Writing Peace

I've known since a very interesting #writechat session a few weeks ago that I needed to write an article about this. This ISN'T that article, which will appear later on the Year Zero site, but I want to start a discussion that will help me have the first clue where to start that piece. but given that it's Armistice Day, it seems nuts not to post something now. Please be argumentative and outspoken.

A fortnight ago, Marc nash wroet a wonderful article, Pain, in which he posed the question whetehr it's possible for writers to write a reader's pain. It has, by dint of accident, the fascinating subject matter, and the quality of Marc's thought, become somewhat programmatic for our recent works, and indeed will provide the introduction to the forthcoming anthology Thirteen Shadows Waiting for Sunrise. There has been some incredible discussion, some breathtaking writing, and some very deep soul-searching. But what I am hoping some of my fellow Zeroes will turn their thought to in the New Year will be seen as far more sinister and disturbing than writing pain. I want to know if it's possible to write peace.

Specifically: can there be a great novel without conflict?

Now, I'm not daft enough to equate conflict in a literary setting with guns & ammo, or even with dragons and jealous fathers and the old hackeneyed staples that have come down form the courtly tradition. Although I DO want to ask about this, as well - the differnce between internal and external conflict, whether one is the subject of literary fiction, the other genre fiction, as is sometimes posited.

We are so used, thanks to that courtly model, and thanks to the almost universally worshipped Dwight V Swain, to the idea that a novel is driven by conflict, that a character is only interesting if they are flawed. It is so much a commonplace that if flaws and conflict are absent a critiquer or editor will simply box-tick, saying "add conflict". Most of the time, of course, this is sound advice. but is it really a no-brtainer box tick?

I want to finish posing the question with some thoughts I and the ever insightful @kashicat put forward:

- the reason peace is seen as uninteresting often has to do with the fact people think of peace as the absence of conflict. In fact peace is a rich, wonderful, and fascinating state with a multitude of contents of its own.

- humans are imperfect. We therefore think of a character without flaws as being impossible to relate to. But is a flaw really the same as imperfection? What about motivation?

So: a novel where all the characters are "good" (discuss!) ; set in a peaceful land with no obstacles to be surmounted. Would anyone care to read it? What on earth would it look like? And how could we possibly set about writing it?

The View From the Shoe: Busted Typewriter

Busted Typewriter is one of the most extraordinary sites I have ever come across through twitter. It combines the indie craft feel of an etsy site with some fascinating high art concepts - it is, essentially, just what it says - a site exploring different things you can do with broken typewriters - and other non-standard uses for writing-related implements, and musings thereon. It also incorporates Complete This Tweet, a rather fun daily writing exercise that is, again, exactly what it says

website
twitter
complete this tweet

Here are the words of the man behing Busted Typewriter


Thank you so much for your time. So, Louboutin or Converse?
I like to mix it up. Black dress shoes with slacks one day. Hoodie and sneakers the next. But my wife buys my shoes, so I don’t give it much thought.

What do you do?
My job is an advertising copywriter, so I write commercials and other pieces of marketing.
But on my own time, I experiment with projects like making Kindle covers out of old books – you can find them here http://bustedtypewriter.com/dontjudgeme
I also create websites like http://completethistweet.com/ – which is a daily writing challenge I just started on Twitter.
Pretty much anything I can think of besides actually writing a short story – which is what I usually imagine myself doing.

Why is there no one in the world who does it quite like you?
At work, I’m willing to take on the projects other people turn their noses up at. It’s paying your dues and part love of the craft. But if you can turn a job everyone expects to stink into something great, you’ll earn respect. And when the next cool project comes along, they remember.
Outside of work, something I’ve gotten over in the past few years is my fear of failure. I used to scribble ideas down in a notebook and leave them there to die. Now whenever I come up with something, I just execute and let it go into the world.

What do you really, really love about it?
I love thinking about problems in different ways. In advertising, they call it “concepting.” Most folks know it as “brain storming.”

A bit more time in the day, or a bit more money in the bank?
I’m always feel more productive and challenged when I have less free time. So I’m trying to build up the nest egg.

