Espresso Shots

"THE BOOK'S PRINTED"

2012-01-24T05:59:00.000-08:00

http://www.saltpublishing.com/books/smf/9781844718801.htm

FREE BOOK LAUNCH EVENT 6.15PM WEDNESDAY 30/11/2011

2011-11-26T06:40:00.000-08:00

6.15pm

Blackwell Bookshop,
Sheffield Hallam University,
1 Howard Street,
Sheffield, S1 2LW

http://www.saltpublishing.com/books/smf/9781844718801.htm

2011-11-13T03:17:00.000-08:00

This book was called 9 Steps to Life-Long Happiness when I read it, so I picked it up with some scepticism, though glancing at the bullet-points made it clear how effective it might be. I read it and it made a difference to how happy I felt and how efficient I am at being happy. Points 1, 3 and 6 particularly appeal to me, (http://www.choosetobehappy.com/explore/index.html) and you'll find your own favourites, while the points feed in to each other in a cycle. Here's a message from the authors:
Dear Friends,We're excited to announce the birth of our newest happiness-related project -- an online experience called the SUSTAINABLE HAPPINESS COURSE. This "course" provides a practical roadmap to create more joy for yourself, for the people around you, and for the environment. With more than 40 short, dynamic, and fun videos, along with online exercises you can download, the Sustainable Happiness experience will give you a route to contribute to the world's well-being and to find greater happiness, resiliency and control in your own life.And, it's only $20 US.If you’d like to go deeper into the material in our books, this is a great opportunity. Or, if you wrote to us about attending a public training program, this is an opportunity to experience the material personally. If you prefer a CD or auditory presentation, the course will provide this, too.If you'd like to check it out go to: www.SustainableHappinessCourse.com
. There are some sample videos and a full description of the course, bios on the two of us, and a full introduction of our friend and professional collaborator on this project, Catherine O'Brien, professor at Cape Breton University in Nova Scotia.The course is fun and a great companion to our books and to our live presentations. We hope you enjoy it and will pass it on to colleagues, friends, and family.Thanks much, and all best wishes,Rick Foster and Greg HicksCo-authors of: How We Choose to Be Happy, and Happiness & Health (Choosing Brilliant Health)Sustainable Happiness is...:Happiness that contributes to individual,  community, and/or global well-being  and does not exploit other people,  the environment, or future generations.

Coming?

2011-11-08T03:12:00.000-08:00

Creative Writing Workshop
Saturday 12 November 2011

PAPER PLANES: SECOND SATURDAYS
12pm til 4pm
Only£14/£9
The Metropolitan
www.the-metropolitan.co.uk
2 Lapwing Lane West Didsbury, Manchester M20 2WS0161 438 2332

VIEWS ON PAPER PLANES: Annie Clarkson: "inspiring... A lot of laughs, respect for others' writing, and encouragement. ... a wonderful afternoon." William West: "amazing classes. .. . the teaching is pure gold!"
Lynn Myint-Maung: "thank you for the work shop ... I found you graceful and organized as facilitators, but also cheerful, kindly and playful and allowing so that the atmosphere was both safe and encouraging
Elaine Speakman: "It's my favourite way to spend a Saturday, I think it's lovely."

Choose to be happy

2011-11-03T03:56:00.000-07:00

This book was called 9 Steps to Life-Long Happiness when I read it, so I picked it up with some scepticism, though glancing at the bullet-points made it clear how effective it might be. I read it and it made a difference to how happy I felt and how efficient I am at being happy. Points 1, 3 and 6 particularly appeal to me, (http://www.choosetobehappy.com/explore/index.html) and you'll find your own favourites, while the points feed in to each other in a cycle. Here's a message from the authors:

Dear Friends,
We're excited to announce the birth of our newest happiness-related project -- an online experience called the SUSTAINABLE HAPPINESS COURSE. This "course" provides a practical roadmap to create more joy for yourself, for the people around you, and for the environment. With more than 40 short, dynamic, and fun videos, along with online exercises you can download, the Sustainable Happiness experience will give you a route to contribute to the world's well-being and to find greater happiness, resiliency and control in your own life.
And, it's only $20 US.
If you’d like to go deeper into the material in our books, this is a great opportunity. Or, if you wrote to us about attending a public training program, this is an opportunity to experience the material personally. If you prefer a CD or auditory presentation, the course will provide this, too.
If you'd like to check it out go to:
www.SustainableHappinessCourse.com

. There are some sample videos and a full description of the course, bios on the two of us, and a full introduction of our friend and professional collaborator on this project, Catherine O'Brien, professor at Cape Breton University in Nova Scotia.
The course is fun and a great companion to our books and to our live presentations. We hope you enjoy it and will pass it on to colleagues, friends, and family.
Thanks much, and all best wishes,
Rick Foster and Greg Hicks
Co-authors of: How We Choose to Be Happy, and Happiness & Health (Choosing Brilliant Health)
Sustainable Happiness is...:
Happiness that contributes to individual,  community, and/or global well-being  and does not exploit other people,  the environment, or future generations.

Extra September workshop - DAF Sun 25 Sep - Adventures In Writing

2011-09-16T05:12:00.000-07:00

Adventures In Writing
Date/Time: Sunday 25th September 10:00 am to 1:00 pm
Venue: Healthy Spirit: 37 Barlow Moor Road M20 6TW, 0161-434 6784
Artist: Paper Planes
Charge: Door charge: £10/£6 concessions

Ever thought you’d like to have a go at writing your story? Your poetry? Come and join Steven Waling and Anthony Sides, two of Manchester’s leading writers, and share in the adventure of words! Three hour workshop.

A VERY GIFTED WRITER

2011-09-02T06:08:00.001-07:00

New writing workshop 10 September

2011-08-22T03:54:00.000-07:00

Troff - 2a Landcross Road Fallowfield M14 6NA

Saturday September 10th 2011 - 12pm til 4pm
PAPER PLANES: SECOND SATURDAYS
Entry: only £14/£9

Contact: paperplanes@hotmail.co.uk
Whatever you write, this creative writing workshop is for you -
poems, prose, scripts, songs, blogs.
Join poet and Commonword trustee Steve and 6S Review fiction writer Anthony downstairs at 11.30 for a coffee or upstairs at 12 for the session.

VIEWS ON PAPER PLANES:
William West: "amazing classes. .. . the teaching is pure gold!"
Lynn Myint-Maung: "thank you for the work shop ... I found you graceful and organized as facilitators, but also cheerful, kindly and playful and allowing so that the atmosphere was both safe and encouraging."
Adam Grant: "You guys are bloody superb, I love what you're doing with Paper Planes."
Pat Selden : "I never expected it to be this good."
Elaine Speakman: "It's my favourite way to spend a Saturday, I think it's lovely."

Venue Details:

at Troff - Fallowfield - 12pm
Address: 2a Landcross Road
Post Code: M14 6NA
Show On Map

PAPER PLANES: SECOND SATURDAYS

2011-06-03T04:17:00.000-07:00

Mornin'. Coming?

Saturday June 11th 2011
PAPER PLANES: SECOND SATURDAYS
Only £14/£9

Contact: paperplanes@hotmail.co.uk

Whatever you write, this workshop is for you -
poems, prose, scripts, songs, blogs.
Join poet and Commonword trustee Steve and Comma fiction writer Anthony downstairs at 11.30 for a coffee or upstairs at 12 for the session.

VIEWS ON PAPER PLANES:
William West: "amazing classes. .. . the teaching is pure gold!"
Lynn Myint-Maung: "thank you for the work shop ... I found you graceful and organized as facilitators, but also cheerful, kindly and playful and allowing so that the atmosphere was both safe and encouraging."
Adam Grant: "You guys are bloody superb, I love what you're doing with Paper Planes."
Pat Selden : "I never expected it to be this good."
Elaine Speakman: "It's my favourite way to spend a Saturday, I think it's lovely."

