Another review, this time by Simon Thomas at Stuck in a Book.
He says:
Words from a Glass Bubble by Vanessa Gebbie has a … varied group of scenarios, narrators and themes - but her voice is rather harsher, more concerned with the gritty and the earthy. Occasionally a quieter voice creeps through, which leaves one staring at the page at the sheer pathos Gebbie can create. 'The Kettle on the Boat', for instance, where parents quietly take their Inuit daughter away on a boat; she narrates the journey, and leave her for adoption: "If I am not there to help, how will Mama know when the fish are ready?"
The one I wanted to point to, though, is 'Cactus Man'. 'The Kettle on the Boat' was my favourite, but 'Cactus Man' is perhaps more representative. 'Spike', an enthusiast and collector of cacti, wants to discover his real name because he is getting married. He visits a social worker who can look through his files and tell him.
'I was saying how unusual your case is.'
'Can't be doing with too much usual.'
'Sorry?'
'We feed off being unusual, us lot.'
'Oh, I see'.
The story is one of muted disappointment, understated grief and an eventual path of hope for Spike. Gebbie is at her most subtle here, and manages to evoke the lives of her central characters completely, visualised through the stilted attempts of Spike to gain a firmer grasp on his identity. There is nothing so saccharine as a 'love conquers all' message here …but a sense that hope can be found amongst fragility and discouragement.
I'm glad he picked that one to represent the book. It's my favourite story.
Glass Bubble was reviewed alongside Balancing on the Edge of the World, by Elizabeth Baines... he loved her book, as did I.
The whole review can be found HERE
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Showing posts with label Words FRom A Glass Bubble. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Words FRom A Glass Bubble. Show all posts
Sunday, 30 March 2008
Wednesday, 19 March 2008
BOOK LAUNCH...THE SEQUEL
Lots of piccies of me, here, and far too many of my batty writer. But you get a good idea of my beautiful jumper and skirt.. my favourites. Goes with my hair don't you think?
These were all taken by photographer Cora Malinak at the launch party for Words From A Glass Bubble, March 11th. Friends, family, place, people, books, pictures, and a lot of smiles.
Put your speakers on: the music is the Allegro from Handel's Cuckoo and Nightingale Organ Concerto
Handel makes an appearance in the slide show...in terracotta.
But mostly the best pictures are of moi, the book.
The photographer is whizzo. Ace, and all sorts of clever. Not like my batty writer who has just worked out which way up to hold a camera. Huh.
CLICK HERE FOR CORA MALINAK PHOTOGRAPHY
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These were all taken by photographer Cora Malinak at the launch party for Words From A Glass Bubble, March 11th. Friends, family, place, people, books, pictures, and a lot of smiles.
Put your speakers on: the music is the Allegro from Handel's Cuckoo and Nightingale Organ Concerto
Handel makes an appearance in the slide show...in terracotta.
But mostly the best pictures are of moi, the book.
The photographer is whizzo. Ace, and all sorts of clever. Not like my batty writer who has just worked out which way up to hold a camera. Huh.
CLICK HERE FOR CORA MALINAK PHOTOGRAPHY
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PICCIES!!
My batty writer signing a book...
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My batty writer with Jen Hamilton Emery from Salt Publishing (and half a Big Salt Bag for Salt Books...)
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Mr Kieron Fenton reading moi...
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My batty writer signing moi for Maggie Gee who says nice things on my cover...
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Molara Wood and Elaine Chiew
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Saturday, 8 March 2008
BRIGHTON BUBBLY LAUNCH THANKS TO NEW WRITING SOUTH
Lovely news. New Writing South, my writing association, are putting on a launch party for Glass Bubble. With a free glass of bubbly for everyone!
BUBBLY LAUNCH PARTY... sounds rather appropriate!
It will be in Brighton at a fab venue, on Monday 31st March, 6.30 pm
Fantastic!
Watch this space for venue.
BUBBLY LAUNCH PARTY... sounds rather appropriate!
