Raining. Bah! But What If ...

[Katie-Ellen]

It just carried on. And then...

This short story was revised in the light of the fear about that mountain in the Canaries they think might fall at any time and swamp New York etc etc. It was published some years ago by an Arts Funded publisher, and I did a reading of it at the Durham Book fair. I didn't read it as such. I learned it by heart and performed it from memory, with it close to hand in case I forgot. With very short fiction I don't see why writer's couldn't try to recite or perform rather than just read. Daft publicity strategy, charging people to come in who'd never heard of us. They should have had us unknowns as the free warm-up to a big name writer. Pah!

Joe's Ark

 

[Bernard Stacey]

I think they got it right. The Big Name Writer would have seemed rather second rate in comparison.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Heeeeeheeee! I don't think so, Bernard, but you're a darling!

We newbies would have got the benefit of a better turn out. Crumbs for the meeces.

 

[AgentPete]

It's always impressive to watch a speaker address an audience entirely without notes. Meg Rosoff did that ten days ago when she delivered the first Mal Peet memorial lecture at the UEA, and I stuck around to hear Alan Gibbons do exactly the same thing (big audience, many school kids, both speakers kept the audience entranced).

Writers generally tend towards the introverted, but I suspect we will have to come out from under our shells before too long, for commercial reasons if nothing else.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

Writers are among the more interesting artists, when they give talks or are interviewed. This is because they're happy to talk about more than just their craft. It depends upon the type of writer, to a certain extent, for as Frank Zappa observed : "Most rock journalism is people who can't write, interviewing people who can't talk, for people who can't read."

He had a point, as some musicians can be tedious to listen to talking, as after all they communicate best in the language of music. The very worst public speakers and interviewees are sports people - they always say the same thing. What is a footballer going to say in a post-match interview that hasn't been said a million times before?

I was fascinated by the programme on the Australian writer Richard Flanagan, which was shown recently on British television as part of the Imagine series of arts documentaries. I didn't know much about him before, but will be seeking his books out.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Flanagan

The programme is available on BBC iPlayer for another 26 days, and is worth a look if you're in the U.K. Sadly, I don't think that this service is available abroad, though it looks like it's on YouTube :

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episod...mmer-2015-5-richard-flanagan-life-after-death

 

[Paul Whybrow]

It's perverse of me, I know, but being indoors writing stories and querying agents, I always feel a little less guilty about not being outside enjoying the British summer when it's pouring down with rain. I wouldn't go out to get soaked anyway, so I may as well post something new on the Colony, goes my self-forgiving thought process - and all the while this song by Garbage plays in my head :

 

[Katie-Ellen]

No one's better than Tina Turner, but I like this version....