A conversation with myself

‘How’s your album prompts project going? Are you getting anywhere?’

‘Slowly.’

‘How many flashes have you written?’

‘Not as many as I would like.’

‘How many?’

‘Six, I think.’

‘That’s good, isn’t it? So six stories all ready to submit?”

‘Well they’re sort of in a transient phase of development.’

‘They’re not finished?’

‘Er, yeah.’

‘That’s not exactly prolific is it? Calum Kerr wrote one a day for an entire year.’

‘That’s just annoying isn’t it? Anyway he’s the director of National Flash Fiction Day. He should be good at it. And I’ve been busy.’

‘Doing what?’

‘The day thing then submitting things, getting things published, flash slamming in Oxford. Oh and reading Tania Hershman’s book. You should get it, you know.’

‘My Mother Was An Upright Piano. I’m reading it too.’

‘Good isn’t it? And she’s lovely too. Met her last week.’

‘Brilliant book and she was encouraging about that story you wrote for the flash event. That should inspire you to write more. Bet she didn’t get good by making excuses.’

’S’pose not. Better go and write something then, hadn’t I?’

‘Yep, that’s what writers do. Come back when you’ve got something worth talking about.’

‘OK. I’m going. Any chance of a coffee first?’

‘Get on with it!’

‘OK, OK’

Exit stage left pursued by nagging self. 

Down By the River

My flash story ‘Down By the River’ is being published today (22nd May) on 1000 Words .

1000words is a project celebrating the first ever National Flash Fiction Day  held in the UK on May 16th 2012. As they describe the project

‘It has been said that a picture paints a thousand words. Well, if that’s true, a thousand words must also write a picture. And that’s what this project is all about: writing a story from a picture prompt. For the last couple of months, people have been sending us stories written in response to the images on our Pinterest board, and over the course of May and early June we will be posting the best of them.’

Thanks to Natalie for choosing my story and all the best for the project.

National Flash Fiction Day – Flash Slamming in Oxford

Yesterday, May 16^th 2012, as I’m sure we all know by now, was the very first National Flash Fiction Day. Congratulations to Calum Kerr, who devised and organised the whole thing, and to all those who did something to contribute to its success. Articles in national newspapers (and a bit of debate too!), radio slots, live events, anthologies, you name it, it was there. Whether you were starting out in flash or were a seasoned writer, there was something for everyone but fundamentally NFFD has done three things.

Firstly, it’s brought flash fiction to a wider audience. Flash fiction isn’t new, as Tania Hershman pointed out last night in Oxford when she read a wonderful story from Richard Brautigan written in the 1970s, but the last few weeks Flash Fiction seem to have been launched to a wider audience. Yes, there’ll still be people who don’t regard flash fiction as ‘proper’ writing (possibly the same ones who don’t seem to think women can write properly either) but there’s a lot more people now aware that novels are not the be all and end all of fiction and that you don’t just have to write an 80k novel in order to be considered a writer.

Secondly, it’s encouraging people to have a go, either writing for the first time or doing something they might not have thought about before. As an example, Rachel Carter started something for South West writers and before long, it became Flash Fiction South West with a website and an anthology ‘Kissing Frankenstein and Other Stories’ featuring a mix of both experienced and new writers.

Finally, it’s brought the flash fiction community much closer together in both a virtual and real sense. I was very lucky to have found some great writers on Twitter early on when I got back into writing, mainly by chance it has to be said. However, over the last few months, I’ve discovered many more talented people through the site, either directly through things like Flashflood and the Jawbreaker anthology or indirectly through the many offshoots, magazines, events etc which seemed to have coalesced around NFFD. This means more opportunities for writers to show off their talent and more opportunities to read flash fiction.

