Smut and stuff

OK, so before I start getting complaints again about not updating the old blog, here you go. I've been working tres hard on the Manchester Literature Festival Blog writing posts and quizzing various writers about various things, so why not pop over and read those here.

I've also been busily squirrelling away at keeping my Wednesday promise of publishing bad words on We Hate Words. You can see that here.

Then, I've been writing another ton of short stories to submit to different zines and anthologies and wotnot and stuff and also to read at a number of upcoming spoken word events, starting with the Bad Shoes Festival this Sunday. I'm in the spotlight in the 2-2.30pm FlashTag Mcr slot in BoCho's Electrik.


And apart from all that (and other secret and not-so-secret projects), I've been frantically organising and promoting the FlashTag Smut Night, which takes place a week tonight - Wednesday 28 September, 8pm, Northern Lawn Tennis Club, Palatine Road, Didsbury. We'll be launching our collection of filthy flash fiction, Quickies: Stories For Adults, and hosting a night of dirty readings featuring our good selves and some of the contributors to the book (a book! A real-life book!).

As I say in the press release: “I’ve been gagging to run a literary-based Smut Night for ages and this seemed like the ideal opportunity – I think an evening of tongue-in-cheek saucy and romantic stories in the curtain-twitching suburbs will go down a treat!” Oo-er missus.

It's a free event and on stage will be, among others, Bristol Prize-winner and Whalley Ranger Valerie O'Riordan; Didsbury author Socrates Adams, whose debut novel Everything's Fine launches at Manchester Literature Festival in October; South Manchester-based Chris Killen, author of The Bird Room, described by The Independent as “exciting and perfectly formed”; Didsbury-based Salt New Voices poet Adrian Slatcher, and Claire Massey, whose work appears in The Best British Short Stories 2011 and Nicholas Royle’s Murmurations, which also launches at DAF (Monday 26 September, 8pm, Pizza Express, Lapwing Lane).

Our headline act is David Gaffney, the “grandmaster of flash fiction” (Bookmunch) and “one of the foremost writers in the short fiction arena” (The Short Review), and author of three critically acclaimed flash fiction collections, Sawn-off Tales, Aromabingo (which he's just lent me) and The Half-life Of Songs, plus the novel Never Never. At Smut Night, he will be reading the story he has written especially for Quickies along with some of his other work. You should so come...

Books the trend

If you haven't heard of For Books’ Sake - subtitle: "books by and for independent women" - then where have you been? Apart from having probably the best title of any website ever, it's an ezine promoting and celebrating writing by women, and today it is one!

In the last year, For Books’ Sake has featured news, reviews and interviews with iconic and upcoming women authors, been involved in World Book Night 2011 alongside author Margaret Atwood, curated the three-day literary programme for Ladyfest Ten, set up their own lending library and interactive forum, collaborated with Pulp Press on an anthology of the best pulp fiction written by women, scheduled for publication later this year, and coordinated regular live literary events and book groups in Manchester and beyond - not just in that London, which deserves some praise in itself! Plans afoot include a monthly literary clubnight in Manchester, so watch this space.

The girls behind FBS are so ace, and deserve plenty of cake for their efforts. I didn't have any time for baking over the bank holiday, so I've provided a testimonial instead. It goes something like this: "I discovered For Books' Sake back in November, so no longer a babe-in-arms but already a healthy, bouncing site. As something of a spoken word fan, I really love to keep up to date with all the events news and reviews - and the FBS shindigs themselves - plus the regular writing competitions and submissions info." There you go. And if you want to read some stuff I've written for the lovely ladies, you can go here, here and here.

A moment of fiction #15

Gosh, it's been a while, hasn't it? Sorry about that, kiddoes. Here's a round-up of current submissions, mainly short stories but some other stuff too.

First up, We Hate Words, under new management courtesy yours truly, is looking for contributions for publication every Wednesday. Anything up to 500 words (I lose concentration after a while); check out the website for submission details.

Paraxial Tales, run by the lovely Claire Massey and her mate Andy Hedgecock, is currently looking for up to 250 words on the subject of libraries. Deadline is 31 July.

FlashTag want submissions of filthy flash fiction (400 words max by 7 August). The successful contributions will go in an anthology - Quickies: Stories For Adults - alongside stories by Emma Jane Unsworth, David Gaffney, Nik Perring and others. Then on Wednesday 28 September, the collection will be launched at a special Smut Night as part of Didsbury Arts Festival with readings and guest slot by Mr Gaffney.

The bi-annual Manchester Fiction Prize is on the loose. Toby Litt won last time round, but it's open to new as well as established writers. Send in a short story of up to 3,000 words in length on any subject. It costs £15 to enter but there is £10,000 up for grabs for the winner plus the chance to read at a gala ceremony hosted as part of the 2011 Manchester Literature Festival. Deadline 12 August.

The Night Light are running a short story competition (up to 2,000 words on the theme of night) in conjunction with The Big Issue In The North. There is an entry fee of a fiver, but it all goes to charity, so no big deal. The closing date is 12 August.

The lovely ladies at For Books' Sake have joined up with Pulp Press to give gals a chance to put those dirty minds to good use. Enter their short story competition with a story of sexy heroines no more than 5,000 words. Closing date 15 August.

Submissions are being accepted until 15 August for the September issue of Salt Publishing's Horizon Review, the online review of literature and art: poems, stories, essays, articles and memoir, etc. See here for more.

The deadline for both the short story competition (up to two stories up to 2,000 words long each on the subject of maps) and Poetry Competition (one poem up to 40 lines also on the subject of maps) as part of Didsbury Arts Festival has been extended to 26 August.

The Real Story as part of Manchester Literature Festival is looking for creative non-fiction (personal essays or brief memoirs) of 2,000 words or less. Deadline 27 August.

