Why Blog?

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Today I had lunch with one of the first friends I ever made in the blogosphere, Jennie from Tea Stains. The fact that she was an expat, a Brit and living in Thailand, a part of the world I was already falling in love with, immediately drew me to her. And then I met her for coffee during one of her annual trips home, and my first real blogging friendship developed.  Jennie was also the person instrumental in setting up all those events I did last spring while on my SE Asian tour with A Clash of Innocents. And to top it off, she seemed to have brought the tropical weather with her, summer had finally found London.  We decided to eat al fresco and then take a long walk along the river.

So what did we talk about? The usual woman stuff -- kids, losing friends, moving, husband's jobs. The usual expat stuff -- kids, losing friends, moving, husband's jobs. The usual writer stuff -- am I doing it right, am I doing enough, the difference between envy and jealousy, self-belief and the lack thereof. But we talked about something else as well -- blogging.  Why do we continue to do it? Jennie's blog has been around for five years, mine for nearly four. Has the nature of blogging changed? Am I doing it right? Am I doing enough?

I think we came to the conclusion that as we enter different phases of our writing careers, we feel all sorts of pressures from the market, whether that market is real or perceived. "People" tell us we should blog every day to build up a readership. Some say to cast your net wider you should mainly blog about professional issues (i.e. how to get published, get an agent, get a better agent, a bigger publisher). Others say you need to bare your soul, tell all sorts of personal details about your tawdry life to gain a sense of intimacy. It was interesting that we were both feeling the same pressures, even though they came from different sources and we are doing different things with our writing.  My God, we thought, if you can't even have your blog be a place where you can just do it as you wish, for whomever happens to find it funny or enlightening or whatever, then what do we have left? Yes, of course blogging is a marketing tool. And I know that I certainly have and will use it as such.  But does it have to be? Is that all it needs to be? We had no answers for each other, just frustrations.

But as I gave Jennie a hug, saying goodbye on the Hungerford Bridge, I realised that we did have the answers for each other. We were the embodiment of our answers to the question Why Blog? Jennie and I are two women of slightly different age, who grew up on different continents, are living our adult lives thousands of miles away from each other, with nothing to connect us but our blogs. We never would have known each other in any other way, and the same is true of other bloggers around the world who I now have the honour and pleasure to call my friends. Friends don't write letters anymore. Sad, but true.  But some of us do write blogs. And for me, at least, I know that's enough.

Signing off. Happy New Year to all my Jewish friends. And I wish the same to all the rest of you, too -- a sweet life, full of forgiveness for each other's mistakes and shortcomings, a life full of sincere connections, no matter how they come to you.

Free Verse at Exmouth Market

Poets are wonderful creatures. There's a marvellous subversive element to our collective consciousness, and when we feel threatened or taken for granted, as we so often do, we rise up and make our voices heard. Yesterday's new poetry festival held in London's Exmouth Market was a fantastic example of such a poetic uprising. This was the brainchild of Charles Boyle of CB Editions, and was conceived as a response to the funding cuts last March.  Charles said it best in the festival's program:
    Writing is not being cut -- and the job of making the most interesting, innovative, inspiring writing available to readers is still largely that of the smaller presses. They are flexible; their overheads are minimal; they are run, most of them, by people who are mad -- which is in fact their strength, because their madness is a form of obsession not with money but with the use of language, which is where it all starts. This book fair celebrates the variety and vitality of contemporary poetry by bringing together...twenty-two independent presses.


In a large church hall, these 22 presses set up tables offering their wares -- books, pamphlets, competition information, and hours worth of literary chatting and hobnobbing. Two flights up, 30-minute readings were presented every hour or so, and Ward Wood, the newest kid on the block I think, was given the first slot. I was thrilled to be able to read from my collection alongside Peter Phillips who read from his newly published collection, No School Tie.

Michael Horovitz

After our reading, the fair was officially opened by the visionary, inimitable Michael Horovitz, who sang, read, harangued and kazooed his way through a mesmerising thirty minute slot. I was thrilled to have noticed him sitting in the audience and smiling during my reading, and then when he mentioned "Sue from Ward Wood" in his talk, I was completely gobsmacked. It gave me the courage to go up and chat with him, and we exchanged poetry books. A personal high of the day's events. But I know lots of people had lots of similar exchanges all day long, re-meeting old friends, coming face to face with people we had only known (though intimately) on Facebook, shaking hands and chatting with people whose books we have loved, whose work we have admired from afar, whose vision we have shared. Other than Michael, I was also thrilled to meet for the first time Tom Chivers of Penned in the Margins, Chris Hamilton-Emery of Salt, and Tim Love from HappenStance. It was also great to meet up again and chat with Katy Evans-Bush, published by Rack Press (though also by Salt and Penned in the Margins and probably others I'm forgetting to mention).  And now as I'm reading other bloggers' reports on the event, I'm kicking myself over other people whom I would  have loved to say hi to, but didn't get the chance.