It will be in Brighton at a fab venue, on Monday 31st March, 6.30 pm
Fantastic!
Watch this space for venue.
Thursday, 6 March 2008
REVIEWED ON NORMBLOG
Words from a Glass Bubble has been reviewed by Adele Geras today on her husband (Norman Geras)'s blog, Normblog.
(I love Normblog. There is always something to provoke, to challenge, to make me think...)
Adele Geras reviews two Salt Collections: Balancing on the Edge of the World, by Elizabeth Baines, and Glass Bubble.
She writes a very good introduction in which she champions the short story.Here is her article in its entirety:
Two short story collections (by Adèle Geras)
Salt is an independent publisher based in Cambridge and it specializes in short stories. I've read two collections by Salt authors recently: Elizabeth Baines's Balancing on the Edge of the World when it came out a couple of months ago, and - the other day - Vanessa Gebbie's Words from a Glass Bubble, to be launched next week.
Some people simply don't like reading short stories and I find this so inexplicable that every so often I'll try my powers of persuasion to win the form a few more readers. Publishers (though not Salt, obviously) think that collections are not a paying proposition and efforts to bind them up individually as tiny little booklets and sell them at railway stations and the like don't seem to have flourished. They crop up less and less frequently in magazines. The broadsheets will carry a story by a superstar writer at Christmas, and occasionally at Halloween, because ghost stories, at least, are perennial favourites. Val McDermid tried her hardest a couple of years ago to get short stories noticed with a superb website and perhaps the internet is part of the future of this genre. But collections like these two show that the form is still alive and well in its printed version.
Those who don't like short stories are disappointed, perhaps, because they expect them to be small novels and they're not. It's like wishing a truly delicious canapé, or an exquisite strawberry tart, were a three-course meal. That isn't going to happen. With a few exceptions, short stories are short - over in a few pages for the most part - and therefore you'd think ideal for journeys, waiting rooms, the time before you fall asleep and any small time slot when getting stuck into a novel means you won't get further than the next few pages and have to leave it hanging till a later time.
Stories, when they work (and in the hands of these two writers they do work), offer us a chance to look into someone else's life. They can throw a stone into our mind that keeps rippling out to the edges of our thoughts all day long. That, I think, is what the blurbese 'haunting' means: you are literally pursued by the story you've just read, as if by a particularly vivid dream. They can terrify you (M.R. James, Franz Kafka), make you laugh (Damon Runyon), and even bring to life, however briefly, a whole distinct world (Katherine Mansfield, Anton Chekhov). They can be extended jokes, or delicious bits of scandal, or an overheard conversation. There are stories to suit every taste.
Elizabeth Baines's speciality is unpacking relationships. She catches perfectly the embarrassment, rivalry, squabbling, envy and love that exist between parents and children and between siblings. 'The Way to Behave' has a wronged wife going to speak to her husband's mistress. Baines is wincingly funny about the creative process and 'The Shooting Script' ought to be required reading for anyone who fancies themselves writing for television. She's both lyrical and clear-sighted when she looks at the world through a child's eyes. Try the stories 'Power' and 'Daniel Smith disappears off the face of the earth'. She moves between the city and the countryside and her internal monologues sound genuine, which isn't a surprise as Baines is a prize-winning playwright. Many of these tales would make good short dramas and perhaps that's one way of approaching them. The difference between drama and stories, though, is this: you have to provide the setting, costume and props in words and Baines does this with enormous aplomb.