Imagine you “make it”. You wake up, and imagine the day ahead. Tell us about breakfast.
A cinnamon bun from the street cart on the corner of 6th Ave and 24th St. It’s just heavily processed flour and sugar, but I have to stop myself from grabbing one everyday.

What’s your Jimmy Choo? And what’s just cobblers?
I really want to own my own home, but price of real estate in New York is still obscene.

Tell us about the last time a fan made you feel 100 feet tall.
Not to kiss up, but it was when you asked me to do this interview. You are a fan, right? [ed's note: I most definitely am!]

Independent and poor, or under contract and rich?
Not having to worry about paying the rent gives you the amazing freedom to think about other things.

Do you remember that bit on Play Away where Brian Cant stood behind people and did the actions whilst they spoke? If you could choose anyone to stand behind you and do the actions to your sales pitch, who would it be and why?
Not familiar with it. But I plan on playing myself in the movie.

Frocks or socks?
I’m toying with the idea of wearing mismatched socks on purpose. But my wife buys my clothes now too.

Literature's the new Art: so who's Jay Joplin?

Well, no one's actually said literature is the new art. Apart from me. Most people say it's the new music and they've got a point. Even more people say it's NOT the new music and talk about how literature can't use the gigs & merch model. And they're wrong. About the latter bit, anyway. But what I can't help feeling is that, whilst the music industry is something from which we can learn a lot - about downloads and gigging, and connecting with fans and streamlining businesses; it's actually to the art world we should be looking to understand literature.

I'm always sniping about Goldsmiths and CSM in the 90s and how they were glorified school tie networks, and hwo the MA Creative Writing from UEA threatened to become the same, but that's not what I mean.

What I mean is this: literature, with a publishing industry on its knees and a load of creative talent chomping to escape the sahckles, is shaping up to be the next YBA (Young British artists - Sarah Lucas, Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Rachel Whiteread, Michael Landy, Gavin Turk, sam Talyor Wood, The Chapman Brothers, The Wilson Twins et al ad inf).

It's not to do with new tech - not directly, anyway. It's more that I see more and more groups of writers outside the mainstream coming closer and closer to the big time by doing things their way. People like MCM, groups like Jet-Pack and Backword Books, our own beloved Year Zero, salons like Book Club Boutique. Perhaps most groundbreaking in her own way - and you'll laugh at me for saying - Catherine O'Fynn with her mild unassuming "this is just how I did it" approach.

It felt for a little while as though we may have got there a few years ago - as though someone had finally swept Amis and McEwan and Swift out with a broom and replaced them with a hungry new generation of people hungry to put ideas on paper. But A M Homes and Monica Ali and even the Great White Teeth Hope Zadie Smith just got subsumed into the same old same old mainstream. At least Tracey Emin took 20 years to sell out!

So what went wrong with the last generation of new hope? Well, to answer that, take a look at what went right with YBA. If one wants to generalise hideously and lay oneself open to all kinds of loopholes, then one can lay the answer at the feet of two men. And neither was called Saatchi.

What happened for YBA were Jay Joplin and Nick Serota. Curators. Jay Joplin, for those of you of more tender years than me, was the owner of White Cube, the gallery that not only showcased but promoted the work of the fledgeling YBAs. He was the PT Barnum, the - should we rather say - Malcolm MacLaren of YBA - the man who made everytone else think pickled sharks were cool. Nick Serota, of course, was the legendary Tate curator responsible for the Turner Prize.

Curators.

That's what the literary world lacked when White Teeth, Brick Lane, The End of Alice hit the shelves. People who were prepared to take a generation - not just one or two but a wave - and bring them to the public. People who spotted talent, nurtured it, showed it off, and didn't care if there was a place for it in the mainstream - because through force of showmanship and chutzpah they created a parallel and more exciting space.

And that's the big issue the literary sphere faces today if it's going to see all that talent blossom into a golden age, a movement, a new dawn on the public consciousness, a whole fistful of cliches that boil down to one thing: getting the general public talking about books.

Because whether it was marvelling at the brilliance of Whiteread's inside-out house, or spitting disgust at Chris Ofili's dung-filled portraits, Emin's unmade bed, or Hirst's pregnant cow cut in two, the thing Joplin and Serota did was get people talking about art. And not just artworks. A decade or so ago you could walk down a high street in the UK and hear your average Jand and Joe Public discussing what art meant. When was the last time that happened with books? Sure, we talk about vampires or Lost Symbols, but you can't stand at the bus stop and hear people jibe "Ah, but is it literature?"

