Lovely hubbly

After my reading at writLOUD in August, James Vincent, organiser, editor and general litlover, asked me to write a feature about multicultural literature for WRITERS’ HUB.

You can read my offering, Blurred Edges: Multicultural Fiction and the Role of the White Author, here.

Writers’ Hub is an amazing resource. You can sign up for alerts on Facebook and Twitter, and if you do you’ll be joining a growing community of writers.

Reading at writLOUD

I’ll be reading at writLOUD on August 9th. writLOUD is a monthly readings event showcasing both new writers from Birkbeck’s Creative Writing courses and established authors.

I’ll be reading from my novel Among Thieves, and I’ll be joined by Jill McGivering who’ll be reading from her first novel, The Last Kestrel – ‘a deeply compassionate and thoughtful novel, written with the humanity that is a trademark of her reporting’ (Fergal Keane). Jill is a Birkbeck, MACW alumnus and BBC senior foreign news correspondent.

There will also be readings from Matthew Wright, Azra Hussain and John Lucas.

Admission is free of charge, but with a suggested donation to Oxfam of £3.50.

To reserve places in advance, email writloud@aol.co.uk or rock up at RADA Foyer Bar, Malet Street, London WC1E 7JN Monday 9 August 2010, 6.30-8.15 pm

Coventry LitFest

Click to enlarge

On Wednesday February 17th I will, once again, be joining the novelist Amanda Smyth at Coventry University to give a talk entitled “How I Write”.

Ours is the first talk in a 3-day series for Coventry Conversations. This time however, the formula has been extended to create a mini Literature Festival. The speakers during the week include Mr Golden Pen himself – Andrew Davies (screenwriter of films such as Pride and Prejudice, Middlemarch, Vanity Fair, Wives and Daughters and Tipping the Velvet) and Nick Walker – whose novel Black Box was considered one of the year’s outstanding debuts in 2005.

All the talks are free and open to all, and take place at 13.00pm in Room ETG34, Ellen Terry Building, Coventry University, Jordan Well, Coventry.

• 17th February: Mez Packer and Amanda Smyth
• 18th February: Andrew Davies
• 19th February: Nick Walker

Shakey, Mills&Boon and me

Sara Craven, Alycia Smith-Howard, Mez Packer and Annie Othen

Last week I had another invitation from the lovely Annie Othen to be a guest on BBC Coventry and Warwickshire’s Friday morning Coffee Club. The format is simple; three women, a surfeit of coffee and biscuits and a trawl through the headlines. It’s not exactly highbrow but it’s good fun and last week the guests all had a literary flavour.

Alycia Smith-Howard – a Shakespeare scholar and writer (recently of New York University) and Sara Craven, author of eighty – that’s eight-zero – Mills&Boon romances, and me, sat round the little coffee table in the corner of Annie’s studio and discussed topics ranging from bankers’ bonuses to how we met our husbands. (I’m not sure if you can still listen again but if so, it’s here). Good fun, as usual.

Alert for ‘Among Thieves’

Google Alerts – what fun! Choose the keywords you want to monitor and Google will send you an email whenever something with those words gets posted on the web. It doesn’t catch everything – content from static web sites takes a while to come down the pipe. But anything from news sites or blogs – basically anything that uses RSS – arrives in the mailbox pretty quickly.

This is how I found a new review of Among Thieves last week. It’s from one of Salt Publishing’s literary magazine titles – Horizon Review. Reviewer Becci Fearnley says:

Jez’s memories of the shattered city in which he grew up, hiding unexploded World War II shells in a secret den, tattooing himself as part of an initiation ceremony into his boyhood gang, Das Bombers, and the way he is misunderstood by his father and brother make Jez the most intense of all the three voices. Although Pads’ sophistication and Mehmet’s family loyalty do make them interesting and readable voices, it is Jez with whom I fell in love.

With three voices so utterly distinctive from one another, and so honest and compelling in their narration, it is easy to lose yourself in Mez Packer’s novel. Three hundred and five pages make this a story deep enough to get your teeth into, yet compact enough to maintain a swift pace.

