I've got a new website!

Behold, I have a new website. It is at www.sjbradleybooks.com

Please come and visit!

Recommendations for funny books

Recently I've been seeking out comfort reading, books that will make me giggle and take my mind off things. Here are a few of my recommendations:

Diary of a Nobody, George Grossmith (FREE on Project Gutenberg)
Three Men In A Boat, Jerome K Jerome
Me Talk Pretty One Day, David Sedaris
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me, Mindy Kaling
Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, Roddy Doyle
The Wife, Meg Wolitzer
I'll Sell You A Dog, Juan Pablo Villalobos
All Our Spoons Came From Woolworths, Barbra Comyns
Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes (FREE on Project Gutenberg)

Currently Reading
Wild Swans, Jung Chang

We Need To Look After Ourselves

Good afternoon.

These are strange times. Over the past few weeks life has changed dramatically. Suddenly thousands or millions are finding ourselves out of work, and the Government is saying they will ban evictions, and pay some or all of our wages, for some of us at least. We're being told not to travel, to stay two metres away from others at all times (hello, dystopia!) and above all, never to go outside.

The mere act of being able to stand outside is one of the few things that can help keep writers sane ordinarily, in a life that usually involves spending a lot of time inside our own minds.

A lot of my writer-friends on that Virtual Writers' Staffroom, Twitter, have shared that they are finding it hard to write or concentrate at the moment. I have found this too, and I've made a few changes to my own routine that have helped massively in reducing anxiety and worry, so I'm going to share those in the hopes that they will help you too.

Switch off all notifications on your news apps 
This was the first thing I did, and it made a huge difference. If something bad happens, I don't find out about it straight away, in real-time. It waits until the main news at 6 o'clock, or maybe never. In fact, I've reduced my news consumption generally. I let myself look at the news once a day, at teatime, which I watch for half an hour on telly, and then switch it for something fun or funny, usually Seinfeld.



Delete Twitter app off your phone
It will reduce the amount of time you spend mindlessly scrolling and looking at dire things. Even if you kid yourself you're keeping yourself sane by looking at cute and funny videos, all those things are mixed in with news stories, unhelpful speculation, incorrect information or nonsense, and Bad Things. Just delete it already. I promise it'll make you feel better. I look at Twitter once or twice a day now, for five minutes, on the desktop computer. Usually turns out I haven't missed anything important.


Put phone in a drawer or something so you're not looking at it first thing in a morning
Seeing bad news first thing has a way of starting the day off on a bad footing. Before you know it, you're scrolling down onto other, similar bad stories, googling "can you catch Coronavirus over Zoom?" or second-guessing yourself to see whether that slight headache you've got, which you probably got by looking at your phone too much, is an early Coronavirus symptom.

Just put your phone in a drawer - or better yet, switch it off or better even, smash it with a hammer (JOKING) and don't look at it until you've done your work for the day. I promise it'll make you feel better.

If your workplace say that you need to have your phone switched on, I suggest putting the volume up, then putting your work mobile in a place where you can't easily see it or reach it, but where you can still hear it if it goes off. If you can get away with switching it off entirely though, I recommend doing that.

Do something mindful 
Anxiety has a way of spiralling. It tricks our brains into thinking that things are going to get worse and worse and worse, and never better. I know we all have real, pressing concerns at the moment, from losing our income to being worried about paying the rent, to worrying about how our elderly or vulnerable relatives can manage. All legit things to worry about. However, worrying about problems does not fix them. Worrying is like riding a rocking horse: it gives you something to do, but it doesn't get you anywhere.

How do you stop worrying? Well it's tricky, but one thing that has helped me massively is a mindful approach. Mindfulness is basically a technique that encourages you to pay attention to the things around you. It essentially encourages you to immerse yourself in the things you are currently experiencing, to take yourself out of that state of worrying.

There are lots of different things you can do to be mindful. You can watch the birds from your window. You can pet your cat. You can fingerpaint with your kids. You can do a jigsaw or read a book. (if you're finding it hard to concentrate, I suggest starting with something small and unchallenging, like short stories, or a book that you already know and love.) Obviously we can't all be mindful all day every day, but it's definitely a useful thing to do a couple of times a day, to remind yourself that there are real and beautiful things in the world, and to get your brain out of the spiral of catastrophising that tends to happen when you're anxious. I've been doing it several times a day recently and it has helped loads.

The goal is always to get your brain to think about something other than the thing you're worrying about, whether that's how soft your cat's fur is, or how funny birds look when they hop along a fence, or whatever.

Seek out things that are fun, or funny, or comforting
Seek out comforting or funny books and TV shows. Now is the time to rewatch all of Friends, or Brooklyn 99, or to re-read Bridget Jones' Diary. Watch or read whatever undemanding nonsense you like. We're all on lockdown, so whatever you choose to watch is between you and your Netflix subscription. Nobody's ever going to find out, so you might as well.

Try to have a bit of routine in your day 
Having your routine disrupted is in itself destabilising, but the good news is that developing a new routine, whatever that may be, can help. It will give structure to your day.

Mine's easy, because I've only really got myself and the husband to think about, and he can look after himself. Because I'm currently on furlough from my day job, I don't really have to think about working either. My routine is essentially: 8am, get up, get dressed, eat breakfast whilst watching Homes Under The Hammer. 9am, go to desk, work. 12pm, lunch. 2pm, relocate to another area in the house to watch a different episode of Homes Under The Hammer, or to finish the one I started watching that morning.

However, if you're not in my position, and you're currently homeschooling your kids and trying to work at the same time, my advice is probably just try not to kill anyone, and try not to start drinking too early. I'm very sorry that I can't be any more helpful than that in this blog post.