And that's what we need. We need someone to make the general public talk - with gasps of delight and disgust - about books. About this book and that book and "what is literature?"

So who will it be? You'd think it'd be a publisher, wouldn't you? Vicky Barnsley, maybe, at HC, or Jessica Weiner at Harper Studio, maybe even Scott Pack at Fifth Estate. They're doing good things, all of them. But. Oh but but but.

Maybe the agents then. What about? Well, precisely. Most writers will have heard of Nathan Bransford. Lovely guy. Enthusiastic. And his authors, his individual, exciting, but somehow with a common sense of purpose authors are? Well, precisely (to repeat myself).

So who WILL be the Jay Joplin of the Literary World? Richard Nash, of Soft Skull and Cursor fame, believes it will be him. No, whatever he tells you, he DOES. And he may be right. Maybe.

I'll give a good guess. A good guess is that it'll be one of two people. It'll be a celeb - an Oprah or a Richard & Judy (and you could make a case they've partially done it already, scoff ye not) who says "I'm gonna say f*ck mainstream books. I'm gonna have me a book club and choose me the best most exciting damn books on the planet WHEREVER they come from" and shouts them from the hills. Or it'll be the person who sets up a prize with a million pound pot for the best self-published book of the year (or maybe even the best unsigned ebook - and, by the way, where ARE the ebook only awards? hmmmmmm - and hires a team of rockstars as judges.

Just a guess. And trust me - one of them WILL happen. Within 18 months.

Or it could be one of us.

Now there's a thought.

Book Launch!

(all photos courtesy and copyright of Janelle McCarty)

I’m always saying that being a writer is about engaging with readers, about getting out and talking to them directly. Which si very easy to do from the safety of one’s keyboard. But last Thursday, it was finally time to put my money where my mouth was, and find out if I felt the same way when I actually had to do some direct conversing with readers. It was time for my book launch.

I’d chosen to hold the launch for Songs from the Other Side of the Wall at The Albion Beatnik bookstore in Oxford for several reasons. First, the owner, Dennis, had agreed to stock my book. Second, it’s the coolest bookstore I’ve ever been in, with its specialities of books on jazz music and the Beat Poets. And third, it’s a perfect venue for hosting not just reading but music.

Because, finding it oh so easy from cyber-safety to say how I didn’t want this to be like any other book launch; I didn’t want a table and some chapters read aloud to polite listeners who’d applaud and maybe buy a signed copy afterwards; I had decided I wanted a gig. A proper gig with live music. Because that’s what my book is about (well, literally, it IS about musicJ); and because that’s what Year Zero is about – giving our readers a great time.

I was very lucky that local singer-songwriter sensation Jessie Grace, whom I’d first heard at Radiohead’s old haunt The Jericho Tavern, said yes, she would play a set from her new album, Asleep on the Good Foot. Throw in some free Tokaji wine (the book is set on a Tokaji vineyard) and I was genuinely excited. When I went into the shop the day before the gig only to find a young guy chopping up Shirley Bassey records to make art, I knew I was in the right place!

Add to all that the fact that Jessie’s producer, Kevin from Selecta Sound, had swung us a 9-strong film crew from Worcester University, and I was in hopping up and down with excitement media tart heaven with anticipation.

It’s hard to figure out what to say about the event itself. It’s not really good form to talk endlessly about yourself, so I’m not going to do a review of the gig. Although I WILL say that Jessie Grace, with her clean, pure voice and dirty guitar, elevated the music part of the evening way beyond anything I could have hoped for.

So what will I talk about? I don’t know. Whether it lived up to my expectations, or whether I decided to shut up and stick behind the keyboard for one. What it was like meeting up with some fellow Year Zero Writers and the lovely Bee Drunken for two. How it felt seeing my boss walk through the door just as I was getting to the juicy bit of a sex scene? Maybe not.

