A while ago I said I would post a link to some stories I wrote...once upon a time. In fact I wrote them back in 2000-01 when Small Girl was a baby (and she liked long afternoon naps). The stories are what I did with my spare time (I know..I could have been cleaning...). I did try and get them published but I didn't really know what I was doing (so what's new?) and I had a toddler and then we moved and then I started writing more poetry...plus getting stories published (especially long ones) is not the easiest thing at the best of times.
Anyway you can now read them...if you like...no rush. I read them the other day (expecting the worst) and do you know what...I was quite surprised. They're not half bad and whilst there is the odd dated detail (someone has a video collection instead of DVDs, some of the IT bits) I think they've lasted quite well. I should probably warn you that they are certainly adult reading matter though (sex, drugs, bad language...yes, yes and, er, yes...not gratuitous though, obviously). See what you think - just go to my usual website and click on the stories link. From the link you will see 8 clocks - each one leads to a story. Some of them are nearly short and some are really quite long...each one has a word count at the top. They are linked by the common theme of crowd-pleasing - someone in each story is a crowd-pleaser in some way. Most of them deal with fields that I have either worked in or been involved with. To help you pick a story that might interest you here is the rough guide -
2.50am - A tabloid journalist in a nightclub
7.00am - A film studies lecturer
1.00pm - A chick lit writer
1.30pm - A poet
3.00pm - Various people at a TV show
4.30pm - A DJ and journalist at a dance music awards ceremony
(and by dance music I mean house, techno etc. not quickstep and tango)
6.00pm - A community liaison conference type organiser
11.00pm - A club DJ
So - let me know how you get on.
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16 comments:
Excellent stories - I didn't recall the image on your home page: is that new? I think I would have remembereed it - very impressive.
Have you read them all already? Fast worker if so!
That image (I presume you mean 'Soundwave' by Steph Masterson and not the clocks) has been there for a while. It's on the front cover of my book too. Steph is an artist friend of mine who lives in Angus.
p.s.if you click on the title of the image it will take you to info about Steph.
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I've finished with the first clock...which makes me want to go back for more. Nice job!
Thanks, Hope. It's good to know that time wasn't wasted back in 2001/02! I worked on the stories quite a lot...I edited and edited and then edited some more (much more than I do with poems...). I got to the point with them where I couldn't read them through without doing more edits so it was nice to read them again recently and see the good in them for a change.
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I've just read 'the poet' which I really enjoyed - the cynicism made me laugh, is this really how you view people?? Though much of it seemed to ring scarily true!
Thanks for reading one of the stories, Sorlil. Is it cynical? Really? I wrote it a long time ago...before I'd ever done a public poetry reading myself (so those parts of it are not from my own experience...well not as a performer anyway...maybe as a member of the audience). I am a bit of a cynic but I'm also a romantic and a realist. Probably an equal mix of those three.
I am a big observer of human behaviour though. I do tend to work out what people are thinking...and compare that with what they are saying. I'm not saying I always get it right (who knows?)...but I'm interested in the whole business. Communication...fascinating!
Then I wonder...how many readers here will read the poet story first (if you read any)? I don't think it's the best one of the 8 (for my taste) though I still like bits of it quite a lot. I have been to a lot more poetry readings since writing this but this story was set off by one reading in particular a good while ago (not that it was exactly like this one...or even much like it at all...you know how the mind wanders...). I am, of course, in no way suggesting that all poetry readings are like the one in the story!
i read the club ones - all the characters were depressingly familiar!
Did you work in clubs too? Or just visit? I think the clubs/DJ stories probably have the best details - just because I spent so much time in that environment (as both visitor and staff).
both. i did the electronic thing and then the easy listening thing. to exhaustion!
Exhausting easy listening? Something wasn't working right!
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Not all of them, no, but I'm getting there.
Thanks for reading, Dave. I'll be interested in any comments when you have finished.
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'Saturday 2.50am' is a very good story. I think it has a super 'immediacy' which is then diluted as the narrative occasionally takes a remote 'reportage' turn.
If the story stayed within the immediate rather then stepping out into conventional narrative, it would do even better.
For me, Jennie is very much the central character but we get to see inside Kerry's mind too, "She knows my name, thought Kerry, smiling inside and out, finally she knows it." I find that very distracting and I think it betrays a lack of confidence from you that Jennie can hold the story all from her own point-of-view. Have no doubt, she certainly can and she certainly should.
It feels Eighties, not just the drugs (obviously... still here) but it reminds me of the early writing of Jay McInerney.
It's very good - 'will come back and read more.
Thanks Ken. That story is probably one of the ones I'm least happy with of the 8 so if you like that one even a bit then you might like the others more. The Jennie character is not one I know from the inside (as it were) from experience so maybe that's why I don't stick with her as much as I could/should. If I was going to edit one story a bit that might be the one...and I'd keep your comments in mind.
I look forward to hearing what you think of the others when you get a chance to read them.
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