Author: Sara Crowley

Sparks flew (boom tish!)

Sara Crowley3 Comments

I loved Sparks, it was such a cool event. Big thanks to Jo Horsman, a real make happen kinda gal. It was her idea to hold a flash fiction evening in Brighton, and to marry the words spoken with a visual, she chose the perfect venue too.

Initially I was terrified of the stage and microphone and lighting and eeek, all the “proper” stuff. It was my very first time reading, and I was a mass of babbling nerves. The other readers (listed in my previous post) were thankfully very cool and reassuring.

So: good stories, good readers, good photographs, good venue, good people = plenty o’ good.

I think I did ok reading, people were kind and laughed in the appropriate places. There is a review by James Burt here, which has made me smile quite a bit!

In the end, apart from the anxious bits, I had a lovely time, and today feel proud to have been part of the very first Sparks. Keep an eye on Jo’s blog for details of the next one.

Edit: New review at The Badger

Inadequacy!

Sara Crowley7 Comments

The post-person delivered another book for me to review today. I always open review books hopefully, but a little nervously. Ploughing through something I hate and then having to write a review is tedious, and I resent the time it takes, but the lovely feeling that accompanies reading a fresh voice, a good writer, is brilliant. Plus, of course, I am ever so delighted by FREE books, to be paid to read fiction and give an opinion is a (mini) dream come true.

Anyway, these proofs always come with a publishers blurb which attempt to sell both the novel and the author. I have never read a blurb with such…I’m not sure, gob smacked envy? My goodness, this woman seems to have lived a life I didn’t know really could exist out of the pages of a novel. She may well be a wonderful person, so I don’t want to name her, but to give a flavour of the bio:

Ms Posh Name is 27. She is very beautiful, her lovely face adorns the blurb. She is an actress, and a prize winning classical musician, she is also a journalist who writes for all the decent newspapers one can think of. Did I mention her double first at Cambridge? Her Masters at Harvard? She is married, does a lot of charity work, and wrote this debut novel in-between filming scenes whilst on location. I have no idea what the book will be like, but cripes, sitting here, fat, old, with a cold and aches and holding my very own pity party, I just feel so inadequate.

The genius of subconscious creativity!

Sara Crowley8 Comments

I had a dream that Helen Simpson read my novel. I was nervous waiting to hear what she thought of it, I knew that it wasn’t right. She said that she wondered if I would consider changing something. I said yes, I would. She then told me something that I knew was the answer to any problems I have been having with the novel. It was the key to everything, it was simple, it would be utterly effective. I was excited, grateful and delighted.

When I woke up I knew that my subconscious had been chewing over my novel, I scrambled to locate the answer. I had held on to it throughout the dream, scared to forget it. Aha! I remembered.

In my dream, Helen Simpson advised me to make each character show their grief by wearing thin, tall, pastel coloured hats.

Super – that should sort it!

blah to the max

Sara Crowley7 Comments

I feel blah.

I feel a little as if I want to hibernate and not mix with people, and not sub work, and not talk much, and not put myself “out there” for a while. I think it would be good to settle on the sofa and read some absorbing books. I would like to not worry about deadlines and writing the novel. I bought wii fit on Friday, i’d like to read, and write for pleasure (not to deadlines or for subbing,) and go on the wii fit, and talk to my lovely boys.

I’m on the Waterstone’s New Voices committee or whatever they call it, and I got sent a bunch of books today. I looked them over and it seems I got a couple of cool ones. Last year I think I must have got the dregs because there was nothing I liked at all.

I miss Matt.
So much.

If you go on wikipedia there’s a section of “recent deaths”. I started scouring the ages of people who died this month, looking at their ages, hoping everyone was way older than me.

Things I wish I had said to Janice Galloway –

Sara Crowley5 Comments



1) Anything sensible rather than the breathless, gushy nonsense I babbled at her!

(Ha ha)

Okay, I was a little nervous. The more I thought about it the more I realised that of my revered three (Galloway, Lorrie Moore, Ali Smith) Galloway is the writer who I have respected, admired, and aspired to, for the longest, with an unwavering belief that she really does write the best prose of anyone. She is concise, precise, smart, never sentimental, never baggy or saggy. So, y’know, she rocks. And I honestly get a kick out of recommending her books to others, so that they get to read writing of such quality. It occurred to me that I could meet her and dislike her. It happens right? Your hero up there on a pedestal turns out to be an utter arse. I wondered (because I am the type of person to waste time fretting about things that have not yet happened) if I would still heartily recommend her books. I figured I would, because the writing is what counts, not the person.

Didn’t need to worry at all, she was lovely, and very kind to me. She even gifted me a copy of “Rosengarten” which I am delighted by. She looked amazing, read beautifully, answered questions, and asked a couple herself. She was funny and warm, and the extracts she read from “This is not about me” sounded fabulous. I’m very much looking forward to getting stuck into it.

Hurray!