Tuesday 23 December 2008

First Draft of the Kafka's Aunt Letters is Complete

This is just to announce the completion of a project I have been working on with the very generous Vanessa Gebbie. Who would have thought that it would come to this. The start was a little flash fiction letter thrown up by Vanessa on Fiction Workhouse. I couldn't think what to say about it so wrote a letter of reply. And this gave birth to two incredibly fascinating characters and a story to tell. Now, at just over 77,ooo words, and dozens and dozens of letters fired back and forth, the first draft is done.

To live with a project like this for six months, for it to be ever in one's thoughts, and then for it to be done... feels both like an incredible achievement and a great loss.

Of course, there is a lot to be covered in the edit, but this is an amazing piece of work... or at least it was the most amazing experience writing it. Writers are not always good at the collaborating stuff... this shows what a rich vein it can be.

I want here to publicly thank Vanessa for gifting me this opportunity.

And to the rest of the reading world: you have GOT to read this work.

Sunday 23 November 2008

PUSHCART NOMINATION - and The Delinquent take a flash

'Blood Orange Review', who earlier in the year took my flash version of 'A Pebble From The River For Annie', have just given me a Pushcart Nomination... I don't know much about this, but think it must be quite good. It means a few more people will read the piece and I do like that.

And Jason and Jeremy from 'The Delinquent' have agreed to take one of my flashes for their magazine... so November definitely has more of a shine to it now.

Friday 21 November 2008

Almost a Legend

Just found out I am second in this year's 'Legend Writing Award' with a storylength version of 'A Pebble From the River for Annie'... this was originally a flash fiction piece that has done quite well in at least two incarnations... and now the fuller story has some recognition.

And Vestal Review have taken a flash about my late dad... and that is so special.

Have bombed in a few comps this month, so was thinking November a bit grey... now it's a lot shinier.

Saturday 1 November 2008

The Last Grand Illusion gets a nod from Bridport

First, a big congrats to Vanessa Gebbie for having one of her poems recognised by the judges at Bridport. Vanessa taking her first baby steps into poetry - and already making giant strides! Brilliant... and no surprise to me really.

And one of my stories gets a nod too - no prize but there on the shortlist: 'The Last Grand Illusion'. Something to be pleased about, I think.

Tuesday 14 October 2008

LIKE RAYMOND CARVER AND ANNIE PROULX!!!

My story, 'Barken Mad Sometimes', has just been posted on HISSAC's site and Clio Gray has said some more kind things about the story and the writing: Comparing it to Carver and Proulx. It's not enough that you win their competition, and they send you a very flattering e-mail to tell you, and then follow with a pretty certificate that says more nice things about your writing, and with a big fat cheque - not enough all that, but they then post up your story and say publicly some wonderful things about your writing.

Thanks to Clio Gray

Thursday 9 October 2008

A Win at HISSAC

HISSAC (Highlands and Islands Short Story Award Competition 2008) sent me word, some much hoped for news:

'I am absolutely delighted to let you know that 'BARKEN, MAD SOMETIMES' has won first prize in this year's Annual Highlands and Islands Short Story competition.

It is a brilliant story, and was so from beginning to end, and had all the judges entranced. It fought off stiff competition, but there was little quibbling at the final judges' meeting, and the decision was unanimous.'

Thanks to Vanessa Gebbie who was midwife to this story.

Monday 6 October 2008

Two Girls What I KNow

Check out ECLECTICA and read two poems by the wonderful Vanessa Gebbie 'Ice Cream' and 'On The Coal Tip'... fabulous.

And on the same site a short story by Chelsey Flood... 'So Small and So Far Away'... a neat wee flash with some strong emotional kicks.

And I've worked with both these girls!

Well done both.

Sunday 21 September 2008

Calling on you writers!

Ethan on Fiction Workhouse has thrown up some intersting questions for writers to consider. See what you think.

1) As a reader, how long can you stand to be lost (not engrossed--I mean LOST) in a fiction? A paragraph? A page? A chapter? Half a novel? An entire story? Try to think of specific examples of when you got off the bus and why, or when you persevered and why.

2) As a writer, how fearful are you of losing the reader with a difficult passage? Do you have the tolerance to risk your readers being a little (or plenty) disoriented for a paragraph, a page, a chapter, half a novel? An entire story? When do you pull the trigger and opt for clarity, linearity, and/or clear signals as to where you're going and what you mean? Try to think of specific examples in your own work, if possible.

3) Philosophically, what's your tolerance for complexity? If a story lays out a set of implications, but doesn't close with a single, clear resolution, does it drive you up the wall? Or are you a sucker for open-endedness? Any examples stick in your memory for either? Would you say your reading preference in this regard drives your own writing in any way? Any specific examples?

