Wednesday 11 March 2009
Tuesday 10 March 2009
The Creative Writing Launch... Creative Huh?
By Hester...
The Creative Writing Launch for cultural exchanges was good, even though I was daunted by the fact that we were told we had to do it next year. I found some particular pieces fascinating and if I could remember any of the names or websites, I would have recommended them. If you want to know more about my opinion and what Cultural Exchanges is then let me know by posting a comment.
Thanks for reading : )
xxxx
The Creative Writing Launch for cultural exchanges was good, even though I was daunted by the fact that we were told we had to do it next year. I found some particular pieces fascinating and if I could remember any of the names or websites, I would have recommended them. If you want to know more about my opinion and what Cultural Exchanges is then let me know by posting a comment.
Thanks for reading : )
xxxx
Saturday 7 March 2009
Andrew Davies
by Colin.
It was the Nuns, I also had always wondered about the Nuns.
Andrew Davies explained about the Nuns and so much more.
Here was a writer at ease, at peace with himself and his craft.This is writing at the sharp end, needing consummate skill, rewriting fiction, creating images, bringing literature to life on the small screen.
This was a journey that took the audience from a most Peculiar Practice, to little Dorrit, Sense and Sensibility,Tipping the velvet, House of cards, Bleak house, a treasure trove of adaptations.
Over and over during cultural exchanges I have seen writers like Andrew Davies explain their success. Work, application and tenacity.
It was an extremely interesting talk.
It was the Nuns, I also had always wondered about the Nuns.
Andrew Davies explained about the Nuns and so much more.
Here was a writer at ease, at peace with himself and his craft.This is writing at the sharp end, needing consummate skill, rewriting fiction, creating images, bringing literature to life on the small screen.
This was a journey that took the audience from a most Peculiar Practice, to little Dorrit, Sense and Sensibility,Tipping the velvet, House of cards, Bleak house, a treasure trove of adaptations.
Over and over during cultural exchanges I have seen writers like Andrew Davies explain their success. Work, application and tenacity.
It was an extremely interesting talk.
Friday 6 March 2009
Adele Parks
By PJH
I particularly liked Adele Parks because she seemed like a woman in touch with reality. I know some would say that, as a writer of chick lit., (as she was frequently reminded) that she may be a hopeless romantic, someone with her head in the clouds or in Cloud Cuckoo Land maybe? I think not. She was down-to-earth, friendly, honest and witty.
Her feelings for the term 'chick lit.' are mixed, she feels this is a name given to the genre by men. This is a patronising title, to a large extent, and can unnecessarily cut off a large percentage of the potential readership (i.e. men). She then, with a broad grin, told stories of rather embarrassed men telling her, at book signings, that they were only buying for their wives / girlfriends. This was OK until she asked to whom she should address the signed copy - here came the problem - an embarrassed throat clearing and an abrupt change of mind, ' Oh no, it's OK...er, I'll leave it for now.'
She said that she has always been drawn to Romance, even doing her dissertation on seduction. Even more interesting,then, to be told that she has never read a single Mills & Boon story - preferring instead to go her own way, find her own romantic voice. She reminded us that her contract states that she is a 'writer of contemporary women's fiction' rather than of chick lit., and that, anyway, she doesn't find glamour comes easily enough to live up to the latter brand. She feels so much more comfortable in jeans and her naturally curly hair in frizz mode, rather than the sleek straightened glamour puss the media seem to clamour so hotly for. Well done to her too.
Whatever she's doing, never mind the critics, it is working. Here is a very successful writer, with 8 books under her belt and over a million copies sold - and across 15 languages too. A book a year since 2001 is not to be sniffed at.
To top it off, I brought her latest book 'Tell Me Something' and took it to her, after the lecture, to be signed. I then had a charming little conversation with her about how much I looked like one of the characters in one of her books (not the one I'd brought apparently). I felt very honoured and stood there blushing ridiculously with pleasure - just hope now that the character she had in mind was very good looking and, of course, extraordinarily intelligent... Or not?
