Happy talk

I'm very happy to be hosting the latest leg of the Steve Stack mighty world tour, to promote his book, It is Just You, Everything's Not Shit, copies of which should be in everyone's stocking this Christmas.

IIJYENS (actually it took me longer to work out those initials than if I wrote it out in full but never mind) is an alphabetically based response to the question posed in the book, Is it Just Me or is Everything Shit?, and is a collection of everything Steve Stack finds good in life. Now we like alphabet books on this blog so Steve was on to a winner immediately. Even more so, when I started my own dialogue with the entries. Chinese chips I can understand (yes, yes, yes, at last I find my soulmate) but several entries (model villages!!!!) leave me cold, but that's the fun here. I have ordered several copies with personal dedications for some family members and am looking forward to some enthusiastic disagreements.

Anyway in lieu of pinching Steve Stack to find out if he was always as cheerful as he seems, I asked him some questions (oh but hey, we have the same initials so I can't do that SS to SS thing):

Sarah: What does happiness taste like for you?
Steve: Cake

Sarah: And what does it feel like?
Steve: Bubble wrap

Sarah: Sound like?
Steve: Church bells

Sarah: Smell like?
Steve: Play-doh

Sarah: Look like?
Steve: The woman I love

Sarah: Do you think it would be boring to be happy the whole time? If so, what's your favourite sad thing?
Steve: Oh god yes. Life needs its comparisons. Happy isn't happy without sad alongside it. My favourite sad thing is probably the final scenes of Life Is Beautiful but remember, it is only sad because of all the happy scenes that came before it.

Sarah: What's the best way to cheer up winter?
Steve: A log fire and lots of hot buttery crumpets

Sarah: Can you describe the happiest day of your life?
Steve: For legal reasons I probably shouldn't go into too much detail but it involved chorizo, a European capital city and a bed with flashing lights.

Sarah: Don't you think - in your heart of hearts - that there's really something creepy about model villages?
Steve: Not at all. When I see a model village I think of Camberwick Green
(Hmmm, still not convinced, Steve. all those puppets appearing from and disappearing into that 'magic musical box' used to freak me out a little)

Sarah: What is the question - on your world tour - that you wish you'd been asked? And what would your answer be?
Steve: Would you like a cup of tea and a slice of cake? To which I would have answered 'yes please'.

And no sooner said, than done. (although don't tell Steve but the tea is actually whisky so I can find out more about those flashing lights...)

Don't forget Burma

Someone called Sophie left the following message as a comment on one of my blog posts, so I'm bringing it up to give it some attention:

hello,
I am writing to you to ask for a favor, I would like to request for you to post this new campaign Don't Forget Burma on your blog and have you also participate as well. I hope this is not too much trouble for you. We created this site because we wanted a space where normal people could show that although the media spotlight over Burma may have dimmed, we are still thinking of Burma.

The team that runs this site came together through the "Support the Monks' Protest in Burma " Facebook group (439,000 members) and has created the website burma-watch.org.

We're a team of activists from around the world that work around the clock on our sites, we were key to coordinating the Global Day of Action for Burma on October 6th 2007 and Aung Sang Suu Kyi day (October 24th 2007).

We'd like to thank our launch partners who have helped make this project work., they are: Burma Campaign UK, The US Campaign for Burma, Avaaz.org, the European Burma Network and wearenotafraid.com .

About Burma

Burma is ruled by one of the most brutal military dictatorships in the world; a dictatorship charged by the United Nations with a "crime against humanity" for its systematic abuses of human rights, and condemned internationally for refusing to transfer power to the legally elected Government of the country – the party led by Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

In September 2007 monks led thousands of peaceful protestors onto the streets of Burma. The Burmese military put this peaceful uprising down with ruthless brutality routinely using violence and torture against the protestors, even the monks. The people of Burma have lived under military dictatorship for 45 years. The last peaceful uprising that occurred in1988 was brutally put down by the army killing at least 3,000 people. However the West didn't act because very little news came out of Burma. This time is different, we know people have been tortured, we know hundreds and possibly thousands of people have been murdered by the regime in an attempt to put down the uprising.

To make sure the world doesn't forget get active, submit a photo of support to this site, join the Facebook group and find a local activist organisation via burma-watch.org.

Red dresses...

I wish you could see the new dress I'm wearing today. It's a dress for chasing squirrels in the park; for catching every train you think you might have left it too late to get; even for writing things that make the reader gasp. I'm struggling to keep up with it to be honest, so it definitely deserves its own poem.

