Setting Your Own Deadlines

One reason I've never done any serious studying after I finished school is that deadlines set by other people really stress me out, to the point I get sick and can't sleep.

I prefer to set my own deadlines and goals. People tell me "oh, you must be so disciplined". Perhaps I am ... Or perhaps I'm just a control freak.

When I was in Sweden at the beginning of August, and got into working on my new novel project, I decided that I'd write 10 000 words a month. 10 000 okay or good words, not just any words which seem to be the case if you are a NaNoWriMo-Writer.

If I stick to 10 000 words a month, I should have a first draft of 90 000 words in 9 months time (yes, I like comparing writing to pregnancy even if I don't have any experience in this field ...)

Today is the last day of August and I've got 10 616 words. They are okay/good words, but by no means perfect words. Because at the same time I'm sticking to the advice on my post-it note: SHITTY FIRST DRAFTS ARE ALLOWED.

Seems like I'm contradicting myself, but this is how it works: I write as much rubbish as I can in a month, then I go back and edit, making sure I've got at least 10 000 words of connected paragraphs that make-up a continuous story.

Funnily enough I've been off sick from my part time job for two days ... I feel exhausted, as if some kind of bug is gnawing away on my body. Perhaps my own deadlines stress me out as much as other peoples' deadlines after all ...


(the photo was taken by Mimmi on a walk to Rottingdean the week before last, so no I haven't spent by days off sick on the beach, I've spent them in bed!)

Story Scavenging in Brighton

If you're stuck for ideas, bored with writing in general or just want to have fun I can recommend going to one of Wendy Greenhalgh's Story Scavenger Workshops.

It's a bit like a treasure hunt, but instead of just collecting impressions/people/objects you write about your finds after. Exercises involved spying on people at Brighton Station, picking an odd object in Snooper's Paradise, and photographing as many blue things you could find in fifteen minutes, hence the blue guitar in the above photo ...

I came home with my head filled with North Laine impressions and a notebook full of half-finished stories and ideas (to hopefully be developed into finished pieces at some point). Even though I was knackered when I came home, I still felt inspired to sit down and write some more in the evening - the playful workshop really opened up my writing energy.

Check out Wendy's blog , for the latest news on story scavenging and other similar workshops.

Read My Story on Your Phone

One of my short stories has been published by Ether Books, and can be downloaded to your phone for free! (If you have a fancy phone that is ...)

Just click here, and then search for "Louise Halvardsson".

My story is called "A Girl Who Just Wants to Come" and was originally accepted for the Are you sitting comfortably? story night where it was read by an actor.

WARNING: Explicit content. 18 + only!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

The Weekend Novelist

I spent the weekend as the Novelist I keep reminding myself that I am. Working on a novel makes me happy, makes me feel I'm part of something bigger than myself. When I'm actually writing it feels like meditation. It's the worrying about writing that makes me unhappy. I wish I would remember this ...

Saturday I wrote my morning pages (3 pages of A4 in longhand as prescribed in the Artist's Way) in bed; had breakfast in the garden, reading a Virginia Woolf biography; spent time with my novel,doing exercises from The Weekend Novelist; went jogging; had dinner; spent a couple of hours working on the novel; went for a walk on the seafront to look at the full moon, contemplating my characters.

Sunday followed the same kind of pattern, but in the evening I went to Ace Stories at Hotel Pelirocco in Brighton to let myself get inspired by other writers (Cathi Unsworth, Danny Bowman, Stefania Mastrorosa)and outstanding musician & singer Sandy Dillon.

It's not only me who am The Weekend Novelist. It's also the title of a really good book. I previously worked through The Weekend Novelist Redrafts the Novel when I revised UNDER THE LIP, so I thought I'd give The Weekend Novelist a go. Unlike other creative writing books that tell you how to make believable characters and how to make a setting come alive etc. this books is very straight-forward and simple with exercises that gets you going.