4) What about simply being in over your head? If you can't suss out the meaning of a fiction the first time round, or the second time round, do you think black, black thoughts about the author, or do you dive back in again either for the pleasure or neurosis of finding out more? If it depends, what makes the difference for you? Any specific examples here would be really, really interesting...

5) What about when you've written something, and you have strong feelings about it, but after you've finished a pretty good draft, you still have no idea what it means...do you simply set it free and let everyone else worry about All That Deep Stuff? Do you lose sleep over what you're saying before you loose it on the world? Can you live with a strange beast emerging from your lair, or must you tame it first? Any specific examples?

Wednesday 17 September 2008

And a wee bit more

'The Eildon Tree' have taken a second flash fiction piece of mine and will publish in November.

And 'foto8' will publish online three flashes from the crew of Fiction Workhouse: Vanessa Gebbie, Ethan Anderson, and me. We all wrote in response to a black and white photograph and the picture will appear online along with the three pieces of writing. Congrats to all!

Tuesday 16 September 2008

Good news September

Some of my flash fiction to appear in 'The Ranfurly Review', 'The Smoking Poet' and 'The Eildon Tree'. And one flash piece goes live on 'The Blood Orange Review' later this week.

And Vanessa finds her family; and Julia finds inspiration and her smile; and though it is chucking down rain, and rain, and rain, still it feels like a good month.

Tuesday 2 September 2008

A wee bit magic

Ok, so I didn't win the Kelpie's Prize 2008... a nice woman called Sharon Tregenza did. But Floris Books have e-mailed me to say they would still like to publish my 'Chesspiece Magician' and that should happen in the Autumn next year. I will be read, a book sitting on a bookshelf in shops and libraries, and read - albeit in the previous incarnation of being a children's writer. Now if only my fiction could also break into the adult market.

Monday 25 August 2008

Storyglossia like my 'Sufferin'

Today Storyglossia have put up one of my short stories in their (prestigious) online magazine... up there with exalted company. The piece they thought 'excellent' (Steve McDermott's word, not mine) is 'Sufferin's For Them as is Left With The Loss'. Take a wee look and see.

Friday 22 August 2008

Aoife's Kiss - love my flash

'Aoife's Kiss' don't usually publish flash fiction within their covers, but they liked my piece called 'HER EYES STILL GREEN' - liked it so much that they have scooped it up. It is a piece based on reports made by two medieval monks on The Green Children of Wolfpit. According to the monks, two children, skin as green as moss, climbed out of a pit where the bodies of dead wolves were thrown. They spoke in a tongue no one recognised. They were taught 'English' and were eventually able to report that they came from a twilight place called St Martin's Land, where everything was bathed in a pale green light. It was thought that they came from the moon or some land of faerie.

'Aoife's Kiss' will publish my flash fiction story in their December issue.

Thursday 14 August 2008

Writing is a sort of Madness - so is not!

Read this today... caught my eye... as a lot of Kafka does just now:

"Writing sustains me. But wouldn't it be more accurate to say that it sustains this kind of life? Which does not, of course, mean that my life is any better when I don't write. On the contrary, at such times it is far worse, wholly unbearable, and inevitably ends in madness. This is, of course, only on the assumption that I am a writer even when I don't write – which is indeed the case; and a non-writing writer is, in fact, a monster courting insanity."

– Franz Kafka to Max Brod, July 5, 1922

It feels sort of right, for this writer, for me.

Friday 8 August 2008

A little sparkle

August should be an interesting month... that was always going to be the case and already it has some sparkle. I have taken on an administrative role with Fiction Workhouse following the departure of the leading voice. Sad to see Vanessa depart, but hopefully to bigger and better things for her. She and I will continue to craft the Kafka's Aunt letters until we reach a conclusion.

Just discovered that I was placed second in The Interpreter's House short story competition with my story 'Paper Swans'. (That's the little sparkle)

Ahead lies the announcement of the winner of this year's Kelpies Prize. I get to be a writer at the Edinburgh Book Festival on the evening of 25th August where the Kelpies Prize will be awarded.

It's funny how writing can work. The things you expect to do well don't always, and the things you think a little incomplete and unpolished seem to shine... sometimes at least.

Doing some flash fiction inspired by colours at the moment, just to see where they go.

And revisiting some older, less recognised work... with new eyes and a big red pen... doing a teacher on myself.

All in the first week of the month.

