In Person
Tuesday, June 24, 2003
Of course the novelist I talked about last time (the Wind Up Bird Chronicle) is Haruki Murakami. I'm suddenly aware how famous he is, and how many novels he has written. It's funny when you stumble across a writer you haven't heard of before, briefly thinking that you have 'discovered' them, only to find that they are world famous. When I used to go and spend time writing in Ireland at the Tyrone Guthrie centre sometimes American visitors would turn up, saying they were going to visit a poet called Seamus Heaney.
It's all steamy and jungly here in Newcastle. Summer is really here. I've been working on the new book, and some poems too.I'm very involved with the characters, Honor and Win, in the new novel now. They don't get on with each other at all. They seem to know what they want to do, and I find myself following their lead, rather than the other way round. Soon we will be going to Brazil together, so goodness knows what will happen then !
At the weekend there was the Proud Words launch (gay and lesbian literature festival), where Patrick Gale and Alan Hollinghurst read amongst others who picked excerpts from their favourite books. Alan and Patrick's readings were both very good and interesting. Alan read from an unpublished novel called The Line Of Beauty....a really wonderful bit of writing, I thought. The next day I talked to him about his work infront of a small (and beautifully behaved) audience about writing, editors, publishing and gay literature. I didn't know his work that well before meeting him, but felt I learnt alot about his process and want to read more. Proud Words is a great festival, and it's all free. Sarah Waters comes up next week, and there's lots of other stuff on.
There's also been the gypsy festival at Northern Stage. I went down to hear some free music at the playhouse. There were people from all over Europe there, playing and dancing! Black Eyes Roses is Northern Stage's devised production and it's really worth seeing; full of energy and invention with great stories.
Posted by julia @ 07:58 PM GMT
Wednesday, June 18, 2003
I've just had a week away again, writing and not doing much else...well, listening to the wireless, thinking, eating little snacks, the odd stroll...It's quite hard coming back from these weeks. I need to decompress or something. It's like walking into a gale of demands. Ordinary life is so complicated, with shopping and phones and trying to be a good mother, and appointments and so on. So many female writers with children are pulled in two directions. A voice inside you tells you off for wanting to go and live in an imaginary world, when one should be dealing with real issues. And one's children are so fascinating and interesting and all consuming! Jane Austen, George Elliot, the Brontes, Jean Rhys were all childless.
I'm reading a book called the Wind Up Bird Chronicle now by a Japanese writer (I haven't got the book with me now, and I'm afraid to make a spelling attempt). It's completely compelling, yet very strange. It's the kind of writing that gathers force as a the reader gets deeper into the book. I really love it, although at the beginning I kept falling asleep after one page. I am also reading Alan Hollinghurst's The Folding Star which is a fascinating book. I'm interviewing him at Proud Words lesbian/gay/bisexual literary festival this Saturday in the Copthorne Hotel in Newcastle. Proud Words has got loads of events coming up (Sarah Waters, song writing workshops) and they're all free. If you live in the North East and feel a bit bisexual you'd be mad to miss it!
Cold Calling (which used to be Attachments) gets filmed for tv in a couple of weeks. I'm looking forward to seeing the set and the recording in front of a live audience. Otherwise I'm just writing the novel and getting ready to go to Brazil. It should be lovely and simple and uncomplicated, but of course it isn't!!Posted by julia @ 10:26 AM GMT
Thursday, June 5, 2003
A sad couple of days....Newcastle/Gateshead didn't win the bid, which was disappointing. But I've been thinking about good things about not winning (being an optimist). For example, there will be less car parks, coaches,and less hyped up events, and less tourists. Probably there will be fewer bouncy castles, men in suits talking into megaphones, less fireworks which frighten dogs.There will be less property developers, and luxury flats, and we won't have to say Capital of Culture all the time, which is a bit of a mouthful. Also, it's always true that losers are more interesting than winners...as my daughter Florence said, look at Liberty X ! And why do we need to be picked? Why don't we just pick ourselves and say we're the centre of anything we like. And why are we being so competing anyway? Why can't there be creative cities everywhere. I was thinking about how brilliant Gateshead is, the way they have just carried on doing brave arty things without needing to be approved of by anyone from the outside. That's what I don't like about the Brian Sewell stuff (the art critic who has been bad mouthing Newcastle Gateshead)...I mean, who cares what he thinks? He doesn't care what we think of London. It's a funny, complicated thing, this loyalty to places. It gets you right in your gut. It's how wars start. Thank god we didn't win....we would have got all jingoistic and hysterical. Let's just get back to what we were doing anyway.
Yesterday I did a poetry reading in Gateshead for an organisation called Equal Arts, who do brilliant work connecting artists with older people. This event was part of a project called 'Being There' and the audience were all brought to the venue in free taxis. I was reading from Sudden Collapses In Public Places, and Maggie Thacker and Charlie Buchanan were singing and playing songs in between poems. It was a really well organised, happy event. I would definitely take part if I get old. They will be going all over the place; art galleries, music events. Tonight I am reading at central library with the poets Annie Wright and Linda France. I am getting to know the poems now, and enjoying reading them. They feel quite truthful! I always worry about poetry readings; about going on too long, or boring people. In this case the poems are all about my experiences of breast cancer and hospitals, so I hope I'm not frightening people. I really like doing evenings with music, as it changes the atmosphere.
Got to go....I'm meeting someone for lunch. I keep meaning to write a guide to cafes in Newcastle. I am an expert. Love JPosted by julia @ 11:49 AM GMT
Created by Julia Darling and Cornwell Internet.