It's Raining Blood

My friend and sometimes writer, Solera, challenged me to write a poem using the words "rain" "blood" "flower". I didn't need to use all of them or write them out in the poem, the idea was to get inspired.

I tried and I tried and I tried. But I'm in a very "prosy" period and all I could come up with was a bizarre flash fiction piece ...
And does anyone know if a prose poem and a piece of flash fiction are the same thing?

READ "IT'S RAINING BLOOD" HERE
Very grateful for any feedback!

Picture by Birdy27

Chichester Writing Festival

I spent the weekend at West Dean college, taking part in the 4th Chichester Writing Festival. When I say "take part" I don't mean that I was on stage. Even if there was a programme with a panel of different authors it didn't feel like a stage - the whole room was a stage. The point of Chichester Writing Festival is that everyone who's there is welcome to take part in the discussions and debates. And everyone is a writer. It doesn't matter if you're a bestselling crime writer, a debut author or someone not yet published. As Lady Antonia Fraser said "I was a writer from the moment I learned to write."

The panel events were chaired by creative writing tutor Greg Mosse, and the evening events were chaired by his wife, the author Kate Mosse. I arrived back in Brighton last night with itchy fingers wanting to write, feeling inspired after hearing the stories of a dozen authors.

I learnt that Michael Morpurgo doesn't like to write - but he loves telling stories. I learnt that some agents are obsessed with characters and don't even bother to read the synopsis (Hannah Westland) and that some agents are more focused on plot (Lorella Belli). I learnt that Vicky Blunden from Myriad Editions works very closely with her authors during the editing process. I learnt that some authors need to rewrite a whole part (Ed Hillyer) whilst others only need to change a a paragraph (Isabel Ashdown). I learnt that Peter James spends a day a week with the police to gain material and inspiration for his novels. I learnt that Bidisha is fed up with talking about being published at 16. I learnt that some poets (Becky Swift) have no idea that their work is good.

For me the most interesting people were the ones from abroad: Bulgarian Nikolai Grozni (ex concert pianist and ex Buddhist monk) who tried to write a novel about his life, but turned it into an autobiographical memoir (writing in English (American) which is not his first language); Zornitsa Hristova - also Bulgarian - who translates English fiction into Bulgarian and Bulgarian fiction into English, and has developed a creative story game for children; and Jonina Leosdottir from Iceland who has written a coming-out trilogy for Young Adults partly set in Brighton, but not yet translated into English. Meeting these people gave me hope and courage to keep pursuing my career, writing in English.

Finally I learnt that most published writers are published because of a contact. Not always by knowing an agent or editor personally, but for example being married to a person who's already published or knowing someone who knows someone who knows someone ... The word networking came up several times over the weekend. Now I'm off to find the new contacts/possible friends I made on Facebook ...

Sports, Prostitution & Other Aspects of History in Fiction - Free Author Event at Hove Library This Thursday

Debut authors Ed Hillyer and Jonathan Kemp, both published by Myriad Editions of Hove will read from their novels followed by a Q&A, curated by literary agent Adrian Weston.


Where? Hove Library, Children's Area
When? Thursday 23 September, doors 6.30pm for 7pm start
How? Free! No need to book, but turn up early to avoid disappointment, refreshments (wine, juice) available


Follow Hove Library on Facebook


Ed Hillyer and Jonathan Kemp's very different novels both explore the untold stories of the past, from Aboriginal cricketers touring Kent and the capital in the 1860s, to rent boys on the fringes of high society in Victorian London.

Ed Hillyer was selected as one of Waterstone's New Voices for 2010, and his novel THE CLAY DREAMING is an epic adventure with a mystery at its heart, brimming with memorable characters and historical intrigue, and etched with documentary detail that brings both Regency and Victorian London vividly to life.

Jonathan Kemp's first novel, LONDON TRIPTYCH, explores the lives of three gay men in three historical periods - the 1890s, 1950s and 1980s - in a dark, startling and unsettling narrative of sex, exploitation and dependence set against London’s strangely constant gay underworld. Jake Arnott described the book as 'vivid and visceral... cuts deep to reveal the hidden layers of a secret history.'

Another Shortlist!

I made it to another shortlist with another short story: Next of Kin for the Ilkley Literature Festival competition, judged by Barbara Trapido.

I'm very happy and excited as this indeed shows that I can write in English.

Read about my other story, Lovers of the Planet, that also made a shortlist here.

What I think these two shortlisted stories have in common is that I really like them and felt passionate about them when I was writing them ...


