So I've been trying to find new short stories for my longest running reading groups. When we started the project 10 months ago I was like: 'There are 6000 short stories and poems on this database! I'll never run out!' Unfortunately I appear to have used up all the really good ones already - and the longer running groups have gotten pretty discerning. So I've been buying, borrowing and begging short story collections and anthologies to try to bulk out the existing stock. At the minute I'm reading a collection by Jean Rhys. It's very odd. All the stories so far have been crazily short - like not even stories, more like descriptive vignettes or snapshots of a single moment in time. They're lovely, but I'm not sure what the POINT is? I don't think I could use any of the ones I've read so far in a group.
What's strange is that her short stories aren't at all how I imagined they'd be. I've only ever read one thing by her before, a novel called Wide Sargasso Sea - which is told from the point of view of Bertha Rochester (the madwoman in the attic from Jane Eyre) only she's not actually called Bertha - that's just the name Rochester gives her. It's a brilliant book. I haven't read it in years but I think I might have to go back to it and see if I'm remembering her writing wrongly or if the short stories are really as different as I imagine.
I'm also reading a collection by Angela Carter. Love Angela Carter, her short stories are EXACTLY how I imagined they'd be. Surreal and dirty and twisted and mad. I'm also reading Diana Wynne-Jones last book, the one her sister had to finish. I'm taking it really slowly, because I know that once this is done there will never be another one. That's a gut punch. No more DWJ books ever. Jesus. I'm also applying for jobs! Found three I might like and might even have a chance of getting... If that happens then all this short story searching will be a moot point. Fingers crossed!
Thursday, 3 April 2014
Tuesday, 1 April 2014
Choppy waters.
Typical me! One week later I remember I started a blog! Ah well, my favourite blogger sometimes goes months without an update if she doesn't feel like it. If I average once a week I'll be delighted. Had a pretty busy one since last post - working at the weekend and working yesterday evening so they'd have been out anyway. Really I'm only a few days behind...
What to write? What to write? Well I DID finally pay off that big debt I was talking about. WUNDERBAR! Also got some extra cash in last paycheck because they had to pay me holiday pay because of end of contract - so I managed to clear some other niggly wee debts. This month (for the first time in forever) I might actually have money in my account when NEXT payday rolls around. How the other half live, eh? Haha! It's a nice feeling though. Have treated myself to some new books and some other wee cheap presents - running shorts etc. The joys of being able to buy more than basic groceries! Was even able to afford a night out and some concert tickets. I'm not hard to keep really.
Unfortunately, because of work, I missed the second class in my beekeeping course on Saturday - so I have to spend the coming weekend getting caught up with that. B. - the teacher - said he'd keep the notes for me. But I need to pass a practical exam on the stuff he's teaching at the end of next month, so I'll have to actually READ the notes. Like STUDY. Been a while since I had to do that. Lucky I'm a stew who loves that shit. The beekeeping is a weird one. I like the idea of it and all the beekeepers I've met so far have been totally my kind of people - lovely, friendly eccentrics who have no idea that they're odd. I'm not planning on buying a hive or any bees just yet though - that's a big commitment. Will see how I get on with the course first and will practice on the communal hives in Culturlann.
Got my hair chopped last week. It's pretty short. Who am I kidding - it's SHORT. Last time I went the hairdresser talked me out of going this drastic but I still kept obsessing over it. This time I just insisted and she didn't argue. She even got out the clippers! You know it's short when they get the clippers going. I like it but it's definitely that sort of short that the pool of guys who are likely to be attracted to me has shrunk by about 90%. I don't mind this at all - and I was reminded of WHY this doesn't bother me today as I left the prison after my Tuesday reading group. As I was walking out some teenage toerag shouted from a cellblock: 'Oy! Are you a wee boy or a wee girl?' and then pished himself laughing. Let's be honest - I am missing out on NOWT.
My reading group are older men - too elderly or too unwell to engage in the other programmes the prison runs - but they're all thinkers. About 50% have serious problems with literacy, but they are all intelligent men with life experiences and opinions and something interesting to add to the discussion. The younger guys - the ones who spend their prison sentence in the gym - they'd NEVER come to my group. Thank god. It takes some mad skillz to find a way to act like an entitled, chauvinist prick whilst locked up in PRISON. I ignored him, of course, but what makes some men think we even care what their opinion is? It's crazy. If my new hair means I'm less likely to get tackled by every drunken, chauvinist moron in the town on a weekend night, then bring it on, I say. I think it suits me. I'm not going to be troubling Vogue's door with any length of hair - at least this way I look sorta... gamine, I think. Note the troglodyte shouted 'wee girl or wee boy' - not man or woman. Ha!
What to write? What to write? Well I DID finally pay off that big debt I was talking about. WUNDERBAR! Also got some extra cash in last paycheck because they had to pay me holiday pay because of end of contract - so I managed to clear some other niggly wee debts. This month (for the first time in forever) I might actually have money in my account when NEXT payday rolls around. How the other half live, eh? Haha! It's a nice feeling though. Have treated myself to some new books and some other wee cheap presents - running shorts etc. The joys of being able to buy more than basic groceries! Was even able to afford a night out and some concert tickets. I'm not hard to keep really.
Unfortunately, because of work, I missed the second class in my beekeeping course on Saturday - so I have to spend the coming weekend getting caught up with that. B. - the teacher - said he'd keep the notes for me. But I need to pass a practical exam on the stuff he's teaching at the end of next month, so I'll have to actually READ the notes. Like STUDY. Been a while since I had to do that. Lucky I'm a stew who loves that shit. The beekeeping is a weird one. I like the idea of it and all the beekeepers I've met so far have been totally my kind of people - lovely, friendly eccentrics who have no idea that they're odd. I'm not planning on buying a hive or any bees just yet though - that's a big commitment. Will see how I get on with the course first and will practice on the communal hives in Culturlann.
Got my hair chopped last week. It's pretty short. Who am I kidding - it's SHORT. Last time I went the hairdresser talked me out of going this drastic but I still kept obsessing over it. This time I just insisted and she didn't argue. She even got out the clippers! You know it's short when they get the clippers going. I like it but it's definitely that sort of short that the pool of guys who are likely to be attracted to me has shrunk by about 90%. I don't mind this at all - and I was reminded of WHY this doesn't bother me today as I left the prison after my Tuesday reading group. As I was walking out some teenage toerag shouted from a cellblock: 'Oy! Are you a wee boy or a wee girl?' and then pished himself laughing. Let's be honest - I am missing out on NOWT.
My reading group are older men - too elderly or too unwell to engage in the other programmes the prison runs - but they're all thinkers. About 50% have serious problems with literacy, but they are all intelligent men with life experiences and opinions and something interesting to add to the discussion. The younger guys - the ones who spend their prison sentence in the gym - they'd NEVER come to my group. Thank god. It takes some mad skillz to find a way to act like an entitled, chauvinist prick whilst locked up in PRISON. I ignored him, of course, but what makes some men think we even care what their opinion is? It's crazy. If my new hair means I'm less likely to get tackled by every drunken, chauvinist moron in the town on a weekend night, then bring it on, I say. I think it suits me. I'm not going to be troubling Vogue's door with any length of hair - at least this way I look sorta... gamine, I think. Note the troglodyte shouted 'wee girl or wee boy' - not man or woman. Ha!
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