Skip to main content
Read page text
page 4
YOUR MSLEXIA MSLEXIA YOUR MSLEXIA letters, posts, emails, tweets WHAT THE L? Although I identify as a lesbian, I am a writer, editor and reader: not a lesbian writer, editor, reader. Perhaps the lack of lesbian writers (lesbian author, lesbian content) is because more women are identifying themselves in a similar manner? My writing focuses on characters no matter their sexuality. However, when writing my current project, I was struck by my hesitation to make a second character a lesbian – because I already had one. Suzi Feay states that there is a distinct lack of ‘L in LGBT’ writers going for the Polari prize and others, as well as within mainstream publishing. From an indie perspective, I’ve noticed the same lack whilst forming a longlist for the Fruit Bruise Press anthology. At Fruit Bruise, we’re working towards promoting and supporting transgressive, emergent, and excluded writers and I’d love to hear from lesbian writers. Alexa Radcliffe-Hart, Bedfordshire lexi@doghornpublishing.com I shall feel less isolated, more validated as I prepare my submissions, having read Suzi Feay’s powerful piece. It actually helps to know the odds at the outset, and is in a strange way almost encouraging. Suzanne Egerton, Motherwell @Mslexia @suzifeay I teach on a CW programme and I haven’t noticed any shortage. But not necessarily writing about ‘the lesbian experience’. @Mslexia @suzifeay Maybe it’s a Scottish thing! Just edited New Writing Scotland and we read plenty of queer-themed stories. Zoe Strachan via Twitter *Immediately puts lesbian in new book*, but I did have a 15 yr old who preferred kissing her friend to kissing boy. Judy Astley via Twitter Read Dyke Writing & @scarthomas interview in @Mslexia’s latest edition. 2 things have occurred: queer rage, writer’s rage #amfuckingwriting Sam @thequietscribe via Twitter @Mslexia I am so disappointed in your Dyke Writing article. What about all the new lesbian authors like @rsbuck, @andreabramhall, @ke_payne Vic Oldham via Twitter don’t forget Carrie Hunter, Lesley Davies, Gill McKnight, Crin Claxton, and Jane Fletcher! Andrea Bramhall via Twitter DEFLATED I was very excited and keen to submit my work to the Poetry Pamphlet Competition – until I read judge Amy Wack’s statements that she is ‘a fan of classical structure’ and ‘not big on prose-poems’. This left me feeling rather deflated. Hilary Willmott, Bristol I hope people are not frightened away by my love of form! I also love to be surprised. I recently admired prose poems by Richard Rant The horrid little dancing flame in the EDF energy advert really annoys me. I would go back to using candles for lighting and open fires for cooking rather than subscribe to a company proudly boasting such a smug, pop-eyed irritant as a mascot.
I see that copies of this ‘toy’ are now for sale on eBay. I am wondering who I dislike enough to buy them one for Christmas. HELEN SOMERS, Burnham-on-Sea Rave Running in the rain. No people around, just cars that zip past, foggy windowed, sending up spray. Eyes on the horizon, just me. I’m past caring what I look like. My hair is bedraggled and tangled around my shoulders. My clothes cling to me. There is nothing but the slap of my trainers on the pavement, the steady pace of my breathing, the wind and the rain. Liberating, invigorating, wonderful. ALISON WILLIAMS, Basingstoke ▶Womencartooniststhroughtheages 1944BARBARA SHERMUND Prolific, irreverant and sassy, she tended to depict jaded young urban women NEW YORKER, 29 JANUARY 1944, CARTOONBANK.COM ‘I want to study you a moment as you are’ Letter: PO Box 656, Newcastle upon Tyne NE99 1PZ Email: postbag@ mslexia.co.uk Message: facebook.com/ mslexia Tweet: twitter.com/ mslexia Comment: mslexia. co.uk/blog or follow the links from www.mslexia. co.uk ◀ Send your Rants or Raves to submissions@ mslexia.co.uk Gwyn and Carrie Etter. Seren has also published truckloads of free-verse. AW HANDY HINT When assembling a pamphlet for the @Mslexia comp don’t smash your USB key & take an hour to remember your backup account password. #tip. Dilys Wyndham-Thomas via Twitter SPOILER ALERT! Really enjoyed reading the stories in the latest Mslexia – I found them to be inspirational, and highly creative in tone and content and diversity of voice. I have one observation though: I feel Tessa Hadley’s comments should have been printed after the stories, because she gave away many of the twists and turns in the plot. The element of surprise is particularly effective in this medium. Babs Knightley Short via Facebook I must heavily recommend article in the new @mslexia by Katy Guest on how to be a book reviewer. Top tip: Don’t give the plot away! Viv Groskop via Twitter THE BLANK PAGE As a trainee psychiatrist, I have always been fascinated by the link between mood disorders and creativity. I have taken SSRIs for episodes of unipolar depression and felt noticeably blanker and less poetic – a commonly reported ‘blunting’ effect. Yet for many patients antidepressants have brought them out of a fug of sluggishness or slowed down a mind that is racing in too many directions to focus their talent. Dr. Penny Shutt 4 Sep/Oct/Nov 2012
page 5