Spot positive things, and enjoy them Yes, there have been plenty of wankers. We've seen people stockpiling hand sanitiser and selling it on for £30 a bottle. We've seen billionaire bosses making their staff either take unpaid leave, or worse still, continue to come into work in non-essential industries. The flipside of that is the amazing community spirit that many have shown. A neighbour of mine in her 70s has told me she's had so many notes through the door offering to help that she could almost light a fire with them. Thousands have signed up to be volunteer helpers getting food and medicine to the elderly and vulnerable. We are showing the best of ourselves as a society in this crisis.

Look to the future hopefully 
"That's easy for you to say!" you're shouting at your computer. (see, I'm psychic as well as annoying.) "If I have to spend another 11 weeks in isolation I might just kill somebody!"

One thing that has kept me going is to keep reminding myself that this is not forever, that one day it's going to come to an end.

The world may well have changed dramatically, and maybe that's for the good. Whatever else about lockdown is driving you / me/ us mad, one thing it has going for it is that it's extremely low-carbon. We're not travelling to work, very few people are flying, and lots of us are sourcing groceries within our local area. Lots of us are trying to grow our own veg (spoiler alert: any veg you plant now won't be ready for months!) and some of you might even have had a few disastrous attempts at baking bread. I can tell you there are a few underbaked, misshapen loaves in my own immediate future. If nothing else, we'll all come out of this more connected, very grateful to our essential workers such as nurses and teachers, and maybe with a few new skills as well.

Either way, I've got a projected end date for our current lockdown lifestyle marked in my diary, mid June, and I'm looking forward to it. I've started planning what I'll do when it ends: go to my favourite local beauty spot, have coffee in my local cafe, go on holiday to Northern Ireland and Donegal. I can't wait to see my nephews and nieces again in real life and to throw my parents their rescheduled Golden Wedding anniversary party. What a joy it will be to enjoy simple things like going for a pint, or giving a dear friend a hi-five or a hug. There are so many things I've been taking for granted and I can't wait to be able to do them all again.

Whatever you're waiting to do, remind yourself of it. Do whatever you need to do: list it, write it in a diary or calendar, make a mood board if you're a mood-boardy kind of person. Give yourself something to look forward to because one thing's for sure, one day all of this will be over, and when that day comes we will all be pale, we will all have very strange hair, but we will all at least be smiling.

Leeds / Dortmund 50

"Hanna was walking her dog in the field when she saw herself. The other her was coming back towards her, holding a worn red lead, at the end of which was a soft brown dusty dog, exactly the same as the dog Hanna had..."

I've written a story as part of Leeds Dortmund 50, a project celebrating the 50th anniversary of the twinning of Leeds & Dortmund. This project was set up by Peter Spafford of Chapel FM, and as part of the project I was paired with German poet Eva Von der Dunk and translator Rosie Shackleton. You can read my story, Meet Yourself Coming Back, on the Leeds Dortmund 50 website here.

Many thanks to Peter, Eva and to Rosie for the opportunity to take part in this project.

A busy Autumn...

I've got a busy Autumn in the works: I'm teaching, talking, and appearing all over the shop, it seems. This October marks the launch of the Liminal Residency Alton Towers book, and I'll also be appearing at Morecambe & Vice Crime Festival, talking about organising small festivals in the North of England. Most exciting of all, I'll be speaking to the legendary David Constantine, one of the country's greatest living short story writers, and introducing his new collection The Dressing-Up Box, at Halifax Square Chapel.

September 23rd. An Evening With David Constantine. Square Chapel, Halifax. £5.
An evening celebrating a new collection of stories by David Constantine, the author of the short story behind the Oscar-nominated film 45 YEARS, who has been hailed as one of the greatest writers of the short story form. David has previously been awarded the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Prize and the BBC National Short Story Award. Tickets here.

Sunday September 29th. A Festival Of Festivals, Morecambe & Vice, The Midland Hotel, 9.30 am.
"Festival organisers discuss what led them to partake in such insanity", it says here. Full programme for the M&V weekend here. 

Saturday October 5th. Alton Towers Liminal Resident Book Launch, North Stafford Hotel, Stoke.
Encompassing a waterpark, two hotels, an 'extraordinary' golf course, and a range of peripheral attractions, Alton Towers is the oldest theme park in the UK. This is the launch of the resulting 90-page book from our writing residency at Alton Towers, and features work by Julia Deakins, Claire Fuller, Gaynor Jones, Alison Powell, Eloise CC Shephard, and Krishan Coupland. Book tickets here.

Saturday October 26th. Write A Horror Story in An Hour at FRIGHTFEST, The Leeds Library, 2.00, £6.
I'll be teaching a mini-workshop as part of FRIGHTFEST, where you can use prompts to create your own scary story super-fast. FRIGHTFEST is a one-day minifestival of horror writing all taking part at The Leeds Library, which is the city's oldest and most haunted surviving subscription library, and there's also an event with Alison Littlewood & Lucie McKnight Hardy. More info & book here. 

Wednesday October 30th. RESIST! book launch with Gaia Holmes, Hyde Park Book Club, free.
After a long wait, I'm really pleased to see the launch of this book, part of Comma Press' acclaimed Protest series, which pairs authors with historians and activists who were actually there, to write stories about key moments in British protest. Come along to this FREE event to hear myself and Gaia Holmes talk about our respective stories.

On the whole, I think I might be doing one too many things, but never mind, I can always dose up on Lemsip.

Currently reading
The Arabian Nights
The Barbarous Coast Ross MacDonald

Alton Towers Liminal Resident

Me and Gaynor Jones in the titular Towers. That's me in an Alton Towers branded cape. It was raining. A lot. Photo by Alison Powell.

