Swedish Novel in English?

Every week I meet English people who want to read my Award-Winning Swedish Young Adult Novel, Punkindustriell Hårdrockare med Attityd ("Punk Industrial Hard Rocker with Attitude"). I hope the whole novel will be translated one day (by someone who's not me ...)! My agent has showed an interest and asked me to write a synopsis and translate a sample chapter, so that's what I've been working on this week.

First I re-read the novel. I've only read it once before ... A strange experience reading your own novel, especially now when I have a fair bit of distance to it. It felt like I was reading but not concentrating as I knew what was going to happen. Yet I surprised myself. There were so many paragraphs that seemed new to me, and I got confused by my own structure ... As the novel is set over the course of three years there are obviously big leaps and you kind of have to fill in those gaps yourself ... Or perhaps I just got confused because I was reading in a feverish state, being confined to my bed by a nasty flu ...

Anyway. I did manage to write a synopsis, but my playwright friend thought it sounded more like a travel itinerary! Synopsises are hard, and sometimes don't do the novel justice, but I'm happy with what I managed to write anyway. As for the sample chapter ... It was hard to find a chapter without Swedish slang or other typical Swedish references, but in the end I settled for a neutral chapter where the main character is in her bedroom, not knowing what to do with the sample condoms she got from a Youth Clinic person visiting her college. There's also a short dialogue with her Dad. I do hope this chapter is enough to give the agent a flavour of the novel ... The flavour is punk industrial hard rock with attitude!

Toxic Womb - New Flash Fiction Piece

CLICK HERE TO READ

grateful for any feedback ...


And I do feel a bit intoxicated after four days in Barcelona
where I went to celebrate my 29th birthday
at La Marsella - an absinthe bar where Hemingway used to drink (and write?)

What is a perfomer?

Noun

performer (plural performers)

1. One who performs for, or entertains, an audience.

Last week I was invited to perform at Floetics as the main poetry act. I felt very honoured as I decided to take a step back from poetry last year and instead focus on short stories. (The novel writing has always felt like my job whilst performing poetry has been a hobby, and the short stories are somewhere in between.)

Floetics happens about once a month at the Red Roaster in Kemp Town. It's a very friendly and welcoming event, hosted by poet Jasmine Cooray. Yet I felt nervous, as if I was part of the audience, observing myself. I started to question myself, asking myself who the hell is this person on stage and what does she have to say? Luckily I managed to shut my inner critic up and do a good performance anyway, and I felt that I had the audience with me. But next morning I woke up with the same question: who is this person and what does she have to say?

She is Lou Ice, performance poet. And she has this need to express herself, talk about her obsessions, fears and other grievances ...

My stage persona Lou Ice was born in 2006, and I feel like a different person now, but I'm not yet prepared to just perform as Louise Halvardsson. I prefer to keep my performance identity and my novel writing/short story identity separated. Even though my poems are heavily autobiographical, I also make a lot of things up; I feel I can hide in Lou Ice.

I've never studied performance or had any official training, am one of those people who romanticise self-taught people, but I think I have a lot to learn. Saturday I watched the play Masterclass, about opera singer Maria Callas life and teaching. Time after time she told her students that they had to feel and see what they were singing about, and totally engage with their story. That's what I'm trying to do with my poetry, but it's very easy to get distracted by the audience and things happening in the room ...

Am reading a book at the moment called Find your voice by Joanna Crosse, and she recommends that you should look at the audience as one single person, so that every person listening feels as if you are talking to them alone.

Watch this space. Lou Ice is not dead yet!


Photo: Kristen Healy

Attracting Lips

According to the law of attraction
you are likely to get more of what you think about and focus on. This week I've been thinking a lot about lips. Mainly because I need a new title for my novel. Below are a few ideas:

UNDER THE LIP
UNDER MY LIP
STUFF IT UP YOUR LIP
LIP SYNC
ONE FOR THE LIP

On Friday night I fell over on the pavement and hurt my lip. I wonder if I would have ended up with a black eye if I'd been thinking a lot about eyes ...