Upstairs at Fuel Cafe - 12pm til 4pm
448 Wilmslow Rd, Withington M20 3BW

BEAUTIFUL NEWS

2011-05-19T07:22:00.000-07:00

Here's some great news about the writer AJ Ashworth - and signs of Salt's good taste:

http://blog.saltpublishing.com/2011/05/09/the-2011-scott-prize-winners-are-announced/

OVERNIGHT MIRACLES, by AJ Ashworth, read by Sarah Le Fevre

2011-05-07T07:13:00.000-07:00

A SPECK OF INTEREST, by Anthony Sides

2011-05-04T08:13:00.000-07:00

She wiped him from the corner of her eye and dropped the tissue in a bin at a bus stop she was passing on her way between her office and a bar.

ELIZABETH TAYLOR

2011-03-24T06:11:00.000-07:00

SALT PUBLISHING'S GOOD TASTE

2011-03-17T05:10:00.000-07:00

The best short story I read last year was The Future Husband by AJ Ashworth. It's included in the extremely readable collection Somewhere Else, or Even Here, which Salt have had the good sense to shortlist for their Scott Prize.

http://blog.saltpublishing.com/2011/03/01/the-scott-prize-shortlist-is-announced-2/

Meanwhile, you can read another AJ Ashworth story here -

http://www.saltpublishing.com/horizon/issues/05/text/Ashworth_AJ_The_Rings_of_Saturn.htm

YOU MAY ENJOY READING

2011-03-14T06:01:00.000-07:00

SORRY, THIS IS CANCELLED

2011-03-08T09:52:00.000-08:00

The venue was opening specially for this workshop, so we needed 6 of you to book to make it worth their effort. I'm sorry, not enough people booked, so we've cancelled this workshop. Thank you and sorry to those of you who expressed an interest.

PAPER PLANES: NEW VIEWS
SUNDAY 13 MARCH 2010:CANCELLED
Entry: only £19/£15 concessions
Contact: paperplanes@hotmail.co.

BOOK ON OR BEFORE MARCH 8, PAY MARCH 13

2011-03-01T03:18:00.000-08:00

Enough of you have shown an interest in this event that the dead line has been extended - you now have until Tuesday March 8 to e mail us or phone the venue.

The venue is opening specially for this workshop, so we need 6 of you to book to make it worth their effort.
E mail Paper Planes to book your place , please - we'll save you a seat and you can still pay on the day.

PAPER PLANES: NEW VIEWS
SUNDAY 13 MARCH 2010
Entry: only £19/£15 concessions
Contact: paperplanes@hotmail.co.uk
Come to this highly-recommended new workshop and enjoy trying some easy, unusual, challenging and fun writing exercises to trigger new ideas for your writing, discovering pleasurably skewed, obtuse and intriguing perspectives.
Whether you write poems, fiction, scripts, raps or blogs, and if you’re a beginner or you’re more experienced, this workshop is for you.
You’ll look at your writing in a fresh way and take home 3 or 4 new pieces.
E mail Paper Planes to book your place, please, and join poet and Commonword trustee Steven Waling and 6S Review fiction writer Anthony Sides for a fun, friendly and inspiring day of writing at this atmospheric and conveniently-located cafe.
11.15am til 4.30pm, Red Triangle Cafe, 160 St James's Street, Burnley BB11 1NR

01282 832 319

JANE RUSSELL

2011-03-01T02:59:00.000-08:00

BOOK BY MARCH 1, PAY MARCH 13

2011-02-26T06:06:00.001-08:00

The venue is opening specially for this workshop, so we need 6 of you to book before March 1 to make it worth their effort.

E mail Paper Planes to book your place , please - we'll save you a seat and you can still pay on the day.

PAPER PLANES: NEW VIEWS

SUNDAY 13 MARCH 2010

Entry: only £19/£15 concessions

Contact: paperplanes@hotmail.co.uk

Come to this highly-recommended new workshop and enjoy trying some easy, unusual, challenging and fun writing exercises to trigger new ideas for your writing, discovering pleasurably skewed, obtuse and intriguing perspectives.

Whether you write poems, fiction, scripts, raps or blogs, and if you’re a beginner or you’re more experienced, this workshop is for you.

You’ll look at your writing in a fresh way and take home 3 or 4 new pieces.

E mail Paper Planes to book your place, please, and join poet and Commonword trustee Steven Waling and 6S Review fiction writer Anthony Sides for a fun, friendly and inspiring day of writing at this atmospheric and conveniently-located cafe.

11.15am til 4.30pm, Red Triangle Cafe, 160 St James's Street, Burnley BB11 1NR

2011-02-17T07:32:00.000-08:00

The venue is opening specially for this workshop, so we need 6 of you to book before March 1 to make it worth their effort.
E mail Paper Planes to book your place , please - we'll save you a seat and you can still pay on the day.
PAPER PLANES: NEW VIEWS
Entry: £19/£15 concessions
Contact: paperplanes@hotmail.co.ukCome to this highly-recommended new workshop and enjoy trying some easy, unusual, challenging and fun writing exercises to trigger new ideas for your writing. Whether you write poems, fiction, scripts, raps or blogs, and if you’re a beginner or you’re more experienced, this workshop is for you. You’ll look at your writing in a fresh way and take home 3 or 4 new pieces. E mail Paper Planes to book your place, please, and join poet and Commonword trustee Steven Waling and 6S Review fiction writer Anthony Sides for a fun, friendly and inspiring day of writing at this atmospheric and conveniently-located cafe.
Venue Details:
at Red Triangle Cafe - 11.15amAddress: 160 St James's StreetPost Code: BB11 1NR

SAT 12 FEB 2011

2011-02-03T05:41:00.000-08:00

Saturday 12 January 2011, 12 noon til 4pm, only £13/£9
CREATIVE WRITING WORKSHOP:
PAPER PLANES SECOND SATURDAYS
Upstairs, Fuel Cafe Bar
448 Wilmslow Rd, Withington M20 3BW

You can come and enjoy our newest workshop - if you want to come: we promise you'll be pleased. You'll take home 3 or 4 new pieces of writing - prose, poems, scripts, lyrics or what ever else you enjoy writing.
You can join us early downstairs for a chat and a brew, beer or snack from 11.30, or upstairs from 12 noon for the workshop. We'll save you a chair.

AJ ASHWORTH / HORIZON REVIEW

2011-01-25T07:13:00.000-08:00

One of my favourite writers, AJ Ashworth, has had another of her excellent stories published recently - this time in Salt's Horizon Review - and you can read it for free here:

http://www.saltpublishing.com/horizon/issues/05/text/Ashworth_AJ_The_Rings_of_Saturn.htm

Dave Puller's PEACE, LOVE AND WAR: Blurb

2011-01-20T02:55:00.000-08:00

Dave's book is now available -

http://www.davepuller-writer.co.uk/books.html

You’ll find tender, cynical poems about new love and love gone sour - and love that’s bitter/sweet with might-have-beens.
You’ll enjoy angry and/or funny pieces about politics, class and consumerism – and heartbreakingly happy memories of a lost loved one.
Politics – and anger – continue in the compassionate and satirical section about the whys, hows and horrors of war for oil and corporate gain.
The final poems introduce you to Dave’s beloved Wythenshawe, and the values and injustices of a childhood in a “lower-working-class” community.
The Manchester Evening News called Dave a “poet, promoter and all-round nice guy” – while a fan on MySpace praises his “poetic, political and comedic genius”.

SHOT NO 51, by Anthony Sides

2011-01-11T11:21:00.000-08:00

A dust-skimmed pool and a palm tree, and a camel soiling its back leg. Freezeframed waves of sand washed up at the edges. A red rock with two vultures perched, nudging each other and snickering. The grass is straw and saw-edged. The sky is as pale as old jeans with hot rivets and the sun shouts in your eyes. Nurses sit round a card-table on unfolded chairs drinking tea and smoking and pretending not to notice a buzzing light connected to a button a patient in bed in striped blue-and-white pyjamas is pressing. His bed frame is tubular metal painted white and when he touches it sitting up he pulls his hand away fast.

UPBEAT ELVIS

2011-01-08T08:36:00.000-08:00

ELVIS: SAD SONG

2011-01-08T00:25:00.000-08:00

CHILD SOLDIERS

2010-12-30T00:23:00.000-08:00

Though you may already have your own clear intention of what charity to donate to, you may also find this interesting:

http://tharce-gulu.org/

http://www.tonic.com/campaigns/lets-help-eliza-dushku-build-a-center-for-former-child-soldiers-in-uganda-tharce-gulu/#article

MERRY XMAS BABY

2010-12-25T00:47:00.000-08:00

2010-12-18T00:00:00.001-08:00

"I look for ambiguity when I'm writing because life is ambiguous."

