Morning After Mayhem

Nottingham, Festival of Words team prepare to launch
@wordsnovel as part of Word of Mouth at Mayhem

What a great night!
I met a load of really interesting people at Mayhem last night - a great combination of Mayhem fans (including a chap whose horror make up was eye-wateringly good) and Broadway cinemagoers who had just come out of seeing Skyfall (all very impressed with Mr Bond).

The lineup was great - classic takes on old stories, archive chillers from the seventies and early eighties projected on the wall, and me.

It's my second time I've had work showcased in Word of Mouth at Mayhem, but my first where I did the reading.  I wrote The Good Books specifically for Mayhem - taking all my memories of watching Hammer House of Horror behind a cushion on a Friday night, and rolls them up into a tale that creeps up on you like an odd smell...

Two (A5) pages in to The Good Books at
Mayhem (pic: Robin Vaughan-Williams)

It's a nerve racking thing, standing up in front of an audience and reading your work, but when you don't have Tom Baker's telephone number, you've got to do it.  It's part of being a writer, talking through your work, and getting immediate feedback from people during and after the performance.  It was lovely to chat about how I wrote the story, what parts people enjoyed, and watch other writers perform their work.


If you're thinking about doing it yourself, there's loads of advice on the interweb telling you how to do it, but here's my one tip-top tip:


A5 printouts.  No, really.

When you've finished writing, change the document page size to A5 on your word processor, and print it two pages at a time on your A4 printer.  Cut in half, staple into paperpack-sized notes, and never worry about your story wilting over half way through - you've got enough to concentrate on when you're presenting a chunk of your soul.

Hope that makes sense:  if it doesn't, I'll show you what I mean when I perform at the next Word of Mouth in November - more details later...

If you're still in need of a chill, Mayhem runs until the 4th November - for more info, take a look here.

Word of Mouth, Mayhem, and Me

So I've been quiet because I'm working on the next (final?) draft of my YA Victorian Adventure novel - a lot of thinking, a lot of writing, a lot of excitement.  It seems like certain things have popped up at just the right time to help me write it, which I'm really grateful for.  I'm not sure how they'll all fit in just yet, but there's only one way to find out, and that's to get to the finish.

Pic: Mayhemhorrorfest.co.uk

Meanwhile... after the fun we had presenting Sent/Received last year at Nottingham Writers Studio's Word of Mouth night at Mayhem, I'm coming back for a second bite on the 31st October at Broadway Nottingham.

Horror Writing Essentials #23: Spooky Pretzels

Broadway is a great venue for writers of all kinds, and this time there'll be no hiding behind great acting talent - I'll be reading my own short story alongside Niki Valentine, Megan Taylor and a coven of other eerie storytellers.  If you're not stuffing yourself with sweets and hiding behind the curtains on Halloween, come down and I'll tell you all about The Good Books...

Messing

Some days, you've got to get outside... Six quid, well spent at the University of Nottingham.  Hope you're enjoying the sunshine - don't forget the sunscreen.

`This has been a wonderful day!' said he, as the Rat shoved off and took to the sculls again. `Do you know, I`ve never been in a boat before in all my life.'

`What?' cried the Rat, open-mouthed: `Never been in a--you never--well I--what have you been doing, then?'

`Is it so nice as all that?' asked the Mole shyly, though he was quite prepared to believe it as he leant back in his seat and surveyed the cushions, the oars, the rowlocks, and all the fascinating fittings, and felt the boat sway lightly under him.

`Nice? It's the ONLY thing,' said the Water Rat solemnly, as he leant forward for his stroke. `Believe me, my young friend, there is NOTHING--absolute nothing--half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. Simply messing,' he went on dreamily: `messing--about--in--boats; messing----'

extract from The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

Timing

Another trip which came at just the right time.

I've just finished a major edit on my YA novel Coalface - a big challenge, but one that's made the story stronger and shorter at the same time.  So it's time to look at new stories - and old ones...

I found this recreation of a bedsit in Southwell Workhouse.  In the seventies, it became a refuge for people waiting for a council house.  

The kitchenette they've set up got me thinking about the scruffy flat above the costumiers where Hidden Daughter's anti-heroine Penny repairs clothes, tries to do right by her Catherine with soup and fish fingers, and occasionally time-travels.

If you think this is scruffy for the seventies (it was, deliberately so), there's no surprises for guessing what turbulent teenager Cate thinks of coming home to something like this in 1987...

Lots of thoughts, lots of ideas... and a new challenge.  Time to get stuck in again.