Thanks to James B, Morgan and Solera for feedback on Next of Kin and thanks to Chris L, James H and Tim for for feedback on Lovers of the Planet.

Write Club - not for the faint-hearted

Whether you're a beginner, suffering from writer's block or just want a break from that god-damned serious novel you're working on to have some fun - Write Club is for you.

James Burt and Ellen De Vries run a monthly event at the Skiff in Brighton. People get together, not to fight but to write flash fiction or poetry. The evening is divided into different rounds where the participants are invited to write for either 2,3,4,5 or 10 minutes inspired by a picture projected on the wall.

The first rule is: Don't apologise

That's why Write Club is not for the faint-hearted. After each round you have to read out loud what you have written. But the great thing is that nobody is allowed to apologise. This adds to the atmosphere and takes away some of that seriousness and pressure. Nobody expects you to come up with a masterpiece in five minutes. Although some of the writing is so good it makes me jealous ...

I've mentioned it before, but I think all writers whether professional or not, need time to PLAY. I often make the mistake of just sitting down thinking "now I'm going to work on this particular story" and then I feel frightened and blocked. To get going I need to write a lot of rubbish before I begin. Write Club helps you to keep the writing muscles going. Just like a runner is stupid to do a marathon without exercising beforehand a writer is stupid to write a novel without doing some exercises now and again. I don't think I'll use any of the stuff I wrote at Write Club to work on. I joined in for sheer pleasure, pen against paper, letting the stream of conciousness flow ...

As a bonus a piece of cake was thrown in as inspiration among the photographs at the last session. For ten minutes you were supposed to write about your cake-eating experience, but as I'm having a sugar free (and alcohol-free) month I got an apple instead ...

This is part of what I wrote:

"You can't eat an apple in silence.
Not the kind of snack you reach for in a tent
with somebone sleeping next to you.
You'd want something soft
like a banana, or a cake ..."

Next Write Club session is in October, but James and Ellen are also hosting other workshops. Check it out here.

Public Speaking: my journey from shy smalltown girl to published author

I've spent a few days in Sweden to talk about my life as a writer and my first novel Punkindustriell hårdrockare med attityd (Punk industrial hard rocker with attitude)

This week it was the opening of a new cultural centre in my hometown, Nässjö. On Tuesday I was invited to hold a talk in the library and the day after I did the same 45 min talk at the youth centre. I also went to another town, Tranås to talk to young people about identity (which is the main theme in my novel).

It's always a bit nerve-wracking to speak in my hometown as a lot of people know me and/or my family and I can't get away with any lies ... Not that I usually lie, but sometimes I change things around a bit ...

Even if the audience was very different at these three occasions I basically spoke about the same thing: my journey from quiet/shy/ugly smalltown girl to confident "punk industrial hard rocker with attitude".

I made an active choice the summer when I was sixteen. When school started again (in Sweden you go to the school "gymnasiet" from when you're 16 until 19) I wanted to be a punkrocker. I also had thoughts of becoming a "good-looking popular girl", but decided it was much harder so I settled for the punk rock style.

Now, 10-12 years later I've realised it's just as hard to become a punkrocker as it is to become a good-looking girl. It takes courage to find your own style, search for alternative music and go to school looking like a car accident with hairspray- damaged hair and ripped jeans. For me it was a relief though, not having to keep up with the latest fashion, although in the end I compared myself to other punks and wondered if I was a "real" punk ...

Whoever you are it's tough to grow up. I think everybody spends far too much time in front of the mirror worrying about if they're okay or not. Sometimes the beautiful people are not visible because they are too shy to be seen ...

Shortlisted

It paid off going a bit submission mad the other week. My short story, Lovers of the Planet was shortlisted for Spilling Ink's short story competition and will be published in their annual print anthology. Very exciting!

At the moment I'm in my hometown Nässjö, Sweden. Tonight I'm doing a talk at the new local library about my writing career and first novel Punkindustriell hårdrockare med attityd, and tomorrow night I'll do the same talk at the new Youth Centre. Friday I'm going to Tranås to speak at a school.

And I'm not the only lucky one in the family ... My Dad won 3rd prize in a local sunflower competition ...

You can read Lovers of the Planet by clicking here. It was inspired by a woman who knocked on my door and "forced me" to sign up for Friends of the Earth ...