Our mates Calum Kerr and Jo Bell's latest venture Gumbo Press are after flash fiction (500 words), short stories (2,000 words), poems (50 lines), script (2,000 words) and non-fiction (2,000 words) on the subject of light to put in their bi-monthly e-zine WordGumbo. Closing date for submissions 31 August.

Submissions are also currently open for the quarterly anthology of new short fiction published by The Fiction Desk (can't find a closing date, you'll have to do the legwork on that one). You don't have to pay them; they pay you! Not much, but a bit of beer money, like.

More words please

This morning I was disappointed to learn that my Ask Ben & Clare co-writer Benjamin Judge's latest fledging project We Hate Words had been shelved due to pressures on his time. I was disappointed as I think it's a great site with good ideas offering a sanctuary for writers to vent their anger about rubbish words. I was also disappointed because I had submitted a piece about a word that I hate, and it hadn't yet been published.

It will be published on Wednesday. I have taken possession of the website's log-in details and that for the accompanying Twitter account. I urge you to check out the site and send in wonderful words about not-so-wonderful words. I have changed the submission rules slightly, so you don't have to write as much. I've also introduced a spelling mistake and poor punctuation section, so you can name and shame horrors of the grammar variety. Show and tell. I'm relying on you. Don't let me down...

A moment of fiction #13

Well, now we've got that wretched wedding out of the way, let's get back to stories. May is apparently Short Story Month 2011, and there are a few events coming up which have caught my eye; I thought I'd quickly sum them up as A Moment Of Fiction (no submissions stuff, for the moment, I'm afraid; my brain is awash with Flash Mob).

This Thursday (5 May) sees new Manchester-based publisher Pandril Press launch Panopticon, a collection of short fiction by seven emerging writers. The free event takes place at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation on Cambridge Street from 6.30pm. Nicholas Royle will be manning a stall selling Nightjar chapbooks; might I recommend The Field by Tom Fletcher? Comma Press will also be there.

The following Tuesday (10 May, 6.30pm, free - sorry, this originally said Monday, but that's incorrect), the IABF plays host to a joint book launch from The Other Room/If P Then Q poet James Davies (whose collection Plants is published this month) and flash fiction author, novelist and Station Stories creator David Gaffney, whose Edgehill Prize-shortlisted collection The Half-life Of Songs recently came out on Salt. You can read more about David in my flash fiction feature for Creative Times - oh look, here's a link; there's more on the Station Stories project, which takes place later this month, below.

Friday 13 May sees Station Stories contributors Jenn Ashworth and the aforementioned Tom Fletcher combine forces at An Outlet on Dale Street in the Northern Quarter to celebrate the launch of their second novels: Cold Light in the case of Jenn and The Thing on the Shore in the case of Tom. They'll both be reading from 8pm, as will some of their friends from the Northern Lines Fiction Workshop. Jenn promises: "There'll be wine and possibly Twiglets."

Station Stories itself takes place on Thursday 19, Friday 20 and Saturday 21 May, with three performances a day to choose from (midday, 3pm and 7pm). It promises to be a really varied and interesting event, with six writers surreptitiously and not so surreptitiously reading specially commissioned tales of trains and tracks and other things beginning with "tr" around Piccadilly Station. The writers are: David Gaffney, Nicholas Royle, Tom Fletcher, Jenn Ashworth, Peter Wild (of Bookmunch; see more below) and Tom Jenks (also of The Other Room and If P Then Q).

On Tuesday 24 May, from 6.30pm, literary quarterly Ambit Magazine will be holding an evening of poetry and fiction (free), again at the IABF. After an introduction by Ambit editor Martin Bax, there will be poems from Joan Poulson and Edmund Prestwich, and David Gaffney and Nicholas Royle crop up again to read some short stories.

Thursday 26 May sees the Flash Mob Literary Salon, starting at 7.30pm at Dulcimer in Chorlton. There will be readings by the winners and runners-up, something special courtesy the judges (including my good self), and a special appearance from flash fiction author Nik Perring. Part of Chorlton Arts Festival 2011, it's free and will be fabulous; see the Flash Mob website for more.

Stacks of other literature events are taking place as part of this year's Chorlton Arts Festival. Keep checking the website to see what's on; details of the full programme should be released this week. Sneak preview from proofreading the brochure: I'm looking forward to hearing Salt writers Robert Graham and Heather Leach on Monday 30 May, 7.30pm, Chorlton Library (free). Robert will be reading extracts from his new Salt Modern Voices chapbook, A Man Walks Into A Kitchen; Heather will read So Much Time In A Life, included in Salt's new anthology, The Best British Short Stories 2011, edited by Nick Royle. You can read my review of the collection on Bookmunch here.

Mind your Language

Right then, let's get back to more literary pursuits. Last night saw another splendid spoken word event hosted by the Bad Language writing collective at The Castle. Once again, I was scarily scheduled in the first open mic slot, after BL's very own Nici West did the intros and a couple of poems. I read, not The Luck Department, as previously threatened, but my new, slightly saucy, story about electromagnetics (such a geek!), I See Electric. I like this story and it seemed to attract some admiring comments, so let's hope someone somewhere picks it up and publishes it. Ever the optimist, I won't be holding my breath.

After me was my Ask Ben & Clare and Flash Mob colleague Benjamin Judge, himself with a sexy story plus a poem, about Bradford. Not sexy. Ben was followed by Calum Kerr, plugging his new book 31, which contains 31 stories, one written per day in January, and Word Gumbo, the new e-zine from Gumbo Press, which aims "to promote the very best in stories, poetry, flash fiction, scripts and non-fiction" and of which Jo Bell (who cameoed alongside Calum) is poetry editor. Submissions for the first issue close on Saturday; they should be on the theme, aptly, of "beginnings".