"Alton Towers is the oldest theme park in the UK, situated on the border of the village of Alton in the middle of the Staffordshire countryside. The resort encompasses the park itself, a waterpark, two hotels, an “extraordinary” golf course and a range of peripheral attractions. At the centre of the complex stands the neglected remains of a once-magnificent stately home, which has fallen into disprepair even as the modern park has developed around it." [Liminal Resident website].

I recently spent several weird, and deeply enjoyable, days at Alton Towers as part of the Liminal Residency. It was a wonderful and extremely strange weekend, and it was great to spend time in the company of a bunch of extremely talented writers.

Julia Deakin, Alison Powell, Krishan Coupland, Eloise CC Shepherd, Claire Fuller, Gaynor Jones

We stayed in the Alton Towers Hotel (where the lifts play music!) explored the original Towers in the rain, looked at starfish in the Aquarium (it was raining - the rollercoasters were closed) ate expensive, terrible food in a restaurant with FAKE CURTAINS. It was a brilliant weekend of oddness and beauty, and I'm incredibly grateful to have had the chance to go on it. Many thanks to Elly and Krishan for organising.

Krishan Coupland & Eloise CC Shepherd of the Liminal Residency

"I often say that I like to write about real things. I suppose by that I mean things that actually happened, stories that are little told, or that other people don’t think about or write about." You can read my interview about the experience here.



The writers who took part in the residency - Alison Powell, Gaynor Jones, Julia Deakin, Eloise CC Shepherd, Krishan Coupland, and Claire Fuller - have each contributed a story or poem inspired by the workshops and experiences of the weekend, It also features a story by me, but don't let that put you off. Pre-order your copy here.

Currently Reading

Theft By Finding: Diaries by David Sedaris
Nudibranch Irenosen Okojie  

Next appearance....

Saturday June 1st, 4.30-5.15: Resist! Stories of Uprising preview event. £4 / FREE. Tickets here. [note: event may appear as "Protest II" on Carriageworks website.]




Northern Short Story Festival, Carriageworks, Leeds, with Lucas Stewart, Uschi Gatward and Jude Brown.

Following on from Comma Press' hugely successful Protest anthology, Resist is another of Comma Press' "fact into fiction" anthologies, where authors are paired with historians and academics to re-tell incidents of protest and resistance. I'll be talking about my story about the 1590 Enslow Hill Rising, and am looking forward to appearing with 3 hugely talented short story writers who will be talking about their own stories. Event hosted by James Nash.

The "Creative nonfiction for punks" workshop that I'd hoped to run at Ante Art Festival on May 5th now isn't happening, but watch this space, as I hope to run it at another time or place.


That's it for now, and I hope to see some of you in June.


Currently reading

Watership Down Richard Adam

"Which organisation are you from?"

With Rachel Connor at The Northern Short Story Festival, 2018

David Cundall & Koyejo Adebakin at the
Remembering Oluwale launch.

A couple of weeks ago, I helped with the Northern Short Story Festival / Big Bookend event, a free event that we called "Speed Dating for Writers." It wasn't a 'dating' event (yes, I know the name's confusing.) It was an event aimed at helping writers meet & network, for support and solidarity.

It's a simple format. Writers get paired up, they're given a question, and allowed 2 minutes to talk. At the end of 2 minutes, Rachel Connor rings a bell, and one writer from the pair has to get up and move around, so that everybody forms a new pair, who then chat again, for another 2 minutes. And so on, and so on, until the discussion at the end.

At one point in the evening a lady turned to me and asked, "Where are you from?" meaning not where do you come from, but which organisation. It had slowly dawned on me during the group discussion, that there were certain things this group of writers wanted that we, as a voluntary-led organisation ("we" being The Northern Short Story Festival) couldn't provide, either because we haven't the time, or we haven't the resources, or the infrastructure, and that some of them wanted to know WHY NOT?

Afterwards, Jenna and I got to talking, and she said, "You should do a blog post about running a voluntary arts organisation", and she was right, I should, so here it is.

Hello. My name's SJ, and for the past 4-10 years, I've been a voluntary arts organiser. I started out running a writers' social night called Fiction of Every Kind, back in 2010. Later on, I edited an anthology called the Remembering Oluwale anthology, which won a Saboteur Award. More recently, I've been director of the Northern Short Story Festival, which is part of Leeds Big Bookend. [I recently wrote about 'My Small Press Writing Day' about how I manage all this alongside a day job, and you can read that post here.] I also am Fiction Editor at Strix magazine.

Every single one of these endeavours is run by volunteers. Fictions is a voluntary organisation, Strix is a voluntary organisation, the Northern Short Story Festival is a voluntary organisation, and none of us who do any of it, including me, don't get paid anything at all.

So why bother?

Quite aside from an almost pathological need to be busy, there are a couple of reasons why I organise cultural stuff. In short: I want cool stuff to happen near me, and if I want cool stuff to happen, I'll either have to do it myself, or get involved with a group who are.

Years ago, when I first moved to Leeds, I got pretty involved in the strong DIY music scene here. Around that time, 2001-ish, there were loads of exciting things going on. Bands like Send More Paramedics, Bilge Pump and later on, Cowtown, were bands who organised their own gigs and played and put out their own music for the love of it. There was a strength of feeling against the mainstream way of doing things, where bands got ripped off by unscrupulous labels and managers, and where so much personality and truth was ripped out of the music in pursuit of producing something with mass appeal.

It was an exciting time. I put on gigs and played in bands myself. I went to gigs in basements and in squats, and drove around the UK in the back of a Mercedes splitter van playing gigs in rock clubs, in houses, and on one particularly memorable occasion, inside a flat, where the guy who lived there set off a couple of glitter cannons at the end of the gig. We all slept on the floor and I left my towel there, a moment you might recognise if you've read Guest.

Photographic proof that I used to be in a band.

