https://soundcloud.com/5x15/george-saunders-and-max-porter-in-conversation Chop a Chekov story into pieces. Echo of class at Syracuse. Break up a story, a page at a time. Forces us to ask that question, why do I keep reading? If I read a paragraph I’m in a different place than before, where is it? Granular level. More irritating if the story is really good (cf, working with a shit story). Forcing the pause. Sit there for a few minutes asking,...

Storyville, Whirlybird-Live Above LA, BBC 4, BBC iPlayer, director Mark Yoka. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000sc9j/storyville-whirlybird-live-above-la Bob and Marika Tur captured the police chase on the Los Angeles freeways and the arrest of O.J. Simpson as he parked up his Bronco. Streamed live, it was watched by over 80 million- largely-America viewers. They were at the peak of their power. They witnessed the highs and lows of the...

If anything, the Covid-19 crisis and adapting to lockdown and restrictions has forced creatives of all ilks to rethink their processes without abandoning their chosen path. A subtle connectivity that can ignite the spark through a passing conversation. I found myself over the past month in a slump. That post-novel funk that seeps in after you type THE END. My project is finished, I know this because I have no desire to go back in and add/delete...

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-little-stranger All Gothic fiction requires a big house, a crumbling manor, think Dracula or Frankenstein with unruly peasants at the door with their torches. Before they’re invited in, of course, they’ve got to wipe their feet. Here we have Hundreds Hall, and like its master, second world war pilot, scarred and shambling Roderick Ayres (Will Poulter) the centre cannot hold and everything flies apart. He’s...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p0940193 An ornate key turns up on your pillow, it doesn’t fit anything in the house. You ask other members of your family. Nobody knows how it got there. Did it teleport from somewhere else? You hear knocking sounds. Your neighbours come to complain. It goes on all night. It goes on for weeks on end. Months. Who’s doing it and why? Your Irish granny says it’s the work of the devil. A young pretty girl is the...

Like many these days, I have dabbled in the investment scene. Of course I've had a company 401K for years and really didn't pay much attention to it. Last year however, things changed! The virus hit, the world got all flitty, and the stock market took a bit of a tumble. It looked like a good opportunity to "Buy the dip" as I've learned it's called. I didn't want to say anything to the wife about this as I was afraid it might alarm her. Turned...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000s7hd/darren-mcgarveys-class-wars-series-1-1-identity-crisis Darren McGarvey from Pollock admits he’s lucky, incredibly lucky. And he’s right to do so. He’s on a roll after Poverty Safari . The go-to man when the BBC, or any other media organisation, wants to signal that they’re doing the right thing. Giving the working class a voice. The equivalent of a black woman in the moron moron’s cabinet of his 45...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000s083/circling-a-fox Matthew Zajac is an actor. Acting is a precarious profession. The same old faces crop up with regularity. Trying to make a living from acting is akin to trying to make a living from writing. I’ve did a few shifts as an extra. I’ve no interest in being the next what-ever-you-call him/her. Writing, well, that’s a different story. Writing is my game. I don’t expect to make a living from...

Bronze Medal Award winner of the 2020 Cerasus Poetry Olympics

Writers create little worlds of wonder but where do these stories come from? I know it is different for each writer for we have our own rhythm and flow…require different stimuli…and know what effectively works for us may not work for everyone. For me, when I write, it is visual…the words flow from what I see, or I should say what I imagine. I walk through the scenes in my mind’s eye almost in a trance, imagining and typing the descriptive words...