At the Edge of the Sea Festival

Yesterday I was on stage at Concorde2 for the first time. I opened At the Edge of the Sea Festival by reading my short story I'm from further North than you, which was inspired by a Wedding Present song with the same title.(The Short Story organisation Short Fuse was behind this idea and there were three more reading acts throughout the day.)The singer of the Wedding Present - David Gedge - said my story was naughty, but then it was his lyrics that started it all off ...

The headlining band was of course The Wedding Present, but I also enjoyed David's other band Cinerama (picture) and the Ukrainians among other bands. I think it's a great idea to mix literature and rock. Good news is that the selected stories will be published in an anthology that will be sold as Wedding Present merchandise. My story will most likely be illustrated in the format of a graphic novel.

I must confess that it was quite nerve-wracking to open up a festival - just ten minutes after I arrived. After my reading I felt faint and had to go and sit on the beach, at the edge of the sea.

Photo: James Burt

Behave and Submit

Writers need to make it part of their routine. Yes, it's more fun to write than to read submissions guidelines and check for the eleventh time that you have numbered your pages, not written your name anywhere in the document and made sure the word count is right.

Tonight I've submitted five times. Five short stories to five different competitions/magazines. The chance is five times higher that I'll get a short story accepted than it was yesterday. If you just behave and keep submitting success will follow.

I had kind of forgotten,
despairing after having been turned down by nine agents/publishers.
But thanks to meeting up with authors Kay Sexton and James Dawson (who both had more than nine rejections before securing an agent),
I got my HOPE back.

" ... I've been draggin' my heels
With a bitch called hope ..." - Guns N'Roses, Garden of Eden

We need that bitch.
We need to submit to that bitch.

Black History Month Countdown

I was very happy to be part of the countdown to Black History Month at Red Roaster on Thursday. I'm not black, but I'm Swedish so I have a faint, I say faint idea what it's like to be different. But as I said during my performance: I feel more comfortable in Brighton than I do in my hometown in Sweden. Because in Brighton anything goes; it's easier to be who you are when people in the street are gay, black, Japanese or just have pink hair. I haven't performed for a while so it was good for my confidence to be on stage again and do my rants about escaping narrow-minded small towns.


The headlining acts for the evening was the poetess Akila and the funk/soul/rnb band Mauve.

The next events are Thu 16 Sep and Thu 28 Oct, 8pm at Red Roaster Cafe in Kemp Town. Join the Facebook Group here. Get in touch with the administrators if you want to perform.

There's also a challenge to write something on the topic of legacy. You don't have to be black, just share your thoughts on living in a mulitcultural place.

Ireland: good friends, nature, music, drinking & inspiration

Alfriston to Cuckmere Haven - a walk to recharge creative batteries

In an earlier blog post I wrote about my creative meetings with my friend Sue. We're still meeting fortnightly to discuss our progress and support each other on our creative journeys. Sometimes you need to recharge your batteries though, so instead of an ordinary meeting we decided to go on a physcial journey. Walking, nature and good company is very healing.

Zoo Gun 91

Absurd? Bizarre? Surreal? Avantgarde? I love it when I'm unable to label something. It means it's original.

Yesterday I went to Zoo Gun 91 (normally called Glue Gun 91) hosted by The Young Hanoverians a.k.a. Chris Parkinson/Polymath/Rufus Moonshine & Amy Atkins/Gimley Whipple/Morag (excuse me if I forgot any names).

As I've been to Glue Gun 91 before, I knew it was worth going, even if I only got four hours sleep before, was in a bad mood and was facing a moral dilemma.

Glue Gun 91 is the kind of event that will alter your state of mind. It's impossible to be bored when swans die, bears dance, people have sex with dolphins and when there's a trial because a whale has been bereft of half its body. The housebound house band for the evening was the Land of Pointlessness (see first pic) that performed songs/raps about their cat.

The best moments are not captured in pictures though. I was too busy enjoying myself!

Last week I went to see A Bedroom Farce at Theatre Royal, but the day after I'd already forgotten about it. Glue Gun 91 is a perfect example that you can be thoroughly entertained by (not yet) famous people, and without paying a fortune.

It's inspiring to see how people like Chris & Amy put so much love and creative effort into what they're doing, making props and stage outfits. It's worth coming to Glue Gun 91 just for their original way of announcing breaks and encouraging the audience to clap and cheer.

Currently there's no fixed date for the next Glue Gun 91, but look them up on Facebook and join their group!

To write on a theme and stick to a word count

Most of my short stories I've thought up out of the blue and written without deciding how long they were going to be beforehand. This is fine if you're writing for yourself or are so established that you are getting collections published.