Me & My Book Baby

Nowadays some parents-to-be send pictures of their foetus as Christmas cards. So here's a Valentine's greeting to you all: me & my book baby ready to go to the doctor aka as literary agent.

I met the agent last week in his office, and he said my book foetus is mostly fine. It just needs some minor medical attention. This involves making the letters from one character to another more subtle, and yes ... I still have to cut out some of my Nick Cave references ...

I'm almost there, ready for the next health check-up, the one where every chromosomic line will be scrutinized.

And I have to think of a new name for my book baby. Replacing Angel has to go. What do you think of Under My Lip or Stuff it up your lip!? I know it's a girl, but the name can be androgynous ...

Photo: Barnaby Marriott

Two announcements:

ON WEDNESDAY 16 FEB, 8 PM, I'M DOING A POETRY GIG AT FLOETICS, RED ROASTER, ST JAMES STREET,KEMP TOWN, BRIGHTON

ON TUESDAY 22 FEB, 8 PM, A SHORT STORY OF MINE ON A SEXUAL THEME WILL BE READ OUT BY AN ACTOR AT ARE YOU SITTING COMFORTABLY?, THE BASEMENT, KENSINGTON ST, BRIGHTON

A Slammy Poem

For the first time since September I entered a poetry slam (Hammer & Tongue at Komedia) and for the first time I got really high scores, and almost won.

I came second, performing a poem called Making-over my Landlord.

Also for the first time I deliberately used rhymes which always go down well. CLICK HERE TO READ THE POEM.

Glasshopper: Growing up in Fiction

On Thursday Isabel Ashdown guested Hove Library to talk about her debut novel Glasshopper at an event called "Growing Up in Fiction". I first heard Isabel speak at the Chichester Writing Festival and was intrigued by how her novel came to be a novel. It all started with a short story competition for the Mail on Sunday. Isabel submitted her story, and forgot all about it. A year later she gets a phone call and is told that she's the winner of the competition! It's the kind of phone call all writers are waiting for ...

Isabel, who discussed her writing process with literary agent Adrian Weston, told the audience that Glasshopper in fact contains several chapters that were orginally written as short stories. Perhaps that's why the novel is so good, because when you write short stories you have to be more precise in your writing. The novel follows Jake who grows up in Portsmouth in the 80s, and parallell to his story the novel follow his mum Mary growing up in Hove in the 60s. Interestingly enough Jake first started off as a girl and Mary started off as a dad instead of a mum ...

What I love best about Glasshopper are the family secrets bubbling under the suface, and the ending is brilliant. To me it's the perfect twist, both believable and shocking. Isabel revealed that she didn't have much of a plan when she started off, the ending came as a surprise to herself about half-way into the writing.

Tom Connolly, author of The Spider Truces, was also supposed to be at the event, but sadly had to cancel at the last minute. Instead Adrian Weston read an extract from The Spider Truces, another novel that deals with growing up in the 80s. Both Tom Connolly and Isabel Ashdown are published by Myriad Editions, and Isabel has a second novel secured with them, to be published this summer. It's called Hurry up and Wait. I can't wait!

Story Accepted for Publication ... in 2013

Better late than never ... My short story, A Day in Her Honour, is going to be published in Stand Magazine in 2013.

I was inspired to write the story after my grandma died. I was on special discretionary leave, and tried to spend my day in her honour, but it didn't quite work out that way. Especially not in the story I wrote. It became a story in the honour of a fictional mum instead ... I'm very pleased that it's going to be published!

How many drafts must a woman write ... before she throws herself off the pier?

I read an interview view Susan Hill in the latest issue of Mslexia. She only ever does one draft of a novel. She goes back to correct, check and edit, but she never rewrites.