The day itself felt like I’d set up an Authorworld theme park ride. I went from buzz to despair to being physically ill to control-freakery to having, ultimately, the time of my life. I decided went I chose the venue and asked Jessie to play that I didn’t want to play safe. And that had always seemed like the right thing. At Year Zero, after all, we don’t do safe. We do different and exciting and out there for the audience. Come the morning, however, the decision to augment my readings from the book with an impromptu talk about French cinema (I still haven’t quite figured that one out), and a reading of the first three parts of SKIN BOOK, seemed like a Very Bad Idea. Not just because, frankly, saying “Is it wrong to want your snot-piss-shit-come-vomit on my skin?” in front of work colleagues is embarrassing/apt to get you fired. But because SKIN BOOK is my attempt to reach into the darkest parts of the psyche, and to do it justice I was going to have to lay myself absolutely bare. It took several twitter-buddies more effort than I had any right to expect to tweet me up from the depths.

By the time I arrived, though, a can or two of Relentless later (because everyone knows caffeine’s great for anxiety), all I was thinking about was making sure the performance was as good as I could get it. That meant laying the venue out perfectly, sorting out glasses and wine, and laying out the souvenir programmes. Best of all, though (for me, not for them), having three cameras, with an editing suite in the basement meant I had enough to focus on getting my positioning and delivery right that I didn’t have time for nerves. And all the while Dennis, whose shop had been utterly overrun all day by swarms of camera crew and sound people, was an utter saint, if a very bewildered and despairing-looking one.

One of the great things about the evening was I got to meet some of my favourite people from the web. I’d already met Anne Lyken-Garner (pictured, left, in the purple) but it was a delight to meet her again. I got to meet another Year Zero Writer, Penny Goring, who was lovely, ferociously intelligent, and an utterly electric personality – one of those people who has the kind of presence that can make a whole room go quiet. And the author of the Bee Drunken blog, whom I interviewed a few weeks ago for The View From the Shoe, came along and added her wit and charm to proceedings.

And the performance? Jessie was incredible. Me? I’d better let others answer that, but I CAN say that I am very glad not to have been found out in a lie – reading live to an audience is the most exciting thing an author can do – it’s what storytelling is all about. I loved every second of it, and can’t wait for the next one (December 1st, Café Tarifa, Oxford, as part of Free-e-day, before a big gig in London). I would advise every writer out there to get out and read!

The View From the Shoe

I didn't mee Nikki Loy on twitter. I met her busking in the streets of Oxford. No, not even that's really true. I HEARD her busking the streets of Oxford, thought "wow" and took her card. I went to her myspace and got in touch, and now we're set to play a gig together for Free-e-day. She IS a twitterer of note, though:
http://www.twitter.com/nikkiloymusic

In her own words

Thank you so much for your time. So, Louboutin or Converse?

Sorry?Loubouwho? so I guess converse... hang on.. let me Google that....
OMG!!!! Louboutin! Louboutin!! Louboutin!!! Hmmm... Shooooeess... Oh dear, I think I now have a new vice!

The thing is though I only have a pair of converse in my shoe collection :0(


What do you do?

Well now, I’m a singer and a songwriter... among other things.. I sing, I busk, I gig, I get involved in just about any project that will have me. Most recently I became the lead singer for JoshWard84’s superband! It was brilliant.. We had about 25 musicians all playing together!

I am a solo artist of course . I like to write songs.. (You can download my tunes from iTunes - Shameless self prmotion!!) and I really love to perform them :0) And I am on the Journey towards living my dream..

Why is there no one in the world who does it quite like you?

Cos there is no one else in the world who is quite like me?

What do you really, really love about it?

I love singing. It’s the singing that I do it for. I like to loose myself in the moment and sing until those little endorphins start flowing and the natural high kicks in.. I get sooo much pleasure from singing.. and thankfully it seems othercpeople also enjoy it!!

A bit more time in the day, or a bit more money in the bank?

Funny you should ask that now... I handed in my notice this week. I am giving up my well paid job just so I have time to do what I want to do. I may end up skint but life really is too short to spend your days doing something you hate just to make good money. Wouldn’t it be great to make money just doing the things you love. *Sigh*

Imagine you “make it”. You wake up, and imagine the day ahead. Tell us about breakfast.

