stories at bedtime

So I've been reading my most recent story aloud, listening for hicups, killing my darlings. I've always heard people talk about reading aloud and how much it helps, etc, but I always poo pooed it, because, well, to put it simply, I can't be told. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I've now come round and am finding it most useful (point to note, other things I heard were great and ignored and then realised I loved are; Harry Potter, Kindles, sushi, red wine, Mslexia).

I'm quite pleased with my new story. Continuing current trends it's written in the second person, but it's quite a departure for me because it's historical and has a happy-ish ending. It's also super short, which I like, 712 words to be exact. This is part on purpose and part because that's how long the story is. I'm going to enter it in the Ruth Rendell competition (which you can find by following this link here http://www.interactreading.org/content/ruth-rendell-short-story-competition-20112012) and I'm actually quite chuffed with my bad self because although most of my stories are earmarked for certain comps, not that many of them actually make it. This one will because I'm literally at that last "take a comma out, put a comma in, delete half a sentence, change a word" stage of editing and if someone put a gun to my head, I could actually send it now. But I won't, I'm going to send it on Thursday, when I've been paid.

Other things that have made me happy this week are the fact that I've been mentioned in a blog as a resource for writers, which I didn't think I was and which made me feel oh so important. You can check out the blog here

http://talking-in-the-library.blogspot.com/

she's worth a follow, she really is.

And I think that's just about it for bijou-news. November is nearly upon us and I am super-duper excited for NaNo, and my Arvon course, both of which are almost here. I've built Arvon up to mythical proportions in my head, so am a little bit scared that I'll be disappointed, that nothing can be as good as it is in my imagination, where it plays out a little something like this: go and meet lots of lovely writers and be the most inspired I've ever been and live in a lovely bubble of candy coloured prose and short stories that flow like a big flowy thing, and get really constructive - hang on, I'll be honest since it's my head - really AWESOME feedback about how wonderful I am and then come home and continue being inspired and keep in contact with people I've met for continued honest and constructive feedback and end up finding an agent and getting published and binning the day job and living happily ever after.

Sigh.

Sometimes, it is a bit of a curse, this imagination malarky...

I've started, so I'll finish

Eeek, well my story is now published in Writers' Forum. It's really nice seeing something you've written in print, in an actual magazine which people actually pay for. Lovely, lovely, lovely.

In other news, I've found a home for my amazing title. It isn't for a story, but for a collection of stories (most of which are currently not in existence, or in some form of first draft limbo, or worse, incomplete first draft limbo). Anyway, I've formulated a plan. It goes a little something like this...

• finish all the stories I've started


• use NaNoWriMo to write more stories (I know it's technically a bit cheaty, but I figure that if I can write 50,000 words of short stories that I then look at and edit and do something with, it is better than writing 50,000 word of novel that is so jumbled and frightening that I don't know where to begin and therefore never look at it again)


• pull all this together into some semblence of order and send it off to New Writing North for their Northern Writers Awards


• send all stories off to competitions (with optional feedback) and make them the best they can be


• enter the collection in the Scott Prize for short stories

So, if I follow this plan it gives me about a year to do all this, which is do-able. I need to think about the stories as an all-together and not just as stories, but I've had some ideas on how I can do this, which is nice.

I've been reading a lot of short stories recently (helped in no small part by the fact that Salt Publishing are selling collections of stories for 86p for the Kindle. Yes, that's right, eighty-six-freaking-pence. It's all kinds of awesome). So I've been reading a lot of short stories and have realised something - I really need to up my game. Like, seriously. So imagine an appendix to plan A...

• practice, practice, practice


• don't be too scared to do brave things with my writing


• just be better, generally

One story that's stuck in my head is called Darling and it's by a lady called Padrika Tarrant and it's amazing. Absolutely make me feel a little bit sick with envy amazing. You should read it, it's very good.

Anyway, that's about it really. The husband has fixed it so I can now comment on my blog again, but the little icon where I can add a link and make it look like words has disappeared. I guess a girl can't have everything.

What's in a name?

So I'm in the process of changing my name. I'm going from Miss Something to Mrs Something-Something (yes, I'm double barrelled now, I could have been triple barrelled if I'd kept my old name too but I decided that would be a bit too much). Anyway, it's weird. And there is a lot to do. I never thought about how many organisations have my details and now they keep popping into my head...tax office, TV license, Sky...do I have to tell everyone? Does it  matter if I forget some?

