April Starts Well....

It's always nice when the first of the month brings some good news! And this came after 12 so it's not a joke... but it seems that My Mother Was An Upright Piano has been shortlisted in the Best Story Collection section of Sabotage's  Saboteur's Indie Lit awards. I had no idea it had even been entered, so that's doubly exciting! MMWAUP faces stiff competition from Ashley Stokes, Laury A. Egan, Tony Williams, and Superbard, but just getting to the shortlist is delight enough. It is decided by public vote, so click here to find out more. I am not the sort of author who asks people to vote for her book, that doesn't really sit well with me. But if you fancy joining in, then a vote for any indie lit book is a good thing! I haven't heard of several of these collections so will be checking them out myself. Thank you, whoever nominated MMWAUP, you've made my April!

Congratulations are in order!

There's nothing greater than being able to congratulate my smart and talented friends, and there's a lot today! First, the wonderful Lauri Kubuitsile is shortlisted for the highly prestigious Caine Prize for African Writing for her short story “In the spirit of McPhineas Lata” from The Bed Book of Short Stories published by Modjaji Books! Winner announced in July, fingers crossed, Lauri!

Second - huge congratulations to Andrea Ashworth and Jon Pinnock who, along with Cassandra Parkin, are the three winners of this year's Salt Publishing Scott Prize for debut short story collections. Their collections will be published in November, the UK's National Short Story Week. Can't wait to read them!

Addendum: Third lot of congratulations, to Tom Vowler, whose collection, The Method, has been shortlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize, alongside collections from Helen Simpson, Polly Samson,Graham Mort and Michele Roberts. Winner announced in July. Read my interview with Tom here.

A quickie

I haven't felt much like blogging recently, not had that much to say. So this is me saying not much at all. Lovely to see everyone at the Willesden Herald event at the weekend, see Women Rule Writer and Vanessa G for pics. Huge congrats to Wena, the competition winner (read a recent interview I did with Wena here), and all the other shortlisted writers, including Women Rule Writer (aka Nuala) and Tom "How to Write a Novel" Vowler (lovely to meet you!).

I just wanted to say that I am still adding to my Ever-Growing List of UK &  Ireland Lit Mags that Publish Short Stories and as of today there are 108 publications. New ones keep cropping up. So get those stories out of your (virtual) drawer, give them a shine and send them off! Go on.
 

A great week

I was feeling a bit bleurgh last week, partly due to feeling a little lost after deciding that I wasn't going to work at night, partly due to a couple of rejections all on the same day, and January looking like a Rejection Zone, what a way to start the year etc... etc... But then on Wednesday I headed down on the train to the Arvon Foundation's beautiful Devon writing centre, Totleigh Barton and things started looking much brighter. I didn't really know quite what I had been invited to do - I knew it was a school group, I knew I'd read and answer questions, but apart from that I wasn't sure.

I discovered when I got there that during the months they are not open to the public, Arvon run courses for many different groups which are similar in structure to the public ones: a group of 16 or so participants live in, with two writers who run a 6 day writing course, and there is a guest writer who comes half way through for one evening's reading. There are workshops in the mornings, and the participants cook dinner!

I have been on two Arvon courses in the last 8 years and it is no exaggeration to say that they were life changing. The first course, in 2002, was Writing & Science, a new topic for Arvon. When I saw it advertised I couldn't believe that there were other people who wanted to do what I wanted to do! The thing was: I didn't know how. And that 6-day course showed me how to let myself be inspired by science fact and turn it into fiction. It also showed me that I could write on demand - the tutors said, "Go off, write something, and come back and read", and what do you know? I could. Amazing. (I also met my partner J there, so it really was life-changing in all respects...)!

The second course, a few years later, was on short stories, and the tutors were Ali Smith and Toby Litt. Ali Smith was one of the reasons I wanted to write short stories in the first place. And so when we had a one-on-one tutorial and she told me to give up the day job and write full time because I was "the real thing", it blew my mind. Another milestone.

Coming back to Totleigh Barton, where this second course was held, was very moving for me. It's amazing to mark the passing of time: 2006 - me paying to come on a course; 2010 - me being invited and paid for, book in hand!