The cover image on Vanessa Gebbie's book (which shows the back view of a beautiful red-haired girl going along a road and which reminds me of the Clark's shoe advertisements from the 50s) is an ironic comment on the contents of the book. The stories here are often heart-breaking. The death of children is a recurring theme and tales like 'I can squash the king, Tommo' (with its deliberate echoes of 'Under Milk Wood') are hard to read with dry eyes. Gebbie is never sentimental and the grief felt by her protagonists is brilliantly described. The ordinariness of pain: the way you settle into it, the way you face what's dished out to you, the way you cope, are examined in language that's plain and even brutal when it needs to be, and tender and poetic when that's appropriate. Some of the stories are set in Wales; the seaside is the background for some others. There's a story about an Inuit child which is desperately sad, but still uplifting. Harry in 'Harry's Catch' - which dwells in some detail on the technicalities of fishing - faces the truth about his marriage for the first time. A lowly employee at a hotel works out who wears the shoes he polishes, and in my favourite story, 'Dodie's Gift', you get an entire thriller plot played out in ten pages. It's terrific stuff: wide-ranging, interesting and, like the Baines, very well-written.
I do urge anyone who loves short stories to read these two collections and help me spread the word. (Adèle Geras)
(I love Normblog. There is always something to provoke, to challenge, to make me think...)
Adele Geras reviews two Salt Collections: Balancing on the Edge of the World, by Elizabeth Baines, and Glass Bubble.
She writes a very good introduction in which she champions the short story.Here is her article in its entirety:
Two short story collections (by Adèle Geras)
Salt is an independent publisher based in Cambridge and it specializes in short stories. I've read two collections by Salt authors recently: Elizabeth Baines's Balancing on the Edge of the World when it came out a couple of months ago, and - the other day - Vanessa Gebbie's Words from a Glass Bubble, to be launched next week.
Some people simply don't like reading short stories and I find this so inexplicable that every so often I'll try my powers of persuasion to win the form a few more readers. Publishers (though not Salt, obviously) think that collections are not a paying proposition and efforts to bind them up individually as tiny little booklets and sell them at railway stations and the like don't seem to have flourished. They crop up less and less frequently in magazines. The broadsheets will carry a story by a superstar writer at Christmas, and occasionally at Halloween, because ghost stories, at least, are perennial favourites. Val McDermid tried her hardest a couple of years ago to get short stories noticed with a superb website and perhaps the internet is part of the future of this genre. But collections like these two show that the form is still alive and well in its printed version.
Those who don't like short stories are disappointed, perhaps, because they expect them to be small novels and they're not. It's like wishing a truly delicious canapé, or an exquisite strawberry tart, were a three-course meal. That isn't going to happen. With a few exceptions, short stories are short - over in a few pages for the most part - and therefore you'd think ideal for journeys, waiting rooms, the time before you fall asleep and any small time slot when getting stuck into a novel means you won't get further than the next few pages and have to leave it hanging till a later time.
Stories, when they work (and in the hands of these two writers they do work), offer us a chance to look into someone else's life. They can throw a stone into our mind that keeps rippling out to the edges of our thoughts all day long. That, I think, is what the blurbese 'haunting' means: you are literally pursued by the story you've just read, as if by a particularly vivid dream. They can terrify you (M.R. James, Franz Kafka), make you laugh (Damon Runyon), and even bring to life, however briefly, a whole distinct world (Katherine Mansfield, Anton Chekhov). They can be extended jokes, or delicious bits of scandal, or an overheard conversation. There are stories to suit every taste.
Elizabeth Baines's speciality is unpacking relationships. She catches perfectly the embarrassment, rivalry, squabbling, envy and love that exist between parents and children and between siblings. 'The Way to Behave' has a wronged wife going to speak to her husband's mistress. Baines is wincingly funny about the creative process and 'The Shooting Script' ought to be required reading for anyone who fancies themselves writing for television. She's both lyrical and clear-sighted when she looks at the world through a child's eyes. Try the stories 'Power' and 'Daniel Smith disappears off the face of the earth'. She moves between the city and the countryside and her internal monologues sound genuine, which isn't a surprise as Baines is a prize-winning playwright. Many of these tales would make good short dramas and perhaps that's one way of approaching them. The difference between drama and stories, though, is this: you have to provide the setting, costume and props in words and Baines does this with enormous aplomb.