There were only two of us in the band: me, my friend Nicky, and our Yamaha QY48 sequencer. We were quirky and poppy and weird. We were unique amongst DIY bands in that our ouevre was pop melodies, programmed drum beats from general MIDI sounds, and synchronised dance moves.

Unforgiveable! To have a sense of humour, to dance, to be stupid, not to care about not being cool, unforgiveable! To actually not care about being cool, as opposed to just pretending you didn't care about being cool - these things were Verboten in some parts of the DIY world.

A group from Fictions at Chapel FM 'Writing on Air' festival,
April 2017.

We were unpopular. People didn't like us. They wouldn't put us on. Somebody once wrote a review of one of our gigs that said we both deserved to be shot in the face with a big gun. Another time, we played a gig in Harrogate, where everybody left and we played to the sound guy, the band we'd gone there with, and a bloke from one of the other bands who, inexplicably, was wearing a Viking hat.

All of these experiences taught me, more than anything else, not to worry about what other people think. That if you want to do something, you should go ahead and do it. (There was also certainly a misogynistic element to some of the bad reviews we got, but that's a topic for another post.)

If you do something, not everybody is going to like it. Also, if you want something to happen in your backyard, go ahead and do it, don't wait for somebody else to do it for you. A fine example of DIY attitude is Strix magazine, started by Andrew Lambeth and Ian Harker. It's an excellent print magazine which is based in Leeds and which you should definitely buy.

L-R Sarah Brook, Moira Garland, Fay Kesby, Ian Harker,
Lizzie Hudson
Strix reading event, NoShoSto 2018.

Because here's the thing. Publishing industry, all of its infrastructure, and the corporate and mainstream parts of the "corporate arts world", if you want to put it that way, are based in London, and getting projects funded by the Arts Council is a lengthy and bureaucratic business. I realised that nobody is going to come and rescue you. If you're in certain parts of Yorkshire, or maybe Stoke, or parts of Wales, say, there's not really much point in sitting around waiting for somebody else to do something. If you want somebody else to organise the events your local area needs, whatever those may be, and you're going to sit around and wait for some statutory body to come and organise them, well... you're going to be waiting a long fucking time.

The ideas that I was introduced to during my formative years - those ideas about doing it yourself, about creating your own culture, about making the things you want to happen, happen - those ideas stuck. Those are the ideas that led to me starting Fictions of Every Kind and later, the Northern Short Story Festival.

A photo of my cat for no real reason.

In all of this, one thought that's guided me is something that the much-beloved and much-missed Archie once said to me at a house gig: that if you're doing something voluntary led, that if you're trying to provide something that exists outside of the mainstream, that's not an excuse to do it badly. "If you're trying to provide a true alternative," he said, "You should always try and do something better than what's out there in the mainstream." Do it with everything you've got, and do it to the best of your ability, and that's what I've always tried to do.

Running a voluntary arts organisation is sort of fun, in a weird sort of way, and it's definitely something that you need a particular mindset and set of skills to do. Having said that, anybody can learn skills, given the guidance and opportunity. There are lots of different ways to be an arts organisation, and arts organisations do lots of different things. You can be a charity or a registered company, or you can have no formal structure at all (though if you want to do bigger things and apply for funding, this last one's a no-goer.) You can run no-budget things, or you can spend time applying for funding, and run some-budget things. Either way you'll forever be teetering on the edge of having no funding, and wondering how you're going to manage, because there's no money, and not enough time. Again, this is something I'll write about in more detail another time.

FYI, the NoSho does a mixture of no-budget and some-budget, and we are extremely grateful to arts@leeds and to our supporting organisations for helping keep going. We pay every single writer who appears at one of our events. Fictions also pays authors, but it is much more locally-based. As an organisation, Fictions is pretty much no-budget, so we rely on our door take at events to pay authors. Another time, I'll write a bit more about running low-budget vs. no-budget organisations, and what the hurdles are. Warning: expect ranting.

Currently reading

On the Beach - Neville Shute
Fresh Complaint - Jeffrey Eugenides 

Give The Job To Lisa

A couple of weeks ago, I joked that, in the absence of real leadership and decision-making by our politicians, that they should all stand aside, and let me have a go at running the country. I've never held any sort of management position in a large organisation, nor run a logistics company. I've never even run a ferry company, not even one with imaginary ships, but even so, I still reckon I could do a better job of running this shitshow better than Theresa May or anybody else.

Having said that, in the past few weeks things have progressed bewilderingly and upsettingly quickly, as they are wont to do in our Brexit-hurtling wasteland, so now, all things considered, I'd like to downgrade the offer of running the country myself, and instead propose that the job of running the country is given to Lisa, my old manager from when I used to work at the council.

Lisa was one of those all too common managers so beloved of local authorities, a person promoted just above their level of incompetence into a job they can't do. Lisa did not know how to calculate staff costs-per-hour, nor how to update the spreadsheet for the departmental annual budget. More than once she'd text me at 10 at night (me, a part-time member of staff on a zero hours contract!) to say "OMG hun quarterly stakeholders mtg at 8.30 AM tmrw, can u print spreadsheat from google docs link THNK U XXXX." Lisa frequently lost equipment and members of staff. Was known, in important indepartmental meetings, when time was short and business pressing, to jump up, mutter something like: "My God, this floor's filthy," and disappear for half an hour to go and find the building caretaker, to find the key to unlock the COSHH cupboard, then come back and sweep the floor, ludicrously, ineffectually, and at length, whilst other managers tried to get on with discussing the matter at hand.

Yet, despite Lisa's many and varied shortcomings, I now think of her with affection. Would she were to be Prime Minister, she could bring great colour and relative effectiveness to the whole Brexit situation. Or at least, those below her could "manage up" and do the job on her behalf.