I'm totally the opposite, at least when it comes to REPLACING ANGEL, the novel I've been working on since October 2007. My first draft was just a mess of words, me spewing out what I wanted to say. In the second draft I tried to make sense of what I wanted to say, in the third draft I tried to find some kind of plot ... The fourth and fifth drafts were about defining the characters and their motivations. And the sixth draft which I completed a couple of days ago was all about ...

Cutting. 104 000 words became 84 000 words. So you might think that I've spent two intense week in Novelland just deleting words ... but it's not that easy. Cutting also means restructuring, and even adding scenes to make sense of the story. I'm happy with it now, and I'm hoping that I won't have to make more than 8 drafts! There's some interest from an agent, and he was the one who pointed out that the first third of the novel was too slow, hence the cutting ...

What I'm working on right now is the title. REPLACING ANGEL has too many associations to fantasy, Buffy the Vampire etc. As it's more of a gritty realism book I need to find something more appropriate.

Intentions for 2011

I had a good start to the year. I spent a week writing in my parents basement, only leaving the house once a day for my daily walk in the forest. The only people I spoke to were my family at meal times. I created time and space to immerse myself in the revision of REPLACING ANGEL.

Once I started the words fell into place. The hardest thing is always to start; I felt very anxious over Christmas, worrying that I would never be able to write again ... But it really helped to follow the Kaizen-method that I blogged about earlier. Just using five minutes a day to brain-storm around my novel, set me up for a good start.

At the winter solstice I asked a friend to randomly pull a card (similar to angel/oracle cards) for me, and the word I got was introvertedness. It felt very appropriate at the time as I had a very extroverted autumn, going out a lot, avoiding myself and my writing. I've been complaining that I haven't had time and space to write as much as I want to, but it's all about making time.

My intentions for 2011 is to spend more quality time with myself and stay in more. Relax. Eat slowly. Drink slowly. Take care of myself. Then I'll go out and have some fun.

My Writing Year 2010

2010 is coming to an end. It hasn't been one of my best years. It has been a difficult year on an emotional and personal level, but when I look back I've had a great deal of success with my writing.

2010 was the year I completed my first novel in English, REPLACING ANGEL, and got an agent interested. In January I treated myself to a writing retreat in Lingfield. In February I sent the MS off. In December things started to happen.

2010 was the year I focused on short stories.

I've had two stories published:
*Lovers of the Planet in the Spilling Ink Review Anthology
*The Butter Dish in Scribble
*Next of Kin was shortlisted for the Ilkey Festival of Literature competition

I also submitted stories to the Bridport Prize, The Asham Award and the Fish Prize.
All in all I wrote about twenty-five short stories, including a few flash fiction pieces. What I haven't done enough of is submitting ...

However I've had loads of stories selected for readings at live literature events in Brighton:

*Foxy Lady and Relax Johnny-Boy have some fun for Are you sitting comfortably?
*Steal from the rich and give to the poor for SPARKS
*Ex Love for Short Fuse Story Salon
*I'm from further North than you for the Short Fuse appearance at The Edge of the Sea festival (the story will also be illustrated and published in an anthology to be sold as The Wedding Present Merchandise)
*Clowntown for New Venture Theatre's Into the Dark story event
*Party is over for the Ace Stories event
*Suicidal Girlfriends for Grit Lit

To make time for the short story events I decided to cut down on poetry (both writing it and performing it.) Yet I got a poem published called His depression in an anthology called Book of Dreams.

These are a few of the poetry performances I did in Brighton (and I said that I'd cut down!):

*The Hanover Poetry Festival
*Everybody's got to be somewhere at Prince Albert
*Black History Month at Red Roaster
*We Love Mondays & Thursdays (study support sessions at Jubilee & Hove libraries)
*New Writing South's Christmas party
*Waterloo Press Christmas party
*a couple of Hammer & Tongue slams

2011 was the year of workshops:

*Brighton Creative Writing Sessions & Not for the faint hearted with James Burt and Ellen de Vries
*Voice and singing workshop with Alexander Technique teacher Alan Mars
*Improvised spoken word and music with Safehouse Collective and Tom Cunliffe

And I also had time for some very professional things:

*lecturing at the Literature week in Gothenburg
*talks and book signings at opening of new cultural centre in my hometown, Nassjo
*lectures at Loxdale Language Centre in Portslade
*writing workshop for young adults at Hove Library
*attending Chichester Writing Festival
*organising author events and poetry nights at Hove library

2011 was the year I got a permanent part-time job at Hove library.
I'm lucky to be able to combine my writing with a job that involves literature
and organising events and performing poetry ...

