't the word for it.

No, determined not to have my week spoiled may have been the better phrase.

Luckily I ended up having the best and most productive time ever writing in different reference libraries around London. As well as editing a poetry collection, I wanted to find out more about two things - pain and garden extravagance. The two are not necessarily linked!

Monday = The London Library.

Bit of a cheat this one, because I am a member already, but it eased me gently into the week and I planned my schedule. Anyway, this one won on the noise of snoring fellow readers, and magazines I wanted to read. It is, also, the only one I had to pay for.

Tuesday = The Wellcome Library in Euston Road. Brilliant selection of books on every kind of medical matter you might want to look up. Also, fantastic cafe. There was no entry fee, I had to provide identification and a reason for wanting to research but the librarians couldn't have been more helpful, not even blinking when I said I wanted to find out more about pain. A great online resources for images too, including this one of the smallest medical chest ever.

Wednesday = First library fail. The British Library had little, if any, space left even though I am a reader there. The librarians said it was full now by 10.30 am, and it felt crowded and stuffy. Not what I was looking for so I made my way to the RHS Lindley Library in Vincent Square, Pimlico. It was a beautiful day and I sat on the steps for a bit watching small schoolboys play cricket in a pitch in the middle of the square. Sometimes it's hard to believe you are in London. To use this library you have to be a member of the RHS, but if you're interested in plants and gardens or garden history at all, then oh boy, are you in for a treat. Members can borrow books from here too. No cafe.

Thursday = National Art Library in the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington. Thanks to twitter for this suggestion, it was possibly the best library to work in ever.

I had no problem getting a library card, in fact the librarians were interested and helpful in what I wanted to look up. I had to order any books I wanted to study on the hour, and they came approximately 45 mins later, but I had brought my own work with me and sitting in the surroundings (above) was positively inspiring. Great cafes in the Museum, good people watching, and best atmosphere. How had I not known about this before? Reference only.

Friday = RIBA Library in Portland Place.

I wasn't sure I was going to be allowed into this one, but in the end it couldn't have been easier or nicer. I was signed in immediately as a day guest - no one asked why I wanted to work there. There were plenty of desks free, and as it happened, my table was exactly near the shelves I wanted to explore - garden buildings and follies. As you might imagine, perfect people watching, and a great, great cafe. Reference only.

Any suggestions for further libraries will be gratefully received, but in the meantime, if you are looking for somewhere different to write and research, my top three were:

a) The Wellcome Library

b) The National Art Library

c) RIBA Library

And I haven't even started exploring the public libraries yet...

ps I didn't do this but wish I had ...

WRITING PROMPTS

2010-04-25T07:55:00.003+01:00

I haven't been keeping up with the writing prompts I used to put up daily in my side bar. Bad Sarah.

However, I have been writing daily myself to prompts I put up on Twitter. Good Sarah.

You can follow me there - @sarahsalway - please do, and please say hello. But I'm also going to put up a week's worth of the writing prompts regularly on here. Perhaps there's one that takes your fancy. I tend to use these prompts for no reason other than to wake up my writing muscles, force myself not to take the first option that comes to mind when I read them, and to just enjoy the writing rather than concentrating on the product. I write something like this six days a week, and sometimes just for five minutes, but I miss it if I don't do my writing stretch!

And the prompts:

* hiring a private investigator

* the questions I'd really like to ask you

* 'jam to-morrow and jam yesterday - but never jam to-day" (Alice in Wonderland)

* two truths and one lie

* if I weren't here, I'd be .... (thanks to Kate for this one)

* staying in bed when there is a world to save.

Oh how I love this woman...

2010-04-24T13:34:00.000+01:00

Run Rabbit Run - a fifty word photostory

2010-04-24T07:47:00.002+01:00

Don’t go to any trouble, he says. He means it. He’s going to tell her it’s not her fault, it’s his. He’s not worth the trouble she goes to. He won’t say it embarrasses him. That one month together isn’t worth celebrating anyway. She should get a life. Without him.

COLOURS!!

2010-04-23T07:28:00.001+01:00

About this time every year, I'm reminded about how much I love colour. Even my writing seems more colourful. It's as if it wants to fight the greyness in me and burst out!

So it's a joy to bring it into my home (and balcony).

This is where I sit and work when I can - me and the pigeons.

And to bring some colour to your computer too, here are the three most beautiful and colourful blogs I've been enjoying recently:

1. The joyful Color Me Katie

2. The designer eye of Kris's Color Stripes

3. Yolanda's gardening and general gorgeousness blog

And I'm going to set you a challenge to write about colour - not just one, red or blue or yellow, but them all!

Enjoy!!!

Shhh... a fifty word photostory

2010-04-22T07:23:00.001+01:00

Their honeymoon was cut short when a romantic midnight walk goes horribly wrong. People whisper about the insurance settlement, but no-one likes to talk too much. She wears black, rarely leaves her house. Opens the door only at night to a stranger no one likes to talk about. Just whisper.

More fifty word stories here

ANIMATION AND CIRCUSES

2010-04-21T07:33:00.001+01:00

Two years ago, I ran away to join the circus. Or an animation project in Iowa anyway, the Tiny Circus. Some of the things I learnt there and the people I met have definitely changed my creative process.

So it's great to see the project gearing up for its third year via its blog. Here's one of the videos I worked on when I was there (I may have put it up already, but I like it and this is my blog):

This one is really sweet too:

IF YOU ALWAYS SUSPECTED BOOKS WERE DANGEROUS...

2010-04-20T07:50:00.001+01:00

This is a photograph of Elisabetta Gut's artwork, Book in A Cage, 1981, which I saw in Washington last year. I wish the photograph could adequately show how moving it was. The explanation read as follows:

"Book in a Cage represents humanity's struggle to communicate, set against the constraints it places on itself that prevent expression. The open door to the cage is a metaphor for the inherent liberty of ideas. The work, which places a French-Italian dictionary behind bars, also touches on the inadequacy of language to express thought and the isolation that can result."

Cutting the Family Tree - a fifty word photostory

2010-04-19T07:21:00.001+01:00

Her family tells her that if she carries on behaving like this she will just be cut off. She laughs, imagining an old-fashioned will and testament being torn up. Until they don’t return her calls. Or answer letters. And what’s worse is she can’t remember who she is any more.

More stories here.