I'm not following the book slavishly or anything, but I claim that The Weekend Novelist unblocked me when I was in Sweden. Just by doing exercises like finishing the sentence "This is a story about a character who ..." and then speed writing for ten minutes I really got a sense for where I'm going with my novel.

I'm still struggling with finding the right voice and the right structure, but at least I've started from the beginning again, trusting that things will work out, knowing that I can change things later. For now I'll just focus on getting the story down, staring at the post-it note on my wall saying SHITTY FIRST DRAFTS ARE ALLOWED. Today is Monday and I'm still a novelist. I know I'm on the right track when I do something else and ideas or thoughts about the characters and/or plot pop up in my head.

What I Miss about Sweden:

CINNAMON BUNS made by my friend and author Sara Starkström aka GameGirl



PIZZA. You might find it strange ... but the best pizza is to be found in Sweden! Not in restaurants, but in special cheap pizza places that are more common than pubs ... My favourite is the banana and pineapple topping. My brother prefers kebab on his pizza.



LAKE SWIMMING. I still don't know if I prefer lake swimming to sea swimming, but the advantage with lakes is that they are still, so you can actually swim without having to fight for your life against waves and currents.



FORESTS. One morning I woke up early and went down to one of my favourite spots on this planet: Isåsadammen - a lake in the forest, 15 min walk from my parents place. I brought my breakfast and sprinkled the muesli with raspberries and blueberries that I found in the woods just behind me. (And apart from breakfast I brought my notebook and did some random writing.)



FOREST. Yes I do miss the forest. The above mentioned lake at sunset.

As I "feared" the weather distracted me from doing as much writing as I hoped, but my main mission was to find a new way to begin my new novel project and I think I found that way ...

When I'm at the beginning of a new project I can't get enough of just "being" and walking and thinking. It's not the actual time spent in front of the screen.

Now I'm back by the sea in Hove, and at the moment this feels like home. I just need to fill myself up with buns, pizza, lakes and forests now and again ...

More about my new novel project in the next blog post.

dbug

Sky who made my website has developed a cool new app for iPhone and iPod that is available on the App store.

The app is called dbug and you can use it to "examine CSS, selected HTML, doctype and header information on nearly any website, using a unique mobile interface".

Even if I'm not a computer geek myself I'm impressed by how it works, the possibility to see all the coding behind a specific part of a website etc.

Visit the dbug website!

Out of Office

This summer I've been out of office a lot. Every time the sun shows its face I'm there. Swimming trunks on, grabbing a towel and walking - or rather skipping - to the beach.

A borrower (I know they are called "customers" now, but I prefer the old-fashioned word) in the library complimented me on my tan and asked if I'd been on holiday. I told her I'd been on my local beach, to which she replied "You're a good advertisement for Hove!"

My normal "office hours" are between 9-12 in the morning before I go to work in the library, but I find it very hard to sit by my desk in my bedroom when the weather is so welcoming ...(You Brits moan that you haven't had any summer but I tell you that most mornings have been pretty sunny!).

I don't know about any laptops that actually work well in sunlight ... but luckily I can still operate a pen and a notepad, so I have done some work, sitting on the beach, in parks or in the garden.

As I'm between novels (just like other people are between jobs or between relationship or between homes or whatever) I find it extra hard to place my bum on that office chair ...

I'm still struggling with some of the ingredients of my new novel project, but by jotting down notes, writing random scenes and drawing diagrams and making mind-maps I think that I'll get a dough together eventually ...

On Saturday I'm off to Sweden for ten days. One part of me is praying for rain. Rain means serious writing. Another part of me is dancing the sun dance. Sun means lake swimming.

A New Season of Ace Stories

It feels like you "should" stay in on a Sunday night and prepare yourself for the week ahead, but by going out you make the weekend last longer, and Ace Stories (at Hotel Pelirocco, Brighton) is a great excuse to leave your cosy bedroom!

First up was the poet Mike Loveday. His extraordinary observations of everyday life made me smile. Especially the poem about what you might find in a lift.