All these good things wouldn't be possible without my wonderful writing mates ...
I meet up regularly to do some writing exercises with Morgan & Bernadette, and I also have "creative coaching" sessions with Sue. My coffee dates/drinks/meet-ups with Kay, James, Robert, Saskia, Kristen, Laura are invaluable. And I'm also very, very grateful for the support and feedback I get online. Tim, Brian, Sanna, Solera, Chris, James, Ed ... I hope I haven't forgotten anyone. Sara of course. Anna Liv. Lotus. You know who you are.

I'll celebrate New Year's Eve with my "sister" Johanna in the middle of the forest in the south of Sweden. Then I'll spend a week writing, i.e. revising my novel as the first third drags ... To help me stay focused and not distracted I won't use internet for a week. So if you make a comment on this post it won't show for a while as I have to log in to accept it ... Same with emails and facebook. Don't despair: I'm not dead - I'm writing.

My new year resolution is ...

to keep believing in myself and my writing.

Keep on dreaming, cause when you stop dreamin' it's time to die. - Blind Melon

Old Habits - New flash fiction piece

CLICK HERE TO READ A NEW FLASH FICTION PIECE

Kaizen Writing

Found a great blog post about six small steps you can take every day towards your writing. It has helped me a great deal. Even during busy days at work I can find five minutes to brainstorm a project or one minute to describe a stranger ...

It's also worth keeping those six steps in mind if you're away for Christmas: stuck on trains or bored at family dinners ...
And I'd like to add one point to the list: go for a walk, even if it's just ten minutes. Reflection time is so important. Whilst the whole of Sweden watched the Christmas Disney special at 3pm on Christmas Eve (a tradition to be missed, same programme every year) I went out for a walk and made a snow angel.

Read more about Kaizen writing in Jurgen Wolff's blog here.

Re-entering Novelland & Working in Cafes

Last Monday I spent about 3 hours in Coffee Republic* in George Street Hove, sipping the same cold peppermint tea. I don't normally like going to chain coffee shops, but it feels more all right to spend hours in a big anonymous cafe than in a small funky cafe. Restaurants are the worst. I once got kicked out of the Regency, the manager telling me it wasn't an office ... I'd spent about 2 hours in there just ordering a coffee and had covered the whole table with files and books and pens ...

I printed the Replacing Angel manuscript and managed to read about half of it, making notes, and carried on reading the rest at home later in the week. I feel hopeful about it, and am looking forward to my planned week of novel revision work in January.

It's so nice to have a novel in my head again. It feels like the short stories I've written this year have "only" been one-night stands or love affairs, some amazing, some boring, but now when I'm in Novelland again it's like falling in love and entering a proper relationship.


*I applied for a job there when it first opened back in 2002, but after going for a group interview session where we had to make potato men I got a call saying I didn't have the right skills. Thank God!

Publishable

Adjective

publishable (comparative more publishable, superlative most publishable)

1. Able to be published.

I've spoken to an agent who's read my English novel, REPLACING ANGEL. It's publishable. That's the first thing he told me.

Publishable, but not quite yet.

The first third of the manuscript drags. I'm aware of this. My playwright/drama teacher friend who has also recently read my MS is of the same opinion.

And the title doesn't work, is too cheesy, too obvious. I wasn't aware of this.

The worst though is that I've used far too many Nick Cave quotes ... (Did you know that he crashed his car into a speed camera at the end of my street this week?! Photo evidence above.)

