Alan Humm - The Sparkler

 

The Sparkler is a fictionalised account of part of the life of author Charles Dickens. I opened it in happy anticipation. Alan Humm is well known for his poetry, and as editor of One Hand Clapping magazine, but this is his first novel, so I didn’t know quite what to expect from him, or from the novel’s subject. I’ve read several novels by Charles Dickens, but have never given much thought to the man himself. And of course, The Sparkler is a work of fiction, rather than a factual biography. So, what did I think of it?

Alan Humm's The Sparkler, published by Vine Leaves Press

I have to say, it is a sparkling read. It’s glittering and luminous in terms of story, characterisation and writing style. It’s a vibrant read, whisking us back almost two centuries in time to a world which turns out to be just as lively, glorious and even abrasive as our own. Twenty-something Charles Dickens crackles off the page. Through Alan Humm’s prose we are caught in the sense of animation as we follow the restless, newly married, optimistic, ambitious young man who is fully committed to becoming a famous writer. Dickens is mercurial and impulsive, trawling the grimiest streets of Victorian London by gaslight, infatuated with Sarah, who’s sometime bar-maid, sometime prostitute, fiercely independent woman. Dickens is obsessed with her, and with his wife’s 17-year-old sister. He’s also obsessed with the theatre, and writing, and above all, in making his name. Obsession doesn’t quite reach his relationship with his wife, and this is an interesting aspect of the story. It’s as if having a good wife, in Dickens’s eyes, was all about helping him achieve and maintain his desired social status. And though this might make us critical of him, it can also make us see him as vulnerable.

Having read and enjoyed the novel, I sought out information about the real Dickens, and it’s clear Alan Humm crafted his novel meticulously as a work of fiction drawing on conflicts and notoriety attached to the man himself. It seems Dickens could perfect a world in fiction, while recklessness and spontaneity jeopardised his own life’s story. The Dickens in The Sparkler seems to be all ‘me, me, me’. Tempering this is Humm’s almost tender portrayal of him tormented by memories of being a young lad feeling brutalised and adrift in the harsh streets of the city, and suffering anxieties over loss of home, security – and status. There’s a lot to think about in this novel. Through his vivid storytelling, Alan Humm has created for us Dickens the character who is spirited, energetic, and something of a firecracker. In short, The Sparkler is exactly that.

Author Alan Humm

Extract of The Sparkler

He decided to sit it out. He found a space just to the rear. It was a side street, suburban enough, with pots of flowers and a pump that seemed somehow apologetic. The sky was lower here, more threatening, but also more contained. It seemed to hide between the chimney pots. There was a bench from which he would see her when she came out. It wouldn’t matter how long he had to wait, he told himself, and, indeed, it didn’t. It took on the nature of a vigil. The longer he waited the more approving of himself he was. In his imagination, there was something medieval, something almost exemplary, about his profile. This was what fidelity would look like if you should want to draw it. 

He became colder and colder but he would not stop. He would not give in. Sometimes he paced up and down but that was all that he allowed himself to do. He was there for hours. His thoughts seemed to clang around, uselessly, inside him. All they were, really, were the tail end of his observation of the stones beneath his feet, the small street and the gap at the end, a natural proscenium: the pub on one side and a house at the other and the clouds looming above them both. It was nine o’clock in the evening now. There were, he calculated, hours to go. But he would not move. He was not only proving something but exhibiting it to himself. As a child, in the factory, he had locked hands with the other boys and arm-wrestled over the packing cases. Not often. They had easily defeated him. But this felt like that: the way that all of you was rolled up into one fierce gesture of concentration; the way that the strength of your opponent was something that you were staring down. He would not allow himself to feel the cold. He would not think about how hungry he was feeling. And now he would not even stand. He took on the bench in the same way that he had taken on all of the things he had had to wrestle with since he was a boy. Then, there she was. (p.226-7)

Q&A with Alan Humm

CMcK: Hello Alan. Welcome to my blog! The Sparkler is such an intriguing novel. What drew you to write about Dickens?

AH: I've been reading Dickens ever since I was a child. There are aspects of his writing that I still enjoy very much - I particularly like his gift for metaphor, for example - but, as I've got older, I've become more and more interested in his life, and by its relation to his writing. Why did he write so little about sex? Why are so many of his female characters so very sweet and wan and unassuming? These were questions that I found, more and more, that I wanted the answers to.

