Short Story Publication - Pongo

As I reported last year, I was short-listed in the 2015 Exeter Story Prize. I'm now pleased to tell you that my story, 'Pongo', has been published in their anthology of winning and short-listed entries.

'Pongo' is a bit of a dark story. It takes place on Boxing Day at a fairground but it isn't one of those typically fluffy Christmas stories. I'm quite proud of it and I hope some of you will get the opportunity to read it. When I have success with a short story featuring lesbian characters I'm honestly delighted. That's the bread and butter of my work and I'm grateful it's reaching a general audience as well.

You can buy the anthology from Amazon here.

In addition, please check out Creative Writing Matters who host these annual competitions. They do a lot of good work with writers and are a lovely bunch.

Short Story Publication - Dear Violet

At the end of last year I was delighted to be awarded third prize in the Fabula Press Aestas 2015 competition. My story has now been published as part of their winners' anthology and is available to buy online for just £5.99.

'Dear Violet' is a story that came to me when I heard about a postbox that hadn't been emptied for years and started wondering about what kind of letters could've languished in there. I received some fantastic feedback from the judges and it's really been a pleasure working with the editor getting this story ready for publication so thank you to Fabula Press for that. I haven't had chance to read the other stories yet but there are some interesting titles in there and I'm sure it's going to be excellent.

You can buy the anthology from Amazon here.

Quite a Week

To say last week was interesting would be a bit of an understatement. I'm used to the ups and downs that life (and my anxiety problems) tend to throw at me but I rarely have as many blips, bumps and jumps in one short period as I did last week.

My Monday began with computer problems and rapidly escalated with some frustrating family stuff. I escaped to my writing haunt and had a burst of inspiration about the direction of my WIP (I wrote about that here). By the time I got home I was all energised then there was some more family stuff that triggered this response:

In the last half an hour I got inspired and optimistic. Then someone dropped a house on my head. Back to square one.

— Dr Lucy Brown (@CharmedLassie) November 23, 2015

On Tuesday I had the delight of a few hours to myself then it all fell apart again. Normality ensued as I dragged myself in the rain to get some shopping whilst having a mini panic attack. However, as I was walking home I received a text from a Yorkshire First colleague of mine about the meeting later that night and I was back in positive mode. That meeting was excellent and I came away as energised politically as I had been in the creative sense the day before:

One thing I do appreciate about the meetings, though, is that I morph into a confident human being who can hold a conversation.

— Dr Lucy Brown (@CharmedLassie) November 24, 2015

For me, that's pretty successful. So, despite a concerted effort by some people in my life to bring me down, I prolonged my positive mood into Wednesday - then the fun really started when I went to co-working at my writing haunt. Hearing "that's not a customer, that's Lucy, she's part of the furniture" set things up nicely along with an epic breakfast. I was in the writing zone anyway but getting an email confirming that I'd won third prize in the latest Fabula Press competition set me singing in public. That story will be published at some point so I'll let you know when it's available but it's one I'm very proud of.

I dragged my father to a couple of stops on the Artwalk that night, which I thoroughly enjoyed (and picked up a couple of souvenirs below), then came home for a celebratory singalong. Treating myself after every bit of success is proving to be very pleasant and reminds me that I'm probably not completely rubbish.

On Thursday I was meant to be having a freelance meeting but that turned into a six-hour meeting interspersed with checking on a poorly six-year niece. Making her smile was more important than any work, though some of that got done as well. The night ending with me tipping a bucket of filthy water over my legs wasn't the best thing that could've happened however. My trainers still stink.

Then Friday... Well, I'd just sat down to lunch when I heard that my grandmother had fallen face-first out of her chair at her residential home and was bleeding quite badly. They called an ambulance and, while the details of what happened that day aren't something I should share on a public forum, suffice to say there'll be a complaint going in to the NHS about the treatment. Fortunately, she's going to be okay, even if she looks like someone ran her over and she's got a broken cheekbone. At 92, she should really know better than to chuck herself over the room like that. It certainly gave us all a scare and, as a consequence, I spent the weekend hibernating and watching tennis. Britain winning the Davis Cup was the appropriate end to a wacky week.

