Kissing Frankenstein and Other Stories

Introducing the Flash-Fiction South-West Anthology Kissing Frankenstein and Other Stories.

Featuring a collection of teeny tiny flash fiction stories from all over the south west of the UK in celebration of Flash Fiction Day 2012.

I'm really excited to have one of my stories 'Little Bug' in here! You can buy it here as a printed book and I believe a Kindle edition will be following.

Definitely looking forward to getting this and reading through all the other flashes :)

Film Review: True Grit

I finally got round to watching the Coen Brothers' True Grit (2010).  You probably know there's a late '60s version with John Wayne starring as the anti-hero Rooster Cogburn.  You probably also know it's based on a novel by Charles Portis (no I haven't read it).  To be honest you've probably already seen it anyway.

Well it ticks all the appropriate Western boxes.  It has "sepia tones".  It has a grizzly boozy Marshal on the fringes of society, although I'm not really sure why he would so easily throw down his life to rescue the precocious and slightly weird Mattie Ross by the end of the film.  This may have had something to do with my only being able to understand every fifth word Jeff Bridges said.  I probably missed some important plot development there.

Reading 2012

A Game of Thrones - George R R Martin (loved it!)

Children of Men - PD James (I was expecting to love it, but found it strangely disappointing)

Of Mice and Men - Steinbeck (can't believe I hadn't read this before. Bit miserable ain't it? Dead mice, dead dogs, dead puppies, dead women...)

Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (a re-read for work)

A View from the Bridge - Arthur Miller (another re-read for work)

A Clash of Kings - George RR Martin (I still love it!)

Notes on a Scandal - Zoe Heller (enjoyed this)

No Country for Old Men - Cormac McCarthy (cinematic prose)

Night of the Iguana - Tennessee Williams (sultry, seedy and um, lizardy)

A Storm of Swords - George RR Martin (I was reading this for bloody weeks. Need a break!)

White Oleander - Janet Fitch (don't be sucked in by the poetic prose - it's just chick lit)

Home - Toni Morrison (a bit underwhelming)

We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver (pretty dire)

The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks (a re-read. Enjoyable but typical Banks - great premise and build up but shame about the ending)

As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner (absolutely brilliant)

Even the Dogs - Jon McGregor (weirdly I read this after As I Lay Dying - which it's directly influenced by. I quite enjoyed a lot of it, but sometimes it seemed a bit forced)

Brick Lane - Monica Ali (couldn't finish it. Page 178).

The Song of Achilles - Madeleine Miller (essentially a romance genre novel wrapped up in a bit of Homer. Quite disposable)

Oedipus the King - Sophocles, trans. Robert Bagg (a more modern translation. Jarred in a few places. I'd also prefer a bit more gloomy melancholia)

Just My Type: A Book about Fonts - Simon Gafield (loved it! Who doesn't love a good font/typeface?)

The Penelopiad - Margaret Atwood (quite fun but a little forced in places)

Much Ado About Nothing (a re-read for work)

The Lacuna - Barabara Kingsolver (I found this a bit of a drag in places but some of the American history was quite interesting - McCarthy era red witch-hunts)

A Feast for Crows - George R R Martin (a bit slow in places and missing loads of characters.  Definitely the weakest of the bunch so far)

Family Album - Penelope Lively (my first by her. Terribly middle class but quite enjoyable. Not sure there really was an awful dark family secret though)

The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood (a re-read. She's still one of my favourite writers)

22.11.63 - Stephen King (seriously is this for real? YAWN)

The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins (yeah this was quite fun)

Revolutionary Road - Richard Yates (despite some really moving parts didn't grab me as much as I thought it would)

I heart I Claudius

I've just finished re-watching the BBC adaptation of I, Claudius (1976).  I've always been a sucker for Roman history.  I even stumbled through a Latin A-level.  Some of my fondest school memories are of Metella est in atrio, and Grumio est in culina and poor bloody Cerberus est always in via.  I use "fond" in the loosest sense you understand.

Whenever it was time for a "fun" lesson our Latin teacher would whack a creaky VHS of I, Claudius into the VCR.  Being a teacher now I can appreciate the inward sigh of relief about a "fun" lesson spent watching something vaguely relevant.