Next author to take to the stage was Lizzie Enfield and she revealed that what motivated her to write What You Don't Know was that she saw one of her colleague's novels in a supermarket and thought I could do that!

Lizzie has a great sense of humour and read a couple of extracts from the novel, featuring a husband bordering on OCD behaviour and his wife mixing up his CD collection, shelving Radiohead under H ... (I do that to my brother!)

The headlining author for the evening was Jayne Joso who has written a very original novel called Perfect Architect. The widow of an architect challenges four other architects to build her the perfect house ...

Jayne was interviewed by the event director Jay Clifton before her reading, and it was fascinating to hear how the idea for the novel sprung from a non-fiction book about architecture that Jayne had ghostwritten.

Another interesting thing I found out was that Perfect Architect is actually the first novel Jayne wrote, but as she had difficulty finding a publisher at the time her second novel got published before the first ... (This has motivated me to crack on with my new novel idea!)

To finish the evening off Fire Eyes played some great folky rocky tunes.

Ace Stories now have a website and I'm very happy to be the event photographer! Check back later for more photos. (Also this post looks better if you view it in Firefox.)

PS. Ace Stories finishes at a sensible time (9pm ish) but I wasn't sensible enough to leave then ... But hanging out in the bar after is part of the fun, and I love to talk to writers and other artists about their work. Also it was nice that the audience were not only made up of writers. Among others I spoke to a psychologist and woman selling dresses.

Novel Ingredients

I have:
a setting
characters
conflict
themes

I don't have:
a structure
a voice


Can I still make a novel? Or will it be a bit like making a cake without sugar and butter ...?

Where the Book has No Name

Today I was interviewed by a Swedish radio station and they asked me about my new novel (UNDER THE LIP), but this novel in question is already starting to feel old to me...

I'm between novel relationships. I'm waiting for a publisher to take on UNDER THE LIP, and I've started a new project, but it's a bit like seeing a new man/woman when you're still clinging to your ex. (Which funnily enough has been my status in real life as well!)

So I find it very hard to fully give myself to this new novel project (that doesn't yet have a name) as any day my agent could email me with good news. But at least it feels like I'm making half-hearted love to this one idea now instead of sleeping around with different ones ... Yet it's far too early to label this affair, hence the "no name" ...

No Explosion, No End

CLICK HERE TO READ "No Explosion, No end" - a flash fiction piece I performed in the Brighton Fringe Flash Fiction Story Slam

My Midsummer Camp in Norfolk 18-25 June

My Midsummer Camp

Midsummer Camp started off pretty damp
Wet socks and feet
the rain falling in sheets
but after getting a pair of Welly boots
I was ready to sing and shoot

I decorated the marquee
where later 5rhythms set me free
Flowing to the beat of a drum
was better than drinking rum
but with the help of some gin
I played the Welly with a grin

For the solstice I painted my face
and danced round the field in a haze
Sitting round the camp fire
my body burning with desire
Beautiful boys from Leeds
got me into some bad deeds
Smoking and singing some more
I found myself on the floor
A festival of cuddles
arms and legs in a big muddle

Helped building a bender
which made me feel a bit tender
(as if I’d really been on a bender)
Struggling with yogic breath
to save myself from a minor death

In the kids tipi I made a poi
and almost stood on my head oi oi oi
I learnt more in a week than in a year
and my head feels more clear
Wiping snot and chopping wood
did me some good

The view from the compost loo
made my mind grow
feeling the grass under my toes
more intimate than shoes
In the communal shower
a woman made me feel like a flower
by sharing a story about her nipples
which made my smile ripple

In the camp council I confessed
that I liked getting undressed
jumping in the hot tubs
getting free shoulder rubs
Everybody I met had a story to tell
and a hug to share as well

Shedding skin in the sauna heat
made my heart beat
with appreciation, accepting
the changing season
The nights are now getting longer
but I feel stronger
Am not going to drown
cause I’ve found my inner clown.

