A New Story at Ink, Sweat and Tears

I started this story on May 17th 2009 after reading about pyroclastic flow. Ballard’s final story The Dying Fall had just been published about the leaning tower of pisa collapsing, and I put two and two together and came up with Glowing Cloud, and then The Day The Pope Caught Fire, and then The Day [...]

End of a month; continuation of an affair

This residency month has been a time of great inspiration and hope for me; seeing the writers and editors I work with explore moments in their lives, their responsibilities and pressures, with insight, sensitivity and humour. But most of all, it’s been a delight to see their dedication – blogs delivered on time, with an [...]

The living poem

In the past five months, three of my mother’s friends have killed themselves. It wasn’t until after a reading in Camden last week, where a girl with shy hands and a small mouth asked me what inspires you to write, that I realize how difficult I find the question. Each time I’m asked that question [...]

Poem of the Week: Clare Pollard ‘Thinking of England’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYo5Dkpnyes

A New Bizarro Horror Story at MicroHorror.com

My story Mr.Croc-in-a-Blanket is now online @MicroHorror.com. I’d been playing around with a child-like narrative style for some time using long joined up sentences without apostrophes, and then I got into the bizarro genre. A child relating a horror story seems quite scary to me. I wish I could bring a nursery rhyme into the [...]

If a Short Story Falls in a Forest Can Anyone Hear it Scream?

Last year I attended a short story seminar where the guest speakers were all novelists. That’s right. Every one of them. Nevertheless, they assured us, they knew all about short stories – about its limitations; its pressures, its failure to appeal to mass market audiences. Short stories are what everyone works on when they start [...]

Carol Ann Duffy Judges International Poetry Pamphlet Competition in Aid of the Homeless

There’s a chance to have your poetry published in a 20-page pamphlet while also supporting the homeless, with the added benefit of being selected by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy. The Lumen/Camden Poetry Competition is unusual as the entry fee per poem is just £2.50 to make it possible for everybody to have a try. [...]

Refusing to Pull the Plug

Today doesn’t resemble most other days in my life, and here’s why: I’m sitting in a cruise-ship cabin just off the coast of Bermuda, suffering from mild sun-stroke and not-so-mild sunburn.  If you’re wondering whether I regret any of the aforementioned circumstances, the answer would be a resounding no on all counts.  I’ve never been [...]

Publishing and the Digital Revolution

From Vooks to ebooks, from the iPad to the Google settlement, and from print-on-demand to new styles of writing, this article attempts to analyse the effects of the digital revolution on the publishing industry, and to make some educated guesses about how things may develop in the next few years. “An alternative to the Big [...]

Poem of the Week: Dylan Thomas ‘In My Craft or Sullen Art’