They're all a ghastly bunch of course.  The Romans I mean.  The Julio-Claudian family were poisoning each other left right and centre.  That's probably because they were all hugely inbred, what with the marrying first and second cousins and nieces and all that.

But the BBC do it well.  No special effects, no snazzy edits.  Just good solid British drama and the cliche of wobbly sets (this actually happens).  Some of the microphones aren't properly set up either so you can't hear some of the lines.  All the high class Roman families and senators speak with perfect RP.  They all get terribly shocked by the scandals going on around the Palatine.  We get treated to an array of acting heavyweights too: Derek Jacobi, Sian Phillips, Brian Blessed, George Baker, John Hurt and Patrick Stewart.  Patrick Stewart!  He's the 'got ideas above his station' Praetorian guard, Sejanus.  Still speaks impeccably though.  Perhaps the chief of the guard was an Equestrian?  One of my favourite parts has to be John Hurt prancing around in make-up and women's underwear as Caligula in his 'I'm totally mad, me' phase.

Of course, all the rest of the army - the grunts and shafters - speak with regional accents.  From wherever you like.  As do all the workers.  Love it.

Poems

Some of my poems are now up over at Danse Macabre. Two (The Collector and Fault Lines) are in the Isotropic poetry section, and one (On the Couch) is part of their "Du Jour" teaser. I'm putting the links here but I think the second one might change later on.

This all made me very happy! Danse Macabre has some really wicked themes and the quality is always high. The theme for this issue is "Strontium". According to DM:

"Strontium is a soft, silvery metal most widely known for the synthetic isotope strontium-90 (⁹⁰Sr), a product of nuclear fission. Strontium-90 is present in radioactive fallout (aboveground testing 1945-1980) and releases from nuclear power plants (e.g., Chernobyl in 1986 and Fukushima last year)."

and

"STRONTIUM, however, is different. This time, you bring the context with you."

Shopping

...and it ended badly.  Or well, depending on your view!

I was in London anyway you see, for some Edexcel training.  So it would have been rude not to.  Plus I'd only been to the one on Conduit Street, so visiting the one in Covent Garden could only give me a sense of completion.

All in all I prefer Conduit Street as it's bigger and has more on display, but Covent Garden was lovely too - especially the staff.  She actually did a little scream of excitement when I said, 'Ahhh, go on then,' and whipped out my battered credit card.  She also showed me the inner sanctum.  Well a cupboard of special offers anyway.  I was momentarily tempted by the Sienna in tan, reduced to £50.  'It looks like something Indiana Jones would carry,' I sighed, thinking of Harrison Ford and his whip.

But my heart was already set on one thing...

Look I didn't buy both.  Well not at the same time anyway.  I bought the Deco a few weeks ago when it was half price.  I made my long suffering friend Alison go and pick it up for me.  She called the shop and got it put aside as it was the last one in stock!  I only wanted it in ivory you see.  So I was meeting Alison to collect it.  But I also had my eye on the Osterley.  I've been using an Osterley in brown for a while now and love it.  But the plum...oh the plum.  What the hell, I thought.  It's nearly Christmas.  The photo above is plum, by the way - iphone cameras aren't that great.

I also got a free pen!  I'd never thought about using a Filofax pen before - I prefer to go a bit cheaper, but I must say it's great.  Writes really smoothly, the ink is very black and the small size isn't annoying at all.  I wouldn't like to make loads of notes with it, but it's great for a diary/organiser.

I've completely moved into the Deco now.  I stuck this postcard in that I've had hanging round the house for a while.  I think it used to belong to my great Uncle and I was just taken with the retro aspect of it.  It's also taken about 10 miles from where I live in Burnham on Sea.  So the plum Osterley is waiting for its moment.  I'll probably alternate them once the Deco glow has subsided.  The brown Osterley is having a rest.  

My set up is pretty much the same from before.  I've only changed the dividers (these are from Paperchase).  I might not write on them - quite like them plain.  Definitely worth getting these - they fit the Personal really well and have a gloss finish - only cost £2.95.

I've also started using Slimline address/phone inserts as then you get the tabbed dividers but just with a line for phone numbers rather than the whole address shebang.