CMcK: Why did you choose to write fiction rather than biography?

AH: If you want facts, then a biography is the place to go. And, yes, there are many biographies that also convey some sense of emotional truth but I do think that fiction also has its place here. We can only ever know so much about a person's life, especially about one that was lived so long ago, and there are gaps that I'm sure we'd all like to see filled in. The biggest gap in Dickens's life, it seems to me, is what he actually felt about his sister-in-law. When she died he was distraught; way more than you might have expected him to be. Fiction allowed me to suggest an answer to my own question. Having said that, I only ever worked within the parameters of his real life. I didn't change a single known fact. In the end, I started to believe in the plot of the book myself.

CMcK: Why did you choose that particular time of his life?

AH: It was more that it was chosen for me. I read Becoming Dickens by Robert Douglas-Fairhurst and it was all there: the characters; the milieu; the conflicts. I couldn't resist.

CMcK: Was Charles Dickens a nice person?

AH: It depends what you mean by "nice". He was funny, charming, intelligent and a warm-hearted and passionately indignant social reformer. He was also a loyal and generous friend. But he could be extraordinarily unkind and self-absorbed. He was as much of a human being, in other words, as the rest of us: as good and as bad as we all are in our daily lives. The one thing he undoubtedly was (and is) is fascinating. I hope I've been able to communicate that, at least. 

CMcK: These are such interesting answers to my questions! Thanks so much for guesting on my blog, Alan. I really enjoyed reading The Sparkler, and wish it every success.

For more information about Alan Humm and his writing, visit his website   

The Sparkler is widely available to buy. See publisher Vine Leaves Press's website for full information.

Julie Kennedy - Ma Mum and William Wordsworth

 

Today, I’m delighted to welcome Julie Kennedy to my blog, to talk about her novel Ma Mum and William Wordsworth.

Julie has an impressive writing track record, with poetry and fiction published widely e.g. in New Writing Scotland, Causeway/Cabhsair, Southword, and the Poetry Society Newsletter, and she was highly commended in the Ledbury 2022 Poetry Competition. Ma Mum and William Wordsworth was longlisted in Mslexia’s 2013 First Novel Competition and in 2022 she was awarded a Scots Language Publication Grant to publish it as an ebook.   

Review

By turns amusing and tragic, this is the story of 15-year-old Erin, growing up in an industrial town in late 1970s Lanarkshire. The oldest of eight children, Erin is good at school, keen on literature and full of potential, but her life is rocked by the announcement that her mother is ill.

Erin’s dad is emotionally overwhelmed and out of his depth when he has to step into the role of chief care-giver. He has Erin’s help, but Erin is young, and in many ways an innocent. Alone and adrift in the streets of central Glasgow at night, she naively follows those who approach her with offers of assistance, completely unaware of the danger she’s putting herself in. Author Julie Kennedy is superb at this. Erin doesn’t realise she’s in jeopardy, but the reader does! I thought this was one of the best aspects of this story. We feel huge empathy for Erin. Empathy and affection. We want her to thrive.

Ma Mum and William Wordsworth is beautifully and vibrantly written – Erin’s voice and engaging personality immediately take up residence in your head. I also loved the vivid way the author captures the everyday details of family life in the late seventies. Ranging in mood from anguished to heart-warming, this novel is a deeply satisfying read with echoes of Anne Donovan, Elissa Soave, Des Dillon and Paul McVeigh. I’m sure it will appeal to people Erin’s age and to adults.

 

Ma Mum and William Wordsworth

And here's a short extract to set the mood -

Ma Da’s aunt is a nun in a convent in England. She comes an stays wi us fir a week. She brings plastic rosary beads fir the hail family. We spend ages untanglin them. She does a fart durin the rosary an evirybudy his the giggles. Ma mammy his the giggles as well. Ma da runs oot the room and says he left a pot oan. The nun smiles like we’re in heaven. Nuns don’t hiv bad smells in their farts that must be cos they’re The Brides Of Christ. 

This week we’re doin haiku in class wi Mrs Kelly. We’ve got a plaque oan the waw in the kitchen. It says May the road rise to meet you. Ah tell Anna that it isnae a poem, it’s a proverb. But she says so, who cares? Mum wis readin when she wis in bed. Ah went tae sit wi her tae keep her company an we laughed aboot the nun’s farts. 