If not Prime Minister, why not Leader of the Opposition, or if even that's beyond Lisa's capabilities, perhaps she could lead a breakaway party with six of her mates, where within hours of holding their press conference to announce their intentions, one of them goes off and says something racist on TV, where literally anybody could see it?

Whether giving contracts to companies where their T&Cs are cut and pasted off Just Eat, leading a party where there's an open goal that nobody seems to be shooting at, or starting a political party that offends everybody before the end of its first day: all of these and less seem to be well within my old council manager Lisa's gift. Please won't you accept my suggestion for the immediate political leadership of the country, and vote for Lisa?

Currently reading 

French Exit Patrick DeWitt

What an appearance!

Boss Lady

First of all, let me say thank you to Ricky Adam for my new "Boss Lady" profile pic, which was taken at the Northern Short Story Festival Academy launch in December.

Here are some of my upcoming events, which I'll update with ticket links once I have them.

Tuesday March 5th, Chapel Allerton Library, 7.00pm - in conversation with Kevin Duffy of Bluemoose Books and Jeremy Poynting of Peepal Tree Press. I think it's free.

Wednesday March 6th, Carriageworks Theatre, 6.00. Free!
Northern Short Story Festival Programme Launch. Part of Leeds Lit Fest. Book here.

Sunday March 10th, Leeds Central Library, 1.00, free/ PWYF
"Light Lunch" with SJ Bradley in conversation with James Nash, Part of Leeds Lit Fest. Book here. 

Sunday March 10th, The Leeds Library, 2.30, free
Strix 6 launch. Book here 

Sunday May 5th, Ante Art festival, Kirkgate Centre, Shipley
Non Fiction Writing workshop for Punks, details TBC.

There are tons of great events coming up, especially at Leeds Lit Fest, so here are a few more that may be of interest:

Saturday February 9th. 
Surrealism in Fiction workshop with Yan Ge, Carriageworks Theatre, 1-4pm, £20.
More here. (note: free entry to Salon event included in ticket)

Saturday February 9th, 5.00, Carriageworks Theatre, £4/Free
Salon event: Young adult author Yan Ge, Jamie & Robin of Valley Press (publishers of Mountain Stories by Ye Guanquin), and host Susan Barker.
(note: all workshop attendees get free entry to the Salon event.)
More here


Monday February 18th, Fictions of Every Kind: Exit, Wharf Chambers, 7.30, £4
Invited Speakers: June Taylor & Tina Jackson
+ writers' open mic and House Band. Pay on the door. More information here.


Friday March 8th 'Sheltering Under the Owl's Wings', Leeds Beckett Uni, 6.00, Free/PWYF
Remembering Oluwale Reading Event, featuring Ian Duhig, Ian Harker & others.

Currently reading

Reservoir 13, Jon McGregor 

Things Of The Year

Good day, thank you for stopping by.

Regular fans of my blog will notice I haven't been updating too often this year. That's because I've been spending most of my free time working on my third novel, which is about a catering company who take on a contract to run a prison.

Most of 2018 has been spent with my head down, writing, occasionally despairing, complaining to anybody who will listen. I deactivated my Facebook account so I could get more done. I didn't really publish or write a lot of short fiction, because I was trying to get my novel finished, so this end of year blog post is necessarily going to be less eventful than last year's.

That said, I have produced this handy pie chart to let you know how I've been spending my time:

Fig 1: my 2018 in pie chart form. by SJ Bradley

There's not much else to say about it, other than that I've now nearly finished work on the current draft (apart from the four additional chapters, see attached diagram.) After that, I will mostly be returning to writing short stories for a bit.

In amongst the writing, I also managed to read and see and do a few things. Here follows a list of some of my favourite things that I read or saw or did.

Favourite films of 2018 

Black Panther
In no way can I pretend to be any sort of 'comic book' aficionado. I don't care much for films with super heroes and I don't even know the difference between Marvel and DC. However, this film was brilliant: it was funny, it had a terrific story, even the villain's motivation made sense (a rarity in superhero and/ or fantasy films in my opinion) and the action sequences were A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. It is by far the best superhero film I've ever watched, and definitely is not just for kids. See it! 

Widows
Saw this film at Leeds International Film Festival. Viola Davis (also seen in How To Get Away With Murder) was superb as a grieving wife in this remake of the Linda la Plante drama, who finds her professional criminal husband's notebook, and gathers together his colleague's widows to carry out one final job. I damn near broke my fingers gripping the edge of my seat during this one. It really is superb. Go and see it!

A Simple Favour 
Ended up going to watch this when we couldn't find The Sisters Brothers showing anywhere, and crikey was I glad we did. Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick play two schoolgate Mum friends with very different parenting styles: you've got the 'cocktail Mum', and the 'smug craft blogging Mum'. When Cocktail Mum asks Smug Mum to pick her kids up from school one day, then doesn't turn up to pick her children up later... things turn very dark... and strange. For one thing, it's great to see a film with two kick-ass female leads, and for another, there were so many twists in this film I came out having watched a very different film from the one I'd expected. I definitely recommend this one.

Fave books of 2019

Milkman (Anna Burns) 
This has been described as a 'difficult book', a description I could not agree with less. In this novel, Burns' skilful use of voice draws you completely into the claustrophobic world of Troubles-era Northern Ireland, yet despite its difficult subject matter parts of this novel are surprisingly funny. This has been one of my favourite Booker books ever, and in my opinion a worthy winner.

The Study Circle (Haroun Khan)
This brilliant novel, set on a housing estate in South London, follows three young men, friends who all attend the same Islamic study circle in one of the estate's flats. We get to know Ishaq, Shams, and Marwane, their families, their motivations, holding our breath for them as they negotiate an unfriendly world which offers them few opportunities. It's a complex and intriguing novel and was one of my favourites of the year.

