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| Fat, dumb & happy. |
Right before the BIG DEAL happens, there
I sit fat, dumb and happy, trying to decide if it’s harder to know or not
know. Fiction writers do this all the
time. Wonder WHAT. WHICH.
HOW. WHY. The wondering of the moment is, as a novelist,
which would be worse:
Worseness Option 1: To know what you’re writing now isn’t as good
as what you wrote the last time and there’s no way to drag up something better
from yourself. The point where you know
it’s over, the snap of creativity gone, is that worse than =>
Worseness Option 2: What you’re writing now is leaps and
bounds better than what you wrote the last time, so you don't know why no one wants it. The bug flying against the window experience.
So anyway, I’m thinking about this when
notice of the BIG DEAL comes and swipes all Worseness Options off the
table. My leaps-and-bounds-better pleased
someone in an office far, far away. The
fact that nine other writers have pleased the same office doesn’t matter.
 |
| Calypso |
Last century (literally) when another
BIG DEAL happened to me, the people at work threw an impromptu tea party,
complete with cake. This century, my
office mates are a cat and social media. If you have a cat, you know there are only
cat BIG DEALS. Social media, it is, so.
By the end of the day, all congrats are
done and dusted, pushed out of the way by what Ted’s cooked for dinner and the
latest jab at men, women, the conservatives, the liberals, and a video of a juggling
hedgehog. Virtual life lacks appropriate
rituals to celebrate and cleanse the emotional palate. Not being the sort of person to whine about
the good old days, I go to bed.
The next morning, two of the other nine
people loved by that office far, far away have followed me on Twitter. How cool is that? So I look up all nine people, find five of
them and friends of two others, send my congrats, Google for anything
that any of them have ever written since pre-school. While I’m stalking them, they post congrats back to me and this is all very civilised for a battle to the death via BIG
DEAL.
And then that’s over because this is virtual camaraderie. I, who used
to spend my day giving witness to people’s most intimate secrets, I’m on my
own now.
 |
| Tell me it ain't so! |
That evening, there’s a Tweet from one
of the others => Is anyone writing?
It made absolute sense. Here we all were, ten recipients of the BIG
DEAL, our 15 seconds of virtual celebration over – who else knew better what we
were feeling than the people we were in competition with? And none of us able to focus or write – I,
myself had spent the day in a hammock with the Edinburgh Book Festival brochure. After jokes about becoming an instant therapy
group, the virtual friendship ended. The
inevitable, I suppose, because only one of us wins.
Four hundred people submitted for this
BIG DEAL. Four hundred voices with four
hundred stories so powerful, they couldn’t give them up, draft after draft
after draft. Four hundred voices who dared sing out loud; three
hundred ninety-nine will go quietly into the night.
I only know ten of those four hundred. Here are the other nine. Read them.
Follow them on Twitter. Check out
their blogs and websites. Keep them
writing. Let them know we hear them singing.
The Dundee International Book Prize shortlist:
.jpg) |
| http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-27794582 |
Under
the Tamarand Tree
Rosaliene Bacchus, California
Daughters
of the House of Love
Veronica Birch, West Country
She’s evaded my stalking efforts.
The
Open Arms of the Sea
Jasper Dorgan, Wiltshire
@TriskeleBooks
Sea
Never Dry
Ben East, Virginia
@hBenEast
benonbooks.wordpress.com
Some
Things the English
Rachel Fenton, Auckland
@RaeJFenton
snowlikethought.blogspot.com
A
Village Drowned
Sheena Lamber, Dublin
@shewithonee
Sheenalambertauthor.com
Out
Like a Lion
Robin Martin, New York
Ida
Amy Mason, Bristol
@AmyCMason
amymason.co.uk
The
Dreaming
Suzy Norman, London
@susynorman
http://suzynormanfiction.wordpress.com
This is a lovely post, Lora - though I really hope the friendship doesn't end, rather that we continue supporting one another through the next BID DEALs x
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