- KEITH RICHARDS

"ONLY A CROWD CAN MAKE YOU FEEL SO ALONE"

2010-12-18T00:00:00.000-08:00

"BARS AND SIDESHOWS ALONG THE TWILIGHT ZONE"

2010-12-03T10:21:00.000-08:00

I keep reading when ever I dip in to this.

You may know the events and many of the specifics, and there's that swagger and bravado in front of and in between his intelligence, insights and vulnerability - but swagger and bravado are parts of who he is and without them you might not have noticed him (as his mum said, and as anyone watching him with Chuck Berry in Hail! Hail! Rock 'n Roll can see, Keith Richards is shy) (a sign of conceit, it's said, though a musician he helped said you can see he's a humble man from his walk).

If he was vulnerable all the time you wouldn't be as interested - it's the mix that's attractive: tough plus vulnerable, whether it's Keith Richards or an Eliza Dushku performance or some one else - besides, as he's said, "There's a thin line between vulnerable and asshole."

"I'm not really 'Keith Richards'," he's also said, and he's at his best when he remembers that. He's fascinating when he writes about writing songs, and his wit and wry perceptions are all over these pages. Handsome object of a hardback, too.

"When a demagogue inside your head has taken charge" - Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson - Hang on to Your Emotions

2010-11-19T05:13:00.000-08:00

You probably expect me to biro lyrics I like in to the inside back cover of my exercise book, but I'm putting them here too. This is a song about the voice in our minds that criticizes us - the poet Steve Waling (www.stevenwaling.blogspot.com) calls it "the policeman in your head", though to me it usually sounded like one of my teachers or some former "friend" (some people are inadequate enough to enjoy knowing they're a toxic influence). Hang on to Your Emotions is about insomnia, too, or at least night-for-day, and I love the bass line and the mix of metaphors and specific scenes, and the way Reed plays with fire - and with pop song conventions - with the moon/swoon stuff near the end. This is a love song, too - more so in the performance: watch how Reed and Anderson watch each other.

Lou Reed: Hang on to Your Emotions

When your imagination has too much to say

When the chill of the night meets the sweat of the day

And you have trouble understanding what other people have to say

You'd better hang on to your emotions

When a demagogue inside your head has taken charge

And by default what you say or do is criticized

And this litany of failures is recited a thousand times

You'd better hang on to your emotions

Could it be you've never felt like that

That your mind's a cage - inside the cage a cat

That spits and scratches all it can get at

And that's you and your emotions

Could it be you've never felt like that

Your mind's a cage - inside the cage a rat

Rabidly trying to get at you and your emotions

When your imagination has too much to say

When that facile voice inside your head says give your life away

You might think to ask - how it got that way

What books it has read - that make it that way

And where it got the right - to speak to anyone that way

You'd better hang on to your emotions, hang on to your emotions

When a night city's breeze blows across the room

And a 5 am moon and sun start their swoon

You hear your lover's breath

But not a moment too soon

You get to release all your emotions

www.loureed.com

www.myspace.com/loureed

2010-11-16T03:18:00.000-08:00

CREATIVE WRITING WORKSHOPS

PAPER PLANES: SWEET THURSDAYS

6.30pm til 8.30pm

Only £10/£8 concessions

Whatever you write - poems, blogs, scripts, or raps - this workshop is for you.

EVERY THURSDAY

LASS O’GOWRIE

36 Charles St M1 7DB

0161-273 6932

paperplanes@hotmail.co.uk

NOV 18: Dialogue

NOV 25: Love, Hate & the Whole Shebang

DEC 2: Happy Accidents

DEC 9: Faster, Faster, Pussycat, Write, Write!

DEC 16: Get Published

2010-11-11T08:24:00.000-08:00

CREATIVE WRITING WORKSHOPS

PAPER PLANES: SWEET THURSDAYS
6.30pm til 8.30pm
Only £10/£8 concessions

Whatever you write - poems, blogs, scripts, or raps
- this workshop is for you.

EVERY THURSDAY
LASS O’GOWRIE
36 Charles St M1 7DB
0161-273 6932
paperplanes@hotmail.co.uk

NOV 11: Fact in to Fiction
NOV 18: Dialogue
NOV 25: Love, Hate & the Whole Shebang
DEC 2: Happy Accidents
DEC 9: Faster, Faster, Pussycat, Write, Write!
DEC 16: Get Published

SHOT NO 50, by Anthony Sides

2010-11-02T11:29:00.000-07:00

Time was sticky. A dusty windscreen, sun and miles and miles of time. Cappuccino blue sky - a moment I pretended. I heart that summer's finished, bestowing a blessing.

Lou Reed - The Power of the Heart (2008)

2010-10-13T09:48:00.000-07:00

Typically tender, romantic Lou Reed song: like most of his work after New York it's quiet and assuming and the more you listen to it the more you like it - play it a few times in this window while you're updating your social networking profiles or sending e mails, and see how much you enjoy it.

2010-10-07T04:33:00.000-07:00

"It's suposed to be fun."

- TONY CURTIS

TONY CURTIS 1925-2010

2010-10-01T09:40:00.000-07:00

"What'll I be in the history of Hollywood?" Tony Curtis said in the late 1960s. "A footnote?"

He was more interested, in that interview, in advocating the legalization of cannabis, and the US movie magazine I read this in was shocked that he "admitted" giving his father cannabis when his father was dying of cancer.

There's a similar scene in the novel he wrote with Barry Paris - a character gives his mother cannabis and she finds it takes care of her pain to a degree the doctors' drugs don't - leaving her able to be herself in the midst of the illness and able to be accepting.

Kid Andrew Cody and Julie Sparrow is amateurish in the best sense of the word - it's enthusiastic and idiosyncratic and Curtis takes the narrative wherever he's interested in going - perhaps ad libbing as he liked to as an actor. I read it in one night when I was 15 or 16, and again in my 20s much more slowly and carefully, and both times I enjoyed its pace and gusto and poignant humanity. The opening line is "The 20th Century Ltd pulled in to the station.", and I thought this was symbolic - the 20th Century Ltd is actually a train that went between NY and LA. The sentences in the book are short and snappy and tight and witty, and it starts fast and stays fast, and keeps a clear line of progress even with its discursiveness.

Round the time of his cannabis campaigning Curtis was disappointed he'd not been better received in The Boston Strangler. His is a fearless performance in a grim, interesting, voyeuristic film - all Henry Fonda films seem obsessed with lines of guilt and innocence and justice and ambiguity - but there was a moment watching it when, as Curtis sneaks down a hallway with the same furtive moves as in The Persuaders, that I wished I was watching him in something less bleak and ugly. I felt guilty for not giving him more leeway - he's raw and compelling and cold and clumsily real in the role - risking real awkwardness in the mimed reconstructions when his character is in custody. I'm not a big fan of Some Like It Hot, enjoyable though it is, and I think Curtis's best work is probably the press agent flattering and ingratiating and plotting in The Sweet Smell of Success - he called it a "feel-bad movie".

He was also a beautiful chat-show guest, usually as an engaging, funny storyteller. On Aspel in 1984 he upstaged both Jackie Collins and Pamela Stephenson, which I would guess is not as easy as he made it look.

PAPER PLANES ALL-DAY CREATIVE WRITING SEMINAR

2010-09-24T09:45:00.000-07:00

Please let us know if you want to come - we need six places confirmed by 5pm 2/9/10 to ensure this event goes ahead. Thank you, and have a good weekend.