I'm drowning in work this week and my priorities are all over the place. A little stability and time to work without the bumps and jumps would be a good idea. Then again, I did rather enjoy last Wednesday immensely. I'd better write some more short stories, huh?

Short Story Publication - Autumn Plunder

A couple of months ago I shared the news that a short story of mine had been accepted for publication. It has now been published in the latest issue of Popshot Magazine, which collects pieces based on the theme of 'the outsider'. My story, 'Autumn Plunder', tells of a woman who goes to extreme lengths to feel like she's fitting in for just a few weeks of the year.

You can get a preview of the issue and purchase it here.

A Smidgen of Success

January was another one of those months where I felt as though I'd been dangling from the roof of a hyperactive carousel. Spinning around with the world all topsy-turvy gets old and I've definitely been doing it for long enough. I had some bright spots with a friend and my nieces but, really, I was happy to see the month coming to an end. Then the final few days threw up a couple of surprises.

On Friday I found out a short story has been accepted for publication in April. I'll post more of the details closer to the time but the jolt I got from that was excellent and I'm very proud of the story.

While deliriously happy about that, I got something of another shock. Late Saturday night I learned that I'd won first prize in the Literary Journalism Competition organised by Dickens Journals Online. That was one of those delightful moments where I opened up the page, scanned the list of runners-up and commended entries and allowed myself a moment of disappointment before actually lifting my eyes a bit. Then, quite naturally, I ran downstairs to get my poor father to check I wasn't seeing things. He thought the house was burning down. Again, I'm really proud of the story and I'll let you know when it's available on the DJO website to read. Incidentally, if you're unfamiliar with them, they host digital copies of Household Words and All the Year Round and they're a brilliant resource for academics and nineteenth-century book lovers alike. It's one of those sites you can fall into and come out three days later dazed and talking like Mr Dickens himself - well worth a look.

One of my goals for 2015 was to have a little more success with my short stories to build on the start I made last year. I think we can tick that box already.

I'm floating back down to earth now but I wish I could bottle that euphoria. As ever, the first thing I did when I got the news was burst into an appropriate song - 'It's a Hit!' from Merrily We Roll Along seemed like the perfect choice and it's been stuck in my head since Friday. As the ever-wise Charley sings:

Success is like failure, 

It's how you perceive it,

It's what you do with it, 

Not how you achieve it,

And I can't believe it's a hit!

And, if Sondheim doesn't float your boat, try a little Judy and Barbra...

Available Online Now: Writing Westgate

Some of you may remember that I took part in an event at the Wakefield Lit Fest in September which was the result of several sessions with a group of local writers as we explored the new Wakefield Westgate station. My retrospective on the event can be found here.

Now the work has been published online and looks quite nifty, if I do say so myself. So, please, take a look at the pieces there by Steve, Nigel, Gregg, Daniel, Jimmy and Stefan and, if you're inclined, have a read of my pieces 'Ticket Machine' and 'Platform 1'. For a bonus, the picture of me that accompanies them is from when I still had long hair and has me almost smiling. Now that took some doing, as the photographer commented at the time. Seriously, though, they're all worth a read so consider taking a look.

Upstairs and Downstairs: British Costume Drama Television from The Forsyte Saga to Downton Abbey

Before Christmas I received my copy of Upstairs and Downstairs: British Costume Drama Television from The Forsyte Saga to Downton Abbey edited by James Leggott and Julie Anne Taddeo. True to form, I haven't yet managed to dip into the rest of the collection, though expect a review of some sort when I eventually get time to enjoy it. My essay is in the third section, entitled "Homosexual Lives: Representation and Reinterpretation in Upstairs, Downstairs and Downton Abbey" which examines the characters of Alfred Harris in Upstairs, Downstairs and Downton's Thomas Barrow.

