tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9051393636051604772024-02-19T07:59:27.371+00:00The Loneliness of the Long Distance WriterNicola Monaghan's news, events and general thoughts about life and writing.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger77125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-905139363605160477.post-34647706671726183062014-04-23T14:14:00.002+01:002014-04-23T14:14:40.479+01:00Dark blogYou may have noticed that I sent this blog dark some time ago. I never really announced it, but for various reasons, I decided to move elsewhere and do other stuff. I'm still blogging <a href="http://www.nicolamonaghan.com/blog">here</a>, if you're interested.<br />
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Thanks for reading :) Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-905139363605160477.post-72543826251822921402012-10-24T23:57:00.004+01:002012-10-24T23:57:39.428+01:00The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner the play, 2012Not the play of the blog (what would that be like, I wonder?) but the short story that inspired its title.<br />
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I went to see the latest version of the Alan Sillitoe classic from his first collection, which has recently been adapted for the stage and was on at the Nottingham Playhouse. The playwright, Roy Williams, has brought the story bang up to date. It's set in London and the main character is still Colin but this time, Co-lin (like Powell) is black. The play encapsulates the riots, soundbites from David Cameron, the crackdown on petty crime and brings the story bang up to date. As with so much of what Sillitoe wrote, the issues he explpres feel just as relevant today as they ever were.<br />
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The production was very ambitious. This is the second performance I've been to recently at the Playhouse and I'm impressed with the way they are using new technology, particularly projection, to enhance the action on stage. It works really well. The set was fantastic, with huge screen as the back drop, and a working treadmill. Actors worked like memories behind the screen then joined the foreground at key moments. The script too was incredibly well written, managing to remain true to the original and yet become its own thing.<br />
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One minor gripe was that an electrical fault caused problems with the sound of the treadmill from time to time, but this seemed to be sorted out later in the evening. There was also no interval, which made it a long time to sit and watch, although I could see the sense of that because of the nature of the story.<br />
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The acting was great throughout, so good that I found myself getting lost in the characters and forgetting they were not real, a feat I usually find very difficult in the contrived situation of a theatre. I was particularly impressed with the lead actor, though, Elliot Barnes-Worrell. Not only was his acting flawless but he had the added difficulty of spending half the play on the treadmill, properly running, as well as projecting his voice over the audience as he ran. It was a part that he would have needed to train for, as well as learn his lines and rehearse. He did brilliantly.<br />
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Overall, I really loved it. Alan Sillitoe mentioned more than once, when I saw him speak at events, that the long distance running was a metaphor for the life of a writer. (Which is another thing that inspired this blog.) I think I felt that more than ever at the end of this play and it felt very inspiring. Lots of good words about not letting other people carve out the path they want for you, going your own way. Sillitoe's story and themes were there throughout but, at the end, as Colin stood and told us to be sure to go our own way, and that you are the one person you can rely on, in the end, it was almost as if the man himself was back in the room with us.<br />
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There are more reviews online <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2012/sep/12/loneliness-of-long-distance-runner-theatre">here </a> and <a href="http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/Review-Loneliness-Long-Distance-Runner-Nottingham/story-17161471-detail/story.html">here</a>. And you can find out about the production at the Playhouse <a href="http://www.nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk/whats-on/drama/the-loneliness-of-the-long-distance-runner/">here</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-905139363605160477.post-69949834840640542082012-10-08T22:43:00.000+01:002012-10-08T22:43:32.440+01:00Emma Shortt: A Book in a Week<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Since my blog tour, I've been pretty blogged out, and I'm just finding time to do anything at all after the return of my students from the holiday. Meanwhile, I'm actually hosting a guest today. Emma Shortt, who writes romance of all kinds. Including the currently very hot erotic romance, in more ways than one...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Here, Emma writes about writing quickly, something you may remember I talked about <a href="http://nicolamonaghan.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/on-writing-novel-quickly.html">here</a>. It's a very interesting topic area, especially with <a href="http://www.nanowrimo.org/">November </a>just around the corner. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Emma's new book is called Paying her Debt, and is available on amazon <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Paying-Debt-Greek-Love-ebook/dp/B005CDM6OS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1349732405&sr=8-1">here</a>. Over to Emma....</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A Book in a Week</span></b></h2>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I wrote <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Paying-Debt-Greek-Love-ebook/dp/B005CDM6OS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1349095995&sr=8-2&keywords=paying+the+debt">Paying
her Debt</a></i>, my erotic, contemporary romance, in a week. Yep, a week.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It came to me in a flash of inspiration
and I knew I had to get the story down as soon as possible. So I sat at my
computer and I just did not stop writing. Well, okay there were food and toilet
breaks but other than that the family were ignored, the house fell apart around
my ears and even whilst I slept the plot invaded my dreams. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Now I’m quite a prolific writer, less
than 25,000 words a week and I feel like I’ve slacked off, but this was
something else altogether. If I could bottle the energy I felt in that week I’d
be well...writing a book a week! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Paying-Debt-Greek-Love-ebook/dp/B005CDM6OS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1349095995&sr=8-2&keywords=paying+the+debt">Paying
her Debt</a></span></i><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> has been described as an old fashioned
romance with some pretty modern erotic elements and I hoped that it would be my
first bestseller for Evernight (one of my two publishers). Up until then I’d
had a few paranormal romances published but whilst they’d done okay they
weren’t setting anything on fire. <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Paying-Debt-Greek-Love-ebook/dp/B005CDM6OS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1349095995&sr=8-2&keywords=paying+the+debt">Paying
her Debt</a></i> did. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It sold more books than anything I’d
published before combined and as I watched the sales figures tally up I
couldn’t help but think that yes! I would write a book a week. Goodbye evil day job, hello full time
writing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Only it doesn’t work like that. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I’ve never again been able to create an
entire, fully edited book in such a short time. I’ve come close. On one very
memorable day I wrote 15,763 words. Those words were the ending for my
post-apocalyptic romance, Waking up Dead (coming late 2013 from Entangled
Publishing), and I was ill for days afterwards. But a book in a week – nope it has
never happened. I’ve thought about this a lot and tried to work out why I can’t
recreate the energy I had in that week and I’ve come to two conclusions.
Firstly at that point in my career I was so desperate for something to sell
well that I was spurred on to the point of madness, secondly I had a storyline
come to me from nowhere - fully formed - and I sort of wanted to write it so I
could read it...does that make sense? Of course these reasons don’t help me to
do the whole thing over again, but it is fun to wonder! I’d love to hear from
anyone else who has managed to write a book in such a short space of time.
Where did you get your energy? Can you recreate the process?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And if you’d like to read the product
of my week of madness it is on sale right now for just 99 cents at Amazon.com.
