Date: 9 March
Time: 18.30-19.30 (ish)
Venue: BC Video-conference suite (as usual)
If you would like to go let me know and I will forward your names.
I'd love to say that I could tell you all about this writer ... but have huge gaps in my knowledge of contemporary British writers, I'm ashamed to say. One reason is that when I first moved overseas in the 1980's (to Nigeria first and then Malaysia), I felt that I was much too insular, too "Britocentric", so tended to avoid novels from my own part of the world, reading writers from just about anywhere but ...
I know, I know ...!
And this past year has really brought it home to me just how much I've missed! It's been a voyage of discovery, intensive readings of writers I've grown to have the greatest of respect for.
Now I've got how many days till ... okay, first I have to do a city-wide bookshop to track down copies of his books (apparently there's a couple of titles in Times in KLCC), and there are copies of other titles in British Council library. Then there's intensive reading ... this part I love most, sitting for hours in my favourite chair or over a "flat white" outside the cafe I frequent almost everyday ... with the best bookworm excuse in the whole world: "I'm not taking it easy - I'm working, I really am." Then I'll get together with my journalist friend who is interviewing him first, to bat around ideas of interesting questions to ask, issues to raise. (Booktalk gets the heart a-pumping and don't I just love that.)
So ... all you fellow bookaholics, come along on the day.
But more importantly, if you write fiction yourself, turn up and grill this guy about the issues in writing you care most about. Successful writers have so much to share with you about the craft!
4 comments:
Hi Sharon,
Wld hv written privately but just before cmng to UK & aft, wrote u 3 long warm letters - u never replied, not even my heartfelt comment on yr blg (January) so writing here.
(I'll remember this is yr living room while speaking plainly.) 2day,u admitted u didn't know yr contemporary Brit fiction. THANK GOD, FINALLY, A REAL TRUTH POPS UP..AN EYE-OPENER! For someone far more knowledgable like me, u hv blown yr cover & I suddenly see you differently. A local writer published internationally always realised u had scant knowledge abt the wldwide pub.industry. I didn't believe her. I longed for yr admiration, friendship, respect & approval like others & in wanting 2 share my knowledge always used my full name, risking humiliation & scorn with differing viewpnts when I spoke real insights. Yr good friend Chet instead of soaking up info, to better herself, even berated the likes of me on yr blog, as 'public fools.' - u had such critical judgements abt bks & writers esp. pub. abroad. But local works were all great. What u didn't know with yr ignorance, sadly, u mutilated all the rest (meaning authors, writers) So it all came to a sorry end for me!
It's not just contmpy Brit fiction u hv been left far behind with, Sharon. This is modern English writing in the UK 2day & for many yrs, has singlehandedly influenced the publishing world into vast generational changes, starting with NYork, moving to Europe, foll by Australasia & Asia, last with a mountain (Everest!) of techniques & sciences in revolving genres, forms, trends, styles, stories, author backgrounds, newer projection of the classics etc.
I am shocked! Thought you knew this basic truth! Where have u been hiding?
For yrs, I have done my homework so well that if u told me u had manuscript for abroad, I could at once direct you to the needlepoint target, country, town, publisher, agent, anything.. Its no excuse when you create a responsiblity to pioneer Msian writing and not to have done yr homework or know what is happening in the great big world of bks. To learn 2 write and slip your work in a drawer without purpose has no meaning. Otherwise, who is yr market & where & what kind of work??? Writing is not just abt staring at the stars! Questions that can only come from over time with a consistent deep knowledge, resarch insight & hvg fingers on pulse! England is where it counts even for world translation works. When I wanted to write I knew, I had to know british fiction like the back of my hand before anything else. Just common sense and astute reading told me this. This was in 1985. No internet then. I took ramshackle buses to soak in knowledge from libraries, bookshops & english poet/writer friends to help with reading materials & info. No Amazon.com just overloaded postage! Even those friendships had 2 b conceived thru diligence & courage. Only many yrs later wld I come to England. When I came, I already knew what was ready for me as a writer. So how can u blame being in Nigeria or Malaysia?
Someone like me now sees right thru u when u give feeble reasons for being so ill-informed.
Don't worry abt Toby Litt. Just google his name and u'll know everything in half-morning! Do u know his 10 favourite bks?? It's on the Net. At least, you owe the poor chap that. I'm sure you know he's got his own website??? I've known for ages.