Re-charging Batteries in Sweden

About three weeks ago I ran out of battery. Everything and everyone seemed boring, and I had no energy to do anything. For the first time ever I suffered from homesickness and in desperation I booked a ticket to Sweden.

There's something about this time of the year: the light in the forest, the summery smells and the feeling of freedom ... (At least that's what it used to feel like when I was younger as school is out in June and you have 10 weeks of holiday ahead of you.)

June is also the month of my Dad's birthday, so I decided to surprise him ... I just turned up on the day, knocking on the window of my parents house. Mum looked as if she had seen a ghost and my Dad was in shock all evening ... It felt like something that happens in a book or a film.


Going for longish walks in the forest was just what I needed. A place to breathe, a place to recharge my creative batteries. To let go of all demands. To be free from computers and phones.


Another purpose of my trip was to collect some inspirational material for my next novel. All I'm revealing is that it's set in Thailand. As I spent 5 months in Thailand in 2007 I filled quite a few journals and took lots of photographs that I had stored at my parent's place. Cramming the journals and photos into my hand luggage I was ready to go back to the UK and face reality again ...

But not for long because on Friday I'm off to Midsummer Camp Festival in Norfolk, so see you in 10 days time or so ...

Can you spot the difference between Brighton and Hove?

Free Writing Workshop on a Gardening/Growing Theme

When? Saturday 4 June 11am-1pm


Where? Hove Library, 182-186 Church Road


How? Just turn up for this free writing workshop run by author Kay Sexton.

There will also be a seedswap ...

Or just come along for a chat and have a cup of tea or coffee for 50p! (I'll run the refreshment table and need some company :).

Flash Fiction Published in Fox Chase Review

I'm happy to have two pieces of flash fiction published in Fox Chase Review. Click here to read Old Habits & It's raining blood.

CAGEuncaged

Before I was asked to be part of a celebration of John Cage in music/spoken word/dance/multimedia performance, all I knew about Cage was that he was the guy who did the silent piece called 4′33″ .

The more I read about Cage the more fascinated I became. I think the problem is that when you label him as a musician some people get annoyed and say that he was making some kind of anti-music ... I don't see Cage as just a musician: I see him as an experimental artist. His music teacher told him he had no ear for harmony and that he'd come to a wall and wouldn't be able to get through. "So what will you do, John?" he asked. John Cage just said "I'll bang my head against that wall!" That's an attitude I like!

John Cage was very into Zen, and wanted to create art without using his ego. By composing, painting and writing using chance and consulting the I Ching he claimed that his work was free from ego. I first thought he was improvising a great deal, but he called it "considered improvisation" and thought that pure improvisation actually was egotistical ...

4thirtythree - the band who hosted the Cage tribute evening don't totally agree with Cage's view even if they're influenced by him. 4thirtythree always improvise. At rehearsals, in the studio when recording albums, and on stage. I think that's very brave, letting go and just moving on ...

The CAGEungaged gig took place almost two weeks ago at the Green Door Store in Brighton, but the reason I didn't get round to blog about it until today was that I didn't have any good photos, but I hope the images above will give a flavour of the evening anyway.

Apart from music by 4thirtythree, VV did some improvised dancing, John Lake played the piano and Simon Mclennan showed some images. I did some improvised spoken word with Tim from 4thirtythree, read a part of John Cage's Lecture on Nothing, performed my own piece Ode to a skull-shaped maraca, and lastly I had the audience helping me to write a mesostic on my top ...

And what I love is that that whole thing was so random. In the beginning of one of 4thirtythree sets Tim made some noise (sounding like banging metal against the floor, still don't know exactly what he did) and it was totally in the spur of the moment. Some of my friends couldn't help giggling, and when I bumped into Tim the week after the gig he told me the other guys thought that something had fallen from the ceiling ...

The whole process of working with 4thirtythree has been a real eye-opener for me, and I feel that I can take more risks when I'm performing and writing, leaving more things to chance, rather than rehearse everything to perfection. Thank you guys!