Part I: Approaches to the Costume Drama

1. Pageantry and Populism, Democratization and Dissent: The Forgotten 1970s — Claire Monk

2. History’s Drama: Narrative Space in “Golden Age” British Television Drama — Tom Bragg

3. “It’s not clever, it’s not funny, and it’s not period!”: Costume Comedy and British Television — James Leggott

4. “It is but a glimpse of the world of fashion”: British Costume Drama, Dickens, and Serialization — Marc Napolitano

5. Never-Ending Stories?: The Paradise and the Period Drama Series — Benjamin Poore

6. Epistolarity and Masculinity in Andrew Davies’s Trollope Adaptations — Ellen Moody

7. “What Are We Going to Do with Uncle Arthur?”: Music in the British Serialized Period Drama — Karen Beth Strovas and Scott M Strovas

Part II: The Costume Drama, History, and Heritage

8. British Historical Drama and the Middle Ages — Andrew B. R. Elliott

9. Desacralizing the Icon: Elizabeth I on Television — Sabrina Alcorn Baron

10. “It’s not the navy-we don’t stand back to stand upwards”: The Onedin Line and the Changing Waters of British Maritime Identity — Mark Fryers

11. Good-Bye to All That: Piece of Cake, Danger UXB, and the Second World War — A. Bowdoin Van Riper

12. Upstairs, Downstairs (2010-2012) and Narratives of Domestic and Foreign Appeasement — Giselle Bastin

13. New Developments in Heritage: The Recent Dark Side of Downton “Downer” Abbey — Katherine Byrne

14. Experimentation and Postheritage in Contemporary TV Drama: Parade’s End — Stella Hockenhull

Part III: The Costume Drama, Sexual Politics, and Fandom

15. “Why don’t you take her?”: Rape in the Poldark Narrative — Julie Anne Taddeo

16. The Imaginative Power of Downton Abbey Fan Fiction — Andrea Schmidt

17. This Wonderful Commercial Machine: Gender, Class, and the Pleasures and Spectacle of Shopping in The Paradise and Mr. Selfridge — Andrea Wright

18. Taking a Pregnant Pause: Interrogating the Feminist Potential of Call the Midwife — Louise FitzGerald

19. Homosexual Lives: Representation and Reinterpretation in Upstairs, Downstairs and Downton Abbey — Lucy Brown

20. Troubled by Violence: Transnational Complexity and the Critique of Masculinity in Ripper Street — Elke Weissmann

Farewell 2014...

Well, if I thought 2013 was bad... Seriously, there has to be a point where things do actually hit rock bottom and I start climbing towards that pinprick of sky discernible miles above. A good post about the crumminess of this year was written in September called 'Taking Stock' and, I have to say, things haven't exactly improved. The only thing that's improved is my ability to roll with the punches a little more. So, on a personal level, 2014 stank but what about those goals I set myself? First are links to a few successes before we get into more failure.

Short Story Publication - 'To Catch a Fly'

Short Story Publication - 'Aldgate Echoes'

A Wakefield View of Westminster - Available Now

1. 2014 is, barring catastrophe, thesis submission year. It's been a long time coming and, I have to admit, the light at the end of the tunnel is frightening. Completion will bring its own set of problems but if I look towards them I'll panic and flee. So, let's just focus on finishing writing, submitting, the viva and... Actually, let's just think about the writing aspect. Everything else is too scary.
Does submitting two weeks into 2015 count as 'catastrophe'? That's the plan anyway and my only excuse is that, the number of times I've despaired of the thesis in the last year, it's a miracle it's getting submitted at all. And that light at the end of the tunnel? Even more petrifying now. 