Even though I have a lot of hard work ahead of me I feel excited. The agent suggested that I take some time to think about it all, and then I'll present him with a new version of the MS in a couple of months time. I'm already thinking of spending the first week of the year in my small boring hometown and focus on the re-write, away from the distractions of Brighton.

Grit Lit

The streets of Brighton were gritted enough for a bunch of writers and their hangers-on to make it out last night. It was time for Grit Lit - a live lit event hosted by Amy Riley and Tim Lay. Their show won the award for the best literature event in the Brighton Fringe Festival 2009. Even though some writers were so cold they had to read with their coats on, the atmosphere in the Red Roaster was heated.


I'm reading my short story Suicidal Girlfriends, inspired by a guy who once told me that I looked like his ex-girlfriend who had committed suicide ...


Amy Riley reads from her latest novel which is set in both Brighton and the States.


John O'Donoghue shares an extract from his autobiography Sectioned - a life interrupted.


I didn't manage to get a photo of Tim Lay ... But above is a picture of his short story collection Nibs. The story he read last night was about the rave scene and a particular drug called Fubar.


The audience was treated to a story about vintage underwear when Erinna Mettler took the stage.


Poet and prose-writer Akila captured everyone when she read rhythmical flash fiction stories about experiences of people with mixed heritage from a hardcore/hidden aspect.


A writer who both opened and closed the night by reading about Batman and meditation was Rob Paraman. I'd not seen Rob for years (we used to hang out at the same writing groups) so it was really nice to hear him read, making me laugh more than once.

Another author, Dan Holloway was supposed to be on the bill as well, but was the only one who couldn't make it because of that damn snow that was gone by the time I walked home, warmed up by rum and good company. Thanks to the few friends that made it out!

Antidote for Winter - new prose poem piece

CLICK HERE TO READ MY LATEST CREATION

Grit Lit - My Last Short Story Reading of the Year

COME AND HEAR ME READ MY SHORT STORY, SUICIDAL GIRLFRIEND, THIS FRIDAY, 8PM, RED ROASTER, KEMP TOWN


Expect nothing less than the grittiest writing in town, from the award-winning Grit Lit duo.

Performance poet diva and writer Akila, published in True Tales of Mixed Heritage Experiences (Penguin), When Black Is Red (Peeple Tree), reads from a new collection of stories, Wherever You Find Us.

John O’Donoghue with an extract from Sectioned: A Life Interrupted (John Murray) which won this year’s Mind Book of the Year award.

Louise Halvardsson, who won the Young Adult Fiction newcomer award in her native Sweden in 2007, reading her surreal shorty story Suicidal Girlfriends.

London based writer, Dan Holloway from underground writers’ collective Year Zero, reading a truly gritty short from his Razorblades anthology.

Erinna Mettler, up and coming Brighton writer reading Underneath, a short story about relationships and vintage underwear…

Australian writer, Rob Paraman, with a hilarious recollection of the Christmas morning when he got a Batman costume… as did half the kids in his neighbourhood.

And your hosts:

Amy Riley, journalist (Trash Menagerie, K-Mag) and short story writer (Queenspark), reading an extract from her novel in progress.

Tim Lay, award winning novelist whose new book Nibs: A Collection of Short Stories is now available from Callio Press, reading a short story set in the wild west (Devon!) during the free party years of the early 90′s.

Advanced tickets on sale NOW: http://gritlit4.eventbrite.com or 5 pounds on door. Licensed bar, best coffee & hot chocolate in town, cabaret style night.

Storyville - Women Writers Festival

One of the most exciting things I know is to meet published writers that I like. It’s almost like going to a gig, seeing a band you’re into.

If I could have afforded the money and the time I would have gone to all the talks in the Storyville festival at Pavilion Theatre, but going to three was good enough.

First up was the New Voices session with Emma Henderson, Justine Kilkerr and Emily Mackie. I’d only read Justine’s novel Advice for Strays before (a very unusual novel about depression and imaginary friends), but was very impressed with the other writers as well.