What do John Cale & Laurie Anderson have in common?

Answer: Lou Reed. Lou Reed was the reason I went to see both John Cale and Laurie Anderson perform on two different nights at the Brighton Dome in the Brighton Festival.

I didn't go just because I hoped to spot Lou Reed in the audience, I went because John Cale and Laurie Anderson are two good musicians/performers in their own right, but I wouldn't have known about them if it wasn't for Lou Reed. The former was in the same band as Lou Reed: The Velvet Underground (one of my favourite bands) and Laurie Anderson is married to Lou Reed ... Laurie is so much more than just a wife though ... While John Cale was good (even though he looked nothing like I'd expected him to look, and played no Velvet songs) Laurie Anderson was an outstanding astonishing superwoman!

It's hard to explain, but Laurie Anderson's performance wasn't just an ordinary gig. She did play the violin, yes, but the music was more of a backdrop to the fragmented stories she was telling with the aid of visual images. A part of the show was based on the death of her mother. She mixed sad and profound sayings (like "you die three times: first when your heart stops, then when you're a buried or cremated, and lastly when someone for the last time says your name") with comical pieces about her giving birth to a dog ... She also made fun of the fact that your mother's maiden name is suppressed, so suppressed in fact that it can even be used as the secret word that saves you when you've lost the password to your email account ...

I loved the fragmented bits of stories like "it's always raining in my dreams" and the repetition of "I'm thinking of you. And then I'm not thinking of you anymore."

I want to thank Lou Reed for introducing me to Laurie Anderson, even if he didn't do it personally ... Some people left half-way through the performance, and someone feel asleep. Perhaps they'd expected a Walk on the Wild Side ... Either way Laurie Anderson's imagination is wild enough for me, and is inspiring me to be more passionate, and use my feelings more in my creations.

I also want to thank my brother for convincing me to go and see John Cale. I almost cried when he played and sang his song Amsterdam. So it was worth it for that song alone. I love FEELING things.

PS. I have seen Lou Reed in concert ones, so I wasn't too sad I didn't spot him in the audience ...

Writing Freedom

The writers' organisation PEN are fighting for the freedom to write. I went to an event in the Brighton Festival where a bunch of writers told the history of the right to express yourself in writing, and what consequences it might have.

An example that was brought up was Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses. This novel has caused great debate, and Rushdie had to be put under police protection as Muslim leaders wanted him killed. In places the book was banned and burned. A translator was stabbed to death because of it, and several other attacks on people related to the novel have taken place.

I find it fascinating that something that someone writes can cause so much trouble. I've always believed that everybody should have the right to express themselves and their opinions, but after listening to the stories told in the talk I realise that things are more complicated ...

What if someone writes something that is racist? I've read novels that I've found very disturbing, and I've felt angry at the publisher for publishing such shit, but I still find it more dangerous to ban books. It's not like the thoughts of the writer don't exist just because they are not in print. And if something provokes you you have the choice of stop reading and start writing yourself.

However I don't think that I would be able to sleep tight if someone had been killed because of something I'd written ... The only thing that happened when my novel, "Punk industrial hard rocker with attitude" was published in Sweden was that I had to take some verbal abuse from my grandma for writing such filthy stuff ...

Book Launch with a Brazilian Beat

If you suspect that your dad, who was reported dead twenty-five years ago might still be alive, would you still want to find him? That's the question Joel in Ed Siegle's debut novel Invisibles has to face. Well, he's pretty sure himself, but when Joel travels from Brighton to Rio de Janeiro to search for his dad he meets local boy Nelson who makes him question his decision ...

I admire the way Ed Siegle managed to pull this story off, with four different narratives (Joel, Nelson, Joel's mum Jackie and Joel's girlfriend Debbie), spanning over nearly forty years, covering the ground and the backstory in both Brighton and Rio.

Invisibles (published by Myriad Editions) is a book filled with a samba beat and a passion for finding the truth.