The reading went very well - I think. I say that because it was in a big barn and I didn't wear my glasses (ah, time...!) and so couldn't see the faces of the sixth-formers from 2 Bristol schools who were having a wonderful writing week with their teachers! I talked about my journey, read some flash stories and the beginning of a story from my book that I'd started writing there in 2006, and answered excellent questions, such as "How come you seem so happy?"! I liked that one. "Because I get to come here and talk about short stories," was the simple answer. The students were all very interested in writing, they are writing themselves, and I was really inspired by being with them, by answering their questions and listening to them talk about writing. And -they bought 10 books, all the copies I brought with me, that was quite a surprise too.

I also had a great time meeting the two excellent tutors, playwright Diane Samuels and Bristol-based novelist Chris Wakling, the teachers from the two schools, and Totleigh Barton centre directors Claire and Ollie. Looking forward to seeing them all again. I came back to Bristol the next day feeling re-energised and re-inspired. Hope I get to go back.

And then yesterday, just slipping in there before January left, some very lovely news. I think I mentioned that my play, Exchange Rates, which I adapted from my short story, was shortlisted for the Total Beast 6-Minute Play competition, and that all the shortlisted plays were being performed. We went to London for the performance, and I was really moved by how well the actors performed my play. It was just wonderful seeing it brought to life so well. (Of course I wanted to tweak it a little, but there you are!). After the performances, the director asked any of the writers in the audience to come onstage. I was a little freaked out by that, suddenly getting shy, but then we stood there and he announced the winner.

Me.

Yup! Big big shock. Really. Just having the play performed was a thrill. But a lovely cheque, which is greatly appreciated, as well as a critique of whatever script I choose to give her by a professional editor, which is a wonderful prize.

So now I am doubly, triply inspired! Now I want to write a play from scratch... and, after a fabulous creative brainstorming meeting with Philipa from the University's Centre for Public Engagement today, I want to write a science play, and maybe a film... and maybe something animated... and...

So, February dawns and 2010 is looking brighter. No snow this week, yet. And more inspirational events to keep my spirits up - am going to talk to undergrad Creative Writing students at Bath Spa Uni next week, where I did my MA. Don't tell anyone, but I think I might get more out of doing these events than they do. Shhhhh.

Good news to end the year - and Resolutions starting early!

So, I had all sorts of things I wanted to blog about  - why so many of my favourite short story writers are Scottish, for example - and then the nicest email last night and all my priorities shifted. The Scots will have to wait. The Binnacle, the delightful people who awarded me the Grand Prize in their Sixth Annual Ultra Short Comp last year, wrote to let me know that the publication of the Ultra-Short issue has been a little delayed... but then took my mind off this entirely by telling me that they have become my Favourite Lit Mag Ever by nominating my winning story, My Mother Was an Upright Piano, for a Pushcart Prize!

For those who aren't familiar, here's the Pushcart Prize info:

Little magazine and small book press editors (print or online) may make up to six nominations from their year’s publications by our December 1, (postmark) deadline. The nominations may be any combination of poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot.

Over at his excellent blog, Perpetual Folly, Cliff Garstang does his annual Pushcart rankings, a listing of lit magazines according to how many Pushcart prizes and special mentions for fiction they have received since 2000. Cliff does this with the Pushcart because of the way they call for nominations from the editors themselves rather than getting a guest judge to pick.  It makes for interesting reading - the Top Three are Ploughshares, Conjunctions and Zoetrope-All-Story. Says Cliff:

I'm a fan of the Pushcart Prize Anthology and I happen to think that it is a good indicator of magazine quality. It isn't perfect, and it doesn't mean a whole lot, frankly, but when I'm making my decisions of where I want to submit, I look at this list and aim as high as is realistically possible.

Read the list here for some submission ideas. 

Anyhow, the Pushcart gets 8000 nominations (it's only open to American publications and presses), and publishes 30 pieces of prose and 30 poems in its annual anthology, so the chances of getting any further are very, very slim. But it is an enormous honour to be nominated, I have been looking longingly at other writers' bios where they say "nominated for a Pushcart prize", and it's really thrilling for me to be able to put that too.