PAPER PLANES ALL-DAY CREATIVE WRITING SEMINAR:
WRITE, REFINE & GET PUBLISHEDSunday

10 October 2010

10.30am til 4pm

only £30/£24 concessions

01200 444242

www.clitheroebooks.co.uk

From getting started to getting in to print –
and all the steps between
WRITE You’ll take home at least 1 new piece of writing and learn enjoyable and challenging ways to trigger new ideas for yourself
REFINE Switch on new ways to look at your work, as you are guided through a wide variety of enjoyable and often surprising methods to re-write, edit, refine and re-imagine your writing
GET PUBLISHED: PROSE
GET PUBLISHED: POETRY You’ll be taken step by step through how to get published, and where possible given individual suggestions for specific magazines and internet zines to suit your style of poem or story
YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED
NETWORK You’ll be given free membership of the Paper Planes mailing list and kept informed of a host of competitions and submission invitations. You can network with Paper Planes and each other to increase your success rate from now on

You’ll be guided and given individual advice by experienced, published writers Steve Waling (poet, Commonword trustee and author of Travelator); Comma and 6 S fiction writer Anthony Sides; and novelist Sarah Dobbs, author of Game, Set, Love-Match.

Whether you write poetry or prose, and whether you’re a beginner or more experienced, this work shop is for you

paperplanes@hotmail.co.uk
www.myspace.com/mypaperplanes

Please book your place by e mailing us or phone Steve on 0161-225 3444 before 5pm Saturday 2 October 2010 - you can still pay on the day

SHOT NO 49, from a piece in progress by Anthony Sides

2010-09-16T00:58:00.000-07:00

....

In another city on the Sunday, there was one minister who said in church to his congregation, "Evil does not wear a turban. Evil wears the face of a human being, whose heart is filled with hate, and fear."

....

SHOT NO 48, by Anthony Sides

2010-09-11T00:44:00.000-07:00

The one with an umbrella, and the two who held hands.

SHOT NO 47, by Anthony Sides

2010-09-10T08:43:00.000-07:00

watching her

do French

outside the window

it sounds good -

kissing, breath,

and pigeons;

a slow carousel -

me, her personality -

in her eyes for me

New all-day workshop Sunday 10 October

2010-09-07T08:59:00.000-07:00

PAPER PLANES ALL-DAY CREATIVE WRITING SEMINAR:
WRITE, REFINE & GET PUBLISHED

Sunday 10 October 2010

10.30am til 4pm

only £30/£24 concessions

Clitheroe Books

29 Moor Lane, Clitheroe BB7 1BE

01200 444242

www.clitheroebooks.co.uk

From getting started to getting in to print –

and all the steps between

WRITE You’ll take home at least 1 new piece of writing and learn enjoyable and challenging ways to trigger new ideas for yourself

REFINE Switch on new ways to look at your work, as you are guided through a wide variety of enjoyable and often surprising methods to re-write, edit, refine and re-imagine your writing

GET PUBLISHED: PROSEGET PUBLISHED: POETRY You’ll be taken step by step through how to get published, and where possible given individual suggestions for specific magazines and internet zines to suit your style of poem or story

YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED

NETWORK You’ll be given free membership of the Paper Planes mailing list and kept informed of a host of competitions and submission invitations. Network with Paper Planes and each other to increase your success rate from now onYou’ll be guided and given individual advice by experienced, published writers Steve Waling (poet, Commonword trustee and author of Travelator);Comma and 6 S fiction writer Anthony Sides;
and novelist Sarah Dobbs, author of Game, Set, Love-Match.
Whether you write poetry or prose, and whether you’re a beginner or more experienced, this work shop is for you

paperplanes@hotmail.co.uk

myspace.com/mypaperplanes

New free workshop tomorrow

2010-07-16T04:14:00.000-07:00

MANCHESTER - Saturday July 17 2010
12pm til 2.30pm
at the Lass O'Gowrie - 36 Charles St M1 7DB

PAPER PLANES: HAPPY ACCIDENTS
Entry: FREE

HAPPY ACCIDENTS
uses randomization and play to trigger fresh ideas for your writing.
You can join poet and Commonword trustee Steven Waling and 6 S Review fiction writer Anthony Sides for this challenging and fun creative writing workshop, suitable for everyone who writes poetry, prose, scripts, songs, raps and blogs.

WRITTEN ROULETTE: CASINO BOOGIE

2010-07-13T00:21:00.000-07:00

Finishing Exile on Main Street in Los Angeles, Jagger/Richards got stuck trying to write lyrics for this track. "Let's do a William Burroughs-style cut-up," Keith said, and they put phrases on bits of paper and put them together at random, so the story goes. The first words on the track are, "No good, can't speak," which may reflect the stuck feeling they started from.

Saturday 17 July 2010

2010-07-12T03:17:00.000-07:00

CREATIVE WRITING WORKSHOP

PAPER PLANES:
HAPPY ACCIDENTS

Saturday 17 July 2010

12pm til 2.30pm

The Lass O’Gowrie

36 Charles Street Manchester M1 7DB 0161 273 6932
www.thelass.co.uk

HAPPY ACCIDENTS
uses randomization and play to trigger fresh ideas for your writing. You can join poet and Commonword trustee Steven Waling and 6 S Review fiction writer Anthony Sides for this challenging and fun creative writing workshop, suitable for everyone who writes poetry, prose, scripts, songs, raps and blogs.

SHOT NO 46, by Anthony Sides

2010-06-27T06:46:00.000-07:00

The Louisiana architect spoke in tongues they said: licking shit-rimmed blood the forest computer children sister flowers kisses churches spirals shit smoke picnics a pig witches hills; and because I had a camera him and his cousin kicked my head around on the cobbles under a dull-red fire escape in a courtyard filled with ferns and green sunlight and the cobbles tilted and the light blew around the brick walls in the breeze.

SHOT NO 45, by Anthony Sides

2010-06-26T06:43:00.000-07:00

Slow kisses damp after sex. A minute and a half you don't think about hypnotises you, and pale-sided leaves ripple a few scraps of tinfoil sunlight on to the ceiling.

SHOT NO 44, by Anthony Sides

2010-06-24T09:36:00.000-07:00

Bad childhood so tiring many times stop lying many times stop crying. Lap dancer too thin too beautiful knives out no choice not keen. Dark morning dusty trees Dush coo mocha cream church yard Graham Greene. Good news fresh food a sheep that sings skin off aromatic breakfast. Pink pig face bad clown Deadly Ernest you hide when I notice the smile points. The sun shouts orange softly raining Sunday on the leaves.

RICHARD HARVEY-MORGAN: AWAY WITH THE FAIRIES

2010-06-23T03:46:00.000-07:00

Richard Harvey-Morgan, a regular at some workshops I've run in Burnley has had his first book published - Away with the Fairies - described as

"a story for all ages that goes straight to the heart. A book of pure fantasy offering an answer to some of the legendary tales of old Lancashire, bringing to life well- known legendary characters of northern England. Illustrated with 30 unique colour photographs.

"Richard is a small timid 12 year old who hates weekends. His mother, addicted to heroin, depends upon him whilst his father is in prison. Richard is ill-fed and -clothed, and his home has none of the contents that his schoolmates enjoy. He desperately wants to escape the drudgery and depression of his life. His only escape, when not at school or the library, is the forest, where he spends time amongst the wild residents.

"It is whilst there that his wishes are heard and acted upon by the fairies. The result of their trickery is that he is transformed into microcosmic size and the adventures begin."

I wish Richard all the best with his book and you can contact him at richardharveymorgan@yahoo.co.uk

SHOT NO 43, by Anthony Sides

2010-06-21T09:29:00.000-07:00

Too thin, not keen, you hide, when seen. Morning trees behind you, I look, won't find you. Deadly Ernest is an evil clown. Hangs his victims bleeding upside down. Church bells ringing, warning in the town. Deadly Ernest, walking round and round. Wrinkle filler, passion killer, feet step, not a sound. Sun shouts orange, dripped drops make a crown. Newest victim of an evil clown. Light bulb joking, teacher choking, gagging in her gown. Sun shouts orange, eek of door-hinge, one inch of my life. Smile is pointed, watch out evil clown.

SHOT NO 42: THE WHITE CEILING, by Anthony Sides

2010-06-20T09:22:00.000-07:00

That summer reminds me of her. Potted plants, dusty windows, and the sunlight reflected.

"I'm a slag but - " raspberry jam falling out of her mouth.

"How can I love you when you bite?"

Her wet skin, ripple and swirl, and the sunlight reflected. Scraps of rain, dusty windows, and the sunlight reflected.