Which is lucky, because that's exactly what we're about to do in my writing class later this morning. Not just write poems to my dress, of course, but about the clothes you put on that make you just know you can rule the world. Do men have those? Perhaps a red tie or a red t-shirt does the job as well, although somehow neither would make me feel I want to walk on tip-toes or do pirouettes in between sorting out international crises. Anyway, part of the inspiration comes from the poem: ‘WHAT DO WOMEN WANT?’by Kim Addonizio. You can hear her read it here but meanwhile here's a taster:

I want to walk like I’m the only
woman on earth and I can have my pick.
I want that red dress bad.
I want it to confirm
your worst fears about me

And to move to the end of Kim's poem, here's my other writing prompt for today - what would you like to wear to be buried in?

Hey cupcake, how are you doing?

(cartoon from the wonderful Harold's Planet)

What's not to like about cupcakes? I made my first batch for possibly years the other day and it was pure pleasure - not least because I'd forgotten how much fun icing is to plan, to scrape on, to decorate after, and to look at (and to just dip your little finger into when it's on the cake and try to get a taste without anyone noticing the mark). Admittedly Nigella Lawson is a problem. 'Oooo, you've been reading Nigella,' some nameless-never-to-be-offered-cupcakes-again-person said when I handed him the plate. I really really hate it when people claim ownership by stamping their names on things which should be universal, as Nigella Lawson seems to have done with cupcakes. In fact, this is probably one of the reasons why I'm developing an itch against academics. They say something completely obvious to the rest of us, write it again and again, albeit in slightly different ways in a book or a paper, and suddenly it is 'their theory' and you can't mention it again without quoting their name. Anyway, she (NL, not the particular academic I have in mind) has done the same with denim jackets - has anyone else noticed that no one with dark hair can ever wear a denim jacket again without people saying 'Ooo Nigella,' in silly voices. It's just not fair. But back to cupcakes, mine were delicious and made us all very happy and I'm still clearing up the hundreds and thousands that didn't make the final jump on to the top of the icing, albeit very slowly with a wetted fingertip so I can savour them more.

And I'm going to do a writing prompt today - and that is SCRAPING THE LAST ICING FROM THE BOWL.

ps don't forget Your Messages for daily November pleasure. The responses are absolutely amazing. I don't fancy the chances of Lynne and I choosing thirty without coming to blows as to which we'll be forced to leave out.

Stephen Benatar Rocks

I'm not sure I could do this - however much I manage to control it, I'm still stupidly shy and so have enough trouble getting up the nerve to sign a book someone has bought without having been accosted in the first place, but here is a man with real style. I'm impressed, and jealous. I think I might even buy the book.

Pop Ups!

The last thing I need is another obsession, but recently - and this is normally how I know I've been hit - I've been finding myself in the pop-up section of the bookshop. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to resist the immediate gratification of a Wild West pop up book which includes pop-ups of "an entire old west town, teepee, holster and pistol with a working trigger, cattle on the trail, and cowboys on horseback" (there's even a free-standing cowboy in full regalia as an extra. My!), or can I put it on my ever-growing Christmas list and wait mooonnnnttthhhssss for Santa to decide whether or not I am worthy:


And then, joys, browsing further on the internet, I find this, a pop-up book of altars:


So, for the moment, I'm going to make do with a writing prompt - to come up with the most unlikeliest pop-up book and write a scene when this is presented as a gift.

The Oven House

Good golly, miss molly, have you seen the responses to Your Messages? Lynne and I are overawed. Which is why it's probably a good time to mention that Lynne's novel, The Oven House, is about to be re-issued and it's sexy, funny, sad and just slightly obsessive. It's a strange thing to read a book by someone you know well - if you don't like the book, will you still like the person? When we started Messages together, we didn't know each other very much at all, but as the project progressed and we started to see each other more outside 'work' it was as if we were having two different conversations - our dialogue through Messages and our writing, and our one about mundane daily things. Sometimes we'd meet and not talk about Messages at all, but I'd come back and find one waiting for me from her in the inbox. So I'd reply without mentioning it either, although I might be emailing her a follow-up of our social conversation at the same time. It was as if we'd created a third person - lynneandsarah who writes in 300 word pieces. But The Oven House (which is slightly more than 300 words) is purely Lynne - it's brilliant.

So where do you drink?

Here's the round table at the Algonquin Hotel in New York. You see, I'm getting ready for my writing trip to America (I know, I know, it's MONTHS away). Best possible research - where do writers' drink?.

The Short Review

A great site for picking up short story recommendations has just launched here.

Just a little - well mannered - rant!

