“If I had had more time, I would have written you a shorter letter.” Mark Twain

There's a great story here by Patricia Highsmith.

And my writing prompt is going to be to write a detective poem, not a thing you see a lot.

I can still remember an afternoon spent in tears after my mother gave me a copy of her Woman Magazine (she used to get Woman and WOman's Own every week) with a story about Peter Pan in it. Used to the Disney version, I read it greedily, until the end when Peter decides to come home to his mother, but when he gets there, he finds bars on the window and looking inside he sees his mother with a new little boy. She doesn't want Peter anymore. Oh hell, I'm crying again just thinking about this! A masterclass lesson in how to f*** a kid up, I didn't leave my mum's side for a year! Anyway, at last it's out ... the officially approved sequel, Peter Pan in Scarlet, and the Great Ormond Street Hospital are finally revealing the plot ...

Set in 1926, green summer has turned to scarlet autumn. The Great War has claimed a life (Michael), the children have grown up and have children of their own, and troublesome dreams are leaking out of Neverland. When the Darlings and the Lost Boys arrive back there, they find it quite changed. Someone is living in the underground den and hanks of mermaid hair litter the shore. Captain Hook’s ghostly pirate ship is adrift without Captain or crew. When the Wendy House tumbles out of the Nevertree there seems nothing to do but venture further afield and into the realms of Never-been-there-land. Awaiting them are pirates, a circus, animals, witches, fairies… and dangers that will test the resolve of even the greatest hero.

O hushed October morning mild,
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
Tomorrow's wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.
The crows above the forest call;
Tomorrow they may form and go.
O hushed October morning mild,
Begin the hours of this day slow.
Make the day seem to us less brief.
Hearts not averse to being beguiled,
Beguile us in the way you know.
Release one leaf at break of day;
At noon release another leaf;
One from our trees, one far away.
Robert Frost

Some time ago ... wake up in back, were you listening?! ... I posted a link to the most common nouns in the English language. So pleased to see then how the Snakeskin webzine have taken it several steps further, by publishing their Ten Nouns Special, poems which use the top ten nouns. Particular credit to Cheryl Snell for her poem, Special Effects.

So that's going to be my writing prompt for today, but I'm going to stick to prose - a paragraph with the top ten nouns which are

1 Time
2 Person
3 Year
4 Way
5 Day
6 Thing
7 Man
8 World
9 Life
10 Hand

“We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.” Anais Nin

When my novel, Something Beginning With, first came out, I remember a friend telling me it had been on the longlist to be chosen as the book one UK village would all read that year. I thought she was having me on, but I've just discovered the website for the tiny village of Waverton (population 2,000), and am very chuffed to see my book there in the archives. What a fantastic idea though - to support first books by new authors through actually reading them. I'm really looking forward to seeing who they pick this year - the list alone looks varied enough to give no clue.

I'm behind with my writing prompts this week as life has popped in and shaken me up. Here are some I'm planning to use in bursts this weekend ...

a) Painted toenails always make me ...

b) Reading My Son (a la Catherine Smith)

c) Putting away my summer clothes

d) Be patient and ....

"Talent is such a small part of it. Willingness to work hard to learn the skills. (Including the nuts and bolts like spelling and grammar.) Patience to do the necessary revising and if necessary rewriting to get it right. Persistence in the face of rejection. Judgment in deciding what advice to listen to and whom not to trust. Humility to know when you're exerting suction. Knowledge, all sorts of knowledge, knowledge of what's been written, knowledge of the world and its peoples, knowledge of physical science, knowledge of at least one other language to give you perspective on your own. And most important of all: understanding of human beings and why they act the way they do and the way they interact with each other, which can take a lifetime to master but without it a writer is a failure. Maybe a clever failure, maybe sometimes an entertaining one, but a failure all the same."

William Sanders

For my second guest in the Girlfriend's Cyber Circuit, I'm really pleased to
introduce Karin Gillespie's new book, not least because I think it looks wonderful. I went into a London bookshop at the weekend and asked for a funny book, which stumped everyone. They said they'd never been asked for one before and couldn't recommend any at first, not even mine! Let's have more funny books, I say. And here's news of Karin's...


“Each character is lovingly crafted in Gillespie's hilarious, heartwarming, and often irreverent look at senior living in small-town America.”— Starred Review Booklist


Dollar Daze

The Bottom Dollar Girls in Love

Karin Gillespie

If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular?
Comment overheard under the hair dryer at the Dazzling Do’s

Karin Gillespie’s Bottom Dollar Girls are back with a sugar-spun vengeance in Dollar Daze: The Bottom Dollar Girls in Love (Simon & Schuster; August 2006; $19.95). Broaching the age-old question – Is it ever too late to find one’s heart’s desire? – the feisty ladies of Cayboo Creek are suddenly blindsided by schoolgirl flights of fancy when unexpected romance enters their lives.

Mavis Loomis, Birdie Purdy, and Gracie Tobias, widows in their mid-sixties are certain their dating days are over until they observe their friend eighty-something Attalee Gaines in tempestuous relationship with Dooley Prichard, a trifocal-wearing charmer. If it’s not too late for Attalee, how can it be too late for them?

Unfortunately the eligible men in Cayboo Creek are as picked over as a garage sale at noontime. Things look discouraging until an old high school heartthrob comes to town and Birdie and Mavis compete for his attentions. In the meantime socialite Gracie Tobias finds unlikely love in the arms of a rugged duct doctor. Can she overlook the vast differences in their backgrounds?

All of the books in series have been selected as featured alternatives for Doubleday and Literary Guild book clubs. Bet Your Bottom Dollar has been optioned for film by the actor James Woods. Gillespie (www.karingillespie.com) is also co-author of The Sweet Potato Queen’s First Big-Ass Novel. (Simon and Schuster, January 2007) and has a story called TRASH TALK in This is Chick Lit ((http://chicklit.smartpopbooks.com/news.htm)

Praise for Dollar Daze
“A sweet and amusing tale of romance and lust for the older crowd”—Kirkus

“Gillespie writes with such conviction that readers are thrust right into Cayboo Creek and the lives of the Bottom Dollar Girls….charismatic and replete with poignancy, a story to pass on.”---Romantic Times, four and a half stars

“Laugh-out--loud”—Atlanta Magazine Critic’s Pick

“Fun factor remains high from first chapter to last… The Bottom Dollar Girls…. provide the simple pleasure of an ice-cold bottle of cola and a bag of salty peanuts and that’s just fine.”

David Marshall James, The Columbia State

“Bless her heart, she's done it again. Karin Gillespie's latest installment of the Bottom Dollar Girls series is a fun, breezy read. As tried and true as ham biscuits at a senior center potluck… the book reminds us of what's important just as often as it entertains.

Dawn Baumbartner Vaughan, Durham Herald-Sun

The deadline for the second National Short Story Prize is not too far away now - 31st October. The prize is the world's largest, with the first prizewinner gaining £15,000. Last year's winner was James Lasdun with his story, 'An Anxious Man'. In an interview at the time of the award, he gave the following advice to writers:

Read and study: the obvious. Live in as conscious a way as you can. Get used to turning your experience into language, keep a journal. Read your favourite writers analytically and consciously as well as for pleasure. Then write!

And my writing prompt for today is going to be ... anxiety (an easy one for me!)

See this, it's the face of Mars. Have you seen anything more strange? It makes me tingle. You can get daily pictures from space here.

Having spent the last hour reading over my just finished notebook before I put it away and get out a nice new one, I'm feeling nostalgic about the previous six months of writing. My prompt for today is going to come from one of a list of headlines from the Daily Mail I copied out and never did anything with - I've made the bad mistake of not dating it, but seems like an average Daily Mail day to me! I love the idea of taking some of these statements at face value and writing on...