What It Means When A Man Falls From The Sky (Lesley Nneka Arimah)
My favourite short story collection. It didn't come out this year, but I only got around to reading it this year. These stories skate effortlessly from realism to magic realism, from world to world. Full of convincing characters, unique situations and wry humour, this is a varied and skilful collection from an author of immense talent.

The Devils' Dance (Hamid Ismailov) 
I had the privilege of meeting Hamid Ismailov at a Northern Fiction Alliance event at York St John University, at which he described this novel as being "three novels for the price of one", and he was not wrong: beautiful, richly detailed, and full of poetry (figuratively and literally) this is a novel not to be missed. Ismailov painstakingly recreates the political imprisonment of Abdulla Qodiriy, who was the first Uzbek novelist, re-imagining his plans for a second novel as he struggles through his time in prison. It was not an easy read: there's a lot going on, it jumps back and forth between several time periods, but it is so rewarding. I liked this one a lot.

Favourite other things 

Leeds International Film Festival. Bought tickets for 17 films, only managed to see 12. Left my cardigan in a cinema at one showing. Still enjoyed the festival. If you find my cardigan please text me. Film highlights: The Raft, Killing God, The Punk Voyage, Failsafe, Widows.

The Northern Short Story Festival. Naturally, I can't not mention this.

Small presses: Dead Ink (of course), Comma Press (of course), Influx Press, The Eden Book Project, Parthian Press, Peirene Press, Valley Press.

Currently reading

War of the Worlds HG Wells 
 

Northern Fiction Alliance Roadshow & Books on Tyne Festival, Newcastle

Good afternoon, or morning, or evening. Thanks for stopping by!

I've been intending to update for a while now. The world is pretty stupid at the moment. I have a lot of Opinions about things, and not enough time to write them down, or not at the same time as working on my third novel, anyway. Brexit: still stupid. Tories: What are they even doing and how can they live with themselves? Boris Johnson: Would Like To Punch In The Face, Hard.

That's a quick summary, and here are the next few public events I'm doing.

Wednesday 24th October, Northern Fiction Alliance Roadshow, York St John University with Hamid Ismailov and Gaia Holmes, among others. 6-8pm, tickets £3.60 (includes a glass of wine).

Book your tickets to the York St John Northern Fiction Alliance Roadshow here.

Saturday 26th November, "These Books Are Dangerous" Dead Ink event with Daniel James, Haroun Khan, Sophie Hopesmith, and Marc Nash at Newcastle Central Library. 4.00, £3.

Book your tickets for These Books Are Dangerous as part of Books on Tyne festival here.

There is also an afterparty with a jazz pianist and some of the other Dead Ink Authors afterwards, at Fictions After Dark at the Town Wall Pub. I won't be able to appear but you should definitely go and check the other authors out! Tickets for the Dead Ink Fictions After Dark tickets here.





Currently reading


Pat Barker Double Vision
Rose Tremain The Gustav Sonata

New Comma Short Story Course

Good afternoon, thank you for stopping by!

I can only say my apologies for not having written more often. It's been a busy few months what with the Northern Short Story Festival where, not only did we have a superb weekend of workshops, discussions and book launches but where I apparently also spent a lot of time Vogueing.

Me with Rachel Connor at The Short Story & Our World panel. Photo by Izzy Brittle

As ever, I've been busy working on the second draft of my third novel (65,000 words and counting) and am currently writing a short story commission for a forthcoming Comma Press anthology, which I'm very excited about. In my opinion those are two (three!) very good reasons as to why I haven't updated this blog more often.

One last bit of news is that I'll be teaching a Comma Short Story Writing Class from 6 months from September-March at the Carriageworks Theatre in Leeds. Some of the lovely comments I had last time included things like, "I can't fault the course in any way as I enjoyed it so much" and "This course really delivered on the hopes I had for it. It definitely made me write more during the six months, and I'm really happy with some of the work I produced during it."

Several of the students who took the course had stories accepted for publication afterwards, including in Litro and Disclaimer magazine, so if this sounds like something you'd be interested in, please do book a place (but don't wait too long, because it sold out last time!)

Booking for Short Story Course with SJ Bradley

Currently reading

I'll Sell You A Dog Juan Pablo Villalobos

Other recent reads I've enjoyed 

When I Hit You Meena Kandasamy

Home Fire Kamila Shamsie 

Elmet Fiona Mozley 

Hello, I am still alive

We went on holiday to Scarborough for a few days, too.

For weeks now, I've kept thinking to myself, in an idle sort of way, "I really must update my blog, otherwise people will think I'm either dead or have forgotten how to use the internet."

Surprise! I haven't forgotten how to use the internet. I did deactivate my Facebook, though, mainly so I could get some bloody work done. So if I seem quiet, on social media or in real life (I'm not doing much teaching at the moment, either), it's mainly because I'm spending all of my free time trying to write my next novel.

The novel is about outsourcing, and thanks to my K Blundell Trust Award from the Society of Authors, I've been able to spend the past few months concentrating on researching and writing it. Writing a novel, especially a realist novel, is somewhat like writing a Masters dissertation, in that you can find yourself ensconced in several research wormholes, and have a hard time deciding what to put in, and what to leave out.

Outsourcing is a fascinating business, horrific and surprising. One of the challenges I've had in writing a novel set in this world is that it's extremely difficult to think of something outlandish enough to dwarf some of the things that actually happen in real life. I'm incredibly grateful to the people who have met with me to share their knowledge and expertise.

Here are some of the things I've found out (SO FAR.)

