Author: Sara Crowley
See You Next Tuesday – The second coming
I have a story in this new anthology published by Better Non Sequitur. These are fifty 1,000 word stories with a sex theme. (Mine is definitely not erotica) – in the words of the publisher:
Not only are people all around the world having lots of sex, but they are also writing about it. See You Next Tuesday: The Second Coming is the second compilation of 50 sex-riddled (first-published) short fictions that try to transcend perhaps the most universal subject in existence.
Writing from across the globe, each 1,000-word text promises to evoke and provoke the existential and thoughtful corners of your most erotic of organs (namely the one in your head). In other words, the rumors are true, the waiting has ended: The Second Coming is here!
Something sparky (ho ho ho)
I’m far too moany about the books and stories that I read. I always hope to find good things though. ( I do start from a point of optimism, but mainly I am disappointed.) I have worked with Jo Horsman at the Fiction Workhouse, and am delighted to see her rather wonderful story “Sparks” has just been published at Red Peter.
Guaranteed not to disappoint!
Love/hate rebel
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This is my gorgeous Tarina Tarantino Love/Hate flip bracelet. I adore it so much that I have just bought this one too:
I am amused by flipping the disc so that it shows “I hate you” to everyone. I guess I didn’t quite grow out of my teenage rebellious phase. It’s my birthday next week, but it would appear that no matter how old I get, I still haven’t mastered the art of keeping my mouth shut even when I know it’s for the best. I am trying to though, and I get to say how I feel with this jewelery!
Insects Are Just Like You And Me Except Some Of Them Have Wings by Kuzhali Manickavel
I have been fortunate enough to read stories by Kuzhali Manickavel, and they are consistently wonderful. She worked for a brief while in the online writing group that I am part of. I think she became frustrated by the lack of useful critiques she received. I told her that I couldn’t think of a single thing that would improve her work, and I meant it. It is rare to read stories like hers, I am not sure how to describe them, but they are strange, affecting, beautiful, funny and glorious.
Her debut collection is published by a new publishing house based in India, Blaft. It is available to those of us outside India from Amazon.
If you are not convinced by my words, let me turn to Miranda July who says of this collection “Not merely lyrical and strange, but also deadpan funny. I can’t shake the feeling that I know this woman, personally–like we hung out at a party or something. But I don’t, and we didn’t. She’s just that good.”
And check out the ace cover!
Awesome new literary journal (with me in) – CEllA’S Round Trip
Today sees the launch of a fantastic new literary and visionary journal. CEllA’S Round Trip has been created and edited by Rachel Hartley-Smith. Please check it out, I know that you’ll be blown away by the visuals and the writing.
It includes two stories by me. Hurrah!
Fire Words and Steak and Beer – (Steak and Beer is my attempt at a Bukowski pastiche!)
It is a real delight to be in such a stunning journal.
Given away free with Time Out!
I have subscribed to Time Out for years and years. Today my weekly copy arrived, and squee, I’m in it! Or rather, Porn Mallow, a story of mine, is in it. Or to be more exact, my story is in Litro, which is being given away free with Time Out.
Anyway, I am delighted to be one of three authors in this edition of Litro. Funnily enough one of the other writers is Vanessa Gebbie which is rather ace.
Big thanks to lovely Litro!
Brilliant post by Jenn Ashworth
I read this today over at Every Day I Lie A Little.
MA in ‘Creative’ Writing.
I am starting a MA in creative writing. You can apply for it by emailing me and if I accept you, you will be allowed to drink my tea at my house and do all the modules. It will cost £3085 and the learning will be ‘experiential’.
Module 1: Dealing with Rejection
I will lock you in my cellar and scream ‘you are crap’ at you at random intervals. Sometimes I will throw things. Every now and again I will come down into the cellar and give you a cuddle and stroke your hair. I will say, ‘such talent!’ and when you are relaxed and smiling I will quickly punch you in your stomach and say ‘but still crap!’