The cover image on Vanessa Gebbie's book (which shows the back view of a beautiful red-haired girl going along a road and which reminds me of the Clark's shoe advertisements from the 50s) is an ironic comment on the contents of the book. The stories here are often heart-breaking. The death of children is a recurring theme and tales like 'I can squash the king, Tommo' (with its deliberate echoes of 'Under Milk Wood') are hard to read with dry eyes. Gebbie is never sentimental and the grief felt by her protagonists is brilliantly described. The ordinariness of pain: the way you settle into it, the way you face what's dished out to you, the way you cope, are examined in language that's plain and even brutal when it needs to be, and tender and poetic when that's appropriate. Some of the stories are set in Wales; the seaside is the background for some others. There's a story about an Inuit child which is desperately sad, but still uplifting. Harry in 'Harry's Catch' - which dwells in some detail on the technicalities of fishing - faces the truth about his marriage for the first time. A lowly employee at a hotel works out who wears the shoes he polishes, and in my favourite story, 'Dodie's Gift', you get an entire thriller plot played out in ten pages. It's terrific stuff: wide-ranging, interesting and, like the Baines, very well-written.
I do urge anyone who loves short stories to read these two collections and help me spread the word. (Adèle Geras)
Wednesday, 27 February 2008
TIM LOVE'S REVIEW
I must be careful how I get out of bed. Last night my writer was very over-excited, because she had something called a review. Whatever that is, she was pleased.
There's this place called Tim Love's Literary References. He does something with computers, or er (I don't know) at Cambridge University.
Cambridge University is a few old buildings and a few old professors. I am still in Infants myself, and am just starting Red Book 3. We have new buildings and I like that. Less spiders.
However. This person has this great website that's chocca with information and links and this and that all to do with his love of literature.
That's why he is called Love. I don't know why he's called Tim.
But HE says I'm OK.
So that's good.
He even says I've got enough good stories in me that I could be used to teach how short stories ought to be written... Wow.
That means I am nearly better than Red Book 3.
TIM LOVE'S REVIEW HERE
There's this place called Tim Love's Literary References. He does something with computers, or er (I don't know) at Cambridge University.
Cambridge University is a few old buildings and a few old professors. I am still in Infants myself, and am just starting Red Book 3. We have new buildings and I like that. Less spiders.
However. This person has this great website that's chocca with information and links and this and that all to do with his love of literature.
That's why he is called Love. I don't know why he's called Tim.
But HE says I'm OK.
So that's good.
He even says I've got enough good stories in me that I could be used to teach how short stories ought to be written... Wow.
That means I am nearly better than Red Book 3.
TIM LOVE'S REVIEW HERE
Friday, 22 February 2008
MY FIRST OUTING!
Well. I was let out last night, taken out of my box, and driven all the way into Brighton! Oooh it's a scary place.
My writer was one of the judges at a short story slam event at the Komedia, put on by Short Fuse.
She had to kick start the event with a reading, and she chose something out of my pages! I was so proud, I can tell you! She read two flashes from a story called Closed Doors.
And people clapped! It was lovely. Then she put me on a table while she listened to twelve stories read out and I think I had some Budweiser dripped on me at one point.
What DOES she think she's doing? Think's she owns me, I expect... huh.
Actually, I quite liked the Budweiser. And the stories, some of them. The winner was really great... she won the Small Wonder Festival Slam too, last autumn. Gosh I was tired when we got home.
Its all very well being born, but all this activity is a bit much so soon.
My writer was one of the judges at a short story slam event at the Komedia, put on by Short Fuse.
She had to kick start the event with a reading, and she chose something out of my pages! I was so proud, I can tell you! She read two flashes from a story called Closed Doors.
And people clapped! It was lovely. Then she put me on a table while she listened to twelve stories read out and I think I had some Budweiser dripped on me at one point.
What DOES she think she's doing? Think's she owns me, I expect... huh.
Actually, I quite liked the Budweiser. And the stories, some of them. The winner was really great... she won the Small Wonder Festival Slam too, last autumn. Gosh I was tired when we got home.
Its all very well being born, but all this activity is a bit much so soon.