I must have been about eight when my convent school had it's first 'wear what you want' day. We talked about nothing else for weeks, and I just knew my dress would be the best. It was yellow with mock leather trims (I know, I know, I want one NOW too!). Anyway, I hardly slept all night but imagine my horror when my mum dropped me off at school to find another girl was wearing exactly the same dress. I did what any self-respecting fashionista would do - I stomped out and walked the six miles home, bother the consequences.

Anyway, that dress was from Marks and Spencer and it was a family joke after how I'd never buy anything from there again in case someone else wore the same.

So maybe that's why the adverts featuring Twiggy in a gondola are worrying me so much. Because after all, all she's doing is sitting in a boat looking, apart from the slightly scary eyes, perfectly ordinary.

And then I get it. That's what annoys me. Presumably M&S picked Twiggy because she's an icon still. She represented a whole decade if those photographic collages of the 60's are anything to go by. And she did this by daring to be a bit different. Absolutely not wearing the same dress as anyone else, and people of that age wanted to look llike Twiggy exactly because of that.

I don't believe the M&S ads. I don't believe the same Twiggy who stood gazing at the camera in the 60s - her eyes anything but scary - would choose beige clothes that make her look like anyone else, if a little bit cleaner.

And - to me - she's not a role model for how I want to look when I'm over-50 either, so I can't believe those of that age now want to either. She doesn't look like someone who wants to celebrate her age, but to hide it by becoming too safe. Unthreatening. Beige. Neat.

And that's exactly what Twiggy in the 60s wasn't. She changed the whole way we think about our bodies, right or wrong. But she made things happen.

God when I'm over fifty, I don't want to care what anyone thinks of me anymore. And I certainly don't want to be an M&S Twiggy trying to become invisible, and hoping I might pass for thirty-five.

It's like putting a beautiful fifty year old woman on dull tranquilisers. Break out Twiggy. Rock that boat and make us think again about our bodies - albeit slightly older ones!

And we're off!!!!

Your Messages goes live today and we've had TWO amazing responses already. Yay! This is going to be fun...

Burma

It's still there, even if the papers seem to have forgotten it.

I wish all these famous writers wouldn't keep sending me love letters....

Honestly, everytime I open my inbox there's another one. Hey, I'm not fussy - and yes, OK, I have to beg (or sign up at least) for them, but what could be better than getting a love letter or seven from people you respect?

Three threes

In honour of Tunbridge Wells's own beautiful thing and our enjoyable drink together last night, here are three threes for today ...

THREE FILMS I'VE ENJOYED RECENTLY (and I won't apologise for every category but I AM the only woman you will probably ever meet who has sat through and loved every single of the original Planet of the Apes series...)

1) Stardust. Go and see it tomorrow when the clocks change and we all get depresssed. It doesn't make any large promises but is just, just lovely. And it has so much made me want to write an adult fairy tale. We all need more fairy tales in our lives and the opportunities offered in structure etc are amazing. I want it on DVD NOW - I want it this Christmas to watch and watch again.
2) Me and You and Everyone We Know. We watched this on DVD last night and I'm even more bowled over by Miranda July than I was before. The generosity of her as an artist - to put so much in without fear she might run out of stuff to talk about. Does that make sense? I'm thinking particularly of the way her character just presses her fingers lightly on those round stickers in the car. It's just a second in the film, but in a less talented artist it would be a central motif, a moment too good to waste, or to trust that the audience wouldn't get it.
3) Superbad. It made me laugh. Nothing else need matter.

THREE SHORT BOOKS I'VE LOVED

1) Gents by Warwick Collins. I want to write more about this later, but in the meantime just trust Scott - it really is a classic.
2) Everyday Life by Lydie Salvayre. OK, I admit I found this author when I was browsing to see if my own books were on the shelf, but why isn't she better known? A fantastic voice, weird story and disturbingly compulsive read.
3) U and I by Nicholson Baker. MOre about Nicholson Baker than John Updike as all good criticism tends to be, but this is funny and Nicholson Baker is one of the few men who could rival Gary Lightbody for my ultimate fantasy date so I'm happy to read as many books about and by Nicholson Baker as he writes. Bring them on.

THREE WEBSITES I VISIT THAT SEND ME OFF INTO DAYDREAMS (AND AREN'T ABOUT WRITING)

1. A Socialite's Life. Recently I amazed a whole table of people by knowing absolutely everything there was to know about Lindsay Lohan. People were kind and didn't ask why? but this is the how?
2. Gluten Free Girl - confession time - I cried when Shauna put up the amazingly romantic photographs of marrying her chef and I actually get angry when she doesn't post for a couple of days. How can she live without me knowing? Good recipes too.
3. Cornflower and I share a birthday, and we used to live in Edinburgh together. Now I can still have a couple of minutes a day living in Edinburgh thanks to her blog - plus I also get to knit socks, cook, make intelligent comments and do all the things I might possibly do in another life (ie hers)

Book shed

Literally! Here's a shed built of 2,500 books (and found on the wonderful Shedworking.)