Next up was Fat Roland, who read a very serious story in five parts, employing his usual performing flair - this time screwing up each of the five pieces of paper to "represent" each of the five sections. This guy kills me. He also reminded everyone that tomorrow (Friday 29 April) is the closing date for the Flash Mob Writing Competition and introduced everyone to the Literary Salon we'll be running on Thursday 26 May as part of Chorlton Arts Festival.

Nija Dalal was next, with a very personal story about 24-hour diners and Walmarts and her mom back in the States. She has a nice delivery; it's like listening to someone chatting when she reads. And she was there with Stuart Maconie: him off the radio. Stuart Maconie heard us read! Yowzers. The first section was then rounded off with Bad Language's Dan Carpenter, reading some of the poetry he's been writing for NaPoWriMo, which has been running throughout April.

The middle third saw poet Rod Tame take up the mic with a proper rehearsed set of jokes and poems about being gay, coming out, being gay, and not being gay enough. After another break, there was more poetry. Obviously by this point, a certain amount of the Grolsch had been quaffed, so my notes are somewhat limited and I didn't catch some people's surnames and, even when I did, can't find some of them in the interwebs. Third Bad Language host Joe Daly introduced the final round, and was followed by Steve, Dominic Berry (with some material from his upcoming Wizard show, starring the aforementioned Rod, at the Contact Theatre on Wednesday 25 May; which, incidentally, is when the next Bad Language night is - fight!), Kieran King (whose Whatever Happened To The Heroes I quite enjoyed), Jane Birch (who was persuaded by a certain Jo Bell to read some rude words, to much acclaim!), then a short story interlude with Flash Mobber Dave Hartley and Garment Feud from Roy Keane's Lucky Scarf, then finally another poet, called Ben.

Living the highlight

I am a highlight. A highlight in this month's wonderful online zine Blank Pages. There's its cover below. It reminds my of an album by The The. I don't suppose many of you remember The The. Before your time probably. They were quite good; a bit weird, maybe, but quite good nonetheless.


Anyway, I am very much honoured to have been furnished with this "highlight" entitlement. Huzzah for me! But why?, you ask. Well, I've written a feature in the latest Blank Pages, out today, all about blogging and just how ace being a blogger in the rainy city can be and just how ace one of my fellow bloggers is. She's called Hayley Flynn; you should check out her stuff. Her Skyliner picture set is just getting going, but it promises to make hers a go-to blog. And her misplaced mail stories are fab; they're the letter equivalent of my list collection, which I'm aiming on doing more with soon. And which grew again this morning with "loaf / crumpets / Actimel / 3 meals / veg? / mixed salad / sweets / or fruit and cream". Lovely.

Fame and fortune

This last fortnight or so has been nothing if not exciting. Many extraordinary and unusual happenings have been explored; many interesting people and places have been experienced. So to speak.

Anyway, one of the truly amazing heady highpoints was opening the new issue of Blankpages, which hit the interwebs on Tuesday (and which you can download here), to find this very blog featured in the Blankpicks section, written this month by 330 Words editor, #beatoff collaborateur and my friend Tom Mason. I had known that Words & Fixtures was going to be mentioned, and that the blogging baton would be passed on to me to give my choice in issue 33. What I didn't know was quite how many lovely adjectives and descriptions Tom was going to employ!

Surely nothing, ever, could beat: "She’s a bit like the local Lauren Laverne of literature". Goodness me. Perhaps my work here is done.

A moment of fiction #10

It's been a while, so here's the first Moment Of Fiction instalment for 2011.

First up, Natalie at THE SHRIEKING VIOLET zine is teaming up with Manchester Modernist Society and the Loiterers Resistance Movement in a collaborative project on Sunday 6 March and needs contributors. They are looking for expressions of interest by today (sorry!) for events, performances and pieces of creative writing, interview or journalism for a publication and activities celebrating 10 Modernist women related to the North West. The 10 heroines are: Mitzi Solomon Cunliffe, Winifred Brown, Rachel Haugh, Susan Sutherland Isaacs, Marie Stopes, Professor Rosalie David, Olive Shapley, Professor Doreen Massey, Mary Stott and Linder Sterling. Email info@manchestermodernistsociety.org with your heroine and outline of your idea.

Another deadline looming is Monday 31 January. This is for the second issue of FRICTION MAGAZINE, published by the Newcastle Centre for Literary Arts and edited by students on the MA and PhD creative writing programmes at Newcastle University (I guess it's a bit like Manchester's Bewilderbliss). There is no theme and no entry fee, and you can be established or not established, and it doesn't matter if you don't live in Newcastle. They're looking for poetry, short stories, flash fiction and also life writing - submit via editor@frictionmagazine.co.uk but check the website for full details. If you miss this deadline, don't panic: Issue #3 submissions close 31 March.

Next week, Nik Perring is guest editing SmokeLong Quarterly, so if you have a really fantabulous 1,000-word (or less) story up your sleeve you think he'd like (read his blog post for ideas), get in there. Submissions details are here; do read as they're quite specific.

A further submissions deadline I've heard about this week is 2 March, for the third anthology by the wonderful folk at BAD LANGUAGE. All the details are here and, if you want to do your homework, get a copy of the second collection, Scattered Reds, from Five Stevenson Square and the first one, I Know Where The City Has Wings, at Cornerhouse. The next Bad Language event, when poet Jo Bell will be in the hot spot and there will be the ever-popular open mic, is on Wednesday 23 February from 7.30pm at The Castle Hotel. Lovely Nici has set up an event page on that Facebook with more info.