So, a good way to end the year that was rather up and down, with the lows being far lower than anything I've ever experienced, and which saw us make the radical decision to move countries - and then actually do it. The cats are more than 2/3 of the way through quarantine, 8 more weeks, which is wonderful, that has been very hard, for us and them. I am really loving being here, every few weeks meeting up with people who just want to talk about short stories and writing!

The main thing, though, that I haven't been doing is writing. So last night I decided to implement my New Year's Resolutions a few days early, in order to avoid that inevitable desire to sabotage the whole thing on Jan 1st. This morning, fighting that self-sabotaging demon, I got dressed before having breakfast and headed out for a walk, with just a notepad and paper (and mobile phone, switched off, and a little money for emergency croissants should I need them).

I walked for about 45 minutes around the neighborhood, avoiding slipping on the frost, and determined to come back with "something". But also determined to give myself a break and not to expect too much. I jotted down some words, a few phrases and things, as I walked, and just tried to follow my thoughts. It didn't help that I couldn't stop humming the damn song I heard on the radio before I left. Note to self: Don't turn the radio on before walk!

I came back, and continued with my new regime by not switching on my phone or the Internet. Not at all. Nope. I went into my study, and didn't check email at all until 4pm. And guess what? Felt much calmer, and was rather more productive. There's a surprise! I  did a radical overhaul of my assortment of short stories and flash fiction and set up a new Folder on my computer called "2010" so that I can start the year with a clean-ish slate, sort of. All those old half-stories that I just haven't got around to doing anything with got swept under the digital carpet just so I don't have to look at them and despair! And I decided not to split up Short Stories and Flash Fiction, just have one Work in Progress Folder. Might make life a little easier.

I actually didn't even want to check my email all day - and of course when I did I found that there was nothing urgent, nothing that coudn't wait, or could even have waited longer.

It's 7pm now, am allowing myself to blog, catch up on FB, Tweet a little... listen to some music. And then... after dinner I am going to try something else that I have wanted to do for ages and can do this week because there's nowhere I have to be in the morning. And that is: come back into my study at 10pm and spend a few hours writing. I have this desire to write at night, I love nighttime. But there's always somewhere to be in the morning etc. Well, this week the diary is clear. Will report back.

If it goes well, the plan is that I can set up my schedule around this: For the 2 days a week that I am at the Nanoscience and Quantum Information centre for my short-story-writer-in-residence, I could go in after 12, and just not plan to do anything before that. I am not aiming to work all night, that would be quite odd, and when would J and I see each other? But I am open to seeing how I feel - apart from tired - and what comes. I know several writers work at night. It's an experiment!

Is there anything else I'm going to do? Hmm. In the last few weeks I have been slowly starting to work on the next issue of The Short Review instead of leaving it all til the 5 days before I want to get the issue up and making myself - and Diane - crazy. That's been more relaxing and enjoyable, so will probably try to keep doing that.

I've also almost almost finished my Arts Council grant application for the residency - just a little unsure about the budget part, it's confusing me. But I really hope to get that printed off and sent tomorrow. Fingers crossed!

This turned into quite a long post, sorry about that. Wishing you all a Happy and Creative New Year. Any Resolutions anyone wants to share?!

Catching up part 1: competitions

I have loads to write about but let me start by saying..

The Bristol Short Story Prize is now officially open - too all writers worldwide!
3000 words maximum - no minimum length, deadline 31st March, seven pounds per story. Prizes: 1st-£500 plus £150 Waterstone’s Gift Card, 2nd -£350 plus £100 Waterstone’s Gift Card, 3rd -£200 plus £100 Waterstone’s Gift Card. Each of the 17 remaining shortlisted finalists will receive a cheque for £50.

I am one of the judges but it is all strictly anonymous, so please send your entry in - the earlier the better. Also: the max word count is 3000 but there is no minimum and I have it on good authority that this is really true. No need to bump your story up to 2999 words, just send in a great story, and, for me at least, it doesn't matter how long or short it is.

I am also one of the judges for the Brit Writers Awards which are also open now, deadline extended to Feb 26 2010. As it sounds, this is an award for Britain-based writers only. Check the website for more details. Short stories (minimum 1,000 and maximum 5,000 words), there are other categories too, so check out the website. For an admin fee of 10.95 pounds, you can submit as many entries as you like!