Thanks to Adele Ward for asking me along and being her usual inexhaustible self. Let's hope this becomes an annual event. Free Verse really did show that, in case anyone was wondering, contemporary poetry is still very much alive and well on these shores, not only among poets themselves, but among readers as well.

 

Plot or Character or Setting or What?

I will be very brief here because I'd love for you to go there, to a column organised by the fiction writer Lauri Kubitsile called The Writer's Room. Lauri has asked several writers including Jenny Robson, Cheryl Ntumy,Wame Molefhe, Beatrice Lamwaka, Gothataone Moeng, Tania Hershman, Fiona Snyckers and me, a series of questions about writing, the craft, its challenges and delights. The variety of answers is fascinating. If you're interested in writing -- and of course you are, otherwise you wouldn't be here in the first place -- pop on over to read some great stuff and join the conversation by leaving a comment. Thanks, Lauri, for starting the discussion.

PS And here from Lauri is the link to Part I.

Authors, All

I love giving readings, but there's something about Dublin that makes it even more special. The city oozes literature. There are statues of James Joyce and Oscar Wilde to stumble upon on both sides of the river. The Abbey and the Gate theatres sit on their streets very matter-factly, not needing to call attention to the fact that in the world of the theatre, they are giants. Hell, there's even a department store named after me (only kidding). But it is true that literature and the love of language still holds primacy in the Irish culture, and that made a wonderful weekend even better.

 We four Ward Wood'ers -- Mike Horwood, Shauna Gilligan, Noel Duffy and me -- started off with a reading at The Irish Writer's Centre in Parnell Square. This was a rather formal affair, with a podium facing rows of chairs, a microphone and an adjoining room for pouring wine and signing books. Each of us spoke about our work and read for about fifteen minutes to an audience of about thirty people -- friends, family, fellow writers, and even a couple of people who came in off the street. It felt like an event; it was an event, and we were each thrilled and excited by it and so, of course, retired to the pub afterwards -- aptly called The Shakespeare, not so aptly serving Korean food. Loved those pancakes!

Then Saturday afternoon we met at our second venue, The Twisted Pepper, for our reading which was sponsored by Seven Towers Agency. The Twisted Pepper is a great place, part coffee shop, part arts centre, and Seven Towers runs a sort of pop up bookshop and reading series in the cavernous basement twice a week. This was a more informal affair, with people sitting around on benches with cushions and us perched on our stools, reading by lamplight. Lots of interesting literary chatting afterwards, and I thank the proprietors for inviting us, and for their passionate support of all things indie. The evening was spent over a terrific meal and a couple of bottles of wine, with the four of us talking shop, telling stories, and making plans to take our "Ward Wood Show" on the road. Next stop Helsinki? Frankfurt for the book fair? We'll see.

Noel Duffy,Mike Horwood, Shauna Gilligan

For me, this was a very special weekend. It was a weekend that reminded me of what my dream of being a writer was always all about. It's not just about how many books I sell and how successful my marketing is. Sure, that is important, but I do sometimes fall into the trap of thinking that that is really all that is important. But a weekend like this one reminded me that being a writer is about expressing yourself, finding like- minded friends, sharing your passion for words and your belief in the importance of the imagination. Thank you Noel and Shauna for organising it all. Thank you Ward Wood for bringing us all together. Thank you Mike, Shauna and Noel for joining me in the land of Joyce and for so generously sharing your work and your dreams. Ever onward!

Dubliners

Nearly a year ago to the day, Ward Wood Publishing launched its first book, a captivating new novel by an extraordinarily talented writer (ahem) otherwise known as A Clash of Innocents by Sue Guiney. Since then they have published a mix of poetry and fiction, with a new book coming out most every month of the year. It really is an honour and a pleasure to be a part of it all.  And this weekend, four of us are coming together for the first time to do two joint readings of our work in Dublin. I am really incredibly excited about reading alongside these other wonderful writers -- Mike Horwood, Noel Duffy and Shauna Gilligan. If you happen to live in or nearby Dublin, I hope you'll come along and say hi.

Friday 16th September:

This will be a combined prose and poetry event with Mike Horwood reading from his novel, A Finn's Tale, and his poetry collection, Midas Touch; Shauna Gilligan reading from her forthcoming short story collection, Red Girl; and Noel Duffy reading from his novellas, The Return Journey & Our Friends Electric, and his poetry collection, In The Library of Lost Objects. I´ll be reading from A Clash of Innocents, and from my poetry collection, Her Life Collected.

The venue is the Irish Writers´ Centre, Parnell Square, Dublin. The reading begins at 18.30. but we´ll be there half an hour before to meet the audience and there will be a question time after the readings. Refreshments will be served and books will be on sale. Entry is free.

