Tell me how you write ...
Guest-blogging in Part 3 of Teresa Stenson's series Tell Me How You Write. Click here to read.
Guest-blogging in Part 3 of Teresa Stenson's series Tell Me How You Write. Click here to read.
So … another year, another NaNo and the new web badges for 2009’s participants have gone up on the site today.
This time I’m actually going to try to write a novel. Last year it was an exercise in stamina building. Having bound and gagged my inner editor I wrote 61k pure stream of consciousness drivel in three weeks. No, I couldn’t possibly have edited it into shape, but I did learn how to write snappy dialogue, I learned how to let go and found myself with a creative resource that I’ve drawn on for short stories during the year.
In the run-up to 1 November I’ve decided I’m not writing anything apart from ideas in my notebook – a bit like going on a diet then being able to splurge when it’s finished (not that I do that but you know what I mean). I have a title for my ‘novel’, it’s Bending Daisies. As I’ve no idea what I’m writing yet, I’ve no idea what genre it will be either so I’ve listed it under ‘Other Genres’ (not a popular category!). Warning, it may be speculative. It will be quirky. It could be weird but it will be fun. If you fancy joining me on the NaNo site, I’m there as dotseven. Counting down …
A Gate At the Stairs is Lorrie Moore's first novel since Birds of America was published 11 years ago.
Just about to read this interview with Moore at Narrative Magazine and writer Shaindel Beers' review of the book is now up at Contrary Magazine.
I've found a few more links to reviews/interviews with Lorrie, so rather than post them separately I thought I'd add them here, then at least I know where they are when I need to find them again.
First an interview: Boston Globe.
Another review at New York Times plus a book review podcast with Lorrie Moore and Jo Klein again at NYT.
Another review, this one by Deena Drewis at Flatmancrooked ... and some more:
Geoff Dyer on the Guardian's site.
Paul Harris in the Observer.Leo Robson at the New Statesman.Sara Crowley in Waterstone's Books Quarterly.Many thanks to my friends on Twitter: @asalted, @BristolPrize, @shaindelr and @Taniahershman for providing links.
I'll post links to reviews of Moore's other published works as I come across them.
For starters, Sarah Salway reviews Self Help on The Short Review (thanks Tania).
See Bloomsbury are putting out John Irving's new book Last Night in Twisted River in October. The World According to Garp is one of my favourite books. I bought a copy when it first came out in paperback, but lent it to someone ... This afternoon I got round to replacing it with the Weidenfeld & Nicolson special limited edition (published July 2009), one of a series of nine classic books published to celebrate the publisher's 60th anniversary. Can't wait to read it again ...
Afterword: I don't usually go for 'special limited edition' anything, but I liked the die-cut cover (exposing the endpapers) designed by Karl Grandin. More on the series design in Creative Review.
Putting on my red shoes and black mac. Preparing to read (Carolyn Keene's) Nancy Drew ... Close Encounters and Troubled Waters. For Drew afficianados, that'll be #21 and #23 ... (oh, as printed on the covers).
I reported on Unpopular Culture, a Hayward Travelling exhibition curated by Grayson Perry, when it was showing in Preston this time last year. The exhibition continues at the Longside Gallery, Wakefield until 25 October, and finishes at Victoria Art Gallery in Bath (7 November 2009 to 7 January 2010.)
"Artist Grayson Perry curates Unpopular Culture – an Arts Council touring exhibition currently showing at the Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston. Perry’s selection of figurative painting, documentary photography and bronze sculpture is a personal narrative of Britain from the late 1940s to the 1980s. Brilliantly conceived, it juxtaposes stark black and white images of the working class – pub-goers, beauty pageants and harassed dads – alongside vigorous and lyrical paintings by Auerbach, Burra and Carel Weight and bronzes by Moore and Paolozzi.Perry has produced two works in response to the exhibition – a large ceramic vessel inset with cameos of a woman in a headscarf and a bronze skull (a response to Hirst’s Diamond skull), an icon of Britishness and relic of colonialism. Arrangement in Turquoise and Cream (1979-81), a painting by David Hepher dominates the exhibition; the decaying facade of a 1950s tower block is interrupted only by the vibrancy of its ‘grubby’ curtains and a pink blanket – a reminder of the opening scene in Billy Liar which tracks a panoramic vista of post-war urban regeneration along to a sound-bite from Housewife’s Choice.Unpopular Culture is a refreshing and optimistic antidote to the blockbuster show, reflected in its choice of venues; Bexhill-on-Sea, Preston, Durham, Southampton, Aberystwyth, Scarborough, Wakefield and Bath. A cloth-bound catalogue and limited edition silk headscarf designed by Perry accompany the exhibition."
The Short Review was founded by writer and editor Tania Hershman. Each month it brings you:
"... original reviews of new, not-quite-so-new and classic collections and anthologies, written by reviewers many of whom are also short story writers themselves and who love short fiction".
I began working for The Short Review in May and help Tania out with HTML, web stuff and putting new reviews and author interviews online.
You can follow @theshortreview on Twitter.
Not sure how important CW courses are, but they have helped me to write better. The last course (A363 Advanced Creative Writing, Open University) pushed me way out of my comfort zone. I had a great tutor - Andrew Oldham - writer, poet and journalist - and also made a lot of writer friends who gave honest crits, tons of support and helped me focus. I got a distinction.
I submitted the 4000 word story I did for my final assignment to an SF anthology in June. Now I'm waiting for the editor's final decision.
Based in the NW, Diane Becker writes short fiction and is deputy editor of The Short Review. Her writing has appeared on 6S, The Pygmy Giant and Metazen and in the micro-fiction anthology, 6S Vol2.