I particularly liked Adele Parks because she seemed like a woman in touch with reality. I know some would say that, as a writer of chick lit., (as she was frequently reminded) that she may be a hopeless romantic, someone with her head in the clouds or in Cloud Cuckoo Land maybe? I think not. She was down-to-earth, friendly, honest and witty.
Her feelings for the term 'chick lit.' are mixed, she feels this is a name given to the genre by men. This is a patronising title, to a large extent, and can unnecessarily cut off a large percentage of the potential readership (i.e. men). She then, with a broad grin, told stories of rather embarrassed men telling her, at book signings, that they were only buying for their wives / girlfriends. This was OK until she asked to whom she should address the signed copy - here came the problem - an embarrassed throat clearing and an abrupt change of mind, ' Oh no, it's OK...er, I'll leave it for now.'
She said that she has always been drawn to Romance, even doing her dissertation on seduction. Even more interesting,then, to be told that she has never read a single Mills & Boon story - preferring instead to go her own way, find her own romantic voice. She reminded us that her contract states that she is a 'writer of contemporary women's fiction' rather than of chick lit., and that, anyway, she doesn't find glamour comes easily enough to live up to the latter brand. She feels so much more comfortable in jeans and her naturally curly hair in frizz mode, rather than the sleek straightened glamour puss the media seem to clamour so hotly for. Well done to her too.
Whatever she's doing, never mind the critics, it is working. Here is a very successful writer, with 8 books under her belt and over a million copies sold - and across 15 languages too. A book a year since 2001 is not to be sniffed at.
To top it off, I brought her latest book 'Tell Me Something' and took it to her, after the lecture, to be signed. I then had a charming little conversation with her about how much I looked like one of the characters in one of her books (not the one I'd brought apparently). I felt very honoured and stood there blushing ridiculously with pleasure - just hope now that the character she had in mind was very good looking and, of course, extraordinarily intelligent... Or not?
Adele Parks
by Colin.
Adele Parks reminded me somewhat of a cup of cappochino coffee. Light and frothy on the surface with hidden depths of body and bite.Also, like coffee, the effect of her was really quite lifting.
There is a tendancy amongst academics to place work, particularly literature, in to catorgory or genre.As much as she was reminded that she wrote 'Chic Lit', she just as firmly rejected the notion.
Her work, she thought, reflected contempory women's lives, but had to have an element of escapism. Readers needed to be entertained. Whilst writing of romance, love, marriage,affairs with all the attendant guilt,pain, angst, her stories needed a happy ending. Readers demanded it.
Adele thought that her work reflected on reality, she confessed that one of her novels revolved around her own love affair and marriage. It was she confessed to her husband, a 140,000 word love letter.
It was an amusing,witty and informative talk on the art of writing.
Thankyou Adele.
Excellent.
Adele Parks reminded me somewhat of a cup of cappochino coffee. Light and frothy on the surface with hidden depths of body and bite.Also, like coffee, the effect of her was really quite lifting.
There is a tendancy amongst academics to place work, particularly literature, in to catorgory or genre.As much as she was reminded that she wrote 'Chic Lit', she just as firmly rejected the notion.
Her work, she thought, reflected contempory women's lives, but had to have an element of escapism. Readers needed to be entertained. Whilst writing of romance, love, marriage,affairs with all the attendant guilt,pain, angst, her stories needed a happy ending. Readers demanded it.
Adele thought that her work reflected on reality, she confessed that one of her novels revolved around her own love affair and marriage. It was she confessed to her husband, a 140,000 word love letter.
It was an amusing,witty and informative talk on the art of writing.
Thankyou Adele.
Excellent.
Charles Dance
by Daniel Williams
I was asked to link to this.
You can read HERE what I'd like to think Charles Dance is doing instead of coming to DeMontfort.
I was asked to link to this.
You can read HERE what I'd like to think Charles Dance is doing instead of coming to DeMontfort.
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