14/12/2012 Meow Meow's Little Match Girl at SouthbankYesterday, we were off to the Queen Elizabeth Hall at the Southbank Centre to see Meow Meow's Little Match Girl, a cabaret show inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's tale. I personally loathe musicals (apart from the original movie of My Fair Lady) but I love cabaret (Meow Meow's own strand has been dubbed kamikaze and post-modern cabaret) and hope to be seeing more next year. Meow Meow is incredibly glamorous and charismatic, with a natural grace and edge without equal. The show is clever, poetic, bawdy, seductive, naughty, poignant, hilarious, teasing and ambitious. It is also much richer and complex than first appears: social and gender issues are buried just under the surface, poking their stubborn heads here and there under a shower of glitter. The show is full of references too: Flaming in my head I've had Austrian artist Irene Andessner's works on the Edison light-bulb-covered dancer Milli Stubel, Loie Fuller's experiments with light and shadow, John Donne's A Nocturnal upon St Lucy's Day, Being the Shortest Day, the women of Bratislava that Andersen encountered screaming through the burnt city looking for their lost children, Joan of Arc and the Catherine Wheel, Annie Besant, the Bryant and May match girls who went on strike in 1888, Moira Shearer and The Red Shoes, Jean Renoir's tin soldier, witches at the stake, global warming, "ice" addiction, exploring planets, fragile and naughty pyromaniac children. ... Meow Meow - real name Melissa Madden Gray, is an incredible individual. Read more about her background and experience in this excellent article HERE. Southbank is spoiling us in 2013 with an amazing festival, The Rest is Noise, "The Soundtrack of the 20th Century" (SATURDAY 19 JANUARY 2013 - SUNDAY 9 JUNE 2013) The programme is packed-full with events - some of them free and a lot rather affordable. We hope to go to some of them!
9/12/2012 BrainwaveThis morning, I woke up with a massive brainwave taking over my thoughts... All of a sudden, I had all those ideas for my third book, The Right Place. So I had to get up and scribble like mad until I had put everything on paper.
I have defined some of my characters a little better and added some details about the background story. More of this, please! Holidays are definitively good for brain activity. 26/11/2012 The Secret of Crickley HallI am watching The Secret of Crickley Hall at the moment, which I like very much, apart from the irritating mother character - the actress is very good, don't get me wrong. I just personally don't like "whimpering mother" characters.
The location is great and I love the 1940s bits. I am concentrating very hard on the details of how the makers of the show have managed to convey the atmosphere of sadness and the presence of ghosts in an isolated house, as I am writing something vaguely similar at the moment (ghosts in an isolated manor house, my house being much bigger than the one in the programme). Thankfully, there is no hysterical over-motherly character in my story - quite the opposite. The mother in the novel is at the other end of the "mothering scale", think more of Agnes in The Crimson Petal and the White. I have blogged about it on this blog (HERE) before, but Metal have just posted some more pictures and (gulp) videos on their website.
You can go and watch (in my case very, very short, I was ultra nervous!) interviews with the participants and everyone's readings... Thank you again to Christopher Fowler, Julie Myerson and Cathi Unsworth for talking to us, it was such a privilege to have you there! And thank you to everyone at Metal. I am looking forward to meeting with my fellow participants in the Spring to prepare for next year's Shorelines: Literature Festival of the Sea. I am thrilled to have been given the opportunity to participate in the second edition of this thrilling event, which will take place in the autumn of 2013. CULTURE LAB PHOTOS AND VIDEOS Scroll down to ARCHIVE. 6/11/2012 Writing frenzyI have started working again on my second novel, The Book of Thoth, for the first time since 10th October. I am very very pleased to say that I have managed to get almost 4,000 words out in two days! Please inspiration, stay with me (although maybe calm down a bit on the craziness of it all... The story is getting soo complicated!) I am over 100,000 words now, and the book is far from being finished, so imagine the monstrous hacking that is going to take place at second draft!). 2/11/2012 Fields of The Nephilim picturesHere are a few pictures of Fields of the Nephilim gig at the Shepherd's Bush Empire - Wednesday 31st October 2012. Carl McCoy looked his usual fascinating self. I wonder whether he has discovered the elixir of life... For setlist and everything Fields of the Nephilim related, check out the excellent SUMERLAND website. For very good quality pictures and a review of the night, go to Ave Noctum. The planned support band didn't play and was replaced by Jordan Reyne. I am so so glad, because I have discovered a wonderful artist whose world is very similar to my own... And now a few "arty" shots of the main band... All this has been very inspiring, especially as I am writing a Gothic Novel at the moment!
31/10/2012 The Beauty of DarknessFields of The Nephilim are playing at Shepherd's Bush Empire and we will be there... Special... I will be getting inspiration for The Book of Thoth. A quick update on what is happening with the books.
