Day 2 - Pop up Bookshop and Simon Armitage

Helmet secured, shoes tied, bag packed and lights charged off to Birmingham Book Festival for the second instalment of fun this evening.

Today, I wanted to be early so leaving at 3 for the 6 o'clock show was not an issue unlike yesterday where things were just missed timed.

My aim was to get to the Pop-Up Bookshop situated in the lower ground of the Central Library, I knew I could take as long as I wanted, have a jolly good look around and see what fantastic writing and writers we had coming up, not that I didn't know but wanted some background reading. You can never have enough books, a wise person once said. I think I was my Dad-in-Law come to think of it!

Bit of a precarious cycle in to City Centre but will put that in another blog another time!

BOOKSHOP

I already had one request of purchase and that was to get Jackie Kay's new book 'Reality, Reality'. Never personally read her before and neither had my partner, she wanted the book as she and her dad (along with me, hopefully, as I volunteering for the event) on the 11th October at Birmingham Cathedral. Whilst standing waiting to pay for the book, I had a quick leaf through the first few pages and looks a good read with 15 short stories slotted within its covers. The theme is Reality and I can see that the basis of the book is around people perception of losing touch with Reality with all the TVs shows we are watching where Reality seems to be lost.



Find out more from Jackie Kay at Birmingham Book Festivals: http://www.birminghambookfestival.org/jackie-kay-reality-reality-3872/ and the British Council Literature: http://literature.britishcouncil.org/jackie-kay

Other books that caught the eye fell into the usual genres of attraction to myself; Adam Nevill, the author of 'Apartment 16', which was a gripping, page turning horror novel from the new author in 2010.
"A wonderfully written, deftly-plotted tale of terror. Apartment 16 kept me guessing right to the end, and kept me turning pages long into the night." Review by Fantasy Writing sums it up.
When I saw the latest offering from Nevill, 'Last Days', with its big bulky spine, large cover filled with dark haunted house in the shadows; I got excited and will be purchasing it on my next trip to the Bookshop with an empty bag!



Heart Shaped Bruise and Black Heart Blue were my next find on the tables filled with literature ready to be devoured.

                               

Heart Shaped Bruise by Tanya Byrne, the cover caught my eye firstly as any good book should, I turned the book over with trepidation to read the blurb. Digesting every word, sentence. I now wanted to run away and hide in a dark room to read cover to cover without distraction. Let's see if you have the same effect from the few words on the back cover:

"They say I'm evil.

The police. The newspapers. The girls from school who sigh on the six o'clock news and say they always knew there was something not quite right about me.

And everyone believes it. Including you.

But you don't know. You don't know who I used to be. Who I could have been.

Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever shake off my mistakes or if I'll just carry them around with me forever like a bunch of red balloonsAwaiting trial at Archway Young Offenders Institution, Emily Koll is going to tell her side of the story for the first time."

Black Heart Blue by Louisa Reid, almost had the same effect, I say almost as I only noticed it because it was sat next to Tanya Byrne's book. The blurb had the exact effect of wanting to read more:

"How would you feel if your twin sister died suddenly? Particularly if she was the beautiful one and you were horribly disfigured.

And how would it feel to be alone now if you and your sister were the only ones to know the truth about what takes place behind closed doors at home?

And what would you do if it was your parents who brought danger and terror into your life? Would you dare reveal how your sister died?

And would you be brave enough to find an escape of your own?

Black Heart Blue is a powerful novel about the domestic horrors that can unfold within a small community - and one girl's quest to stand up for the truth."

Come and see them at Central Library on the 9th October. Find out more from: http://www.birminghambookfestival.org/tanya-byrne-and-louisa-reid-3885/.

Simon Armitage



The evening started as it meant to go on I think and it was not rehearsed. Simon Armitage was introduced by Jonathan Davidson, Chief Executive of Writing West Midlands and he said,

"We had been talking earlier and I realised I have been reading his writing for 25 years".

Simon's response, "You have been reading longer than I have been writing it"

Fantastic comedy value there.

