"Write what you know" they say.

Even of what you know is benefits advice work and writing stories about it only pays enough to keep your colleagues in biscuits!



Friday 8 April 2016

Flower Power?

I'd love to be more like my 'strong female characters'; full of confidence and never afraid to face up to a challenge.  Unfortunately, I'm not really like that at all, especially when it comes to competitions.

Take the next 6x6 Reading Cafe, for instance.  Entries are now invited for the summer event on the theme of 'Blossomings'. Anyone who knows me or follows this blog would be forgiven for thinking that, for someone with my background, this should be the short-story scribbler's equivalent of a well-attended home fixture against already relegated opposition with no travelling support.  When I'm not doing the current day job (or the half of it I'm currently sharing with a colleague, while we wait to see what becomes of a vital funding bid) I'm not just a writer of 'welfare rights lit' and 4mph thrillers - I'm a gardener too!  So a six minute shortie with a hint of the horticultural would be right up my street - or garden path.

But it ain't so. I do have the germ of an idea for a story where plants play a part (and no, it doesn't start with a guy waking up in hospital with bandaged eyes, concerned that a day he knows is Wednesday sounds like a Sunday) but it needs more than six minutes to tell it well, has the potential to be a plot twist in a Daphne Randall mystery and doesn't really fit the 'Blossomings' brief.

Of course, to a truly creative writer, the 'blossoming' concept may have no floral connotations at all.  There are various episodes in the 'welfare rights lit' stories where characters might be said to 'blossom', both in their personal and professional lives.  I could, perhaps, try to rewrite one of Sally Archer's key Social Security tribunals, neither of which currently happens from her perspective nor is a major spoiler for the rest of the Severe Discomfort/Continual Supervision story.  It's an appealing prospect.  I like writing Sally - a much younger, even geekier, slightly taller and funnier version of me who, being a Hampshire lass, speaks like me too.  No more trying to inject a hint of Geordie into the reported speech, the inevitable pitfall last time around of picking a Daphne episode! 

On the other hand, there's something slightly lazy about sticking with tried and tested characters when the opportunity is there to find a new voice or experiment with an unfamiliar genre.  I have until 30th April to get my act together, so there is time yet for inspiration to strike, especially with most of my seed potatoes still to plant.

If I do get an idea, it will have to be an exceptionally good one and will need executing to a very high standard to earn a place.  I was proud to be selected to take part in the spring event and delighted that the slimmed-down version of Pots and Locks was so well-received by an audience which included some extremely accomplished local writers.  It was also a confidence-booster after my unsuccessful efforts for the S-o-T Literary Festival competition, which is coming up soon - might it be third time lucky?  Do I care enough to find out when they put Kirsty Allsop above Professor Mary Beard in the billing?  We'll have to see...

I haven't yet been brave enough to join the Wednesday evening gathering of the Renegade Writers, despite loving the group's name and feeling flattered at the invitation, though I should, both to listen to other writers and, in due course, get encouragement to raise my own game.

Maybe once the taters are all in...

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Saturday 2 April 2016

Nobody likes a Show-off!

Last week's Special Offer!
Probably for spring-cleaning the warehouse reasons, last week Amazon briefly discounted Grand Union to the point where it would have been cheaper for me to order from them rather than direct from my printers/publishers.  Being a stubborn old lefty, I still didn't and, while I usually direct people to Amazon only for the free Kindle downloads and encourage them to buy paperbacks from real, tax-paying bookshops, I shared the link for this offer as widely as I dared, partly in the hope that a flurry of simultaneous purchases would plunge the notorious tax-dodgers into financial ruin and partly to bolster the Stoke CAB biscuit fund.

Neither happened, not least because I was still rather timid with my marketing, even with the new medium of Twitter to experiment with (#stillnotreallygotaclue).  I know it's silly but I have never been able to shake the feeling that there is something slightly vulgar about plugging your own books.  Of course that's a ridiculous position to take when you're self-published as no-one else is going to do it for you, except a few very good friends - and thanks as ever to all who have shared links and publicly reviewed my endeavours. 

Although I've recently had a couple of opportunities to read extracts of my work - including this one at a local International Women's Day event - I'm still no better at doing a book plug than I was a couple of years ago, when a friend actually shouted "plug your book!" at me as I sat on the panel of a People's Assembly debate on benefit cuts.  I did, a bit, but felt bad about it as I was only there as a late sub for our local CAB Chief Exec.  Similarly, I brought some spare Grand Union copies with me to IWD but was too shy to get them out of the bag and wave them under people's noses.  Despite a major purpose of writing at all being to change people's minds about benefit cuts, it still feels cheap to spot a Twitter trend on the subject and 'hashtag' a link to a blog post or one of the books.  I suspect my childhood as a tall, clumsy girl and a bit of a clever-clogs, simultaneously encouraged to do well but reminded not to be a 'show-off', accounts for at least some of this reticence.

I'm sure I'm not alone.  A local author I'm privileged to know has been asked by his publisher to host an on-line launch party for his latest collection of dark fiction short stories and his latest blog on the subject betrays a hint of reluctance.  Dan writes for a living - it is his proper job, rather than a form of non-violent, biscuit-generating revolution - and he's steadily building himself a sound reputation on both the printed page and the stage.  He promotes his work honestly, modestly and directly, with generous and courteous words for everyone who supports and encourages him and, because of this, I'll happily spread the word about his writing despite the fact that I'm generally too much of a wuss to read many of his stories myself!


By contrast, the way some people market their work makes my skin crawl.  It puts me off even picking their book up for a quick browse while I'm sheltering from the lunchtime rain in Waterstone's or queuing at the till in Sainsbury's, let alone actually buying the damned thing. Taking a recent high-profile example, and setting aside the details of the case, who could fail to be utterly repulsed by ex MP Harvey Proctor's shameless plugging of his released-that-very-day book during interviews on Channel 4 News and Newsnight, concerning the 'Operation Midland' investigations into alleged child sex abuse in the highest echelons of the Establishment?  Even if the guy is completely guiltless and has suffered greatly from having such heinous crimes ascribed to him, in which case he would be deserving of pity and compassion despite being a Tory, the manner in which he attempted to flog the book on air was tawdry in the extreme. 

It happens time and again, though: someone gets onto The Today Programme or similar in their capacity as an alleged authority on a topical issue and, before you know it, there's a shameless, unsolicited plug for their latest book thrown into the debate.  I'd be inclined to forgive a relative unknown snatching at their one chance but the majority are already well-connected enough to have access the broadsheets' literary reviews and magazines, or Radio 4's own book review shows, without displacing a less mercenary 'expert' from the news programme. 

Another regular trick I'm tired of is manufactured controversy.  I was reminded of how this is done when Facebook decided to pitch Maestra by LS Hilton at me a couple of days ago and I remembered seeing this article by the author, which illustrates my point perfectly.  Supposedly grumbling about British reviewers' and readers' prurience about female sexual desire and insisting it's time to be 'grown up' about it when it appears in books, her article was clearly framed to draw attention to the fact that there is explicit sex in her book and drops frequent teasing hints about it.  Serious discussion on modern feminism or poorly disguised clickbait article plugging the book to Fifty Shades fans?  You decide; I wouldn't touch it with a barge-pole!  Which reminds me, I have a narrowboating thriller sequel to write.