Being part of the Events Team at Hove Library I'm delighted to host at Brighton Book Launch for Invisibles next week. Please come along!

When? Wednesday 1 June, 6.30pm
Where? Hove Library
How? FREE, Just turn up! Special Wine & Book Deal
Music by the Brighton School of Samba

Ed Siegle's Blog

Double Slam in the Brighton Fringe

Hendrick's Horseless Carriage of Curiosities parked up in Jubilee Square last Friday and is leaving on Monday, so there's still a chance to get a free shot of gin. And if you write a very short story or a short poem you'll get a free gin cocktail in the bar, but you have to read it out to the barmen and barmaids!

Last weekend I took part in two slams in the above mentioned carriage as part of Brighton Fringe Festival. On the Saturday Damian Barr hosted a flash fiction slam, and me and 13 other people entered the stage to read or perform a story in less than three minutes. Not everyone agreed with the judges (Stuart Evers, Vanessa Gebbie & Niven Govinden) but it was good fun, even though the theme was somewhat depressing: "The End." My story was about a woman who wanted a divorce from her doormat husband, but the divorce couldn't go through unless the doormat exploded, and therefore my story had no end ... (Thanks to everyone on Facebook who took part in the debate whether such an expression as "exploding doormat" exists or not ...)

On the Sunday Chris Parkinson hosted a lively poetry slam. The poets had five minutes to convince the judges (Damian Barr, James Burt & Kate Shields)that their poem or poems were the best. Alison Brunette (?) became the champion after having performed a parody of the "When I'm an old woman I shall wear purple"- poem and another one about preferring sex to chocolate. At other poetry slams I've been to the audience are often asked to be the judges, so it was a bit different to have a panel of judges that kept their scores secret. I did my poem dedicated to an ex-landlord which went down well. I'm happy with both my performances and really enjoyed being on stage in Hendrick's Horseless Carriage of Curiosities!

The Cosmos, The Cosmetics

The reason I went to see The Cosmos, The Cosmetics show in the Brighton Fringe was that the subtitle said "a spoken word play". I'm always interested in seeing how poetry can be used to create a narrative, and have my own secret (or now not so secret) dreams of one day putting together a one-woman-show, using my poems and other writings. In a way I've done a bit of that when I do author talks at schools and libraries, but I haven't created something that feels like a finished shape or a whole piece.

Through poetic language Nick Field told his coming-of-age story, drifting from one subculture to another, and eventually coming out and finding himself for real. I loved how the very simple stage set worked ... With the help of different tubs of cosmetics Nick illustrated his experience of being a raver and being a goth. From fluorescent lips to black lips ...

A couple of times I got a bit lost or confused when Nick jumped in time and between different episodes in his life, but he always managed to capture me again with his very calm but catchy way of speaking. I was trying to work out if there were any "complete poems" in his play ... I'm not sure and it doesn't matter anyway. The narrative flowed without any awkward pauses.

Most of the time it felt like Nick was speaking to me personally. So many things I could relate to ... The difficulty to fit in within a certain scene (he was too chatty and positive for the goths, I've always found myself being too "rock 'n' roll" for the goths*) and the worry about spots (Nick found that covering his face in thick foundation (?) or powder (?) helped and I used rouge (!) to conceal my spots as a teenager ...) I found it particularly funny the way Nick had to sneak out of his house to avoid being seen in his various outfits and hair-dos by his parents ... I remember times when I ran out of the house before my mum noticed that I was wearing my Dr Martens with a neat dress for a school graduation ... Not to mention the small-town mentality, and all the neighbours knowing what you're up to ...

There were also some very touching moments in the show when Nick spoke about bike accidents he had and how his skin was damaged and he got this "skin paste" to use to cover up the scars, but in the end chose to leave them be. I hope to see/hear more of Nick Field's stuff in the future!

Here's a quote that kind of summarises the show: "There were so many stitch and dye initiations. So many cut and rip, fix together, plagiarise and innovate, mix and match, daub and dab paint rituals."


