You know that feeling of excitement and joy you get when you first buy a new gadget or beautiful item? And how, after a very short time, that initial excitement starts to fade, and eventually, the item just becomes part of your background stuff? Well, that feeling of excitement never faded for my Fisher Space Pen. I love it every time I use it. It goes everywhere with me. When I leave the house, I always tap my pocket to make sure that it’s there. Here’s what’s so great about it: Continue Reading…
Archives For Adam Marek
Last week, while I was away tutoring at Arvon Lumb Bank with the brilliant Kate Clanchy, I got the news that The Stone Thrower has been shortlisted for the prestigious Edge Hill Short Story Prize, previously won by Colm Tóibín, Claire Keegan, Chris Beckett, Jeremy Dyson, Graham Mort and Sarah Hall. I’m thrilled. Just look whose company I’m in on the shortlist – what a massive honour to be among this lot: Continue Reading…
My new book, The Stone Thrower, just came out in North America, published by the brilliant ECW Press, who also published Instruction Manual For Swallowing over there. As part of ECW’s BackLit series, this edition has bonus material at the back: my desert island books, an extra story, and a playlist of music to throw stones to. I wanted to share this playlist with you.
I rarely listen to music while I’m actually writing, but ideas often come while I’m listening. Putting on a pair of headphones is an essential part of my creative process. These fourteen songs are tracks that I listened to frequently during the writing of The Stone Thrower. No individual track belongs to any one story, but collectively they’re a soundscape in which The Stone Thrower as a collection lives.
Creatively, I love successful combinations of things that don’t naturally belong together. In this playlist you’ll find a mix of artists who might never share a stage (Megadeth and Bjork, say, or Nine Inch Nails and Moby) but who, I believe, rock together.
You can listen to The Stone Thrower playlist now, over on Grooveshark. Hope you enjoy it.
Naomi just bought me this ink stamp. Isn’t it great?
In our house I will forever be associated with monkeys and books (because my first published story was about a 40-litre monkey). This is the second reading-monkey item Naomi has given me. The first was the Christmas decoration she made a few years ago. I’m not sure what I’ll stamp with this little feller, but I’m thinking everything.
Naomi bought a bunch of pointing-finger stamps too. Ink stamps are a new thing for her, since I bought her etcetera by Sibella Court. It’s the most insanely beautiful interior design book ever. Spend five seconds flicking through it and you’ll realise how ugly your home is. Since this book came home with me, Naomi has been inching our own living space towards its gorgeousness. This monkey stamp takes us another small step down the road to perfection.
Dear Naomi,
Today, I have spent exactly half my life with you.
When we met, I looked like this:
There was no X-Files, and no Friends. It would be two years before we got our first computer, a hand-me-down from your folks, and it would only do text and that text was green. You still had a gall bladder. Continue Reading…
Write in your pyjamas
A couple of weeks ago, I was back at Arvon’s Totleigh Barton in Devon tutoring with the lovely Jen Hadfield. We were talking about our own writing habits, and discovered that one process had given us both a creative jump start.
Early in our writing lives, Jen and I both read Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. Have you read it? I discovered it through a colleague at the film company where I was working at the time – it had inspired her to get on a plane and leave New York to come to London to start her own creative career. It’s one of those books that’s ideal to read when you desperately want permission to be creative, but don’t think you deserve it, can’t find the time to do it, and are filled with insecurities about your creative self. Continue Reading…
