What else? Had an unexpected sighting of Mrs Darcy the other day, courtesy of the lovely Sarah Salway (that’s Sarah-Salway-who-gets-cover-quotes-from-Neil-Gaiman-and-recently-shared-a-platform-with-William-Gibson, in case you were wondering). At a poetry reading the other day this chap was apparently enthusing about the book, saying that there were “lots of belly laughs”. I’ve no idea who he is, which makes it even better.

I’ve now added a 404 page to the Mrs Darcy website. Try going to a non-existent page like this one and see what happens. I should do something similar to this place, too, whilst I’m at it.

I’ve also restarted my Too Many CDs project – the one where I listen to every tenth CD in my collection and give my impressions. We’re now up to number 100, which happens to be the splendid “Remedy” by Basement Jaxx.

And finally, if you haven’t been keeping up with the increasingly bizarre and unpleasant Brit Writers Award story, this post – and the comments under it especially – will tell you everything you need to know. Wow. Just wow.

As excuses go it was a reasonable one, but one that became increasingly untenable as October stretched into November, until I was finally forced to face up to it at the weekend. What it was was this: I was quite keen on the first 3000 words, but I really was completely stuck on what to do next. Then I suddenly hit upon a neat narrative device that took the story to what I think will be a whole new level. And I’m now suddenly desperate to write like fury to get to the point where I can use that device, because I really think this will be something quite different.

Of course, having said that, I duly spent a fair bit of my writing time today coming up with a post for The View From Here. So this new momentum may yet stall. Hope not, though. I quite like this one.

In other news, there are now nine reviews for Mrs Darcy up on Amazon, every single one of them with five stars. So oi there, you national dailies and magazines, I’m over here!

Oh, and one more thing. If you’re a writer and you haven’t read all the stuff about the Brit Writers’ Awards yet, take a look here, here and here. You need to know this.

I haven’t dared listen to it all the way through yet, but here it is in case you’re interested. If (as is likely) I sound like a complete git, please do keep it to yourself:

Which is one of the reasons why I jumped at the opportunity to nip down to Bristol yesterday to attend the launch event for the 2012 short story competition. One of the other reasons was of course that the BSSP is rapidly becoming one of the top short story prizes in the country so I was very honoured indeed to be asked. Also, Joe Melia, who pretty much is the BSSP, is a top bloke and it was great to see him again. Oh, and did I mention that none other than Tania Hershman was also on the bill?

The event seemed to go very well – there was certainly a good-sized audience and some excellent readings. Emily Bullock (nice to see her again too!) started the evening by reading an extract from this year’s prizewinning story, “My Girl”, a wonderfully visceral piece of writing. She was followed by Alan Toyne, who read an extract from his shortlisted story from the first year of the BSSP, “Tuesday Night”, a very wittily-observed description of a male bonding ritual. Then I did my bit – I’d decided to read a couple of whole stories rather than extracts, so I went for “Canine Mathematics” and “Advice re Elephants”, which seemed to go down OK. Then Tania wrapped up proceedings with four utterly wonderful flashes – I knew (and loved) a couple of them already and the other two were equally beguiling.

Then we all mingled for a while and drank a glass or two. It was lovely to see Sarah Hilary and Nastasya Parker again, who were both in the audience, and it was also great to meet Twitter chum Chris Wakling, whose latest book “What I Did” I’ve just ordered. Oh, and Foyles had also ordered in a dozen or so copies of Mrs Darcy, half of which went on the night, which I don’t think is too bad considering it wasn’t her event at all. I also signed the other half, so if there’s anyone in Bristol who’s after a copy with the tentacle signature, get down to Cabot Place now.

And the fun continues tomorrow night, where I’m going to be sitting alongside the awesomely-talented John Harding (whose “Florence and Giles” may well be the best book I’ve read this year) on the Firestation Book Swap sofa. Do come along – it should be a good evening. To whet your appetite, here’s my pre-swap interview with the lovely Emma Buckley of Beat Magazine.

Now I’ve got to think of something to write about that doesn’t involve self-promotion. Well, it’ll make a nice change, whatever it is.

… is now live in the very latest edition of Eclectica. Make of it what you will

In other news, the fight against the BBC short story cuts continues. The indefatigable Susie Maguire has written an eloquent piece here, whilst the Society of Authors have also vowed to keep the pressure on. If you haven’t signed the petition yet, please do so.

