Publishing
SF Heroes and Villains: Quick Primer
http://io9.com/5619134/heroes-and-villains-of-imaginary-worlds-a-quick-primer?skyline=true&s=i
Amplified authors in the UnLibrary | FutureBook
Amplified authors in the UnLibrary. The debate on e-publishing continues.
Bret Easton Ellis: Bateman Was Me
Nearly two decades after American Psycho was published, Bret Easton Ellis has come clean on who Patrick Bateman was - the homicidal, Genesis loving cannibal. You can view the interview at James Brown’s latest offering Sabotage Times. I liked James, like his magazines, like his role as an editor and writer, and I was glad to see that James did the interview, which can be viewed here. Take time out to see into the mind of writer who is beginning to like his characters, and by the sounds of it, is becoming them, or has always been them. Contentious? Dangerous? You make your mind up at Sabotage Times.
Best of Manchester Poets, Volume 1
Great news! Two of Andrew’s poems will appear in the forthcoming Best of Manchester Poets, Volume 1 published by Puppywolf. Puupywolf is a new publisher based in Manchester. Puppywolf was founded in 2010 to publish the very best of poetry originating in Manchester, United Kingdom. Few British cities have such a vibrant scene, full of such positive energy. Puppywolf is run by Keir Thomas, a local poet, award-winning author and literary editor. Click here to learn more about Puppywolf. Puppywolf’s inaugural publication is Best of Manchester Poets, with the first issue due to go on sale 1st June 2010. Best of Manchester Poets will be published twice a year and contributions are invited from anybody who defines themselves as a Manchester poet. It is overseen by a panel of poet editors.
The collection will be out in Summer 2010. More news will appear here when the collection is released.
The View From Here: How Competition Kills Craft
Andrew is this month’s Guest Writer at The View From Here. In his article, How Competition Kills Craft, he looks at the trend of publishers who seek to be in competition with each other. Publishers who copy ideas, author styles, and produce carbon copies of more famous books. You can view the article here and buy the December issue of The View From Here to see the article in print.
NaNoWriMo: Are You Doing It?
I took part in National Novel Writing Month in 2008 and twelve months later I am near the final edit of my novel, The Reformation. Though I am not taking part in the 2009 event, I have enough on my plate with the final edit, I do advise anyone who wants to try their hand at a novel to get involved.
Funnily enough, last year I thought I couldn’t produce 50,000 words in one month but by week three I was nearing my goal and the words have kept flowing since. My only advice is to keep your main idea simple and do not stop to edit. Just push forward, mistakes can be edited out. Take my word for it! Since completing my first attempt in 2008, I have re-edited, re-jigged and cut pages after pages, and added more, taken away more than I have ever done before in any previous attempts at a novel.
I also was reconnected with that feeling that I had lost in my previous attempts at a novel, excitement, frustration and a real desire to sit down and write it. This has not changed in the last twelve months. I can’t promise that will happen to you but it will make you more productive and give you a goal.
Take a chance, get involved with NaNoWriMo and get a badge like I did last year (see picture) - Andrew Oldham 29/10/2009
ARCHIVE: Joanne Harris
Over the last 15 years, Andrew has interviewed, written articles and reviews on a number of writers. It is with real pleasure that we produce some of these here over the coming year. The interview with Joanne Harris originally appeared in Incorporating Writing Issue 1 Vol 1. Andrew says of interviewing Joanne Harris, ‘She is not the easiest writer to interview, and the release of Jigs and Reels in 2003 got a lot of coverage with success of Chocolat and subsequent film release, which was then being premiered on TV in that year. It was not an easy interview, when I asked her about fear influences in her work she replied, “Yorkshire”. Now, I get that but this article was read by alot of people around the world and many asked, “What is Yorkshire?”. Which is a series of novels in their own right’
Time & Space: an interview with Joanne Harris by Andrew Oldham
With the arrival of Joanne Harris’s new book Jigs & Reels, inc. caught up with her to discuss the ramifications of bringing out a short story collection, her inspiration and her blockbuster Chocolat Joanne Harris was born in Yorkshire in 1964, the daughter of a French mother and an English father.
She studied modern and mediaeval languages at Saint Catharine’s College, Cambridge, and after a number of heroic career failures (rock musician, herbalist, accountant) she succumbed to genetic pressure and became a French teacher for 12 years at a boys’ grammar school in Leeds, having at last reached the conclusion that if you can take this, you can take anything. Her first novel, The Evil Seed, was published in 1989, although she strongly advises against reading it. Since then she has written; Sleep, Pale Sister (1993); Chocolat (1999); Blackberry Wine (2000); Five Quarters of the Orange (2001) and Coastliners (2002). She gave up teaching four years ago to write full-time, and still lives in Yorkshire with her husband, her nine-year old daughter Anouchka and 2001 invisible rabbits.
ANDREW: Your novels afford readers the time to get to know your characters, fall in love with them and inevitably miss them when they finish the book. So why did you choose to bring out a collection of short stories where you aren’t afforded the luxury of time or pages?
JOANNE: I enjoy the genre. It may be restrictive in terms of time and space, but there is a special intensity to the short story that gives it, if anything, more impact than the novel. Within the format it is possible to experiment in an indefinite number of different voices and styles, to explore ideas of a wider diversity than usual – even to make jokes. That’s very liberating for a writer, and it gives me the chance to spread my wings occasionally without feeling tied down to the same project for 18 months at a time.
ANDREW: How would you readers like to approach Jigs & Reels?
JOANNE: With curiosity and an open mind.
ANDREW: Are there any favourite stories you have amongst the collection?