MSLEXIA YOUR MSLEXIA from the mslexia blog Of bogs and hedgehogs Sara Hawthorn has been musing about the child’s imagination, Carla Grauls is trying to get her play performed, and Rosie has been admiring the cover for her new novel. To comment, visit www.mslexia.co.uk/blog ...The group of 8-13 year olds I work with has given me a sharp reminder of the freedom we have before our minds become clogged up with work, life and general tedious Grown-Up problems. They’ve told me about haunted shoes, a bunny whose face is really funny, and a fight between a tummy and junk food. Virtually nothing is too far-fetched for them – and why should it be? Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to write about a reincarnated budgie… Sara ...…I work with pre-school children and I’m also on a MA writing course. Even at three and four years old children’s imaginations are fascinating. We have a role-play hairdresser’s set up and one boy believes the clips are crocodiles with big sharp teeth, the big brush is a porcupine and the little ones are hedgehogs… Sarah Tarbit ...What happens when you give kids the opportunity to make their imaginings a reality? Well, they create a country and open their own embassy. No, really. The Children’s Republic of Shoreditch officially announced its independence on 4 July, and every Saturday the embassy is open to the public – but be warned they have strict border control and only those who think good thoughts can pass through and claim a Republic passport...
 Sara ...After my play Occupied (set in a derelict Victorian public toilet) was roundly rejected by all the new writing venues in London, I decided it was time to attempt to put it on myself, even if it was just a reading, but I didn’t really know where to start. Networking always scared me. Some people have the gift. I don’t. But hanging around theatres (to see plays or to volunteer, not just loitering… well sometimes just loitering) and getting to know literary managers is really a great way to get in... Carla ...Then there’s The Cover. Katie wants me to like it. She even goes so far as to say she’d like my input and feedback. I’m astonished I should get the barest look-in. She asks if there’s anything I don’t want. ‘Please – not a Tiny Man Walking into the Distance’ I laugh... ‘or Headless Female in Corset’, which adorns almost every historical novel I can think of… Rosie ...I’d heard the headless corset image for historical fiction was in order that the reader might project herself onto the heroine without being put off by the wrong hair colour... Cath Nichols MUMMY QUESTIONS I think the effect of the male partner is much more relevant than the effect of children. A partner can destroy your confidence by treating you as a housekeeper rather than a person. Bryony Jagger, Auckland, NZ As AS Byatt pointed out some years ago, a lot of women don’t start writing until after their children are grown. Yet this is rarely taken into account in terms of media attention, prizes, under-40 lists etc. Alison Anderson, Switzerland I always wonder how your contributors with children find time to write. It’s something that established writers don’t talk about much. Margaret Drabble claimed she wrote while her children napped. Doris Lessing claimed something similar. I found this hard to believe; I suspect many writers who are mothers must either be rich enough to afford a nanny or have very supportive house-husbands. Rowena Macdonald, East London This survey made me roll my eyes. Would you be asking these questions of male writers? Stella Duffy has written a fantastic blog on this. www. stelladuffy.wordpress.com/2012/08/05/ mithering-on-mothering Sharon Eckman, Pegsden, Bedfordshire One tweet = 140 characters including spaces. You don’t have to be on Twitter to send your week to submissions@ mslexia.co.uk A WEEK OF TWEETS Monday Mobility scooter arrived today. Can now go out in search of stories instead of waiting for them to come to me. Tuesday After exploits on scooter yesterday, back pain too bad to go out. Can’t imagine going on it ever again. Writing impossible. Wednesday Stuck in bed. Tried to write, but no ideas. Wish eccentric lady next door had not died and been replaced by boring couple. Thursday Undignified outing. Chip eating on scooter and Bath’s cobbled pavements don’t mix. Appetite lost due to seagull poo on seat. Friday Crashed scooter into wall on way to post short story. Elvis Costello key fob jammed controls. Elvis replaced by small elephant. Saturday Scooted along canal. Sense of freedom overwhelming. Asked husband how long it would take to scoot to London. Sunday Husband cleaning scooter due to coleslaw incident earlier. V. kind as he is not good with mayonnaise. Started seagull poem. DIANE SIMMONS was forced to give up work due to arthritis. She went on to study Creative Writing and Literature with the Open University. Her short stories have won or been placed in many competitions and published recently in the Yellow Room and Five Stop Fiction. NEXT GUEST BLOGS www.mslexia. co.uk/blog Be our guest We commission a new blogger each month. For details, visit www.mslexia. co.uk/submit ■ SUSY MACAULAY has worked in newspapers, radio and television and has recently started her own free local newspaper on the island of North Uist in the Outer Hebrides. She finds the work ‘demanding, funny and horrible’ and it keeps her ‘hyperventilating more or less all day’. If that sounds like something you’d like to try too, follow her from September. ■ NICOLA WHITE is the Leverhulme Writer in Residence at the Nursing Studies department at Edinburgh University, where she is both a ‘catalyst and scribe’, encouraging nurses to write about their experiences, and recording their stories to incorporate into her own work. Read all about it from October. ■ SANDRA JENSEN suffers from ME, is frequently ill, doesn’t drive, lives in a remote rural idyll in Ireland – and her hubby is abroad for six months of the year. Some weeks the only person she sees is the postman. Yet somehow she’s on the home straight with her debut novel, and will be blogging for us about how she’s getting on from November. Sep/Oct/Nov 2012 5