Do u know how writing crime fiction worldwide has changed with an entire overhaul of detailed techniques & mechanics in solving a case? And that u can't write crime fiction the way u did even 3 years ago? So much to learn...
It's not just about going out at last minute to buy author's bks! At least u have time.
Oh my God, I really thought u & yr friends with bk clubs, critique groups and now writing courses, were the cream of the writing scene in Malaysia - that's how u project yrself subtly but insistently and I wanted so much to belong - then I got pushed right out in the cold. But now here alone in England, I know that I have real knowledge in my head - & that my excitement for my writing is real,purposeful & solid. Because that's what education does. It's a jewel that never leaves yr heart & mind. All my years of self-study have paid off to bring me to this point and here I was thinking you and yr writing friends knew it all and envying u lot. But never again, I have learnt my lesson. You have made me so happy today simply because I realise I truly know my books & publishing.
It also makes sense why u & Chet had no idea of what I was trying to explain the other day.
So if u don't know how writing works today or the actual reasons or mechanics that make for the conception of the books u read about, then those who look up to you and who know even less. It's a bit like the blind leading the blind isn't it.
Beryl Bainbridge was current in the 1970s/80's - you won't find her books easily in London these days.
& that in the end, what happened was no loss! But Sharon, you lost someone who could have truly given you knowledge & insight with my whole heart Sharon. I would have been a good writer/reader friend. But the moment I left Malaysia, u discreetly cut me off! There is no need to reply to this. There'll be the usual echoes of support. But what could you say to me to earn my respect? I'll never see u in the same way again. Looks like u have a mountainload of catching up to do even to get to that halfway point of my current knowledge of publishing, authors, poets & so many many many things. Ignorance is bliss until u get caught out by authors like Toby Litt! For me, today, the truth of the reasons of why u treated me the way you did is just as blissful if not apparent. And I'll leave that knowledge to the closet of your imagination.
Goodbye Sharon and I wish you all the best with nurturing the writing scene - and judging us lot who choose to be published abroad with somewhat contempt (obviously from yr response I too have been subjected to the same fate)espcially when u don't even know the first thing about it. I won't be whining for yr friendship anymore. At least, I know I'm on the right road to somewhere.
regards
SUSAN ABRAHAM
Malaysian writer
London, England.
Hi Sharon,
Wld hv written privately but just before cmng to UK & aft, wrote u 3 long warm letters - u never replied, not even my heartfelt comment on yr blg (January) so writing here.
(I'll remember this is yr living room while speaking plainly.) 2day,u admitted u didn't know yr contemporary Brit fiction. THANK GOD, FINALLY, A REAL TRUTH POPS UP..AN EYE-OPENER! For someone far more knowledgable like me, u hv blown yr cover & I suddenly see you differently. A local writer published internationally always realised u had scant knowledge abt the wldwide pub.industry. I didn't believe her. I longed for yr admiration, friendship, respect & approval like others & in wanting 2 share my knowledge always used my full name, risking humiliation & scorn with differing viewpnts when I spoke real insights. Yr good friend Chet instead of soaking up info, to better herself, even berated the likes of me on yr blog, as 'public fools.' - u had such critical judgements abt bks & writers esp. pub. abroad. But local works were all great. What u didn't know with yr ignorance, sadly, u mutilated all the rest (meaning authors, writers) So it all came to a sorry end for me!
It's not just contmpy Brit fiction u hv been left far behind with, Sharon. This is modern English writing in the UK 2day & for many yrs, has singlehandedly influenced the publishing world into vast generational changes, starting with NYork, moving to Europe, foll by Australasia & Asia, last with a mountain (Everest!) of techniques & sciences in revolving genres, forms, trends, styles, stories, author backgrounds, newer projection of the classics etc.
I am shocked! Thought you knew this basic truth! Where have u been hiding?