Seventy shopping days left until...

This book of beauty contains one of my poems, nestling happily in the section entitled, 'The Cost'. The poem, Night Letters, comes from a collection I'm working on about a mother who becomes a shopaholic. I'm really interested in that crossover between something we celebrate and even laugh at - shopaholic, chocaholic - and something that's very dark.

There are some gems in this book, which is edited by Jill Foulston, and the mix demonstrates that shopping is always so much more than just buying stuff. Perhaps it's not surprising then that the book starts with this quote from THE LADIES'PARADISE by Emile Zola:

The women reigned supreme. They had taken the shops by storm, camping there, as in a conquered country, like an invading horde, surrounded by the ravaged merchandise...

Crap books

Have been thinking a bit about perfection recently. Not least because I was reading some research which says that a class of beginning ceramicists were split in half. One half were told they would be assessed on quantity of pots thrown not quality - the other half believed they had to put one perfect pot up for assessment. And guess what, the quantity not quality brigade produced without fail much better pots than the 'one perfect example' set. I know myself my best stories and poems slip through when I'm not trying to write something excellent, but just to have fun with the writing. (The novels never slip anywhere, they prima-donna right across my life demanding attention and lots and lots of love.)

Anyway I particularly liked this answer to an old chestnut of a question by Anne Enright (do you get shot if you don't put Booker Prize winner before her name now? I did a check and I've not seen Anne Enright written straight ONCE after the announcement). The full interview is on the Book Depository website. (Btw, the Nicola Barker one is worth a look too. I feel pretty evangelical about her novel Clear myself so it was interesting to hear a little bit about how, and why, it was written.)


But back to Booker Prize winner Anne Enright:

MT: Do you have any tips for the aspiring writer!?

AE: A successful writer did not write the book you open in the shop. The successful writer wrote about sixteen crap books, and kept working them, and rearranging them until one less crap book was born. Never look at your work and despair - this is hard, it takes nerves of steel - look at your work and then work at it.

I also liked Anne Enright on the Today programme the day after the prize announcement. She was asked to sum up her book and started, 'well, when I normally defend it I say...' to which she was challenged, 'what do you say when you don't defend it?' There was a moment's silence before she said, 'I've never had to not defend it before...' Or the conversation went something like that, and I was completely and utterly charmed by her.

Your Messages!

When Lynne and I started our Messages project, it was never intended for publication but just something we thought would be fun. The book was an absolute bonus, and now it's reprinted we wanted to do something that would get some of that fun back again. So....

.... from November 1st, we will be putting up a different messages from the book on a daily basis for thirty days and asking anyone who wants to respond to that message in the same way Lynne and I did orginally. It can be through a word, a feel, a theme, but the responses have to be exactly 300 words long. These responses go in the comments section of the blog and once November is finished, then we will pick out our favourite thirty responses and these will be published in a YOUR MESSAGES booklet and we're going to have a party in London to celebrate with lots of wine and canapes and puddings. (Er, that is right, isn't it, Anthony?) Anyway, all the proceeds for the book (yes, I'm afraid you won't get paid but you do get those puddings) will go to charity. We've picked one and will be announcing shortly.

So far, a surprising number of people have signed up to do all thirty responses. I am, for sure, but there are some exciting writing names doing it too. However you can dip in and out of the project as you want. Come and see us at Your Messages, and bookmark us for November. Treat it as a writing workout. It may even help you fit into that special dress come Christmas.

Writing Groups

The two writing groups I run in Tunbridge Wells start again next week - these are on a Monday morning and a Tuesday evening, and will take place up until Christmas. If anyone who lives near enough to come would like a place on either, there are a few available still. Just email me and I'll get back to you!

What a line up!

A fantastic evening last night at the 25th poetry reading for The Frogmore Papers. Highlights for me included Caroline Price's new poem, 'The Boy who Laid an Egg', the very beautiful and elegant Gregory Warren Wilson describing how he attended a vegetable carving demonstration on a cruise ship, all of Tammy Yoseloff's reading, but, most of all perhaps, Catherine Smith's surprising observation during her reading about how we hadn't had many poems about sadomachosism yet that evening. I have never before snorted at a poetry reading.

No, I'm lying (although not about the snorting). Best of all was reading Catherine's new collection, LIP, on the tube home and finding I was acknowledged at the front. I'm made up - this is a fantastic book (not that I'm biased, of course).