1. In 2015, despite being rated "Good" or "Outstanding", a tier of the probation service was outsourced to the private sector. The most high-risk offenders stayed with the National Probation Service, with the lower risk offenders being managed by Community Rehabilitation Companies, or CRCs. The NPS [the public sector arm of the probation service] ended up being massively oversubscribed, because so many offenders were 'bumped up' from the CRCs [the outsourced arm] into their service.

2. To work in the National Probation Service, you have to have an MA in Criminal Justice.
To work in a CRC, all the companies have to do is ensure staff training is "appropriate".

3. England has the "highest incarceration rate in Western Europe" (Alan Travis in the Guardian.) We really love sending people to prison for a long time. And guess what! That's also why we keep running out of prison places. Hence, this is also why we have so much outsourcing in the prison service.

4. In 2012, Sheffield Council entered into a PFI contract with multinational corporation Amey, who were tasked with improving the streets and roads, a project that they said would involve felling up to 17,500 trees, more than half of the trees in Sheffield. (Josh Halliday, The Guardian.) Activists from Sheffield have put up a strong protest. One of the Council's most controversial actions was that it got a civil injunction to stop protestors entering the barriers around the trees. South Yorkshire police also accompanied Amey on a dawn raid. When householders refused to move their cars so tree felling could go ahead, the raid ended with pensioners still in their nighties being arrested (you can read more about that here.)

More recently, a vicar with a tambourine, and a middle-aged woman playing a pink glittery recorder, have been among some of the people arrested trying to stop the trees being felled. (Helen Pidd, The Guardian)

The PFI deal that Amey have with Sheffield Council is apparently due to run for 25 years.

5. At one stage, the multinational "Security" service G4S, whose "specialism" is in transporting prisoners between custody and the courts, were losing prisoners at court at a rate of about one prisoner a month. Even so, the government continued to give them contracts to move prisoners. Perhaps because they are so amazing at it?

6. There are 17 species of bat in the UK. All of them are nominally protected, and 4 of the bat species have extra protection: they are "annexed II species".

7 If you've ever seen a bat, most likely it was a Common Pipistrelle. It's the only bat that comes out at dusk. Most other bats only ever come out at night.

It may seem odd that I'm researching bats and outsourcing both for the same novel. The truth is, I have an esoteric method. Also, I know plenty more about bats that I'm not sharing here, because I've got to save something for the book.

Thanks for reading my little update. That's it for now. Check back for another update in about four months.



Events

Thursday April 19th I'll be reading at the Leeds launch of the Verse Matters anthology at Leeds University. Book tickets through Eventbrite (it's free!)

Tuesday May 22nd helping with the launch of May You: The Walter Swan Anthology (Valley Press) at The Leeds Library. Again, it's free. More info & book tickets here.

Currently reading

The Underground Hamid Ismailov 
Home Fire Kamila Shamsie  

Obligatory end of year post, 2017

Writing is a funny business. You've got to be a bit odd to want to be an author in the first place: all those hours spent in a room by yourself, making stuff up, and rarely, if ever, getting paid for it. Those of us who choose to do it either have a bit of a personality defect, or an awful lot of things they want to say, or in my case, a bit of both.

Every writer has good years and crap years. I've been on the receiving end of plenty of crap and terrible years myself, but this year... this year has been ace.

Notes written for Guest, 2015

So here's a quick summary of my 2017, in pictures.

Comma Press Short Story Writing Course

I began the year teaching some wonderful students in a Comma Short Story Course at Carriageworks Theatre, Leeds.

Comma Short Story Writing course, Carriageworks

It was such a joy to teach these students and to think deeply about the short story craft. The students also produced an anthology. Tyto Alba: Short Stories by New Leeds Writers (which I edited) is now available as an e-book on Amazon, here.


Winning a Saboteur Award for Remembering Oluwale

It seems like ages ago now, but one of my hugest highlights of this year was the Saboteur Awards in May this year.

We won!

Putting the anthology Remembering Oluwale was one of my highlights of last year. The project was such a fulfilling one, one which took months of work, and although I was incredibly proud of the book, it was hard to know whether other people liked it too. Anyway, it turns out they did, and we won a Saboteur Award for it.

Here's a pic of me and Max Farrar from Remember Oluwale getting a bit giggly at the Awards bash after our win (sorry for picture quality; we'd all had a few boozes by that point.)

Max Farrar & SJ Bradley at Saboteur Awards, May 2017

However, there are always losses to temper the winnings, as I found out when I handed Max the big bottle of gin we'd won as part of the prize, and he went on a lengthy bar crawl, and left it in a pub.

We never did get to drink that gin.

On the other hand, I did get to keep the trophy.

This little fella lives on my writing desk.

Sadly, this was also the weekend in which the notebook in which I'd written most of the working notes for Guest was pickpocketed out of my bag on the Tube. Farewell, little red notebook, I will never forget you.

If you see the notebook on the right... I want it back!

Teaching for First Story 

During 2017, I was writer in residence at Leeds East Academy in Seacroft, Leeds. Teaching creative writing to the students there was one of the most rewarding things I've ever done. In September this year, they launched their anthology at Chapel FM in Leeds.

I'd watched these students go from being frightened little mice to being fierce lions, and it was an honour to watch them reading fearlessly in the beautiful upstairs space in Chapel FM.

First Story Students along with Peter from Chapel FM

Northern Short Story Festival

Can I say it? This year's festival was a belter. A full day of short story goodness for £20 (you can't even get a long-distance train ticket for that these days) with workshops from Zoe Lambert, Sarah Dobbs, AJ Ashworth, and the mighty mighty Jacob Ross, winner of the Jhalak Prize.

Jacob Ross at the Northern Short Story Festival 2017

What a treat it was to hear Leone Ross read from her newly-launched collection, Come Let Us Sing Anyway, in conversation with Peepal Tree Press editor Jeremy Poynting. Talk about having the crowd eat out of her hand!