"You can't want to think, you laugh all the time."

EXILE ON MAIN STREET

2010-06-18T04:59:00.000-07:00

I was disappointed when I first played Exile on Main Street. Don't buy a Stones album if you've not heard of the hits, I thought.

I kept playing it, through and through, and after a while certain passages became recognizable as they came up, clicking in to focus surrounded by unintelligible lyrics and music my brain didn't find familiar yet, and eventually I started to like it.

Though styles and paces change on the album, even when you're familiar with them the songs blur in to each other, and Exile has a continuity, like a cycle of songs.

The Stones used to work by playing a track again and again, composing and recording by using repetition and reiteration and the accretion of improvements. This record was worked and reworked, and finished and overdubbed and mixed in LA, and pieces and passages from different takes were stuck together, and it keeps a spontaneity and an impression of being a finished rough cut - one step short of a fair copy, loose and ragged and right - with workings shown and corrections scribbled in the margin. There's a layering of different voices and instruments, and one extra layer is that Exile carries with it a sense of the creative process that led to itself.

The damp cellar most tracks were recorded in is more famous than most of the individual songs, and the technical problems helped: the conscious minds of the players and producers were on the hitches and glitches and out-of-tune strings, leaving their unconscious minds free to play and create and improvise freely.

Wednesday 23 June

2010-06-17T05:05:00.000-07:00

Clitheroe Writing Group
Clitheroe Library
Church St
Clitheroe, Lancs BB7 2DG

Date: Wednesday 23 June
Time: 7:00pm to 9:00pm
Admission charge: Free.
All Welcome.

Details: This Writer's Group meets on the fourth Wednesday of every month. Please call Mrs Iris Howden on 01200 422577 for more details before joining.
N.B Please confirm dates and times with the library before attending.

CARRIE

2010-06-15T05:58:00.000-07:00

I've finished Carrie again. I read it only 20 pages or so at a time because it's horrible - Carrie's home life and how lost she is and her school life, and the doomed feeling all through the book.

In his intro King writes, "I was frightened .... of the level of cruelty I would have to describe."

He continues, "I was also frightened to revisit what I'd not had the wit or moral courage to stop," and Carrie is horrible not because it's horror but because of how real it is.

I've read about 40 of King's books, and that's a lot of pages, and I'm grateful for the pleasure of the time I've spent in his company in that way.

Though his books and stories are sometimes too long, and not all of them are good, I hope that while we have him around we properly value him for the entertainment, sensations and insights he gives us in his writing.

CANCELLED: ALL-DAY CREATIVE WRITING SEMINAR

2010-06-14T07:20:00.000-07:00

CANCELLED: ALL-DAY CREATIVE WRITING SEMINAR
THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED
PAPER PLANES ALL-DAY CREATIVE WRITING SEMINAR:
WRITE, REFINE & GET PUBLISHED10.30am til 4pm
only £30/£24 concessions
Clitheroe Books29 Moor Lane, Clitheroe BB7 1BE
01200 444242www.clitheroebooks.co.uk

PAPER PLANES: SECOND SATURDAYS

2010-06-11T04:36:00.000-07:00

Saturday 12 June 2010, 12pm til 4pm
PAPER PLANES: SECOND SATURDAYS
Fuel Cafe 448 Wilmslow Rd, Withington M20 3BW
Only £13/£9
Contact: paperplanes@hotmail.co.uk
Whatever you write, this work shop is for you - poems, prose, scripts, songs, blogs.
Join me downstairs at 11.30 for a coffee or upstairs at 12 for the session.

VIEWS ON PAPER PLANES:

Annie Clarkson: "inspiring... A lot of laughs, respect for others' writing, and encouragement. ... a wonderful afternoon."

William West: "amazing classes. .. . the teaching is pure gold!"

Lynn Myint-Maung: "thank you for the work shop ... I found you graceful and organized as facilitators, but also cheerful, kindly and playful and allowing so that the atmosphere was both safe and encouraging."

Adam Grant: "bloody superb, I love what you're doing with Paper Planes."

Pat Selden : "I never expected it to be this good."

Elaine Speakman: "It's my favourite way to spend a Saturday, I think it's lovely."

YouTube:
Writers Writing

SHOT NO 41, by Anthony Sides

2010-06-06T06:42:00.000-07:00

All the lies you wish. All the cruel people. All the spin-the-bottle. Pink champagne and chances. Never connect. The taste of copper, and the winter sun in circles bouncing pennies in your eyes.

SHOT NO 40: EVERYTHING IS SUGAR, by Anthony Sides

2010-06-05T06:35:00.000-07:00

You can you can't you haven't. Am I am I I might. It's him that's weird. Planned and detached in life. Distant. Distant. Guided by fear. Tea, TV. Spilled pills, faded pretty hills. Broken little soldier, told he just can't cope. Scared of a windowed room, scared of the street. Sleeps in daylight and shouts.

SHOT NO 39, by Anthony Sides

2010-06-04T06:27:00.001-07:00

The sun shouts in orange, a grin behind your eyes. But remember: take everything seriously.

SHOT NO 38, by Anthony Sides

2010-06-04T02:28:00.000-07:00

A misty straight row of morning trees in front of orange sky, and stripes of shadow and sideways sunlight across an empty school athletics field making the white lines pink. All the lessons I've learned in life are too painful to talk about. Dots of dew, coconut butter aftershave balm, a bird whistling a ring tone, and the weave of my white poplin shirt. A black ant on the cuff stops at the seam, wiggling three legs.

CANCELLED: EDALL-DAY CREATIVE WRITING SEMINAR

2010-05-28T06:07:00.000-07:00

THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED

PAPER PLANES ALL-DAY CREATIVE WRITING SEMINAR:

WRITE, REFINE & GET PUBLISHED
10.30am til 4pm
only £30/£24 concessions
Clitheroe Books
29 Moor Lane, Clitheroe BB7 1BE
01200 444242
www.clitheroebooks.co.uk

From getting started to getting in to print – and all the steps between

WRITE You’ll take home at least 1 new piece of writing and learn enjoyable and challenging ways to trigger new ideas for yourself
REFINE Switch on new ways to look at your work, as you are guided through a wide variety of enjoyable and often surprising methods to re-write, edit, refine and re-imagine your writing
GET PUBLISHED: PROSE
GET PUBLISHED: POETRY You’ll be taken step by step through how to get published, and where possible given individual suggestions for specific magazines and internet zines to suit your style of poem or story
YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED
NETWORK You’ll be given free membership of the Paper Planes mailing list and kept informed of a host of competitions and submission invitations. Network with Paper Planes and each other to increase your success rate from now on

You’ll be guided and given individual advice by experienced, published writers Steve Waling (poet, Commonword trustee and author of Travelator);
Comma and 6 S fiction writer Anthony Sides;

and novelist Sarah Dobbs, author of Game, Set, Love-Match.

Whether you write poetry or prose, and whether you’re a beginner or more experienced, this work shop is for you

paperplanes@hotmail.co.uk myspace.com/mypaperplanes

SHOT NO 37, by Anthony Sides

2010-05-25T03:45:00.000-07:00

Bus station toilet mirrors taps graffiti sinks all is one. White concrete yellow smog smelling like burned. Parking lot. Her eyes pink. I'm not sure who I am. Treat her badly. Bored stoned force. Jeans knees. Lace feels lively. Exhaustion. Is this all we are chemicals? Everybody sleep all day on a sleep today. Glare. Stucco walls patio tiles silver shoes. Blue swimming-pool jigsaw scribble. Pink piss. Fucked leather. Digital spreads. She talks about all she talks about every night she talks about all. Tired gone so bad. Tamarisks. Hills. Blue pills my palm. Watching. Champagne bottle. Terracotta roof tiles blue sky wires blue sky blue sky traffic copter yellow horizon.

SHOT NO 36: A PLEASING FACE, by Anthony Sides

2010-05-24T03:30:00.000-07:00

Much is redacted. Extremely secret, duct-taped shut, locked shut, restricted access - blank, stiff, clean: resolutely pleasant. He can't control it all. Smile, sneak, flipping the pages, and his teeth clench. That pain in his stomach. It's fine. A Filipina girl crying, Technicolor gloss, smeared pink grimace. Weekend in the dark with the repression sick and jealous, slip, slap, heartburn blurp: the opposite of control.