Hmmmm.... I’m sure there will be two types of breakfast when I ‘make it’. There will be the on the run breakfast where I wake up at the crack of dawn knowing I have to be somewhere for a photo shoot or to treck to a gig. So I will grab something, bleery eyed, and head out the door before I realise what it is I hsve picked up. Or, truer to my current form, eat nothing until the hunger actually kicks in... At which point I will scoff the box of cornfalkes that I have been carrying under my arm.

And then there’s that other breakfast.. On the terrace of my beach house, the breeze just lightly catching the voile curtains in the french doors so that they billow and beckon me to have a sumtpuous continental breakfast on the balcony in the sunshine over looking the beautiful bay... while I read .... *sigh*

What’s your Jimmy Choo? And what’s just cobblers?

Hey???? I’m really not that materialistic... Just give me cuddles :0) I can’t live without cuddles!!!!

Instead of that question.. can answer this one: What was your best gig to date?

I used to live in Sydney and there’s a bat there that can be hired for functions.. It was called the Sydney Glass Island. It was completely glass all the way round (except for the hull of course). The boat and my band had been booked to play a wedding.. we spent the evening cruising round Darling Harbour up and down under the Harbour bridge and McQuarie’s point playing music dancing singing and generally loving the venue!!! It was brilliant!! But tomorrow I am playing on the top of an open top bus whilst driving all round London for the day... That might top the Sydney Glass Island :0)

Tell us about the last time a fan made you feel 100 feet tall.

It’s just a small thing really. I watched a local band play. They played a lot of gigs locally but it was the first time I had seen them. They were good I enjoyed their set. When they came off stage, I was about to say to tell them how much I had enjoyed them, but they beat me to it... They started parising me before I could get a word in! It’s a small thing but I was blown away. I was just part of the audience that night!

Independent and poor, or under contract and rich?

Ahh... I shouldn’t be so flippant as too answer before qualifying my answer.. The thing that drives me, truely drives me, is the love of singing and performing not the love of songwriting. I would therefore be glad of any oportunity to sing. How much more wonderful if it brought wealth as well... I guess independence really only matters where you feel that you have a message to present to the world.. and will not compromise.I just love to sign so I guess it doesn’t really matter. That said I do not compromise on morality.. as long as that is not in question I’m happy to be under and contract and rich...

Are you disappointed?

Do you remember that bit on Play Away where Brian Cant stood behind people and did the actions whilst they spoke? If you could choose anyone to stand behind you and do the actions to your sales pitch, who would it be and why?

Sandra Bullock... I like the characters she plays.. they are often clumsy, lacking in grace and humerous in some way.. Which is kinda like me.. I’m more likely to fall off my stool than wow you wih my grace.. But her characters usually have the redeeming qualities of being intelligent and good at what they do.. and she beautiful. :0)

Frocks or socks?

Need you ask???? ..... Mmmmm but an idea has just occurred to me. You have not stated the context in which you present the question....

On me? Frocks for sure... A girl is always going to chose a glorious frock to wear...

However... If the question related to clothing a gorgeous naked man.... Sock... Red Hot Chilli Peppers style all the way!!! ;0) besides I never like seeing a man in women’s clothes!

Hold Me to Account: Month two stats of a self-publisher

Stats:

Smashwords: (this month has been much flatter and more consistent - and I've been on holiday so I can't be exact - so I won't give the day by days) 266



My website: 2



Year Zero Website: 1



e-mail requests:



Scribd: 3



Total: 272 (target 300)



Books:

Direct from Lulu: 1



My orders from Lulu: 15



Sold through bookshops: 13



Direct sold by me:



Ordered online from me: 1

Total sold: 15 (target 25)





Significant events:



There were no significant events plugging the smashwords downlaod, as I noted last month. This month I have been gearing my energies to the book launch in Oxford (specific blog on that coming in the week), and launching the blog of the Year Zero website.

At the start of the month, I joined operation ebook drop, a project launched by ex-serviceman Ed Patterson in which authors offer servicemena nd servicewomen free ecopies of their book to put on Kindles so they have something to read on their tours of duty. My involvement is not something I've publicised because it's not designed to promote the book but to help peopel who need books to make a terrible situation more bearable, but it may be relevant. I have had two personal e-mailed responses, so this accounts for at least two downloads.



