Poets vs Proseurs

Not the Oxford Literary Festival presents:

Wednesday 28 March – Poets vs Proseurs (7pm)
entry £2 all proceeds support The Albion Beatnik bookstore

(Anna Hobson at last year's Not the Oxford Literary Festival)

(The event's on Facebook here)

The idea is quite simple. The spoken word is one of the most exciting ways to experience literature you can find. But all too often it is limited to poetry. We bring you poets, oh yes, many of the finest performing in the UK right now. But we also bring you so much more - a smattering of the finest prose writers ears can hear, battling to show that the seemingly rhymeless rhythmless form has an excitement all its own and every bit the match of its poetic cousins. Here is the startlingly fabulous line-up of Oxford's, and the UK's, finest we have for you and all for the dizzyingly ridiculous price of £2.

Your MC for the night will be me, Dan Holloway. I will be performing something but it may be poetry, prose, or a mixture...taking of which we have two very special acts whose work straddles the boundaries and renders the distinction immaterial

Penny Goring, author of The Zoom Zoom
Tania Hershman, award-winning author of The White Road and Other Stories

Proseurs

Joe A Briggs, Oxford’s voice of punk

Sarah-Clare Conlon, editor of Quickies
David Gaffney, author of The Half-Life of Songs
Calum Kerr, organiser of National Flash Fiction Day
Amy Riley, host of Brighton Fringe’s award-winning show Grit Lit

Poets

Fay Roberts, host of Poetry Kapow, Allographic & Hammer and Tongue Cambridge
Emily Harrison, winner of the 2010 Tower Poetry Prize
Lucy Ayrton, co-host of Hammer and Tongue Oxford
Tina Sederholm, co-host of Hammer and Tongue Oxford
Anna Percy from the Stirred poetry collective

Sian Rathore, editor at Metazen
Anna Hobson, author of Tales of Unrequited Love

]

Paul Askew, editor of Ferment Zine
James Purcell Webster, performance editor at Sabotage Reviews

Hannah Elwick, slammer and co-prankster behind Gin-Soaked Sheets

10 Thoughts For World Book Day

Today is World Book Day. I thought I'd take this as a moment to make some observations on what those words mean to me. Some are questions, some are just thoughts. And there's the odd recommendation

1. There are people in the world who do not and never will have access to a book, and certainly not to technology capable of reading or writing ebooks. Remember that when you think of a technology or a book being "for everybody." And remember that many who will never see a book may have a richer storytelling life than us.

2. What is a book? I have often siad that as a writer I don't write books, I tell stories.

3. We talk a lot about how ebooks are revolutionisng everything from publishing to the way we make marmite, it seems. But we are also seeing a rebirth in high quality handmade books go hand in hand with that. Here's one:

4. We are also seeing a renaissance in translated books and books from around the world. From publishers like Peirene and And Other Stories.

5. Just this week we have seen Paypal and Smashwords embroiled in a controversy about censorship that reminds us even those with access to technology and books do not have access to everything that is written. What "books" mean in one country or to one group might mean something very different elsewhere.

6. We are not just divided by geography, as this shows. We are divided by morality, but also by class and ideology. I am currently reading Owen Jones' Chavs, which reminds us how real the class divide is. What does this have to do with books? Well, I've written about the way the publishing industry is a self-perpetuating bubble. It keeps some on the outside with the vicious circle of marketing logic - they don't publish things by people in certain groups because there's no evidence there's a readership - but as long as nothing is published, there can be no evidence either way, so some remain permanently excluded. Though self-publishing may act to prove these markets - which can only be a good thing.

7. Books are not traditionally made by everyone - they are produced by publishers. Yet stories are created by andbelong to everyone. Is the divide between these two really only about "quality", whatever that means?

8. As well as World Book Day, there is World Book Night on April 23rd. This is ostensibly about bringing more people to reading. But is it really about that or is it about bringing more or even more of the same authors to the public?

9. Why do we care about books? I do, but I often wonder why. What is it about them? Personal nostalgia? Social and economic usefulness? Enjoyment? Establishing one's place in the nexus of interconnected collective myths? Because we are told they are a good thing? Learning for learning's sake? I don't know, but I do know we don't ask this fundamental question enough, but take the value of books as an axiom.

10. Let me recommend a book from a different world from me. It's The Bacchae, by Euripides. It was written in a different language from mine, two and a half thousand years ago, but when I read it it feels like the author had lifted the skin off our society and stared at its DNA. If it were written tomorrow, it would still feel modern. It is a study of mass violence, crowd psychology, jealousy and discrimination, and it is a masterpiece.

