Hi! I've been so caught up in work that I've had absolutley no time to think of writing, or even having creative thoughts at all. Spending all day sinking under a pile of paperwork and listening to grumpy managers and engineers who want your response 'right now!' is not what I call creative inspiration. On the other hand I am desperately trying to change the situation and have new projects to focus on.
First thing is the Bad Language book launch which is now happening on Wednesday 2nd June at The Bay Horse in the Northen Quater. Finally! We had a few issues with dates and venues but have finally settled on a date and I refuse to move it any more, even if the Queen came to beg me to move it. Not that she would. Bad Language are also working on their next event which will be a literature quiz night filled with many surprises!
Also, next week, on the day after my birthday, is the exciting Unsung Festival which I have been looking forward to for a long time! A whole day of cider, music, literature and art, at least I hope there's cider. I'm going to treat it as my real birthday seeing as I have to work all day on my actual birthday. Work is even less fun at the moment as I'm covering someone who usualy has so much work to do of their own that they do 30 hours over a month on adverage. I have to pick that up and maintain my own workload! Anyway, enough of work rants. More fun planned...
The next project is the World Cup Special with Bad Language. We're looking for short pieces of fiction or poetry centered around the World Cup, which I have to admit is quite hard when you're not into football. But then again, it was Joe's idea, who is a football enthusiast. The first piece has already been posted to the Bad Language blog, which gives you a taste of how you can write about football when you're not that enthusiatic about it.
The next personal piece I'm working on is the inspiration from Russell Morgan's picture, as mentioned in the last blog. I've been throwing ideas around for a while but have been waiting until my words have stopped drying up from work. I'm working on a very short micro fiction, or extract, about a dead girl who is stuck in a man's mind due to his memories. She cannot move on until the man stops thinking of her so much, and also faces much frustration as he changes and manipulates both their memories into something that isn't truth. This may prove to be quite a complex idea to fit into a short piece, which is why I say extract.
I've started reading The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers, which makes my skin tingle. It follows the story of a mute man and his relationships with the people around him. I am up to the moment when he allows a lonely, lost, drunk man to move into his home and share his life. I find the ideas about how satifying the protagonist finds the relationships in his life romatic; the rhythms and patterns in McCullers language is like reading a song.
I'm also reading Watchmen, old skool I know, but I have been reading it on and off since the big craze about it started. I'm not really into superhero comics but I enjoy the relationship side and the idea of how focusing on the negative side of society can make you corrupt. It's quite a fun novel but I also enjoy how it's influenced by real life events and the philosophical ideas behind the plot.
That's all I've got to say for now. The short piece about Russel Morgan's art will follow shortly, and I am also writing interview questions for my first two artist interviews. I hope to see people at the official book launch where you'll hear readings from the performance poets/writers featured in the new book, visual/audio literature, art work and possibly live music. Also, if you're in Manchester next weekend please make it along to Unsung, that looks to be set to tickle your artists taste buds. Farewell for now!
Showing posts with label Literature Event. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Literature Event. Show all posts
Saturday, 22 May 2010
Sunday, 14 February 2010
Peppermint tea and pretty paper
I am happy to announce that the next Bad Language event will take place on Tuesday the 16th of February in the usual venue of Nexus Art Cafe in Manchester City Centre. This week we will be holding a workshop on non-linear fiction to complement our new collection of hand made chap books which will soon be created (although it is only Joe's story which will be non-linear but we thought it an appropraite topic).
I've spent this fine, cold Sunday looking for pretty paper and trying to find practical ways to make my own chap book; called Peppermint Tea. The piece is a short story based on a soldier who is tired of walking and spends the duration of the fiction trying not to think. The one thing that haunts him is the fact that he cannot remember his deceased mother's face, although he can vividly remember the smell of the peppermint tea he used to begrudgingly make her in the morning, even though it made him gag.