How 200 people a day vanish into thin air.
Shadow of a supermodel
The end of authority.
A generation out of control.
Sordid secrets of the English lady.
Naturists on the path to victory.
How men take control in the 'zapper battle'.
We also do Posh.
Boss yourself around.
Night patrols will be able to gag noisy neighbours.
You CAN change the shape of your body - we're the living proof.

“Handsome words don't butter cabbage.” German saying
And my writing prompt for today is going to be ... ugly words.

Inspired by this article in the Toronto Star, I'm going to write about my characters FORAGING today.
And I'm reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez at the moment, so here's a short story, Eyes of the Blue Dog

Whether you've got kids or not, this time of year, going back to school time, seems to bring up mixed emotions, and that's my writing prompt for today.

I was stimulated by this article on Jeanette Winterson's wonderful webpage. I like what she says about reading in particular:

If reading reclaims time, it re-aligns time too. Time for us is always slipping away – we talk about losing time, finding time, making time, and taking time. The well-being we feel when we don’t notice time, because we are happy or engrossed or in love, is the result of those rare moments when time inside us and time outside us are not in conflict. Reading is another way of allowing this to happen, and as it becomes a habit, like all habits it affects the rest of our behaviour too. No question, reading is good for you.

Remember those games where you would have to make as many words as possible from one long one? Well, this version is particularly addictive. Eat your heart out Countdown!
And my writing prompt for the day is ... scrambled words for breakfast.

My writing prompt for today comes from Margaret Atwood's new book, Moral Disorder and is to write about the child of this woman:

She would turn into a woman others came to for advice. She would be called in emergencies. She would roll up her sleeves and dispense with sentimentality, and do whatever blood-soaked, bad-smelling thing had to be done. She would become adept with axes.

Something to read for the weekend? Try this story, Afterwords by Laurie Mazzaferro from Carve Magazine.

And my writing prompt for today is going to be: What I don't remember.

I missed the Edinburgh Book Festival this year, so am pleased to see that recordings of selected talks and readings are now up on the website, particularly Paul Muldoon's.

So the 'planet' that toppled Pluto from the starry ranks is going to be called Eris. There's something tasty about that name. As the press release says:

In mythology, Eris caused a quarrel among goddesses that sparked the Trojan War. In real life, Eris also caused strife, forcing scientists to produce a strict definition of the term planet - and that eventually led to Pluto losing the status it had held since its discovery in 1930.

According to the website, Skyscript, Pluto also has discord behind the meaning of its name:

In Greek mythology Pluto is Hades, god of the underworld, and the era of Pluto, including both Nazism and the use of nuclear bombs, certainly presents an unparalleled vision of hell. At its worst, Pluto symbolizes the abuse of power, hellish experiences, and the threat of death, either physically or to a sense of self. In mythology we learn that Hades donned the helmet of invisibility when leaving the underworld. Thus Pluto also speaks of that which is invisible or absent.

All, it seems, is not happy in the sky, but luckily they've both been officially categorised only as 'dwarf planets'. So that's all right then.

I think I'm safe from accusations of self-interest as even I can see that this blog is really more of a scrapbook in which I can keep ideas, quotes, websites that interest me rather than a potential bestseller, but I'm really interested in the concept behind the Friday Project. For any of us who blog, or spend any time on the internet, surely there's no argument that much of what we read online is just as good, if not better, in terms of humour/honesty/information than to be found in books. So this publishing company is the first I've seen which is focused on capturing the raw talent on the internet. OK, I will admit some self-interest here, because it was through a short story on East of the Web that I was discovered. About two weeks after it was first published on the site, I received emails from two agents and a publisher asking about my work. It was as unexpected as it was beautiful. I hate the thought that people will start writing blogs or putting work up on the internet just to get a publishing deal, but I do like the fact that some of the absolute passion for writing and communication I see every day might just be rewarded.

Another site that facilitates publication through the internet is The Front List, which invites writers to submit work for peer critiquing. Nothing new in that, maybe, and there is a charge for receiving critiques, but at least one senior editor has committed to reading the best manuscripts which can't be bad.

By the way, one of those involved in the Friday Project is Scott Pack, former buyer at Waterstones and so often called 'the most powerful man in publishing', it must be true. Mustn't it? Anyway I've been following his blog with interest for some time, partly to find out what's going on in my industry, but also because I've discovered some fantastic new books and authors through him - and what's not to love about that? Childish too, I know, but his recent comment: 'Available from all good booksellers, and some crap ones too' made me laugh so much - it's what everyone tags on to that line, surely, but doesn't normally say out loud. Let's say more things out loud - make the world a more contentious place.



And my writing prompt for today is going to be a personal one: dressing up as a superhero to persuade someone not to leave (... eh? probably not what you think!)

For my first touring 'girlfriend', I'm very pleased to welcome Melanie Lynne Hauser to this blog. Melanie's book, Confessions of Supermom is one of a series she's writing, and has already been chosen as a Literary Guild November Selection. It's been described by no less than Publishers Weekly as:

"Like its title character, this debut novel has a secret identity...it's unexpectedly poignant and packs an emotional punch despite the cheery veneer... at the heart of this story is a narrative about a lonely, wronged woman who just wants to do right by her children and stand up to an uncontrollable world. Hauser slips in soliloquies on motherhood and womanhood that, though brief, are moving, showing us Birdie Lee's heart and in that, the wishes and dreams of super moms everywhere. "

Resisting the urge to find out more about Supermom's cleaning tips and what exactly the stubborn Stain of Unusual Origin was that her heroine found on her bathroom floor (the removal of which gave her superpowers), I asked Melanie instead a couple of writing-based questions to find out what makes her write, or not!

Do you have a favourite writing prompt, or exercise, to share?
I've never done any kind of writing exercises, actually. But a couple of tips that help me in my day-to-day writing: 1) Don't set daily word count goals; I never tell myself I have to write X amount of words every day. I just tell myself I have to write something every day. 2) Leave in the middle of something. I don't stop writing for the day at the end of a scene or chapter; I always make myself start the next section, even if it's just a couple of sentences, so when I start the next day I've already begun, which is always so daunting.

What's your best (or worst!) writing distraction?
The Internet, definitely! There's so much to see and do; while I'm grateful beyond words at the invention of the PC, because I would never have the fortitude to do this writing longhand, I curse the invention of the Internet. How's a poor writer supposed to get any work done???

So thanks to Melanie, aka Superwriter, (and also by the way, the invention of the internet and her blog for introducing me to her and her work) my writing prompt for today is going to be to start mid-sentence, and end mid-sentence...

Anyone in London on Monday 25th September is in for a treat with the New Voices evening of poetry reading at the Troubadour venue. A biaised plug here, as two of the readers - Ann and Carol - are in my fortnightly writing group, but I can vouch for their originality and talent.

"There are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before."

Willa Cather

Pulp takes the theme of war in its issue this month, and is well worth a look, particularly the story by Sarajevo author Nenad Velickovic, A Hypothalmus Knight.

Hah, The Wicker Man has nothing on my writing prompt for today, which is to write about these two splendid scarecrows from the weekend's allotment show. (Ps I do know that the last link has little to do with our show but I love it so much I had to include it. Worth listening to!)

My writing prompt for today will be to finish a piece starting with: Clowns make me ...

Happy birthday to me,
Happy birthday to me ....

... and lots of lovely presents, including the news that The Girlfriends Cyber Circuit has voted me into its membership, so I get to have some of my favourite US writers appearing as guests on this blog. Watch this space! Also a copy of Woman's World, which has to be one of the maddest books I've seen. Graham Rawle (creator also of the Lost Consonants Series from which the picture above comes) collected words and phrases from 1960's women's magazines, which he then cut and pasted to make the narrative. The most bizarre thing of all is that, from what I've managed to read so far, there really is a story there, and the slightly clipped and frenetic tone of the 1960's is still coming through. It doesn't read the same without the mixed typeface, but here's a random paragraph:

Mary prefers to be the one to answer the door to callers, but she must have stepped out into the back garden for a moment, so I decided to deal with it myself. With a graceful flourish, I opened the door to reveal a postman who stood on the threshold with a dominant nose on his face, and dare I say it, Postman's knock on his mind.