Talking of open mic nights, I hear Silver Apples on Burton Road in West Didsbury are now running one - I believe it's the last Thursday of the month 7.30-11.30, free entry, but I'll try and glean more details for the next edition of MOF.

I'll also keep you posted on submission details for the third issue of PANTHEON magazine. Editor Beth tells me: "I'm hoping to make the next issue for April/May, depending on money and time etc." Give the woman some money, dammit! And if you fancy supporting another good cause, B&N zine needs some spondoolies to keep going, editor Sam recently told me at an International Anthony Burgess Foundation chapbook launch (check out the Foundation's upcoming literary events on the website).

Matthew of UNSUNG has sent a missive round saying that "In the interest of quality over haste, we have decided to postpone our launch night for Issue 6 of UNSUNG until the end of February. The amount of submissions we've received has been vast and they've been great. We'll let you know the launch night in February." Follow them on Facebook to keep up to speed.

Poet Max Wallis has got the SOMETHINGEVERYDAY project up and running again for 2011, and this time it's a collaboration. Check out the new-look site for all the info and email getinvolved@somethingeveryday.co.uk to, er, get involved.

PAPERGIRL are also looking for collaborateurs for their second Manchester project. "For Papergirl Manchester 2011 we need a collective to organise, promote, ride and deliver. If you can help gain submissions, talk to the media, organise people, coordinate an exhibition or help with the ride get in touch", they say. Email them via papergirlmanchester@gmail.com

That's all for now, folks! Happy writing and reading...




Finally, please don't forget to quiz Ask Ben & Clare (via askbenandclare@gmail.com), submit stories and poems to Roy Keane's Lucky Scarf (via roykeanesluckyscarf@gmail.com), fling flash fiction at 330 Words (via 300words@gmail.com) or rustle up a review for Screen150 (via screen150@gmail.com).

A moment of fiction #9

Let's get this out there before the party season kicks in; give you a fighting chance of getting something other than random sherry-induced witterings down on paper...

Tomorrow from 6pm, I've just heard, you can talk to Sam Pritchard, New Writing Associate at the Royal Exchange, about The Bruntwood Playwriting Competition. The next Bruntwood Competition launches and opens for entries on 31 January 2011.

If your bag is more "amazing fiction, flash fiction, prose poetry and nonfiction", the third issue of creative writing quarterly Spilling Ink Review has just come out (featuring a piece by the brilliant Valerie O'Riordan). I imagine, therefore, that the Editorial Board (oh yes) will shortly be looking for contributions for the fourth. You can read the whats, whys and wherefores of the submissions process here - "but keep in mind (above all else) we want to read your very best work" (their words).

Lancaster Litfest's Flax imprint (as mentioned in A Moment Of Fiction #7) is looking for submissions of flash fiction from writers in the north west for the Flax026 issue. Deadline is 20 January; see here for more.

I've just heard that Unsung, as mentioned in A Moment Of Fiction #8, has extended its deadline to 20 December (well, it never published one in the first place that I saw). Matthew Unsung says: "The quality and amount of submissions that we've received after announcing the next issue has been very encouraging ... however, there is still plenty of room for whatever poetry, prose, literary articles, essays and reviews that you've been pondering over!" Email your work to unsung.manchester@gmail.com. The magazine launch will be towards the end of January - I'll try and let you know when I hear.

Let's hope it doesn't clash with Bad Language's new monthly slot at The Castle Hotel, which gets underway in the new year, starting on 26 January. "Mark your calendars," the merry band of three say, as do I: the Scattered Reds launch last week was vibrant, varied and a very good excuse to sink a few pints with my #beatoff chums. There will be an open mic slot: email events@badlanguagemcr.co.uk to get your name on the list. Visit the Bad Language Facebook event page, the website or the blog for more info.

At the birth of #beatoff was @samanthabail, who Tweeted me following publication of the November edition of Moment Of Fiction to let me know about the next issue of B&N Magazine, the bilingual (German/English) zine she edits. The topic is “tied to the 90s”, according to the B&N site, with "estimated time of arrival: early to mid December", and Sam assures me it will be out by 15 December at the latest, so keep your peelers peeled in NQ venues such as Common. You heard it here (or on Twitter) first.

Finally, please don't forget to quiz Ask Ben & Clare (via askbenandclare@gmail.com), submit stories and poems to Roy Keane's Lucky Scarf (via roykeanesluckyscarf@gmail.com), fling flash fiction at 330 Words (via 300words@gmail.com) or rustle up a review for Screen150 (via screen150@gmail.com). That is all.

A moment of fiction #8

It's high time for another instalment of A Moment Of Fiction, wouldn't you say? So here's the agenda for this round-up of all things writery: first up, submissions; second, readings; third, publications; fourth, AOB.

Unsung, "Manchester's best free literary magazine" which had its very own festival earlier this year, is accepting submissions for a December edition promising to be "its mightiest". I'm not privy to the deadline as I hadn't heard back off Mr Matthew Byrne at the time of going to print, but I'm guessing it's pretty soon. Send your poems / prose / articles / illustrations to: unsung.manchester@gmail.com. Matthew says, "Launch night is TBC but I assure you there will be beer, a mic, a roof and a toilet", so keep your eye on Facebook for details as they become available.

Bewilderbliss is under new management. Having completed (and hopefully passed) their creative writing MAs, Matt and Jon are off to pastures new, and poet Max Wallis (of Talk To Me About Love and Something Every Day) is now in the hotseat. Issue 5 has been provided with a theme by lovely poet Jo Bell, one of the brains behind the Bugged project. Not surprisingly, she has picked "overheard". You can read more here and here, but basically you have until 15 January to send up to four poems, up to 5,000 words prose or a piece of black and white artwork relating to the theme for the cover and interior design.