Module 2: Writing Process
I will tie you to my writing chair. I might let you have a cushion. You are allowed to get up to go to the bathroom and to drink water. But nothing else. Your phone will beep a lot and eventually the friends you are ignoring will get angry with you, give up, and go away. When you are trying to write I will randomly delete paragraphs of your work and whisper things like ‘all your friends think you are a pillock’ into your ears.
Module 3: Drafting
Every time you write something I will print it out and show it to all my friends. We will sit in a pub and laugh at it. We will make notes on it in coloured pens. Everything we write will be instructions on how to make it better. We will send you back the pages. You won’t be able to read our writing. You will need to implement all the suggestions into future drafts, even when they are contradictory. We will print out your future drafts and take them back to the pub. This will take a very long time.
Module 4: Publicity and Promotion
I will teach you how to Google yourself. You will do this every day, until you are banned from using the computer at work. At the end of the course you will have to drink a bottle of gin and then read your work to me. I will talk loudly and send text messages to random people while you are reading. I will ask you to sign your book and then sell it on ebay. I will send you the ebay link. No-one will buy your book even though the bidding starts at 1p and the postage is free.
There might be some more modules. I am not sure yet. For the full MA experience I will loose your final submission and give you a certificate I made on MS Word and laminated at work. I will look you up a few years later and me and all my friends will tell you you can’t write because you did my MA course and you now sound just like everyone else who has done it. Then I will ask you for some more money in return for providing ‘editorial help’ with your manuscript.
Jenn Ashworth is very funny and clever, and this sounds like an excellent course for any budding writers.
You can also find Jenn and her lies at Sh
The story that I can’t write
I had this idea for a story well over a year ago. I wrote it but something didn’t quite work. I posted it for critique in The Fiction Workhouse. They said it had many flaws and suggested I concentrate on one part and cut another. I left it to simmer. I have kept on thinking about it, wondering how it could be strengthened. I sat down recently and tried again. I thought I’d had some great inspirational idea. I cut parts ruthlessly, wrote some new bits. I left in the stuff that had positive feedback, expanded it. Then I asked a couple of writers whose opinions I respect to take a look. One said there was too much that was unrealistic and I should chop those parts. I did. I sent it to another 2 writers. They both said, hmmm, not your best work, and it could really do with some more magic. One even went on to describe exactly what I had cut.
Still, nobody actually thinks it “good’. And I have been left utterly baffled. I think I have lost what my original vision was, and in trying to please I may well have cut the heart out.
I’d love to know if any of the other writers who read this have been defeated by one particular story. Does it mean the story is doomed? Or perhaps I just haven’t found the right way to tell it yet.
Random stuff
1 – The Burroughs book that my colleague was holding when he said “Look, it’s Matt…”? Turns out it’s subtitled “A book of the dead”.
2 – I am desperately struggling to edit a story I love. I love it but know that it doesn’t work as it is. Now I have a new end visual in mind and I am working towards getting there, but it’s a bit grr.
3 – I am getting a bit fucked off with reviewing. Instead of choosing what to read I am constantly having to read. It makes such a huge difference. Obviously there are books I am delighted to review but then there are the others. The ones I read for the bookshop, 3 or 4 a month, and they are usually not what I would choose at all. I thought it’d be a good way of opening up my reading, but no, it has just confirmed that I am right to be so picky. Plus, gah, it’s taking up so much time.
4 – Possibly hurrah news to share by the end of the month on a new publication.
5 – Summer. Hate it. Sun. Ugh. Heat. Ugh. And no, I’m not one of those who complain whatever the weather. The sun honestly makes me ill.
6 – I have been listening to Linkin Park and Jay-Z Collision Course and LOVING it so much. I figure I should be embarrassed about it, but wow, so good. I can’t work out though if it’s just a magic mash, or if I’d like them individually.
Sara Crowley 