"Barmy but brilliant" is the blurb from Raymond Briggs and he's not wrong. Oh definitely a happy birthday for me!

And my writing prompt for today, because I'm starting these all over again, is:

My Tenth Birthday.

There is nothing fiercer than a failed artist. The energy remains, but, having no outlet, it implodes in a great black fart of rage which smokes up all the inner windows of the soul. Horrible as successful artists often are, there is nothing crueler or more vain than a failed artist.

Erica Jong, Fear of Flying

I had such a lovely gift this afternoon - one of those times when you laugh so much you feel weak and all cleared out. And the strangest thing of all was that it was my own humiliation that made me so merry! Close readers of the blog (aren't you all?) will remember my 'baby pumpkin' (thanks Clare); well, today was the day of the great Allotment show and I decided after a sleepless night (really) to put it in no matter what size the other beasts were. I actually felt quite confident by the time I went to pick it for the show; no need for dolls house equipment to make it seem big (thanks Kate). Well, if you have a look at the photograph above, you'll probably guess the big one isn't mine. No, mine is peeping out from behind it, that little yellow thing that looks like a grape. I don't think I need to spell it out that I didn't win, didn't actually come second, no, folks, I was a whole 30kg behind the second smallest pumpkin in the competition.... It was a fabulous show though, more later.

There's some really useful information for writers on the Mslexia magazine website. As well as the archive of interviews with authors including U A Fanthorpe, Helen Dunmore, A L Kennedy and Hilary Mantel, their Writers' Kit page includes information about finding an agent, sumitting, setting up a writers' group etc. WIth the writers interviews, do follow the links to the individual writing processes. The variety of ways in which people write always amazes (and reassures) me. What I like best though is the guide to E-language. Now I know where I've been going wrong in my online conversations \o/ - I'd just thought they were typos ;-).

E-language: Common abbreviations for use in the quickfire environment of a chatline. (Whether you think they’re witty or naff, at least you’ll know what they’re on about...)
:) happy
:( sad
:| angry
%-) happy-confused
8-0 shocked
;-) winking
:'-( crying
:-* kiss
X-( brain-dead
lol laughing out loud
:-P sticking out tongue
:8) pig
MC:8) male chauvinist pig
:-X my lips are sealed
\o/ Halleluiah
%-) celebrating
%-( hung-over
@}-`-- a rose…

I'm re-reading Alice Munro's collection of short stories, Runaway at the moment. Quite wonderful, as is this archive interview with her in the Observer. I was particularly interested in this paragraph because it reflected the conversation in my writer's group yesterday when we were talking about the importance of just getting something down first:

Most mornings, she'll write for three hours in the dining room. There will be ideas that she's had in her mind for years. She starts by sitting on the couch and writing in longhand. She no longer worries what the first version sounds like: 'I just write the story.' She'll type the first draft and begin the second version - 'That is the most important leap, in a way,' she says. 'It has to start feeling strongly as if it's happening and I am not pushing it. Then I write and rewrite.' She has a horror of being 'flabby or dull'.

One of the writers yesterday mentioned that Pat Barker called her first attempts, the Serbo-Croat draft, I guess because it makes such little sense to someone who doesn't speak any Serbo-Croat. Trouble is when the second, third, fourth draft feel like that too...

Someone asked about the shoes on yesterday's post. I got them in the Lulu Guinness sale but I don't wear them - they're too beautiful. Of course I probably should, how daft am I? I can just hear my mother's voice, 'now she's only gone and spent her money on a pair of shoes she won't wear', but instead they sit on a shelf in my office like works of art and make me smile every time I pass them. This 'book bag' I do use, however - it was a present from my husband when I finished my second novel and I definitely felt I deserved it!

Always worth remembering it could happen to anyone - Decca's reasoning behind their rejection of the Beatles:

“We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.”

Life Is A Picnic, or ....

I've been neglecting Poetry Thursday for too long so to reprimand myself, and also because it's 'back to school' week and that always makes me feel industrious, here's To be of use by Marge Piercy from Circles on the Water. (oh ps. hopefully everyone will know Marge Piercy but if not, please look her up. She's a FAB writer - her strange novel Woman on the Edge of Time is probably one of the books that has made the most impression on me ever, as writer, woman, etc etc. In fact I'm persuading myelf to read it again ...)

To be of use

The people I love the best
jump into work head first
without dallying in the shallows
and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.
They seem to become natives of that element,
the black sleek heads of seals
bouncing like half-submerged balls.

I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,
who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
who do what has to be done, again and again.

I want to be with people who submerge
in the task, who go into the fields to harvest
and work in a row and pass the bags along,
who are not parlor generals and field deserters
but move in a common rhythm
when the food must come in or the fire be put out.

The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil,
Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums
but you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real.

Oh, oh, oh ... this quote from Toni Morrison hits home!

"We are traditionally rather proud of ourselves for having slipped creative work in there between the domestic chores and obligations. I'm not sure we deserved such big A-pluses for that."

In one of my short stories, I make fun of the idea that you might be thinking of someone just at the very moment they're ringing you up. However, I'm ABSOLUTELY delighted to hear that telephone telepathy might just be true. It makes a much better story!

How important are your roots in your writing? This is a question I've been thinking about for some time now, not least in relation to the whole aspect of making things new. Trouble is, with the best will in the world, the area of England I grew up in isn't very exciting. Even its own website has John Major as the pin up boy and admits that it is normally thought of as 'hardly remarkable'. But is that the case? Surely it's up to me as a writer to make it interesting? This is a challenge I intend to rise to, particularly as I freewrite about all the images and memories that have stuck with me - getting bogged down literally in the bog for several hours in a cold landrover on Christmas day, going to see ALL of the original Planet of the Apes films in the local fleapit, my first kiss outside the youth club, horseracing, the postman we had in the village who couldn't read and so had to ask at each house what letters he should deliver to the next house, cycling along straight windy roads, the smell of sugar beet, the reflected glory we got from having BOTH Samuel Pepys and Oliver Cromwell as 'local lads', and above all the strange relationships and names of the families living around.

The wonderful Laurie Graham, a writer I've just discovered but who must have some Fen blood in her somewhere has tempted me with this last one. Here's an extract from her book, The Future Homemakers of America, about a conversation between an American and a Fenwoman:

"She was Annie Jex, then she married Harold Howgego. Their boy Colin was took prisoner in the last lot; Japs got him. You should have seen him when they sent him home. I've seen more flesh on a sparrow. Now, he married a girl from Lynn, and her mother was a Jex, only not the same lot, of course. Annie as one of the Waplode Jexes, and her mother was a Pargeter."

This sent shivers down my spine as it could have so easily been my mother talking when she was trying to explain - as simply as she could - who someone was. It used to send us into gales of laughter - matched only by the time she described a 50 year old man as 'young Arthur'. Actually, I'm not sure now if it was her description or her anger at our laughing about it that made us the happier. Although of course we also got pretty merry with the way a real Fenman we knew used to start every sentence with 'I'll just turn round and ...'
So my writing prompt for today is going to be to try to capture the essence of Huntingdon. There's more food for thought about how our place shapes us here.

There's still time to enter the Arvon International Poetry Competition 2006:
This year marks 25 years of the Arvon Poetry Competition. Over the last quarter of a decade the top prize winners have included Andrew Motion, Selima Hill, Don Paterson, Paul Farley, Mario Petrucci and Joe Kane. All poems are read by the judges and are anonymous, previously unpublished and written in English. Closing date 15 September. First Prize £5000, Second Prize £2500, Third Prize £1000, Three prizes £500 each.
And if you're in need of inspiration, the site has some well-thought through tips from Choman Hardi too.