Most magazines or competitions have rules though. You're supposed to write on a theme or at least stick to a word limit. When I started writing I hated that concept. I wanted to be free to write any stories I wanted, and make them how short or how long I wanted them to be.

Now I find it quite exciting to brain-storm around a theme. It takes me to places I didn't know before. It makes me write things I wouldn't normally have written.

I've been working on a story for almost two weeks, inspired by an exercise in the excellent book Short Circuit - a guide to the short story, edited by Vanessa Gebbie. The exercise was about setting. First you were supposed to describe a room in your house, pretending you saw it for the first time. Then you were supposed to place a person in the room whose mood reflected the mood of the room. Lastly you were supposed to introduce another character and through dialogue reveal their relationship to each other. I combined this exercise with an idea I got from reading a message on my radiator, left by a previous lodger.

I have no idea where to send this story, but a lot of competition/magazines have a word limit of 2000 words so I decided to aim for that. When the story was finished I had 2350 words. I had no idea how to cut it, but leaving it a few days and getting back to it, I could easily shorten the story to 1950 words. The advantage with a word limit is that you learn how to cut out the crap. At least if you're a novelist like me and are used to waffling and having space. It might be harder if you're a flash fiction writer and feeling forced to add words ... (Normally there's no lower word limit, but I suspect it's hard to win a competition with a 300 word piece. There a exceptions though. Tania Hershman is a master when it comes to short short stories.)

Next story I'm going to work on is for the Asham Award. The word limit is 4000 words, which is not a problem. The problem is that, unlike other years, they have a theme this year. And the theme is ghosts. I've never written a ghost story in my life, so this will be a real challenge ...

When you get a rejection ...

... make sure you have a good friend and chocolate cake nearby!

Today I had something exciting in the post, or so I thought. There was a slip from the post on the door mat, telling me I had to pick up a letter and pay for it as the sender had not put on enough postage. Immediately I thought of my friend Sara in Sweden, who sometimes sends me books or just ultra thick letters. I was quite looking forward to picking it up, was even happy to pay the £1.70.

But when I got to the post place and was handed the letter I recognised my own handwriting. A self-addressed envelope I had included with a submission. First I thought it had to do with a poetry submission I'd just done for fun and didn't care that much about, then it dawned on me the letter was from a publisher I had contacted directly and really wanted to get published by.

This is is:

"Many thanks for submitting REPLACING ANGEL for our consideration. I’m sorry to report we will be passing on this title. I noted with interest your previous publishing experience in Sweden – I think your English prose is not quite strong enough yet, however I think that will come with time. My advice would be to keep on practicing writing in English and try to really make the prose come alive on the page. Do keep us in mind for your next novel in English."

I thought about going straight to the nearest pub that happened to be the Station by Hove Station and sit there all day and drink and tell commuters and other random people about my tragedy. Luckily I'd already arranged to have lunch at my friend Saskia's place. (Thank you for saving me!!!) She said all the right things and treated me to a slice of chocolate cake and I felt a little bit better.

The afternoon was spent in some kind of daze. And now it's evening and I've coloured my hair, as I usually do when I want to feel better. I also looked at another rejection letter from an agent:

"I thought that there was much to admire here, in particular your prose style, but I’m afraid that I did not quite feel that all-important connection with your work that I know is vital in this industry, but please do not give up. There are as many opinions out there as there are agents, and a full list of them can be found at www.bloomsbury.com/writersarea/AgentsUK.asp.
With best wishes and good luck in your future endeavours"

So once again it goes to show that decisions in the publishing business are quite subjective ... I had my manuscript proof-read by a professional editor, so if someone thinks that my prose is not strong enough it has nothing to do with being Swedish I don't think ... Especially as the agent above said that he admired my prose style.

Yet the letter I received today really, really hurt. It was a massive decision to write in English when I already had success in Sweden, and now I can't help thinking "what if". I followed my heart instead of my head ...

But no, I won't despair. Somewhere out there I know there's an agent who'll like both my story and my style of prose. Maybe I'll have an acception letter tomorrow. Who knows?

A Different View

No, I'm not going to talk about POINT OF VIEW in writing. I'm going to write about that sometimes writers need a different view so they can relax and re-energise.

I'm the kind of person who find it hard to have a proper holiday. I often think that I should/could be doing something like writing a poem or at least reading a short story and analyse it.

This weekend I decided to take a mini-break. I went very far. I went to Chichester, 45 min down the road on the train. I spent the Saturday checking out Pallant Art Gallery, St Martin's Tea Room, The Cathedral and Wests bar. I stayed in an unexciting, but clean room at the summer empty university campus.

