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I'm putting on a one-off night of spoken word on June 16th at Brighton's Marlborough Theatre.  The best thing about organising an event is choosing who you want to see perform.  I've selected some performers I'm very excited about seeing:

• Rosy Carrick is compere at Hammer&Tongue Brighton and Trailer Trash.  I probably couldn't get away with putting on a spoken word night and not asking Rosy to perform, so it's fortunate she's as good as she is. 
• Bill Jones is one of my favourite local writers.  He's read at Sparks, Short Fuse Brighton and a previous incarnation of Telling Lies.  His stories are funny and whimsical, and I'm looking forward to watching him again.
• We also have Chris Parkinson of the Young Hanoverians.  Chris helps compere the incredible monthly Glue Gun '91 night at the Victory and recently won the monthly Hammer and Tongue Slam.  His poems are funny and intelligent, yet slightly deranged.  
• There will also be a musical interlude from the fantastic Madame's Butterflies.  Featuring two uplifting arial singers, Madame's butterflies are "dazzling operatic cabaret".
• I'm also going to perform a couple of stories including one I've not written yet, but I'll talk about it nearer the time.

Tickets for the night will be £4 on the door (details of how to book in advance will follow).  We're starting at 8 with the main performances finishing around 9:30 – so if you've got work the next day you can make it home in good time.  I'm currently planning a few things for those don't have a curfew and want to linger.  This will be the first spoken word night with a director's cut.

I also want to have a stall on the evening with books and pamphlets from local writers.  Leave a comment below if you're interested and I'll get in touch.

It’s been an exciting couple of weeks but I’ve not been blogging as much as I should have done.  The next few days are likely to see a succession of announcements as I catch up.  Some exciting things are in the works.

One thing I should have announced is my second EMLN blog post: Is Creative Writing a Pyramid Scheme?

“Creative Writing is a big business. A few years ago the BBC claimed there were more than 600 full time creative writing degree courses at British universities. These included options such as Accountancy with Creative Writing (currently available at the University of Derby).  Hundreds of less-formal courses are available, as well as shorter seminars and residential breaks. Requiring little more than desk space and a tutor, such courses are easy to put on and profitable.” [continues here]

This post is something I’ve been thinking about for a while (I almost gave a brief presentation on it in the 10-minute zone at last year’s Litcamp).  In between my article being submitted on May 1st and published on the 8th, an excellent article appeared on the Guardian website covering similar ground.  Ian Jack’s post, The Age of the Gifted Amateur has returned, argues that the profession of author is a  recent, and likely short-lived, occupation.  It includes the staggering figure that “Britain is probably turning out about 1,300 “creative writers” every year.”  What are they all doing with their qualifications?  Jack concludes:

“We need to weigh the smashed hopes of creative writers against the financial needs of their tutors, who are themselves writers, and earning the kind of money that writing would never supply. A closed little dance: tutors teach students who in turn teach other students, like silversmiths in a medieval guild where a bangle is rarely bought though many are crafted, and everyone lives in a previous world.” [continues here]

Some interesting follow-ups to Ian Jack’s article can be found here, here, here and here.  There are also some thoughtful responses in the comments of my blog post which I hope to respond to later this week.

• A lovely article on the Choose What You Read campaign which asks people if they'd prefer to be reading books instead of free newspapers.  They've also taken to handing out novels at stations.  Great quote: "I remember when the novel White Teeth by Zadie Smith came out –
  everyone was reading that. You could pretty much read the whole book
  over a few weeks just by looking over somebody’s shoulder."
• A lovely story by Derby's Nathan Good: Invisible Girls with Green Eyes.  It's only 1200 words.  Go read it now!
• Bands as portals (via Simon Reynolds)
• Profile of Vincent Connare who invented Comic Sans: "[a woman] broke up with her boyfriend in a letter written in Comic Sans to soften the blow"
• Video footage of Sara Crowley reading Porn Mallow at Sparks. Sara has had some great short stories up lately and also recently wrote a great post about her sons.