SHOT NO 35, by Anthony Sides

2010-05-23T03:26:00.000-07:00

Musk perfume, a handkerchief and jeans. Flower-coloured summer, and white lipstick kisses. Rainbows and good thoughts. I dream I love you when you yawn. I wake up, my life watching. You sleep.

SHOT NO 34, by Anthony Sides

2010-05-22T03:23:00.000-07:00

Famous women. Scornful, silly voices. How did I get like this? I want to sleep all night. I'll kiss your morning and we'll have coffee and danish and jokes. Please like me.

The 6 S Review Issue 3

2010-05-22T03:16:00.000-07:00

My story in a book in the US

2010-05-01T03:54:00.000-07:00

You can read my short short story Lady of Leisure (about 75 words) in this new collection from the US. You'll enjoy the book if you like fast fiction, and you can follow a link from http://www.sixsentences.blogspot.com/

"Think you know fast fiction? Think again."

6S, Volume 3
Edited by Lydia Davis
List Price: $27.95

Lydia Davis has published numerous collections of short stories and essays. She lives in New York State.

Third time's a charm! The international authors of "Six Sentences" are back, and this time, no subject matter is taboo, and everything - and everyone - is fair game.

The collection features all-new work from some of the finest practitioners of the 6S genre, including Diane Brady, Brian Steel, Joseph Grant, Adam J. Whitlatch, Kim Tairi, Jeanette Cheezum, Kevin Michaels, Emily McPhillips, Rod Drake, Juliana Perry, Linda Simoni-Wastila, Richard M. Johnson, Crorey Lawton, Madam Z, and the former Poet Laureate of Queens, New York, Hal Sirowitz.

Publication Date:
Apr 28 2010
ISBN/EAN13:
1452840067 / 9781452840062
Page Count:
280
Binding Type:
US Trade Paper
Trim Size:
5.25" x 8"
Language:
English
Color:
Black and White
Related Categories:
Fiction / Short Stories

SHOT NO 33, by Anthony Sides

2010-04-13T02:38:00.001-07:00

Once there was a witch and I was her cat: she gave me the magic and I was pleased with that. Once there was a witch and I was kind of her cat: she gave me the magic and I was very pleased with that. Feeling feline: walking in a straight line; eating birds with white wine; smiling in the sunshine.

Sometimes you lose the love that you get: sometimes you choose to, sometimes you just forget. Sometimes you can lose the love that you get: sometimes you choose to, sometimes - you just forget.

I'm feeling feline. I'm feeling like crying.

SHOT NO 32: 5/11/1928 - 12/2/1980, by Anthony Sides

2010-02-12T08:35:00.000-08:00

It's winter. Sun light slants across my knees. I've a cigarette in my fingers. In this arm chair with my cigarettes and coffee I feel like my father. I smoke with the same gestures as him. I pick my shoes up from next to the chair and put them down in front of me and put them on and tie the laces and thumb a shred of tobacco off my lower lip with the same movements as him.

I sometimes miss the town where I grew up. The funny friendly or prickish people in overalls out of the garages and engineering works for a 12 o'clock dinner hour. A ham barmcake and a beaker of tea or Nescafe or a pint. Mechanic's fingers reading The Sun.

My cigarette's at its end and here's the last mouthful of coffee.

NORMAN MAILER 31/1/1923 - 10/11/2007

2010-01-31T01:53:00.000-08:00

2010-01-21T03:05:00.000-08:00

Sun 7 Feb 2010

CREATIVE WRITING WORK SHOP

PAPER PLANES: HAPPY ACCIDENTS

11am til 4pm, only £19/15 concessions
Red Triangle Vegetarian Cafe
160 St James's Street, Burnley, Lancs BB11 1NR 01282 832 319

paperplanes@hotmail.co.uk myspace.com/mypaperplanes
Come to this new workshop and enjoy trying some easy, unusual, challenging and fun writing exercises that use randomization and play to trigger new ideas for your writing.
Whether you write poems, fiction, scripts, raps or blogs, and if you’re a beginner or you’re more experienced, this workshop is for you. You’ll look at your writing in a fresh way and take home 3 or 4 new pieces.
E mail Paper Planes to book your place and join poet and Commonword trustee Steven Waling and Comma fiction writer Anthony Sides for a fun, friendly and inspiring day of writing at this atmospheric and conveniently-located cafe.

VIEWS ON PAPER PLANES:
Annie Clarkson: "inspiring... A lot of laughs, respect for others' writing, and encouragement. ... wonderful."
William West: "amazing classes. ... the teaching is pure gold!"
Lynn Myint-Maung: "thank you for the work shop ... I found you graceful and organized as facilitators, but also cheerful, kindly and playful and allowing so that the atmosphere was both safe and encouraging."
Adam Grant: "You guys are bloody superb, I love what you're doing with Paper Planes."
Pat Selden : "I never expected it to be this good."
Elaine Speakman: "It's my favourite way to spend a [day], I think it's lovely."

ELVIS

2010-01-12T02:35:00.000-08:00

Easy to get bored with the "classic" Elvis songs you've heard hundreds of times, so here are some less-well-known ones you can enjoy:

SHOT NO 31, by Anthony Sides

2009-12-24T03:25:00.000-08:00

November disappearing - the houses silhouettes of themselves. The trees against the faded fields. Flowers red yellow blue in the park - the careful staggering of bright flowers for all seasons - a Mandelson for all seasons. Here, though, the air is as warm as your thighs. Walking down towards the edge of the sea pretending not to hold my belly in, the wind blowing your hair enough to the side to touch my shoulder. The sea dotted and dashed by the trunks of the palms, green waves higher than the beach, slopping thud, and we turn and smile at each other and I'm pleased to be thoughtless.

RED TRIANGLE, BURNLEY, LANCS

2009-11-16T02:35:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was great, and thank you to every one who came to the event and those who helped publicize it. The coffee and food at the Red Triangle cafe were great, and it was a real pleasure to meet all of the people who came to the work shop. Thank you also to Annie Clarkson who suggested the venue in the first place.

ALL-DAY CREATIVE WRITING SEMINAR

2009-10-30T05:12:00.000-07:00

Sunday 15 November 2009

PAPER PLANES: ALL-DAY CREATIVE WRITING SEMINAR
WRITE, REFINE AND GET PUBLISHED
Red Triangle Café
160 St James Street, Burnley, Lancs BB11 1NR
Tel 01282 832319
Vegetarian restaurant / cafe – Licensed. Informal daytime cafe;

Fri Sat eve booking only

10.30am til 5pm, £27/£24 conc

From getting started to getting in to print – and all the steps between

WRITE Discover new, enjoyable and challenging ways to generate new writing in a friendly, creative and supportive atmosphere. You’ll take home 3 or 4 new pieces of writing and learn how to trigger new ideas for yourself
REFINE Switch on new ways to look at your work, as you are guided through a wide variety of enjoyable and often surprising methods to re-write, edit, refine and re-imagine your writing
GET PUBLISHED: PROSE
GET PUBLISHED: POETRY You’ll be taken step by step through how to get published, and where possible given individual suggestions for specific magazines and internet zines to suit your style of poem or story
YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED
NETWORK You’ll be given free membership of the Paper Planes mailing list and kept informed of a host of competitions and submission invitations. You can network with Paper Planes and each other to increase your success rate from now on

You’ll be guided and given individual advice by experienced, published writers Steve Waling (poet, Commonword trustee and author of Travelator),
and Comma fiction writer Anthony Sides.
Whether you write poetry or prose, and whether you’re a beginner or more experienced,
this work shop is for you

paperplanes@hotmail.co.uk myspace.com/mypaperplanes

WRITE, REFINE AND GET PUBLISHED

2009-10-05T03:22:00.000-07:00

You can book your place now at a unique all-day writing event at the Red Triangle vegetarian cafe in Burnley, Lancs on Sunday 15 November 2009 where you'll discover how to get your poems and stories published, as well as trying new ideas, twists and techniques to help you write, edit, re-write and refine your work.