So impressed with Emily Mackie’s And this is true that I had to buy it. The story is about a boy who’s spent basically his whole life travelling round with his writer father in a van, but everything changes when one night the boy kisses his father … You’d think that the incestuous theme would be very disturbing, but he way Emily handles the subject, writing from the boy Nevis’s point of view is fantastic.

When asked how they got published all the debut novelists had similar stories: they’d done and MA in creative writing and met their agents thanks to contacts/events through their universities. Although Emma won a short story competition (yes it’s still worth writing short stories!) and was contacted by an agent because of that.

The second talk I went to was The Music of Chance with Catherine O’Flynn and Lois Walden. Catherine won the Costa book award for her debut What was Lost. She is fascinated by the mundane, and as well as losing people she also writes about the loss of certain aspects of a city. In the end she told us about the long way to getting published. She had fifteen agents completely ignoring her (what’s worse is that she lived in Spain at the time and spent a fortune on posting her manuscripts.) In the end she contacted a small local Birmingham publisher and the rest is history.

Lois also had a long route to publishing. She’s got her background in the music business, but finding an agent wasn’t easier because of it. One agency was interested, but held on to her script for eight months, with nothing happening. In the end it was a friend of a friend who introduced her to an agent … What impressed me with Lois’s writing was that she was very aware of rhythm and her language felt very musical thanks to her musical background.

The last talk I went to was the best. I had a seat in the front row, wriggling nervously on my seat, waiting for Ali Smith to enter the stage … She’s one of the best writers I know. Reading her makes me smile, think and be happy to be alive. There’s something magical about her way with language, the flow and the way every single word fits. I asked her about this. She revealed that seldom did a short story come out in one sitting. She edits and edits and then edits some more. First by page, then by paragraph, then my sentence, then word by word.

Ali was very keen to discuss her writing with the audience and I was surprised that she found it so hard to write short stories, so hard that in fact she once wrote a story called Last, promising herself never to write a short story again … But of course she has. It was also very encouraging to hear that whilst Ali is very disciplined, she’s also very lazy, but is okay with that … To do nothing is also part of writing.

If you’ve followed my blog you know that I’m having a writing block/break at the moment … However something clicked in my brain during the first talk on the Saturday. All of a sudden I had this burning urge to get my notepad out of my handbag and put some words down, and so I did … Since Saturday I’ve written quite a lot, nothing finished and nothing sensible, but at least I’ve put words down, words that form sentences, sentences that forms paragraph, that forms pages …

Also. An agent who has read Replacing Angel says that some aspects of my novel works, other aspects don’t. I’m not hoping too much, but at least we’re going to meet up and have a talk about it soon …

I might submit a working aspect of my novel to Sussex Writers Award. They only want 1500 words, plus a 500 words synopsis. Deadline is 1 Dec.

Another competition coming up is The Writer’s Retreat Competition, organised by Myriad Editions and West Dean College.

Clowntown

The Short Story evening at New Venture Theatre Friday went really quickly. You'd think that you'd feel exhausted after hearing nine stories, but I wanted more! Although it was nice to have time to catch up with people in the bar after.

It adds to the entertainment factor that actors are reading out the stories submitted by writers. Gayle Dudley who read my story Clowntown was brilliant and made the story more justice than I could've done myself, putting on a very creepy low clown voice.
I got the inspiration for Clowntown when I was in Ireland and came across a tattoo shop in Ennis called Clowntown. Also James Burt had challenged me to write a story about a clown ... His device is to add a clown to your writing whenever you get stuck ...

This is the beginning of Clowntown:
"Penny didn’t look happy when I turned up at her doorstep after dark. It wasn’t just that I was late and the food had gone cold – I’d brought a clown with me."

Other highlights of the night was the host Sarah Charsley's story Ghost Sex (the title says it all!), and Louise Hume's story about a woman who preferred a house to a man. Needles to say the theme for the evening was Into the Dark.