Also on a poetic tip, poetry quarterly Magma welcomes submissions, as I found out at their recent "roadshow" as part of the Manchester Literature Festival (see my review on the official MLF Blog for more). The deadline for the next issue - the 50th! - is 28 February and edition editor Clare Pollard has chosen "journeys" as the theme, but off-theme poems will also be considered. Full details here.

A gentle reminder too that Ask Ben & Clare are also looking for contributions (nothing too strenuous; just a questionable conundrum for the great minds to solve), along with Roy Keane's Lucky Scarf.


Next week, meanwhile, there are a couple of events where you can be inspired by the work of others or indeed dabble in a reading and try your stuff out on a live (albeit dead drunk) audience. The Bad Language gang (aka Dan, Nici and Joe: blog; website) are having a launch night for their second anthology, Scattered Reds, next Wednesday (24 November). At newly done-up and beautifully betiled The Castle, it's free, kicks off at 7.30pm, with the first performer up at about 8pm - and there's still chance to read! If you wish to partake in the open mic slot, get an email off to events@badlanguagemcr.co.uk. You'll be in good company; I hear some of my Bad Language literature quiz teammates (see pic above, left to right: Mr Hartley, Ms Power, Mrs Conlon, Mr Judge, Mr Roland) will be stepping up to the oche.

Another open mic event next week is on Saturday (27 November), 6-9pm in the 2nd View Restaurant in Waterstone's Deansgate. I am reliably informed by Jon from MLF that this new monthly event is actually back due to popular demand! The Unannounced Poetry Acoustic is "an evening of songs and poems and stories to perform or just to listen. The first drink of the evening is on us and the entertainment is on you!" Did someone say free drinks? See you there.

Experimental poets If P Then Q are busy plugging The Other Room 21, which has a bit of a do on Wednesday 1 December with readings and that, free from 7pm.

Quick update on zines hitting the shelves... Out now is Pantheon issue 2 (featuring a "Beckett-ish piece" by Lil Dave Hartley and now available in Blackwells on Oxford Road, near t'uni, or via the website); Flux Autumn 2010 edition, which features a short story by Chris Killen called Sorry (it's good, but it has suffered a cut'n'paste error in the first par; I've reedited for your delight and delectation below*); Dan Russell's Things Happen Part Deux, which you can look at on Issuu with hard copies about the place soon; the latest B&N Magazine, edited by award-winning mightaswell blogger Sam Bail, is (I am assuming) available in the next month or so, while number 11 of The Shrieking Violet, the "media special", is out now at Good Grief! - which has just this week relocated to the Soup Kitchen in the NQ. My good friend Andrew tells me they sell alcohol, not just soup, so this, and its beautiful art nouveau adornments, gives me a number of reasons to get my arse in gear and visit some time soon.

If you want to gaze back wistfully over previous incarnations of A Moment of Fiction, I've created a magic little widget on the left hand side of this here blog. Look! A Moment Of Fiction archive! Consider it an early Christmas present. Don't say I don't treat you well.

(*Craig has a dream. In the dream he is dead. He has just died. He is in a room, with things in it. The things in the room are: a desk, a bed, a chair, a coffee table, a sofa, a wardrobe, a cup (with some tea in it, gone cold), a computer, a copied CD of Planet Waves by Bob Dylan, a pair of shorts, a sunlounger, a bottle of Daiquiri, a pair of mirrored sunglasses, a coat, a hat, a pair of tweezers, a sheet of writing paper, the lid of a biro, an empty cassette box, a packet of Walkers crisps (prawn cocktail flavour), a poster of Ben Affleck, an empty ice cream tub, a toy car, a toy boat, a miniature ‘gift book’ style copy of War and Peace (6 pt. font), a 50p coin, a cigarette lighter, a cornflake, a wisp of hair, a blank greetings card (‘Best Wishes!’), a pornographic magazine from the seventies, no windows, no door, and the smell of cats... Read the rest here.)

Literary movements

Manchester Literature Festival is in full swing, and this week sees my diary well and truly stuffed to bursting largely thanks to the fifth annual foray into all things wordy. Today and tomorrow see me well versed, with two quite different poetry events, which I'll be writing about for the official MLF blog. Keep checking back for new posts (I'll nudge you via Twitter); I understand the nice lady in charge of loading them into the ether is a bit snowed under!

At the weekend, I'll also be reviewing "Is There A Novelist In The House?" (shortlisted entrants include Susie Stubbs of Creative Tourist and Benjamin Judge, the other half of my other blog Ask Ben & Clare) and "Rainy City Stories: Writing About Place", a chitchat between author Clare Dudman, my list chum Nicholas Royle and 2008 Manchester Blog Awards Best Writing On A Blog winner Jenn Ashworth. I'll also, of course, be gracing this year's MBAs with my presence, where the wonderful 330 Words, which kindly put a couple of my stories out into the world, is pitted against Who The Fudge Is Benjamin Judge?. Oh blimey. I'm so torn, I feel like Natalie Imbruglia.

The events I've squeezed into so far (packed houses all round, so me not putting my name down was something of a silly oversight; thank goodness I have friends in high places) have incorporated as much fascinating production detail as they have highfalutin literary knick-knacks ("highfalutin" is totally the wrong word there. These are far from pompous or pretentious shindigs. It is however a good word, and one which I had to look up in the dictionary).


The first get-together was the Bugged launch, held in a room in the new but fleeting City Library; all fancy wallpaper and wood-panelling. This was the creative writing project mentioned in one of our popular regular features A Moment Of Fiction back in, ooh June, and encouraged contributions from scribes of all ilks. Co-founder Jo Bell filled us in on all the background and introduced each of the 14 poets, short storyists and "life writers" who gave snippets or full pieces of flash fiction, including the aforementioned Jenn (pictured above clutching McTiny and being stared at by the lovely little MLF dog adorning all 2010's promotional bumph) and also Valerie O'Riordan, who is mentioned later. Jo also explained the publishing process involved in getting the resulting compendium printed and distributed - the ever-improving "on demand" system worked a treat, she enthused. All the help you'll need to get your mitts on the collection can be found on the official site for "nosy buggers" (to coin a phrase).


