Readers will believe anything...

...that's if the author is cunning enough!

I'm a big fan of opera. But it's the music I love. The story lines are almost always absurd.  Or, let's be honest, ridiculous.

Or are they? I went to see a new version of Rigoletto last night, streamed live from the Metropolitan Opera in New York straight into the Picture House in Exeter.  Ooh, so exciting!

The story line of this opera is completely crazy.  Or so I had always believed. It's packed with contradictions and absurdities.  But - last night's production was set in Las Vegas during the Mad Men days of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and all those guys.  The Duke was a singer in a night club, and Gilda was an over-protected girl who never went out, except to go to church, and so it was almost inevitable that she would fall for the first man to give her the glad eye.

I could - for  the first time - believe that Gilda would sacrifice herself for this rotten, awful man with whom she was totally infatuated. I believed she would have killed herself or let herself be killed to save him from any kind of harm. I remembered how much I loved Mick Jagger. I thought of besotted groupies on tour buses, willing to put out for anyone with a guitar. I thought of all those fans who killed themselves when John Lennon died. Making the Duke a handsome crooner who looked about 25 and could have passed for a young Elvis, instead of some fat old bloke in red tights, suddenly made the whole thing believable.

Las Vegas,Verdi, in the 1950s/1960s - you should have thought of that!

There are some fabulous out-takes on this link - http://www.metoperafamily.org/opera/rigoletto-verdi-tickets.aspx

True confessions - how much do we need to know?

We don't know much about Shakespeare's personal life. Who was Homer, then - apart from a character in The Simpsons? All those people who wrote the Gospels - does it matter that we don't know who they were?

The culture of celebrity and the everlasting poking and prying into people's private lives seems set to go on forever. There are new celebrity gossip magazines coming out all the time, but I'm sure I'd hate it if people really wanted to know all about my own personal life, or they printed photographs of me with my physical faults and failings ringed in thick red marker pen.

Luckily, most authors tend to escape this kind of scrutiny, and I'm sure the vast majority of us are grateful for that. But what if we want the reading public to know our secrets, feel our pain? Well, we can write confessional novels, can't we? 

I don't write confessional fiction myself. I'm going to avoid listening to The Bell Jar on Radio 4 this coming week because I don't think Sylvia Plath wanted people to identify her as the author of this novel, which was originally published under a pseudonym, Victoria Lucas. 

I wonder if she would have wanted it to stay that way, and I also wonder if she felt she had made a big mistake in publishing it, or even if it contributed to her early death? 

The Creative Writing Student's Handbook launched - and it's free!

Happy February, fellow bloggers!

The worst of the winter is behind us and we can all look forward to spring.

Or that's the theory, anyway.

Spring is a time when many of us decide we're going to achieve something this year - oh yes we will.  So, for those of you who have been putting off starting to write any kind of fiction, here's a little incentive. My fellow creative writing teacher Cathie Hartigan and I have produced an interactive handbook for creative writing students which will be available in free monthly instalments on www.creativewritingmatters.co.uk. Just click on the icon to the right of this post to take you straight there.

We want this book to be a useful resource for any writer. We welcome comments, suggestions and feedback.  The more people comment, the more useful this book will be.

The monthly parts will build up into a complete book which you'll eventually be able to buy. But, if you do the exercises we suggest, you could also treat this as a free online creative writing course.

Let's all get writing!

Teaching and learning...

Cathie Hartigan and I are very excited today because we have finished our new guide to creative writing - The Creative Writing Student's Handbook.

We have both been teachers of creative writing for a very long time and have had the huge pleasure of seeing many of our students become published writers.

But what distinguishes the commercially published writer from one who is still trying hard to climb the mountain?

We came to the conclusion that the students who do well tend to be the ones who are good learners.  So we've written a book which we hope will help all students to be good learners. You'll find the book on this website - www.creativewritingmatters.co.uk - in free instalments beginning on February 1st  2013.

We hope you'll find it useful and entertaining.  Do let us know what you think!

Seven little things...

What is it about the number seven?

Lucky seven, seven year itch, seven brides for seven brothers, seventh son of a seventh son, seven swans a-swimming, it's one of those numbers with which we all seem to connect.

I was very flattered when my friend Christina Courtenay nominated me  to receive a Very Important Blogger Award - thank you, Christina - and here's the Award itself:

Now it's my turn to tell readers seven hopefully interesting things about me:

1 I speak perfect Franglais.

2 I would like to be a vegetarian but can't quite resist the lure of bacon sandwiches - bacon from outdoor and organically reared pork, of course.

3 I'd like to have been an archaeologist but am equally happy excavating the plot holes in my own stories.

4 I am very good at wasting my time.

5 I like orange Smarties.

6 If I were to come back as an animal, I would like to be a whippet, preferably a fat, spoiled and lazy whippet.

7 I like sloe gin.

Christina has a fascinating blog at http://christinacourtenay.com. Do pop over and have a look!

Short stories for short winter days

So, it's still January, which some people feel is the gloomiest month of the year. My personal non-favourite is November, with January running it a close second.

But spring is on its way, we hope, and in the meantime we Choc Lit authors are doing our bit to brighten up our readers' lives by offering them a delicious selection of stories and recipes.

What else can you get for under a quid which will cheer you up and inspire you to go into the kitchen, if you see what I mean? If you're in mourning for Christmas, you'll find some recipes to give you that warm, fuzzy Christmas feeling again, but we've made sure that our suggestions are acceptable all year round!

You'll see the cover of this collection is now adorned with pretty blue irises, which are one of my own favourite flowers. They don't last long in water, but they give me enormous pleasure for the short time they are around.  We hope our short stories will give our readers some pleasure, too.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Choc-Lit-Love-Match-ebook/dp/B00AMQ1EG6/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1357819735&sr=1-1

What will 2013 bring?

We in the English-speaking world start our new year on 1 January, just after the sun has started edging its way towards us again, or rather as our planet tilts on its axis and we edge a little bit nearer the sun. Let's hope the UK has a better summer this year, with some actual sunshine from time to time!

I see a lot of my Facebook friends are making New Year resolutions, but a lot of them aren't. I think it's always a good plan to take stock once a year or so, and 1 January seems as good a time as any to do it.

My resolution is to use my time more effectively and try to have something to show for every working day, even if it's only a full litter bin. Sometimes, I find I have to write myself into a corner before I can turn round, growling fiercely, and write myself right out of it again. Let's be inspired by the success of a certain E L James, who The Guardian newspaper reckons earned a massive £42,000,000 last year!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/dec/28/books-years-bestseller-charts-commentary?INTCMP=SRCH

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/dec/28/el-james-writer-interview

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/apr/15/el-james-meet-the-author

Okay, money isn't everything. But wouldn't it be lovely to be able to play around with such a fantastic sum? I wonder what E L James will do with all that dosh? Maybe she'll tell us one day. She looks very happy, anyway...

The photograph is taken from The Guardian link above and is by Michael Lionstar.

Happy New Year, readers, wherever you are and whatever you do - and may the sun shine on you.