My Latex Husband

It didn’t take long – precisely two days on Twitter and now I’m writing on it. My Latex Husband is an experimental flash novel which I’m publishing in 140 character updates. I’ve posted the first three updates [reproduced below].

To follow the story, link to http://twitter.com/mylatexhusband.

My Latex Husband

The first week didn’t bother me – quite the opposite – it was fun. But when he started bouncing off the walls I had to admit he had a problem.

We were still together then.  You know – family ties, emotional stuff. We were as strung out as telephone wires and just as crossed.

Something had to snap. Unfortunate it had to happen in a bar. Later he blamed it on the yellow walls and ultraviolet lighting in the toilets.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

The only downside is that on Twitter, you have to read it from the bottom up, as the updates are posted, but you soon get used to it. When I’ve finished it I’ll try to get it published the right way up!

Twittering

Joined Twitter as a research exercise. Initially I wanted to see how Stephen Fry used it, then I started searching for other people – comedians, journalists and writers – to find out who was using it primarily for microblogging (the reason I’m interested in it) rather than as a (purely) promotional tool. Mr Fry’s Twitter is excellent, Alan Carr’s – good too. Am also following Six Sentences (with links to the latest fiction posts).  I like the idea of being restricted to 140 characters per update. If you know any writers who use it, let me know.

As an afterthought I searched for Will Self. Found only results announcing ‘this update will self-destruct in five minutes’.

Have to concur with the latter’s response to the woman who asked, apropos of his blog:

‘Is there any part of your life that remains unrecorded, unobserved?’

Will: ‘…you don’t know one half of one half of one ten-thousandth of it, love’.

25 random things

25

Was wondering what to do when someone tagged me with 25 Random Things, so I’ll post them here too:

1: I’m an idealist
2: A humanist too
3: I’d rather work for nothing doing something worthwhile than have a job
4: I can cook pretty pretty well (when I want to)
5: I have an honours degree in graphic design
6: I love writing
7: I have an individualistic view on life
8: I have a very musical ear
9: I travelled behind the Iron Curtain when there was one
10: I once slept inside an (unlaid) open sewer pipe
11. I slept on the beach in Greece under the stars
12: I was born in West Yorkshire
13: I think laterally. It is Edward de Bono’s fault I don’t have goals
14: I used to climb mountains
15: I went down a black ski run despite being unable to ski
16: I wasted too much of my life trying to choose between being a writer and an artist, now I do both
17: I have a phobia about using the phone
18: I have been to the Turkish baths in Istanbul
19: I have eaten sparrow kebabs
20: I love my children and want them always to be happy!
21: I would like somewhere where I can grow things
22: I would like to stop moving every five minutes
23: I have had short fiction published, I would like this to happen more
24: I hope to live long enough to do this
25: I miss the sea

6S Express

What can you say in six sentences?
To see what I said:

Read DING! on 6S Express.

Thanks Robert

Overload

Real life = overload at the moment. Consequently, creative circuitry has been disrupted. Feel like a three pin plug in a two pin socket.

Need an adaptor <scrutinises photo, left, thinks> … maybe an extension lead would be a safer option.

A loaded gun

As I scour my subconscious and memory for inspiration, I come across subjects or experiences I’d like to draw on but can’t.

I need to detach myself to the point where I can turn them into fiction, but as yet I don’t have the nerves of steel required to do this.

How do other writers deal creatively with the (metaphorical) loaded gun? Any (constructive!) ideas welcome …

JaNoWriMo

Crawled out of bed at sunset on day one of JaNoWriMo. Come on. It was New Years Day and I was very ill (OK – yes, it was self-inflicted). Consoled myself thinking – ah an evening to think it all through. Broached this notion to friend who said no, just write. Regard her as ‘wise woman’ (and published writer) so open new blank document, format said document, name it and save it. Phew.

Today everything feels much more normal and have managed (a slow) two hundred words which may well end up as another narrative strand in the novel I began in November’s NaNoWriMo.

Chris Baty’s No Plot No Problem arrived in the post this morning. I ordered it from Aphrohead - a local bookseller who operates via Amazon. I should read it first, but that would be procrastinating and if I’ve learnt anything over the last year it’s this – the only way to achieve anything is by doing it.