I’d be thrilled if you’d check it out. Just imagine if I made the Amazon best
seller lists with it! It might even spur me on to try for a five day book...you
never know!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Happy reading, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Emma x <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-905139363605160477.post-58842086641401936482012-07-18T16:02:00.000+01:002012-07-18T16:03:19.298+01:00Possessed on tour....What goes on tour, stays on tour, lads often say when on stag weekends. Well, I'm not sure that I approve of that. And I thought I'd pop back, say hello, and keep you updated as to where I've been so far.<br />
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I had the pleasure of visiting the lovely <a href="http://www.megantaylor.info/">Megan Taylor </a>on Saturday, where I <a href="http://www.megantaylor.info/2012/07/niki-valentine/">talked about what drew me to the supernatural.</a> Then it was off to the <a href="http://beleagueredsquirrel.blogspot.co.uk/2009/04/beleaguered_27.html">Beleaguered Squirrel,</a> who came up with some fantastic interview questions over on her <a href="http://beleagueredsquirrel.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/possessed-by-niki-valentine.html">blog</a>. Finally, today I'm talking to <a href="http://taniahershman.com/">Tania Hershman</a> about <a href="http://blog.taniahershman.com/2012/07/possessed.html">places, and how they influence what I write about</a>. I'd like to take a moment to thanks all these wonderful bloggers, and also to mention what good writers they are, and recommend their books!<br />
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The next stop is <a href="http://www.callytaylor.co.uk/">Cally Taylor</a>, where I'll be giving a few tips on writing suspense. More to come next week so watch this space, or twitter/facebook for more...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-905139363605160477.post-51369191921218971812012-07-14T21:04:00.001+01:002012-07-14T21:07:08.031+01:00And we're off....The blog tour for my soon to be released ebook <i><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Possessed-ebook/dp/B0087GYZVE/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1342296157&sr=1-3">Possessed </a></i>has begun, with a stop at the blog of the lovely Megan Taylor. We've enjoyed discussing our spooky coincidences over the last couple of years. Megan moved to Nottingham after studying with one of my very best friends in the world on the remote MA at Manchester Metropolitan University. Then, last year, we found we were writing very different books with very similar themes. The Scottish Highlands, ghosts, lochs, and unreliable narrators. In fact, both books had the title 'The Loch House' cited for them at some point.<br />
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I talk a little about synchronicity in the post I've written for her. It seems to follow me around. In fact, I'd never get away with writing about the things that have happened to me if I tried to put them in a book! </div>
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Megan's website is <a href="http://www.megantaylor.info/">here</a>, and my guest post is <a href="http://www.megantaylor.info/2012/07/niki-valentine/">here</a>. You can find out more about <i>The Lives of Ghosts</i> <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lives-Ghosts-Megan-Taylor/dp/0956219365/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1342296107&sr=1-1">here</a>. </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-905139363605160477.post-38410066416427036932012-07-09T12:24:00.000+01:002012-07-09T12:25:16.940+01:00The best thing I've done in ages...Okay, folks, here's an exclusive for you. You heard it here first. The guaranteed, 100% recipe to bring me close to tears. Works every time...<br />
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Take one group of year 6 children from my local primary school, have them do a load of stuff that they're really proud of, then make them stand up and sing (very proficiently) <i>So Strong. </i>I am choking up again as I think about it now.<br />
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The cruel people who did this to me last week were the staff at Rosslyn Park Primary School. They invited me to come and work with Year 6 on their Aspirations project. I was to work with a group of writers to produce a script. There would be other groups working on filming and directing it later in the week, a team of reporters to talk to members of staff, local people about their memories and thoughts about jobs and ambition. Every child would produce a poster about his or her aspiration and have their picture taken by the photography team. Everyone in the year would have a role and, at the end of the week, there would be a showcase of the work.<br />
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I spent two days working with the writing team on a script. In fact, they were so efficient that we had time for editing, for other students to research locations and a couple to start storyboarding the screenplay. I was so impressed. With their imagination. With their ambition. And with their literacy skills and some of the nuances of language and visual storytelling they understood. <br />
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On Friday afternoon, I was back in the school for the showcase. Roll singing children and me with a great big lump in my throat. <br />
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There's a lot of negativity towards kids, especially<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18756050"> estate kids, in tracksuits and hoodies</a>. There are loads of reasons for this and it's outside the scope of this blog post to explore but I'd strongly suggest to anyone wondering that they read <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Chavs-The-Demonization-Working-Class/dp/184467696X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1341746532&sr=8-2">this book</a>. What I will say is that energy can be focused in the right direction by very gentle (if insistent) force.<br />
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And that this feels like the most important bit of work I've done in a very long time... <br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-905139363605160477.post-40740510641023870092012-06-23T14:01:00.000+01:002012-06-23T14:02:25.485+01:0022.11.63, time travel and paradoxesIt's no secret that I'm a big fan of Stephen King. I think <i>Carrie </i>is a stunning debut novel and a fantastic concept, <i>IT </i>scared me so much I couldn't sleep and I believe <i>The Shining</i> is one of the best examples of storytelling in the English language.<i> 22.11.63</i> is a total change of direction for the horror writer but then, so was the<i> Shawshank Redemption </i>and look how that turned out. A great storyteller should be able to turn his or her hand to any kind of story, I reckon. I devoured his time slip story and could hardly put it down.<br />
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I was thinking about<i> 22.11.63 </i>this morning and chatting to The Good Husband about time travel and paradoxes. King's clearly thought hard about this side of the story and come up with some clever counters. We've probably all heard of the Grandfather Paradox; ie the idea that, if you could travel back in time, you could kill your own Granddad, thereby erasing yourself from existence. Stephen Hawking took this a step further in his <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJNhLDwj6kI">Into the Universe </a>series, describing seeing yourself down a worm hole through time and shooting a gun... King's counter to this is pragmatic - <i>Yes, you could kill your granddad but why would you?</i> In a sense, this is the only place the logic of the book falls down for me because there would always be someone who would, just because they could, in order to set off the paradox and see what happened.<br />
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In fact, there's a wider problem with this solution to the paradox because the Grandfather Paradox and even Hawking's picture of the bullet down the wormhole, both are massive simplifications. Everything is causal. You go back and change anything at all, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Sound_of_Thunder">even stand on and kill an insect</a>, you change the world completely. Here's an example. If I had a time machine and looked back at history, I might decide that the First World War was an abomination, which it no doubt was. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I_casualties">Over 15 million deaths and 20 million casualties.</a> A sickening example of the price of human conflict. So I might decide to go back and stop the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand or summat, and take out some of the aggressive European leaders, and stop the whole thing in its tracks.<br />
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In kicks The Grandfather paradox, see. The thing that I might not know (except that I do because of my sister's recent work on our family tree) is that, without the First World War, I would not exist. My Grandfather was the product of his mother's second marriage. My great grandma, Elizabeth Goodwin, was widowed when her husband, Frank Morton Boot (there's a good ode Nottinum name for yer), died in Flanders. So, whilst I wouldn't be killing my granddad by stopping the war, I would be effectively preventing his existence too, and hence my own. It's all a bit mindblowing if you think about it too hard. This flies in the face of King's solution in a number of ways. There are so many unlikely things that have to happen for any one of us to come into being that changing anything would change the population of the world completely. And hence, risk the chance of destroying our own conception. And, besides that, without the emotional punch of actually having to shoot our own Granddad, we might just decide that it's worth it to save all of those people. We might go ahead and risk the paradox anyway.<br />
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More compelling in King's world of time slip, is his invention of the 'obdurate past'. ie You can change history but history doesn't like it and will fight you. In King's story, in order to make any significant change, you pretty well almost die trying. I like this idea and it's one I could go for more. Like my husband suggested; if you did manage to kill your Granddad, you'd probably find out he wasn't there at your mum's or dad's conception after all... In fact, some of the issues with the consequences of changing the past do play out in King's novel but I won't say too much; <i>no spoilers</i>.<br />
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Whilst the logic of King's story didn't entirely hold for me, I was happy to suspend my disbelief. It got me to thinking about suspension of disbelief and where that comes from. Common wisdom is that it's to do with consistency of the world and it playing by its own rules but I'm not sure that entirely happens in this book. What I decided, in the end, was that it was because I was rooting for the characters and enjoying the story. I was prepared to leave the science behind me because I wanted to know what happened. So, I think it was about the power of the storytelling, in the end.<br />