2. Some more conferences would be a nice idea - either just attending or giving papers, ideally the latter.
I gave papers at three conferences this year, taking me to Oxford, Nottingham and London. A review of those can be found here but, on a personal level, I'm particularly proud of making it through the Nottingham one due to some incredibly difficult anxiety issues on the day. Taking good from bad, that was a triumph for me this year. 

3. I want to work on at least three academic articles/papers this year. Since I have four ideas already, that shouldn't be too difficult...right? We're going with optimism here.
Erm, misplaced optimism. Although the paper I gave at the VPFA in July is still ripe for expanding into a full essay and that will probably be my first academic task once I've submitted my thesis.

4. On the writing side, I don't want to promise too much. 2014 is the year of the thesis, remember. However, if I don't write then I go a bit batty so there will be work. What work? Well, I have eight novel drafts to play with. I want to do full-scale edits on, say, three of them (and I know which three, which is always good). I've already started putting the polished two out into the world. We'll see where that goes this year. A NaNoWriMo draft is on the cards too, along with finishing 'Kathy' (the novel I failed to complete this year) and maybe another draft about something close to my heart. I'm almost certain no one else could write this idea with the truthfulness required. The question is, do I have the courage? We'll see.
Novel-wise, I've added a NaNoWriMo draft to my bank, although I didn't manage to finish 'Kathy'. I've completed two second drafts and I'm partway through a third. The two novels that are in the best condition, having been through five or six drafts each, were refined in 2014 and I'm ready to submit them. I think. Not great but not bad considering.

5. I'm taking part in two reading challenges this year: the Chunkster Challenge and the TBR Challenge. I've picked out the books so just need to read them now. Easy...
I failed at both of these, as I summarised yesterday.

6. I want to continue going to the gym 2-3 times a week, at least until my membership runs out in August.
Until my membership expired, I managed this one. 

7. I've asked for driving lessons as a birthday present in July. Whether this comes off is still undecided but I do need to learn and this year might be the year. Keep off Yorkshire roads in August.
Given my mental state around my birthday, it's probably lucky this one didn't come off.

8. I've been saying for four years I want to learn a little Italian. I don't really know why but it's a deep-seated thing I do intend to do at some point.
Ha. Nope.

Short Story Publication - Aldgate Echoes

It's nice to finally be able to share with you that I was shortlisted in Saga Magazine's ghost story competition and was then lucky enough to be one of the 15 shortlisted entries to be published in their anthology.

Like the publication of my other story this year, "Aldgate Echoes" is a piece I wrote a while ago and reworked for submission to this competition. I still have vivid recollections of the story coming to me while I was walking through a desolate London with a friend. Moments like that are moments writers wish we could bottle!

I'm very proud to be part of this anthology, though keeping the news to only a few select friends until I could be sure was tricky. I found out I'd been shortlisted while I was, ironically enough, back in London for a conference and I was on my birthday trip when I found out I was being published. I like that kind of symmetry - and so does Shamrock!

So the current price on Kindle is £0.51, not shabby for a short story collection. You can buy it here and let me know if you like it!

Short Story Publication - To Catch a Fly

Some of you may be interested in the latest issue of Ariadne's Thread (Issue 11, Spring 2014) which has a short story in from yours truly. It also has plenty of other stuff in there too, including some great poetry. I'd recommend buying it for the two poems by Armando Halpern alone. 'Carlo Crivelli, Virgin and Child' and 'Back From the Labyrinth' are engrossing, evocative pieces and I've reread them several times already. 

My own story, 'To Catch a Fly', is one that I wrote years ago following an experience with my late maternal grandmother. I rewrote it with a burst of inspiration last year, changing the tense and the overall situation without diminishing the truth at the heart of it. In some ways, it's a very personal story and, in that sense, it's wonderful that it's my first writing success in years. 

If you want to buy a copy of this issue, it's available directly from their website and you can purchase via PayPal. I should go into a spiel here about supporting small literary magazines but I'm sure we all know the challenges they face and support where we can so I'll leave it at that.