Short story news roundup

I'm not yet ready to blog about what it's like to have moved countries, that kind of thing, I am still musing, so I thought I'd bring some exciting news from Short Story World. First, Electric Literature, the new lit zine that is available in print, as an eBook, or for your Kindle of iPhone, and pays its contributors a wonderful $1000 per story (!) has taken an exciting step into the world of animation and asked animators to create a very short film based on one line from each of the pieces they published in Issue 1. Here, for example, is Jonathon Ashley's take on a sentence from Michael Cunningham's novel excerpt:




There is one more animation on the Electric Literature YouTube page as well as a trailer for Jim Shepherd's Your Fate Hurtles Down at You. I love the idea of animating short stories... see what you think.

Another very welcome newcomer is Madras press, based in the US. This is what they are all about - and they are publishing the wondrous Aimee Bender as one of their first authors, which is always a great thing!

"Madras Press publishes individually bound short stories and novellas and distributes the proceeds to a growing list of charitable organizations chosen by our authors.

The format of our books provides readers with the opportunity to experience a story on its own, with no advertisements or unrelated articles surrounding it; it also provides a home for stories that are often arbitrarily ignored by commercial publishing outfits, whether because they’re too long for magazines but not trade-book length, or because they don’t resemble certain other stories. These are clumsy, ill-fitting stories made perfect when read in the simplest possible way.

Published in regular series of four, our books also serve as fundraising efforts for a number of charitable causes and organizations. Each of our authors has selected a beneficiary to which all net proceeds generated from the sales of his or her book will be donated; these include organizations dedicated to environmental protection, community development, human services, and much more.

On October 1, our online bookstore will open, at which time you'll be able to order from our first series of titles:The Third Elevator, by Aimee Bender
Proceeds to benefit InsideOUT Writers

Bobcat, by Rebecca Lee
Proceeds to benefit Riverkeeper

Sweet Tomb, by Trinie Dalton
Proceeds to benefit the Theodore Payne Foundation

A Mere Pittance, by Sumanth Prabhaker
Proceeds to benefit Helping Hands: Monkey Helpers for the Disabled

Each book will cost about as much as a greeting card, and will come with your name (or a name of your choice) transcribed in an ex-libris panel on the inside front cover."

A lovely idea, not only boosting the short story, but raising money for worthy causes at the same time. Founding editor Sumanth Prabhaker told me they will be accepting submissions from oct 1st and "We operate on a purely volunteer basis, so that the only cost subtracted from the sticker price of online purchases is for manufacturing. Acquisitions, editing, design, production, and marketing are all done at no cost. Taking inspiration from the Concord Free Press, we are foregoing commercial distribution and working directly with bookstores and consumers." Good luck to them!

Thirdly, going head to head with the BBC National Short Story Award, but with a bigger cheque, the brand new Sunday Times Short Story Prize will award £25,000 (no, you haven't read that wrong) "for a single short story in Britain and Ireland. " Says the announcement:

"The prize, backed by EFG Private Bank, is the latest sign that the genre is once again thriving after many years of falling popularity. The contest is open to authors who have already had work published in Britain and Ireland, and is intended to attract well-established writers as well as relative unknowns."

Now, this is welcome news indeed, as is anything that intends to get more people reading short stories (falling popularity? You're just looking in the wrong places).

However, as with the BBC award, this is not judged anonymously, which bothers me. It always bothers me. Is it about the writing or about the name above the writing? An interesting discussion on Facebook ensued, with Nicola making the excellent point that since this is open to published stories, it can't be anonymous since some of the (six) judges may have read some of the stories submitted and know who they were written by. Very good point. So: just accept unpublished stories. That solves that one.

What do you think? We all know that it is hard enough to read something without simultaneously looking up the author's bio, let alone reading something by a "big name". You just can't really read it in a vacuum. But you can at least attempt that. If it is going to be "award for best previously-published story" then that is something else.

I'm not complaining, not really. Just thinking out loud. £25,000 will mean an enormous amount to any writer unless they are Dan Brown, I highly doubt any writer of literary fiction (if this is what the prize is aiming at) makes that from their books. Yes, the best short story should win. But I say that anything that might stand in the way of that goal should, if at all possible, be removed.

