Speaking to Social Entrepreneurs

It's not every day that I get invited to speak to social entrepreneurs, but it happened, it really did and it was yesterday. 

You see, as well as gallivanting as a writery sorta person, I have been living a secret double life - hey, just kidding! Seriously, this is the work that I do on a day-to-day basis and have been doing since 2001. I am the creative director (lowercase please) of  a fledgling social enterprise entitled Script Social Media. My role is to develop "story strategies" (ahem!) for clients, stories which get told across social media platforms...

Anyway, the peeps from Unltd invited me to pop along and share my experience of living the social enterprise life. 

As these things usually go, I hadn't planned anything, I really hadn't. So, when Nick Buckley from The Mancunian Way stood up to speak I was filled with the sudden desire to...share a poem. Nick's charismatic and his presentation pinned people to their seats and he enjoyed a wild round of applause at its end. And then I got to share my poem. It's called The Mancunian Way too. I'm not going to share it in this post, but I promise, I will do so in the future. 

And after I'd shared the poem, which I read off my phone - it's unforgivable because I once knew if off by heart (*Sigh* Old age) - I told the audience how I'd stumbled (that's the word I stole from Nickala Torkington) into the heady world of social media. A series of fortunate accidents led me to orchestrate the social media for a charity dinner in the summer of 2014 and that event achieved a tweet reach of 12 million. I know that impresses some people and other people collapse like jelly when they hear the word tweet. I didn't do it on my own though. There were 9 of us. So, hats off to all of them. This experience ultimately propelled me to set up Script Social Media with two other like-minded people in October of 2014. 

Now, despite my work at Script Social Media, I'm really just doing what I've been doing for years. Telling stories. I guess I've found a new array of media to share stories on...

Anyway, you might be wondering what the image of a doorway has to do with anything. Perhaps it's a weak metaphor to where this is all leading, but I really don't know where that doorway leads into. I think it's filled with the imagination, or I'd like to think that, but you know, imagination is more important than knowledge and wild-haired Einstein said that (don't know in which language), so it simply has to be true. 

Review: The Wool Trilogy by Hugh Howey

For a while now, I've been intending to write something about a fab author who pens science fiction called Hugh Howey who wrote the Wool Trilogy.

So, you haven't heard of the Wool Trilogy? Oh boy. Where have you been?

Hugh Howey, appeared Deus Ex Machina in 2011 and rewrote science fiction and if that wasn't enough he also rewrote the book on self-publishing. Sure, others have emerged out of the silo of solitary writing too...but today I'm talking Hugh Howey stuff. And yes, he isn't self-published any more as he bagged a mainstream contract in publishing and that story is one which he tells very well himself on his web site, but I'll leave you to peruse through his blogs and find your own nuggets.

I could sift, particle by particle through each of the books which comprise the Wool Trilogy, namely: Wool, Shift and Dust and discuss the weakness and strength of each, where he KOs you and where the story strays a little...but you know, I'd rather focus on the one thing that I think sets Howey apart from many who dare wade into the shores of self-publishing-dom and drown.

He's the most courageous author I've encountered in a very long time.

Courageous? Yes. That's the word. He conjures up a world and breathes each characters full of ticks and flaws and each with a deep and abiding passion - that ache, that all good characters need - and then he flings them into a maelstrom and tests their mettle. And well, many of them don't make it. There's something so real about the way in which he writes that it actually hurts to experience each loss.

Sure, Howey has a way of putting his stylistic signature on the writing, so you know it's his, but is that a bad thing when we live in a world of samey blah blah blah? No, I would argue that it's a great thing.

And more so...there's something about the topic he's picked that mirrors our zeitgeist - it just fits with what's happening in the world right now and there's a part of you that wonders, just a little bit, if somebody somewhere isn't planning to build silos and force the remnants of humanity to live down there.

And perhaps it has already happened.

In the meantime, I'd suggest a torch, a blanket and reading in the dark when nobody's about to give you the unnerving feeling of living deep in the bowels of the earth and knowing you could be sent out cleaning at any moment...

Having a cup o' Joe in Cafe Muse...with a Master's student article to discuss...

via Instagram http://bit.ly/1Camyyw

Fabulous evening with coach, teacher and author of non-fiction book "Pitch Black", which charts the history of #black #footballers, which comes out on April 21st. And with him Farhad Ahmed...

via Instagram http://bit.ly/1HAZIH7

Meeting an author-to-be at #Rumi in Liverpool...Emi Onuora who has just written "Pitch Black" - the history of black footballers in the UK (1970s to the prrsent)

via Instagram http://bit.ly/1OxutPl

Finished my reading stint and now listening to tetraplegic poet Owen Lowery reading from his new book of poetry "Rego Retold" inspired by the paintings of Paula Rego and published by Carcanet Press.

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Woohoo! I'm at the #OctagonTheatre to do a reading from The Sleeptalker. Tis also the launch of Owen Lowery's book of poetry entitled "Rego Retold" published by Carcanet Press.