Paper Planes: Write, Refine and Get Published is only £27 (£24 concessions) and you can secure your place today by making a payment on PayPal to annieclarkson@yahoo.com (please make sure you put paperplanes in the box to identify what the payment's for). Or you can contact paperplanes@hotmail.co.uk or phone or text 07954 369 774.

The event is the latest in a series of popular Paper Planes sessions, and is conducted by poet and Commonword trustee Steve Waling, Comma fiction writer Anthony Sides, and published poet and short story writer Annie Clarkson.

URINATION ETIQUETTE WITH NORMAN MAILER(PISS POLITESSE)

2009-09-21T02:24:00.000-07:00

"I'm going to go and unfurl," is how a former friend of mine used to excuse himself to go to the toilet.

I used it earlier this year in a piece at a writing work shop and it tickled some people's fancies and now it's starting to catch on. If it does, it's thanks to the friend's inventiveness.

After a north American unfurling episode, the friend was grateful to Norman Mailer.

On holiday in, I think, Toronto, the friend unfurled in a car park behind a bar and was seen by a Canadian police woman. She beckoned him over - or, at least, he sensed that she wanted him to go over to her - so he furled and walked from his stain to where she was standing.

She was stern and disgusted. "We don't do that in public over here," she said.

The friend was horrified. She let him off with a warning, but he was horrified for months after. He felt he'd disgraced himself and the image of the English abroad.

This shame and distress lasted from summer until November. Though he had no interest in Normie Mailer, as he called him, he came with me to a book launch for Harlot's Ghost.

The launch was less existential than I'd hoped, and my attempt to make it existential made me feel bad, but Mailer talked about the inaccuracy of his reputation. He said - especially when he was 1st famous in NY for Naked and the Dead - he could not, for instance, walk home from a party and stop to urinate between 2 parked cars without it being written about in a newspaper as if it were especially horrible of him.

"My God," he said, "what man here has not urinated between 2 parked cars on his way home from a party or a bar?"

My friend instantly felt better. He had believed he was a bad person and the incident had started to trouble his sleep. Norman Mailer made him feel he was human and OK and he was reeling with relief.

BE GOOD

2009-08-28T09:50:00.000-07:00

People are innocent until proven guilty, though I know that's an unpopular idea these days, so I can't say that Phillip Garrido committed the crimes he's been charged with relating to the abduction of Jaycee Lee Dugard in 1991. If true, though, the details of this story are interesting.

If the allegations are correct, Ms Dugard and 2 children fathered by Mr Garrido would have been kept hidden for the practical reason that Mr Garrido's parole disallowed him contact with young children.
As with Hans Fritzl in Austria, it would also have been psychologically useful to Mr Garrido and his conscience that what he did wrong - if he did do anything wrong - was kept separate and hidden from his "real" life.
We teach right and wrong to children through punishment and often anger and violence. A good child is not a moral child, it is a quiet, obedient child.

Children quickly learn that, existentially, not getting caught is the same as being good. Get caught and you get punished: behave as you've been told and you are considered good; behave badly and get away with it and you, too, are considered to be good.
This leads us to believe that the misdemeanours, crimes and sins we commit don't count unless we get caught.
Sexually abuse a child in a secret place and then go back in the main house and wash your hands and no one knows: therefore you can feel you've done nothing wrong.

It is better to teach right and wrong as a personal responsibility. Making it entirely external takes morality away from the individual.

When you wonder what you can get away with and what the punishment will be if you get caught and how likely it is you will get caught or suspected and what to say if you are, life gets stressful and complicated, and your personality divides and shifts more than usual.

If you decide to care about right and wrong, life is simpler. You decide what the right behaviour is and behave that way. Your life is then easier to conduct, and your good conduct makes you feel better even if no one notices. Beyond that, and less important, others learn to trust and value you, so the external influences in your life tend to get better, too.

There are inherent instincts for cruelty and aggression in us. Sometimes we need them to defend ourselves or those we care about.

Sometimes, though, we express them because the hard wiring of our brains is not all that well planned out. (Eg The part of the brain that appears to be active during sexual arousal is close to the amygdla, which processes negative emotions, and adjacent parts of the brain tend to activate each other.) (See Who Are You?: 101 Ways of Seeing Yourself by Malcolm Godwin; and Rita Carter's Mapping the Mind).

So, as Lou Reed sings, "You can depend on cruelty", and on "crudity of thought and sound".

None the less, if we teach children and ourselves that right and wrong make life better for them as well as every one around them, then life will become better for our children and us and every one around us.

EX 8

2009-08-24T02:39:00.000-07:00

Write a piece of prose or verse based on this list - not from the words but from the pictures and ideas that come in to your mind when you read the words.

Manipulation

Serial killer

Satire

John F. Kennedy

The Vietnam War

Shadows under the trees

After the rain

The gym

Cheerleaders

Dave Puller's PEACE, LOVE AND WAR: Blurb

2009-04-30T02:04:00.000-07:00

You can discover serious, poignant and playful poems in this new collection from Dave Puller. You’ll love reading and re-reading Dave’s deceptively simple lines about love, peace and war (and a little bit about Wythenshawe).

· You’ll find tender, cynical poems about new love and love gone sour - and love that’s bitter/sweet with might-have-beens.

· You’ll enjoy angry and/or funny pieces about politics, class and consumerism – and heartbreakingly happy memories of a lost loved one.

· Politics – and anger – continue in the compassionate and satirical section about the whys, hows and horrors of war for oil and corporate gain.

· The final poems introduce you to Dave’s precious Wythenshawe, and the values and injustices of a childhood in a “lower-working-class” community.

The Manchester Evening News called Dave a “poet, promoter and all-round nice guy” – while a fan on MySpace praises his “poetic, political and comedic genius”.

Dave Puller

2009-04-28T02:56:00.000-07:00

I recently read a proof copy of Dave Puller's new book, a poetry collection called Peace, Love and War which you can get soon. It has the directness, humour, politics and emotion you find in Dave's writing, and I sat down and read it through.

SHOT NO 30, by Anthony Sides

2009-04-16T02:51:00.000-07:00

"This is where I've been spending my money on - on him - and it didn't do any good. He turned out a good cat. The vet said that he was an old gentleman. I've still got Lucy. I'm not putting her through what I've put him through."

This quiet slow small life I've made - recovering - supposedly - or like these aged people in cafe.

Hopes of you in leaf-shadow under froths of blossom and forsythia, and cool shadow under dark trees growing in damp soil - romping again - more energy and volume and I love your loveliness and you owe me nothing - I am glad to be there with you as much as I can be - spring is for you, equinox girl. OK, maybe I'll say it 1st. Maybe.

The vast spaghetti plantations in the Po valley the sun making thin straight stripes of shadow.

SHOT NO 29, by Anthony Sides

2009-04-08T02:10:00.000-07:00

When I sleep I dream my bridges slowly burning; I wake up tireder, tied with limitations that I'm learning: last exit to Castlefield; last Big Issue vendor for 25 yards; last kiss of your lips.

ANNIE GET YOUR PUN

2009-03-20T02:35:00.001-07:00

Annie Clarkson, who is interesting on the page and in person, has written a review of 1 story from Espresso Shots. You can read her review by clicking on Annie in the Followers box low in my left margin and, at her blog, searching for "short shorts" and reading down to her Feb 14 piece short short heaven.

SHOT NO 28, by Anthony Sides

2009-03-17T03:52:00.000-07:00

You make yourself ill with the poisons they sell, the poisons they tell you will make you feel well. All the small cruel things that you wish you hadn't done, all the spin the bottle chances that you wish you hadn't spun - all the rooms you've cried in.

You think the whole world's made of sugar, or is it just a bitter pill?

Kissing sissies in the corridors - of your mother's mind, and if you looked for your real feelings what failings would you find? All the lies you've underlined.

Now your hair at the back is pink and thinned and you hide your collar bone from the wind and your school made you feel uptight. Rain rains rainy on the dusty glass and you wonder how many things can last and will any one last with you.

Old, lonely people talking in circles to stop silences; and every song is like Sunday.

All the small cruel things that we wish we hadn't done. All the spin-the-bottle chances that we wish we hadn't spun. All the rooms we've cried in.