Further to Clare's interview with a 'Reader in Residence', a friend's sent me this link to Library Thing where you enter either just the book you're reading or your whole bookshelf (titles of course, not the actual thing) and so get linked with people reading the same thing(s) as you. I love the fact that all the moaners said that the internet would mean the end of books, but - unless I'm being naive - the opposite seems to be the case.

From the utterly brilliant Harold's Planet this week:

I recommend you read Clare Dudman's excellent and interesting interview with Susan Tranter, Reader in Residence with the British Council. I particularly liked the idea of Encompassculture, a world wide reading group!

So do I want to be a 'better me'? Always, which is why I've been obsessed with this quiz. I'll believe what I've been telling myself - that it's all a bit of fun - when I get full marks, and at the moment I'm a long way off!!!!

One of the books I've been most looking forward to reading for a time has been Jon McGregor's second novel, So Many Ways To Begin, and this interview with him I dug out of the archives of the Bloomsbury website is a fascinating insight into the collage of places and things that eventually make up a novel.

I wish I'd been asked to contribute to this book but I wasn't (sob) so the least I can do is tell you about it and encourage you to get a copy from Bluechrome. The Book of Hopes and Dreams is a collection of poetry from writers such as Simon Armitage, Margaret Atwood, Moniza Alvi, Alan Brownjohn, David Constantine, Cyril Dabydeen, Carol Anne Duffy, Ian Duhig, Ruth Fainlight, Vicki Feaver, Elaine Feinstein, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Charles Ades Fishman, Magi Gibson, Alasdair Gray, Tony Harrison, John Heath-Stubbs, Michael Horovitz, Mimi Khalvati, Tom Leonard, Robert Mezey, Edwin Morgan, Lawrence Sail, Penelope Shuttle, Jon Stallworthy, Anne Stevenson and many others. As well as its charity element - it is raising money for Spirit Aid - it has a particular aim which is reflected in the book's title, and I quote:

"The poetry within its covers is subversive; reading it may lift your spirits and could possibly infect you with optimism. Exposure to optimism can be dangerous; it is not just delightful, but highly-addictive. In extreme cases addicts will happily run the risk of public ridicule by swimming against the prevailing tide of post-modern, ironic ennui. Their street-credibility decimated, their cool lost forever; you will know these hapless addicts by the upturning of their lips and the twinkle in their eyes."

You can find out more by visiting the website of the editor, Dee Rimbaud.

Yep, that just about sums up this blog at the moment! More soon...

There's a particularly interesting 'life of the day' from the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography today:

Smith, (Lillias Irma) Valerie Arkell- [née Lillias Irma Valerie Barker] (1895-1960), sexual impostor and perjurer, was born on 27 August 1895 in St Clements, Jersey, the daughter of Thomas William Barker (1857-1918), gentleman farmer and architect, and his wife, Lillias Adelaide Hill (1868-1923). Her parents moved to Surrey in 1899, where her brother Tom Leslie was born. Valerie was educated at Huxley's School for Young Ladies at Prior's Corner, Surrey, and then at Upavon, Wiltshire, finishing her education at a convent school at Graty near Brussels.

In 1914 Barker took up war work as a VAD attached to St Hilda's Hospital, Haslemere. From 1915 she worked as a horse trainer for the Canadian army at Rodborough Common and then at the Bristol remount depot. She remained working with horses, moving on to a hunting stable near Shrewsbury and then to a stables in Meopham, Kent. While in Kent, Barker met her first husband, Lieutenant Harold Arkell-Smith (b. 1882/3) of the Australian 20th battalion. They married on 27 April 1918 but the marriage lasted only six weeks, although they never divorced, and she subsequently returned to her parents' house. On 26 August 1918 she enrolled as a member of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force.

After the war Arkell-Smith worked in a tea-shop in Warminster, where she met her next partner, the Australian soldier Ernest Walter Pearce Crouch (1876-1923), who was married but separated. They lived together in Shepperton, and then from July 1919 in France, where he worked in the Paris office of The Times. Their son Tony was born on 27 February 1920 in Paris. Nine months later Pearce Crouch lost his job and they returned to England. On 15 June 1921 their daughter Betty was born. They managed to find work as tenant farmers at Bailiffs Court, an estate in Climping in Sussex. However, their relationship was unsatisfactory and Arkell-Smith spent her time with Elfrida Emma Haward (b. 1895/6), whom she had met in 1922 in Littlehampton. She left Pearce Crouch in 1923 and began a life as a man under the assumed identity of Victor Barker.

Arkell-Smith checked into the Grand Hotel in Brighton as Sir Victor Barker. The transition was easy for she had already gained a reputation for 'affecting masculine attire, and particularly for wearing men's heavy boots' (Daily Mail, 3 March 1929). As Colonel Victor Barker she married Elfrida Haward at St Peter's parish church in Brighton on 14 November 1923. The marriage was conducted by the Revd Laurence Hard, who was apparently unaware of the groom's real identity. 'I told Miss Haward that I was not what she thought I was; I told her that I was a man who had been injured in the war' (Sunday Dispatch, 10 March 1929). Elfrida always maintained that she believed her.

As the 'Colonel', Arkell-Smith followed a variety of careers, including that of an actor with the stage name of Ivor Gauntlett, boxing club manager, owner of a secondhand furniture business, dog kennel manager, dairy farm manager, cafe owner, and orchard worker. Owing to this instability Elfrida left the 'Colonel' in autumn 1928 and returned to her father's house. Arkell-Smith became politically involved with the National Fascisti, a militant breakaway group of Britain's fascist movement, in 1927, running a boxing programme for its members.

In 1929, after Arkell-Smith had changed both her name and rank to Captain Leslie Ivor Victor Gauntlett Bligh Barker, she found work as a desk clerk in the Regent Palace Hotel in London, posing as a retired officer. There she was arrested on a bankruptcy charge and was sent to trial at the Old Bailey in London. Put on remand at Brixton prison, she was found to be a woman. The charges against Arkell-Smith were in consequence increased to include perjury as a result of her marriage to Elfrida Haward.

The trial was sensationalized in the press. The prosecutor, Sir Ernest Wild, revealed that not only had Arkell-Smith married Miss Haward posing as an officer, but she had also been tried as a man two years previously in July 1927 in the Old Bailey for possessing a forged firearm certificate, although found not guilty. With the revelation of the new charges, she was found guilty of perjury and was sentenced to nine months in Holloway prison. Despite her marriage to Elfrida, Arkell-Smith was not charged under the amendments to the 1920 Sexual Offences Act.

When Arkell-Smith left Holloway she reverted to the identity of Victor Barker. After a variety of short-term jobs, calling herself John Hill, by 1937 she was attracting enormous crowds to her show, entitled On a Strange Honeymoon, in Blackpool, where she portrayed Colonel Barker.

Under another male identity, that of Jeffrey Norton, Arkell-Smith lived as the husband of Eva Norton. In the early part of the Second World War she worked as a switchboard operator in a hospital outside London, and also joined the Home Guard. After the war the couple moved to Kessingland, Suffolk, where Arkell-Smith called herself Geoffrey and became a shop assistant. She died of Parkinson's disease on 18 February 1960 at 3 Wrights Cottages, London Road, Kessingland, Suffolk, and was buried in the grounds of St Edmund's Church, Kessingland, on 23 February. On her death certificate her name was given as Geoffrey Norton, otherwise Lilias Irma Valerie Arkell-Smith.

Emma Milliken

Well, this is all very disappointing. With only two weeks to go to the great allotment show, my hopes of becoming the Nigella of the Giant Pumpkin world are being cruelly dashed. Even I will admit that my entry to the Heaviest Pumpkin category is looking slightly weedy:

especially compared with those of the past (I've tried making this photo smaller to make them look less impressive but it still doesn't work! These are BEASTS!):

Never mind, at least my marrow is still in with a chance:

And most of all the allotment is an amazing place to go and write, or to just be. Feast your eyes on this (not mine, but we can dream):

To mark their 100th edition, The Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook (a must-have companion for every writer, aspiring or established) has launched a brand new website. As well as details of their 100-year history, the site also includes a guide to getting published and a directory of literary agents. Visit the site here.