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Here at #MMU (Manchester Metroploitan University) for my first group session teaching #essaywriting. I'm in the new Business School's cafe. Really enjoyed teaching final year Law students the art and craft of the essay... #WriteThatEssayNow

via Instagram http://bit.ly/1DxRzhd

Roses are read...(a short poem)

"HIV" - a poem for National HIV Test Week

HIV

wedged into the bloat of Mankind, it lurks

coiled in the caverns of our insides

and it snares without hooks or nets or clamps

until all of our blood is occupied

and bellowing out, breaths become a blink

ground down by the weight of a dying heart’s pulse

and snaked into the body’s tributaries

the dried blood-tide ropes its territory

its naming has never contained it

no sound has delayed it, and yet we deny it

judging its victims, sinner, demon, beast

until it snatches one of us; too late we know

it has the seared conscience of a desert rock

and born deaf and dumb and bound to nothing

it forever strafes its code in spaces

whose first and final tourist is silence

and despite all the lines of ink we scribe,

it imprints itself and imprints itself and imprints itself

on every nation’s flag; yet it begs no translation,

because death has swallowed all our tongues.

ZHZ

#HIVTestWeek

A Haiku for Chorlton Book Festival

The hum of the wind
finds a hymn in the rooftops;
houses have no ears. 

So, a spot of good-old wedding grub. Bien sur, #NeilGaiman is unforgotten.

via Instagram http://bitly.com/1wqxSIl

It's a tough one; attend a wedding registration followed by scrumptious food or re-read #NeilGaiman's #TheGraveyardBook. Ho hum.

via Instagram http://bit.ly/1yxGiM4

The Curry Mile: a Series in the Making?

I've lived in Manchester since 1990, which was the year my family moved from Blackburn in Lancashire to a suburb of South Manchester. Unbeknownst to me at that time, our new home was located in an area of the city which was also the home of the team behind Danger Mouse; it was a dream come true for a fan of the series (I hope my arrival didn't precipitate its end!).

And I've been visiting the Curry Mile ever since.

I guess the Mile must have have slowly, imperceptibly, percolated away in my head until the novel was produced. The idea for the story actually came to me when I was living in France, bien sur. However, since the novel's publication, my muse hasn't stopped bubbling away, granting me tantalising glimpses of other stories.

It has taken  much longer that I would have anticipated to get the next book published, but let me share one tale about the adventure of getting the second book onto the shelves.

Soon, after The Curry Mile was published by Suitcase, agents came a-knocking and I signed up with a London-based agency (aren't they all London-based? Well almost), and my agent was sending out manuscripts and letting would-be publishers believe I was a woman.

You see, my agent, a junior at a large agency was ambitious and keen to cut her teeth in a competitive industry and she must have thought it would fast-track the book to publication. However, it was a deceit too great for me, and shortly after she shared her cunning plan with me, I asked the Agency to release from the contract...

You might think it was silly of me, that I should have gone with the flow, and maybe it was a mistake on my part. Following the debacle, I needed to take some time out to think things through. And I have.

Since then, I've been working on a series, in fact, on a series of series. I'm nearing the end of a prequel to The Curry Mile and I've been planning the follow-up to the novel itself...you know, that big question, "So, what happens to Sorayah after she takes over the business?"

The original version of The Curry Mile was a trilogy. I cannot say for certain that it will be a trilogy, but the story continues.

Since the launch of The Curry Mile, I've been working on some children's stories and I've also penned some YA (Young Adult) fiction. My aim now is to dedicate more time to writing and publishing and just, well, to share my stories. Life is richer for it.

ZHZ.

National Poetry Day 2014

The UK's National Poetry Day will be taking place on Thursday the 2nd of October and what is so special about this particular Poetry Day is that this year's theme is "Remember".
I was particularly moved when I heard this as the selection of this theme is a "nod" to the centenary of the outbreak of World War I, a war which transformed the world and brought about the modern age, and it was in this crucible in which fine poets such as Rupert Graves, Thomas Hardy, Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon - to name a few - were forged.
Of course, poetry itself is a form of remembrance, of moments that have passed which we hope to cherish, crystallising an emotion, a glance...

Today, we live in the world of social media so I thought it would be great to suggest a few social media web sites that may be of interest:
National Poetry Day on Facebook

National Poetry Day on Twitter

If you are keen to learn more about this years's National Poetry Day then visit the Forward Arts Foundation; they're doing lots of fine stuff and you can post your own events on their site.
The Poetry Society has also produced information on this year's National Poetry Day.
I'm looking forward to this year's National Poetry Day and remembering and hoping that, through the power of story and poetry, we can connect with those who have passed, and retain the harsh and cruel lessons of disharmony so that we can produce a lasting peace.

ZHZ.

The Curry Mile eBook - launched. Finally.

So. Finally did it. With the help of some good people I crossed the Rubicon into the Indie divide and at the same time transformed the paperback novel into an eBook.

Does UK Publishing Reflect Diversity?

The UK is amongst the most diverse countries in the world. The 2011 Census found that the ethnic minority population of London was the majority population. White British people accounted for 44.9% of London's population. So, considering that London is the home of UK Publishing and that the capital's population, do you think ethnic minorities are well represented in print?