Thoughts??

Orange Prize "Forgets" It Ever Remembered Short Stories

When I was one of two authors commended for this year's Orange Award for New Writers, I was stunned. To be singled out, together with the 3-book shortlist! I didn't even know The White Road and Other Stories had been put forward. And while this was something that was very hard for me to internalise on a personal level, not being one of those who thinks her stories are better than anyone else's, it was instantly obvious to me what a wonderful thing this was both for short story collections and for small independent publishers. All around me were novels and mainstream publishing houses. And there was my little book!

There was already a slight tinge here because in the press release announcing the shortlist, C E Morgan and I were commended with wonderful words but our books were not mentioned. Had people seen that something which had "and other stories" in its title was being given a special mention, what a boost this would be!

The Award for New Writers is for: "all first works of fiction, including novels, short story collections and novellas, written by women of any age or nationality and published as a book in the UK." In the Award's first year, in 2006, Nell Freudenberger was shortlisted for her story collection, Lucky Girls. The following year, Yiyun Li's Ten Thousand Years of Good Prayers made the shortlist. Since then, no story collections have been shortlisted. No novellas have even made it to a shortlist.

I went to the Orange Prize ceremony tonight full of joy: joy at my book having been given the kind of attention I never dreamed of, and more than that, joy at the spotlight being shone on short stories. First, I was pretty surprised by the event which was less a literary celebration than a party where the champagne flowed and pretty young things in very short skirts hung around and chattered amongst themselves. Here and there were well-known faces, but it wasn't quite what I was, perhaps naively, expecting. And it wasn't really a celebration of literary fiction: the awards part of the evening was done in less than half an hour, a very quick affair - no readings from any of the books, no taste of beautiful words to whet our appetites.

Of course, I had hoped that C E Morgan and I would get a quick mention. After all, Kate Mosse, co-founder of the awards (and the only person to say the phrase "short stories" all night) talked about how the New Writers Award was to give writers with potential some recognition, a little (or quite big) push. The Award's judges had thought we deserved a little bit of the fairy dust, right?

Nope. One of the judges talked about the judging process before announcing the winner, mentioning that there were 80 books that she and her fellow judges had to choose from. I waited, breath held, as she talked about what a shame it was to whittle it down to three. Three? I thought. But... but... We had been forgotten.

And not only that. When she talked about how she had read the 80 nominated books during her work trip in Africa, she said that the 80 "first novels" had really kept her going.

I felt like I had been slapped in the face. A double blow. Was mine the only short story collection in the 80? I highly doubt it. But we had been "disappeared", swallowed up. You remember us... and then we're gone. We're too short, perhaps. Too slight in comparison. Maybe it is about everything we - and the poor forgotten novellas - are not. How hard would it have been to have taken that extra 30 seconds... to have remembered?

I was deeply upset. I was nearly in tears on the bus home. But not for me. This has already given me a boost, taken me to a new place, gained me entry to rooms I would not have been allowed into. But in this week when my wonderful and tireless publishers, Salt, are desperately trying to survive and are forced to beg people to buy Just One Book, when those who seek great writing should be flocking to Salt and all the other independent publishers out there - in this week, what would a mention have done for them? What could it have done? There were journalists there, I could have talked about Salt, this would have been a story, something a bit different in this world dominated by novels and large publishing houses.

Don't think for a moment I begrudge the novels anything. I have read one of the shortlisted, The Personal History of Rachel Dupre, by Ann Weisgarber, and it is beautiful, powerful. I love great writing, however it comes, in whatever shape or size. But don't mention us, don't look for one second into the corner that short stories are so often made to sit in, don't shine that light and then so rudely turn it off, turn your back. It is as if you never noticed us at all.

What all this makes me wonder is why - when it is hard enough to try and compare one book with another and to call one the "best" - we writers of short stories and novellas allow ourselves to be packaged together with the novels? Short stories should stand alone, or, at the very least, put us with the poets, please. We shouldn't have to compete in this way. Don't make us think we're important, and then so clearly show us that you really don't care. It's cruel. It really is.

So much great short story news!

