On Wednesday 5 March 2014 I'm doing an event in Berkhamsted - Stories and Supper - where I'll be chatting with writer Julie Mayhew about my work. An actor will read one of my stories, and I'll read one, too. Tickets are £20 if you come for supper and wine, or £10 just for the stories. This is the first of a new format event from the guys that run … [Read more...]
A cemetery reading and a weekend workshop with WordFactory
Next month I'll be doing two gigs for the awesome WordFactory: On Friday 8 November at 7pm, I will be reading at Hauntings: Ghost Stories at Earlsfield Cemetery, alongside Stella Duffy, Tania Hershman and Alex Preston. Can't wait. It's going to be spooktacular. Tickets are £10 if booked before 31st October, £12 in advance, and £15 on the … [Read more...]
Daleks at the BBC National Short Story Awards
Until last week, I'd never been to BBC Broadcasting House, but it was somewhere I'd always wanted to go. So I was excited when the invite to the BBC National Short Story Award prizegiving dropped through my letterbox and I saw that the event had moved from its traditional home at the Freeword Centre to the BBC Radio Theatre. And the Beeb didn't … [Read more...]
Five things I learned at Small Wonder yesterday
At dawn on Sunday morning I drove down to Charleston, near Lewes in East Sussex, for the final day of the Small Wonder short story festival. The events were - as always - fascinating and diverse. Here are five things I learned there: 1 William Trevor used to be a serious sculptor. In a recorded interview with Small Wonder Artistic Director Diana … [Read more...]
Why can’t real life be like the Cork Short Story Festival?
I've just got back from the Cork International Short Story Festival and I have Post Literary Festival Separation Anxiety (PLFSA). It's so hard to leave a festival sometimes. Especially one as spectacularly warm and generous as this. Of course I missed Naomi and the boys like crazy while I was away, but when you spend more than a night or two … [Read more...]
Will buildings grow on trees in 2070?
My scientist thinks they will. I say my scientist, because all of us writers attending the artificial life conference in Sicily got one. Mine was Professor Susan Stepney, a computer scientist at the University of York, and she's working on an incredible project to grow buildings from seed. Yes, buildings (that we live and work in), grown from … [Read more...]
New interview with The Skinny
I recently spoke with Bram E Gieben from The Skinny about short stories, dystopias and parenthood. You can read the interview now, over at The Skinny. … [Read more...]
Work it out on the page
At the moment I've got two fiction projects underway. The first is a novel I've been working on since the beginning of the year. I don't like to talk about the actual subject of the work while I'm still writing it (it lets all the hot air out), but what I did want to share was a realisation I had while working on it. Sometimes, writing feels … [Read more...]