May 19, 2012

Speaking of Stories

By suehealy

Speaking of Stories… I recently received a mail from a friend who asked me what the easiest way was to read my stories on line. The interest is flattering and I’m happy to list the following sites where a couple of pieces of my work have been published, following a win/placement:

• Ha-Ha – A blackly comic story, with a twist. A runner up in the Limnisa/Bluethumbnail Competition: http://www.bluethumbnail.com/Author/ha-ha.html

• The Last of the Shower – A quirky and nostalgic punk looks to wake his dead bandmate: HISSAC Highlands and Islands Short Story Association Competition has ‘The Last of the Shower” on their site (which won the2011 Award). http://www.hissac.co.uk/2011_stories.html#first

• The Pretender – A tale with a twist and intrigue, which was ‘highly commended’ in the Twisted Stringybark competition. ‘The Pretender’ can be downloaded as part of an anthology: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/162482

Many more of my stories are published in anthologies or literary magazines, so you’d have to order. But if any of you would like to have a look at the above, I’d be delighted! Thanks for the interest, guys!

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May 16, 2012

Short Story Published in Anthology

By suehealy

 

My short story ‘The Pretender’ was highly commended in the annual ‘Twisted Stringybark Award’ and is to be published in the accompanying anthology. Always good to get a writing credit.

There’s both a kindle version and a paperback. Here’s the e-version order details: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/162482

12 Comments | posted in Uncategorized, Writing

May 14, 2012

Wish You Were Here…

By suehealy

My old friend, Budapest-based Scottish painter JIm Urquhart at an exhibition of his swimming pool painting in Brighton this weekend.

I’ve just spent a few days at the Brighton Festival. I’m here by a sort of mistake – it’s a long story, but by wild coincidence, a good painter friend of mine from Budapest was also in Brighton this weekend – exhibiting his paintings as part of the event (note to self: I must blog about how threads of wild coincidence knit through my life, yet I can never use them in my fiction as they are just too unbelievable).

Jim Urquhart is a Scottish painter who has lived in the Hungarian capital for decades. He was actually one of the first people I met in Hungary in 1998 when I moved there first, and has remained a great friend and artistic supporter down the years. So, I was delighted by the serendipity which had us both wash up on the shores of Sussex this weekend. Great show too, Jim!

Brighton also allowed me the opportunity to catch up with another friend, the County Antrim poet and current Brighton resident, Brendan Cleary. I get great inspiration and encouragement from artists working in other art forms and meeting up with Jim and Brendan over the weekend, has also delivered all the other positives that time spent with good artists provides: discussion and progression of ideas, affirmation that art is what I am about and what I should do, reassurance that as difficult and isolating it can be to be an artist, it is also hugely rewarding. And, if you are an artist, there is nothing you can really do about it – you have to create.

I’m thanking whatever powers conspired to get me here this weekend to hang out with such creative minds. I’m all fired up and reassured. Here’s to artistic fellowship!

Brighton also allowed me to catch up with another old friend, Brighton-based Co. Antrim poet, Brendan Cleary.

10 Comments | posted in Uncategorized, Writing

May 8, 2012

Quite a Character

By suehealy

Name her. Now answer the questions below about her.

If you want to hook your readers, you’ll need a character that leaps off the page. A good character is believable and interesting. Firstly, be careful your character is not of music-hall-cliche stock (dumb blonde, greedy banker, uber-organized German, upper class twit etc…) – the problem here is that the reader will have met your character far too many times before to find them interesting now. As usual, turning the cliche on its head can be a good place to start getting ideas (chess-master page three girl, a banker who secretly gives away money etc…)

Also, don’t focus on describing what they look like from head to toe. In fact, their general physical appearance is not so revealing – the key is often in the interesting quirks and blemishes. Moreover, you ought to climb inside your character’s skin, get to know them intimately and let the reader see how they tick. It  is  good if there is something unusual about them. Here’s a sample list of questions you could mull in order to give your character depth:

Rather than describe the colour of their hair and eyes, write instead about their height.

What about their gait, posture and walk? Does he flutter, jerk, flap or glide?

If you first met this character, what would strike you most?

Does s/he resemble an animal?

What is their natural scent?

What sort of diet do they have and what has been the physical impact of this regime?

What does their best friend think of them?

What happens when your character gets drunk?

What does your character have in his/her pockets/handbag/beside table?

What is your character’s favourite joke?

Also, to make your character particularly memorable, give him/her/it a singular physical attribute your reader will long associate with them. Think of it this way, if you were going to a costume party dressed as Harry Potter, Sherlock Holmes, Miss Havisham or Liesbeth Salander – what would you need? My guesses are, respectively: a lightening bolt scar, a deerhunter hat and pipe, an old wedding dress, and a dragon tattoo. Try to imagine what you’d need to be recognizable as your character.