Where to begin? What a week! The biggest short story news surely must be today's announcement that Canadian writer Alice Munro has won this year's Man Booker Prize. An award-winning short story writer, a recent article in the Canadian National Post newspaper reports that Munro pokes fun at the attitude to short stories in a new story of hers, Fiction, in which the main character discovers she is a character in a book.

"When she finds out it's not a novel, it's a collection of short stories, she's horrified," says her editor, Doug Gibson. In the story, Munro writes, "It was as if the author was hanging on the gates of literature rather than fully admitted inside because she was only writing short stories."

The Man Booker judges, Jane Smiley, writer; Amit Chaudhuri, writer, academic and musician; and writer, film script writer and essayist, Andrey Kurkov, said:

‘Alice Munro is mostly known as a short story writer and yet she brings as much depth, wisdom and precision to every story as most novelists bring to a lifetime of novels. To read Alice Munro is to learn something every time that you never thought of before.'

While those of us who understand very well the power of the short story would take issue with the "and yet" - we should hold our tongues and just celebrate this wonderful news that a stunning and inspirational writer has been recognised! Alice Munro's new collection, Too Much Happiness, will be published in October. Can't wait. Visit Alice Munro's Wikipedia page for more information.

Second, the Wales Book of the Year award English-language shortlist is announced, and it is novel-free: two short story collections and a collection of poetry, and all by female authors. Deborah Kay Davies' debut short story collection, Grace, Tamar and Laszlo the Beautiful, a short story collection from award-winning novelist Gee Williams, Blood Etc, and Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch's second collection of poetry, Not in These Shoes. Congratulations to all. The winner will be announced on June 15th.




Back to Canada, Pasha Malla has won the Danuta Gleed Literary Prize for his collection, The Withdrawal Method. Says the National Post:

The $10,000 prize – named in memory of the writer Danuta Gleed, and administered by the Writers' Union of Canada – toasts the nation's best English-language debut short fiction collection.

Kreativ Blogger Award

How nice, Nuala(Women Rule Writer) has given me a Kreativ Blogger Award! Thank you N, and now I must fulfil the task the award requires. 7 things that I love:

1. My partner, J (he'll be surprised he made number 1!)
2. Our cats, Zac and Cleo
   
3. Writing fiction
4. Waking up in the morning to see the sun shining off the Jerusalem stone
5. Finding a new favourite author
6. Talking about the joys of short fiction
   
7. Spaghetti with tomato sauce and very strong, extra mature cheddar

Now I am tasked with passing this on to 7 blogs that are certainly Kreativ that I love. Here goes:

1. Nik Perring's Blog
2. Sarah's Writing Journal
3. Sue Guiney: Me and Others
4. ASalted
5. Thoughts from Botswana
6. Forgetting the Time
   
7. Debi Alper
   

The Short Review April 2009

A short interlude from the existential identity discussions - and back to short stories! I have just posted/published/made my eyes screwy to upload April 2009 Issue of The Short Review. Here is a little about what we have this month:

In Memoriam: The Short Review is deeply saddened by the death of J G Ballard, the author of 22 short story collections and 19 novels. For a taste of Ballardian wonders, read our review of the The Complete Short Stories.





Congratulations! To Elizabeth Strout, winner of this year's Pullitzer Prize for Fiction for Olive Kittredge, a collection of interlinked short stories.

We bring you reviews of ten more this month, from Babylon to big worlds, creatures of the earth, eclipses and unlucky lucky days which are nothing like an ocean, to last night, where our story begins, with a little Javanese and some gay romance.

And, of course, as many author interviews as we can muster - Mary Miller, Jim Tomlinson, Alix Ohlin, Daniel Grandbois, Kiril Bozhinov and Andre Mangeot, ! Happy reading

On Blogs, Lemons, Lemonade and Other Things

(Listening to Bring it On by Gomez, perfect blogging soundtrack. Also: all links open new windows, as usual, so feel free to click away!)