In 2006 Becci Fearnley won the Branford Boase Award for Young Writers and has had her poetry published in a Young Writer’s anthology. She is currently studying English Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Warwick, and is working on an eighth novel – bloody hell! She’s only 20.

YOU be the judge

The People's Book Prize

You be the judge – well kind of… my first novel, Among Thieves, has been put forward for The People’s Book Prize. The website says:

The People’s Book Prize is a national competition aimed at discovering talented authors showcased exclusively at your local library and on this website – with no panel of judges except YOU, the public!

Yeah – I get it, but the most likely scenario is that the author who can coerce, cajole and encourage their friends to vote for them will fare best in this type of competition (cynical, moi?). But these things have their place and I’m not above self-promotion – I have a blog for God’s sake, and a Facebook page and I use Twitter. So, should you feel like being part of my master plan then please vote for Among Thieves HERE.

When real life is the story

Mslexia issue 43

For my birthday, a couple of years ago, a friend bought me a subscription to Mslexia magazine. It’s a brilliant quarterly aimed specifically at women who write. I didn’t have a publisher, or an agent at the time and the magazine was an invaluable resource.

This month I’ve had my first feature published in Mslexia. I haven’t seen a copy of the magazine yet so I’m not sure what page it’s on or how it’s been edited but the piece is about the pitfalls of writing what you know – turning real life into fiction.

So grab a copy  – Mslexia do a ‘try before you buy’ deal, so you can get this month’s magazine and if you like it then buy a subscription for the whole year. It’s worth it!

ARtsfest

The Waterhall is part of the Birmingham Art Gallery and Museum

This Friday sees the start of Birmingham Artsfest – with a pretty cool line-up of music, dance, theatre and literature. On Sunday 13th I’m doing a short talk with fellow author, Jeff Phelps, and our gig is described as “literary beach novels far apart”. There’s not that much beach life in Among Thieves but I’m sure I can tailor a reading to fit the advertised theme.

Event details:
Jeff Phelps and Mez Packer talk about their novels (Box of Tricks, Among Thieves) with an introduction from Alan Mahar, Tindal Street Press publishing director.
Date: Sunday 13th September
Start time: 1pm
Venue: The Waterhall, Chamberlain Square, B3 3DH

There’s an online round-up of Artsfest events in the Birmingham Post, where I am once again referred to as Mex Packer – which makes me sound like a Texan warehouse assistant, or a gunslinger – yeah, Mex Packer – the meanest son-of-a bitch in the Midlands.

Summer’s end

Summer’s end – too early to say that perhaps – but it feels like it to me. Back to work and the whole sorry jig and slide of fitting writing around earning begins again. I’ve had almost a month at home (apart from a couple of quick trips to Bath and Edinburgh). Still, it’s been a strain fitting family and creativity together without busting capillaries. School holidays. I have a wonderful ‘almost teenager’ whose bedroom is next to my office and the the whole cheek-by-Youtube hellishness of POP music through the wall has taken its toll, (I’m not sure I won’t kill something if I hear Dizzee Rascal’s Some People Think I’m Bonkers one more time).

Something colourful and autumnal

Maybe it’ll be good to get some routine back into the mix (although I’ve never been short on discipline – not since I gave up the drugs;-)). Back to the paperwork and the students and the marking. And September is my favourite month. There’s always that day in September, the one that signals the real end of summer – when there’s a freshness to the wind and the smell of something earthy and cool. And even though you know winter’s coming it doesn’t matter in that moment – because it makes you feel cosy and cheery rather than sad. You even lift your face and take a deep breath and say something like ‘I can smell a change coming’. You might even think about the jumpers you need to get out of the bottom drawer, or pumpkin soup or bonfires and get a reflected, seasonal glow. You forget about February, you forget about the cold grey banality of the English winter just around the corner.

I’m making myself miserable and I must stop. It’s only September. September is my favourite month – did I say that already?

Mez Packer podcast

Mez Packer and Amanda Smyth discuss their novels, Among Thieves and Black Rock, with John Mair as part of the Coventry Literary Festival – in conjunction with Coventry Conversations.

Click on the audio icon below to listen now:

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