‘Whit yi readin?’ 

She turns over the cover. 

Prayers For the Dying 

‘Do you want to read it?’ 

‘Ah’ll read it later,’ ah say.

Author Julie Kennedy

Q&A

CMcK: Welcome, Julie! Ma Mum and William Wordsworth is such a poignant novel, and yet it also had me laughing out loud in places. I thoroughly enjoyed it. But let's start at the beginning. How did you first get into writing?

JK: Thanks for inviting me to your great blog, Carol and thanks for the interesting questions.

When I was 12 my mum bought me a Petite typewriter for Christmas (remember those?) I went straight up the stairs on Christmas Day and wrote my life story ( all of three paragraphs at that time!) Around the same time, I had a primary school teacher, Mr Dougan, who introduced me to creative writing in class. I always loved words and language and was never out of Craigneuk library when I was wee. My mum wrote letters to her family in Ireland all the time so maybe that is where the sitting down and writing partly comes from.  I think your imagination as a child growing up is so rich and I was the classic ‘head in the clouds.’  Now, it might be called creative but then it was a bit shameful that you lived a lot in your head. It could be a mixture of all those things or nothing to do with them.

I did not know any writers or how a person becomes a writer so I did other jobs and would write the odd poem when I could. The life changing moment came when I found the M. Litt in Creative Writing course, at the time, jointly run by Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities. I have heard you saying that as well. I went part- time from my job; making that commitment, well it’s like a gift to yourself and your creativity. My fellow students were, of course, yourself, and the likes of Louise Welsh, Zoe Strachan, Anne Donovan, Rachel Seiffert and Dave Manderson, along with many other gifted writers. My tutors were Margaret Elphinstone and Zoe Wickham (Strathclyde University) along with Willy Maley and Adam Piette (Glasgow University). It was there I developed my confidence and met and learnt from poets such as Kathleen Jamie and Robert Alan Jamieson.  It can sound a cliché when people talk about voice but it was during that time that I felt I started to find my voice as a writer. But I’ve always needed to write to know what I think. There is hopefully an element of mystery or magic to the whole thing.

CMcK: Ma Mum and William Wordsworth deals with the two huge issues of grief and homelessness. What prompted you to write it?

JK: My own mum died when I was a teenager and it was not something people talked about in the seventies. There was not the same openness about death and grief as there is now. I wanted to write a book that the young me could go to the local library and pick up and that she could identify with. I wanted to make a space in the book where a young person’s point of view would be centre stage. As well as that, I think there was always an impulse to do something creative with a difficult experience; maybe, a lot of making art is like that. I mean, transformative for the writer, and hopefully, for a reader too.  I guess I wanted to write about so called ordinary people with all the messiness but the unsung heroics, as well; that is, how the characters adapt and survive and, hopefully, move on with their lives. What I’m trying to say is that I took something that happened to me and then fictionalised it.  I’d tried writing other things and they felt wooden and never cost me anything but as soon as I started writing this book I was engrossed in the voices of the characters and it all just took off from there. I enjoyed my imagination going to work and being on that journey that writing a novel takes you on.

Thanks for the question about one of the themes being homelessness in the book. It is very deliberate. But more generally, that loss of security of home has always been important to me throughout my life. I worked in law centres for a while specialising in defending eviction and repossession actions. I was always drawn to that idea of everyone having a right to a roof over their head and security wherever they are.

In the novel, I wanted to shine a light on how precarious life can be for someone young when family relationships are rocked by a traumatic event; I guess Erin walks a thin line in that sense. Yes, I wanted to show how thin the line is for some people, particularly vulnerable young people. There are points in Erin’s journey, almost of no return, if she makes the wrong move or her luck goes a certain way. I try to leave some space for the reader to work a lot out there, without being too obvious.

CMcK: Did you aim this book at teenagers or adults?

JK: I had both teenagers and adults in mind when I was writing the book. I was trying to keep the story in the point of view of Erin though there are a couple of times the point of view changes to that of her dad, and also, her brothers and sisters. By including Joe, Erin’s dad’s point of view, I wanted to try and look at the experience of loss from different angles. But as I said before, my aim was to write something that felt based on real experience of illness and bereavement from the point of view of a teenager because I felt there wasn’t enough out there. So, I’m hoping young people will enjoy the book and that they will be able to identify with it. This edition of the book is written as an ebook partly to make it easier for young people to access.