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King says he'll never write another time slip novel because of the perils of trying to keep everything properly consistent between the timelines. I know this should put me off but it doesn't - it fires me up to have a crack at one myself! I'm not sure a writer has done anything that original with this concept for a while, although I'd be happy to be corrected on that, and to be pointed to books that have. I quite enjoy having my head twisted by these things.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-905139363605160477.post-90817011301356408732012-05-23T17:01:00.000+01:002012-06-15T22:48:50.025+01:00Monique Roffey on ProcessOrange Prize shortlisted <a href="http://www.moniqueroffey.co.uk/">Monique Roffey</a> came to talk at Nottingham University yesterday, as part of the <a href="http://www.thenationalacademyofwriting.org.uk/">National Academy of Writing</a> afternoon. As with all NAW patrons delivering talks, she was asked to focus on process. Her talk was fascinating, and I found myself nodding avidly in agreement with such a lot of what she said about the long distance process of writing a novel. She also used some very visceral images to illustrate her points, which was rather nice. You can imagine that this part of her nature is something that feeds into her talent as a writer.<br />
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I've taught workshops called 'Getting Started on your Novel' at the University for a number of years now. These tend to run in two parts, with an inspiration session first of all, to get everyone writing, and then some guidance on how to plan and shape from there. I know what works for me and I describe this in detail, but I try to make reference to what I've heard from the other writers I know. One thing I've learnt, chatting to writers of all shapes and mindsets, is that there isn't a 'one size fits all' answer about how to write a novel. Monique's talk reflected this too. At the same time as giving us a real sense about how she worked as a writer, she outlined alternative ways of working. As a writer also now working on her sixth full length novel, so much of what Monique was saying chimed with me.<br />
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Roffey started by outlining her own experience. She has written five books and published three, with a gap of seven years between her first published book and her second, not that unusual, I'd guess, for a literary writer in the current climate. She talked about two books in between that had been hell to write and which she said really didn't work. Given her exacting nature and skills as a writer, I suspect they were probably a whole lot better than the abandoned manuscripts sitting in the average writer's bottom drawer. She stressed how important it was that she had written these books. Even though they hadn't seen the light of day, the fact she'd been writing, and kept herself 'fit and limber' as a writer was important. A novelist friend and I sometimes refer to this state as being 'in the zone'. It's true, I think, that a good simile for writing skills is fitness, or fluency in a foreign language. The key, even when things are not going your way, is to 'keep on keeping on', as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Loneliness_of_the_Long_Distance_Runner">a certain writer once said in a story</a>.<br />
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Monique went on to say that she had a lucky meeting with a specific writer who had a lot of influence over her process. This writer was <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/9037206/Andrew-Miller-novel-Pure-wins-Costa-Book-of-the-Year-2012.html">Andrew Miller</a>. She met him first at an <a href="http://www.arvonfoundation.org/">Arvon Foundation </a>course, at a time when she had started to write but didn't have anything resembling a novel. She asked him -<i> how do I write a novel?</i> He had a simple answer - write 2000 words a hundred times. This reminded me of Stephen King's response to this question and his comparison to <a href="http://cynthiarobertson.wordpress.com/2012/02/09/eating-the-elephant/">eating an elephant</a> (one bite at a time) or building the Great Wall of China (one brick at a time). It perhaps sounds a little glib, out of context, but this works. The trick is one word after another... (as long as you realise I don't mean <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lQ_MjU4QHw">this</a>)<br />
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Later, by sheer coincidence, Monique decided to do the MA at Lancaster University. Andrew had been there previously, doing his PhD, which was focused on his first novel, the very lovely <a href="http://elizabethbaines.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/reading-group-ingenious-pain-by-andrew.html">Ingenious Pain</a>. His dissertation was in the library, where Monique found and read it. From this, she learned more about Andrew's process. This first novel had taken him ten years to complete, and the essay outlined why this was the case, and what he'd changed. One of the first quotes she read from the dissertation resonated very strongly for me. 'We learn from each other.' I'm sure that almost everyone who's ever done a Creative Writing MA or BA will agree with me that this particular nugget of truth is what one gains the most from these courses.<br />
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Monique then outlined three potential methods of writing a novel in possibly the clearest and most illuminating way I've seen it done. I'm sure there are probably more methods but, for the moment, I'll stick to the ones she talked about, as these are the main ways I've seen people working. There was 'puddling', which involved writing scenes, saving them, building fragments till you had a novel's worth, and then assembling them in the right order. Then there was what she called the 'man method', mostly, I think for its macho sense of struggle. This was the one that I think too many aspiring writers try. It's rather iterative.<br />
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1. Write first chapter<br />
2. Edit first chapter<br />
3. Edit first chapter<br />
4. Edit first chapter<br />
......<br />
n. Edit first chapter<br />
Repeat for second chapter<br />
Repeat for third chapter<br />
etc<br />
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As you can imagine, this is a rather tortured way to go about things. It has a romantic feel to it, though, as if one ought to struggle this way for one's art. However, it doesn't necessarily produce the best novels. As Monique said a few times, and I would stress 'Perfectionism is anti-creative.'<br />
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Monique then went on to describe what worked for her, which she called the 'drafting' method. I think this is how a lot of writers work. It's certainly similar to what I do myself, although most of my process happens on my laptop, which I take everywhere, rather than in notebooks or index cards or folders. Scrivener allows me to do the same things electronically that Monique described, although I'll admit, I did feel envious when she described her corkboard, index cards and ring binders. (I am a not so secret <a href="http://www.thecreativeidentity.com/the-creative-identity/2010/08/stationery-porn-one.html">stationery freak</a>.)<br />
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What follows here is the Roffey method, in so much as I interpreted what Monique said and paraphrased. (All mistakes are this author's etc etc.) Or perhaps I should call it the Roffey-Miller method. Or even the Roffey-Miller-Mantel process, as Monique also explained that she'd been very influenced by Mantel's essay <i>Growing a Tale </i>in <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Agony-Ego-Strategy-Fiction-Explored/dp/014016975X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1337778626&sr=1-1">this book</a>. All I can say is that if it's good enough for these three, it's good enough for the rest of us. That said, I defer, always, to the need of an individual to find her own way through.<br />
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This is the method. Don't look away or stop listening...<br />
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Roffey keeps a notebook with removable pages, or carries index cards around. When thoughts come to her that are important to the novel, she writes them down. She pins these to a cork board. She might then write a scene or two. These get pinned behind the cards where they belong. Similarly, she may pin cuttings, research, pictures and other relevant snippets behind the cards. Over time, the idea grows through the stationery. Some chapters get completely written, some characters very clearly sketched out, others less so. When it's at a certain stage, Roffey takes these cards, scenes, clippings and so on, and creates a ring binder. At this point, she will make a 'stick bridge plan', which highlights the important scenes and cards, and she will make all of her decisions about narrators, point of view, tense and so on. These are things that can be changed later if necessary. (We'll come to that.)<br />
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Finally, when the momentum has built for the project, she sits down to write it. This momentum is important. As Monique puts it 'most first drafts get abandoned' and she puts this down to two possible causes; a lack of energy for the project, or too much perfectionism early on. My experience, working with writers for years now, is that she's on the money with this assessment.<br />
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She writes chronologically then, as opposed to 'puddling', and writes a thousand words a day for about three months. I have talked about this magic number before. It seems to be quite a common one that works for most people. Her take on this first draft stage was not to rattle through it but to make it the best you can at the time without going back to edit. She did say that she might have a little tidy of the prose, in the afternoon, but avoided the 'man method' of editing herself into an early grave. So don't rattle through it but, on the other hand, don't worry if it's 'rubbishy', a word she takes directly, again, from Miller's dissertation. After this, the devil is in the drafting. This is the bit when you're allowed to get iterative, and picky, and perfectionist. In fact, I'd positively encourage it. As Monique put it: once it exists as a first draft, it's much less likely to be abandoned.<br />
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You might realise, somewhere along the way, that one of your big decisions was wrong. This narrator needs to be unreliable and therefore first person, for example. Or there might be too many voices. Or the present tense you've chosen might be just too tiring for the reader. Key here is to<a href="http://www.leftlion.co.uk/articles.cfm/title/the-alan-sillitoe-interview/id/2242"> keep on keeping on</a>. Switch, there and then, but don't go back and rewrite. NEVER rewrite until you've reached the end of the draft, NO MATTER WHAT.<br />
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I could write about Monique's talk all day, as she made so many valuable points, but this is supposed to be a blog post and not a book length treatise. So I'll focus on three more of her gems of wisdom.<br />
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1. The notion of trying to embark on a big writing project, like a novel, without preparation, is as ridiculous as planning a trip across the Sahara and not working out how much water you'll need, what camping gear, etc, then acquiring it.<br />