To yesterday, now, and a special literary zine showcase, featuring Corridor8 (also, similarly, largely following the published-on-demand model) and Bewilderbliss, in the all-new Cornerhouse Annex (a much-needed space, if I might tangentally divert). Bewilderbliss has been described on this hallowed scrolly-uppy-downy site somewhere before, and issue four of the University of Manchester's Centre For New Writing brainchild features pieces by W&F cohorts Benjamin Judge (see above), Dave Hartley and Valerie O'Riordan (who also happens to be the fiction editor for the publication). Now, until the Annex gig, I'd never actually seen a copy nor witnessed the enthusiasm, cake-baking skills and humour-filled, almost humbleness (is that even a word?) of current editors Matt and Jon, but I was already a fan. You can buy it in the Cornerhouse shop; I suggest you do.

(As an aside, I wonder if there are quite enough links in this post. More to the point, I wonder if any of them actually work.)

A moment of fiction #6

This edition of A Moment Of Fiction sees a few new issues of zines we've talked about before hit the shelves, plus there are some submissions deadlines looming I thought I'd better mention.

To celebrate its first birthday, The Shrieking Violet is gorging itself with a epicurial special and issue 10 (no, I didn't get it either) features all sorts of food-related articles and recipes, including a review of the infamous Manchester Egg by poet, photographer and my neighbour Hayley Flynn, a cake map of Manchester by the Loiterers Resistance Movement's Morag Rose and a guide to foraging the very best berries by Alan Smith (also of the Loiterers Resistance Movement). Nom. The cover is by David Bailey of Good Grief! in Afflecks Palace, where you can pick up copies of the zine (also try Oklahoma, Cornerhouse, Manchester Craft Centre, An Outlet, Koffee Pot, Nexus Art Cafe and Piccadilly Records while the Salford Zine Library is outta town on vacation in Durham).

Thursday, meanwhile, sees the launch of issue 4 of Bewilderbliss, complete with a party and readings and everything in the NQ's Cord from 7pm. The outgoing team (as in they will shortly be handing over the reins, not as in they are a bunch of extreme extroverts, though they may well be that too) includes none other than Bristol Prize-winning writer Valerie O’Riordan, and the latest issue includes a story by my blogging friend and not-so-secret project collaborateur Benjamin Judge.

Following a successful launch a couple of weeks back, copies of the fragrant 3030 magazine ran out due to popular demand! I've been assured Common and Piccadilly Records have been restocked, and the issue is now up on the website too.

Pantheon magazine are looking for submissions for their second issue. The closing date is 4 September and full details are here.

The Bad Language creative writing posse are also inviting you to send in work for consideration for their second anthology, this time by 6 September. All information is here.

If you'd prefer to express yourself through visual rather than written means, I can think of worse projects with which to get involved than Papergirl MCR. Head girl Janice Stainton (@PapergirlMCR on that Twitter) is looking for artists and designers to submit up to 10 pieces of individual works or prints of up to 20 copies (doodles, photography, screenprinting, painting...) as well as cyclists willing to get involved in delivery. Submissions close on 1 September; to submit, send an email with your name and a link to your website to papergirlmanchester@gmail.com then hand in your work at Nexus Art Cafe, Dale Street, Manchester, M1 1JW, or post your work to Papergirl Manchester, 7 Ophthalmic Works, 2 Naples Street, Manchester, M4 4DB. (What a great address, by the way.)

ARCHIVE: Here are all the most recent posts of this ilk, if you need to look back over the various creative writing groups already mentioned and publications open to submissions: A Moment Of Fiction #1, #2, #3, #4 and #5, plus the Mini Moments Of Fiction: #1 and #2.

And don't forget to let me know if you want anything mentioning on this humble blog!

A moment of fiction #5

It's time for another bringing together of news about creative writing workshops, new zines on the scene and various other interesting project shennigans going on.

Tomorrow sees the launch of new magazine 3030, at Common on Edge Street from 7pm. The 3030 folk have a website and a Twitter account to follow, and you can contact them with your amazing ideas and wotnot via editorial@3030magazine.co.uk.

If you like photography, the first issue of Field Trip Magazine is available from Cafe Royal Books. Editor in chief Craig Atkinson had left his card on the special shelf in Common and his blog is quite interesting too. I'm liking the pictures from the camera he found in a charity store.

Now, Paper Planes have adorned these pages in the past, and one of their regulars has just started up their own creative writing workshop. I'm afraid you've missed the inaugural meeting, but they take place on every last Sunday of the month, so with the next on 25 July, you don't have long to wait! Sarah L Dixon runs the sessions in Chorlton Library from 1-3pm, and they're £5 (or £4 concs). See www.myspace.com/sarahldixon or email hectorandwanaka@yahoo.co.uk for more.

Don't forget: A Moment Of Fiction is a regular fixture so post a comment, email me or let me know via Twitter if you have anything you'd like mentioning. Here are all the most recent posts: A Moment Of Fiction #1, #2, #3 and #4

A moment of fiction #4 - zines special!

Right, my latest literary round-up has been gently gathering momentum behind the scenes, but I’m now ready to pull back the curtain and reveal the pulleys and levers behind the magic in a special zines round-up.