CMcK: How important was it for you to capture Erin's voice through her local dialect and did this decision cause you any problems with the publishing industry?

JK: When I was trying to write the story in standard English it felt very constrained. And there’s a resistance to the status quo that comes when you write in Scots so I felt I was tapping into a tradition there that was both exciting and more authentic to my story. What I’m saying is, yes, it was very important for me to write Erin’s voice in her own dialect. I don’t think I set out to do any of it deliberately, at first. But in the early drafts that’s the way Erin and Joe’s voices came to me and it felt like that was the direction the book should go; as well as that, the story is about a large working-class family and the dialect as a spoken language is very rich.  I really enjoyed working with the language and tried to give the book an air of spoken voices more than anything.

I always accepted that my book might not be attractive to mainstream publishers because of the dialect. And not just the characters speaking in dialect but the whole novel being written that way. But, saying that, I think there is more of an appetite now for books that are not in Standard English; there are lots of good examples of Scottish writers who’ve been successful on that front. But for me the main motivation was always to get the book written in the voices that wanted to tell the story. I was never going to compromise on that. Being an indie publisher, as well, I’ve had opportunities to learn a lot of new skills, and it really tests your belief in what you are doing.

CMcK: What are you writing now?

JK: I did a lot of editing for this book so it’s nice to get a change and write some poetry. I’m working on a pamphlet and trying to bring together poems I’ve written in the last couple of years. I’m also working on another novel, nothing to do with this one.

CMcK: Fab. And very interesting! It’s great to learn all this about you and your writing, and about Ma Mum and William Wordsworth in particular. Thanks so much for guesting on my blog. I wish you well with your future plans. But let's finish with some links. Where can readers go to learn more about you and your books?

JK: Okay, here are links to my blog and my page on Amazon. And as I love doing author visits, I'll also share the link to my page in the Scottish Book Trust Live Literature directory. Thank you, Carol. I've really enjoyed our chat. 

Ma Mum & William Wordsworth eBook : Kennedy, Julie: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

Julie S Kennedy

https://www.scottishbooktrust.com/authors/julie-kennedy

 

Silver Writing Anniversary

Well, well. I've just realised it's twenty-five years since my first short story was accepted for publication.

It was early 1999 and I was four months into a two-year part-time MLitt, run in partnership between the Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde. The MLitt was a fabulous experience for me. At the time, I was 43, the mum to a 15 year old, a 9 year old and two 6 year olds. I'd been a professional librarian till I was 35 then explored freelance journalism for a few years before spotting the MLitt opportunity. My tutors were Margaret Elphinstone and Zoe Wickham at Strathclyde, Adam Piette and Willy Maley at Glasgow. What a talented team they were! So generous in sharing their experience with us learners. It was life-changing for me. And look at my fellow students!  Anne Donovan, Jim Ferguson, Julie Kennedy, David Manderson, Rachel Seiffert, Zoe Strachan, Louise Welsh, and many others. And that was just during the two years I was there. Both universities have fostered many other gifted writers on their Masters programmes before and since.

Back to my first short story publication. The piece was called 'Marion'. It was the result of an exercise set by my tutor in which I was to visualise the main character and setting that would be central to a collection of linked short stories. I tapped into my experience as a librarian in Motherwell but fictionalised it, of course. 

The magazine that accepted it was Edinburgh-based Cencrastus, edited by Raymond Ross. I was overjoyed to have my story in it, published alongside some weel-kennt names. See the details in the photographs.

It's been a pretty full twenty-five years. For more details, have a look at my website. For the remainder of this post, I'll share some recent developments. 

In the tail-end of 2023, I had some happy, happy poetry news. 

First, my poem 'Walking on Sand' won the Scottish Association of Writers' James Muir Poetry Competition in October. Adjudicator Alison Chisholm was incredibly generous in her critique of it, and I treasure what she said. Here's an extract of her critique.