I have had 3 reviews this month (links from here):
3 October from Scott Pack of 5th Estate who used the phrase "Some moments of genuine promise in this debut novel suggest that Holloway could have a future outside of the world of peer review sites and print on demand"

6 October from DJ Young, who was using the book as an example of "the quality of what can be: ebooks or print-to-order offerings from independent or self-publishers are often maligned as the ghetto of the publishing world. With so many economical changes happening, the idea of the author/entrepreneur who provides direct commerce with his readers is no longer a bad joke publishers and agents can tell themselves anymore."

28 October from Erica Friedman, CEO of Yurikon, the lesbian manga publisgher who said "Songs From the Other Side of the Wall is a *very* good book"



October 10: the Year Zero blog goes live. We have had new fiction there almost every day since, in additionto articles on the craft and nature of writing and a weekly advice column. This has improved our visibility across the web. We are by no means anything other than minnows, but we have gone from around 50-60 hits a day to over 200, and yesterday we had 356


A number of articles came out aboutYear Zero this month, where my name has been mentioned, at Emprise Review, Editor Unleashed, Moxie Mezcal, and Fake Plastic Souks. And on 29 October Digital Book World referred to this monthly column. (All the links are available here)



29 October was the launch for the book in Oxford. It was held at the Albion Beatnik bookstore in Oxford, in conjunction with the album launch for singer-songwriter Jessie Grace, whom I chose because she sings like the main character in my book (she is also brilliant)



On 6 October the book was featured on the Aspiring Mangaka and Writers Club book tour

I was on holiday and utterly inactive on the web from 15-22 October (not pre-announced for security reasons)

Analysis
I missed both of my targets this month. That despite a successful launch (all 13 bookstore copies were sold there, and aroudn 60 people were there on the night) and some favourable reviews.

I am still not Amazon listed after the Published by You debacle on Lulu. I have not been able to afford my ISBNs through Nielsen (more pricey than through Lulu) and have chosen to wait rather than get a free Lulu one. I believe this will hold back sales considerably online.

Nonetheless, I am upbeat about the possibilities raised by the launch and the progress on the Year Zero site. I am planning another event in London in December. Now that I know I can both organise such an event and coordinate with musicians successfully, I will be uch more proactive in seeking regular media coverage. My naming names policy means thatI must point out that my local paper, The Oxford Mail, refused to cover this event, which I find both surprising and highly disappointing, as they have covered previous things I've done (maybe that's why!!). I hope they will be supportive in future, but I also hope my "I don't change policy" means I stick to my guns - I am the same now as I will be if I ever get successful, and my book is the same. I hope I am polite and courteous always when I approach people, and I hope I offer interesting content. If, therefore, I DO ever get successful, media who give me the brush-off now will get the very minimum cooperation from me then.

Coming next month:
My university alumni office has arranged a big event in Berlin celebrating the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. As this ties in with the book so well, I decided it would be daft not to do something with them. They have agreed to promote the book and I will give them £1.50 from each book sold from Lulu in November and December. This money will be donated to the Student Counsellnig services. If this works and sells some copies, I would like to extend it to causes I care about much more next year,and to whom I can present figures.

I believe a couple more reviews will come out next month.

I will be focusing my efforts on organising and promoting the main Year Zero launch in London, and Free-e-day, and will have little time to promote my own book. On the ther hand, the Year Zero press material wil be much more organised from this month, and will be more targeted, and the book will be included in the "our books" part of the press pack. Nonetheless, in the light of this, and the ongoing ISBN dilemma, I expect November to be a fallow month. So my predictions are:

Downloads: 200

Books: 5

Going Bananas

A while ago, I interviewed Banana the Poet for my View From the Shoe column. It was, and still is, the most popular edition of that column I've had. You fell in love with Banana and her take on the world. So when she told me that The Alternative Poetry Book was now available on Amazon, I wanted first to give everyone the chance to buy it, and second to use it as an excuse for another interview. So here she is, the wonderful Banana:

1. Your poetry brightens many people's days on twitter and elsewhere. Do you get frustrated when people see you as a "happy poet"? And is that part of why you've deliberately written this book in two styles?
I try not to get frustrated by anything. Being seen as a "happy poet" is lovely! I'd rather be seen as a beautiful sylph-like figure with the intellect of a mega genius, but anything positive is good and at least "happy poet" is attainable as an image.
As for deliberately writing anything :) I wish! I just spout poetry day after day after day ad infinitum. I had no idea of a book when I wrote them - let alone a series of seven books. But when I did decide to package them up into a book form I already had two poetry blogs - one for funny/silly poems and one for serious poems.
This wasn't a purposeful thing either. I just started off posting my funny poems because I thought they would be most interesting for people and I felt less timid about them because it is always easier to share jokes than deeper feelings especially with strangers who might not be sympathetic or kind.

As time went on I gained confidence and realised that most people I encounter online are indeed very sympathetic, kind and supportive so I was encouraged to share my more 'raw' poetry. It didn't fit in my silly/happy poetry blog so I began poems-2-share.

I wanted to include both aspects of my poetry in my books and alternating 'serious' with 'funny' just felt the obvious way to go.

2. I love the any which way you can of the book. Which way is reading it back to front, and which is reading it the right way?

There is no right way and there is no wrong way. Any way that gets you through it is a good way. Upside down and in a mirror might be tricky - but hey if you fancy trying it - why not? I wonder if I should bring out a cloth book version for under water?

3. I'm not as versed in poetry as I'd like to be, but my limited knowledge of poetry makes me think, when I think of your book, of Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience. Is there anything in that?
You've guessed it! I am in fact Blake reincarnated only with more talent (that's a joke) and large bazooms (not a joke). I sing a lot higher these days, am both more innocent and experienced than in my previous incarnation and avoid tygers/tigers like the plague!
4. Why red and yellow?
Red is for the ketchup in my fried egg,
Yellow for the caterpillar crawling up my leg.

Together they make a bright, loud cover for my book,
They grab the eye and visually shout "come and take a look!"

Yellow is for butter, dandelions and sun.
Red is for the blood and danger deep in everyone.

The balance that is found in having Yin and Yang,
the colour and the life and the noise of fizz and bang!

5. You live in a gorgeous part of the world. Does that make writing poetry easier or harder?
Much much easier.

6. Can you remember anything about the first poem you wrote?
In this lifetime you mean? Not when I used to be Blakey?

I recently found while tidying out a drawer - a fragment of paper. It was very thin - almost toilet papery and carried the old familiar clonky blue typewriting that I used to bash out of my first plastic Petite typewriter. I must have been between 7 and 9 when I wrote it. My teenage son said on reading this "you were one seriously disturbed little doodie!" It's hard to argue with that on the facts :) Here's a facsimile of it:

TWERE night where winter dwelttt,
TWAS day when summer was felt ,
YOU n ever new when it would stop ,twirling , hurling , winter leaves whirling towards
you . Never, never whould they stop .
Till baby birds fall plop from their nests .
falling , falling from their nests . .

THE END-------------------------------------

7. Is there a poem inside you you feel you have to write - one day - but just can't bring out?
Goodness me no. I haven't got that sort of organisation or patience. I suffer more from poetic diarrhoea than poetic constipation. As soon as it begins to solidify - it's out there!

8. What reaction from a reader would please you the most?
The ultimate would be for a reader to read my work online and then feel so attached that they buy it in book form to re-read and share with others. Even better if they buy lots of copies for their friends, relatives etc or one for every room in the house because they couldn't bear to suddenly want to read one of the poems and not have the work to hand immediately!
But just reading it online and having an "Ah! I liked that," moment - for whatever reason - is absolutely all I ever really hoped for and more than I expected.
I'm writing to please readers, they don't need to please me.

9. Do you think poetry should be taken more seriously by people? Or less?
I don't "do" should - if I can avoid it. As long as people choose to take poetry at all they can take it anyway they want. I like my poetry in a certain way and that is the way I produce it. But if others have other ideas - that's fine - as long as nothing is imposed on either me or them we can all swim along together in the same sea without getting in each other's way.
10. What next?
I have no idea at all. That's what is so exciting about life - you never know what will happen and there's always something new and surprising to explore.
Thank you so much!