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May 5, 2012

Read it and weep

By suehealy

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Me and fish n’chips, Cromer, May 2012

Thanks to ‘Typehype’ for the heads up re my story ‘Ha Ha’ being published on the Bluethumbnail site. ‘Ha Ha’ was runner up in the Limnisa/Bluethumbnail 2012 competition. Please feel free to have a read if any of you have the time or inclination. Sue xo

http://www.bluethumbnail.com/Author/ha-ha.html

6 Comments | posted in Uncategorized

May 3, 2012

Hirst Impressions

By suehealy

Herself and Himself – me in conversation with Damien Hirst’s work, outside the Tate Modern, Southbank, London, April 2012. – Photo Amelia Nunes


Art begets art. A meeting between like-minded artists often results in a cross pollination of ideas which inspire, progress and crystallise art projects. Such an exchange can be an intended collaboration, or it can be an ego driven ‘anything-you-can-do-I-can-do-better’ brandishing. And it hardly matters which,  so long as art ultimately benefits.

Likewise, great inspiration can be found in complementary art forms. A poet can conjure new ideas from a dance; a musician can be moved to compose by a script. I a primarily a writer of prose fiction but as an Art College alumna – when I’m looking for inspiration, I go to an art gallery.

I went with a housemate on a field trip to London last week to see the Damien Hirst retrospective at the Tate Modern, the Picasso at the Tate Britain and the Freud at the National Portrait Gallery. All three were fruitful visits but, it was Hirst that had me stunned and flushed with ideas.

I’d seen Hirst’s ‘Shark’ before and was struck then by the concept that the creature did not know he was dead. The retrospective examines death in more detail. Death, an inevitable aspect of life, is not morbid in Hirst’s world, however. Rather it is presented as a beautiful  climax (Diamond Skull). Dead butterflies are arranged in stunning giant mosaics reminiscent of great stained glass windows. Even a grand wall-size black circular ‘sun’, composed of a million dead flies has all the elegance and plush luxury of a carpet fit for the feet of kings. Life/death – this complementary nature of opposites runs throughout the artist’s work. The mundane, even ugly are elevated to beautiful objets d’art. A classically sculpted marble angel reveals insides weird and devilish. A dead, fly infested cow’s head celebrates life cycles. Hirst’s work tells us that opposites need each other to exist. Opposites are each other. Rock it, Damien.

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May 1, 2012

Ha Ha the runner up

By suehealy

 

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This week the bridesmaid rather than the bride – but that’s cool. ‘Ha Ha’ makes it to runner up position for the Limnisa/Bluethumbnail 2012 competition:

 

http://www.bluethumbnail.com/Author/winning-stories-2012.html

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April 27, 2012

Aha! ‘Ha Ha’ stands out from the crowd

By suehealy

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Result! My story ‘Haha’ is on the shortlist mof twenty for the 2012 Limnisa / Bluethumbnail competition… will hear result next week….

13 Comments | posted in Uncategorized

March 28, 2012

I’ve been haiku’d!

By suehealy

A haiku for a weeping willow in Norwich?

 

If you need focus, get haiku’d. The Japanese know how to appreciate the moment: tea ceremonies where the design and the feel of the cup is lauded, the colour of the drink discussed, the scent, the very feel of the beverage dissected and praised.

Not surprising, therefore, the land of the rising sun gave us the haiku. Haiku is a poetic form that, traditionally, aims to capture a moment in nature, like a snapshot with words.

Most typically achieved using seventeen syllables arranged in three unrhymed lines of five, seven and five syllables, the practice of writing haikus is particularly useful if you are engaged in a word-limited literary arena such as writing songs. In such instances, words should be chosen carefully so that they can convey the specific mood, meaning and impact you require and haikus can help you build up that muscle. Haikus encourage you to pick up every word and study it closely for its sound, meaning, feel and impact.

Here are some examples of the haiku:

O’er the wintry wood,

winds howl in an empty rage

with no leaves to blow.

Soseki (1275-1351)

This haiku by the ‘punk poet, John Cooper Clarke, comes via recommendation of Westown Girl :

Writing a poem

In seventeen syllables

Is very diffic.

(John Cooper Clarke, 1979)

Cool, innit?

Happy Haikuing

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March 21, 2012

The Temptations of Tea…

By suehealy

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Sit at computer, bring up blank page, make a cup of tea. Sit at computer, look at blank page, do the washing up. Duration: 1 hour. Word count: 0

If this sounds like your typical writing pattern, you’ve got plenty of company. The sudden urge to do housework, rearrange books, check your bank statement- when you really ought to be writing is known as ‘Displacement activity’.

 

Displacement activity is the bane of a writer’s life. It’s the phrase writers have for all the stuff you do that is not the stuff you are SUPPOSED to be doing. Avoidance is probably a more readily understood term, but doesn’t sound half as writerly. What happens is a little ‘displacement monkey’ in your mind distracts you from the task at hand, by urging you to ‘make another cup of tea/check the TV guide/your bank account/ebay/post on this blog : ) rather than crack on with that difficult piece of dialogue you’re trying to get down.

 

I don’t believe displacement activities are wholly bad. I feel they sometimes happen for a reason. Perhaps what you’re working on needs time to settle, or percolate in your mind and after you’ve bought those gloves on ebay, it will all come together. However, I admit, I think I’d get a lot more writing done if I didn’t have an Internet connection in my office… I know a few writers who keep their displacement activity on hand – as another creative hobby such as painting, and they believe one such activity complements and feeds the other. So, they may start painting and then half way through THAT activity they’ll turn back to their writing as a displacement activity for their painting and so on…

 

As with everything in writing, if you find your displacement activity works for you, then go knock yourself out with it. If it is a hindrance, then find a way to stop it distracting you such as getting a room with no internet connection…

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