Wednesday 30 July 2008

Scratches - but no claws

This in response to a flash fiction piece where a cat gets drowned in a sack at the end of a relationship. Thought 'The Delinquent' might be less squeamish than most... still this is one of those really nice rejections:

Dear Douglas,

What can I say? We’re cat-lovers. So our instincts ran a little contra to the story, although it was clearly well written. And being cat-lovers we couldn’t decide whether the story wasn’t simply gratuitous, albeit poetically so. Factor in 127,000 words of submissions and a bit of procrastination on the decision making and… you can see where this is heading… we didn’t choose to include 'Scratches' in Issue 6 of the delinquent.

But we would like to see some more of your work for the next issue.

All the best,

Jason & Jeremy

www.thedelinquent.co.uk

Sunday 20 July 2008

SPARKS - sometimes

I used to worry about the why of writing. Worried, too, about whether I had something to say and looked for truths to share with others that would make their reading of my writing worth something. Now I see it differently and trust that what I say will be worth listening to, not for the messages so much as for the telling... of stories. And where they come from is always a mystery, handed to me it seems sometimes, sparking off things seen or dreamed, words heard or lines read.

At the moment I am embarked on a truly exciting project with another writer. She wrote a flash fiction piece, posted it on a writers' forum, a letter from someone who calls herself Kafka's Aunt. The letter begged for a response, or so I felt, and so I replied, in character. Almost fifty letters later an intriguing surreal relationship has developed between a lower government official and an elderly woman complaining about the state of road crossings where she walks, and stories spinning off of what she writes and what he writes, like magic, like sparks and the sparks bright and sharp.

Kafka's Aunt is Vanessa Gebbie.

Watch this space for news.

Saturday 19 July 2008

CINNAMON AND SALT - SWEET

Two more good 'hits' for this week. 'SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD AND MORE' was a finalist in the Cinnamon Short Story Award and will be published in an anthology.

AND 'An Iquitos Story' gained an honourable mention in The Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition. Success on the other side of the pond counts double.

Wednesday 16 July 2008

A Hit and a Miss

Today in my mail box:

Dear Douglas,

Thank you for your submission to Transmission #12.

I am happy to inform you that we will be publishing your story "A Carnival Heart" in this issue.

Your story will be sent out and illustrated by one of our artists. The finished issue will be published on 26th September 2008. We will keep in touch with any further developments.

Best wishes,
Graham
Transmission


AND

Thanks for sending this story, 'Most Of Us Is Half Dead Already, And Maybe We LIkes It That Way'. We have decided not to publish it in Fictitious Force. Best success selling it elsewhere.
Take care,
Jonathan


Some you win and some you lose... but sometimes... such a sweet win, and a carnival heart beating.
Both of these are flash fiction pieces.

Friday 11 July 2008

To Be An Angel



The Fish Anthology 2008 went on sale this week. I have a story included: 'To Be An Angel' which was inspired by 'The Angel Project', an art installation that began life in the tower of London, was later expanded and moved to Perth in Australia, and post 9/11 it opened in Manhattan, New York. 'The Angel Project' presented those viewers who persevered with a 'real' experience of confronting angels. The angels were actors employed to be totally silent, and still, with strict instructions not to commune with the earthly customers. This was such an intriguing proposition that this story just begged to be written.

Because someone said I should

It's what you do, someone told me. In today's world. Don't get left behind, they said. Just do it. You'll see. It's easy. So here I am and not really sure of what I am doing. Doing it because someone said I should. I write, you see. Fiction mostly. And want to be read. And this is a way to get seen, I am led to believe. So Here I am.

I am a teacher at a high school near Edinburgh in Scotland. I graduated from the University of Aberdeen with honours in English and Philosophy. But it was later, studying Graphics and Ilustration at Edinburgh College of Art, that I discovered I could write. I have been writing ever since.

I began by writing children’s stories and books, have a whole bottom drawer full of yellowing manuscripts. ‘The Chesspiece Magician’ is just one of them, written after a visit to The National Museum of Scotland in 1996 where I saw an exhibition on The Lewis Chessmen and got the idea for the book. I threw it in to The Kelpies Prize 2008 and now find that I am shortlisted, one of three. Will know more on the evening of August 25th when I attend the awards ceremony at the Edinburgh Book Festival.

In recent years I have gained a great deal of recognition with my short story writing. I have been placed in over forty UK based writing competitions over the past two years and have been published in many competition anthologies as well as in The Eildon Tree Literary Magazine. I have also been published by Leaf Books, Cinnamon Press, Fish Publishing and Scottish Borders Council. And, having been highly commended in the recent Cadenza Magazine Story competition, will soon appear in its pages, too.

Oh, and in 2005 I was voted Forth One’s Teacher of The Year – probably because I tell my pupils such great stories.

Watch this space... if for no other reason to see a technophobe fumbling his way through this blogging game.

More will follow.