Don't blame Smashwords or Paypal: The frontier moved for indie authors, it's time to move with it

As this post and many others currently mushrooming on the web are commentating, indie ebook distributor Smashwords has asked authors of certain kinds of erotica to remove their content in order to satisfy an ultimatum from Paypal that such content be removed or the payment processing facility be withdrawn.

Now argument is raging on all kinds of fronts. Some have to do with US consitution, on which I'm not going to offer comment. Thankfully, very little debate has focussed on the type of material under discussion - that doesn't seem, to me, to be the point.

The two points that seem to me to be most pertinent (others will have different opinions) are these:
- what do we think of Paypal makin this request?

- what kind of organisation does Smashwords want to be?

To take the latter first, Mark Coker, an inveterate champion of indie publishing, has regularly portrayed Smashwords as a champion of all things indie. It is this that I think has so many authors angry. I won't harp on too much about this, but much confusion comes from what we mean by "indie", as I'm always saying. The more the indie book world looks like the regular book world (and as more people self-publish the more it *does*) the more we should expect indie champions to behave like people in the mainstream. Erotica authors were amonst the earliest adopters of epublishing - they were indie frontierspeople, and I think they still share a pioneering view of what indie means (as I tend to), hence they feel sold down the river first and foremost because what they thought of as a safe haven for boundary pushers has been colonised by the "safe" making it no longer safe for them. As it were.

I'm not saying Mark Coker *should* be one thing or the other, but this decision has a "needs of the many..." feel to it. It is a move mainstream, so those who enjoyed the pioneeringness of smashwords will move out, and will do so feeling regret that things have changed. Though I hope they won't feel it for long - regret at change is a very conservative tendency and I would expect them to wipe the tears and not find but create something new. The problem comes with the commercial aspect. And that's where I think we're seeing a fundamental crisi of identity for the frontiers-type indie - is what you do about the art, integrity, and pushing boundaries, or is it about the bottom line? I have no problem with people who make either choice, but I think authors have hitherto had the possibility of prevaricating. Now they don't. That's uncomfortable, but maybe it's also a good mind focusser.

To get to Paypal. I think their decision is heinous. But bon this point the discussion has been less balanced. And I can't help feeling a lot of people are finding themselves in a liberal conundrum. I see a lot of people saying that as just "processors" or "bankers" Paypal shouldn't be interested in content.

To those people, I would like to say - rewind a moment. One of the great consumer movements of recent years has driven the rise of "ethical" or "green" banking. Whether it's planet-raping gas companies, those whose accounts are tainted by blood diamonds, or those charging interest on sweat-shop produced profit, banks are being forced to offer commercial products that steer clear. Now it's true that I have no interest in a bank that steers clear of xyz erotica. But I am very happy to see an account that won't place my savings (or wouldn't if I had any) anywhere near sweat shops or blood diamonds. And I don't see that I can have one without allowing the other. So, like out of town supermarkets and organic produce, I would urge those who really care to vote with their feet and with their voices, but not to argue that Paypal shouldn't do what it's doing without accepting the consequences.

In short, this is a wake-up call to indie authors that things have changed and maybe we can't choose to have a foot in the mainstream and the pioneering camps any more and it's time to face those difficult choices. And then get on and do - because that's what we're good at - actio. Not reaction, but creating something new.

Not In My Name, Mr Duncan Smith

I’m not political. I’ve done politics of course, as a student, testing various schools of thought for size and settling on the idea that boxes like political parties are just too inflexible.

This is probably the closest I get to a political post – or a political poem in the video.

What has sickened me about the idea of the disabled in the WRAG benefits bracket being forced into unpaid work placements or lose their benefits is twofold. There’s a practical issue. These placements will not be “work”. So people won’t be protected by the employment aspects of the Disability Discrimination and Equality Acts. Nor will they be eligible for Access to Work. In other words they will not have in place supports to make their placements possible for them to carry out that are structurally recognised by DDA and AtoW as being essential for them to do so. This means people *will* be forced to pull out through sickness. Their health will deteriorate, be set back months, even years. And at the same time the blame will be placed at their feet and they will potentially lose benefits.

Then there is a matter of principle. And that’s where I say an unequivocal NOT IN MY NAME, MR DUNCAN SMITH. We are told that the stick of having benefits removed if people don’t do their placements is an incentive for them to do their responsibility. Now that I just don’t get. Responsibility to whom? To the taxpayer? Now, I’m lucky. I’m bipolar but thanks to medication, support, the cycle of my illness, and huge doses of luck, it’s been several years since I’ve needed to have more than a day or so off work. As someone lucky enough to have a job I fully accept that it is my responsibility to pay tax so as to enable society to care for those not so lucky. I don’t get how those people have a responsibility towards me to make themselves ill, and I seriously object to the idea they are being told I think they do.