Short Story Night at New Venture Theatre

Tomorrow, Friday 19 Nov, my short story, CLOWNTOWN
will be read out by an actor at New Venture Theatre
at the Into the Dark Event. 7.45pm

Ace Stories

Ace Stories (former Tight Lip) is one of my favourite literary events in Brighton. Through the years I've seen and heard some great writers read, among others Joolz Denby, Amanda Smyth and Cathi Unsworth. Usually the night is headlined by a big name and supported by two local authors. At the end the audience get treated to musical entertainment. The organiser and curator Jay Clifton is very professional and takes his time to interview the headlining author as well as asking the support acts why they write. (And believe it or not - all writers get paid!) Best of all there's also a book/film raffle included in the ticket price. The venue Hotel Pelirocco is an excellent choice and adds to the atmosphere, especially as there's a two for one deal on cocktails. It was a great honour to be invited to read at the last Ace Stories for this season.


I'm reading my short story The Party is Over about two teenage girls coming home after a party where they met their big rockstar idol. I also promoted by Swedish novel, Punkindustriell hårdrockare med attityd which was the right thing to do as there was a Swedish woman in the audience who bought it! Later I was approached by people from Kingston University who might set up another reading for me. Very exciting!


Jeff Sheppard is reading a few poems from his audio collection Autism and the Migration of Birds, and to my amazement he also read from a book that he had published when he was sixteen ...


James Miller with his latest novel Sunshine State


Kristin McClement is finishing a great evening off

MORE READINGS COMING UP - CLICK HERE

PÅ SVENSKA

Reading at Ace Stories

Come and listen to me read my short story, THE PARTY IS OVER.

Improvised Music & Spoken Word Workshop

Saturday I went to an improvised music & spoken word workshop (organised by poet Tom Cunliffe at the Open House Pub) with an open mind. When I signed up for it a few months ago I thought it sounded cool to improvise words to music. The reality of it was more than cool.

The Safehouse Collective is a group that meets regularly to improvise music and some of the members are also part of a band called 4thirtythree that play live gigs and record albums - all improvised.

Anything can happen and that's what I love about it. The musicians not only use instruments; they pick up brushes, chairs, glasses - anything in the room - to make sound effects. In the workshop the poets were welcome to join in with any words they felt like using. Some used lines from already existing poems, while others made the words up on the spot.

I got a line in my head "I have ice cream in my head, melting in my ears" literally ten seconds before going on stage and later on while I was tuning into the music "my head was falling off." A liberating feeling as I'm a person who normally learn my poems by heart and keep rehearsing ...

You always have a Choice ...

Today I was in an apathetic mood, feeling a bit emotional and lost.

These were my choices for the evening: (in no particular order)
*go to the Hammer & Tongue Poetry Slam
*stay in, being miserable, feeling sorry for myself, thinking too much
*return a missed call from an ex-lover
*edit/re-write a short story on the theme of slugs

I should have a competition and let you guess which option I went for, but as I don't have any good prices to offer, I'll reveal that I went for the slug story option ...

I'm still feeling a bit blocked when it comes to writing, but after venting my misery to a few loving writing friends (you know who you are) I decided that I don't have a block - I'm having a break.

Having a break means that I don't have to write, but I can if I want to. And tonight I felt inspired to re-write my short story THE SNAIL HOUSE that originally was on the theme of Hope&Faith for the next Liar's League Event in London. But at the time of writing I drifted a bit from the theme and started to write about snails, and after feedback from Miriam I changed the snails to slugs ...

I've had a great night. Learning about slugs. Listening to The Smiths ("I was happy in the haze of a drunken hour But heaven knows I'm miserable now.") Eating jaffa cakes (the most healthy option when it comes to biscuits apparently*), drinking red wine (good for the heart) and actually writing. I've killed a few darlings. I've added a few new darlings. I will submit the story to Liar's League, even if I've gone off the theme slightly ...


Thanks also to Tim and Chris for feedback. Having someone read your work and making comments about it (positive and negative) is a reason for living.


*don't know if 8 is a good number though ...