National Flash-Fiction Day itself was a special day for a number of reasons. My story ‘Kite’ appeared on Flashflood whilst another story ’18’ was published in the very first issue of sixwords which I have to say looks great set against the photograph. In the evening I took part in a ‘Flash Slam’ organised by Dan Holloway along with a dozen other flash fiction writers at the wonderful Albion Beatnik Bookstore  (by the way, forget your Kindle, go and visit it, drink coffee and buy real books that feel and smell wonderful)

I really wanted to meet some of the people I follow on Twitter and this seemed the perfect opportunity. I found it very strange (but equally great) to be greeted by name as I walked through the door. I had been a little nervous in signing up to read one of my stories, especially as the pre-event publicity kicked in but with such a warm welcome, I forgot about being nervous and just enjoyed it.

Listening and reading stories in a group setting was a new experience for me and I took a lot away from the evening to use in the future as well as some talented writers to follow.  Tania Hershman, the Queen of Flash, was as lovely and generous in real life as she is on Twitter and Dan did an amazing job as organiser, host, photographer, time and score keeper. The standard of writing was extremely high and Kevlin Henney took the honours of a competitive but friendly relaxed evening. But, above all, it was about meeting people (with sentences not constrained to 140 characters) and I was especially pleased to meet Rebecca Emin who was one of the very first people I ever followed on Twitter and has been kind to me ever since.

Writing is very much an individual pursuit but last night it felt good to be part of a wider community of writers – flash fiction writers – and, for that alone, National Flash Fiction Day has been a great success. Thank you Calum.

Eight Cuts – Flash Slam

There’s just under a week until National Flash Fiction Day on Wednesday May 16th. I’m marking the day by taking part in the eight cuts – flash slam event at Albion Beatnik Bookstore in Oxford headlined by the ‘Queen of Flash’ Tania Hershman. Like lots of things I do, I signed up without thinking about it but, as the day approaches, I realise the last time I read out one of my stories in public, I was in primary school! So I’ve been polishing my story and reading it out aloud which has made me very conscious of my northern accent. As a result, I’ve had to do some re-writing which hopefully will make it easier to read and to be understood.

I’ve never been to this type of event before, so I have no idea what to expect, but I am really looking forward to hearing other people read their work and to meeting some great writers who have been kind and generous on Twitter. If you’re definitely coming, I’ll see you there. If you’re thinking about it, come anyway and if you’re not, that’s a shame. I’ll let you know how it went.

Whilst we’re talking about National Flash Fiction Day, my flash ‘Kite’ will be featured in the Flashflood National Flash Fiction Day journal at around 9am.

I also learnt this week that the flash anthology #100RPM (with an introduction by Nik Kershaw), in which I have a piece, is due for publication at the end of the month as an e-book. I’m looking forward to seeing all the other stories and the music that inspired them and remember folks, ‘it’s all for charitee.’

Housewife With A Half-Life

Today I’m pleased to be supporting Alison Wells, one of the first of many friendly faces I’ve found on Twitter who is celebrating the publication of her novel Housewife with a Half-Life: 

Susan Strong is a suburban housewife who is literally disintegrating. When Fairly Dave, a kilt-sporting spaceman arrives through the shower head to warn her, she knows things are serious. When she and her precocious four year old twins, Pluto and Rufus, get sucked through Chilled Foods into another universe it gets even messier. Where household appliances are alive and dangerous, Geezers have Entropy Hoovers and the Spinner’s Cataclysmic convertor could rip reality apart, Susan Strong is all that’s holding the world together.

In this madcap, feel-good adventure, Susan and Fairly Dave travel alternate universes to find Susan’s many selves, dodge the Geezers and defeat evil memory bankers. From dystopian landscapes and chicken dinners, to Las Vegas and bubble universes, can Susan Strong reintegrate her bits and will it be enough to save us all?

The ebook is available on Kindle

Amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/Housewife-with-a-Half-Life-ebook/dp/B0080PU5QQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1336289665&sr=8-1

Amazon.co.uk

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Housewife-with-a-Half-Life-ebook/dp/B0080PU5QQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1336288564&sr=8-1

And in a variety of formats on

Smashwords http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/159000

A paperback will be available in June!