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2. Good ideas tend to come in two forms. The ones that rattle around and stay with you, growing and changing over months or years, or the 'rake in the grass' moment. This one is where it's like you stood on the end of a rake and its handle hit you in the face and knocked you for six. (See what I mean about the visceral images?)<br />
<br />
3. Determination is irrelevant when trying to solve a creative problem. You need to trust yourself, and relax, and wait for the answer to come to you. If it doesn't, then you need to ask yourself -<i> was that the right question?</i><br />
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Sometimes, when writers speak about their lives and work, you get the sense that<a href="http://www.mikeskinnerfans.com/the-hardest-way-to-make-an-easy-living/"> it's all too hard</a> and I've even heard them say they don't know why they bother, usually to comic, self effacing effect. I got none of this from Roffey's talk. She was an evident professional talking about a process she had refined and considered. I was most impressed. I hope that my approximation of what she talked about is of use to those who might come by this blog.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-905139363605160477.post-80791956349657591032012-04-29T13:07:00.000+01:002012-06-15T22:49:08.755+01:00Today is six sentence Sunday, according to the interwebs. What this appears to mean is that writers are posting six sentences from their books to give people a taster. So here goes... From my debut, The Killing Jar, and slightly edited to make the most of the six sentence format... (ie I cheated a bit so the extract would feel more complete.)<br />
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<span style="font-family: Futura, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">"The </span><span style="font-family: NewBaskerville-Roman, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">council estates at Broxtowe and Aspley are laid out in
ever decreasing circles. I am an authority on this cause I have floated above
them, listening to them sing and vibrate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: NewBaskerville-Roman, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">I
don’t know the technical details of what ecstasy does to your brain, cept the
papers say it leaves holes when it’s done. What it does to me is this: I talk
all posh, use long words I’ve picked up from books. And everything makes sense,
life and death and fate and collective unconscious and all that shit. The whisper-thin
layer between body and soul goes permeable for an instant; I slip through it,
easy as water."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: NewBaskerville-Roman, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: NewBaskerville-Roman, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">You can read a longer extract <a href="http://destinedforallthiswriting.blogspot.co.uk/2009/09/killing-jar-extract.html">here</a>. Or buy the book <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Killing-Jar-Nicola-Monaghan/dp/0099496879/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335701085&sr=1-1">here</a>, Kindle edition <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Killing-Jar-ebook/dp/B004SOYVWW/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=A3TVV12T0I6NSM&qid=1335701085&sr=1-1">here </a>and other ebook formats <a href="http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/nicola+monaghan/the+killing+jar+28ebook29/8516227/">here</a>. </span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-905139363605160477.post-34685668202543376402011-10-15T19:08:00.000+01:002011-10-15T19:08:52.884+01:00White spaceI haven't abandoned this blog or anything but for a while I will be blogging <a href="http://thehauntednovel.blogspot.com/">here</a> more often. Please do join me there. Pull up a chair and I'll make you a cuppa....Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-905139363605160477.post-28247403365137774062011-02-20T21:53:00.000+00:002011-02-20T21:53:17.932+00:00Mouthy PoetsI'm not sure if I mentioned on this blog that I started working at Nottingham University at the beginning of this academic year. It's certainly a job that's been keeping me busy but I've really been loving it. The more I get to know my students, the more of their work I read, the more amazed I am with what they are capable of.<br />
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Mouthy Poets being a case in point. Run by the hard working and talented performance poet cum student cum teacher cum just about everything else, <a href="http://www.leftlion.co.uk/articles.cfm/id/3448">Deborah Stevenson</a>, this is a project to help young people find their voices. And it certainly has. Their first public performance last night was <a href="http://www.nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk/whats-on/drama/inua-ellams-say-sum-thin/">Say Sum Thin</a> at the Nottingham Playhouse and featured <a href="http://phaze05.com/">Inua Ellams</a>. I have to admit that it isn't very often I'd be up for a scheduled three hours of listening to poetry. But Deborah had brought some of the Mouthy Poets to perform for us at our end of year show so I knew just how good they were. The night went by in a flash and I enjoyed every minute of the performances.<br />
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The show ran outside poetry into music, rap, dance, news report mock ups, an open mic session, art exhibition, craft shop and performers from a competition battling it out in the final. Every performance was vibrant and full of life in a way that is rare for a literary-based event. My only disappointment was that there weren't more people from the established Nottingham literary scene to see these young people perform. The room was full but they deserved an even bigger and wider audience.<br />
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And it astounds me to think that this was all dreamt up, organised, run and beaten into shape by Deborah, a twenty year old undergraduate. She is twenty one next month. Who knows what she'll do then. I don't but I have a prediction. <i>More great things.</i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-905139363605160477.post-18523761868801090692011-01-13T17:07:00.000+00:002011-01-13T17:07:07.385+00:00Creativity versus LanguageI read a very<a href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20827913.600-creativity-vies-with-language-in-brain.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news"> interesting article </a>in the <a href="http://www.newscientist.com/">New Scientist</a> recently about creativity. It's a fascinating subject, and one of the things I'm asked most about at author events. 'Where do you get the ideas from?' There's no easy answer. The article I read didn't really answer that question but it did raise some other rather pertinent ones, especially for a novelist.<br />
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In essence, the findings of a study found that the nerve centres in the brain responsible for creativity appeared to compete with those for language processing. Brain damaged patients whose language centres were affected by their accidents or illnesses were shown to have become more creative and original. To quote the researcher:<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"Shamay-Tsoory says that while creativity is likely generated in the right side of the brain it may be suppressed by language processing on the left."</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">In other words, there's an inverse relation between how well your brain processes language and how original you are likely to be. The implications of that for a novelist is a little bit frightening. As a writer, you want to both be able to process language well and to be original and creative. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">I began to think about whether this was borne out in the books market as we see it today. Thinking about commercial versus literary fiction, does this research fit with what we see? The more I thought about, the more I decided there was some kind of inverse relationship. Take Dan Brown. Whilst he did borrow some ideas and facts from The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail in writing The DaVinci Code it was, in fact, a very original novel. As are most of his others, if you analyse them closely, even though he often gets many of his facts wrong or stretches them to the point of incredulity. Still, someone stealing antimatter from CERN is something I find truly original, even if it's entirely infeasible. Opinions about books and the standard of writing of many authors varies hugely, with people having quite diverse opinions on many. Not so Dan Brown. It is a truth universally accepted by readers everywhere that his writing sucks on many levels. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">Take a successful literary author, though. John Banville is possibly a good example, previous Man Booker winner for his book The Sea. The kind of book that people buy and never read. Why? Is the writing good? Crafted to within an inch of its life. The story? </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">"Led back to Ballyless by a dream, Max Morden is both escaping from a recent loss and confronting a distant trauma in the coastal town where he spent a holiday in his youth. The Grace family appeared that long-ago summer as if from another world. Drawn to the Grace twins, Chloe and Myles, Max soon found himself entangled in their lives which were as seductive as they were unsettling. What ensued haunts him for the rest of his years and shapes everything that is to follow."</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">So a bit of past secrets, memories of youth, escaping recent loss, confronting trauma. Original? Well, it's all sounding a bit Ian McEwan meets Kazuo Ishiguro to me right now. Interesting? I can't say I'm desperate to read about these unsettling twins. And, speaking of unsettling twins, are these a common theme in fiction at all? Hmmm... let me see. Her Fearful Symmetry, The God of Small Things, The Shining, The Thirteenth Tale, Atonement, The Secret History, Alice in Wonderland, Cutting for Stone,... I could keep going for a day and a half if I had more energy.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">In short, I think there's something in it. I've found myself recently getting very bored of literary fiction and, at the same time becoming more and more interested in the stories I read in more commercial books. The books I've loved the most over the years have been the ones that have bridged the middle ground. Joanne Harris's Chocolat is a good example, where I find the language lovely and enchanting and the story equally satisfying.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">What does it mean for me as a novelist? Well, I always try to find the story first and worry about the language after, so perhaps that's not a bad way to work after all. If nothing else, I think this is a good argument in favour of the commercial novel being of equal merit to the literary one. The snobbery that divides the two and looks down on one of these forms seems a shame to me; it always has. Surely we want originality in our lives as much as we want beautiful language? I know I do.</span></span><br />
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</span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-905139363605160477.post-70809965502437648802010-09-11T12:04:00.001+01:002010-09-11T14:51:05.081+01:00The August when I accidentally saved a bunch of people<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><div>Nine years ago today, I woke up in a Chicago hotel room, turned on the TV and saw a plane sticking out of a building I'd worked in, right there on the screen in front of me. </div><div><br />