Tuesday, 12 February 2008
Endorsement by Zadie Smith...
It's been a roller coaster over the last week, reading the Willesden Herald Blog, and Zadie Smith's wake-up call to writers of short fiction to do do better. Her refusal to award the prize this year has caused ripples, and they are still spreading:
The Sunday Times carried almost a whole page: HERE
Yesterday's Daily Telegraph followed suit: HERE
But hey:
If people want to know what she does like, there are two in this book... In Words from a Glass Bubble.
One joint first prizewinner from 2006 (Dodie's Gift), and one runner up from 2007 - the title story that went on to take second at Fish.
The Sunday Times carried almost a whole page: HERE
Yesterday's Daily Telegraph followed suit: HERE
But hey:
If people want to know what she does like, there are two in this book... In Words from a Glass Bubble.
One joint first prizewinner from 2006 (Dodie's Gift), and one runner up from 2007 - the title story that went on to take second at Fish.
Wednesday, 23 January 2008
Final Proofs...
The final proofs arrived yesterday afternoon. One hundred and fifty something pages. Now all I have to do is find that chicken...
(For new visitors... Charlotte Chicken is my editorial assistant, seen below at work on the first proofs...)
(For new visitors... Charlotte Chicken is my editorial assistant, seen below at work on the first proofs...)
Thursday, 3 January 2008
More endorsements, more postcards, my webpage
The postcards in Christmas cards was a good idea. Now, whenever I see friends, it is they who start the conversations...
"Thanks for the card... the book looks great... love the cover... what's this, a book!...tell me about it... etc etc
and in the jeans pocket are a few more cards. So if there's someone in on the chat who wasn't on my Christmas card list, I can hand them one legitimately!
I had some more endorsements, and they are lovely. One says I have 'the heart and soul of a writer'...
Salt have put my webpage up, detailing the stories in the collection (needs a bit of revision) and my bio.
But most important, for this writer at least, my endorsements.
CLICK HERE FOR MY WEBPAGE AT SALT PUBLISHING
"Thanks for the card... the book looks great... love the cover... what's this, a book!...tell me about it... etc etc
and in the jeans pocket are a few more cards. So if there's someone in on the chat who wasn't on my Christmas card list, I can hand them one legitimately!
I had some more endorsements, and they are lovely. One says I have 'the heart and soul of a writer'...
Salt have put my webpage up, detailing the stories in the collection (needs a bit of revision) and my bio.
But most important, for this writer at least, my endorsements.
CLICK HERE FOR MY WEBPAGE AT SALT PUBLISHING
Wednesday, 19 December 2007
Starting the Marketing Process
It is hard to think of Glass Bubble as a commodity, but that is what it is, and it has to be marketed like any other.
It is actually hard, this bit. Certainly, I do not find it easy to blow my own trumpet, and that is what is necessary now. And perhaps it might be useful to others to see what I am doing. Who knows the process mght result in half a dozen books being read and sold. But I hope it might have better results than that.
So... the next few posts will be dedicated to things I am doing to market the book.
It is actually hard, this bit. Certainly, I do not find it easy to blow my own trumpet, and that is what is necessary now. And perhaps it might be useful to others to see what I am doing. Who knows the process mght result in half a dozen books being read and sold. But I hope it might have better results than that.
So... the next few posts will be dedicated to things I am doing to market the book.
Wednesday, 5 December 2007
I Have A Cover!
Now that I exist, I deserve my own blog.
I am due to be born on 1st March 2008, the product of a fruitful partnership between writer Vanessa Gebbie and Salt Publishing, Cambridge, UK.
My writer also has a page on the Salt website HERE
I will post news here. meanwhile, I have three more months to go before my birthday! Wish me luck.
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I am due to be born on 1st March 2008, the product of a fruitful partnership between writer Vanessa Gebbie and Salt Publishing, Cambridge, UK.
My writer also has a page on the Salt website HERE
I will post news here. meanwhile, I have three more months to go before my birthday! Wish me luck.
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