I am listening to PJ Harvey's Stories from the city, stories from the sea, which matches the work I am doing at the moment: updating the various pages of this very website, thinking about my forthcoming books - which all contain stories from the city and stories from the sea... Today, I am reading through I Am a Muse to make sure it is ready for publication. Everything is now ready to be uploaded on Lulu, which I will be trying out on Sunday. I am so worried, I have butterflies in my stomach. This weekend was my deadline for uploading as I still would like to hit my November publishing date. If everything goes well and all the files upload properly, I should be able to order a proof copy of my book immediately. So Lulu will need to send the copy to me, then I will need to read through it and check that the printing has gone well. This should take another two weeks, if I am not interrupted by some freelance work - yes, it's money, but... Or it could all go wrong on Sunday and I will be in a spot of bother. *UPDATE 28/10/2012: I began reading through I Am a Muse on Friday. I couldn't help changing words, tweaking things... So this has now turned into a last minute revision of the manuscript, which is not cool as it will delay the publication further. I hope this will not take too long and I will be able to try out Lulu in the forthcoming days... In other news, I have now purchased two domain names for my websites so the addresses look more professional. So you will find me at www.missgish.com - well, here - and also at www.arcanepublishing.net. Business cards should get done in the forthcoming weeks. I have been updating details about my next books as I have been to a lot of inspiring places and events and my brain has been overheating this week (see previous blogs!). I have added the first writing piece for The Right Place HERE as well as some of the pictures taken during my holidays in Dorset earlier this month. I have used them as inspiration for that very piece. I have added some details on the Anti page. Walking around London has given me quite a few more ideas for my Urban Noir tale... I hope I will be able to go back to The Book of Thoth next week, but it looks like work is coming my way in the next few weeks. I will try and apply the "write everyday" rule nevertheless, let's see if I can do it. Usually, if I am working, my brain refuses to switch to "writing mode" and I can only write if I have a whole free day. 23/10/2012 A weekend of inspirationOn Saturday, I was back in London to see Tate Britain's exhibition Pre-Raphaelites - Victorian avant-garde. I adore Pre-Raphaelite art, which seems to be enjoying a rehabilitation after having been dismissed for years. I have never given up on them, because their work genuinely inspires me. You could write a whole novel using any of their paintings as a starting point. Being face to face with such craft and beauty really moved me. Pre-Raphaelite paintings can take your breath away and send you into a daydream you will find difficult to shake up. Such beauty in our very ugly, bling world is incredibly welcome. Art for art's sake: this is a motto I completely adhere to. William Holman Hunt is my least favourite of the Pre-Raphaelites; he was obviously tormented by religious guilt and fever and his numerous Bible-themed paintings, if extremely well executed, do not do anything for me and do not fire up my secular imagination. It's a little bit too evangelical for me. But I have found two reasons to like him again: The Light of the World is infused with an incredible light. Then there is The Lady of Shalott. I almost fell over when I saw it. It is not a painting, this is a whole scene in motion: the hair tossed around, the threads flying across the room... You have to go to the exhibition and see the large framed painting to really appreciate its sheer power, energy and beauty. After a walk along the Thames which provided me with yet some more ideas for my fourth novel, an Urban Noir tale set in London, we reached the ever popular South Bank centre and the BFI. We wanted to make sure we would catch "The Art of Frankenweenie" exhibition - this was the last day - and I am so so glad we did! It was just amazing to be able to see a little bit behind the scenes of Tim Burton's latest offering - I am a big fan. There were sets, videos, trailers, and some of the puppets that had been used for the movie (Sparky the dog is so cuuuuute!) The exhibition made you understand how incredibly detailed and thought through everything was, and to be able to see all the tiny little details of the sets was a real bonus; you can never see everything when you watch a movie, as the action distracts you from the rest. There is an excellent little article about the exhibition HERE, together with some pictures, so go and have a look. I adore Tim Burton's universe, because it is so very close to my own. He might be considered as the "weird", "eccentric" director, but for me, he is the one I find reassuring. In Frankenweenie, he celebrates old movies, the beauty of black and white, what it feels like to feel alienated from a world you don't fit in. He celebrates brainy, intelligent, curious, creative kids. He tells children (and adults) that it's OK to be who you are, to be different, not to follow the crowd. It's fine to like books and science, not to be desperate to be popular. It's OK to have a dark side and like strange things, it is what makes you special. And I will go and see Frankenweenie, even though it's a Disney movie aimed at children. Well, probably according to the marketing office. Us adult Tim Burton aficionados, we know otherwise. We haven't left adulthood destroy our dreams... On Sunday, we went to The Palace Theatre open day and had a great time... But this will be the subject of another blog!