So what makes one piece of literature 'better' than others? The number of prizes it gets might be some answer - after all, one win might be 'lucky' but surely not a shower of them. Interesting then to see this list of awards here, and to look at the short story Mefisto in Onyx by Harlan Ellison, which has won FOUR awards. Puts paid to the idea that you need a short punchy first sentence anyway!

News of an interesting sounding British Academy lecture:

The lectures begin at 5.30pm and take place in the British Academy, 10 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AH. Lectures are free and are open to all and will be followed by a reception at 6.30pm.

Tuesday 19 September 2006
CHATTERON LECTURE ON POETRY
A.E. Housman's Rejected Addresses
Dr Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, Magdalen College, Oxford

Ask me no more, for fear I should reply;
Others have held their tongues, and so can I…

A. E. Housman (1859-1936) has often provoked disagreement among his readers, but there is one aspect of his life and work that almost everyone agrees on: he was a reserved, even a repressed figure – ‘self-absorbed, self-contained’ (Katherine E. Symons), ‘reticent and stiff’ (Lawrence Housman), ‘a strange union of deep passion with severe restraint’ (John Sparrow). This lecture will explore how far commonly accepted ideas of repression are helpful in explaining the distinctive qualities of Housman’s voice, and where else the hiding-places of his imagination are to be found. Above all, I aim to show that Housman is a far more unsettled and unsettling poet than many of his admirers like to think. ‘You always know where you are with Housman’, John Bayley once argued; but although A Shropshire Lad led to Housman being rooted in the popular mind as one of English literature’s finest writers of imaginative topography, remoulding the landscape to fit the more obliging contours of memory and desire, it might be better to think of him as one of the great poets of displacement and disorientation. You never know where you are with Housman.

There's a powerful story by Maxwell Jay, The Y Incision, up on Pulp's site at the moment. Worth reading.

Spotted this book vending machine at Heathrow Airport over the weekend.

We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people. - Arthur Schopenhauer

And my writing prompt for today is going to be the missing bits!

Bluechrome, the excellent publisher of the excellent Messages, has started Random Review, a new campaign linked with the Bookcrossing initiative. Here are details:

Introducing The Random Review - Get a Free Book from bluechrome
For those of you that haven't come across BookCrossing.com it is well worth a visit, not least because it spreads the word about good (and bad) books and promotes literature using old fashioned collaboration. To date nearly half a million people have joined and 'Released' some of their favourite books into the wild, by leaving them in coffee shops, at bus stops and anywhere else people might find them, pick them up and give them a read. We thought it a great idea and wanted to join in, and to do this we'd like your help. The idea of the Random Review is that we will send a handful of each of our new titles to a random selection of those that let us know that they would like to join in, and promises to:

1. Read the book
2. Write a Review, good or bad, and add it to the Book Crossing Web Site
3. Give the book to somebody else or leave it somewhere for somebody to find.

So how do you register your interest? Well all you have to do is send us your name and postal address by e-mail to randomreview@bluechrome.co.uk and we may well send you a book in the very near future. Oh, and mention whether you prefer fiction or poetry books.

My writing prompt for today is this kid's thoughts when he's all grown up...

One true cliche (actually aren't all cliches true?) is how the best books continue to creep up on you long after you've read them. I'm normally a peaceful sleeper, but last night I woke up in a rage, thinking I just had to hit someone. After I'd happily battered to a pulp several of the people currently on my hate-list against a wall at the end of a dead end I'd chased them down (it was a long and enjoyable process but hey, I've never said I was 'nice'), I started to work my way back to why I was feeling like that.

The answer: Alison Lurie's new novel, Truth and Consequences. Unlike most critics it seems, I LOVE books about writers - after all, you can have the confidence that the author is writing from a position of knowledge, rather than, say, with a vampire story. Delia is the writer in Truth and Consequences and she definitely isn't nice. She hates teaching - all those students wanting things from her, she 'forgot' to tell her second husband she hadn't divorced her first, she manipulates everybody into becoming her slave, and when she's caught red-handed by her lover's wife, her reaction is to burst out laughing. But in one thing she is inspiring. She's completely single-minded about her writing. And oh so disciplined.

And I've just realised that's why I woke up angry - because I haven't been like that for a long time. In fact, the opposite. I spent some time last night getting cross with everybody I could think of who has stopped me writing, but came to the conclusion that the main culprit was, of course, myself. There's a balance - I wouldn't want to run away and leave the kids (well, only sometimes) but I'm going to stop sabotaging my writing by always putting it last.

And here endeth the lesson. Well, nearly. Delia's not all bad. One of her lines made me laugh out loud, and still gets me smiling. It's when she tells Alan she's going to move to Key West, and he replies:

'According to what I read, Key West is overrun with homeless chickens and feral six-toed cats, and drugs, and drunken writers and crazy motorcyclists, and the local government is completely corrupt,' he said.
'Yes, doesn't it sound wonderful?' Delia laughed. 'I'm going to be so happy there. Even happier than Henry and Jane.'

Cosmopolitan magazine after a few gin and tonics?

That's one of the review quotes for Scarlet, the UK's only erotic magazine for women. I went to an all-women talk on erotic writing recently, and really liked what Scarlet's founder, Emily, had to say there about how and why she started the magazine. Actually, it wasn't just what she had to say but how she said it. She made it fun, normal and exciting, and hurrah for that AND her magazine. I'm really pleased WH Smiths are stocking it, and was delighted - if poetically gobsmacked - at Heathrow recently to see so many copies on display.

One of the best quotes I heard all night at the erotic writing talk was on the way out, when my friend and I were joined by another woman who'd been at the meeting. 'Of course we might talk about it, but most of us probably still lie back and think of England', this woman said. 'Not in my house we don't,' said my friend, who's married to a Scotsman.

The meeting was held in the staffroom on the top floor of Foyles, where, appropriately, in pride of place on the wall was a black and white photograph of the shop in the 1960's with a sign saying something like 'Lady Chatterley's Lover Sold Out, More Coming', at the time of the famous court case.

Aldeburgh in Suffolk is a magical place - obviously it doesn't snow there all the time, but one thing it does have more than its fair share of is poets. Its poetry festival is justly famous, and I've been drooling over this year's programme already!

Health, Happiness and Social Status

A British Academy discussion between Richard Layard, FBA,
London School of Economics and Political Science,
and Michael Marmot, University College London

Convened by Shula Marks, FBA,
University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies
and supported by the Academy of Medical Sciences
Chair: Onora O'Neill, President of the British Academy

Wednesday, 4th October 2006
6.00pm - 7.30pm
£10 (£5 concessions) to include a drinks reception

The British Academy, 10 Carlton House Terrace,
London, SW1Y 5AH

An evening dialogue between the epidemiologist Sir Michael Marmot and the economist Lord Richard Layard, FBA, both of whom have recently written fascinating books at the interface of medicine/ well-being and the social sciences.

Michael Marmot’s Status Syndrome: How your social standing directly affects your health, derives from his internationally renowned study of hierarchy and health in the civil service which shows how health is closely related to the degree of control we have over our lives; Richard Layard’s Happiness. Lessons from a New Science brings together recent research in the neurosciences and economics to explore `the causes of happiness and the means we have to affect it'. The books are both remarkable and complementary; lucid and extraordinarily accessible. If confirmed, the findings they integrate have profound implications for the political agenda of Western countries.

Please circulate this email to interested colleagues and students.