Nice timing is tomorrow’s Midsummer House Party, the launch event for the new adult learning and engagement programme at the Whitworth Art Gallery. The shindig runs from 7.30-10.30pm in the South Gallery (the one with floor-to-ceiling windows and ivy wallpaper by Thomas Demand), and there will be crafty goings-on with Manchester Craft Mafia, poetry readings from friends of For Folk's Sake and DJ sets from Pull Yourself Together, usually seen in the surrounds of Common on Edge Street. As well as spinning the old wheels of steel, Dan and Hannah of PYT manage to write and edit a fanzine, called Pull Yourself Together like the night, which is published every two months and available in independent record shops around the UK. Email hello@pullyourselftogetherzine.co.uk, check out the website here, peruse the online back issues or hotfoot it to the Salford Zine Library to pore over the hard copies.

Talking of SZL, Matthew and Craig have been busy compiling the now six-month-old collection into a downloadable PDF file available for browsing purposes if you can’t always make it to their Islington Mill premises. The librarians aim to offer monthly updates, so keep popping back to their online space to ch-ch-check it out. And don’t forget to keep donating your zines and self-published books as they become available.

Anyway, without further ado, here's a quick round-up of other zines on the scene. If you know of others, please keep me posted via email or the comments function.

Things Happen is a new kid on the block, which you can get hold of in The Hive, Contact Theatre and the Cornerhouse (though not in the shop as it's free). Dan, the man in charge, says he’s hoping to distribute through other places too soon; in the meantime he’ll let you email him (dandidthis@live.com) to ask it he'll pop a copy in the post for you. Dan says: “Contributions are actively encouraged, but we are only likely to include stuff that is pushing in the same direction as us... I'm sure only people enthused by what we write will be the ones likely to want to contribute anyway.” For signposting, check out the first issue of Things Happen here.

Issues of The Hare can be picked up in Centro and Night & Day in the Northern Quarter, plus Tiger Lounge on Cooper Street. As the good people behind the self-published project live at the bottom of the Snake Pass, copies can also be had in three pubs in Glossop - The Oakwood, The Beehive and The Star. Brown bread topics range from sport to history, with fashion and gossip the white bread subjects and quite a spread of satirical political pokes forming the sandwich filling. Rob and Max take submissions and the guidelines are loose (articles of 600-1,000 words in length, original artwork and the like) – just email theharenewspaper@hotmail.co.uk with your ideas. The Hare also has a Facebook group, called The Hare Newspaper. So modern, you guys.

Bilingual (German/English) b&n magazine was already on its fifth issue when I snatched a copy in the aforementioned Common. You can get in touch with editor in chief Samantha Bail (email bunmagazine@gmail.com) with words and pictures or follow @bunmagazine on that there Twitter.

Other Magazine is an exciting new online sashay into essay-writing, fiction, photography and general silliness. Follow @othermag on Twitter or visit the website for more on contributions and wotnot.

Now, I'm not saying the others aren't, but Pantheon is proper. It has proper writers contributing and everything, including Manchester’s own Nicholas Royle and Tom Fletcher. The seasonal magazine of “assorted observations and tales” describes itself as “a house for all disciplines – art, creative writing, illustration, poetry, cookery, photography, cartoons and more. There are no predetermined themes or rules”. We like the sound of that. You can follow @pantheonzine on Twitter or email pantheonmagazine@googlemail.com for information on how to go about sending in work.

Other zines that have come to our attention but haven’t yet been properly explored are the marvellously named New Wave Vomit, strange fiction (prose and poetry) collaborative quarterly Dark Lane and the mysterious arty pamphlet The Mill Press, the first issue of which I picked up in the Cornerhouse yesterday.

Setting the zine

I'm being a bit slow at the moment. I admit it freely. I keep getting invited to all these great events and exhibitions, bumble on over to them and have a swell ole time, then just shirk my duties and don't get round to sharing my thoughts with you until days, sometimes weeks, later. It's a bloody disgrace. I'm failing you as readers; I'm letting myself down.


You have two and a bit days to get down to Islington Mill for Stomach Pump, a show which officially gets the Salford Zine Library under starters' orders. Part of the Islington Mill Reference Library initative, the downstairs gallery is open 12-5. Unfortunately the last day is this Wednesday, which cuts things a bit fine, but please don't blame me as it only opened on Friday evening so it's all a bit fly by the seat of your pants which aint got nothing to do with me, honey.


Anyway, it's definitely worth crossing the river for, with loads of zines past and present displaying what a diverse creative underbelly this country has been grooming for many years. All the details are on the blog and if you're unlucky enough to miss the event itself, you can still email salfordzinelibrary@gmail.com to make appointment to go in and see if the lovely Matthew and Craig will show you their wares in their own sweet time.

A moment of friction

(See what I just did there? The addition of one small letter from the last post I wrote. Cunning.)

That last post of which I speak was all about literary zines and groups who accept contributions. This one is about a "collaborative storytelling venture" of the graphic variety, Fractal Friction. I'll keep it brief, so you can go off and check it out for yourselves. FF currently has a merry band of six artists on board and each week publishes a page to a "comic book" artworked by one of the six. This week will see page 17 uploaded, so you can safely assume that the project has been running for 17 weeks. Anyway, submissions are invited - "we want to open it up to others, and there will be guest slots available", says the blog - just bung them an email to fractal.friction@googlemail.com if you're up for the challenge.


The page here (quite Howl's Moving Castle, I don't mind saying) is by Conor Boyle, through whom I found out about this Staedtler pen foray. Conor once had the loathsome task of being my next-door neighbour, adept at being polite at my pathetic attempts to see straight enough to manoeuvre a PlayStation handset. Poor Conor was also the mild-mannered janitor to a stinking fat cat and the lucky recipient of my prized pianoforte, which took a whole half a day and four grown people to push across the hall from one flat to the other. Mr B has quite a penchant for les bandes desinees, so if you check out his blogging profile at Pencilmonkeymagic, you'll find a ripe collection of links to other illustrators of both similar and also rather different works.

