The Joy Of Writing

This is a new competition being run by the Daily Telegraph and novelist Louise Doughty. My understanding is that if you win the monthly award, you get published without payment, but are also eligible to win a £500 sterling prize at the end of the year. I can’t tell if they are ok with swearing or not, given it’s a national newspaper.

Details here. Word limit 2000. I think it’s possible to just email it in.

Edit. Oops, link broken, try here: http://my.telegraph.co.uk/theshortstoryclub/tag/short-story-competition/

Delenda est Carthago

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The Irish Writers’ Centre have been running the very successful Lonely Voice monthly series for up-and-coming short story writers. IWC worker and writer Máire T. Robinson has compiled all the stories so far into a central repository, including my story of April 2010, “Amazon” – a cancer story, but not one of those cancer stories!

I must insert a warning before this story: it is not suitable for children, it contains explicit talk of sex, it is not tasteful – and being that the humour is pretty savage and black, it would not be suitable for those feeling in any way vulnerable about cancer. Please do not say you haven’t been warned! That said, I defy any reader not to be tempted to go “Yes!” at the ending

Enjoy – and do check out all the great events and courses the IWC are offering this spring if you are in the area.

Delenda est Carthago

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Saw this on my Twitter feed and it looks good. Deadline is a bit tight though, 22 January.

Circle of Misse 2012 Spring Writing Competition

Winners would have to be willing to take a week off in April or May on the specified dates. Word range is 2000 – 5000 words. All excerpts must include the title of the work and its form (novel, memoir, nonfiction, short story, etc.) on the first page and the story title and page number in the upper right-hand corner of all subsequent pages. Entry is online, thank goodness. It’s getting to the stage where I don’t bother with postals any more.

Good luck if you can get in on time!

Delenda est Carthago

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I do not generally post poems, or link to poems I have written. There are plenty of proper poets out there to do the honours. But I wanted to show that my feelings about the Kate Fitzgerald scandal are as strong as ever. I am angry and sad to the depths of my heart that she cannot enjoy what I enjoy now, even though I never knew her. So here is a sonnet:

Mitteleuropa

i.m. Kate Fitzgerald 1986 – 2011

This bright January I escaped my home
and felt the raw bite of snow-promising air
on my cheek, saw castles, clocks, city squares,
Mozart’s scribbles in the margin. I walked alone
into bars, museums, the middle of Europe,
sang in the snow, tied a scarf around my ears,
bent down as the Vltava fell over its weirs,
all this afforded to me by means of hope.
All this unseen, unfelt, un-enjoyed by her
who will never now recall an impromptu in G flat,
a morsel of Sehnsucht, the yeast-tang of beer,
who will never sit and smile inside, feeling that
wryness of distance from the tremulous year
she nearly ended her life, and leave it at that.

delenda est Carthago

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where I am staying for four nights courtesy of the Milkwood Artists’ Residency programme. My little apartment is beautiful and I have a lovely writing desk under the eaves. Cesky Krumlov is also a heritage town and is glorious in bright January light. I don’t yet have pictures but here is a view of Cesky Krumlov taken by a previous resident, Corwin Levi, available on his website radiosebastian.com

I love the way one can discover interesting parts of Europe via these residencies. It’s a privilege to be in the homeland of Rilke, Kafka and the heart of Mitteleuropa culture. It’s the best way to travel! It also helps to get some writing done as well. Ahem! Getting right down to it now.

Oh and, delenda est Carthago.

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Last night while enjoying a friend’s hospitality I was having some trouble sleeping, so read a chick lit book that had been heavily promoted on the domestic market. No names, no pack drill. There was the usual heroine on the cusp age with the unsuitable boyfriend and crazy family secrets and and and -

It was awful.
Continue reading →

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Warning – long post ahead!

I blogged previously of my withdrawal of flash fiction from The Irish Times after their involvement in the controversy surrounding the late Kate Fitzgerald. Following furious reader feedback at some ill-advised remarks by the paper’s editor, Kevin O’Sullivan, the Irish Times‘s online editor, Hugh Linehan, has responded to some of the issues raised. I thank Mr Linehan for his comments. I would like to go into more detail about some of the things he has said – and my thoughts on what now needs to be done – but first I would like to add a long personal aside. I am writing not as a writer – yes I know that’s oxymoronical – but as a campaigner. Normal service is suspended. I have a dog in this fight.

Two years ago, I failed a psychometric test.
Continue reading →

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On this day, seven years ago, someone walked into my life and changed it forever, for the better, from black-and-white into colour. I have mentioned them before and this will probably be the last time I do this, as now it is well past time to move forward and embrace the future. But my gratitude and indebtedness remain, as do they in my heart.

I think it’s fitting that seven years later, I see such courage and resilience among the Irish people in resisting the suppression of the words of the late Kate Fitzgerald. Thank you everyone who commented and messaged me on my last post. Yes, even the cranky guy! I think this has given me hope in my people. In my novel in progress I have a craven Irishman and a decent, heroic one. I only added the second one for balance, but now I genuinely believe in him. He is the common man and the common woman saying, “I have a problem with your retraction“.

As a thank you to all of you, I’d like to donate this arrangement I made of Radiohead’s “Exit Music For a Film” for SATB and piano for any choral group to use (please respect the original composers’ copyright and do not use for commercial purposes.) Thought the theme was apposite. If you have or are in a choir and would like to use this arrangement, feel free. If you have an issue with some of the notes’ layout, let me know and I’ll try to fix it.

Exit Music For a Film – MP3 listen (warning, very large, about 45 MB, takes about 5 min to download)
Exit Music For a Film – PDF score for full choir and piano

Thank you all. And my condolences to the family of the late Kate Fitzgerald, who had so much to give and so much to live for. May she rest in peace – and may they find comfort in the huge wave of support behind them.

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