I also bought this from Paperchase:

I'm using it as a diary.  Now I've never kept a proper diary before.  I'm using it to record fairly bog standard stuff really - what I was wearing, reading, watching, what I did, as well as a few things stuck in.  Not really into the whole Dear Diary, today I am blue, thing.  I just thought it might be interesting as a more factual record.

I know what you're thinking - why not use a Filofax?  I wanted something with thick plain paper that I could stick stuff in.  Plus I'm not sure if I'll keep on it - so this book seemed ideal while I test it out.

I've sold a Malden in vintage pink to make room for the Deco.  I got a lovely email back from the lady I sold it to, telling me she was going to use it to keep track of her dog training.  I've also put up a Finchley and another Malden so hopefully they will sell too.  I do love the Malden - but I never really gelled with the crimson like so many others did.  I'm just keeping my grey one I've decided.  If I sell those that will take me down to 4 Personals.  Not so bad.... (and plenty of room for later expansion, cough cough).

A few other things to look forward to:

ULLA!

Theatre Review: RSC Macbeth 2011

We managed to get tickets to the Michael Boyd production of Macbeth at the RSC in September.  Despite having taught Macbeth for around 4 years I've yet to go off it - a fate that often meets the other texts we study (Hamlet - shudder).  Anyone who knows me well knows I'm a bit of a fan-girl of early modern drama.  Shakespeare, Middleton, Marlowe...  I just love that good ol' tragic action and spectacle.

Now I haven't seen Macbeth live for years - not since Derek Jacobi played the lead in 1994 at the Barbican! How would the 2011 production compare?

The setting offers clues to this interpretation.  We are faced with a stark, eerie stage, full of broken statues and stained glass fragments.  Perhaps a reminder of the reformation and iconoclasticism?  The characters stride across these ruins, oblivious to their tragic arc and the workings of fate.  Interestingly, Ross is played sympathetically as a priest, trying to find meaning where there is none.

Ghosts literally haunt this performance.  Aside from Banquo, the ghosts of Macbeth's victims begin to fill the stage, following the King round and round.  Whilst this is visually effective, in the flurry of short scenes in Act 5 the audience is treated to a lot of feet clumping around as they gallop on and off stage, chasing the tyrant like Roman Furies.  This really is a play at the interstices of the reformation - broken remnants of Catholicism vie with very Catholic revenants.

One of the most intriguing aspects is the directorial decision to have the witches played by children: Macduff's children.  So we see a circular pattern of fate and violence where the children set up Macbeth's destruction on the heath, and are also the victims of this initial meeting, savagely slaughtered on Macbeth's orders.  I'm still not quite sure about this.  Shocking, yes.  But it hurt my head a bit - like some kind of Gordian knot.  There's no denying the power of seeing the witches for the first time however, hanging like broken lifeless dolls above the stage - before they start to jerk.  Freaky children eh?

I like Jonathan Slinger's Macbeth.  He's earthy and natural.  Lady Macbeth on the other hand is played quite safely.  Big hair harshly swept back and swinging dress - a real hard bitch.  I'd have liked to see a bit more subtlety in her.

The porter and Seyton though - wow.  Both played by the same actor, the porter's scene (you know the one - when he's pissed at the gate) reminded me a bit of Guy Fawkes.  Jamie Beamish swaggers around, yelling "knock knock" and getting lots of laughs before chucking a load of explosives.  But this comic character quickly develops into much more.  He often stays onstage, watching Macbeth and Lady M with knowing eyes.  And when the elusive Seyton appears in Act 5 (pleasingly pronounced "Satan") we begin to understand his role.  The porter/Seyton straddles this world and the after life, but he definitely seems to be of the devil's party.  Finally we see him surveying Macbeth's crumpled dead body left on stage.  The tyrant moves, starts to get up groggily, and moves to Seyton's beckoning finger, as he ushers Macbeth's ghost into the ominous door at the back of the stage...

In short, it's a wicked performance.  We stayed in Stratford overnight and were amazed at the lack of places to go after.  We found an Italian restaurant eventually.  I've already booked tickets for the production of Julius Caesar next year (part of the Shakespeare World Festival).  I'm an absolute sucker for any of the Roman plays.