22/10/2012 Metal's creative LAB: On Writing FictionSo there. I have done it! I have survived my first creative writing course. And to be perfectly honest, it will probably be the last. No course could be better than this one. This was pretty special. Last week, I had to get into the habit of going off to work somewhere outside of my flat again – something that hasn't been happening for the past three years exactly – I left my last full-time position on 23rd October 2009! I also had to get used to being around a group of people day in and day out again. I have grown incredibly fond of my hermit life, alone in front of my laptop… I am a loner by nature, and being around people – especially people I don’t know well – emotionally exhausts me… Interacting with other people makes me be on my guard all the time. The reasons for this are numerous and would take too long to explain. Let’s just say I am extremely weary of people in general. Going to exhibitions, the theatre and gigs doesn't really count, I guess, as one can still remain in one’s own little bubble, even though it gets reduced a great deal. There was also the fact that I have never shown my work to anyone else. My work in music journalism was of an entirely different nature, and a lot of people read my articles and reviews, but that didn't bother me. I knew I was good at it and I was talking about other artists’ work, not mine. Fiction writing is completely different: you disclose your inner world to others, whatever comes out of your imagination is part of you and it can feel intimidating. Metal’s Lab: On writing fiction wasn't full of pedantic self-aggrandising wannabe authors who, having paid good money to get a place on a course, feel entitled to behave like the customer they are; after all, “the customer is King”. They expect to be told how to become a famous author in 10 steps, just because they’re worth it – or at least they are worth something because they have paid. All the people on last week’s course had been invited to attend after a rigorous selection process, and all 9 of us felt very thankful and privileged to have been picked. One thing was immediately obvious: there was passion in there. We all had very different personalities, backgrounds and life experiences. But we also all had a passion for books, for the written word, for our writing. Chalkwell Hall was filled with energy the whole week; you could feel the subtle power of creative brains at work. There was also a lot of talent. I was absolutely amazed at the quality of the work produced by the other participants and their knowledge of literature – and of a lot of other subjects too! Nobody was dabbling; we were into serious writers’ territory, there. It was a humbling, inspiring, energising experience. The staff at Metal were absolutely wonderful: friendly and genuinely interested, they listened and observed without dictating. A special thank has to go to Syd Moore, our “tutor” and “team leader” for the week, for her guidance, expertise and encouragement. I love listening to other people and absorb information like a sponge, and therefore that’s what I have mainly done: I listened, and I learned a lot. On Monday and Tuesday, we had special guest speakers, all seasoned authors in their own right. I was particularly thrilled to be able to listen to Christopher Fowler, whose books I have been reading on and off since 1998, and whose fab blog I have been following for the past three years. He was absolutely fascinating, as was the mesmerising Cathi Unsworth – what a charismatic personality! Julie Myerson was the most famous speaker of the three – her and her husband form one of London’s cultural power couples. I was very impressed by her self-confidence and her strong opinions on writing, even though as a person and a writer, I feel closer to Christopher Fowler’s and Cathi Unsworth’s world(s). I actually spent one day and a half working on the top floor of Chalkwell Hall on my own work – what will become my third novel, The Right Place. When I started off, I vaguely knew in which direction I was going: my third novel would be set in Dorset, would be inspired by the landscape, the history and the very special, quasi surpernatural atmosphere of the county; I also wanted to use PJ Harvey’s song “The Wind” as inspiration, and I kept the printed lyrics in front of me while I viewed my holiday pictures of St Catherine’s chapel and Chesil Beach, two of the most important locations in my novel. And suddenly, it all started to pour out, all those ideas… A few hours after having set up on the table, my notebook was covered in Post-its and scribbles. By the end of the day, I had written half a tempestuous scene which I then finished off the following morning. I genuinely surprised myself! I had so little when I had first arrived! It usually takes me a good six months to plan a novel, and I had done the equivalent of a month work in a day!
I am quite happy with that scene and will post it in The Right Place section of this website when I have done the small amendments that need doing. On the Friday, when I finally stood up in front of the small, intimate audience to read an extract of the piece I had produced earlier in the week, I thought I was going to faint; I was so very nervous! I could swear small silvery stars momentarily danced in front of my eyes – for a whole second, and I forgot to breathe. It was a very different feeling to the one you have when standing in front of a class of 30 attention deficit disorder-riddled teenagers - I am an ex-teacher. This was just so much bigger. But I did it, and I think this first time was very very important. I believe I was the only participant who had never read to an audience before… So now it’s a year to Metal’s Shorelines Festival – the literature festival of the sea – and we have all been invited to participate… I already have an idea about what I would like to do, but it is a whole year away and therefore I will not dwell on it… I have gained a lot from this intense week, and I know that from now on, I will be approaching my writing in a slightly different manner. The instinct needs to be supported by more craft, and this is the recipe I will be using. I have been thinking about revising my (hopefully) about to be self-published novel I Am a Muse before publication, but I am now running out of time. I will be doing a quick read through this week but will leave it as it is: rather raw and incredibly imperfect, a naïve and probably not fully formed first novel. |
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