</div><div>I don't want to give anyone the wrong impression. I don't consider myself a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tania_Head">World Trade Center survivor</a> or someone who was especially close to the disaster, but it did touch the edges of my life and scare me half to death. I had been there, in that building, working, on several occasions over the summer months in 2001. When I woke up on that September morning, it wasn't 'some skyscraper in America' I was looking at. It was a place I knew. The first plane had hit just a few floors above where I'd stood and admired the view and told a colleague 'I want your office' and that very space was being engulfed by fire as I watched, and tried to work out which tower it was that had been hit, pretty sure I already knew. I remember moving around the room quite randomly, panicking, trying to decide what I needed to do. I needed to get in touch with home, that was for sure. My family knew I'd been working in the World Trade Center that summer. I'd mentioned it specifically when talking to my sister about her fear of lifts. Even though I was in Chicago at the time, they also knew I travelled round a lot and that I didn't always keep them totally updated as to exactly where I was. I guess that, for all anyone knew, Chicago could have been next on the list. There certainly are a lot of tall buildings there if you were that way inclined. So I needed to get in touch with my family, and I needed to get in touch with the office and I needed to get there, actually, to physically be at my office (even though I had recently left my job) and be with the people in America I was closest to, my friends Tim and Rebekah. </div><div><br />
</div><div>My first challenge was contacting home. This was before the days when you could use your mobile phone anywhere in the world. In fact, back in 2001 you could pretty much use your phone anywhere in the world except America. Mine had worked when I'd gone to Africa for a fortnight but, aside from a ten minute interlude in New York where I caught the edge of a GPS signal, it was a useless piece of plastic everywhere in the states. I'd never got round to getting one of the brick-like American 'cell' phones that made me laugh. I was staying in a hotel room as I'd recently left my job and the apartment they'd supplied with it and the phone there was good only for local calls. When I tried to ring my mum, it wasn't having any of it. A payphone then. Hmm.. Well, anyone who's ever tried to use a payphone to ring internationally in America knows how that works out. It doesn't. There are no dollar coins and you just can't put enough quarters in. I walked around Lincoln Park and tried one after another, getting nowhere. </div><div><br />
</div><div>I did manage to ring Rebekah. The news wasn't good. Most of our colleagues were accounted for but there were two people nobody could reach. I remember telling her that they'd be found. I could almost hear her biting her lip down the phone line as she said 'I'm not sure they will.' Something inside me was insistent about it, though. I don't know looking back if it was some kind of foresight or just sheer bloody mindedness. Perhaps it was wishful thinking because both people were colleagues I'd liked and respected. I was adamant, though, despite their office being on 86th floor. They will be found. </div><div><br />
</div><div>I decided to make my way to our Evanston office where my friends were, and where I might be able to get inside and make a phonecall. For a moment I wondered if travelling anywhere was the right thing to do. The news anchors were very clear that everyone should stay in their homes. But I would be travelling away from the centre of Chicago so surely that made sense? It was before the London tube bombings so that the idea of something happening on a train or the El did not even cross my mind. I needed to contact home and find my friends. Of course, the office was in a tower block so that, when I got there, no one was allowed in anyway. </div><div><br />
</div><div>I had to get in touch with home. Would anyone think to check their email? It was worth a shot. I managed to find an internet cafe and send a message and prayed that someone would get it. The cafe had a huge TV and you can guess what the live pictures were that were coming through. It was there that I saw the towers fall, one after another. It felt like the world was ending. </div><div><br />
</div><div>Finally, I found my friends Tim and Rebekah and we were able to spend some time together and talk about what was going on. Someone had got hold of some weed and we smoked it in a public park. It seemed a valid reaction at the time. There had been a miracle. The two 'missing' colleagues had been located. Despite their 86th floor location, no one we knew had died. It sounds silly looking back but, at the time, it felt almost as if I had willed it to be true. I know I had believed it when I told Rebekah they'd be okay. Under the circumstances, I don't know where that belief had come from. It was an amazing story. <a href="http://www.swapmeetdave.com/United/Where-2.htm">Bill Trinkle</a> was on his way to a client site that morning, where he arrived to cheering and applause. He was an early starter and someone everyone was sure would be in the building. Judy, the receptionist, was in the lobby on her way up to work as the plane hit and was able to get out quickly. The New York office manager had fortunately decided to take his holiday that week. There was no management around and morale at the company was pretty low at the time so that no one else had quite made it in to work yet that day. There'd been some really horrible political stuff going on and lots of redundancies. It hadn't been pleasant at the time but now, we were all glad of it. </div><div><br />
</div><div>And I'd had a part to play in all this too. My friend Tim pointed out that I'd probably (entirely unwittingly) saved a whole bunch of my colleagues. It all revolved around that political stuff. There'd been a new president of the company brought in by one of the shareholders. This was a German guy who'd had quite a high profile in the industry in one way and another. It had been this guy who had brought me over from London to help him sort out the business and make some difficult decisions. But things hadn't gone well. Shareholder support had turned against him and his position was in jeopardy. We had a conversation one warm evening in August. He was on his way back from a long meeting at the office, I was on my way back from the bar I'd been drinking at with my friends and we collided in an alleyway near our apartment block. He told me they were planning to move him aside; that they'd offered him a job managing the New York office. He was trying to decide whether to take it or not. I knew straight away what I thought about this. I told him he should resign. It was about pride, in the end, I said. He nodded his head and went away to think about it. The next day, he did resign. He told my friend Tim that the conversation he'd had with me had been a big factor in his decision - that he'd been seriously considering accepting the job but that as soon as he heard me say this, he knew I was right. </div><div><br />
</div><div>If my boss had taken the job in New York, everything would have been different. He had a European banking mentality. That meant early starts and long hours. He would have almost certainly have been in his office that morning. And it's a bit like Bagpuss. If the manager is awake, all the others make sure they get there and sing like the mice on the mice organ. I suspect that most of my New York colleagues would have been there too. I'm not claiming any credit for saving their lives. It was a lucky accident. It did make me think, though. How every action, every tiny thing we do has the potential to have a huge effect on the people we know and ones we don’t as well. I just said what I thought. I can't envisage ever saying anything different in that situation. But if I had, the world would be totally different now to what it was like then. I might even have ended up in New York that day myself. </div><div><br />
</div><div>I often wonder about those crazy times in the autumn of 2001. I wonder how much we knew, somewhere, deep inside us about what was about to happen. It’s one of the times in my life that makes me consider the boundaries between past and future, and how solid they really are. I'd been keeping a journal, not something I generally do, and my entries from the few days before are strange. They talk about restlessness and strange atmospheres, the feeling of bad things on their way. They talk about changing my life. I'd had a good friend Kevin from England visit me the week before. He left the day before the attacks. He spent the entire time in Chicago telling me how scary the skyscrapers were and refusing to go up any of them. I remember laughing and telling him he should see the view from the World Trade Center. And I think of another story too, a writer I know whose first novel came out the year before mine did with the same publisher. His was about terrorist attacks in London. Its date of release? The 7th July 2005. </div><div><br />
</div><div>My memories of the World Trade Center itself are so tied up in what happened to it next that it’s impossible to separate the two. There was a tight security system that meant you needed to show your passport and have your photo taken before you were allowed in as a visitor, a system that never could have foreseen or done a thing about the attack that finally happened. I can still picture the lobby and the coffee shops downstairs, the doors and windows and desks and chairs and papers that I wrote on and left there, all up on the 86th floor. </div><div><br />
</div><div>Most of all I remember the people I got the lifts with. The people who worked above the 70th floor and who got the express ‘elevator’ first, before having to find the right lift to take them onward depending where exactly they worked. The people who probably died that day. I especially remember the first time I visited the building, when I stood around looking confused about where to go next as I got out on the 70th floor and a really kind man noticed and helped me out. I always wonder what happened to him. I hope he survived but, in my heart, just as sure as I was that Bill and Judy would be found, I'm certain that he wasn't so lucky. And he was kind to me. Needlessly kind, with no agenda, except that he could see that someone was lost. It's too sad to think about. </div><div><br />
</div><div>I used to think that what happened that day changed my life but, when I look back now, I wonder if it did. I was already changing my life. I was writing loads and had been looking into MA courses with serious intent. It perhaps propelled me faster in that direction but whether it truly changed anything I did is another matter. I know I went back to London and thought about getting another job in banking, but never quite got round to it. I went back to teaching instead, and then to Nottingham, to do an MA in Writing but also to my family. And I wonder about that decision because I remember the feeling I got that day nine years ago, a sense of everyone going home. Everything closed in and everyone reached out for the people they loved, getting there anyway they could, car, bus, train, feet. It wasn't as easy as that for me with airspace closed but it's interesting that, in the end, I found my way home too. I think that probably is significant but it's so hard to tell. </div><div><br />