For yrs, I have done my homework so well that if u told me u had manuscript for abroad, I could at once direct you to the needlepoint target, country, town, publisher, agent, anything.. Its no excuse when you create a responsiblity to pioneer Msian writing and not to have done yr homework or know what is happening in the great big world of bks. To learn 2 write and slip your work in a drawer without purpose has no meaning. Otherwise, who is yr market & where & what kind of work??? Writing is not just abt staring at the stars! Questions that can only come from over time with a consistent deep knowledge, resarch insight & hvg fingers on pulse! England is where it counts even for world translation works. When I wanted to write I knew, I had to know british fiction like the back of my hand before anything else. Just common sense and astute reading told me this. This was in 1985. No internet then. I took ramshackle buses to soak in knowledge from libraries, bookshops & english poet/writer friends to help with reading materials & info. No Amazon.com just overloaded postage! Even those friendships had 2 b conceived thru diligence & courage. Only many yrs later wld I come to England. When I came, I already knew what was ready for me as a writer. So how can u blame being in Nigeria or Malaysia?
Someone like me now sees right thru u when u give feeble reasons for being so ill-informed.
Don't worry abt Toby Litt. Just google his name and u'll know everything in half-morning! Do u know his 10 favourite bks?? It's on the Net. At least, you owe the poor chap that. I'm sure you know he's got his own website??? I've known for ages.
Do u know how writing crime fiction worldwide has changed with an entire overhaul of detailed techniques & mechanics in solving a case? And that u can't write crime fiction the way u did even 3 years ago? So much to learn...
It's not just about going out at last minute to buy author's bks! At least u have time.
Oh my God, I really thought u & yr friends with bk clubs, critique groups and now writing courses, were the cream of the writing scene in Malaysia - that's how u project yrself subtly but insistently and I wanted so much to belong - then I got pushed right out in the cold. But now here alone in England, I know that I have real knowledge in my head - & that my excitement for my writing is real,purposeful & solid. Because that's what education does. It's a jewel that never leaves yr heart & mind. All my years of self-study have paid off to bring me to this point and here I was thinking you and yr writing friends knew it all and envying u lot. But never again, I have learnt my lesson. You have made me so happy today simply because I realise I truly know my books & publishing.
It also makes sense why u & Chet had no idea of what I was trying to explain the other day.
So if u don't know how writing works today or the actual reasons or mechanics that make for the conception of the books u read about, then those who look up to you and who know even less. It's a bit like the blind leading the blind isn't it.
Beryl Bainbridge was current in the 1970s/80's - you won't find her books easily in London these days.
& that in the end, what happened was no loss! But Sharon, you lost someone who could have truly given you knowledge & insight with my whole heart Sharon. I would have been a good writer/reader friend. But the moment I left Malaysia, u discreetly cut me off! There is no need to reply to this. There'll be the usual echoes of support. But what could you say to me to earn my respect? I'll never see u in the same way again. Looks like u have a mountainload of catching up to do even to get to that halfway point of my current knowledge of publishing, authors, poets & so many many many things. Ignorance is bliss until u get caught out by authors like Toby Litt! For me, today, the truth of the reasons of why u treated me the way you did is just as blissful if not apparent. And I'll leave that knowledge to the closet of your imagination.
Goodbye Sharon and I wish you all the best with nurturing the writing scene - and judging us lot who choose to be published abroad with somewhat contempt (obviously from yr response I too have been subjected to the same fate)espcially when u don't even know the first thing about it. I won't be whining for yr friendship anymore. At least, I know I'm on the right road to somewhere.
regards
SUSAN ABRAHAM
Malaysian writer
London, England.
I was happy to be a friend Susan. preferred it to sniping and being small minded and bitchy. That's not my way at all.
Have read hungrily all my life ... literature from around the globe ... just have shaken off narrow parochialism of reading just British lit. Also read a great deal of non-fiction as you know.
I did enjoy meeting you. You are a very interesting person who knows a great deal about the publishing scene and I enjoy your blog very much. I thank you for your kindness on that occasion and am just sorry that I did not have the opportunity to repay it.
I'm sorry to say it though, but you are a very poisonous person. (And not only against me from what I've heard!) Something for sure is eating you up inside. Feeling this way cannot be nurturing your writing. You need to find ways to heal yourself.
I wish you all the best. And I very much look forward to reading your first novel when it hits the bookstores. And take good care of yourself.
>> I'm sure you know he's got his own website??? I've known for ages.
Yes, she knows. She posted a link to Toby Litt's web site on the second line of her post.
>> ... I wanted so much to belong - then I got pushed right out in the cold. But now here alone in England, I know that I have real knowledge in my head ...
Still alone without a book club, writing or critiquing group?
Sometimes, having real knowledge inside the head is of no use if one doesn't have the compassion or kindness to share it.
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