To complement the title I wanted the front cover of the A5 chap book to present a pop out teacup holding a real bag of peppermint tea. I spent hours in Paperchase this morning with my partner and fellow Bad Language-er harrasing all the pretty paper to see what would make a good front cover, tea cup template and inner page. I want the inside front and back page to be a layer of quaint pretty paper to match the teacup on the front cover. I found a delicate white tissue paper made with holes in it that could represent the snow which is falling throughout the story. However, I'm still considering this idea as the paper was £4.50 per sheet and would make each chap book quite expensive to make.
After arguing with my partner for half an hour over who had the neatest hand writing, we concluded that the title should not be hand written nor printed on as the card is proving too thick to make it through my elderly printer! We concluded that the front cover shall present only the tea cup, holding a tea bag and the title name shall be printed on small pieces of card which will be attached to the end of the teabag like a draw string. Although this will be quite fiddly I hope it will look good and save money on ink and extra materials. I also want to hand stitch the whole book together, although I may change my mind on this after the first attempt depending on how many pricked fingers I can take!
We've decided to make around 15 copies of each of our chapbooks; mine, Dan's and Joe's. We also have big ideas of publishing a forth chapbook full of submissions from our Bad Language writers group, but that depends how many submissions we get.
Anyway, it's been a frustrating and exciting afternoon making a trial chap book and I look forward to making the REAL copies with REAL paper! Hehe! Now to work on the workshop for Tuesday, if anyone fancies coming along:)
www.badlanguagemcr.co.uk
I've spent this fine, cold Sunday looking for pretty paper and trying to find practical ways to make my own chap book; called Peppermint Tea. The piece is a short story based on a soldier who is tired of walking and spends the duration of the fiction trying not to think. The one thing that haunts him is the fact that he cannot remember his deceased mother's face, although he can vividly remember the smell of the peppermint tea he used to begrudgingly make her in the morning, even though it made him gag.
To complement the title I wanted the front cover of the A5 chap book to present a pop out teacup holding a real bag of peppermint tea. I spent hours in Paperchase this morning with my partner and fellow Bad Language-er harrasing all the pretty paper to see what would make a good front cover, tea cup template and inner page. I want the inside front and back page to be a layer of quaint pretty paper to match the teacup on the front cover. I found a delicate white tissue paper made with holes in it that could represent the snow which is falling throughout the story. However, I'm still considering this idea as the paper was £4.50 per sheet and would make each chap book quite expensive to make.
After arguing with my partner for half an hour over who had the neatest hand writing, we concluded that the title should not be hand written nor printed on as the card is proving too thick to make it through my elderly printer! We concluded that the front cover shall present only the tea cup, holding a tea bag and the title name shall be printed on small pieces of card which will be attached to the end of the teabag like a draw string. Although this will be quite fiddly I hope it will look good and save money on ink and extra materials. I also want to hand stitch the whole book together, although I may change my mind on this after the first attempt depending on how many pricked fingers I can take!
We've decided to make around 15 copies of each of our chapbooks; mine, Dan's and Joe's. We also have big ideas of publishing a forth chapbook full of submissions from our Bad Language writers group, but that depends how many submissions we get.
Anyway, it's been a frustrating and exciting afternoon making a trial chap book and I look forward to making the REAL copies with REAL paper! Hehe! Now to work on the workshop for Tuesday, if anyone fancies coming along:)
www.badlanguagemcr.co.uk
Sunday, 17 January 2010
Next Bad Language Event!!
The next Bad Language event will be held at Nexus Art Cafe Manchester just opposite vinyl exhange, Tuesday 19th January! Starting from 6pm they will run a small workshop then hold a reading and feedback session.
Come along with a completed piece of work you wish to test on an audience or a work in progress and recieve feedback and an honest opinion. Alternatively just sit back and listen to other wonderful work!
If you're in Manchester I hope to see you there:)
For more information visit: http://www.badlanguagemcr.co.uk/
Come along with a completed piece of work you wish to test on an audience or a work in progress and recieve feedback and an honest opinion. Alternatively just sit back and listen to other wonderful work!
If you're in Manchester I hope to see you there:)
For more information visit: http://www.badlanguagemcr.co.uk/
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