MSLEXIA YOUR MSLEXIA

from the mslexia blog Of bogs and hedgehogs

Sara Hawthorn has been musing about the child’s imagination, Carla Grauls is trying to get her play performed, and Rosie has been admiring the cover for her new novel. To comment, visit www.mslexia.co.uk/blog

...The group of 8-13 year olds I work with has given me a sharp reminder of the freedom we have before our minds become clogged up with work, life and general tedious Grown-Up problems. They’ve told me about haunted shoes, a bunny whose face is really funny, and a fight between a tummy and junk food. Virtually nothing is too far-fetched for them – and why should it be? Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to write about a reincarnated budgie… Sara

...…I work with pre-school children and I’m also on a MA writing course. Even at three and four years old children’s imaginations are fascinating. We have a role-play hairdresser’s set up and one boy believes the clips are crocodiles with big sharp teeth, the big brush is a porcupine and the little ones are hedgehogs… Sarah Tarbit

...What happens when you give kids the opportunity to make their imaginings a reality? Well, they create a country and open their own embassy. No, really. The Children’s Republic of Shoreditch officially announced its independence on 4 July, and every Saturday the embassy is open to the public – but be warned they have strict border control and only those who think good thoughts can pass through and claim a Republic passport...
 Sara

...After my play Occupied (set in a derelict Victorian public toilet) was roundly rejected by all the new writing venues in London, I decided it was time to attempt to put it on myself, even if it was just a reading, but I didn’t really know where to start. Networking always scared me. Some people have the gift. I don’t. But hanging around theatres (to see plays or to volunteer, not just loitering… well sometimes just loitering) and getting to know literary managers is really a great way to get in... Carla