Saturday 17th September:

All four of us will be reading and chatting in a more informal setting at The Twisted Pepper Cafe which, I hear, serves the best coffee in Dublin. The address is 54, Middle Abbey Street and this will be an afternoon event, starting at 15.00.

Clearly, Ward Wood is not only publishing fine works of literature (if I do say so myself), but is also creating a community of writers which, after nearly a decade in this business, I have come to realise is incredibly important for my own work, not to mention my psyche.

Hope to see some of you there.

Places to Write

Someone recently asked me to name five places I like to go to write, places that lure me outside of my office but still get the job done. I'm finding it harder to think of than I thought, because where I go so much depends on where I am at the time and what I'm working on. I believe the kind inquisitor had an answer like "my corner Starbucks" in mind, but I really don't have any place like that that I get away to on a daily basis. So I thought I'd use this space now to get my thoughts is order. The first few ideas are obvious to me:

Anam Cara View

1. Anam Cara, the writers' and artists' retreat that I try to go to at least once a year. I always gain a tremendous amount of inspiration from that place and inevitably get a huge amount of writing done. My next scheduled trip is mid-November, and boy will I need it!
2. My writer's shack on Martha's Vineyard, which I most recently wrote about here.
3. I find I always come away with ideas and I'm constantly jotting them down in some notebook, whenever I take myself out to dinner on my own. I think the combination of a little wine, some solitude and a tinge of paranoia makes me fell enough of an outsider and observer to get the words flowing. I also wrote more about that recently here.

And now this is where I get stuck. My next two places are imagined. A few months ago I would have said they were fantasies, but happily, these two fantasies are becoming reality although they are not quite there yet. But still:
4. My office at SOAS. This year I will be the Writer-in-Residence in the SE Asia Department of the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies. At first, I assumed I'd be a bit of a wandering minstrel, meeting with people and doing my schtick wherever I could. But it now seems I will be able to use the office of a professor on sabbatical and so, for the first term at least, I am imagining myself going to "my office" at the university for a full day each week, meeting students and holding small workshops, and then, when I'm not needed, closing my door and doing my own writing. It sounds like bliss and I can't wait!
5. And lastly, those dedicated followers of all things Guiney will know that we have just moved from our house of seventeen years to a smaller flat in a way cooler part of town. The front of the building juts out like a series of pie pieces and each flat has its own which is used as a sort of indoor-outdoor space. My fantasy has been to place a good chair and footstool, plus a small table in there, and use that as a get-away within my own home, a place where I can sit and dream and gaze out at my new view. Although the furniture isn't here yet, the view is, and so this can definitely be added to the list.

So there they are, my 5 places to write outside my office. What about yours?

A Summer's Worth of Reading

I'm not ready to stop thinking about the summer, I suppose, because I'm not yet home or whatever it is my new home will turn out to be. But as I head into the autumn this week, I'll take one last loving look on the summer, and specifically, some of the excellent books I read:

A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jenifer Egan:Interlocking stories that span decades, characters lives intertwine against the backdrop of the evolution of 80's punk music and the business that nearly destroyed it. I liked this book, although others have loved it. It is very clever and indeed somewhat of a tour de force, but perhaps for me its cleverness made it feel a bit distant and cold. I think I am in the minority on this, though. Most everyone I know who read it loved it, and I believe it won the Pulitzer Prize.

The Hare with Amber Eyes, Edmund de Waal: The subtitle is "A Hidden Inheritance" and de Waal uses a small family treasure to trace the dramatic, globe-spanning history of his family. He is a noted ceramic artist, but his prose is absolutely beautiful, touching and vivid. To be able to master two such different art forms seems unfair, but this book brings together his passions to create a fascinating  and moving memoir of a family caught within the insanity of 20th Century Europe and beyond.

 State of Wonder, Ann Patchett: My absolute favourite read of the summer, hands down. This is the book I would have loved to have written -- fascinating ideas, real characters who stay with you, an intriguing and beguiling plot. And of course, so beautifully written that you glide along the tops of her words with your eyes and ears continually delighted and captured. A pharmaceutical company sends a scientist into the Amazon jungle to develop a potential fertility drug. Years go by without enough feedback and so two other scientists are sent to investigate. Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" echoes in the background, but this is much more than a modern reworking of that classic. I have been impatiently waiting for this book since Patchett's "Bel Canto," and it was more than worth the wait. This is a book to savour and to learn from.

And now I am in the middle of reading Evelina, Or the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World  by Frances (Fanny) Burney. Written in 1778, it is a wonderful example of the epistolary novel where characters and events are revealed through the heroine's letters. It is a delightful look at 18th Century London,  English class differences and the lives of women. It's a great way to bring myself back to "the old world" and my own life within its shores.


I'd love to know what others read this summer.  Do leave a comment if you have a chance.