A moment of fiction

Manchester really is a hotbed of literary musings at the moment, so I thought I'd do a quick round-up of what I have gleaned lately on the zine/chapbook/workshop front. This is by no means comprehensive, just a little wee listy I've been keeping for the very purpose of sharing it with you good people, whether you want to try and get in print yourselves or just fancy something to read on the bus. If you are privy to any other groups and publications encouraging the advancement of putting pen to paper, do let me know and I can do an update in weeks to come.

First off, The Knives Forks And Spoons Press (sans punctuation, which I'll allow as I can only assume that they're being ironic or referencing iambic pentameters or some such) are tomorrow gathering at the Crescent pub in Salford from 7pm for a book launch and readings by the likes of Matt Dalby and Alec Newman. Recent imprints include Michael Blackburn's Big On The Hawkesbury, Ryan Ormonde's Y Chromosomes and my blogging pal Adrian Slatcher's Extracts From Levona. You can also follow the poetry publishers on Facebook, which makes them quite modern.

Adrian Slatcher also pops up as the current contributor to the fabulous Rainy City Stories, which, via the magic of Google Maps, sticks a virtual pin in a place and links to a poem or story set there. Adrian's work is called The Ikea In Ashton Can Be Seen From Space; I have a piece on there called Hawthorn Lane. Rainy City Stories is affiliated with the annual Manchester Literature Festival and, as the brainchild of local social media maestro Kate "Manchizzle" Feld, not surprisingly it will keep you up to date with new postings via Facebook and Twitter (@rainycity).

Very timely for this Manchester literature compilation is the appearance last week of issue 8 - a public transport special - of lit zine The Shrieking Violet. As well as publishing a paper version (which you can pick up in Good Grief! - worth a trip anyway for all your comic and graphic needs - plus Cornerhouse, Nexus Art Cafe, Piccadilly Records, Oklahoma and the Craft & Design Centre), the Violets can be found beavering away at their blog and on Facebook.

If you fancy practising your black arts as part of a group, writing, reading and chatting about your work, Bad Language are a friendly-sounding bunch organised by Dan Carpenter (dan@badlanguagemcr.co.uk) and meeting the third Tuesday of the month at Nexus Art Cafe on Dale Street. While you wait for the flash new website to get properly up and running, keep up to speed with what's going on via the blog or Twitter (@BadLanguageMcr). Submissions for their first anthology closed last week, so expect a fab new pamphlet (with the Northern Quarter as its theme) soon; but for future reference email prose of 200 words max and poems of 40 lines max to submissions@badlanguagemcr.co.uk

Another imminent publication is the new Puppywolf collection of "the best of the Manchester poetry scene", which is due out in June. Keep up to date with various spoken word events around town via their website diary and Facebook page.

Quarterly poetry and prose publication Bewilderbliss (available in Cornerhouse and Blackwells on Oxford Road) is currently accepting submissions on the theme of revolution for issue 4. The deadline for stories of up to 2,500 words or up to three poems is 21 May - email bewilderbliss@hotmail.com, or follow them on Facebook and Twitter (@Bewilderbliss).

The Blank Media Collective (whose Neck Of The Woods show just finished at Nexus) produce a monthly online magazine called blankpages and are looking for contributors. Stories should be between 1,500 and 2,500 words, flash fiction or short shorts 100-500 words and poems 60 lines or less - check out the website for full submission guidelines and uploading possibilities or email editor@blankmediacollective.org, addressing it to either Phil Craggs, Fiction Editor, or Baiba Auria, Poetry Editor. They're also on Facebook and Twitter (@BlankMedia).

Their blog hasn't been updated for a while, but I hear that Unsung are still squirrelling away at their free Manchester-based monthly literature magazine that promotes "unsung, underrated, underground, unheard voices... prose, poetry, essays, pretty much anything", so email them via unsung.manchester@gmail.com or get in touch through their Facebook page to see what's going down.

More lit zines desirous of readers and writers in the rainy city are Geeek (also on Facebook and Twitter @geeekmagazine), Transmission and Belle Vue. This latter has no online presence at all from what I can tell, but there were copies on sale in Cornerhouse bookshop when I popped in last week. I hear it's also available in Piccadilly Records and The Britons Protection.

Britons has also been known to hold Succour Salons, a reading event by the journal of new fiction, poetry and art. According to their website, Succour has been described by Time Out as “a Granta for the Facebook generation”. Lucky they're also on Facebook, then. Issue 11, the Spring/Summer 2010 edition will be available to buy at Cornerhouse next month for the princely sum of £5.95 or thereabouts, and will be entitled February 6th, 2010 as all content was created on that day. As you may have guessed, the deadline for that particular issue has been and gone, but email Max Dunbar, the Regional Editor Manchester, with your begging letters in future: maxdunbar@succour.org.

Not really Manchester based, but run by a group of individuals scattered up and down this island nation, Open Wide Magazine is currently seeking submissions of fiction, poetry and also reviews for issue 23 - the deadline is 1 June, so email connect@openwidemagazine.co.uk or lay in a search for Open Wide Magazine on Facebook.

Last but not least is The Manchester Review, which publishes new and unpublished fiction, although their inclusions do seem to be signed writers largely linked to the Centre For New Writing at Manchester Uni (where the team is based), and have in past issues included the likes of Martin Amis, MJ Hyland, Chris Killen, Jenn Ashworth and Nicholas Royle. Still, if you think you're in with a chance, the next issue is out in October so email simon.richardson@manchester.ac.uk pronto. If, like me, you'd prefer to just sit quietly and watch, follow the account @mancreview on Twitter.