Thoughts on Writing

I'm placing my fingers on these keys and punching out a few thoughts before I return to the real work of writing fiction.

Since my debut novel was published in late 2006...I harboured a dream to write books ranging from children's to science-fiction, yet struggled against the tide of life's minutiae to produce them. I confess that the notion of winning a literary competition snared me and I lost many months chasing the dreams of others, because I thought it would be impossible to win a glance from a Grand Publisher (as I call them) as they are seeking that humongous blockbuster, the next "big thing". 

I believe that emerging from a British minority community and seeking to be published in an environment which is white, middle-classed and conservative means few writers of diversity find traction. Books fail to reflect the origin of those who read them. I hope the appointment of Malorie Blackman as Children's Laureate will change matters. Yet, I suspect that most of us will remain Noughts.

The Grand Publishers will, of course, get what they want, but they will be astonished by its origin just as they were with Harry Potter.  

To date, I have written six novels and a screenplay and enjoyed listening to the professional, if somewhat unusual advice, from two London-based literary agencies. My work remains unpublished, because the market isn't ready for what I write. Apparently. 

So, I've decided. I will join the new tribe of publisher-authors, who are striking out alone on the wild path. Even as I go forward into the darkened forest, I am returning to an old way of crafting fiction, albeit carried in an eBook format and wielding the sword of social media.  Soon, I hope to begin publishing books. YA. Thrillers. Poetry. Wherever the muse takes me. You see, I finally realised that all I wanted was to share what I enjoy most; writing stories.

ZHZ

Writing Exercises: The Story Game

Image of 'Children' from Wikipedia

Want to test the enduring power of story-telling? Just say "once upon a time..." and witness the effect on a child. Is it social conditioning or genetic? I don't know, but I know we were made for stories. The ability to spin a tale is essential for story-tellers and children can learn how by playing a great little game.

Basic Formation

1. Nominate a Time-keeper. This person will stay outside the circle.
2. Form a circle made up of 3 or more children.
3. One person is chosen as the spark for the story. They begin with the words 'once upon a time...' and continue...
4. The Time-keeper will cry 'next!' after 60 seconds. Whoever is telling the story must stop and the next person will continue from where they left off.
5. Keep going till you reach the end of the story. Or until the bell rings!

 Tips

• Relax.
• Listen - yes, listen to the story-teller.
• Let your mind conjure up images and sensations.
• Be expressive/use body language.
• Pause to heighten tension.
• Use eye-contact.
• Use logic (in your story-telling).
• Insert 'telling' details into your story.
• Practise!

 Spicing Things Up!

• Leave out a Time-Keeper. A story-teller stops whenever they want, after a second, a minute...go with the flow.
• Use a story bag filled with random objects. The first story-teller picks out an object and starts telling a story involving the object. After 60 seconds the next person picks another object and incorporates it into the story...
• A person can be chosen to 'act out' the story being told.

This is a powerful game. I have watched hesitant story-tellers transformed into magical bards after two tries! Why don't you give it a go and see where it takes you?

Writing Exercises: Painting Word-Pictures of Still Life

This is a fun game designed to get children playing with words by using their senses.

A wordsmith may be great at telling a story, but fall foul of plot. Others can conjure up unforgettable characters, but their dialogue is limp.  And even many experienced writers often trip up on description.

This exercise is amazingly powerful at their creative juices flowing. And it's simple and easy to do.

The aim of the 'Still Life' game is to paint word-pictures!


What do you need?

• Pen and paper
• An object

The Rules of the Game?

• Select an object
• Create an air of mystery about the object.
• Then present it! 
• Encourage the children to use their senses...

• Get the children to walk around the object - instruct them to try different angles

Ask them: 

• What is the object? Can they think of alternative names?
• What colour is it? Can they think of different ways to describe the colour?
• What is its shape?
• How does light act on the object? 
• Does it resemble another object?

If safe, pass the object round:

• Is it hard, soft? Heavy, light? 
• Warm, cold?
• What kind of texture does it have?

• Does the object make a sound?
• Which part of the object does the sound come from?
• Is it a pure sound? A note?
• Does the sound resemble any other?
• How long does it last?

• Do they think the object has a taste? 
• Could they describe it?

• How does the object make them feel?
• Is it special in any way?
• Does the object recall a memory?

• What is the story of the object? How did it get there? Where is it going? Where was it made? By whom?
• How is it placed? How does the object relate to other objects around it...

Then:

• Get them to read out what they've written

Once they have the hang of the exercise, ask the children to write what they see as:

• A poem
• A short story
• A title
• A letter
• A text message
• An email

  

Extra tips:

• Prepare beforehand - I suggest selecting five objects.
• Five objects could take more than 30 minutes to describe!
• The more intriguing the object the more involved the childen will get.
• Children will improve each time the do the exercise - but don't do too many objects!

Finally: 

If your group enjoys this exercise, suggest keeping a notebook handy to take notes. Writers depend on random scribblings to populate their writing. You never know when you might need a descriptive piece of writing.

Have fun!