30 Wednesday Aug 2017
Nearly missed the great Alan Yentob interview with Margaret Atwood on BBC1 at 10.30 pm on Monday. If you didn’t catch it, it’s well worth catching up with via BBC-IPlayer.
I especially enjoyed her reminiscence about being annoyed when an earlier interviewer suggested that her work must be largely autobiographical: Did Agatha Christie really commit all those murders…?
30 Wednesday Aug 2017
Posted in Competitions to Enter, Maggie
Tags
Alex Clark, Books and the City Heatseeker Competition, Erewash Open Short Story Competition, Henshaw Competition, Manchester Writing Competition., Mslexia Novel Competition, Philippa Gregory, Retreat West Competition, Sarah Such
September 18 is the deadline for entries to Msexlia’s Women’s Novel Competition 2017. With a first prize of £5,000, the entry fee is £25 and they are asking for 5,000 word extracts of completed, unpublished novels of at least 50,000 words in length for adult or young adult readers. However, you need to be an unpublished female writer. Finalists receive manuscript feedback. Check entry rules at https://mslexia.co.uk/competitions/novel-competition-rules/ Judges are: Philippa Gregory (novelist), Sarah Such (literary agent), Alex Clark (journalist).
NO APOLOGIES for this reminder about our own Flash Fiction Competition (pinned at the head of our blog), with a prize of £100 and a deadline of midnight TOMORROW. We have been fascinated by your entries so far, but would like lots more…
Erewash Writers’ Group invites entries for its Open Short Story Competition, with prizes of £100, £60, £25 and £15. They are seeking unpublished stories of up to 2,500 words on any theme. Entry fee is £3 for one, £5 for two and £2 per entry thereafter. Details from: http://erewashwriterscompetition.weebly.com/
Writers & Artists has joined forces with Retreat West for a FREE short story competition. Deadline September 17. They are asking for 1,000 words, which must have a beach as the setting, and the winner will receive a place on Retreat West’s Plotting Retreat from 17-21 November. Please check the details at: http://writ.rs/retreatwestcompetition.
Bedford International Writing Competition want short stories of up to 3,000 words, or poems up to 40 lines, on any theme. Prizes: £3000, £150, £100. Entry fee: £6, £12 for three. Deadline September 30. Details: http://www.bedfordwritingcompetition.co.uk
Manchester Writing Competition. Poem: three to five poems, max 120 lines total. Story 2,500 words. Fee: £17.50. Prize £10,000. Details: http://www.manchester-writingcompetition.co.uk
Books and the City Heatseeker Competition. 2,500 words. Entry FREE. Prize: mentoring session with Paige Toon and ebook publication of story by Simon & Schuster, with royalties. Details: booksandthecity.co.uk
The Henshaw Competition for a 2,000 word short story. Prizes: £100; £50; £25. Entry fee: £5, with critiques an additional £10. Details: henshawpress.co.uk. This latter competition is do-able. I have in my bookcase their anthology including my own winning story – and much enjoyed spending my £100 prize!
Do remember to check the details on the competition website – just in case.
28 Monday Aug 2017
Tags
Arthur Conan Doyle, Brian Aldiss, Frankenstein Unbound, Greybeard, H G Wells, Helliconia, Non-Stop, Prep schools, The Brightmount Diaries, The Hand-Reared Boy
RIP Brian Aldiss, who has died aged 92, the prolific author of over 40 novels, plus poetry, short stories, autobiographies and criticism, in different genres. He also edited anthologies of science fiction. His Times obituary (published on 22 August) described him as an “ebullient and highly sexed author and poet who persuaded the literary establishment to take science fiction seriously.” His ability in different genres can be compared to his admired H G Wells or Arthur Conan Doyle. In his obituary in the Guardian on 21 August it was stated that “one of the most exhilarating aspects of reading Aldiss is the diversity of his imagination.”
He would recount that he learned how to tell a good story at his prep school, when in the dormitory at night he would tell ghost stories, standing on his bed. The penalty for disappointment was having shoes thrown at him: he was never hit, and he said “I never feared criticism since.”
His early life and wartime experiences in the Far East led to his Horatio Stubbs sex comedies (starting with The Hand-Reared Boy). His first published novel, The Brightmount Diaries, is an account of the life of an assistant in a bookshop, and its success meant that he could leave his job as an assistant in a bookshop! His science fiction included Greybeard, Non-Stop, Frankenstein Unbound and the Helliconia series (about a planet where the seasons last, literally, for ages, and the inhabitants have to adjust accordingly). This SF writing and his work as editor of numerous SF anthologies did much to establish SF as a genre worthy of respect.
Aspiring writers can look to the sheer quantity of his output, to his not being afraid to write in different genres or to write in unfashionable genres. Thanks, Brian.
17 Thursday Aug 2017
Posted in Ed, Fiction, Getting down to it, Humour, Obituary
Today’s obituary in the Times of Richard Gordon, the author of the comic Doctor novels, records his writing routine thus: in the morning he would write; a tin of soup would be his lunch; in the afternoon he’d walk the dog, dictating as he went any ideas that came to him; he’d then put in another couple of hours writing (except during the cricket season).
He’d given up his job as an anaesthetist (which he said he chose as he didn’t like patients, so here was a medical job where they were all asleep) when his writing started to progress. His wife (also an anaesthetist) supported him until the Doctor books became so successful. I hadn’t realised how much else he wrote, novels and non-fiction.
He said, “I have had a jolly easy life doing nothing, because writing is nothing, really, it’s dead easy.” Well, he was a writer of fiction …
He made a lot of people laugh. RIP.
