Author: Sara Crowley

At least ten things I’m feeling right now…

Sara Crowley9 Comments

1) A bit wobbly. A bit fragile. A bit concerned that I’m never going to be as good as I want to be.

2) A bit sick.

3) Baffled by some of the utter mediocre tripe that gets published. (I always feel like this, so it’s not news.)

4) Hormonal and teary (that’s my excuse for boo hooing over Brendan and Lisa in Strictly!)

5) Irritated by the fact that nobody asks silly X-factor Diana why she sings in a faux oirish accent when she is NOT IRISH! (My twins insist I watch this with them, we compromise with me watching the sky plussed programme on Sunday so I can whizz through.)

6) Pissed off with all the hateful using, schmoozing, back stabby, sucking up/slagging off that goes on even in my tiny amateur writers world.

7) Delighted for Tania Hershman who is the European regional winner of the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association’s short story competition. Whoo hoo Tania!

8) Addicted to lots of word games on Face book that are potentially very time wastey. (Word Twist and Path Words in particular!)

9) Happy with my new upgraded MacBook.

10) Disappointed with myself always, for not being better/thinner/kinder/smarter/more prolific/more talented/and so on ad infinitum.

Posted in meTagged

Mac is back!

Sara Crowley7 Comments

Well thank goodness my Mac is back. It has been upgraded to Leopard too, so, every cloud etc. It is, however, entirely empty. I am choosing to regard this as fortuitous. I have had my desk cleared, my notebooks thrown away. All those scraps of paper, all the scribbles and jottings and half baked ideas, tossed away. All the rubbish is gone. If any of it had been that good I would have noticed I am sure.

I have to reinstall Word tomorrow, and then off we go!

Congratulations to Elaine Chiew!

Sara Crowley1 Comment

It’s delightful to discover that the winner of the Bridport Prize 2008 is a writer whose work I am familiar with, whose stories I have long admired; Elaine Chiew has won with a story called “Face”, and I am looking forward to reading it. She is a calm, assured, thoughtful writer, and really, her win makes me feel so happy. Her victory says to me that it’s all about the words and craft. Whoooo hooooo Elaine!

Another post about my mac because I am soooo interesting

Sara Crowley3 Comments

Not having my laptop is weird. I am online much less, and it makes me see how much time I usually do spend doing bobbins really. I am a scattergun writer, perhaps. I browse online, I visit facebook, blogs, FW, zoetrope, Lowculture, read emails, shop, and in-between I switch to word and write in short bursts. I don’t know if I am able to write more solidly, because whenever I attempt to, I distract myself, if not with online stuff, then with real life business; phone calls, cleaning, eating, lots of staring into nothing, anything really. Even just writing this I suddenly jumped up and changed my top. I need to work on staying focused I think.

I have to ring the mac repair peeps soon and get a verdict on its health. I think it’s gonna be bad news, as the guy shook his head and whistled at it. I think I have lost everything, which I didn’t think was too much of a problem until I remembered all those little pieces of work that i didn’t back up because they were to be worked on. And lots of photos that I had seen so often I was bored with, but now they are LOST I want them back.

I think I should set myself a time limit. Like, before the school run it’s ok to check emails quickly, but after, I should crack on and write the novel for a couple of hours. Then stop for lunch, after that scoot around online, and work on reviews, edits, flash etc. After school is boys time (but if they are on wii or ps it’s ok for me to play too!) Sounds workable. In theory. I always forget though that there’s so much other stuff to get on with, I think I find chunks of writing time and then realise that I am mummy too, and work part time, and need to do household stuff and paperwork and shopping and cleaning.

Dead MacBook = miserable Sara

Sara Crowley4 Comments

My macBook did this today:

Spinning beachball of doom.
Got stuck.

So I turned off, turned back on, then:

Nothing.
Grey screen.
Click, click, click.
Flashing folder sign with question mark in.

That’s it.

Not good.

Lucky me, I have extended Apple cover. I rang them and they said “Oh, sounds like your hard-drive.”
I rang my localish Apple place and they said “Oh dear. Sounds like your hard-drive.”

I can take it in and they can replace it. Apparently this is a common thing. The guy said “We live and die by our hard-drive’s. I lost mine earlier this year. They are fragile. They go, all of a sudden.” It will take 3 weeks though. Three weeks!

I feel a bit lost. I have become very used to my beloved Mac. Now I am on my sons stupid pc. It’s all weird and clunky and slow and static.