*My Swedish debut novel "Punk industrial hard rocker with attitude" is all about not being able to fit into a particular box

Lil' Red Ridin' Hoodie & The Big Bad Wolf

A very unusual take on the traditional tale of the Little Red Riding Hood ... Pyratrix Circus treated Brighton to a free multimedia fire show at the Level (as part of the Fringe Festival) a couple of weeks ago. I enjoyed the performance as I think there's something magical about both fire and things that are performed outdoors.

However waiting for over an hour in the chilly May air didn't help. It was also a shame that there were technical difficulties and the spoken words got lost in the wind ... But hey it was FREE and it was a good atmosphere. I just wished that I wasn't a vegetarian that night. The fluorescent vodka jelly shots that were going for a pound were very tempting!

Checking Pyratrix Circus Facebook page it says "Our main character Lil Red is a keen young dynamic activist who wants to rescue her beloved grandma from the big bad wolf. Grandma is a representation of the earth, dying due to the corporate greed of the big bad wolf." And I pretty much got this message despite the sound being crap ... I loved the political messages scattered around the "stage" such as a sign in the McDonald's colours saying "Mc Junk". Proud to be veggie after all!

Pyratrix is touring other festival in the UK and Europe this summer so check them out!

P.S. The fire display in the picture says FEAR MAKES THE WOLF LOOK BIGGER

And the Birds Fell from the Sky

I'm exhausted (on the brink of seeing clowns!) after weeks of going to Brighton Fringe & Brighton Festival events. I hope to blog about them all at some point. At least I should have the time this week as I'm broke until payday ... Usually when the festival programmes first come out I feel a bit overwhelmed. There's too much on, and it's hard to pick what shows are worth seeing, and it still feels like I've missed stuff ...

One of the very first events I went to was "And the Birds Fell from the Sky" and that's definitely a show to check out. (There are tickets left for next weekend.)

"An immersive video goggle performance for two people, combining cinema and instruction based theatre to cast the audience as main character in a wild journey to the world of the Faruk Clown. Anarchic, dreamy and dangerous, ‘And The Birds Fell From the Sky’ takes you on a joyride inside your head all the way to the edge of civilisation."

I pretty much agree with the above statement. I went to the show with my friend Kristen and afterwards she asked what I thought was the point of the performance/event/show. And I couldn't really give her an answer ...I told her I felt sick in a good way, which is true. It felt like being inside one of James Burt's clown stories. Basically you get physically kidnapped by clowns ... and somewhere along the journey I got reminded of life: there's no real point, at least not one that we know of ... The only thing negative thing I have to say is that the show felt a bit short - just like life itself.

Creative Writing Summer School

Wendy Ann Greenhalgh is running a Creative Writing Summer School, but don't be put off by the word school ... Wendy is known to have a playful approach to writing, so do sign up if you want to get in touch with your inner writer.

Creative Writing Summer School
4 Wednesdays 8th - 29th June 7-9pm

These inspiring and experimental creative writing sessions, will encourage you to play with language and explore new ways of writing. Each week we’ll focus on the techniques developed by famous writers or creative movements to generate lots of ideas for poems and stories.

WEEK ONE

We’ll be taking a trip into Surrealism, collaging words and pictures to generate narratives and poetic imagery.

WEEK TWO
We’ll be emulating the assemblage artists and trawling the streets for found objects or bringing some from home – putting them in a box and creating story and poem treasure chests, where each object tells its own tale.

WEEK THREE
We’ll be following in the footsteps of the Beat generation, and cutting up and folding out old books, magazines and flyers to create new and unexpected combinations.

WEEK FOUR

With a nod to the Situationists we’ll be going on a ‘drift’ around Brighton, taking photographs of places, people and things that we’ll turn into a lyrical or narrative group snapshot of the city.

The cost of the 4 sessions is £45 and you can book online with Eventbrite or send Wendy a cheque. Get in touch at storyscavenger@gmail.com - if you want more information.