PUSHING OUT THE BOAT 13 - launched

I love reading. I love reading out loud and to an audience. It’s a thrill. And to be reading something of one’s own is an especial thrill. I do it any chance I get. So, on Sunday 26^th April, I attended the launch event for ‘Pushing Out The Boat 13’, a literary magazine from the North East, and I got to read from a story in the new edition of the magazine, a story that was mine.

I have been to ‘Pushing Out The Boat’ launches before. They are very civilized events with wine and nibbles and very good company. The venue this time was The Phoenix Hall at Newton Dee on the edge of Aberdeen – and it was splendid and splendidly situated. It was a bit of a drive up and back for me, but I think a writer has an obligation to support such ventures if they can.

I have said before what a fabulous production this magazine is. It is a magazine of poetry and short fiction and art. The art is always beautiful and gives the magazine a very ‘lush’ feel. What I also like is the respect given to individual pieces of writing, the space and the presentation adds to the beauty of the production. No cramming pieces in just to maximise sales.

Artworks were displayed in the entrance area on arrival at the venue. 

Each reader was given a timeslot and strict instructions to stay within a certain limit – a little more time for prose readers than for the poets. There was an excellent turnout and a lot of writers had agreed to read – hence the strict time limit. Some of the readings were lively and the audience laughed; some were intense and thought-provoking, and the audience were thoughtful and quiet; and some were just beautiful – and the audience seemed to appreciate that.

Congratulations to all the writers at the event and all the writers who made it into the print magazine. 

I got to read the opening of my short story ‘Sixteen Years an Asylum Nurse’ and I loved reading it. When reading my own work, it always feels new and like it is not me. And I see the flaws as well as the bits that sing. I sometimes think I should do public readings of all my writing in order to tighten the writing. The story seemed to go down well.

Anyway, a big thank you to the whole team at ‘Pushing Out the Boat’, and thanks for a great launch day and for some wonderful readings, and for including once again a piece of my writing in the magazine. 

One piece stays with me, and that is the quirky piece where a seagull is taken for the soul of a person recently deceased and the seagull becomes a presence in a friend-of-the-deceased's home. Nicely read by Keava McMillan.

MANY A SLIP 'TWIXT CUP AND LIP

This is a saying that I know and love; but there was a time when I had never heard it and hearing it for the first time made me laugh. You see, I had just proposed to a girl and she had phoned in some excitement to tell her mother and the mother's response was, 'Ah well, there's many a slip 'twixt cup and lip.' We didn't tell too many people for a while after that, preferring to keep it to ourselves for a bit - that way it was unsullied. I married that girl, so there.

These days it is a good story to tell and so I have a lot of fondness for the expression. I also hold it to heart and so I am not going to say too much here about the great news I have had, except to announce that I have had very good news this week. I am talking about writing news and as soon as things are all tied up and knotted in a neat bow and made bridesmaid-presentable, then I will say more.

But just like all those years ago and we couldn't wait to tell someone, well, I had to post this.

And, by the way, my own mother's response when we phoned her with news of our engagement was that there was a horse race on the tv and she had a ten pence bet on with my father and could I call her back a little later when the race was over. My mother was not a horse race person and she was not a betting person - yes, it made no sense to me either.

THE LAST TREASURE HUNT

So, a few weeks back I was on a shortlist for a competition that was set up to launch a new Edinburgh literary map app. There were five of us on the shortlist and we attended a launch event for the app, with wine and nibbles aplenty and established literary figures reading - including Ron Butlin whose work I like.

Anyway, I was one of the four runners-up, and usually that is not a nice position to end up in... But I read the winning story by Jane Alexander and was blown away by it and recognised it as a deserving and well worthy winner. Her story was brilliant and her writing was... well, sublime. So much so that I wanted to read more.

A quick internet search revealed that she had a novel published and out just this year, so I hotfooted it to Amazon (please don't hate me for that) and purchased 'The Last Treasure Hunt' and took it with me to an Easter holiday destination in the sun.

To be honest, it was a quick and easy read and not really my cup of tea. It was well enough written and was about the madness and the muck and the mire of the media world. All that celebrity nonsense. It did a good job of showing that world in a dark light whilst keeping the reader easily gripped. But I was looking for that sublime writing of Alexander's winning story and not finding it.... Until chapter 38 when the central character embarks on the last treasure hunt of the title. Chapter 38 just did what Jane Alexander's story did: it blew me away and rocked me on my heels and just felt all fizzy (a favourite expression of Ms Alexander's in this book).

Anyway, 'The Last Treasure Hunt', whilst it was very readable, will not be in my top ten books of the year; but Jane Alexander will most certainly be a writer I shall be looking out for.