Finally, I don’t usually talk about my family here, but my stupendously talented daughter’s food blog has just gone live and I really think you should go and have a look at it. You’ll feel better for doing so, trust me.

In other news, the outrage about the BBC’s decision to cut down on short stories has made The Independent. Terrific work by Susie Maguire and Ian Skillicorn there. It’s nice to have been able to play a small part in spreading the word. However, it’s not over by any means and we need to keep up the pressure. There’s an online petition now and if you haven’t signed it already, I really would urge you to do so.

Did I hear you say “We’re not gonna take it”? I thought I did. Good. So here’s what we’re going to do. This is the text of an e-mail I received this evening from Susie Maguire (aka @wrathofgod on Twitter). Please read it and act on it, as soon as ever possible:

The new Controller of Radio 4, Gwyneth Williams, will be a guest on FEEDBACK on BBC Radio 4 next week. How very timely.

Would you add your name to a letter/question to ask her?

Would you pass on this email to other writers who care about the health of the short story…?

The more of us, & the better known the writers who sign it, the more likely it is to have some effect.

If so, please find below a short, polite question, proposed by Ian of http://www.nationalshortstoryweek.org.uk

Reminder: info on her decision to cut the short story’s presence on Radio 4 outlined here  http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2011/07_july/10/radio4.shtml

If you’d like to add your signature, please email YES to

ian AT shortstoryweek DOT org DOT uk

& cc to me: info AT susiemaguire DOT co DOT uk

NB – It would be really helpful if you could reply within 24 hours so that the question can be lodged as soon as possible. This is by no means the *only* action interested parties can take, but it’s a start, and I hope you might add your weight to it with this (and further suggestions are welcomed)

thanks

Susie

*******************

Proposed question:

We were surprised and disappointed to learn of the decision to reduce the short story output on Radio 4 to once a week from next spring. Radio 4 has been a great champion of the short story for many years. It is one of very few places in the UK where both new and established writers can have their short stories broadcast to a large audience, and where radio listeners can enjoy readings of the short story form. This move comes at a time when interest in the short story is growing, but paid opportunities for short story writers are still scarce. Could Gwyneth Williams please explain:

1) what has led her to make this decision?

2) whether the short stories on Radio 4 extra will be new commissions or repeats of existing recordings?

3) how this decision fits with the BBC’s sponsorship of the National Short Story Award (and indeed if this will continue?)

I know I can rely on you. Thank you. You’re all wonderful. Except possibly you. But I’ll even like you if you act on this one.

In other news, I’m on Google+ if you’re into that kind of thing. To be honest, I’m not madly excited about it at the moment. The “circles” concept strikes me as exactly the thing that a geek would come up with as being really cool, but I’m not sure I really see people making great use of it. Sure, in theory it enables you to post different stuff for different groups of people to see, but I have two problems with this.

Firstly, if a tech-savvy US senator can accidentally post a picture of his todger to his Twitter stream instead of a DM, then sure as hell other people are going to screw up which Google+ circle they’re posting their “look at me I’m so wasted LOL” pictures to. At least on FB and Twitter you know that everyone’s watching.

Secondly, I actually quite like the blurring that occurs in these places. You find out that people you’ve had one kind of interaction with have a whole other side to them and sometimes that’s very interesting. Sometimes it’s weird, too, but there you go. Ho hum. I’m probably just resisting change as usual. We’ll see.

So this Thursday, July 7th, at 7PM, if you’re in the vicinity of Waterstone’s in St Albans, drop in and say hello. If you speak nicely, you may even get a glass of wine thrust into your hand. You may be asked to buy a copy of the book in return of course, but it is very good, so it’s a pretty good deal if you ask me. There may also be readings and stuff.

Not only that, but I have a feeling that I haven’t actually mentioned anything here about the forthcoming launch of Mrs Darcy versus the Aliens yet, so I’d better rectify that. The book itself comes out at the beginning of September, but the launch takes place at this year’s FantasyCon in Brighton. In fact, it’s not just Mrs Darcy that’s being launched, but Proxima itself, so it should be quite a party.

Speaking of which, have you been following the development of the Proxima covers? Every single one of them is absolutely stunning. And SF covers have been known to be a bit naff, haven’t they?

In other news, I’ve reactivated the blog over at Mrs Darcy’s dedicated site (although I’ve moved it so you’ll need to change your RSS feed) to make it easier to keep people informed about what’s going on there. Wickhampedia continues along its merry way. I really have no idea where it’s going, to be honest, but I’m sure it knows what to do.