Anyway, like I say, I don’t really do politics. But I do angry, and I do scared. And that’s in the poem.

I’m a mentalist.
I’m a ventriloquist and this fake smile’s my dummy.
Behind the guile I know I’m scum,
I’m hungry, desperate for your crumbs,
I’m broken by the years that no one spoke for me,
I’m choked beneath society’s conceptual thumb.

The thing is, if I’m cheerful
You think I’m well enough to work for free
And if I’m not then you’re unreasonably fearful of me.
The last boss I told I was bipolar said OK, but please don’t stick a knife in me
While I sat there silent, stunned
Thinking you think I’M the violent one
Just because I have an illness
That the media exploits for thrills
Because they haven’t got the skills to see beyond the pills
That someone else’s taxes paid for,
Someone wealthy for no other reason than that they happened to be born healthy.
But their hard work must not be squandered
On dropouts and shirkers,
On the berserkers lurking in the social undergrowth.

So now the government can force us into slavery
Without protection from the rules that gave us dignity
Or made staying alive in the cold and hostile environment a workplace can be
Anything close to a possibility.
With every decency they steal
They feel their backs slapped
By the so-called cash-strapped hacks in suits
Whose stacks are packed so tight
No cracks of light
Can leak out and disturb their sleep
With the sight of the smacked-up jacked-up lives
Of those whose dice fell on the wrong side of the tracks

And all this is sold as a triumph of slashed bureaucracy
A victory for democracy,
For a people poisoned
By years of drip-fed filth
And casual hypocrisy,
By myths of laziness and hazy memes of craziness
Dreamed up on whims on days of bliss and Pimms.

And here’s the thing.
People will comply.
People will try.
They will try so much
No matter that it takes an act of heroism just to get out of bed,
No matter that their eyes are red
Because they cried so much
And kept on trying
And held their heads high so much
Their tears were washed away by the saliva from the bile
That people piled on them.
People will die
Their voices will fall silent
The iniquity will not be heard.
Their indignity will have the final word,
But still those who are left will smile in the face of tyrants
Still they will cling with grace to the ideal of non-violence.

Anna Percy

Some time later today you'll find an interview with the fabulous poet Anna Percy here. You can find her website here.

These are some videos of her reading - above, from 5 minutes, For Ruth Betty Blue..., a dabulous poem with echoes of Ginsberg

Coming to Manchester

This Monday I'll be hosting an evening with some of the most sensational writers and spoken word artists around at Three Minute Theatre in Manchester's legendary Afflecks. And it's free. If you're anywhere near, don't miss out! full details here

In Short: Write a Great Synopsis with Nicola Morgan

I've been hanging out at Nicola Morgan's excellent Help! I Need a Publisher blog like a dissolute Barfly at for two years now. Whilst I most definitely don't want a publisher (whether I need one or not may be another matter altogether, of course, but I am very happy without one), I do find it a fabulous place to meet people, share gossip, and learn from the ever-excellent Crabbit Old Bat, whose advice is always to the point and eminently wise. It is, therefore, an absolute delight to be part of the blog tour for her new and incredibly useful book Write a Great Synopsis - An Expert Guide. And an extra special announcement is that Nicola will be in Oxford tomorrow for a workshop in Blackwell's (details here).

Before I go any further I should explain that there is a fabulous competition going on alongside this. In Nicola's words:

"Win a synopsis critique and advice from the Crabbit Old Bat herself! Surrounding publication on January 20th of Write a Great Synopsis – An Expert Guide, I will be visiting a number of blogs for a guest post, review or interview. If you’d like the chance of winning help with your synopsis, simply leave a relevant comment on any of the guest posts. (This could be a deep and meaningful comment or a plea to the gods of fortune to pick you!) One comment per post – but comment on each post if you wish. On February 15th, each blog host will send me the names of valid commenters and I will do a random selection, using a random number generator.
Prizes: 1st prize – a critique of your synopsis, at a mutually convenient time; plus a signed book of your choice, if available. 2nd prize – a critique of your synopsis. 3rd prize – a signed book of your choice, if available."

So, without further ado, I'll let the interview commence, and say a humungous thank you to Nicola for letting herself be subjected to questioning. I do hope my readers will go and visit the rest of the blogs on this fabulous tour. You'll find them appearing as they happen on the right hand side here. People who are new here, you probably want to avoid looking round carefully or you will be subjected to poetry, videos of poetry and highly iffy opinions about literature and publishing.

For details of how to buy this super book, click here or the cover below. Oh, and there's even a trailer vid at the end put together by Nicola's highly talented daughter. And finally, Nicola will be at Blackwell's tomorrow night!! Don't miss the chance to come along and give her chocolate!






Thank you very much Dan, for letting me come and talk about synopses, one of my favourite topics and not at all the nasty thing that most writers think!


