THE WRITER'S LIFE
Having said before that I'll not politicise this blog, I'll get the politics out of the way first. Specifically, why I'm backing the boy Corbyn: Man of the people, and the kind of new, progressive politician I'd like to see as prime minister. Of course, I'm biased: I'm a liberal, left-wing, Guardian-reading, part organic vegetable.
My reasons for backing Corbyn's Labour are many, but for me personally, I'll be able to make a greater contribution to society. I'm on benefits, signed off long-term from work because of mental health issues. Even forgetting for a moment, the changes to the NHS and improvements to mental health care provision proposed by Labour, I'd be able to take a distance learning course with the Open University when Labour abolish fees. I could study for a degree, which would allow me to give something back. Why should a university education be the preserve of the rich, when so many jobs are being made redundant by technology that soon a degree will be the minimum qualification for the remaining ones? My ex-wife and I couldn't afford £9250 a year each for our children to become “future proofed”, so the kids would be saddled with loan repayments for the first few years of their employment.
The kids are intelligent, they go to good schools and they live comfortably with their mum and step dad. Naturally, everyone wants the children to be the best they can be, at whatever is best for them. They themselves made a point some time ago, as we were walking around Milton Keynes: They observed that there's little for young people to do, since many local authority facilities have been closed down as a result of central government cuts. For the better-off, this isn't a problem, since they can afford entertainment. And it was that statement which struck me, because two young but bright children had illustrated the two-tier society which they see around them. They have many of the things which children like to have, mainly financed by their mum and step dad. I contribute as much as I can, and they understand finances and budgeting, but they have an empathy for those less well-off (well, their dad was a tramp for a while). Like me and like Corbyn, they think long-term, and want to make a contribution towards a better society. Like me, they see that possibility under Corbyn and Labour. Personally, I envisage the introduction of a Universal Basic Income, or Guaranteed Minimum Income in Labour's second term, a model which has proven successful in more enlightened countries, like Canada, Denmark, Brazil, Finland, Iceland...
A part of me still hopes that Brexit won't happen. Kim-Jong May's days are numbered in any case. She's a danger and the country is a laughing stock among the other 27 EU nations and the wider world. As a country, we're the kid left on the sideline and mocked. Isn't it time she stepped down and allowed our re-uniting country a third chance at those "Put it to the nation" things so beloved of the Tories? Leave or Remain, Left or Right-wing: We need to agree that she isn't a leader. Then the nation decides the rest in a general election which is triggered by her resignation. The woman's ego is destroying a nation's future and with it, our children's prospects.
An imagining of the difference engine (see below)
In other news, my next book is finished as a first draft, which is now out with beta readers for a month. Meanwhile the book is just over the half-way mark in a publishing sense. It's been converted to 8 x 5” paperback size, and comes in at just over 400 pages.
Once the test readers come back with their comments, there'll be another round of editing and Cyrus Song should be in the shops by October, all going well. Until then, I'm churning out pulp fiction for the shock horror web zines readerships, and the next one, The Difference Engine, will be out somewhere soon:
I disappeared without warning and for no apparent reason. To the best of my knowledge, there were no witnesses. I wasn't a well-known person, so few would miss me. It was perfect.
What made this apparent illusion possible was the difference engine: Quite a box of tricks in itself. The engine is a retro-futuristic, mechanical bolt-on device for my manual typewriter. It's the steam punk equivalent of an app installed on a computer. The difference engine clamps onto the typewriter, between the type heads and the impression cylinder. It's a translation device, so as I type out my thoughts on the keyboard, it produces edited fiction on the paper...
As a literary plot device, the difference engine is an invention I may make use of in future stories. Like some of my mentors (Paul Auster in particular), I like to have links between stories and common themes within some of them. All of my short stories stand alone, but I have favoured geographical locations, fictional organisations and objects which I sometimes return to. The typewriter in The Difference Engine is one such thing, as is The Unfinished Literary Agency, above Hotblack Desiato's letting agency in Islington (the latter actually exists).
Of all the writers I've been variously compared to (Douglas Adams, Roald Dahl et al), the comparison with Auster is the one I'm most grateful for, as it was recognition that I can pull off the kind of complexities which he does. Like Auster's, many of my stories contain others within them. There are recurring characters, meetings with oneself, and writers as narrators of tales about writer protagonists. Most contain subtexts, and some are two or more completely different stories contained in the same narrative. The thing is, they're not clever tricks: It's just my style of writing, so to be compared to my literary idol is quite something.
I'm not quite four years in with this writing game, and I'm about to publish my fourth book. Given the nature of Cyrus Song and the messages within, if it was published in October, with Jeremy Corbyn in No.10, that would just be the literary icing on the cake.
My first anthology is available now.
Comments
Post a Comment