Visit our website for further details and to to book on-line:
www.britac.ac.uk/events/2006/hhss/
Telephone enquiries: 020 7969 5238 / Email: externalrelations@britac.ac.uk

Be a scribe! Your body will be sleek, your hand will be soft . . . You
are one who sits grandly in your house; your servants answer speedily;
beer is poured copiously; all who see you rejoice in good cheer. Happy
is the heart of him who writes; he is young each day.
--Ptahotep, 4500 BC

Everybody needs a daily annoyance, one that will mildly stimulate but not tip you over the edge. Mine comes from my page-a-day Zen calender - today's entry:

Yun-yen was sweeping the grounds.
“You are very busy,” Tao-wu commented.
“You should know that there is someone who isn’t busy.”
“Oh really?” Tao-wu said. “You mean there’s a second moon?”
Yun-yen held up his broom and said, “Which moon is this?”
ZEN MONDO

Back to the rain, and the rain, and the rain ....

Two things that cheered me up today are both lists - firstly a pick of rainy songs from a New Orleans based blogger called Adrastos I've been reading, and secondly the top comedy lines from the BBC. Peter Kay wins with his '"Garlic bread, it's the future, I've tasted it" line, but I must admit still laughing every time I hear Caroline Aherne's question to Debbie McGee as to why she married magician Paul Daniels: "So, what first attracted you to the millionaire Paul Daniels?"

Off on my travels for a couple of weeks. Happy writing to you all!

There are, of course, many things for a writer to be jealous of J K Rowling for, but high up on my list is her public recognition as the 'number one' fan of Elizabeth Goudge's classic, The Little White Horse. This book made a real impression on me as a child, and I relived and tasted again and again the details in it - the way the orphan Maria got comfort just from knowing she wore beautiful shoes under her long gown, the iced biscuits left in the turret bedroom, in fact so much so that I deliberately laced oblique references through my own novel, Something Beginning With. I didn't expect anyone to pick them up, they were just there for my pleasure! Now I've just heard that The Little White Horse is being made into a film, and there's been a short story competition - for children and young adults - attached to it. One of the winning entries can be found here, and - oh my god - there's even a biscuit recipe up on the site. I should feel pleased, but I feel a little bewildered and plundered. It's happened before when I've really enjoyed a book - half of the time I want EVERYONE to love it too, but there's a little bit of me that wants to keep the experience private because reading it has been such a personal and transformational pleasure. Writing this makes me realise how bizarre this is - anyone else feel it though?
My writing prompt for today is going to be .... biscuits.

I love the book club I'm in with a passion. When I was new to the area and knew only one person, she was good enough to take me along. Can't remember what the first book we read was, but I do know I've made some serious friends. Move over Richard and Judy - our books to read for the summer are Jane Eyre (we did Wide Sargasso Sea last time) and Never Let Me Go. I was interested then in this report from my US publishers, Ballantine, of the first Book Club Conference. It would be great if they could do something like this in the UK.
And my belated writing prompt for today is going to be ... the babysitter's arrived. (that's my prompt not the reason for stopping writing this!)

Anyone who says he wants to be a writer and isn't writing, doesn't.
--Ernest Hemingway

Not sure quite what trail took me to this site, but there's something very beautiful about the plastics developed from recycled products on the Smile-plastics website. This one is from shredded banknotes, but there are others made with mobiles, bottles, carrier bags, cd's, stamps etc etc etc. The plastic is then used for furniture, interior design, exterior design, plates, you name it. Even - looking at the thumbnail sketches on the website - for a guitar.

I'm going to steal my prompt for today from the excellent 400 words website which asks for short non-fiction pieces (well funnily enough 400 words actually). There are two great pieces to read on the theme of compulsion, so that's what I'm going to write about today, and tomorrow I'm going to try a 400 word autobiography because I'm inspired by the ones that are up on the site.

As edition editor of the latest copy of Writers in Education, published by NAWE, one of the pieces that really excited me was an article on using science in writing by Ann Lackie. This wasn't just because it was interesting and well-written, but because it got me interested in science, something I'm ashamed to say years of school teachers never managed to do! So, I'm very pleased Dr Jennifer Rohn, editor of Lablit, has kindly allowed me to copy her favourite 'lablit' books on my blog. The site is well worth a visit, not just because of the interesting article by the novelist, Clare Dudman. In addition, news of 'lablit' (I'm going to keep repeating that, I love it!) publishing can be found here, and this list is constantly updated.

Dr Jennifer Rohn writes: Science in literary fiction occurs along a continuum, from passing references and peripheral scientist characters to a rich, full-blown experience in which realistic scientists feature as central characters and their research endeavors underpin the plot. What makes this latter end of the spectrum, which I call 'lab lit', so engaging is that while the delivery of the science is still subtle and unobtrusive, and human interest vitalizes the narrative arc, the reader is effortlessly drawn into a hidden world viewed from a scientist's eyes. Such a perspective is rare in today's environment where, despite the saturation of science in our media, non-stereotyped representations of researchers and their craft rarely see the light of day. I estimate that there have been only a few dozen pure 'lab lit' novels ever written; these are five of my favorites:

Cantor's Dilemma (Carl Djerassi)

A cancer researcher throws integrity to the wind in pursuit of the Nobel Prize. Immersed in my PhD research in the 80's, this was the first 'lab lit' book I ever encountered, and I was equally delighted to find a novel set in my beloved world and bemused that there seemed to be so few other examples.

Paper (John McCabe)

This black comedy/thriller features a disgruntled biochemist propelled from his tedious research rut by a second-hand laptop full of suspicious DNA code - 'lab lit noir' at its finest. When I read this in the 90's, I too was a disillusioned postgrad, and the experience resonated.

Mendel's Dwarf (Simon Mawer)

An intellectual, bittersweet story of a dwarf geneticist studying the molecular basis of his own condition; in the process, egomania and self-hatred mutate into enlightenment.

Long For This World (Michael Byers)

In this tense tale of love and hubris, a medical geneticist becomes so fond of his pediatric patient that he decides to treat the child in secret without going through the proper ethical channels.

Intuition (Allegra Goodman)

'Lab lit' hits the bestseller lists this year, giving the genre a well-deserved boost of popular exposure: Secrets, lies and scientific fraud threaten to tear apart a close-knit cancer laboratory in Boston.

Another student recommended the book, From Where You Dream by Robert Olen Butler, a series of essays on writing from his lecture series at Northwestern Unversity, and edited by Janet Burroway. It's been just what I need to kickstart both my writing discipline and inspiration, and somehow seems ideally suited to the weather. One of the many paragraphs I've underlined are these ones:

You know, it's easy to get caught up in the ambition of being a writer. It's easy to get caught up in loving literature and wishing to be the person on the dust jacket. This ambition, as innocent-seeming as it is, can very easily muscle out your deeper, more delicate, more difficult ambitions ... What I want to nurture in you is the impluse: "I'm ravished by sensual experience. I yearn to take life in. My God! I've got this sense that the world has meaning. Things roil around in my dream space, and I've got to figure out how to make art objects of them." That's really the best ambition, to be hungry for sensual experience in your life. Ravenous. Artists are not intellectuals. We are sensualists. The objects we create are sensual objects, and the way you'll know that you're writing from your head is that you'll look at your story and find it full of abstraction and generalization and summary and analysis and interpretation....

Mies van de Rohe said that God is in the details. Let's substitute: the human condition resides in the details, the sense details.

The primary point of contact for the reader is going to be an emotional one, because emotions reside in the senses.

So my writing prompt for today is a nice one: I'm going to allow myself to be ravished by my senses!

And, if like me, reading his thoughts on the writing process has sent you back to re-reading Robert Olen Butler's own creative work, a short story of his, 'Woman Struck by Car Turns into Nymphomaniac', can be found here. (Actually, I'm setting hundreds of sexy google searchers up for disappointment with putting that title there, but welcome to you all anyway - particularly those who combined Nymphomaniac with car in their search criteria, may all your motoring fantasies come true!)

