Stories and Symbols and Sheets of Computer Paper

Clearing out the loft this afternoon, a stray sheet of computer paper drifted out of a box. It looks antique with its crude dot matrix printing, perforations and ribbon of holes trimming both edges. I can date it with a fair amount of  precision as it was the product of a mandatory computing unit at North London University (now London Metropolitan University) because no graduate was allowed to leave without at least a nodding acquaintance with word processing.
And what did this message from the past say?
It was a selection of quotes from Mary Robinson, the inspirational Irish President who was elected against the odds, against all conventional wisdom, in 1990.  Her election is thought to be the first time that voters in the Irish Republic made a personal choice rather than cast their ballot according to which side their family fought on in the Civil War 70 years earlier.
She made many memorable speeches as President (and still does as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights) and I have yet to meet anyone who is Irish and gay who doesn't cherish her words when Gay Rights were finally established in Irish law (welcome to the family of Ireland...you were always part of us even if we didn't recognise it...).
But it is this part of her inaugural speech that has such resonance of writers and story tellers...

Symbols give us our identity, our self image, our way of explaining ourself to ourselves and to others. Symbols in turn determine the kind of stories we tell; and the stories we tell determine the kind of history we make and re-make.

Irish Writers Centre in Dublin

I was sorry to hear that the Irish Writers Centre in Dublin did not get a grant from the Arts Council this year. I gather that this puts a question mark over its future.
This is what they had to say about the decision in the their email newsletter

Dublin has lodged an application to UNESCO for a special designation as a ‘City of Literature’. If this is granted, Dublin, and Ireland, will be able to exploit this status to enhance its cultural profile and its attraction to cultural tourists. But the designation will be granted and maintained, not in recognition of our glorious tradition, but on the vibrancy of the contemporary writing environment and on the infrastructure that exists to sustain and develop that vibrancy. In view of this, the decision of the Arts Council to jeopardise the Irish Writers’ Centre is myopic in the extreme. 

The most borrowed authors

Here's the top ten most borrowed library authors over the last decade....Dan Brown -- of Da Vinci Code fame - came in at 351st place in the library lending league. (That man owes me two hours of my time...) 

1. Jacqueline Wilson (16 million)

2. Danielle Steel (14 million)

3. Catherine Cookson (14 million)

4. Josephine Cox (13 million)

5. James Patterson (11 million)

6. RL Stine (10 million)

7. Mick Inkpen (10 million)

8. Janet & Allan Ahlberg (9 million)

9. Roald Dahl (8 million)

10. Agatha Christie (8 million)

The Magic of Libraries

February is the month that Public Lending Rights are paid and this is the first year I will be getting a cheque.  Although I already know how much it is - they email a month earlier with the total - it is still pretty exciting. The rate per loan is 6.29 pence and the minimum payment amount is £1 and the maximum £6,600 (the top figure is capped because otherwise all the money in the fund would go to the top ten authors and the rest of us -- especially newbies like me - wouldn't get a look in).  
It's a thrill to see my novel in bookshops, of course it is.  But there is something special about knowing A Good Confession is on library shelves up and down the country.  There are copies in Ballymoney, Ballymena, Magherafelt and other libraries in Northern Irealnd, it is in Tatto Heath in St Helens and Ince in Wigan. There are five copies in Cornwall and someone right now has borrowed the audio version in Deal and Tunbridge Wells and in  the Orkney Islands library. Just before Christmas I was told by a student that the hardback edition had been stolen from Hornsey library in North London. Just couldn't bear to give it back....

The Ghost of West Pier

Tonight in Brighton. Snow on the beach and a north wind knifing fingers and faces as the ghost of the West Pier flickers into life.  And the magic isn't diminished because you know it's all done with lasers...

Self-Publishing Day in Brighton

SELF PUBLISHING is now respectable and doesn't have to involve getting a second mortgage.  The wonderful QueenSpark Books are running a day to explain the ins and outs.  
DATE:    Saturday  13 Feb (10.15am - 3.30pm) 
LOCATION: Jubilee Library Central Brighton COST: £20 

Tickets available from the Dome Ticket Office at 29 New Road (01273) 709709 
Topics covered will include:
How to present your book professionally
Design, Layout & Costs
Proof Reading and copy editing
Printing your book
Marketing your book
Pros & Cons of Self-Publishing.
For more information contact:
e-mail sarah@queensparkbooks.org.uk or telephone 01273 571710 

Under the Skin of the Horror Genre

From Stephanie Meyer's Twilight Saga to Guillermo del Toro's haunting gothic films where the living can be more terrifying than the dead, horror has been remodeled, redefined, renewed...
Film journalist and author, Alan Jones (The Rough Guide to Horror Movies) and David McGillivray (journalist, stage and screenwriter and producer of many cult 1970's 'B' horror flicks) are at the Lighthouse in Brighton to discuss:

• the key ingredients of a good horror movie
• how tastes and styles have developed over the decades
• the masters of the genre and why they got it so right
• why horror is having a massive resurgence in literature, film and television.

Tuesday 16 February 2010 
6.30pm for 7pm start
At: Lighthouse, 28 Kensington St, Brighton BN1 4AJ
Entry: £3.50/£3 concs.
To book tickets in advance go to:https://express.iristickets.co.uk:443/k?lighthouse

For one night only ...The West Pier Appears

Thrilled to hear that on Wednesday - February 10 - the ghost of Brighton's West Pier will appear from nowhere, shimmering in the dark...

Be short if you want to be a travel writer

I've found another travel writing quote I like.  

People who are rather more than six feet tall and nearly as broad across the shoulders often have uneventful journeys. People jump out at them from behind rocks then say things like, 'Oh. Sorry. I thought you were someone else.