Last night I went to the Low Carbon Cabaret, an event held in aid of Brighton’s Naked Bike Ride.  I’d been asked along by my friend Naomi Foyle, one of the performers.  I’d no idea who else was playing but the line-up was great.  Count Adriano Fettucine was compere, the Young Hannoverians performed an excerpt from their ‘poetic rock opera’ Owl Man and there were some very odd burlesque acts including Size Zero Albino doing a ‘Birdy Song’ fan-dance.   Songs about candiru, musical saws and striptease are evidently perfect ingredients for a night out.

Which leads on to the announcement that I’ve been invited to read at Glue Gun ’91 at the Victory.  I’ll be doing a ten minute slot, reading a couple of new clown stories.  Glue Gun ’91 is pretty much unique: the last night started with a birdcage filling with easter chicks  to the sound of the Carpenter’s ‘Close to You’, featured the live cooking of a Mystery cake and squeezed in the complete history of the world.   You don’t want to miss  this.  You know what else: it’s free to get in!

I've been very busy with creative work over the last few weeks.  I've mentioned some of the things I've been working on (such as Trailer Trash, the Literature Network blog and Short Fuse Leicester) and missed others (like Pictour, clown stories for Glue Gun '91 and a night of readings in June).

One of the things I should have announced is that I've got a story in the current issue (number four) of Notes From the Underground.  It's a small story about Scrabble, 55 words tucked away on page 4, but it's a piece I'm fond of and I'm glad it's found a home.  Notes From The Underground is FREE from various locations.  You should definitely pick up a copy, and not just to sell on ebay when Zack Snyder one day films my clown novel; there are some lovely stories, each perfectly timed at just a few minutes of reading, and an article from Kathy Lethe about visiting a strip club with John Mortimer.

Thanks to Sunita for posting me a copy of the new issue. 

On Tuesday I read at Short Fuse Leicester. It was a fantastic night. I had an easy three hour train journey, allowing me lots of time to relax beforehand. I went for a curry with my friend Jen, who recommeded Kayal, saying its food was very different to what I'd find in Brighton. I ate an incredible mango-based dish which I'm still craving more of a couple of days later.

Leicester's Y Theatre is a lovely, plush venue with by far the biggest stage I've read on. The theme for the night was Sweetbread, Bitter Bread and Polly had chosen six interesting (if somewhat grim!) stories. I particularly enjoyed Bead Robert's story about clocks, which sparked some interesting discussions about pigs on our table, and Jo Cannon's story about grief. Headlining was Tara Gould with her story Little Birds, and Tara gave one of the best performances I've seen from her.

One of the things I love about reading my work out loud is that it can draw out aspects of the story that aren't obvious on the page. Particularly when reading a first-person piece, the line between writer and characters can become clouded. The night was particularly interesting for me because I was reading in front of my Mum for the first time. I'm not sure what she made of her son reading a story about bondage, but she said it was well-read.

Another great thing about nights like Short Fuse is getting to meet other people who are interested in writing. I knew a few of the people there from online such as Jo Cannon, who I workshop with,  Damien Walter who organises the Literature Network site I blog for and Lydia Towsey, one of the other bloggers.

It was a fantastic night and I hope to be there again before long. The next Short Fuse Leicester event is in May and features a short-story from poet Jean-Binta Breeze. Thank you to Polly and everyone else who made it such a lovely night.

• Dan Rhodes responds brilliantly to his critics (via Richard Blandford)
• Roger Ebert on telling jokes: "Like knife-throwing, joke-telling should never be practiced except by experts."  The essay includes a fascinating observation about stage height and ten rules for telling jokes.
• We need a break – a lovely article where Scott Pack suggests publishers take a break from releasing new content. 
• Plans.  Needs.  Blues. is a great story by Sara Crowley. It's less than 500 words, so don't tarry and click the link.
• Max Dunbar on some drawbacks to self-publishing.  Max's blog is well worth following.