About the author

What is a housewife to do when she becomes 42? Write a book about life, the universe and everything. As Alison Wells her more literary writing has been shortlisted in the prestigious Bridport, Fish and Hennessy Awards and she’s been published or is about to be in a wide variety of anthologies and e-zines, including the Higgs Boson Anthology by Year Zero, Metazen, The View from Here, Voices of Angels by Bridgehouse and National Flash Fiction day’s Jawbreakers. She recently won the fiction category of the Big Book of Hope ebook with a flash fiction medley and has a litfic novel The Book of Remembered Possibilities on submission. She blogs for writing.ie in the guest blog: Random Acts of Optimism.  You can find her elsewhere on www.abwells.com and blogging on Head Above Water www.alisonwells.wordpress.com or like A.B. Wells writer on Facebook www.facebook.com/abwellswriter

I know how much work Alison put into this novel during NaNoWriMo (the process that nearly killed me off) and I hope she has a successful novel on her hands.

Top 10 Albums – Writing Prompts

I’ve not written for ages. Ironically the stories I wrote last year and early this year are doing well in terms of submissions but the cupboard has been getting emptier for some time now. Some writers can just seem to get down to it and produce something decent each day. Calum Kerr has recently completed a story a day for the last year but if I tried that without some kind of inspiration or half formed idea, I’d just burn out or write rubbish. However I do need to write more regularly. So what to do?

I’ve found that music and/or writing prompts help (Vanessa Gebbie’s Storygym for example) and one of my stories ‘Baker’s Shop’ (which will appear in 100RPM edited by Caroline Smailes) was prompted by ‘Baker, Baker’ by Tori Amos so I’ve hit on an idea. I’m going to pick 10 of my favourite albums and use each song as a writing prompt (either the feel of the music or the title depending on how I feel) for a flash, or heavens forbid,a short story. That gives me about 100 prompts to start with. I’ve chosen albums that hold up to a lot of repeat listening (which rules artists like The Fall or Bjork, much as I love them, or wrist slashing albums like Fiona Apple’s Tidal – brilliant though it is). I’ve also chosen albums that I think (hope) will give me inspiration:

The ten albums are (in no particular order)

Peter Gabriel – So

Fleetwood Mac – Rumours

Kate Bush – Hounds of Love

Tori Amos – Little Earthquakes

OMD – Architecture & Morality

Lloyd Cole – Rattlesnakes

Pretenders – Loose Screw

Garbage – Garbage

Judie Tzuke – One Tree Less

Ryan Adams – Heartbreaker

As well as the stories, I intend to write about the albums themselves.  I’m finishing a piece of work on Tuesday and then I’m planning to have a few days writing. I’m hoping this will get me writing regularly again and make the process less tortured. Wish me luck.

My Most Beautiful Thing

My most beautiful thing is my camera. Which camera? Any of them. I have six of them at the moment (some are very old!) not counting the one on my phone. It doesn’t matter, any of them plus every camera I have every owned in the past. They’re all equally beautiful but the most important is the one I’m holding when I need it.

Now I could have picked a person, a place or a memory for my most beautiful thing and there are thousands to choose from.  They are all more ‘beautiful’ than a lump of metal and circuitry, more important too. But, I’m overwhelmed by choice and my camera has taken pictures of all of them. The piles of slides, negatives and lately digital files have captured virtually all of the things that I hold dear to me. I have been taking photographs since I was four years old and my life is in those pictures. It seems a natural choice.

Today I’m taking part in the My Most Beautiful Thing Blogsplash to celebrate beautiful things – inspired by Fiona Robyn’s new novel, The Most Beautiful Thing. Bloggers from all over the world are taking part and writing or posting pictures of their most beautiful things today. Find out more here and see everyone else’s blog posts here. 