</div><div>It's taken me nine years to write about this. Looking back now, it's hard to separate the way it felt then from the hazy glow of nostalgia that settles over it now. I've seen Bill Trinkle since and some of the other people from the New York office. They seemed happy. Super relaxed. I suspect that it did change their lives. But it's hard to remember how it really was that day, those few weeks before. Every interaction seems filled with meaning, every decision as important as Hell. I <i>knew </i>Bill and Judy would be all right. My sister <i>just had a feeling</i> about checking her email because I might try to get in touch that way. I'd been <i>so certain</i> that my boss shouldn't go to New York that the moment I told him so felt <i>almost supernatural</i>. But is that how it was? </div><div><br />
</div><div>I don’t know. All I know is how sad it still makes me when I think of all those people in my lift. </div><div><br />
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</span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-905139363605160477.post-77399821562274313222010-08-16T17:04:00.000+01:002010-08-16T17:04:40.704+01:00New coursesI am running two courses in the next couple of months for those who are interested in improving their writing.<br />
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The first is part of the Nottingham Writers' Studio series of workshops and focuses on planning and developing your novel - where you go once you've got an idea, in other words. It runs all day on 25th September at the Nottingham Contemporary. For further details, or to book a place contact Robin Vaughan-Williams on <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;"><span><span style="color: blue; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: small;"><a href="mailto:admin@nottinghamwritersstudio.co.uk" style="color: #196b7b;" target="_blank">admin@nottinghamwritersstudio.<wbr></wbr>co.uk</a> </span></span></span><br />
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The second is for writers much further down the line, those with well developed or finished novels looking to find an agent or publisher. The idea is to help writers make that jump from writing well to getting their writing noticed. Ahead of the course, each participant is asked to send their proposal document comprising three chapters, a synopsis and covering letter. The course will focus on these proposals, looking at the work that each individual needs to do to get the attention of an agent, and so has an element of manuscript reading built in. It will look at the actual projects, what changes might improve them or make them more marketable but it will also examine the wording of the proposal, and synopsis, to help the writer sell his or her novel more effectively. If I feel that individual projects would be of interest to agents I know then I may make recommendations for the writers concerned. This course will take place on 14th and 15th of October at Antenna in Nottingham. For further details, or to book, see http://gettingyourworkoutthere.blogspot.com/ or contact me <a href="mailto:nicola@nicolamonaghan.co.uk">direct</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-905139363605160477.post-46364071166692918702010-06-28T22:34:00.002+01:002010-06-28T22:34:58.069+01:00FilmsWell, I promised some links. Here's the first one. DONKEY, directed by Deborah Haywood, written and produced by my good self.<br />
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<a href="http://www.virginmediashorts.co.uk/films/entry/344741/donkey">http://www.virginmediashorts.co.uk/films/entry/344741/donkey</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-905139363605160477.post-62835783120205443132010-06-27T23:45:00.001+01:002010-06-27T23:47:50.318+01:00Things you should know...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikp1Y1w2khaN2PXR52RdH38M4NYlj0KzqHXPSgVMk58Fq3YZi2-ZAMiYKWo7K2adhUgD4-zZK0l77CJe7ttfFhWXRR-F-7QZi-Njy7CSCcj-yNReeUTBRHHUT6YqDxTrx5gtS1CguxULE/s1600/starfishing+usa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikp1Y1w2khaN2PXR52RdH38M4NYlj0KzqHXPSgVMk58Fq3YZi2-ZAMiYKWo7K2adhUgD4-zZK0l77CJe7ttfFhWXRR-F-7QZi-Njy7CSCcj-yNReeUTBRHHUT6YqDxTrx5gtS1CguxULE/s200/starfishing+usa.jpg" width="130" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div>Starfishing is out in the USA now via the good people at Scribner. You can buy your copy in all the usual places. It is a rather sumptuous looking book, as the attached picture I hope demonstrates.<br />
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I also have a new Facebook page. There already was a community site <a href="http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#!/pages/The-Killing-Jar/106206619409638?ref=ts">here </a>, which is basically mostly wikipedia stuff at the moment. I've set up my official page <a href="http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#!/pages/Nicola-Monaghan/132549283433432?ref=ts">here</a> so do go along and join, or should I say 'like' using the official FB lingo. I suspect I'll update this page much more regularly than this blog, so it's a better way of keeping in touch with what's going on.<br />
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I've been making films too. Oh yeah, I am a film producer, baby. Only very short films, but films nonetheless, and one of them is from a script what I wrote. It's the first time I've seen my work come to life like this and it's very exciting. We're going to enter them for the <a href="http://www.virginmediashorts.co.uk/">Virgin Media Shorts</a> competition and try to win some money towards making a feature. It was a real eye opening experience and I was left with total respect for the job directors do, especially my main lady the super talented <a href="http://deborahhaywood.com/"> Deborah Haywood</a>. I'll write more about all this when I have time and energy and the films should be online soon, so I'll send some links.<br />
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I also have a short story in the current edition of <a href="http://www.vagabondagepress.com/">The Battered Suitcase</a>, which can be read online or downloaded to your Kindle. You can also order a POD copy, I believe, but check the website for more details. <br />
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<a href="http://dontmentiontheworldcup.net/">Don't mention the World Cup...</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-905139363605160477.post-56243335513439269152010-05-04T15:05:00.002+01:002010-05-04T16:08:57.922+01:00RIP Alan Sillitoe, a writer who reached across the generations<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq-wKCbmA-s7EvXkeon2qZMnllyT8BOV0-qj1T_BCICzVuZoh8PXmnCVyvdKn5sKYPLE9lAoJdLr35QEFdA_OflwOhPSp-pjsQWKqnhHq0t2FkGSOJshSd7SGBYfHNDfj3wxSOH65D6C0/s1600/as+facebook.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq-wKCbmA-s7EvXkeon2qZMnllyT8BOV0-qj1T_BCICzVuZoh8PXmnCVyvdKn5sKYPLE9lAoJdLr35QEFdA_OflwOhPSp-pjsQWKqnhHq0t2FkGSOJshSd7SGBYfHNDfj3wxSOH65D6C0/s320/as+facebook.JPG" /></a></div>It won't come as much of a surprise to anyone who knows me at all that the death of Alan Sillitoe last week came as a real blow to me. I didn't know Alan well, but we had met a few times and he'd been an enduring support to my career all the way. More than that, his books and writing were part of what inspired me to write in the first place. I can't express what his letters, quotes and general support meant to me.<br />
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The first time I met Alan Sillitoe was when I was revising for my 'O' level English. Not in person, but on the page, that most famous passage of Arthur's journey down the stairs used as an extract in one of the past papers we were looking at. I was immediately taken with his writing, with the fact it was Nottingham, proper Nottingham, the place I knew, and with the vivid scenes he painted. I had read a lot of Lawrence before this but had never come across Sillitoe. And so something began, something deep inside me about writing (which was something I'd always wanted to do) and about Nottingham too. It would take twenty years to develop into my first novel The Killing Jar but I believe that this moment is where the book began.<br />
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I finally met the man himself those twenty years on. It was at a production of the theatre adaptation of Saturday Night and Sunday Morning at Lakeside Arts Centre. We walked out so that Chad could smoke and, of course, Alan was also smoking. I didn't say much to him - just hello - but the timing felt significant. Just the day before, I'd received my first proof copy of The Killing Jar from Chatto. I wished I had it with me. It was the only copy of the book I had but I would have handed it to Alan there and then without a quiver of indecision. As it was, I stood with my husband and tried not to stare. Then a journalist walked over and began talking to Alan about the Arctic Monkeys and their use of his words in the title of their debut album <a href="http://www.arcticmonkeys-store.co.uk/am/albums/09-04-09/whatever-people-say-i-am-thats-what-im-not/">Whatever people say I am, that's what I'm not. </a><br />
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It strikes me that this is something Alan Sillitoe did really well, reaching across the generations. Nottingham had become a very different place since he wrote SNSM but there was something essential about the book, about being young, about kicking out against the system. Something important. Not only had it spoken to me but to the even younger Arctic Monkeys and, when I did a search on MySpace, it seemed to a whole raft of other young men and women. Brilliant Nottingham Culture mag <a href="http://www.leftlion.co.uk/">Left Lion</a> quoted him too, choosing his words for their own motto:<i> All the rest is propaganda. </i><br />
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Since then I've met Alan a number of times. The day I got my Betty Trask, when I finally did get chance to give him a copy of my book, which I was thrilled that he asked me sign, and put my address in so he could write to me afterwards. Write to me he did. In fact, we sparked up quite a bit of a correspondence for the next three and a bit years. His kind words about my writing will stay with me for a long time and his letters will be something I cherish until the day I die. I feel an immense sense of privilege to be able to pull them out from the safe place I keep them and see Alan's own handwriting telling me to 'keep on keeping on'.<br />
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I had a dream a couple of days after he died. I was living in a really run down house, a right hovel, with peeling wallpaper and bare pipes that leaked, nasty carpet with ground in dirt and Alan Sillitoe was coming to visit me there. I felt embarrassed. He was this great writer, and used to a bit of luxury, and here was I offering him a cup of tea in my dingy place. Of course, he didn't seem to mind. Then we went outside. The garden was massive, acres and acres of green stretching for miles and miles. I pointed it out to him. I told him about my plans for the wonderful things I was going to build on that land. <br />
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Sometimes I think the subconscious is the most beautiful thing in the world.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-905139363605160477.post-26273641257162128302010-03-11T19:24:00.001+00:002010-03-12T22:36:42.778+00:00On writing a novel... quickly...I have finished my departure novel.<br />
