The continuing adventures of a girl trying to achieve forty things before she hits the grand old age of forty...
9th June: surviving most glamorous festival ever and achieving published status (sort of)
Number 9: Get something published (progressing/achieved?)
I have to start this entry with a huge thanks to my good friend Julia for this one. Not only did she very flatteringly compare me to Oscar Wilde in a recent web interview (no pressure), she also recommended me as a new ‘witty columnist’ for TFN magazine. I was pretty nervous having never really written articles before. I have had a number of reviews on websites and in Ottakar’s magazine, but never a serious article. Fortunately the editor managed to reassure me that what was actually needed was far from serious and more akin to 500 words of light hearted nonsense about working in the voluntary sector. Nonsense is something I can do.
So 8th June heralded my first ‘published’ article which is both in TFN magazine and online. Hurray! One of my colleagues in fact read it before I did, as they have a Google alert telling them whenever the name of my work is mentioned online. So, someone complimenting you on your writing without you directing them to it; that’s sort of being published isn’t it?
The Beatles may have suggested ‘all you need is love’, but in my recent experience it turns out what you actually need is friends. Julia isn’t the only one deserving of thanks here; all my friends and family have been so supportive for so many years. They have encouraged me to keep going when all seems lost. They have waded their way through my writing; whether the more successful pieces or the truly awful ones (of which there are many). They have recommended techniques and competitions and outlets for my work. They have given constructive feedback, some of which I have listening to and taken onboard without grumbling too much. Ok so we’re not quite at the point where I’m sitting in a big floppy hat being paid to write splendid, erudite fiction which receives terrific reviews and still sells a packet, but we’re nearer than I’ve ever been!
In my last entry related to getting published I mentioned the recent SAW Conference. Both the conference and recent speaker talks at the Edinburgh Writers’ Club have really persuaded me that in order to get published any writer these days, especially a little known one, needs an online presence. They also need to consider the e-book route. Thanks to my brother at this point for not saying ‘I told you so’ too much. He’s been talking about e-books for a long time. Being a major fan of the independent bookshop vs online shopping and loving nothing more than the feeling of selecting a book from the long shelf and opening it to smell the end papers I have resisted it for a long time. Now I have to admit the e-book route is calling. At least in the first instance. I have to allow the book a chance to sell itself. If it doesn’t and it isn’t any good, then maybe that just shows writing is always going to be a hobby. After all, something that you love doesn’t always translate into something which you’re good at, or which you deserve to be paid to do for a living. However should it prove relatively successful then I can still go down the traditional paper publishing, long shelf, independent bookshop and end paper smelling route with more confidence and a bit more of a reputation behind me.
But anyway I’m waxing lyrical. Enough of this. The main point of this entry is to celebrate success so far, to thank everyone for helping me to get to this point and to mention a point of revelation. My aforementioned floppy hat wearing vision does mention the word erudite. The fact is, much as I enjoy reading a good Man Booker winner or similar, I actually seem to be good at writing a.) adventures b.) scary bits in Crime/Science Fiction c.) entertaining / humorous nonsense.
At least I can now sit back in the comfort of knowing that my route lies, therefore, in genre fiction. My years of frustration at not being able to write like Graham Greene are behind me. Not actually being Graham Greene, I’m not going to be able to write the next ‘Quiet American’. That said; there is that slightly random Graham Greene novel about a spy and the cake weighing competition...so maybe there’s hope yet?
Number 10: Go to a festival (achieved)
Primavera Sound was an amazing experience. The festival is based down by the waterside in Barcelona. Sitting, listening to and watching live bands with a backdrop of sailing boats and sunsets over the sea was just incredible.
During this post I have to make a couple of admissions. The first is that it was all just so much more civilised than I imagined. There weren’t huge groups of overly drunk people swearing and throwing things and being sick everywhere. In fact there were groups of well behaved Europeans dancing, standing and singing along to the music in a very civilised fashion. Sadly the only group of fancy-dress clad drunkards we saw were British. How embarrassing.
My second admission is that I really didn’t expect a festival to be quite that glamorous. I managed the jigsaw competition of fitting four days of packing into tiny hand luggage as I was too cheap to pay the hold luggage fee. Therefore I really had only packed the usual vest tops, jeans, floppy hat and sundress affairs which I'd usually cram in for a week's holiday. Seeing the surrounding slim, tanned, fashionably dressed crowds made my friends and I vow to prepare for the festival next year by dropping two stone in weight, getting a spray tan and getting out a bank loan to go clothes shopping.
We saw some great bands; some of which I had heard of like the XX and M83. Others were more random and others truly ear bleedingly awful but that’s all part of the experience. Much as I like camping, it was also good to be able to come away from the setting and have a good night’s sleep in our well positioned hostel near la Ramblas, so we could return refreshed and happy the next evening. Also it gave me the opportunity for a bit of sight seeing, eating, drinking and people watching in beautiful Barcelona. And I got to practice my CD learnt Spanish (see previous entry). I didn’t order any shoes but I was able to ask for some stamps and understand when the woman told me to buy them at the Tobacconist. Being a vegetarian caused some issues, but resulted in a fantastic salad which had an A-Z of ‘things the chef hurriedly found at the back of his cupboard that didn’t have meat or fish in them’. These included olives, dried apricots, cheese, almonds, carrots and prunes. Fantastic! My true high point eating in Spain however was managing to consume nine cheeses in one day.
Oh and if anyone can tell me why exactly bottle lids are supposed to be so dangerous at festivals I’d be grateful. There were signs everywhere. Bottles; fine. Bottle lids; apparently fatal. I didn’t see any signs of blinding, maiming or other lid-related injury, but am now trawling the internet with interest.
Enough digression and on to my final revelation; I may not yet have hit forty but I’m slightly worried I might still be getting a bit old. Standing up for three whole days made my back ache and my feet turn into trampled pasties more than running my recent half marathon. But then in my defence the Cure did play for three hours. But then they must be in their fifties so if they can cope with it then I’ve got no excuse.