When Messages was published, Lynne and I opened our own yahoo email account - messagesproject@yahoo.co.uk - if anyone felt inspired to write a Message based on any of ours. Of course, we hoped, but didn't really expect, we'd get responses but I'm so happy that we are. It's as if the book, having started as an energetic collaboration between us two, has now opened itself out for other people to respond to the links. Someone's even suggested we publish Messages 2 of all the new 300-word pieces. I love that idea. Bob has even started his own Tuesday 200 project here.

So today's the anniversary of the first publication of Lord of the Rings. Here's what the Writer's Almanac say about it...

It was on this day in 1954 that the first part of the Lord of the Rings trilogy was published—The Fellowship of the Ring. Seventeen years had passed since the publication of The Hobbit (1937), to which The Fellowship of the Ring was a sequel. The Hobbit had gotten a great review in The Times Literary Supplement, and it went on to become a best-seller. So J.R.R. Tolkien (books by this author) began working on a sequel, about the nephew of the hobbit Bilbo, the nephew being named Frodo. He decided that the story would center on the magical ring, which hadn't been an important part of The Hobbit.

Tolkien spent the next seventeen years working on The Lord of the Rings. He was well into his first draft by the time World War II broke out in 1939. The book became more complicated as Tolkien went along, and it was taking much longer to finish than he had planned. He went through long stretches where he didn't write anything and considered giving the project up altogether. He wanted to make sure all of the details about the geography, language, and mythology of Middle Earth were consistent. He made elaborate charts to keep track of the events of his story, showing dates, days of the week, the direction of the wind, and the phases of the moon.

Finally, in the fall of 1949, Tolkien finished writing The Lord of the Rings. He typed the final copy out himself, sitting on a bed in his attic, balancing the typewriter on his lap, and tapping it out with two fingers.

The Lord of the Rings turned out to be more than half a million words long. Tolkien wanted to publish it in one volume, his publisher wanted to divide it into three volumes and so the first volume, The Fellowship of the Ring, came out on this day in 1954.

Only about three and a half thousand copies were printed, but it turned out to be incredibly popular, and it went through a second printing in just six weeks.

And my writing prompt today is going to be .... half a million words (not writing them but just am image of them... although who knows how inspiring this may turn out to be!!!).

I'm me-e-e-e-l-l-lting here... but it could be worse. Just come back from London where a guy on the tube was reading a paper with the front page saying it was 52 on the buses, more than double the recommended temperature for transporting cattle.

And my writing prompt for today comes from my book of 52 Projects and is number 45, because however hot I am I can spend at least one minute writing! It is to write a one-minute autobiography and this is what the book says:

'Don't necessarily start at the beginning, and don't worry about the ending. Indeed, do not let any kind of chronological order hinder your effort. A good place to start is the first thing that comes to mind. Once you start writing, other memories will pop into your head. Go with them. The inneruptions enhance the flow. Once the minute is up, read over what you have written, and then immediately repeat the exercise. Keep going for as long as you can.'

I'm not normally too keen on anti-men jokes, but this list made me laugh. A lot!

It is good to be a woman:
-------------------------

1. We got off the Titanic first.
2. We can scare male bosses with the mysterious gynecological disorder excuses.
3 Taxis stop for us.
4. We don't look like a frog in a blender when dancing.
5. No fashion faux pas we make, could ever rival the Speedo.
6. We don't have to pass gas to amuse ourselves.
7. If we forget to shave, no one has to know.
8. We can congratulate our teammate without ever touching her rear end.
9. We never have to reach down every so often to make sure our privates are still there.
10. We have the ability to dress ourselves.
11. We can talk to the opposite sex without having to picture them naked.
12. If we marry someone 20 years younger, we are aware that we will look like an idiot.
13. We will never regret piercing our ears.
14. There are times when chocolate really can solve all your problems.
15. We can make comments about how silly men are in their presence because they aren't listening anyway.

If you're submitting regularly, you may already have heard of Duotrope but it's definitely worth a visit. It has up to date information, easily categorised, of virtually every journal out there, plus a system whereby you can keep control of your own submissions. If you use it, consider supporting it with a donation too - part of the wonder, for me, is that it's free!

"It begins with a character, usually, and once he stands up on his feet and begins to move, all I do is trot along behind him with a paper and pencil trying to keep up long enough to put down what he says and does." --William Faulkner

So, what I was doing - literally - yesterday really!

OK, let's talk stalking, and my writing prompt mission yesterday.

Straight off the train, I followed a woman of about 40. Everything about her glittered, her dyed blonde hair, earrings, sparkly flip-flops, silver belt. She had no bag - that's what drew me to her, how can you survive with no bag? Even her pockets looked flat. She kept looking behind her, so at first I thought she'd spotted me, but then I realised she was just trying to catch her reflection in all the shop windows. I thought she must be going somewhere good but then she dashed into a coffee shop and I'd made a rule for myself that I would only follow in the street, so I left her.

Next up were two friends, about twentyish, both with those ballerina type skirts of many fluttery layers. Even the way they walked down the street was floaty and curvy but then I realised they were so busy talking, it was irrelevant to them where they were going and suddenly they didn't interest me any more.

So then I found suspect 4, a bald man with a huge orange rucksack and those shorts like babies wear that give all men the same bowed baby legs. Boy did he walk fast - dashing into roads, zigzagging round cars, I ended up running up streets after him. If someone I knew had stopped me, I would have ignored them. I could feel my blood race. And then suddenly we slowed down and I saw there were two policemen ahead of him. I wondered if policemen on foot were like those in a car, you just can't overtake them. But eventually we managed it, my heart thumping. This chase gave a whole new feel to Covent Garden, rarely have I been in such a hurry to get ... where?

And then just when I was wondering how much further I could run, he was gone. Completely. Between two cafes and a dead end. I gazed in one cafe window to try to find him and a guy waved at me, but he wasn't my guy. He was nowhere. I felt like a hunter must feel when he'd lost his chance of a kill. I just stood there. I really didn't know where to go, a wind up toy wound down.

But then I saw a stationery shop with a sale and the spell was broken, although I couldn't stop laughing for about an hour after. I felt mad but alive, aware of how much more I was noticing all the small details that might have passed me by before: a Chinese boy with his arms around his elderly parents, the teenage girl reading Jane Eyre as she walked down the street, how men who've obviously been fit in their youth put on weight from chest up so they have no necks, the couple flirting by the 'Fool for Love' poster.

And my writing prompt for today is going to be to ... write as if I'm following myself.

I'm counting the weeks now until my course at Ty Newydd - Exploring Fiction with Jim Friel. Apparently there are still places if anyone wants to find out more, and the centre is beautiful since its recent facelift - can't wait!

When teaching writing becomes not just enjoyable, but actually a privilege, is when you learn as much from your students as you're teaching them. (You mean you get paid for that? Yep, life's good!) My best tutorials - on both sides - are those when we both come away bursting with scribbled names, notes and books to look up. So this entry comes with thanks to Brigitte who introduced me to the work of the French artist, Sophie Calle; Paul Auster fans might recognise her as the model for Maria, in his novel, Leviathan. Sophie Calle is the ultimate artist at transforming her life, and those of strangers and friends, into art.

Reading about her, she appears to be an obsessive who uses ritual to anchor her in life. The photograph above is one of a series of exhibits of birthday presents that were given to her every year - she stopped when she was forty. She decided to keep the presents she was given as a record of affection rather than to use them.

Perhaps her most controversial work was The Address Book where she found a stranger's address book and proceeded to contact names in it to build up a picture of the man; this was then published in a French magazine. Not surprisingly the man tried to sue for defamation of privacy, and eventually got hold of a nude photograph of Sophie which he demanded the newspaper publish!