'Sometimes a poem leaps from the page and embeds itself in the reader's mind, flatly refusing to go away. This was my reaction to Walking on Sand, a poem of power and intensity, and yet with the sensitivity to evoke an unsentimental but emotional response.  The situation is familiar and the theme has been addressed many times before; but here the treatment is so compelling that it transcends familiarity. The narrative describes the finding of a pair of hiking boots, triggering the response of "the realisation you'll never walk in them again".... One of the qualities of an excellent poem is its ability to remain fixed in the mind when the reader has walked away from it. ... Congratulations on an exceptional poem.'

Thank you, Alison, and thank you, too, to the Scottish Association of Writers.

Secondly, I was utterly astonished - and also buoyant - to learn that my poem 'Ceilidh' was included in the Scottish Poetry Library's list of the twenty Best Scottish Poems in English in 2022. Selection was made by esteemed Welsh poet Ifor ap Glyn and the announcement was made in early December 2023. You can read the poems via that link, and also hear recordings of them, too. Here's a link directly to my poem, the commentary about it, and the recording of me reading it.

'Ceilidh' is from my pamphlet Reading the Landscape, published by Hedgehog Poetry Press in February 2022.  

Incidentally, Reading the Landscape was reviewed in issue 44 of Northwords Now by Mandy Haggith, and two reviews of it appeared in issue 4 of Dreich Broad Review, published by Jack Caradoc. 

Making Time Count

 'Who wants to live to be a hundred?' the old joke goes. The answer? 'A ninety-nine year old.'

We all know we're not going to live forever, but somehow we manage to kick that knowledge of certain death into the long grass. We don't think about it. Nah. Not happening. Death's not for us.

We've been grappling with recognition of our mortality quite a lot, here in the McKay household, this last year or so. Keith has been gradually losing motor power in his legs, starting at the feet. Tripping has led to him badly breaking his shoulder then his wrist, and he's had several 'lucky' falls where all he suffered was cuts and bruising. And shock. 

He's now been diagnosed with motor neuron disease and is virtually housebound. This calls for a process of adjustment, as you can imagine.  

Carol and Keith circa 1978

Now his diagnosis is official, the help he's had - we've had - has been incredible. He's been assigned a specialist nurse who has visited us at home twice, now, and must surely have a magic wand up her sleeve, since she's instigated and coordinated all sorts of support services, putting us in touch with patient and carer support groups, occupational health and orthotics services to help with physical aids in the home and to support Keith's mobility. She's even told us about things like MND Scotland's advocacy services, and their voice recording facility in case the future sees him losing his voice. Keith's signed up to take part in lots of ongoing research projects, too. And last week, only nine days after the specialist nurse's second visit, two lovely men from Mobility Scotland delivered and set up a riser-recliner chair which is making Keith feel like a king on his throne! All this free of charge. The commitment of our National Health Service workers and the generosity of people make me want to cry with gratitude.

MND Scotland is a super charity. So when our daughter Liane chose to fundraise for them by running the 10K in the Great Scottish Run in Glasgow on 1 October 2023, we were delighted. We were then astounded by how kind and giving people were, supporting her efforts with their donations and encouraging words. Thank you to all those people! And thank you Liane - and Stew, who ran alongside her. She raised over £1,300! Phenomenal. And her hair is still dyed in those MND Scotland colours.

Liane after running 10k to raise funds for MND Scotland on 1 October 2023

All the members of our family have rallied round. It's wonderful to be bolstered by their love and practical support.

As for Keith and I - we've been strangely inspired creatively by this physical and emotional challenge. Keith, for example, has had one of his artworks selected for an exhibition called 'Graphos: International Exhibition of Asemic Writing' in Buenos Aires - yes, Buenos Aires! - from 1 - 18 November 2023, which is a phenomenal achievement.

Graphos exhibition featuring art by Keith McKay

And I've been writing poems - I can't help it - as I wrestle with the surging emotional response to seeing the man I love so physically challenged. I'm trying to compile a themed poetry pamphlet on the subject. One of these poems appeared this week in Poetry Scotland #106.

My poem 'Ventimiglia Blanket' in Poetry Scotland #106

And my poem 'Walking on Sand', which is also about coming to terms with Keith's condition, was awarded first prize in the Scottish Association of Writers' James Muir Poetry Competition in October 2023, judged by Alison Chisholm. 