16 Wednesday Aug 2017
Posted in Bestsellers, Maggie, Short stories
Many best-selling authors started their careers by writing short stories.
I don’t believe this particular young man succeeded with ‘O Henry’s Corner’ on this occasion, but I suspect his liking for obituary columns proved inspirational for his later books.
So – write a short story. There are plenty of competitions around. Hint, hint…
15 Tuesday Aug 2017
Posted in Ed, Fiction, Location, Read Lately
Tags
'The Glass Room', Architecture, Brno, Czechoslovakia, Mies van der Rohe, Simon Mawer, The Velvet Divorce, Václav Klaus, Villa Tugendhat, Vladimír Mečiar
My wife and I were both so taken with The Glass Room by Simon Mawer that on our visit to the Czech Republic this month we made a point of visiting the Villa Tugendhat, the location (and indeed the centrepiece) of that fine novel. (See https://ninevoices.wordpress.com//?s=Glass+Room)
The Villa Tugendhat was a ground-breaking design in its time, the work of Mies van der Rohe in 1929–1930, and it’s a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site. It’s in Brno, the second largest city in the Czech Republic. Mies van der Rohe was given an unlimited budget! Of which he took full advantage …
The description of the Villa Landauer – and of its creation – in the novel seem to be exactly those of the Villa Tugendhat. We marvelled at the onyx wall, the wall of glass and its mechanism for being moved up and down, and the wonderful views through it of Brno’s Castle – all of which feature prominently in the novel. Mies van der Rohe forbade the house’s first occupants from putting anything on the walls, as does the novel’s architect, Rainer von Abt, as ornament was a crime: our guide gleefully showed us the room where the Tugendhats hid their pictures when Mies van der Rohe came to visit.
Simon Mawer has thus written his novel about the real house: it’s even set on the Villa’s actual street, Černopolní. The stories of the occupants are rather more fictionalised, though not always drastically so. So, writers, this is what you can do with location!
Our guide told us that in real life the house has played its own part in the recent history of Central Europe. She told us that it was under a tree in the garden that in 1992 the Czech Premier Václav Klaus and the Slovak Premier Vladimír Mečiar met to discuss their opposing views on the way forward for newly free Czechoslovakia, and ended by deciding to split the country into two! That tree, apparently, died not long after …
My wife and I were thrilled by our visit to the Villa. The novel had inspired us to go, and our visit made the novel even more memorable for us. You can visit the Villa but you are advised to book at least two months in advance (see http://www.tugendhat.eu/en/). Guided tours in English are available, and well worth it. The young lady who took us round was clearly in love with the building herself!
Thanks, Simon.
14 Monday Aug 2017
Posted in Competition, PMRGCAuk, Uncategorized, Words
Ninevoices Summer Competition ends on Thursday, 31st August 2017. A mere 99-199 word story incorporating at least one of the endangered words associated with nature featured in our 22nd June post could win you £100. The entry fee is £5 and any profits will go to the charity PMRGCA-UK.
11 Friday Aug 2017
Posted in Finding an Agent, Humour, Maggie
BIFFIELD: Don’t let them get me!
THERAPIST: You’re perfectly safe, Mr Biffield. Lie back on my couch and relax.
BIFFIELD: But I’m NOT safe…
THERAPIST: My receptionist will bring you some green tea.
BIFFIELD: No! Keep her away from me. She’s sure to be one of them.
THERAPIST: Okay. Just the two of us, then.
BIFFIELD: Lock the door. Quickly!
THERAPIST: That isn’t necessary. You’re clearly suffering from some kind of persecution complex. Let’s talk it through quietly.
BIFFIELD: There’s no escaping them. Dark glasses don’t help. A beanie hat fools nobody. Should I try a false beard?
THERAPIST: WHO do you imagine is after you, Mr Biffield? The Russians? MI6 agents? Aliens?
BIFFIELD: The bastards always look innocent. Bin men. Double glazing salesmen. Pizza delivery guys. Yummy Mummies in the Waitrose queue. It’s a massive conspiracy.
THERAPIST: Why on earth would these people be after you, Mr Biffield?=
BIFFIELD: Because… Oh, God. I can’t take any more. Even my wife…
HERAPIST: Your wife?
BIFFIELD: My EX-WIFE. The evidence was on her computer. She plotted to entrap me. I never even suspected. NEVER!
THERAPIST: You’re having a panic attack. Try deep breaths…
BIFFIELD: Discovering she was like all the rest. (SOBS) That was what finally broke me.
THERAPIST: But who ARE these people?
BIFFIELD: WRITERS, man! Aspiring bloody WRITERS! They HOUND me. Night and day.
THERAPIST: Writers HOUND you…but why? Unless… You don’t mean you’re…
BIFFIELD: A literary agent? YES, I am.
THERAPIST: Wow. Now I understand.
BIFFIELD: At the beginning of my career I enjoyed work. Loved having envelopes rammed through my letterbox at midnight, handwritten in purple ink and secured with knicker elastic. Book proposals thrust at my poor cleaning lady. But now…
THERAPIST: I feel your pain Mr Biffield. The quest for another Harry Potter must be challenging.
BIFFIELD: …these days switching on my computer unleashes a sunami of synopses that are total gibberish. Chapters heaving with adverbs and split infinities. Letters insisting that absolute drivel will sell millions of copies.
THERAPIST: You must have suffered terribly. Fortunately, I believe I have the cure in my desk drawer.
BIFFIELD: Happy pills? I’ve swallowed them like a kid with Smarties. Useless.
THERAPIST: Far better than that. A two-million-word trilogy about a voluptuous female vampire who is desperately in love with her handsome psychiatrist. My mother swears it’s a masterpiece…
ninevoices 