Dave Weaver: My Writing Summer So Far

08/07/2015

My Writing Summer So Far

I often think giving random people a report of what you've been up to for the last couple of months and expecting them to be in anyway interested is the sort of mind-bogglingly self-centred thing only a writer would think to do... so here's mine.

In May I was lucky enough to (finally) have something chosen by Rattle Tales, the Brighton writing/performing collective, for their Brighton Fringe Festival evening gig. This was a public paying event, the first time I've read a piece at such, and I took the opportunity for a day out in this fab city by the sea to have a wander around the Marina, the Lanes, and anywhere else I could dredge up from my ancient memory of having lived there for a short while after art school. The main reason though was to calm my nerves; it almost worked and when I met the friendly crowd who ran RT and the night's other readers, all of whom seemed frighteningly talented writers but also very nice people, the whole thing became as enjoyable as I'd hoped it would. I read a 500 word flash fiction piece about a cocky bomb disposal expert who has to (literally) think fast. The crowd seemed to like it okay. Here's a link to RT's own review: http://www.rattletales.org/rattle-tales-shines-brighton-fringe-festival-2/

One of the other readers at Rattle Tales was Melanie Whipman who gives creative writing lessons at Farnham and is an Associate Lecturer at the University of Chichester. She's also very friendly and approachable so when I saw on her blog that she was holding her own (second) Lit-Live event in June, at a beautiful old pub in the quaint village of Frensham, I asked if I might be a part of it (having enjoyed the adrenalin rush of RT). She had a full programme already but managed to fit me in last place on the bill, which was very kind. The long drive after work, deep into the Surrey heartland on a warm balmy evening, was well worth it for an interesting and varied evening of poetry (some of it startlingly good from three young local students who took their craft extremely seriously) and prose. I read my short story 'Girl in a Shoebox' which seemed to survive a quick Q&A session from Melanie and the audience. There will be another Frensham Lit-Live sometime in late September and I'm hoping go down again. Here's a link to Melanie's previous scene-setting article from her blog: http://www.melaniewhipman.com/news.html

A few weeks ago I dodged my Chairman duties at VWC for the evening to pay my second visit to Hertford Writers' Circle's Wednesday monthly meeting at the very (very) old White Horse pub in the town. For a tall person this was like taking a continual assault course inside a Wendy house but we all crammed into their club room upstairs to listen to me blather on about my last two novels and later their own Xavier Leret preview his excellent debut novel 'The Romeo and Juliet Killers'. We both did some reading and managed to sell some books; the main point being we all enjoyed the evening; Hertford are a very nice bunch who mob-handedly supported Openmicnight2 both attending and reading, and I'm grateful to them for that and the opportunity to share my Japanese Daisy Chain and Black Hole Bar novels with them, same as I did with my first one a couple of years ago.

Lastly, I'm meeting with the St. Albans Book Club next Tuesday (14th July) at the Goat pub in town to discuss that first novel, Jacey's Kingdom, which they've kindly picked as their book of the month for July. I've never done this before with a group of readers and am slightly apprehensive of their questions (and my memory of the text) but also greatly anticipating the experience; almost like being a real writer in fact...

See you soon, have a great summer.

1 comment:

Unknown9 July 2015 at 02:48
Very interesting stuff, Dave. I too have a Q & A with a book club next month. So, I'm encouraged to hear that it's survivable.

I enjoyed your piece, but was upset to find, as I scrolled down, that I'm not included in your writers list! Boo Hoo!!

Best of luck, your mate, Paul
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NEW OUT NOW: The Black Hole Bar

Simon, a traveller with time to kill before continuing his journey, enters an inn on the outskirts of London. Inside he meets a motley crew competing to tell tales for their own amusement. So starts Dave Weaver’s new novel, The Black Hole Bar, which has already been compared to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and Boccaccio’s Decameron. But these raconteurs are not pilgrims, nor are they hiding from a plague – Simon is on his way by rocket to Titan, rather than on horseback to Canterbury; the tavern is the Black Hole Bar, although being high up on Level Five of Docklands Spaceport it isn’t too far from Southwark; the tales are not told by a knight, squire, nun, merchant, clerk, parson, franklin or manciple, but by a programmer, advertising copywriter, dancer, financier, customs officer, marine biologist, sports star, and port worker.
Simon works in the public relations department of Me-Grade Incorporated, an international Methane gas conglomerate. He’s an industrial journalist, on his way to yet another off-world assignment, this time a three month trip to Saturn’s moon to write a promotional piece about the harvesting of the Methane lakes on that forbidding world. But Simon is a troubled man. He’s sure his wife is having an affair during his prolonged absences; he’s bored with his job; and unsure where his life is going.
Simon has stumbled into what was supposed to be a closed session for the Black Hole Bar Writers’ Group, who meet once a month to take part in a short story competition; the winner’s trophy is a small chunk of meteorite simply termed ‘The Rock’. As an interesting way to spend his last Earth night and forget his troubles for a few hours, this is perfect. Simon writes stories too and he’s been looking for a set-up like this for some time. Begrudgingly they let him participate. The stories begin, and Simon starts taking the competition far more seriously than he intended.
Each of the bar’s denizens tells two stories, stories that are variously strange, amusing and occasionally downright scary. The writers all have their own histories to impart, lives crossed by tragedy and drama come tumbling out one by one into the cramped little room and as they do so, we, the invisible uninvited presence at Simon’s side, learn more about the background of this future world: its wars, its governments, its strange new customs and social groupings. A world which is at the same time recognisable as our possible future but also chilling in its recent past. Not far from the spaceport the old capital of London lies deserted, abandoned first but not least in the wave of dirty bomb outrages committed by the growing fundamentalist armies who have sworn to topple the Corporate States of the Euro-zone and New America.
As the night progresses personalities clash, secrets are disclosed, and friendships made. And Simon finds himself slowly but surely falling in love. But he still has a date with Titan to keep. It’s getting late, very late, and he should leave... but the competition has yet to conclude. Simon’s heart tells him to stay but his head says go, now, before it’s too late and you lose everything. How will his own tale end...?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Black-Hole-Bar-Dave-Weaver-ebook/dp/B00L6OQMB0/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1410369806&sr=1-1&keywords=the+black+hole+bar

'JAPANESE DAISY CHAIN'

Japanese Daisy Chain takes us on a very individualistic journey around contemporary Japan through the eyes of the participants in a series of apparently unrelated incidents. Events that, to an outsider may seem a little strange or hard to explain, but to which we are given an exclusive insight – enabling us to see the consequence of contact with the paranormal, fantastic or downright weird. As each episode unfurls and our journey progresses, we alone can see the invisible thread that connects these events, albeit tenuously. A participant on each occasion, a minor character if you will, becomes the main protagonist in the next, creating a human daisy-chain. Just like a daisy-chain, what goes around comes around. The chain is completed and we finally understand karma…

'Jacey's Kingdom'

Jacey’s Kingdom is an enthralling tale that revolves around a startlingly desperate reality: Jacey Jackson, a talented student destined for Cambridge, collapses with a brain tumour while sitting her final history exam at school. In her mind she struggles through a quasi-historical sixth century dreamscape whilst the surgeons fight to save her life. Jacey is helped by a stranger called George, who finds himself trapped in her nightmare after a terrible car accident. There are quests, battles, and a love story ahead for her with a with a diffident young knight who helps them find their way, before we find out if Jacey will awake from her coma or perish on the operating table. And who, or what, is George?