SHOT NO 27, by Anthony Sides

2009-03-17T03:35:00.000-07:00

Is the woman in the window 1 of us? A soft rain - not like this - misting catching the afternoon street lights as winter pm starts shadowily. Coffee shops and walks by water and kisses, tenderness and laughing. Linger on, your pale blue eyes. Quiet, almost out-of-tune guitar starts, and the flat vocals. Dots of rain in your hair. A cat in the corner. Pure window dressing. I know things about people, Lilly. Punch punch punch - jabs and shiny gloves and roundhouses and rights and sweat flying in the gym.

SHOT NO 26, by Anthony Sides

2009-02-08T00:01:00.000-08:00

So I'm lost in the Arndale, with no wings and no prayer, screwed up by wishes that weren't really there - and if you stop lying about me, I'll stop telling the truth about you - and sometimes it's better to be unconscious than miserable - and I wish I was unconscious. Sometimes I wish I was a puppet, and things couldn't hurt me; other times - I just wish I was a human being.

Intro to Shot No 25

2009-01-29T01:54:00.000-08:00

I wrote this in 1991 when I was selfish enough to steal from Ted Lewis's Jack's Return Home, which starts "The rain rained." The pleasantly endless, slow passing of time is from The Great Gatsby, though I got it via Stanley Booth.

SHOT NO 25, by Anthony Sides

2009-01-29T01:40:00.000-08:00

Tinfoil sunlight, and a few scraps of rain smudge the dusty windows.

Take your shoes off, and lie back on the bed. Let the ceiling let you hypnotize yourself. Let the underwater ceiling let you hypnotize yourself.

Rain rains, rainily, against the dusty windows. It's one of those long, endless, unwinding Friday summer evenings, when the 1/2 an hours unspool, all laid-back and mellow, like a tape of Dire Straits switched to CONTINUOUS PLAY. Continuous play.

And the tree tops and the sunlight roll together in the rain, like green waves and gold, and the twisted, pale-sided leaves ripple and swirl.

You sit in your room and I sit in mine, separated by miles and miles of time; and you don't think about me, though I think about you; and you don't want to go out with me, though I'd almost marry you.

SHOT NO 24, by Anthony Sides

2009-01-26T02:49:00.000-08:00

The Lancashire cat grins. Just a grin against an orange stucco wall. Is that how you remember me?

There's hot Sister Moon and the smell of vampires' breath. Trees black, grass blue in the silver.

A day's journey of baguettes, wine, sun burn, brioche. Sand and tantrums, Nivea and brie.

Cuckoos counting the clockless uncoiling of the afternoon's boiling to 11 o'clock dusk.

The sun shouts in your eyes.

SHOT NO 23, by Anthony Sides

2009-01-14T07:48:00.000-08:00

Rusty stutter North Dakota rusted rails train-hit suicides empty prairie colourless grass ghost towns whose reasons for living are not known the whish of the wind Bismarck the wind can drive you crazy sing song rhythms of Texas, here playing the sheriff the whish, whish, whish-sh of the wind twisting the scratchy branches of small trees banging doors you've not latched cold wind with grit in it twisted stretches of barb wire metally glint of pale sun brighter grey through grey sky glint of broken beer bottle glass and aluminum can horse head tossing in endless wind

car slowly slowing in an arc in the yard gravel crunch pop under tires - winter sun wan bounces like pewter coin spun off windshield - thin smoke blown flat from the chimney - the door was open and the light was off and dust blew in the house and the door bumped, bumped in the wind bump, bump -

the prairie and the sky and the endlessness and the wind washing the landscape like sea on a shore sh-ing and eroding - people who say things to you when you're listening on the phone - tall winter wire brush trees

NOTE ABOUT ESPRESSO SHOTS

2009-01-14T06:37:00.000-08:00

You'll see changes in Espresso Shots soon - new pieces will appear regularly and frequently and some old pieces will disappear - so now is the best time for you to take a good, relaxed look at the site and enjoy some of the earlier poems and stories while you can.

You'll know the revamp is finished when some of the colours and maybe the basic design of the site change. You can continue sending your writing to the site and making comments on what you read here.

Intro to Shot No 21

2008-11-04T07:07:00.000-08:00

The poet Steve Waling took this photo and gave me 30 seconds to look at it before I wrote this from my impression of it.

SHOT NO 21, by Anthony Sides

2008-11-04T06:57:00.000-08:00

Shadow lines of a fence with a bushy leaved tree on one side of it - drawn by the sun on a grey stone block wall in some oblique corner of Los Angeles created by a freeway spur, a quiet corner away from the gang violence today.

Intro to Shot No 20

2008-10-29T05:30:00.000-07:00

I started to write this about some of my favourite words, and overheard a remark which I let distract me.

SHOT NO 20, by Anthony Sides

2008-10-25T00:29:00.000-07:00

That hiss of the wind in trees rippling white-sided.

My uncle's son-in-law drove him to a nursing home to die. A black woman in a uniform came out.

"Bloody hell," my uncle said. "What tribe are you?"

Oh, no, please, my uncle's son-in-law thought.

"Matabele," the woman said, and as she guided and supported my uncle lifting himself out of the back of the car in to his wheelchair my uncle and the woman started to have a conversation together with each other in Swahili. My uncle had done some of his National Service in Kenya and said he had learned to speak some Swahili there.

SHOT NO 19, by Anthony Sides

2008-10-22T00:01:00.000-07:00

Mr Grafton marched out of his premises when he heard the thin bright wire of the scream climb in to the autumn sky. The tram scraped screeching and stopped. The horses stood, ears flicked, heads bobbed, the long reins pulled tight.

Shied when a straw bonnet with a ribbon on it blew past their hocks and hoofs. There was blood on the brim. The people on the street were silent with a sick feeling, and then whispers.

Practical grey-handlebar-moustached Mr Grafton marched forward to take charge. His bowler hat was straight and he was wearing a starched shirt and black cravat and the trousers and waist coat of his grey 3-piece suit, having left his jacket in the office in his haste taking his bowler from the peg.

Clearly there had been a frightful accident. Terrible business. Mr Grafton knew he must take charge. He stopped by the front of the tram in the middle of the cobbled street and nodded gruffly to the fish-belly-white-faced driver who looked down at him appalled, giant eyes, squid eyes. Mr Grafton bent to look under the tram to be certain the poor party was in fact deceased and would not be further injured if he directed the tram to back up to free the body.

It was 1928. Younger rusty-handlebar-moustached Mr Grafton saved Mark Addy from drowning in the Irwell though it was a misunderstanding, and owned a bicycle shop and then the 1st Ford motor car show room in the south eastern district of the Manchester conurbation. The good son was killed at Ypres. The younger son helped his father with the business, was schizophrenic, shot himself in an unsuccessful suicide attempt. Mr Grafton shut down. Continued to attend church. Felt angry all the time without knowing. Survived his wife. Married a young girl. Survived her when she and her straw bonnet were crushed by a horse-drawn tram.

SHOT NO 18, by Anthony Sides

2008-10-18T06:23:00.000-07:00

For 4 hours I remember nothing at all the pretty horses come to the aid of the quick red fox glacier mints meat polar bear arms and the manifold it 5 ways and put it where the moon don't shine on harvest moon river Just once I'd like to hear you scream in pain Try playing some rap music makes the bourgeoisie and the rebel red jacket white T blue jeans He has to see us Harry Webb and the Spyders in the heat of the night of the iguana he arrives just in time wounds all heels round about just a minute passes the clock throws minutes in to the room with a view from the bridge contract trumps smells like boiled eggs bus ride from Queens Park giant spidery steel/concrete bridge high above the river in the park funny-coloured textile-smelling water ripples silkily - down from the bridge they throw bags of rubbish mattresses an old brown sofa I thought was a dead cart horse on its side fridges a gold-spray-painted basket chair and a large porcelain doll lying on its back, the river eddies moving the hem of its dress, that turns its head from the side and opens glass Liz Taylor eyes and blinks.

MAILER ON OJ AND OSWALD

2008-09-18T06:40:00.001-07:00

There's almost of full hour of this interesting interview from 1995 by Charlie Rose, and since the sound is out of synch with the visual you may as well enjoy listening to it while you do something else in another window.