-      Terry Pratchett

Travel Writing Advice

Two apparently contradictory elements are key to modern travel writing.

(1)           nobody cares what you did.

(2)           you have to be part of the narrative

The once-in-a-lifetime trip is a yawn to the reader unless there is more to it and the more is story....and the author is part of  that story because the day of the so-called neutral observer is over.

Nearly all contemporary travel writers include their own dreams and memories of childhood as well as chunks of historical data… Self reflexivity and instability…offer the writer a way to show the effects of his or her own presence in a foreign country and to expose the arbitrariness of truth and the absence of norms.


Casey Blanton, Travel Writing: The Self and the World 2002

And a quote from Ernest Hemmingway that is as useful to bear in mind when writing as when travelling….

“Never mistake motion for action.”

Travel writing Competition

I like Heritage Magazine's travel writing competition because:

• First prize is a seven day cruise around Scotland's Western Isles. 
• There are are other goodies on offer. (Fifth prize is a box of luxury chocolates...love the thinking.)
• It's free to enter
• You can enter online or by post
• It's free to enter (some things are worth repeating)

What do they want? 500 words about your experience of visiting a site of historical interest in Britain. The inspiration for your tale could be anything from a day trip to a historic city or village to a weekend spent exploring a favourite stretch of coast or countryside.
Deadline February 26 2010.  

Click on the title above to get to the website or post your entry to Reader Writing Competition, Heritage/Realm magazine, Archant House, Oriel Road, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire GL50 1BB.

Coming to RADIO FOUR...a slice of real life Brighton

'Legsy Gets a Break'

Afternoon play, BBC Radio 4, Monday 15th February, 2.15pm

Legsy Gets a Break follows a young man at a crossroads in his life after growing up in the care system.  Will family loyalty suck him into a future of serious crime or can he break away and make another life for himself? 

This drama began in 2007 as part of the Arts Council of England South East's  Radio Development Programme.  

It is based on real cases that emerged during work with youth offending teams in Brighton and Hove, West Sussex and Southampton.  This formed the basis of a five part interactive project created with Radio Berkshire.  Company Paradiso has created this latest version with Phil Gladwin, it is written by Phil Gladwin, and directed for Radio 4 by John Dryden

A Word for Haiti WRITERS WANTED

There have been quite a few fundraising initiatives by writers over the last few weeks. Most have been quick, urgent events in an attempt to meet the desperate need but this one - run by two Black London organisations - has a slightly longer timescale. Their anthology will come out in May and they want submissions now from poets, writers, journalists and graphic artists from all backgrounds and origins. The work must be about or inspired by Haiti, its people and its culture. Proceeds  will be donated to the Lambi Haiti Fund. 

Deadline: Thursday 18 March

Maximum Word count - Prose 2500 words. Poems 1000 words. Original work - can't have been published before.  Include a short biography.

For more information write to:wordforhaiti@googlemail.com

They are also looking for volunteer researchers, editorial team members, administrators, desktop publishing specialists and promotion PR people.  

And the rest of us can buy it when it comes out....

- 

INVICTUS less we forget

Invictus premiers tomorrow night in the UK but I saw it at a special screening last Sunday morning at the wonderful Duke of York Picturehouse in Brighton, one of the first cinemas in the world to opens its doors in 1910.  
I suspect Morgan Freeman would pay good money to play the role of Nelson Mandela (and perhaps he did, he is one of the producers) and as I watched the skillful, but deeply conventional, story telling  I wondered who the film was aimed at...not the millions around the world who marched and boycotted and campaigned for Mandella's release or anyone who is old enough to understand the horror of apartheid.  
They don't need it. 
I think it is aimed at the generation for whom Mandela is an old guy whose name is trotted out whenever the word hero is mentioned. This film explains why. 
Invictus is propaganda on the side of the angels, education for equality, and its lack of sophistication is one of its strengths.  

St BRIDGET"S DAY February 1st

St. Brigid is the patroness of cattle, dairy work, and ale and today is her feast day. It is also the first day of Spring or Imbolc, a pagan celebration associated with fertility and weather divination. Imbolc is Gaelic for the season of light and before Christianity came to Ireland Brigid was worshipped as a Celtic fertility goddess  associated with fire, healing, and holy wells. Was the 5th century nun from Kildare named after her? Or are they the same person....the pagan diety transformed into a Christian saint to appease a population reluctant to give up the goddess who ruled over the most essential things of life.  Things to do today1. Look for hedgehogs who have decided to wake up from hibernation. It is a good weather sign - but the frost looks a bit thick this morning to tempt any out of their burrow.  [This is the origin of Groundhog Day in America celebrated on February 2nd.] 2. Do only essential work today and go to the local shrine to pray. (and where is that? Well, St Brigid is the patron saint of ale...)
 3. Take stock of the household supplies (so go after sorting out the freezer)
 4. Clean the house...(I think this is unfair. If it is a woman's festival it should be: get the house cleaned by someone else, preferably male)
 5. Because St. Brigid traveled the countryside with her red-eared cow, make her welcome by placing bread and fresh butter on the window sill outside; also put out a sheaf of corn for the cow and put out rushes for her to kneel on when she blesses the household. Last night (St Brigid's Eve) you should have set the table in the kitchen to make her feel welcome.
 6. Leave a silk ribbon outside for St. Brigid to bless; it is used to cure illness.
 7. Make the bogha Bride (St. Brigid's Cross). Though a Christian symbol, St. Brigid's Cross might come from the pagan sunwheel. It is made from rushes or straw saved from last year's harvest. Put it above a door because it is supposed to protect the house from fire and evil.
Beannachtaí lá le Bríde dhuit!
[Photo](Thanks to the Anam Care Blog - see the link in the right hand column -  for much of this information and reminding me this morning that today is MY day)

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