Simon Armitage showed why writers, poet, bloggers and in fact everyone does something that they feel passionate about. He grew up in a village called Marsden which is on the south Pennine Way, he explained that he saw "astronauts" on the horizon with their large rucksacks and they would come the hills into Marsden for some good old hospitality.

Armitage played both of these concepts on his travels for "Walking Home". Marsden was his destination and the walk was done backwards from Scottish Borders to Yorkshire.

With not a penny to his name, well in his pockets anyway, he set off looking for hospitality and for this he read his poetry in anywhere he could find.

His mission for the journey was to 'test' the resolve and longevity of his existence as a poet and other poets through his own works and stories. He upset a few local poets I am sure! Using the pull of Marsden and Home, he found that Poetry and Prose still has an existence in today's society and long may it continue.

Read the Book Festival site for the evening: http://www.birminghambookfestival.org/simon-armitage-walking-home-3774/ and more about "Walking Home" at http://www.simonarmitage.com/

A few snaps from last night after the event:

New Writing Initiative

As I sit here writing this blog, I am breaking my new writing initiative so not off to a great start!

"False Details" the novel that I have been working on recently has been finished to the first draft stage, it was a long process (6 years!) but it was fully worth it as I feel a massive sense of achievement and have accomplished something I had been dreaming about for a long time.

I know that "False Details" is only at stage 1 of the process, I have some people looking at it and editing it! I tried to edit it myself but I was not finding the mistakes as easy as someone else, the sentences made sense to me but to someone else a reader would not understand it!! 2nd Draft will obvious be an improvement due to these people so THANK YOU...

 

After a little rest period, I needed this so that I could clear my head more than anything else...I am eady to start writing again! I want to start writing again as my ideas are flowing out of my ears at the moment and if i don't do something about i will go insane or more tragically lose all the things I am thinking of! A notebook helps to the point of recording small ideas but when I go into free flow and can not control all the words as they ooze out of my brain so I came up with a little idea to capture some of them.

I will write every day for as long as feel is possible but the minimum aim EVERY day is 1000 words. 1000 words a day is nothing, I hear some of the writers say...I agree but I want this to be my minimum and to show this on Tuesday I wrote 5000 words all on one subject but on Monday I wrote 1200 on 3 totally unrelated things but I got my ideas down on paper and can come back to them and make them longer!!


Here is my inspiration at the moment for my short entries I am doing...I think of a word and then write the first things that my brain wants to that sounds like a good story...at the moment it is wonderful to write different genres, different settings, different peoples story. The only downfall is there are words everywhere and this is a massive problem as I want to write about a new word I think of so discipline is needed in abundance.

Here is a little something, I wrote so far this evening...minimal editing and it is an idea in working.

The sky darkened like the sight of the events that were about to unfold as layer by layer, the mystery is unearthed from its grave.

A small team standing around awaiting instruction and the signal to start their processes, the limited number of people from the university set in motion anticipation the find that others find insignificant.

As Stuart Bennett approaches his task for the next few hours, he took the time to look around the beautifully cared for allotments that had been produced. The years of hard work arranging and planting beds was evident throughout, the perfect resting place if there ever was one.

The recently painted wrought iron fencing blended perfectly with the runner beans and pea shoots that adorn the structure and have now reached their summit.

Beginning with the crude removal methods, Stuart can not watch this part and takes a walk. The hired digger crunches its way through the top layers ripping away the root system of the old oak tree that once stood not 50 years from the plot.

Once the top layers have been taken away the hardware shovels are grabbed and the human digging starts.

When the first evidence of the grave has been reached, the crude stops and the intricate methods starts until the prize has been found.

Stuart mans up the trowel with one hand carefully placing the other tools in their cloth carry case on the graves edge in close proximity. Starting from the centre of the gaping hole he carefully drags the soil to the edges indenting into the pile covering the bones.

All the precision is suddenly undone as the mound collapses leaving the soil to rush into a newly created hole, the grains form around the skeleton that lies beneath. Stuart glances down unable to stop the flow to see two dark eye sockets looking back at him. The clean white bones standing out against the heavy black dirt.

Stuart can now see that the burial has been planned with a casket encasing the skeleton. The excavation can now begin with the painful process of brushing away the detritus.