Life can be brutally hard, but it goes on, and there are always blessings. As MND Scotland say, 'Make Time Count'.
 

The Robert Louis Stevenston Club

Earlier this year, I was invited to present a talk to the prestigious - and very welcoming - Robert Louis Stevenson Club in Edinburgh as a result of a conversation I had with member and fellow author Gillean Somerville Arjat. My thanks go to Gillean, to Chair Jon Cossar, and to the committee for giving me this opportunity. 

It was a joy to spend the afternoon at the Club, sharing memories with everyone about the man himself and the picturesque writers' and artists' retreat at Grez-sur-Loing where RLS lived for some months in the 1870s, and which members of the Club have visited. I think my slide show and reflections on my month spent there during my Fellowship in 2010 brought back many happy memories for us all! 

It was a further delight to receive the Club's summer newsletter through the post, and to see a write-up of my visit. 

You can find out more about Edinburgh's Robert Louis Stevenson Club and their programme of events by contacting the Chair joncossar@gmail.com  

To read my posts from Grez-sur-Loing while I was on the residency in 2010, and see some photos, follow these links:

https://carolmckay.blogspot.com/2010/06/lucky.html

https://carolmckay.blogspot.com/2010/07/at-grez-sur-loing.html

https://carolmckay.blogspot.com/2010/07/14-juillet-at-grez-sur-loing.html

https://carolmckay.blogspot.com/2010/07/towards-ending.html

 

Before the Swallows Come Back

I've just finished reading an absolutely heart-filling and lyrical novel by Fiona Curnow, called Before the Swallows Come Back. 

Reading Before the Swallows Come Back by Fiona Curnow feels like forest bathing on a stiflingly hot day, or being borne up in the gloss and buoyancy of a river running clean and clear. This is total immersion in the natural world. All this as background to a storyline that’s epic in scale and characters rendered so intensely that hours go by before you realise you really should pull yourself out of their world and back into your own. What a mesmerising treat!

The two central figures are Tommy and Charlotte. At the start of the story, they are on the cusp of puberty, two innocents from very different worlds whose chance encounter on a riverbank far from town becomes life-changing. For now, their lives are stable. Not perfect, but physically and emotionally secure. Tommy, the son of a travelling family and someone for whom outsiders are frightening, introduces Charlotte to the freedoms of living a more nature-led life, teaching her about river-pearls and how to negotiate the dangers of a body of water, what plants she can forage, how to weave twigs into art and basketry and larger branches into practical structures to support canvas for sleeping outdoors. For her part, Charlotte – who lives alone in a cottage with her seriously ill father – shows Tommy that not all those who live conventional lives distrust, fear and decry travellers. They pass the days of an idyllic summer together before everything changes.

Fiona Curnow has crafted an immense story, and an incredibly rich one. The plot is straightforward: these two young people are separately afflicted by crises – catastrophes – that rock the foundations of their lives. Over the course of a few years, they must learn to negotiate change. Serious change. They must learn self-reliance. Separated by hundreds of miles, each holds on to the memories of that summer spent together at the river before the swallows came back as a salve while they dream of being reunited. Along the way, they encounter more than their share of cruelty, but this is a story where good far outweighs bad. Good men like Dougie, the estate manager, a practical man who abhors the wilful destruction of habitat on the estate across the river, and who has big ambitions about rewilding. Waifs and strays like young Em, who on the face of it is chipper and feisty, brash enough to steal a woman’s purse while she’s distracted, but who clings to Charlotte in the sleeping bag at night. Tommy, Charlotte, Em and others may live a different life – an unconventional one – but this novel shows they are not ‘other’: they have the same needs and yearnings and good heart as those who live in the system. This book is peopled with three-dimensional characters, with their flaws and faults, but also their earnestness and deep longings for happiness, their intense sorrows and fears.

I thoroughly enjoyed it and recommend it wholeheartedly for the way it deals with social issues and also for that delicious immersion in the natural world. I’d say it’s a book for adults and for young people from the age of about fourteen. If you enjoyed Mick Kitson’s Sal, you’ll love Fiona Curnow’s Before the Swallows Come Back. Click on the links or image of the book cover to go to the sales page. Thank you so much, Fiona, for writing this story.