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At the risk of inciting sickness, jealousy or furious ire, I'm going to admit here that the bulk of the novel was written in a week and half. I edited it over the course of two days and then I sent it to my agent. We've now spoken about a couple of minor revisions and he's sending it out next week to editors.<br />
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I posted word counts as I went on Facebook and was told off by a friend for making it all sound too easy. In fact, this friend and I, we used to joke all the time about the adverts you saw in magazines like <a href="http://www.writersnews.co.uk/main/default.asp">Writers' News</a> that began with the headline 'Why not be a writer?' as if it was as easy as having the idea. We used to talk about one particular aspiring friend who was bashing out the words like nonsense and we suspected was looking round the room shouting 'Look no hands!' as she did it. And that's probably the way I looked when I was writing this novel.<br />
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The thing was, thanks to new and consuming work commitments, I had a short time horizon to get a draft out. It was that week or probably not at all. So I set myself a daily word count target of six thousand words that even I found ridiculous. Then the first day, I wrote them. And the second day, I wrote them. Three days in and my draft had doubled in size. The next day, I was halfway there. There was something incredibly refreshing about getting through the project so quickly. There were other advantages too; It was easy to keep the story in my head, to remember where I was and what the characters had done.<br />
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Don't get me wrong, the actual writing I did in that week and half was really the conclusion of lots of work I'd done on the project. I'd planned the book meticulously, thought about it at length, talked it out to my most trusted writing allies. I had read around, finding every similar novel I could get my hands on and reading it, revisiting others that I'd read years before but wanted to have more fresh in my mind. In the background, I had done all my homework so that when it came to writing the book, it flowed, and I knew exactly what I wanted to do.<br />
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So, no, it isn't that easy to write a novel. That said, the process made me think a little. As a touring writer, I hear the same things again and again when I go to meet readers. These vary from generic questions (Where do you get your ideas from? What are your writing habits? Do you use a computer or write it longhand with a pen?) to specific ones about my books (What happened to Jon? What was it Kerrie found in the outhouse?) to wistful statements about the art of writing. (I'd love to write a book, What a marvellous thing to have done, I've always wanted to write a book.)<br />
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It's the last of these that came to mind after I'd finished my draft of this novel. <i>I've always wanted to write a book. </i>I remember once mentioning to an acquaintance I bumped into on the tube 'I want to write' and his counter 'Who doesn't?' and he was so very right, I've worked out now.<br />
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So who <i>does </i>write? What makes the difference? I can only say what I say to anyone who comes out with this statement and their wistful far away eyes. <i>Do it. </i>It possibly sounds trite and simplistic, but I really believe that's all you need to do. Put one word in front of another, hold your breath and write until you get to the end. (By trial and error I have found that for me it's better to have some idea where I'm going before I start out. Although, I've also found that the only way to learn how to write a novel is to try it and fail a few times...)<br />
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An English teacher I worked with years and years ago, one of the crowd who'd gone into teaching because of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097165/">Dead Poet's Society</a> and been sorely disappointed in leaky, crumbling comps, he once told me that he thought I lived by the film's motto and did seize the day. I wasn't sure at the time; mostly I thought I lived day to day and didn't think too carefully about anything but, in hindsight, he might have had a point. I surprised myself in the last few weeks. I decided I was writing the novel quickly, and I wrote it. <i>Quickly. </i><br />
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I hope that I don't come across as arrogant on this post or you think I'm showing off. That would mean I haven't got my point across very well at all. Really, I want to stress that, whilst it might not be easy, writing a novel is possible. It really does get done one word at a time.<br />
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Right. I want you all standing on your desks with a fist to your chest. Come on! Carpe Diem you lot!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-905139363605160477.post-2915597250923158032010-02-24T13:56:00.000+00:002010-02-24T13:56:10.961+00:00Authors' Club First Novel Award EventThe Authors' Club First Novel Award lastest shortlisted writers will be talking about their work at Waterstone's in Piccadilli later this month. I won this prize a couple of years ago and I have to say it's one of the nicest things that has happened to me since I got published in 2006. The event should be a good un so do get in touch with Waterstone's direct to book your tickets.<br />
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Well, one of the searches on 'deadly poisonous' came up with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanita_muscaria">Fly Agaric,</a> which surprised me somewhat as I knew this mushroom was taken as an hallucinogenic and, as far as I was aware, people didn't tend to die from taking it. A little further investigation revealed the the poisons lost their potency, although none of their hallucinogenic properties, upon drying and treating in various ways. <br />
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I couldn't help but wonder how people found this out, and how they ever knew it might be safe to eat Fly Agaric, so I dug a little deeper. What I discovered was the most fascinating symbiosis of man and animal, both in search of the ultimate high. <br />
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It all started with reindeer junkies. Yep, it's official, reindeer love a bit of fly agaric. They will hunt it out and can sniff it from several kilometres away. In fact, the easiest way, apparently, to attract deer to an area is to put down some cut up Fly Agaric and they will come running. And jumping. Because one of the effects of these mushrooms on the deer is that they get very energetic, and jump around, much higher than they usually would. <br />
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Where do the people come in? Well, apparently, indigenous laplanders would watch the reindeer as they ate the mushrooms and pranced and danced, and they wanted some of it. They knew the mushrooms eaten raw could be poisonous so instead of eating them themselves, they fed them to the deer and drunk the deer's urine. <br />
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I'm still trying to picture the first time this happened. How could it possibly have gone? <em>Well, mate, I think if we drink their wee we might get quite high. Okay, yes, let's give it a go. </em>Hmmm... Not sure. But apparently that was what happened and the Lapps got high too. <br />
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The next bit is priceless. You know how Santa has a sleigh, right, and how it's pulled by flying reindeer? Well... It's thought that this entire picture came from hallucinating Laps, watching hallucinating reindeer jump really high and seeing them fly off into the night. I love that in and of itself but there's still more. The crafty deer didn't leave it at that, with the laps drinking their wee and having all the fun. Oh no. When their partners in crime urinated on the snow, the deer ate that, thus completing a very neat, <a href="http://www.cannabisculture.com/articles/3136.html">trippy circle of high</a> and making the most of the harvested mushrooms. <br />
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Sometimes you really couldn't make it up.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-905139363605160477.post-30604927644530262362010-02-15T15:21:00.000+00:002010-02-15T15:21:09.364+00:00Long time no blogWell, it has been a while since I last blogged. In my defence, I have been ridiculously busy since Christmas. New job, two novels to write, readings to prepare. I did promise to keep you updated on the double book chase so here goes. Familiar Friend is lagging well behind at just 8850 words for the moment. This is mostly because I want to take my time with this book, make it as good as I can. I'm waiting until I have more time for it.<br />
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Departure Dan, though, has taken on a life of his own. I've been quite surprised how the story, planned chapter by chapter from day one, has decided it knows better than me where it should go. I always find there is a moment in writing a novel when everything begins to slot together, and make lots more sense than you thought it ever could, and I've found this moment feels closer on this first draft than it ever has at this stage with my previous books. I'm writing at a rate of knots right now, and have got about 15000 words down in the last few days. Altogether now, I have just under 40 000 words, about half way there.<br />
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My next event is at Beeston Library next Monday, 22nd February, where I will be reading from one of my favourite books of all time Sillitoe's <i>Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. </i>See the flyer below for more details.<br />
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Right, back to Desperate Dan. I mean Departure Dan... That book I'm writing anyway.<br />
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</i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-905139363605160477.post-19311250253849155192009-12-24T22:55:00.000+00:002009-12-24T22:55:05.474+00:00Happy Christmas and all that....A little note to wish all you lovely boggers out there a very Merry Christmas, as well as a happy and prosperous New Year. I hope to blog a little more regularly again soon. I promise to try.<br />
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I will be making no New Year resolutions because I don't believe in them. I do have a few wishes for the New Year, though.<br />
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1. For COD Modern Warfare 2 to be changed overnight so that the guns make tinkly music sounds instead of blast and the bombs explode to the sound of Karma Charmeleon.<br />
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2. For my husband's sideburns to grow even more bushy and look even more like baby hedgehogs.<br />
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3. For more people to say things like <a href="http://debialper.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-book-of-decade.html">this </a>about my books. (Thank you Debi. I know it's all heartfelt but it means a LOT to me that you took the time to say it.) <br />
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That's about it really. See you in 2010. (How are we supposed to say this date. Twenty ten - which sounds a bit like cricket - or two thousand and ten? Neither seems to trip off the tongue.)<br />
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Time to wrap things up now. In more ways than one.<br />