I was absolutely delighted to discover last week that I've been awarded a "making lemonade out of life's lemons" blog award by the wonderful poet and writer Carolyn Jess-Cooke who blogs at the Risktaker's Guide to Endorphins. She says of the ten blogs she chose for the award that: "these blogs make me see life with new eyes. They make me laugh, cry, and want to sing/be a better photographer/bake more." Is this not another example of what I talked about in my blog below, the constantly-astonishing kindness of other people who are under no obligation to be this nice? It makes me very happy to know that my blog posts don't make anyone want to tear their hair out but rather might just inspire at least one person to bake more. Thank you Carolyn! I am looking forward to visiting the other nine blogs on her list, eight of which are new to me.

Talking of new blogs, Carolyn has commanded us to share the love by passing on the award to blogs which show a great attitude or gratitude. I want to do something a little different and welcome several new blogs to the blogsphere instead, with the potential to do something very interesting with lemons!

• Annie Clarkson, a long time MySpace blog veteran, has finally arrived in the outside blog world with Forgetting the Time, thankfully enabling us to follow her blog posts without all that complicated MySpace sign-in and stuff. The purpose of Forgetting the Time, says Annie, a poet and short story writer (whose beautiful collection, Winter Hands, I reviewed on The Short Review) is " notes and reviews on writing, inspiration and how to get lost in words". Her latest blog post talks about the film The Lives of Others, and in particular how it explored the situation for artists and writers in Communist Europe.

• Writer Tom Vowler has just received an Arts Council grant to write his second novel, and has set up the How to Write a Novel blog to document his process (0 words out of 90,000 so far!). He says of the blog: "Come see the novel writing process stripped bare. From flashing cursor on a blank page to pitch and publication. Follow the highs, the lows; the twists and turns; the agony and (occasional) ecstasy. Read extracts. Offer feedback. 'Write a bad short story and you've wasted two weeks; write a bad novel, you've wasted two years.' I've no idea who said this but it's worth dwelling on. Book reviews, interviews and other literary topics too." His latest blog post describes, with beautiful photo, how his research took him into the woods in Dartmoor. And a nearby pub. For research. Hmm.

• My good friend Devorah Blachor, writer and mother of toddler Cai, has always been a great cook. The Eco-Baby Cookbook is an ever-growing collection of her recipes using every ingredient including leftovers. She says: "On this page, I'll share ideas about how to cook for babies and adults in one go. Using every ingredient so that nothing gets wasted, this blog minimizes time in the kitchen while maximizing your menu."Let's just say that Fettucine with Caper and Chicken Ragu ain't just for small mouths. Her latest post is a recipe for Caprese Rice with Canneloni Beans. And there are pictures. Mmmmmmm.

• I stumbled upon Pippa Goldschmidt's blog The Write Reality when I followed a link to a short story competition being run by the Genomics Forum. Pippa began a stint as writer-in-residence at the forum a few months ago, and says of her blog: "I'm interested in musing on the relationship between fiction and science." What can I say, a woman after my own heart! Her latest blog post muses on the concept of time in science and in fiction. Thought-provoking stuff.

All these blogs and more are in my blogroll to the left. I know, I know, so much to read and so little time!

Quick me time: Thanks to Lee Rourke over at his Scarecrow Comment blog for this:

This is a pic of a Waterstone's branch and their featured short story section: Lee's new collection, Everyday, (which we will be reviewing shortly on The Short Review) is on the right hand side, third row from the bottom. And it is accompanied by not one but two copies of The White Road and Other Stories (temporarily out of stock again in the UK, which is why the Amazon widget to the right is offering it for £40 (!!!) - next print run underway).

I can also spot Vanessa's fabulous Words from a Glass Bubble, Clare Wigfall's excellent The Loudest Sound and Nothing, Ali Smith's The First Person and Other Stories (review coming soon), the Bristol Short Story Prize anthology, Alison MacLoed's amazing Fifteen Modern Tales of Attraction, Neil Smith's Bang Crunch (on my to-read shelf) and collections by William Trevor and Katherine Mansfield. A Waterstone's with great taste!

Million Writers notable short stories of 2007

This is a fascinating list not just of stories that are in all probability worth reading, but also of publications, especially the ones that have had more several stories selected. I for one will be checking out those I haven't heard of. People often look down on online publications, good for StorySouth for championing them. I can't say anything about these stories, yet. Will get back to you on that.

Million Writers Award Notable Stories of 2007

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