What a weekend!

I love it when days become wholly writerly – and that can be days when I have the house to myself and nothing happens but total immersion in the current novel or short story so that I drift around, leaving cups of tea to get cold in unlikely places as I scribble down dialogue or fit together to events that have to take place for my story to develop.

Or it can be days like Saturday, when I taught a frenetic masterclass on Writing Fiction to get Published in a single hour, to the combined talents of The Hatchery and Comedy of Errors, the two writing groups that meet at Hove Library, and then went on a couple of hours later to meet Shaun Levin, who’d been teaching a more leisurely session on Literary Voice at the Jubilee Library.

Shaun is mate, a fantastic writer, and an editor to die for. He publishes Chroma – a magazine I recommend to anybody who loves good fiction and great pictures. And, although he’s often eaten take-away food from Bill’s over the years, he’s never actually been there, so it was my privilege to introduce him to Brighton’s finest eatery.

We talked without stopping for a couple of hours: Shaun had an insight into South African literature which he’s going away to ponder (and I’m not sharing it with you, even though I think he’s come up with something very interesting about what shapes the writing of South Africans) and I got a glimpse of something about the relative density of landscapes (Europe – porous, Australia – dense) that is something like a metaphor for the novel I’m working on, and is going to be fantastically useful in exploring the two locations in which the novel is set. Shaun had the lemon tart topped with figs and I had the berry pavlova with nuggets of white chocolate in its base, and – as usual – I forget to take any pictures of the food! However, I did prevail on the lady sitting next to us to take this picture, so Shaun and the newly-shorn can be seen together (that’s a play on words that I’m not quite ashamed enough of making to edit out) for the first time!

Friends who write are a gift greater than rubies …

3 Comments

  1. Spot
    6th October 2008

    Thanks for lots of POW!! on Saturday.

    Reply
  2. Kip de Moll
    7th October 2008

    “Friends who write are a gift greater than rubies …”

    Not very excited by rubies, I still really treasure good friends. Since my first submission to Zoetrope, I have watched you expand your credits and confident expertise, and it has been an inspiration. I feel as if I know you a little, and if I ever crossed over to the British side, I’d be pleased to visit Brighton.

    In the meantime, Kay, I’ve been pushing hard to get some of that fiction published and writing daily on my life of “Zen and the Art of the Midlife Crisis.” I’ve done a little freelance editing, and even posted some of my music on my personal blog. I am emotionally ready to set aside this old well-worn business of being a carpenter to do what I’ve always wanted to do: share from my heart. I hope you take a look and listen.

    Thanks for being such a friendly writer.

    Reply
  3. Spot
    10th October 2008

    Hi Kay, I have nominated you for a blog award and cake! details on today’s post. Love, Sx

    Reply

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