After a deluxe breakfast on Sunday I took off for my main goal: West Wittering Beach. Beautiful. But windy and overcast. The sun didn't show its face until I came to the bus stop, so I had a meal and a pint in the gardens of the Old House at Home pub before heading back to Brighton&Hove.

I don't know what I was hoping to find, but when I came home I felt much calmer than I have in long time. As if I was living more in the elusive "now". I did a bit of journal writing, wrote a long letter to a friend in Sweden and read Amanda Smyth's Black Rock (A fantastic book that I came across last Sunday at Ace Stories at Hotel Pelirocco where Amanda read from her coming-of-age novel set in Tobago & Trinidad.)

But apart from the above activities I didn't force myself to do anything creative and today, Monday, my day has felt less rigid and more organic. I've done some writing, and thinking and analytic reading, but I've enjoyed it very much. Especially as I was lying on the beach burning my bum cheeks at the same time! (West Wittering Beach might be more sandy, but the beach in Hove is pretty good too and I had a swim without having to amputate my toes after.)

Good News: My story "I'm from further North than you" (based on a song by the band the Wedding Present) was chosen as one of the stories to be read at the Edge of the Sea Festival (where Short Fuse stories will appear) at Concorde2 in August! (Thank you very much Brian M, Tim P & James B for feedback!)

A Season For Short Stories

There's a season for eveything. A season for Dr Martens and a season for Birkenstocks. A season for novels. A season for short stories.

The weather has made me change my working habits. I find it impossible to work inside on my laptop when the sun is shining, and taking the laptop out is not a good option as the light is not good for the screen and the battery runs out quite quickly. So this is my new method.

1. The evenings are used for brainstorming and writing up rough first draft of short stories that I print.
2. In the morning I read through the print out over breakfast in the garden and make notes.
3. I carry on in the garden or move to the beach where I go through the story more thoroughly, adding and taking away things. Writing new paragraphs in my note book, answering questions about plot and character etc.
4. Sun fun sun fun. (unfortunately quite often interrupted by my day job)
5. When the sun goes down I type up my changes and print it again.
6. When the sun goes up I do another read through, aloud this time in the garden after breakfast. (Not being half as embarrassing as my neighbour on the other side of the fence who talks to her dog!)
7. Using up the battery power and abusing my laptop screen with sunshine I do some final editing in the garden and then I send it off to someone for feedback or if I feel super confident I send it off to a competition or a magazine. If I decide to go for feedback I'll repeat some of the above points ...

I can already feel that I'm becoming a better novelist by writing short stories. If I worked as hard on every chapter as I do on every short story I'd be a bestseller :). Short stories take so much concentration and focus. You can't get away with any waffling! I've decided to dedicate a year (started in late February) to the art of the short story before I start another novel.

New Poem: 2

CLICK HERE TO READ MY LATEST POEM

A Writer Needs to Learn to be Alone

When I did the creative writing course at "Jakan" in Stockholm we did a field trip to Norstedts - one of Sweden's biggest publishing companies. What I remember the most is that the editor who showed us around said that in order to become a writer you need to learn to be alone.

When I was younger being alone was my natural state. (In my early teens I didn't have many friends and spent my time afternoons and evenings doing homework, reading and writing.) I was also alone when I first moved to Stockholm and when I first moved to Brighton and when I lived in Thailand and New Zealand. Durings these spells of loneliness I started or worked intensly on novels.

As I got older and more confident I made more friends, and nowadays I have to force myself to be alone. Brighton is a very sociable place and is great for sparking off your imagination. Brighton is also a great distraction.

This week I did a bit of an experiment. I made squares in my diary when I had time off and put "Lou" in the squares to remind me that this week I'm going to spend time with myself. It proved succesful.

First I had itchy fingers and wanted to text everybody in my address book and suggest beers and on the beach. Then I realised that I'm fully capable of having a beer on the beach on my own. Because it's in my own company, when I create reflection time for myself that I come up with ideas and feel creative. I love sitting on the beach or in a cafe with my notebook and write down random thoughts and allow myself to let my mind wander. Then I go home and transfer some of my thoughts to the computer, seeing if anything could make it into a short story.

The result this week:
*I worked on CLEANING IN LINGERIE - a story for the Bridport Prize
*I wrote a piece called THE ART OF MISSING ROXANNE
*I started a story about my death and loss
*I started a story about a pillow fight
*I worked on a story for the Short Fuse Edge of the Sea festival event
*I worked on a story that was called TOUCH ME LIKE YOU WOULD TOUCH HIM and renamed it. It's now called THE PARTY IS OVER.