...Then there’s The Cover. Katie wants me to like it. She even goes so far as to say she’d like my input and feedback. I’m astonished I should get the barest look-in. She asks if there’s anything I don’t want. ‘Please – not a Tiny Man Walking into the Distance’ I laugh... ‘or Headless Female in Corset’, which adorns almost every historical novel I can think of… Rosie

...I’d heard the headless corset image for historical fiction was in order that the reader might project herself onto the heroine without being put off by the wrong hair colour... Cath Nichols

MUMMY QUESTIONS I think the effect of the male partner is much more relevant than the effect of children. A partner can destroy your confidence by treating you as a housekeeper rather than a person. Bryony Jagger, Auckland, NZ

As AS Byatt pointed out some years ago, a lot of women don’t start writing until after their children are grown. Yet this is rarely taken into account in terms of media attention, prizes, under-40 lists etc. Alison Anderson, Switzerland

I always wonder how your contributors with children find time to write. It’s something that established writers don’t talk about much. Margaret Drabble claimed she wrote while her children napped. Doris Lessing claimed something similar. I found this hard to believe; I suspect many writers who are mothers must either be rich enough to afford a nanny or have very supportive house-husbands. Rowena Macdonald, East London

This survey made me roll my eyes. Would you be asking these questions of male writers? Stella Duffy has written a fantastic blog on this. www. stelladuffy.wordpress.com/2012/08/05/ mithering-on-mothering Sharon Eckman, Pegsden, Bedfordshire

One tweet = 140 characters including spaces. You don’t have to be on Twitter to send your week to submissions@ mslexia.co.uk

A WEEK OF TWEETS Monday Mobility scooter arrived today. Can now go out in search of stories instead of waiting for them to come to me. Tuesday After exploits on scooter yesterday, back pain too bad to go out. Can’t imagine going on it ever again. Writing impossible.

Wednesday Stuck in bed. Tried to write, but no ideas. Wish eccentric lady next door had not died and been replaced by boring couple. Thursday

Undignified outing. Chip eating on scooter and Bath’s cobbled pavements don’t mix. Appetite lost due to seagull poo on seat. Friday Crashed scooter into wall on way to post short story. Elvis Costello key fob jammed controls. Elvis replaced by small elephant. Saturday Scooted along canal. Sense of freedom overwhelming. Asked husband how long it would take to scoot to London. Sunday Husband cleaning scooter due to coleslaw incident earlier. V. kind as he is not good with mayonnaise. Started seagull poem.

DIANE SIMMONS was forced to give up work due to arthritis. She went on to study Creative Writing and Literature with the Open University. Her short stories have won or been placed in many competitions and published recently in the Yellow Room and Five Stop Fiction.

NEXT GUEST BLOGS

www.mslexia. co.uk/blog

Be our guest We commission a new blogger each month. For details, visit www.mslexia. co.uk/submit

■ SUSY MACAULAY has worked in newspapers, radio and television and has recently started her own free local newspaper on the island of North Uist in the Outer Hebrides. She finds the work ‘demanding, funny and horrible’ and it keeps her ‘hyperventilating more or less all day’. If that sounds like something you’d like to try too, follow her from September. ■ NICOLA WHITE is the Leverhulme Writer in Residence at the Nursing Studies department at Edinburgh University, where she is both a ‘catalyst and scribe’, encouraging nurses to write about their experiences, and recording their stories to incorporate into her own work. Read all about it from October. ■ SANDRA JENSEN suffers from ME, is frequently ill, doesn’t drive, lives in a remote rural idyll in Ireland – and her hubby is abroad for six months of the year. Some weeks the only person she sees is the postman. Yet somehow she’s on the home straight with her debut novel, and will be blogging for us about how she’s getting on from November.

Sep/Oct/Nov 2012 5

My Bookmarks


Skip to main content