Well I can’t say “It’s Monday again”, as it’s Thursday, and yes, my blog post should have gone out last week. However, I was away in North Yorkshire for my birthday the week before last – which was perfect timing weather-wise – so everything has slipped back a little. I could have posted this on Monday, but I wanted to wait, as I have writing news which had to be kept quiet until today!
If you recall, I said I had two pieces of news I couldn’t share – well now both can be revealed. I am delighted that I have won the Kyoto City Mayoral Prize this year, which is the top prize in an annual competition for short pieces of writing about/set in Kyoto. (The organisers are Writers in Kyoto, a group of writers based in or with strong connections to the city who write in English. I am now honoured to be a full-blown member!)
The second piece of news had to wait until the publication date of the July/August edition of Harper’s Bazaar, which is today! I am thrilled beyond thrilled that my story ‘When Love Was All We Knew’ is one of two runners-up in their short story competition this year. Harper’s Bazaar is the oldest fashion and style magazine in the world, and they have published work by Virginia Woolf, Evelyn Waugh, Henry James and Thomas Hardy, plus, more recently, writers such as Ali Smith, Jeanette Winterson and Margaret Atwood.
I also had some further good news last week, as An Unfamiliar Landscape, my latest short story collection from Valley Press, has been shortlisted for a Saboteur Award! For those of you who haven’t voted in this year’s awards yet, I’d be very grateful for a vote in this final round! Here’s the link if you’d like to support my work: http://sabotagereviews.com/2023/05/31/saboteur-awards-round-2-of-voting-now-open/
Events…
Ancestral – Las Juanas – London
At 6.30 pm on June 14th you can catch the Ancestral performance by Las Juanas at Bush House (Bush House Lecture Theatre 2, 30 Aldwych London WC2B 4BG)
The event will be bilingual (English-Spanish)
“…Las Juanas want to dedicate this performance to all those women who have had a direct or indirect impact on our lives. For example, our great-grandmothers, grandmothers, mothers, sisters, friends, and public women who have paved the way for past, present, and future generations of women through their defence of rights —particularly those of indigenous women, human and animal rights, as well as those of our planet. We inherit, in our maternal DNA, the total disobedience and resistance to the destruction of our Mother Earth, Pachamama.”
Performers: LAS JUANAS (María Alba-Sánchez, María Eugenia Bravo-Calderara, Mabel Encinas-Sánchez, Consuelo Rivera-Fuentes, Isabel Ros-López, Denisse Vargas-Bolaños) and three guests.
You can register for this FREE event here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ancestral-performancetickets-647031898827fbclid=IwAR1af_OJ1227qKyP5A1zdr1yYwgOTHsJqVjYU7NfWl2JNHC5XpOrHYSozA
An Evening of Short Stories – Malton
At 7.30 pm on 21st July you can listen to Hannah Storm and yours truly discussing all things short story-related at Kemps Bookshop. (Kemps General Store Ltd 11 Market Place Malton YO17 7LP)
“A good short story is so much more than just a quick read. It can speak with the lyricism of poetry and bring you so close to a character that you can smell their perfume.
Whether you are a regular reader of the form or if you wouldn’t know where to start, come and spend an evening getting to know short fiction better.
We will be in conversation with Amanda and Hannah, two award-winning short fiction writers who will chat about reading and writing one of the fastest growing forms of fiction in the UK.”
It should be a lively evening of chat and audience questions. You can book tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/an-evening-of-short-stories-with-amanda-huggins-hannah-storm-tickets-640787571877
Writing Tips…
Here’s another excerpt from my short story course, The Heart of the Short Story. This time we will look at dialogue.
DIALOGUE
Always read your dialogue aloud to make sure it sounds natural. For example, writers tend to use characters’ names a lot in dialogue, when in the real world we do this far less often.
Use speech tags sparingly, and keep them simple – she shrieked imploringly!
In longer passages consider breaking the dialogue up a little rather than presenting it as a quick-fire back and forth exchange – inject pauses as we do when we talk in real life.
Consider the example below from my story ‘Distant Fires’:
When Dinesh stopped outside the fort gates, he rushed round to hold Miranda’s arm as she stepped down from the cart.
‘I have a motorcycle,’ he said. ’Tomorrow we can go for a short ride and I will show you Jodhpur – our beautiful blue city?’
She glanced at the gates, but they were still closed.
‘I don’t know – I mean, I think . . .’
‘I know a place where they sell the most wonderful mango lassi, and where there is the most delightful view of our city, the houses spread out below in a carpet of the softest blue.’
His eyes lit up, she saw the fire and glint and sunlight in them.
‘Yes,’ she said quickly. ‘Yes, I will come. Meet me at the back of the train station in the afternoon – around three? My husband will be sleeping then.’
‘Your husband?’ He turned his head on one side and looked at her questioningly.
She nodded. ‘It’s okay, it will be fine.’
He paused for a moment, and the heavy wooden gates creaked open behind them.
‘I will come,’ he said, and he clicked his tongue at the camel and turned the cart around.
Here is the same passage written as straightforward back and forth dialogue. Which do you think works best? Is the first too slow, or the second too rushed? Which tells us more about the characters?
When Dinesh stopped outside the fort gates, he rushed round to hold Miranda’s arm as she stepped down from the cart.
‘I have a motorcycle,’ he said. ’Tomorrow we can go for a short ride and I will show you Jodhpur – our beautiful blue city?’
‘I don’t know – I mean, I think . . .’
‘I know a place where they sell the most wonderful mango lassi, and where there is the most delightful view of our city, the houses spread out below in a carpet of the softest blue.’
‘Yes,’ she said quickly. ‘Yes, I will come. Meet me at the back of the train station in the afternoon – around three? My husband will be sleeping then.’
‘Your husband?’
She nodded. ‘It’s okay, it will be fine.’
‘I will come,’ he said, and he clicked his tongue at the camel and turned the cart around.
Depending on your story and characters, it can be important to make sure there is more contained in the dialogue than what’s actually being said – take a look at the short story ‘Hills Like White Elephants’, and note the way Hemingway’s characters talk, always holding something back. In real life, people often want to say things but the words which come out are only a fraction of what they mean and so much more is withheld. Your dialogue will be more realistic if you do the same. And remember that quite often when people speak, they are actively trying not to communicate, to keep secrets.
Finally, make sure your dialogue isn’t one big information dump, It can be a useful way of relaying information to your readers, but you need to do it gently, subtly, and in small doses.
Not time we’ll be looking at Hemingway’s Iceberg Theory.
Word of the Week…
Frühlingsgefühle
This is a German word used to describe the feeling of excitement we have when there is good weather in spring – when the sun is shining, the trees are bursting forth and the flowers are blooming around us. The first buzz of the bees and the lambs in the fields. My favourite time of year bar none!