On a slight tangent...I've realised recently that one of my areas for improvement is finding interesting titles for stories. I'm just not very good at it. I'm always The Something-to-do-with-the-story, which just aint disco, apparently. How do people think of good titles? Titles that are clever but relevant? I think this is the next thing I'm going to really work on and try to improve. Saying that, a brilliant title popped into my head the other day, so I now have a title that I love but no story to go with it. Apparently, this is how Ian Rankin writes, but its all new to me. My title is probably only so fantastic because it isn't attached to anything, like a really amazing photo where the subject has been caught at the only angle they look any good at, and when you see them in real life you think, oh. Was that you? Its a struggle at work too, as I have to give everything headlines and it is really hard - I wish I thought in witty captions, I really do...mind, when you're essentially writing the same stories over and over it is hard to be original. Ah, the dizzy heights of corporate journalism! Speaking of which, I must really get up and get ready to go to the office...bye!

Untitled

You are still feeling a bit out of sorts since getting back from Vegas. Sleep is inconsistent. You didn't make any time to write whilst you were away and now have stories that you want to put on paper. Since your recent success, you have decided that you really like writing in the second person. You are going to write all stories in the second person from now on, although you are confident that this will just be a phase and you will return to third and first eventually. You are going to experiment, and push boundaries. It is somehow freeing, you like this. You are reading more widely now, reading books that make you gasp, make you cover your mouth because you can't believe how beautiful the words are, how clever. This is what you want, this is the dream.

Houston, we have a problem

So for some reason, I can't comment on my own blog, or anyone else's. It won't let me. I don't know why, but it is very irritating. Not irritating enough for me to do anything about it, just irritating enough for me to be really irritated. But there you go.

Today is my last day at work before my holiday. I say holiday. I mean wedding. I'm oh so very excited. I'd be more excited if I wasn't full of cold, but I'm hoping that will pass before Thursday. My nephew, who gifted this cold to me, is well and truly off my Christmas card list, no trike for you, young man, oh no.

Well that was it really. I don't have anything interesting to say. I'm going to sit up in bed now and drink my vitamin drink and do some editing and then get up. Wooooohooooo!!!!


(That's how excited I am)

Fifth time lucky

As some of you might know, one of my favourite competitions to enter is the Writers' Forum competition. I enter quite a lot. It's cheap. I've learnt an awful lot from the feedback they've given me. In short, I like it.

Anyway - wonderful, wonderful news. My story has come second, yes kids that's right, SECOND, in their competition. Happy, happy days. I am slightly elated.

The boyf (I can't call him that for much longer, I'll explain why in a bit) has forever been pestering me to write a story with a happy ending. I've been resistant. I like misery. My stories don't really have happy endings, but this one did. I didn't force it. It came to me that way. There was about half an hour where I toyed with some horrible things that could happen to the main character, but I opted not to go with them, and boy, am I glad I did.

The other reason this story is a bit of a departure is because it is written in the second person, which is very new to me, but something I actually felt really comfortable doing. Do you ever have a story that seems to write itself? Well this was one of those stories. Wooooohooooo! So I think it will be out at the end of August, I'll keep you posted.

This is the second success I've had this year. If you want to check out my other story, you can do so here...

http://www.gumbopress.co.uk/wordgumbo/wordgumbo1.pdf

I'm on page 19.

And in my last very exciting news? This time in two weeks I'll be on a plane to Las Vegas, on my way to get married. We're having a very traditional Elvis wedding.

So it's all go in the bijou household!

oh, so fickle

A while ago, I wrote about why books are better than Kindles, about how I had no interest in Kindles, and would never, ever, ever even entertain the thought of buying one.

Last month, I bought a Kindle.

And I LOVE it.

I love that it is so light, and when I travel instead of having two (or more) paperbacks in my handbag, I only have to have one little Kindle.

I love the fact that it is linked to my Amazon account, so if I'm browsing and fancy a book, I can have it immediately (although that is quite dangerous).

I love the fact that there are hundreds of free books. Yes. Free books. Books that cost no money.

I love the fact that there are hundreds of cheap books.

So, I can't read it in the bath. So, I've heard a rumour that if you subscribe to a magazine, and end the subscription, all the back copies disappear. You can't share books (that is a bit sucky. I do love to find a good book and lend it to my friends) But...you know what? I don't care. I love it. Love, love, love it. I love it so much, I've bought one for my dad.

Will it stop me buying real books? No. There probably isn't anything in the world that would stop me buying books. But I'm getting quite a fine collection of unread books on my Kindle. Which is awesome. Next time I'm on a train, and I can't settle and I want to read something but I'm not sure what, I'll have a not-so-little library at my fingertips. What's not to love about that?