 

Before the Swallows Come Back - Excerpt from Chapter 32

As the storm raged outside and night fell, Sandy told story after story of his life on the road. The people he had met. ‘You’ll ken them, aye?’ The places he had been to. ‘Och, you must have been there an aw.’ Thankfully, it seemed that no answer was necessary. He played some tunes, sang some songs. There was barely a tune left in his gravely old voice but that didn’t matter. The meaning was there, and Tommy could imagine well enough what the voice would have been like when it held. When it was younger.

Tommy just sat and listened, hummed along to a tune, laughed at some silly adventure. Gasped at near misses. It was like being home. Like belonging. Stories were like that. They held you. Wrapped you up in them. Took you with them. Kept you alive.

When he awoke in the morning all was quiet. The storm had passed on by. The forest around sighing. Dappled sunlight playing with the window, flickering against the wall, dancing on the floor. But he was alone. No old man. No candles. Nothing but him and his animals.

Author Fiona Curnow

Author Fiona Curnow

Fiona is a Scottish writer who spent fifteen years teaching in international schools, before becoming ill and having to return home. Not one to remain idle, she turned to the Open University where she studied creative writing, completing both courses with distinction, and discovering a new passion. She has since written five books and finds it difficult to be content without a work in progress. That escape into a world of her own making is something very special! Before the Swallows Come Back was sparked by a meeting she had with a Tinker family many years ago, in rural Perthshire. They invited her to sit by their fire, outside their bender, and listen to stories. It was fascinating, inspirational and never left her.

You can keep up with the reception for Fiona's novel via her blog tour, or by following her on Twitter and Instagram.

Fiona has also published under the name FJ Curlew. You can read my previous blog post about her writing here. 

Five Glasgow Stories

Five Glasgow Stories
published by Red Squirrel Press / Postbox Press

I was born and brought up in Glasgow, so when I read that the prestigious independent publisher Red Squirrel Press planned to publish a collection of short stories set in or inspired by the city, of course I aspired to be in it. What to write, though? Red Squirrel, and their literary fiction imprint Postbox Press, have meticulously high standards. I did have a story draft which I hoped might fit, but doubts crept in. This opportunity was important to me. How could I make the story the best fit possible?

One of my first successes with short fiction was way back in November 2002, when my story Unrestricted reached the final six of the Macallan/Scotland on Sunday Short Story Competition. While it didn't go on to win this highly-regarded award with its generous £6,000 prize, it did win me some kudos, and a cheque for £500 presented during attendance at a glamorous awards night in The Tun in Edinburgh. In his introduction to the volume Shorts 5, published that same year by Polygon, editor and very fine writer Suhayl Saadi described Unrestricted as 'A story told at its very best'. It was a story written in an urban Scots dialect - a Glasgow dialect. Should I do the same now?

Mist rising from the River Clyde

Hours from the deadline, I set off walking round my local area, considering this and any other edits I could do to make my short story a real contender. I reached the decision. Yes, I would switch it from standard English entirely into Glasgow dialect. By 'entirely' I mean there would be no confining the dialect to characters' speech in inverted commas, as if held up by some narrator who speaks 'proper' English. Thank you, James Kelman, for opening my eyes to this class division - and to the woman I had a heated discussion with on a translation forum many years ago, who insisted dialect is slang and has no place in literature. I disagreed profoundly. Dialect is someone's mother tongue, and no mother tongue is any better than any other when it comes to expressing what it is to be human. My favourite quote of all time is 'a shprakh iz a dialekt mit an armey un flot'. Attributed to Max Weinreich, this translates roughly as 'A language is (just) a dialect that has an army and a navy'.

And so, in a bit of a rush before the 5pm deadline, I translated my story Look Up into my own dialect and pressed 'send'. I was delighted to receive the news that it was accepted for publication along with four superb short stories by authors Christine Appleyard, Colette Coen, Charlie Gracie and Donal McLaughlin. Each brings their own unique perspective on the city, and each story is filled with heart like the city itself. 

Five Glasgow Stories was launched in Spring 2023 at a venue in the heart of the old city, along with issue 8 of Postbox Magazine, and both are available to buy direct from the publisher. Events and life in general have overtaken me in the last few months but I'm pleased to finally be able to celebrate publication through this blog post, and to express my thanks to Red Squirrel Press publisher Sheila Wakefield and to Colin Will, editor of Postbox Press.