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Nicola xUnknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-905139363605160477.post-36313539115770996692009-11-28T20:51:00.000+00:002009-11-28T20:51:11.081+00:00Two novels...I'm in the middle of an interesting writing experiment, which is one of the reasons I haven't blogged for so long. I've been working on a new novel. In fact, I've been working on two new novels. One of them is recognisable territory for me. A certain city, a particular lifestyle. Maybe even a couple of familiar characters. The second one is a bit of a departure. I'm enjoying departing. It's always fun to try new things.<br />
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The newest thing of all is that I am writing them both at the same time. Having a go at each in turn depending on how I'm feeling at the time. I've planned them both, one in more detail than the other but, then, that's the departure and it's the kind of book that needs more structure. I've started writing both too. I'm expecting both to round off somewhere near the one hundred thousand word mark. To top it all, I've just started a new and intense job that is extremely worthwhile and, at the same time, very challenging. This is emotionally rewarding work and I am glad I'm doing it but, at the same time, it has wiped me out this last week and I was quite unwell by Friday. <br />
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So, that's the experiment. Can I in and out of two extremely different novels without either of them suffering at the same time holding down a real job in the real world? As far as the writing goes, so far, so good, but it's such early days that I'm not submerged in either yet, and not taken over by the characters and their stories. Maybe it will take longer for that to happen, a bit like the way a child growing up bilingual takes longer to learn to talk in either language. The thing about a child growing up bilingual, though, is that she will have a better command of language in principle in the end, when she learns to talk, and find learning new tongues much easier than the average person.<br />
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I watched with interest this November's National Novel Writing Month and nearly joined in but wisely changed my mind at the last moment. I did think it might be motivating to have something going on that tracks my progress, though, so I've decided to blog my word counts.<br />
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Let's call my new novels<i> Familiar Fred </i>and <i>Departure Dan</i>, for the sake of this exercise. Here are the scores on the doors. <br />
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<i>Familiar Fred </i>7235<br />
<i>Departure Dan</i> 2419 <br />
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A domain mes amies. Or perhaps a few days after... If I ever have the energy to blog again, that is.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-905139363605160477.post-74970014107949304402009-10-19T20:26:00.001+01:002009-10-19T20:26:25.065+01:00The Hockley HustleAm appearing in the Left Lion spoken word event again, this time at the Hockley Hustle. This one's not free, but the tickets you buy gives you an armband for access to all the events, and it's for charity.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Murder, Madness and Fantasy.... </span><br style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Celebrating the last day of summer, LeftLion presents their darkest spoken word event yet. From 4pm – 8pm they’ll take you to the oddities of the Victorian freak show, down the cold clean corridors of the mental asylum, across time, space and galaxies and then back for one final fantasy you’ll never forget... </span></span></b> <br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Final Fantasy </span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">7.40 +: Al Needham (Todger Talk)</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Speculative Fictions </span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">6.50 – 7.30: Damien Walter (Guardian blogger) in conversation with Mark Charan Newton (Nights of Villjamur) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">6.20 – 6.45: James Johnson (erth chronicles)</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Madness and Murder</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">5.50 – 6.10: Nicola Monaghan (The Killing Jar, Starfishing)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">5.10 – 5.50 Ann Featherstone (Walking in Pimlico) in conversation with Rod Maddocks (No Way to Say Goodbye)</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Myth, Magic and Mayhem</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">4.40 – 5.00 Aly Stoneman and Milk </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">4.20 – 4.40 King Henry (England, my England)** </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">4.00 – 4.20 Joss Ink – (Leading a Horse to Water) </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Extreme content warning, imagine P G Wodehouse with turrets... </span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-905139363605160477.post-69044984872437605112009-10-04T22:57:00.000+01:002009-10-04T22:57:29.948+01:00The Circus versus The Fair.'It's not fair!' I used to moan at my mum when I was a little girl, in that annoying, whiny voice kids use when they want something, the kind of voice that makes you want to give them anything they say if they'll just stop. 'It's not fair till October,' my mum used to say. That used to be true when I was little. And when October came and you went to the fair, made yersen sick with too much candy floss and mushy peas (an appetising mix) and then the waltzers, your head snapping back as they went too fast and you screamed to make them go faster. You came away wearing your Kiss me Quick hat feeling nauseous, worn out and completely satisified with your lot.<br />
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These days, though, I don't know. Me and the dear husband have a bit of a problem with the fair in October, the<a href="http://www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/goosefair/about.htm"> Goose Fair</a>. I mean, it looks kinda pretty, from the road at night with all the lights on, and there are a few rides that look kinda impressive. I noticed this time round some contraption of flying swings that went way higher than any similar fairground attraction I've ever seen, as well as a log flume and a smallish rollercoaster, all really a mile away from the big wheel and Wall of Death that were the highlights of my teenage fairs.<br />
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The problem for me starts when you walk down Gregory Boulevard or any of the surrounding streets. There's a lack of atmosphere. There's a lack of, well, a lack of much sign that you're approaching the fair. The side shows and fortune tellers used to run all the way down the boulevard, and lots of the other surrounding streets, but they just don't anymore. Maybe these kinds of attraction just don't get the punters in anymore, but it doesn't feel like Goose Fair with so few of them.<br />
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It doesn't get better as you walk inside. For me, these days, there's just something missing from Goose Fair. A vital thing, like a heart or a soul. It feels dead inside, and smaller than it used to. That could be the difference in my relative size but I don't think it is. I've been there as a teenager and as an adult. I believe it genuinely is smaller than it used to be. And don't get me started on the prices, or the rip off stalls where you are guaranteed a prize, but it never turns out to be one of the massive, great stuffed Disney cuddlies on display... There's inflation, and then there's taking the piss. <br />
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This year, we went to the circus instead. That is, the <a href="http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/music/Pub-news-Circus-Extravaganza-Canning-Circus/article-1385122-detail/article.html">Circus Extravaganza</a> organised by <a href="http://www.leftlion.co.uk/">Left Lion</a>. This event was free. Yeah, you heard right. Free. It didn't cost a thing. To be honest, I couldn't really go to Goose Fair instead because I was signed up to read at the spoken word. But that's not the point.<br />
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I was really glad we went to the circus instead of Goose Fair. We hung around for the entire spoken word event. It was by far the best event of its type I've been involved in. I read with a lovely young lady, and a fabulous writer, <a href="http://megantaylorblogstories.blogspot.com/">Megan Taylor</a>, and we had conferred beforehand so that we chose pieces with a certain synergy. I shared a new story, one that no one had read or workshopped. It was a dark story about childhood, and some of the daft things adults tell kids. It seemed to go down well. After this there was some fabulous poetry, including the beautiful <a href="http://www.phrasedandconfused.co.uk/?page_id=243">Aly Stoneman</a>, accompanied on guitar by her friend Milk. After this <a href="http://us.macmillan.com/author/alneedham">Al Needham</a> interviewed <a href="http://thegirlfriendexperience-bea.blogspot.com/">Rebecca Dakin</a>, author of <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Girlfriend-Experience-Rebecca-Bea-Dakin/dp/1844547523/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254471883&sr=8-1">The Girlfriend Experience</a>. Somehow I knew <a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/09769299051936139851">Nottingham's Mr Sex </a>would find the right questions to ask, and he didn't let us down. Rebecca came across as bubbly and very genuine, and we bought the book. <br />
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The event climaxed (a good word under the circumstances) with a reading by Al of extracts from his award winning blog <a href="http://todgertalk.blogspot.com/">Todger Talk</a>. It were mint, as our Al would've said. It was all bloody funny, but the highlights for me were<a href="http://todgertalk.blogspot.com/2009/10/mr-sex-and-brick-shithouses-of.html"> this little peach</a>, and then <a href="http://todgertalk.blogspot.com/2008/02/mr-sex-another-lovely-porn-letter.html">this one</a>, which was his closing shot, if you'll pardon my exact choice of words, under the circumstances. Brilliant. I can't wait for Al's book, which he bloody well better write or I'll send some of me mates from Broxta after him. <br />
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We left all this behind and went out looking for a good band. We were spoiled for choice, with stuff going on at all the pubs in the area. We were also lucky enough to catch Shop's dead celebrity reinactment of the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtyJbIOZjS8">Thriller Video.</a> It's not every day you get to see Michael Jackson, Freddy Mercury, Kurt Cobain, Audrey Hepburn, Heath Ledger and Marilyn Monroe, amongst others, dancing together on the streets of Nottingham. You definitely wouldn't get it at the fair. It was class. (And they knew all the moves.)<br />
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Perhaps the best thing about the entire evening was the way it felt around Canning Circus. There was a real sense that there was something special going on. A proper atmosphere. You wouldn't get that at Goose Fair either. <br />
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Nice one Left Lion crew. You did real good.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0