When this happened to my old desktop pc I was stuck without any computer access for a while, and it felt very wrong. This is much better, I don’t know what I am moaning about really. But it feels BAD. I am unhappy with the situation. And I didn’t back up. Oh no I didn’t. Stupid huh? So, potentially I have lost my photos and itunes, and maybe some words. The stories I am not so concerned about, some are at zoetrope where I have a wee office, some are at Fiction Workhouse, some I had the foresight to send to a googlemail address. Phew. Except now I remember that there were all sorts of little bobbins that I typed in and thought I’d work with later. Grr.

Two bookshop conversations (a tiny glimpse into the world of a bookseller.)

Sara Crowley6 Comments

Grey haired, tall, loud, brusque man “Where do you keep your essays?”
Me “What were you looking for?”
“You know, not made up stuff.”
“Hmmm. What subject? History? Politics? Literary criticism? Biography…?”
“It’s for my son. He’s 15 and doesn’t like made up stuff. I want essays.”
“Well, on the 4th floor we have xyz, on 3rd we have xyz, on second we have xyz…”
“Oh just forget it.”
“Righto.”

Mid 30’s woman examining Sony reader ~ “You know what would be good?”
Me ~ “Nope.”
“If they invented something that could say the words of the story aloud.”
“Erm, like a talking book?”
“Yes.”
“We-e-ell, we do sell cd’s of books. They are just here.” Gestures towards audio books.
“No. NO. With pictures too. For children.”
“Oh, right. How old? We sell books with cd’s for children on the next floor up.”
“No. Not books, The pictures are too flat. Moving pictures, and a story.”
I think, hmmm, call me crazy, but doesn’t that sound like a television?

Erm, me, at Sparks, reading out loud, into a microphone, sounding strange

Sara Crowley4 Comments

Hmmm. Weird one this. Sparks was filmed, and videos of some readers are now up at Beat the Dust.

Mine is here

Very strange to look at myself doing that. It doesn’t seem to be me, it does not sound like me. It seems like a jolly, fat lady channelling Joyce Grenfell has got up on stage wearing my clothes, and ENUNCIATED her way through my story.

The others are far more appealing:

Steve Finbow
Martin Reed
Jo Horsman reading for Anna Britten
Melissa Mann

An update

Sara Crowley5 Comments

My previous post, about the editor who rejected me and accepted computer generated text from a friend, has been very popular. It’s a great anecdote I suppose, and obviously people would like to know who the editor is, what the magazine is, and what the accepted words are. Sorry to disappoint, but I think it is entirely up to the hoaxer himself to reveal. I can however copy from beat comments Mr Hillbilly Greeker made, and reveal the news that the editor has been in touch again, and asked for more of his work!

I’m the “writer friend” mentioned on asalted – just thought I’d set a bit of context here, anonymously because the editor in question has actually asked for four or five more pieces for an e-book (seriously), so I’m going to string this along for a little while.

This didn’t begin as a stunt. It became so after the event. The editor had responded so vehemently to a polished, workshopped piece, that I wanted to see how he would respond to a random collection of words (and there was no way I was going to waste any of my own work on him). I expected either a stronger rejection, or no response at all. The possibility he might publish never occurred to me. But when he replied, he was in awe of the ‘work’.

I certainly didn’t set out to prove anything. Whether an exercise like this could ever prove anything is debatable. It began as a bit of fun to waste the time of a man who had been needlessly rude to a friend. Perhaps a childish impulse.

You were spot on with the greeking generator you linked to – it’s the same one I used, with the Hillbilly option selected. The text generated there is pretty much identical to what was published, with a little added coarseness (certainly no added craft). It has no more intrinsic value than any other random collection of words.

Or perhaps that last statement is open to debate. If any of your readers disagree they could likely have a novel or two completed and published on lulu.com before bedtime.

Posted by: Hillbilly Greeker

Edgy fucking litzine bollocks

Sara Crowley11 Comments

I don’t rate Duotrope as much as some do, and I don’t often look at it, but this week I did, to see what’s new. And I came across a magazine looking for subs, and if I am honest, it was the title of the magazine that appealed probably. I sent a flash piece that I had worked in an online writers group (which I mention only so you know it wasn’t just some random spewing), and I got a very fast response.
The editor said he didn’t like it, he thought it was unrefined and sloppy writing that needed revision. Right. Cheers. Anyway, I thought he was a bit rude, but assumed he is a young dude trying to make a name as a fearsome editor of scrupulously worded fiction.

I told a writer friend, who went to a greeking generator and mixed up some chunks of random text with expletives, and sent it to the editor along with a preposterous bio.

You know what happened right?

Yup, accepted with thanks, and published.

I’m not gonna give this Ed and his mag any more exposure by naming them, but I really don’t feel so sad about my rejection now that I understand the quality of the work he is aiming for.

It’s one thing to have high standards, but to mistake words from a generator for experimental literary fiction is really very funny.