Category: Writing

MadLab

Craig PayLeave a comment

I’ve been intending to write this post for several weeks now. You see every month I attend a writers’ group in Manchester. In fact, I now seem to be running the group although my powers are fairly limited because we operate rather like a democracy (or a republic at least). The group is called ‘Manchester Speculative Fiction’ because our members write science fiction, fantasy and horror (and all the sub-genres in between). We meet twice a month at a funky place called the MadLab.

“MadLab!” I hear you cry. “What is this place?”

Well, maybe you’re not quite as vocal as that but perhaps you should be. Especially if you live anywhere near Manchester, because this is what the blurb has to say . . .

“Madlab is a community space for people who want to do and make interesting stuff – a place for geeks, artists, designers, illustrators, hackers, tinkerers, innovators and idle dreamers; an autonomous R&D laboratory and a release valve for Manchester’s creative communities.”

MadLab is a voluntary organisation. They hire a three-storey building at 36-40 Edge Street, Manchester (Northern Quarter for you locals). They offer out space to creative folks who need some space to meet or potter about in.

As writers we meet up once a month to chew over our latest writing projects, we critique each other’s work and most months we pop down the pub afterwards to continue the chat.

There are lots of other groups that meet in MadLab, including a graphic novel group, the girl geek tea party, a sci-fi book club, a Linux user group, a jQuery group and lots of others. MadLab also run one-off events: for example, they’re currently running a Kurt Merz Schwitters exhibition (until the end of the month) and next month there will be the Filmonik Kabaret 2011. MadLab have recently started the Omniversity . . .

“Welcome to the Omniversity of Manchester, a programme of professional training courses at the MadLab, lead by some of the sharpest minds and most cutting-edge practitioners around. Rather than roll out the same-old, last year’s practice, full-time trainers, we’ve reached out to our network to bring recognised experts in their field to teach hands-on skills in affordable workshops. These aren’t just interchangeable tutors delivering the same courses; these are the people who started the projects they are teaching, who use these skills professionally on a daily basis.”

There really is something for everyone, whether you’re a techie or an artist or just one of those dreamer types. Or perhaps you’d like to help out? Either way, check out the website, there really is something for everyone.

Reading: Canon Slade

Craig PayLeave a comment

For the first time this afternoon, I read one of my stories at a public event!

Alongside Laurette Evans, Julia Hewitt, Stella Pye and Phil Isherwood, I read non-genre short story ‘The Medal’.

‘The Medal’ is the first in a sequence of three linked stories – I also have fourth and fifth stories planned but not yet written. The stories explore events surrounding a pivotal moment in the lives of three individuals, investigating the different perspectives and opinions that are experienced by each person. The ‘medal’ itself is based upon an object from real life, but it’s been brought forward thirty years from the Falklands War to the current conflict in Afghanistan. Here’s the real-world version…

And here’s the prose version, introduced in the first paragraph of ‘The Medal’…

It is a medal, of sorts, a three inch circle of dirty yellow brass with a coin in the middle where the firing pin used to be. At the top of the medal is another hole, but this one is smaller and threaded with a leather cord that smells like my school shoes when they get wet. Dad said that the soldiers used to make these when they got bored using the ends of old Russian artillery shells, and this one was used by the people he was fighting to make something called an eye-ee-dee. He said he lost a friend who tried to disarm it.

I’m still undecided whether to send this story to a magazine, but I’m holding back on publishing it to this blog (at least for the moment) because of first publication rights. If you’d like to see the full version, just drop me an email.

This is the first time I’ve read my own prose outside of a writers’ group or class. It was nerve-wracking and exciting all at the same time!

The reading was given to an adult audience inside the chapel at Canon Slade School…

This was a strange experience, because part of the story reads…

Downstairs, I hear Mum’s voice, ‘Three bloody tours over there!’

She shouldn’t be swearing in front of the Chaplain.

Then a deep voice, ‘Would you like to pray?’

There’s a pause. Mum isn’t the praying kind, but then I hear the Chaplain again, ‘Lord, have mercy on all those who have made the supreme sacrifice of their lives and died in service to their country.’

Reading a line of a prayer in such an authentic setting was strangely atmospheric. And there will no doubt be certain members of my family (you know who you are!) who will appreciate this more than most!

New short story: ‘The Day It Snowed’

Craig PayLeave a comment

A new story of mine has just been published on award winning website 330 Words, and is now available to read online.

“The concept behind 330 Words is simple. Take a photograph and let it inspire you towards a piece of fiction.”

I took this photo at approximately midday, albeit on a rather foggy day. The location is Elnup Woods (locals also call it Mill Damn Woods and Bluebell Woods), a small area of woodland near where I live in Standish. There is no image processing whatsoever.

This area of the wood has recently been rediscovered to be an ancient hazel coppice, and a project has been started to cut back the surrounding foliage to allow the coppice to re-establish itself.

Hazel is generally used for wattling, fences, thatching spars and so on, but I needed firewood for my story, so I changed the hazel to beech, which is also a coppiced wood.

Anyway, enjoy the story!