JOANNE: It’s hard to be dispassionate about these things, but I have a special fondness for Come in Mr Lowry… (because of its Magritte-like ending) and Eau de Toilette, which is basically a seventeenth-centuryshaggy dog story.
ANDREW: Short stories are seen as one of the hardest media to tackle after poetry – what kinds of problems did you face writing the book and what do you feel are its successes?
JOANNE: I try not to think about the problems; it’s hard enough taking each story as it comes! As for its successes, I think that’s up to the reader, don’t you?
ANDREW: What do you think makes a good story?
JOANNE: Impact; reaction; the tendency to provoke thought.
ANDREW: Why do you think UK readers and critics have a hard time understanding the short story?
JOANNE: I think you need to distinguish between readers and critics. Their reactions are not always the same. From a critic’s point of view, it’s sometimes harder to comment on a book of short stories, which are all different, than on a novel with a linear plot and easily-recognizable themes. Besides, if you want to review short stories, you have to read them all very carefully (and some critics are lazy – they can write a review based on nothing but a blurb, a buzz and a press release). As for readers, some people love short stories and others prefer to spend a long time getting into a book. I think it’s a question of attitude. Short stories take time to have an effect. You shouldn’t try to read too many at once, because it gets confusing and tiring; instead you should give yourself plenty of time to think about each one before moving onto the next. Ideally, I like to read short stories in bed before I go to sleep; they give me such very vivid dreams.
ANDREW: Why has food played an important role in your work, and your life?
JOANNE: Food is a very useful shorthand to understanding personality, place and culture. It has been a major theme in literature, legend and folklore for thousands of years, and it has many important associations for all of us. You can tell so much about someone by the way they approach food, and it is something that everyone can recognize and relate to. Besides, I enjoy writing about sensual experiences, and there is a lot of sensuality in food which has not yet been fully explored.
ANDREW: Chocolat is a very seductive novel, underscored by the grotesque nature of authority out of control. In Blackberry Wine the destruction of the allotment underscores this. Where does this fear of beauty destroyed by officials or bureaucracy come from?
JOANNE: Yorkshire.
ANDREW: You’re now a household name. How have you responded to this? How has life changed for you?
JOANNE: It hasn’t really changed at all. I don’t try to respond, because I’m not sure there is an appropriate response I could have. I just keep doing the things I’ve always done as best I can.
ANDREW: Do you have any advice for the next generation of writers?
JOANNE: Be yourself. Don’t be too proud to take advice – but don’t be afraid to ignore it, either. Most of all, enjoy what you do.
ANDREW: Thank you for your time.
Novels ‘written’ by celebrities
Last week Andrew was asked by the London Evening Standard (via Incwriters) to respond to an article on Authors who have launched an attack on novels by celebrities. His response appears below, courtesy of the London Evening Standard:
‘The trend for celebrity novelists is nothing new. Publishers need to sell books. The problem arises out of the money spent to publicise books across multi-platforms; the web, the media, the Literature festival and the retailer. It is this question of cost which means a publisher will inevitably turn to an easier or cheaper route of making money. You can’t blame them for that. It is an industry and publishers have to survive. However, it is prudent for such publishers to use those celebrity profits to give equal promotion to the new novelist, poet or short story writer. It is this lack of commitment that is hard to swallow by many and it gives the reader an unbalanced view that the publishing market is driven by celebrity. It seems to create a monopoly of books by talented celebrities but not necessarily talented writers. These celebrities draw in crowds but not readers. The proof of this can be found on any Sunday car boot, street market or second hand bookshop. Here you will not see a glut of Charles Dickens, PD James, Chris Beckett, Ian Parks, Gaia Holmes, Andy Remic or Will Self. Critically, that speaks.’ – Andrew Oldham 26th October 2009
What are your views on celebrities writing fiction?
Born Into An Unquiet: T.F. Griffin at 60
‘Born Into An Unquiet’ (Flux Gallery Press 2009) is a unique celebration of the work and life of T.F. Griffin to mark his 60th birthday; edited by the poet, Ian Parks. This collection comprises of a seminal interview between the two discussing the core of his work, together with critical book reviews and appraisals from a variety of academic resources.
Also included, together with facsimile pages from his notebooks, are a number of essays and poems from fellow poets and friends, such as, Jules Smith, Andrew Oldham, Ed Reiss, Gaia Holmes, Tony Flynn, Milner Place, Genny Rhatz, Linda Marshall, Ian Pople, Peter Didsbury and William Park. All of whom have encountered T.F. Griffin’s poetry over the years. Due from Flux Gallery Press in October 2009, for further enquiries visit: http://www.fluxgallerypress.co.uk/
About this website
Register for Updates/Log in
Twitter News
- The poem that will feature on BBC R4 POETRY PLEASE in Oct is from Best of Manchester Poets http://t.co/ek0m1nh 2 weeks ago
- Great news, one of my poems will be broadcast on BBC R4's POETRY PLEASE in October, will let you know the. Tune in. Thanks to BoMP. 2 weeks ago
- has just received the proofs for his first collection GHOSTS OF A LOW MOON from Lapwing, Belfast. Due for release in 2010. Whooooooo! 3 weeks ago
- More updates...
Posting tweet...
Powered by Twitter Tools
Blogroll
- Alhama Creative Holidays
- Brando’s Hat
- Cadaverine
- Comma Press
- Eyewear
- Flux Gallery Press
- Incorporating Writing
- Incwriters
- London Magazine
- Manchester Lit List
- Max Dunbar
- North American Review
- Peony Moon
- Poet Casting
- Poetry Magazines
- Puppywolf
- Richard Winston
- Route
- Stones From Other Mountains
- The Hesistant Scribe
- Todd Swift
- Transmission Magazine