Sometimes my scheduled writing time in the morning before I go to the library is not enough. To come up with new ideas I often need evenings and weekend to float about in. The mornings are great for getting on with things, a bit like an office job: right today I'm going to work on this story kind of thing. Whereas evenings and weekends are better for coming up with free ideas and do some wild writing. I have to remind myself not to fill every evening and every weekend with other people. I need to re-learn to be alone.*



*A lot of people who are alone watch TV or do housework. TIP: throw out the TV, ignore the dirt and be creative instead!

My debut as a film actress ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ulf16AsaoUo

Video made by Tim Pieraccini , based on the poem "If" by Yahia Lababidi.


I really like the idea of making videos for poems. It shoudn't be reserved for music!

My Weekend in Pictures

Caroline of Brunswick was one of the few pubs where you could escape the football Friday ...



Saturday night and ready to go to the Are you sitting comfortably? Pyjama Party event (more pics below)



The actor Gareth Brierly is reading my story Relax Johnny-Boy, have some fun!



Kate and James are enjoying the midnight ice-cream feast. Apart from short story-readings there were also short films, games like pass the parcel and a price for the person who wrote down the best nightly dream.



Photo: Jeff Sheppard. On Sunday I performed at the brilliant event Everybody's Got To Be Somewhere (curated by Ben Graham) at the Prince Albert pub. To my surprise there was another Swedish poet: Andreas Grant.



Sunday evening and chilling out on the beach with my friend Mattias Kalander (a composer from North of Sweden) who spent the weekend with me. I met Mattias eleven years ago. On the internet. This was the first time we met in real life!

How to create suspense in novel - free event at Hove Library this Thursday

Three authors from Myriad Editions of Hove will read from their debut novels followed by a Q&A. The focus is on how they create suspense in their novels, and the importance of setting.

Where? Hove Library, Childrens Area
When? Thursday 17 June, doors 6.30pm for 7pm start
How? Free! But turn up early to avoid disappointment

Guns N' Roses Sweden Rock Festival 2010

I first heard Guns N' Roses when I was 11, back in 1993. A guy in my class at school played Paradise City at a music lesson and it changed my life. The simple refrain "Take me down to the paradise city
where the grass is green and the girls are pretty"
stirred something inside me. I started dreaming of a better life, of getting away from my small town and find my own Paradise City. And I did find it years later. In Brighton.

When W. Axl Rose got on stage last night at Sweden Rock Festival I was exstatic, and when he sat down at the piano playing November Rain I was almost in tears. It didn't matter that he was 50 min late, arriving in a helicopter. I could forgive Axl for anything at that moment ... Waiting in the cold June rain was worth it!

For the past few years I haven't listened that much to GN'R, but being at the concert brought back so many memories. I have memories to every single song. (Even the new ones, as Chinese Democracy was my soundtrack when I travelled in New Zealand.)

There's so much energy, so much attitude, so many feelings ... I still love Axl Rose!

PS. I also got the title for my Swedish novel from Guns N'Roses as somebody once described their music as "punk industrial hard rock with attitude"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N08jCj4ikkU

Greetings from Nässjö, Sweden

I can't believe that I've been in my hometown, Nässjö, for a week now. I thought I would have loads of time to write and read and walk. But I've ended up being very sociable catching up with family and friends.

Something that is a bit annoying though is that you can't even go out for a drink. There are no pubs in Nässjö. English people might think it's a joke, but it's true. The only pub there was has been closed for renovation for more than six months! So me and my friend had to go to the hotel bar that closed at 10.30pm and was empty apart from a few businessmen staying at the hotel ...

On the bright side though there's a yearly poetry festival in Nässjö. I've always missed it as I live in Brighton, and when I still lived here I was too young to appreciate poetry. Yesterday I saw some readings from some of Sweden's finest poets and there was also a brilliant poetry slam to finish the evening off.

Another bright thing is that my short story, Relax Johnny Boy, have some fun!, was accepted for the Are you sitting comfortably? Pyjama Party in the Brighton Basement next Saturday, 19 June. I was also happy to find out that one of James Burt's stories was accepted as well.



Today me and my brother are off to a festival outside Sölvesborg called Sweden Rock. Mainly to see my old hero W. Axl Rose ... Catch you later!

New Poem: Reversed Jealousy

CLICK HERE TO READ MY LATEST POEM.