My favourite though is The Shadow, where she asked her mother to hire a private detective to follow her, Sophie, one day. The text on the day is electric - as it progresses, Sophie sounds as if she's almost falling in love with her shadow, wondering what he'll think of her doing this, or that, and how he'll react to her. TO complicate things further, she asks a friend to shadow the shadow and provide a record of who he is. The difference between her account of the day, and the eventual technical report of the private detective is beautiful in itself. The idea came after Sophie came back to live in Paris after an absence and, feeling an outsider, started to follow strangers.

I've been feeling almost electrically inspired reading about this woman and although there's no copying her, my writing prompt for today comes from her... I'm going to London today to meet my friend Shaun for lunch and I'm going to take an earlier train than I would normally and meander round after strangers for an hour. And my 'living' prompt for today is ... not to get arrested!

Brave New Roles

Deadline: 30 September 2006

Sphinx Theatre Company is pleased to announce a new award for the playwright who creates the most interesting role for a woman in a new play.

This is a scheme designed to create a body of work containing stronger roles for women in contemporary plays.

The winning playwright will be awarded £2000 in addition to a commissioning fee and the successful play will be presented as part of the Brave New Roles showcase.

Five additional short-listed writers will also have their pieces performed as part of the award's lunchtime showcase. The winning play will be produced in 2007/2008.

The award will go to the writer whose play contains the most interesting and strongest role(s) for a woman. Merit will be given to characters which move away from the usual stereotypes of women, often seen in theatre.

Judges for the Award include: Gemma Bodinetz (Liverpool Playhouse and Everyman Theatres), Jack Bradley (National Theatre), Rebecca Lenkiewiecz, actress Tanya Moodie, Sue Parrish (Sphinx Theatre Company) and actress,writer and director Janet Suzman. Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse, Manchester Royal Exchange, York Theatre Royal and Soho Theatre are proud to be associated with this initiative and award.

To be considered for the award writers must be UK residents and qualifying plays must be previously unperformed and over 30 minutes in length. Submissions cannot be accepted by email or on disk.

Please send two typed, unbound copies with a covering letter and CV including your name, address, telephone number and email address to:

Brave New Roles
c/o Sphinx Theatre Company
25 Short Street
London, SE1 18LJ

For more information on Sphinx Theatre Company, please see their website.

My first ever creative fiction publication was a short story taken by QWF Magazine, and I was so excited I slept with the acceptance letter from the scarey sounding editor, Jo Good, under my pillow. Since then, I've had several other stories published by the magazine, spoke at the annual conference and, having got to know and like Jo, looked on with admiration as she's managed to enthusiastically keep her dream alive of encouraging other women writers, and publishing some of the best fiction around. All this probably to the detriment of her own creative work, because she's a talented writer as well as an editor. I've just heard today that Jo is stepping down from the magazine, although she's keeping charge of the excellent Phillip Good Memorial Prize, a short story competition named in honour of her late first husband. Anyway, just wanted to use this opportunity to say a big THANK YOU to Jo - you never forget your first time! - and to wish the new editor, Kathie Giorgio all the best.

Voila! The beautiful cover design for my collection of short stories, coming in November from Bluechrome. I'm not sure, but I think I might even prefer gazing at this over the Johnny Depp pic.

Everybody thinks of changing humanity and nobody thinks of changing himself.

Leo Tolstoy

Why do I blog? To note down ideas/websites/thoughts as much for myself as to share them for other people; as a form of discipline but mostly as a way of being part of a community of other writers I admire - there's a certain energy, enthusiasm, humour, openness about blogging writers for the act of writing that has nothing to do with publishing contracts, W H Smith placements or bestselling lists and I value that. I could just read them, I suppose, but I like taking part in it all too. John Baker has been asking bloggers just that question. Worth a look.
And my writing prompt today is ... the question why.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I LOVE browsing on the 43things website. At the moment, there's a campaign going on for cheering and being one of Sark's 'Succulent wild women', which makes me laugh - in the best non-cynical happy way. I'm inspired by the 'juiciness' and generosity of it all. Go girls - here's a big cheer!!!
And my writing prompt for today is going to be from the list of random goals put up by 43things:

The world wants to...
use age progression software on my picture finish what I've started go to medical school Send something to post secret Finish what I start see more live music create a personal travel map take up photography Skydive Be baptized See the Mark Ryden exhibit at the Frye Art Museum hike the appalachian trail get merried Become More Politically Active. Get more sleep Lose 10 pounds pass the bar Learn German fluently learn italian find the love of my life enjoy the moment Go check out the Cathedral Park haunting make my own clothes learn to install an electrical outlet learn french fluently become a surgeon stop buying things i dont need. have a house with hidden rooms and trap doors, and some kind of secret tunnel

It's not often I stay in the car to finish listening to something on the radio, but I did yesterday with a really fantastic radio drama on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour. It was the final slot in a drama that had been going on all week, 'Standing Still, Running' by Elizabeth Reeder, and I've just been online to track down the rest of the story. Hurrah for the internet, because it's all there. I recommend this one - it's a great example of multi-voiced storytelling with four women telling their stories after a shooting in Washington DC.
And my writing prompt for today is going to be to tell the same story from four voices.

Somehow the wonderful cartoons I get weekly from the wonderful Harolds Planet always sum up how I'm feeling. This is definitely a site worth exploring, and better than the horoscope I get daily. Mind you, today's horoscope for me (Virgo) says that I could be called on to be a teacher today, and everyone will be astounded by how much I know. As I'm just about to leave to go to my university teaching, I'm certainly hoping that's the case!

To work, to work ... but first of all, how cute is this one?

It was the Paris Hilton 'Don't be Jealous' t-shirt that got me first interested in the brilliant named moretvicar site, but this is the one I want to order.
And my writing prompt for today is going to be ... jealousy.

I was going to try to think of a link to this picture, but sometimes it's good just to admire in silence!

Just read a poem that has made the hairs stand on the back of my neck in its chilling control. Divorce by Carrie Etter was published in the British Council's New Writing 14 anthology.
For my writing prompt today I'm going to take this theme - Ritual.

“In order to create there must be a dynamic force, and what force is more dynamic than love?” Igor Stravinsky

Really good story here, The Clock and the Hamster by Donald Hiscock.

I suppose it had to happen - a website devoted solely to dog fashion-wear and called Desperate Househounds. Don't know why I'm surprised actually - we have a dog accessory shop in our town called 'Pucci'!

Fancy creating some really evil characters? The Seventh Sanctum website has a dark name generator to help you get started. I particularly like the names for pirate ships and am sure if I write something good enough, Johnny Depp will star in the film, so my writing prompt for today is going to be the wicked but strangely attractive pirate, SLYBURN, aboard the pirate ship, THE EVIL DEATH OF THE EAST. Phew!

A really extraordinary life-story here. I love the idea of her pupils watching Penelope Lawrence swim daily between the two piers at Brighton, so my writing prompt for today is going to be someone that swims outside every day.

I respect the writer Amy Hempel so much that anything I can read about her, as well as her writing, is welcome. So am very pleased to find this new interview with her (good resource for other writers too). One question she was asked was what piece of creative writing advice would she give:

Not so much a piece of advice as a question to keep in mind, which is the most basic of questions: Why are you telling me this? Someone out there will be asking, and you better have a very compelling answer, or reason.

There are people who have been raised by loving parents to believe that the world awaits their every thought and sentence, and I'm not one of them. So I respond to that. Is this essential? The question might be, Is this something only you can say — or, only you can say it this way? Is this going to make anyone's life better, or make anyone's day better? And I don't mean the writer's day.

And my writing quote for today is going to be ... waiting for a storm.

I've been using mind maps for some time for my writing - particularly with poetry to see the connections and links that I can use, but have always thought of them as something best done with pen and paper so I can scribble and colour as I want - see here for some particularly beautiful ones. However, I've just been playing with a computer based version that seems to work well. I love the little bombs and happy faces I can add, hours of happy not-writing ahead I can see!
And my writing prompt today is going to be ... happy faces.