1. So, the fantasy shoe...
I am brand averse. So, I’d never go shoe brand-hunting or choose/reject a shoe based on the name. My fantasy shoes are elegant, pointy toed, stiletto but not high, and a million times more comfortable than they look, because I’m no fool. They also stay firmly on my feet, because there’s nothing worse than them slipping off when I’m on the red carpet. (Well, you did say fantasy.)

2. Seriously, though. If Converse produced a Nicola Morgan special edition, what design would they have?
*checks internet to see what Converse shoes look like* Erm, I’d rather they didn’t. I remember you asking me once whether I was a Converse or something else (eh?) fan and I had to go and look them both up. Didn’t like either! Converse looks to me like an expensive way of dressing up a plimsoll.



3. I often joke that the main reason I decided to self-publish is so I don't have to write a synopsis, but I actually find them rather fun. Maybe it's because I went to a school where English lessons were frequently comprehension and precis. Why do you think the synopsis has such a mythology of dread around it, and what basic skills should writers be working on before they ever get to their own synopses to help them when they do?
I’m with you on the précis. I loved loved loved doing them. Why the dread? Because people mean several different things when they say “synopsis” and writers stress about which* one is being talked about and surmise that it’s all a flux-ridden mystery. It’s not. WAGS unpicks all that and more and removes all reason for fear. It even gives you a method and examples and answers to all the synopsis-related questions I’ve ever been asked. And it explains my patent Crappy Memory Tool. Skills? Verbal agility and a wide vocabulary but if you’re a good enough writer to write a good enough book, you’ve got those.

* And let me emphasise that in the book, as here, I make clear that the one I’m talking about is the one an agent or publisher wants before signing you.

4. My personal intuition is that most people who struggle with a synopsis do so because they don't know what their book is about...
I think they know too much about what their book is about and can’t see the clearing for the forest. They need to find the core and slash and burn the rest.

5. Honestly and, ahem, off the record, what percentage of agents read the synopsis before the manuscript and will go no further if it's awful?
I’m not doing percentages because I’d be making them up but from my enquiries and my intuition, the vast majority read the letter, then the sample chapters and only then the synopsis, and they only read that if the first two items were good enough. But if they did read it before the sample chapters and if it revealed that this was completely not the sort of book the agent would handle, they would probably not read on. But this would be because the book was wrong, not the synopsis. If the synopsis also revealed awful writing ability, they wouldn’t go on but I believe they’d have known that from the covering letter and would never get to the synopsis or the sample. The synopsis is the least important part of the submission, but it does have a function and it’s that function you need to consider..

6. Suppose the first three chapters are great. How likely is a poor synopsis to stop the agent asking for the rest of it, or have they already fired the e-mail off before they get there?
Unlikely. Only if (as above) the synopsis reveals that this is completely the wrong book for this agent. But they would most likely know that from the covering letter or sample. So, unlikely. And again, that’s unlikely to be the poor synopsis but the wrong book. Also, depends how “great” and how “poor”!

7.One of my pet peeves is the "How I sold a million by breaking all the rules" anecdote that every big name author seems to be able to drag out. Can you explain, without using the CAPS lock, why it is more important for writers to read a book like yours, digest it, then do what it says rather than trying to emulate this week's maverick du jour in being "original"?

Easy. I don’t need CAPS lock. I have three thoughts for you. First, it’s possible for someone to cross a motorway blindfolded and not be killed; that does not mean that crossing the motorway blindfolded is an advisable way to live a long life. Second, actually, you are perfectly welcome to ignore everything I say. Just read it first so that you know what you’re ignoring and why. Third, your idea of original could be off the agent’s nutter-scale.

8. If someone asked you how long it took to write a really good synopsis, would the chosen unit in which you responded be: 1. hours, 2. measures of whisky, 3. percentage increase in grey hair coverage, or 4. dairy milk bars?
Minutes. About twenty. Why would you need or want to spend more? You only need more if you’re messing around on Twitter.

9. Finally, and with huge thanks for being such a star, could you say, in summary points as it were, what the difference is between a synopsis and a plot outline?

I’d say read the book, tbh :) But, ok, in very brief: an outline a) is chronological b) is more comprehensive and therefore longer and c) includes such things as POV switches. A synopsis needn’t be chronological; it is shorter and more elegant. But it is still functional and let me leave you with that over-riding thought: a synopsis is not poetry but function. The function of the synopsis is to show its reader that you completed your story successfully and satisfyingly, in a way that suits the genre. It’s not a necessarily beautiful thing. But it can be.

Dan, thanks so much for hosting me! Happy synopsis-writing to all your readers.

Thank you, Nicola!
And here's the video!