Longlist and a month to go

I was pleased to make  the long list for the National Flash Fiction Day anthology with my story ‘Kite’. Thanks to Valerie O’Riordan and Calum Kerr who were the judges for putting it through. I really like this story (as much as you can become attached to 275 words!) so I hope it makes the book. I originally wrote it as a 100 word story for another competition but was never quite happy with it but expanding it out has made a big improvement.

We’re now a month off the Day itself and I’m planning to be at the Oxford event in the evening. I’m really looking forward to meeting some of the people I’ve become friends with on Twitter in the last year. I’ve now written something new for the night which is the writing equivalent of buying a new suit for the evening! I’ve never read my work out in public so it’s going to be a bit weird. But it’s going to be even weirder for everyone else trying to understand my Bolton accent!

Freak Out Thursday

Today I’m turning my blog over to ‘FREAKS’ which is being launched this very day in ye old paperback or e-book Kindle thingymebob. It’s a unique collection of short stories with comic book style illustrations written by two of my favourite twitter people, Caroline Smailes (99 Reasons) and Nik Perring (Not So Perfect). It’s illustrated by Darren Craske with the rather tranquil and demure cover designed by leading movie poster designer Sam Bennett.

These short stories explore the more disturbing consequences of ordinary, flawed human beings obtaining superpowers, each featuring a character with an unusual superpower.

Meet The Photocopier, a woman who can reproduce herself at will and attempts to teach her daughter to do the same. The man who can break his way into his lovers dream and the woman in My Little Pony pants who likes to be ridden like a pony (I’m not wholly convinced about that being a super power, I think that’s just a bit of a personal fetish!)

The stories aren’t credited so the reader is left to guess which is written by Caroline or Nik so I’m having fun trying to decide who wrote what (especially the My Little Pony Pants woman ). As someone brought up as a kid on Marvel comics, 2000AD featuring Judge Dredd and Commando (plucky Brits shooting Germans until they emerged from their bunker waving a white flag and wondering at the courage of our glorious WWII troops), I love the the idea of combining the short / flash fiction story  with the comic book and it’s another great example of why I love the vibrancy of short and flash story telling.

If anything else was needed to whet your appetite, here’s one of the stories from the book (I’m guessing Caroline for this one).

SUPER POWER: The ability to make oneself unseen to the naked eye

Invisible

If I stay totally still,

if I stand right tall,

with me back against the school wall,

close to the science room’s window,

with me feet together,

pointing straight,

aiming forward,

if I make me hands into tight fists,

make me arms dead straight,

if I push me arms into me sides,

if I squeeze me thighs,

stop me wee,

if me belly doesn’t shake,

if me boobs don’t wobble,

if I close me eyes tight,

so tight that it makes me whole face scrunch,

if I push me lips into me mouth,

if I make me teeth bite me lips together,

if I hardly breathe,

if I don’t say a word.

Then,

I’ll magic meself invisible,

and them lasses will leave me alone.

 Just a reminder that we’re just over a month off from National Flash Fiction Day so look out for events via the website and help put flash fiction in the spotlight. I’ll be in Oxford on the night (they won’t let me during the day) reading a new story, which I erm… need to write. *exit stage left pursued by nagging doubts*.

Good News Monday

Last week really was good news Monday. I’m doing a bit of management consulting work for a friend’s construction company down in Wimbledon which meant a very early morning start. The journey was made more pleasant by an email telling me that one of my early flash pieces ‘Greyhound’ had been selected for the 2nd Flash Friday anthology and at lunchtime I received another email telling me that one of my ‘small stones’ (very short pieces of observation – flash without a story if you prefer) written in January has been selected for the 2012 Small Stones book. since I set up my submissions spreadsheet, I’ve had four pieces get to at least longlist (for competitions) or acceptance out of eight.
It’s lovely to see some older stories doing well but there’s pressure on to start writing some new ones. There’s loads of competitions and anthologies to submit for and not many stories in the box. I’d better get on with it then.