Current Project Research: collected massive attack shorts #1

I’m currently working on a new short story project that has formed out of an experiment with a Massive Attack song. I was listening to my MP3 player and Babel came on random. Martina Topley-Bird’s lyrics are hard to decipher, but something in the song captured me and gave me a clear sense of narrative.

I tried to find the lyrics online, but most sites ignored the last couple of stanzas or clearly got bits wrong. After listening to it very loudly for a few hours I managed to basically figure out what she might be saying:

Say "it was her babel"
Said it was my babel
It was my babel
Tell all people

Now you know it's over
Rolling off her shoulder
You can take a lighter to the shadows and forget
Was it how she kissed you and then dismissed you
Was it purposeful and was it just to hook you in

Hallucinating, chasing, changing, racing
Breaking, hating till you lost it all
Well you lost your girlfriend, she was not going
Where you were going, you are on your own

He was quick to burning
He was slow to learning
Though his eyes were misted
He still kissed her when she cried
You did your best to replace her
You didn't up and leave her
You befriended the harsh way it ended
Now sleep tight

Hallucinating, chasing, changing, pacing
Bracing, breaking, if you lost it all
Was it all your good
Reachin into it
That lead you to me
I would have craved the love

I wanna be the one that should've said "Truth and not dare"
I'm running so far out of my head
This rain of heart that ripples my day
Can never said what was thinking, wait
Mmm...

So this was the starting point. Here are some other elements I wanted to bring in:

Semiotics/ Saussure/ Lacan

Misunderstandings/ Miscommunication

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Plus some other stuff. Despite all of these influences, it’s really a simple YA story that reflects the narrative that I interpreted from the lyrics. I'll post it up in a few months when it's sharper.

Now Babel is drafted, I’m starting research work on the next short; either Atlas Air or Splitting The Atom.

Cooking in the Woods

Myself and Mr Kite went to the woods over the weekend to cook for a bunch of hungry woodworkers who were learning how to make stools using green wood, shave horses and pole lathes.

The kitchen.

the workshops

log cabins/ campsite

we slept in this one.

The bath area (in progress). The bath is heated by a fire underneath.

Kukaw!

A story of mine titled Kukaw! has been featured on the excellent lit blog Cherrypicked Hands. Read it by clicking here. There are lots of other amazing literary things over there, mostly poems, and also an amusing email exchange.

It's the first Shaftesbury Arts Centre Creative Writing Group* meeting today. I am a co-organiser of the group along with awesome fantasy/ sci fi writer Jennifer K Oliver who initiated everything. We've got an amazing programme lined up for the group, there will be biscuits, and we will learn things. I'll link you to our website when it's in operation.

*working name. It'll be shorter and punchier when we think of a shorter and punchier name.

workshop poem

I went to a writing workshop in Shaftesbury a few weeks back. We did a lot of freeflow stuff, which is when my writing is at its best. I have a fear about poetry. I don’t understand it at all. But we had to write a poem based on the theme of spring. The leader of the workshop really liked my poem. I’m unable to judge it, since I don’t understand poetry. I think I’d like to edit it and give it a better structure.

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(I've taken the poem down for now because I want to work on it and send it out someplace)

Holiday on the Moon

It’s all hectic around here at the moment. The garden and allotment are very demanding of my time. My writing is taking a holiday on the moon.

It's raining, so perhaps I might have some time to sit at the computer and tap out some words?

Article in Living Woods Magazine

Living Woods magazine published an article of mine back in January. Mr Kite lent my copy out to his friend and I have only just got it back now. So here's a scanned copy of the article. Enjoy!

I recommend Chantry Cottage courses. They've all been excellent so far.

Now I'm off to sow more seeds. Yin/ Yang beans, Cardoon, Clove Pinks, Mallow, Sage and Dianthus; all beautiful and edible!

Overbearing / long skate

I entered the Terry Pratchett first novel prize ages ago. I didn’t win it. They haven’t announced who’s been short listed yet, though they should have done yesterday. I didn’t expect to win; my novel didn’t quite match the criteria for a start. It was well worth doing. I got a 126000 word novel written in four months. Since I submitted it I’ve been editing and doing some retrospective research, checking that what I’ve written is accurate, or at least knowing it’s inaccurate. There’s still a lot of work to be done, but this novel is probably the nearest to being in a decent enough shape to consider sending somewhere.

Aside from novel research and edits I’ve been writing a short story featuring longboarding. The spark point for this story is with this blog post

wherein a longboard dancer pulls slick moves to the beat of an inferior version of Prodigy’s Omen (love that song!)

More on that later.