Leone Ross & Jeremy Poynting @ Northern Short Story Festival '17. Photo: Izzy Brittle

As ever, our audience came from far and wide for this festival. We hosted our first ever Flash Fiction Slam (a huge success, by the way) at which the judges crowned Phil Olsen a very deserving winner. Here's a photo of judge & compere Jimmy Andrex whipping up the crowd.

Flash Fiction Slam, Northern Short Story Festival 2017. Credit: Izzy Brittle

Second novel, Guest, was launched
Phew, as if going to London, teaching for First Story, and organising a short story festival wasn't enough, this was also the year I launched my second novel, Guest.

Myself & editor Nathan Connolly at the launch of Guest.

A queue for signing! Guest launch, July 2017

It's always weird, after months or years working on a piece of fiction (Guest took about 2 and a half years to write), to see it finally come out into the world. You never quite know what people are going to think or how it's going to be received.

Photos: @carmymac and @carriebethx

Anyway, it turns out people quite liked it. The Morning Star called it "a tightly honed work of dirty realism with convincing characters and richly developed settings, Guest is an entertaining and life-affirming work with important things to say about protest, [and] resilience", and Disclaimer Magazine called it "a journey told in clear, well-chosen prose [...] [with] characters both naturalistic and recognisable." It made it into The Morning Star's Books of the Year.

I was fortunate enough to be invited to do a number of events to support the book, in Bradford, Leeds (twice), Bolton, Manchester, and even in London! Many thanks if you invited me somewhere or hosted me anywhere. This event in Housman's Bookstore in London was a particular highlight. Thanks to Kit Caless of Influx Press for playing host.

L-R Kit Caless, Abondance Matanda, SJ Bradley, Sam Berkson, Holly Pester @Housmans Bookshop, November '17

Guest is still available from Dead Ink Books.
Comma Press & Verse Matters publications 
I was really chuffed to have a number of short story publications this year. Comma Press invited me to contribute to their Conradology anthology, which is a collection of stories and essays responding to the work of Joseph Conrad. My story, Fractional Distillation, responds to the themes of colonialisation threaded throughout Conrad's work, particularly Heart of Darkness.

Conradology from Comma Press

You can purchase Conradology from the Comma Press website here, and why not treat yourself to one of the many other fine anthologies and collections they have, while you're there?

Verse Matters, ed. Helen Mort & Rachel Bower, from Valley Press

There's also the Verse Matters anthology, edited by Rachel Bowers and Helen Mort, which "harnesses the power of everyday stories, highlighting the strength and inspiration that comes from speaking out proudly in unsettled times." My story Weak Heart is in there, along with new writing from Malika Booker, Liz Berry and Hollie McNish, among others, and is available from the Valley Press website here.
 
Winning a K Blundell Trust Award 

To use a hackneyed aphorism, winning a K Blundell Trust award in December this year was the cherry on top of a particularly cakey year. On Thursday I arrived home from work to find a letter waiting from the Society of Authors. I never get exciting post like that, and I wasn't sure what it was.
Turns out it was a letter telling me that I've won a K Blundell Trust Award, to support me to research and write my third novel, The Everything Company.

Whut? AKA: my face when I opened the letter.

It couldn't be real, I said to myself, as I looked around the kitchen for a hidden camera. (My kitchen, by the way, is where I open most of my post. I find it very well suited to the task, in case the post makes you suddenly need to make a calming cup of tea.) This must have been the tenth or twelvth or maybe twentieth award I've applied for over the course of the past five years or so, and I never win grants or awards, I said to myself, so surely this must be a mistake, or perhaps I am suffering from some kind of Grants or Awards Non-Winning Mirage, such as the type a thirsty man might suffer when crossing a desert.
So then I read the letter again, and then I rang my publisher Nathan, and talking to him convinced me that perhaps it wasn't a prank after all, that I really had won a Society of Authors Award, and later on it popped up on The Bookseller website, which means it must be true.
The Award will be of huge help to me, since it will allow me to take a bit of time away from my day job to concentrate on writing the next book, and honestly, I can't wait to get stuck in.

Another thing I want to say 
At the end of this very long blog post, what I want to say is that this year has been a real bowl of fancy chocolates for me; it's been truffle after truffle, maybe the odd praline or marzipan-coated treat, and not a single coffee-flavoured liquer among them (well, maybe one - that time when my notebook got pickpocketed on the Tube.)
I also want to say that not every year I've had as an author has been like this one. Some years have been real stinkers. I've had years when nobody wanted to publish anything I wrote, when I got rejection letter after rejection letter; years when supposedly reputable editors have tried to rip me off, I've had stretches lasting months and years where I've had nothing but rejection or often lengthy haunting silences and no rejection letters at all, and times when I've been invited to give readings and I've gone along and literally nobody's turned up.

There was a period of years when I've wondered why I bother continuing trying to write when a. nobody wants to read my writing, or b. nobody likes my stuff anyway apart from me, so maybe it's me that has the problem? or maybe c. the odds of success are so low and there are so many writers out there better than me, so why bother?

All of this makes it all the more sweeter when I've finally had a great year, a year like the one I've just had.

Anyway it turns out that if you keep going, keep on reading, writing, working, meeting deadlines, and being kind and supportive to other people, and accepting other people's help, eventually you might be lucky enough have a year like mine.

Merry Christmas, and God bless us, every one! 
Bradders' favourite books from this year
Know Your Place anthology, Dead Ink Books
Sealed, Naomi Booth
ThoughtX anthology, Comma Press
The Intuitionist, Colson Whitehead (didn't come out this year, but I read it this year)
The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead
Hold Tight, Jeffrey Boakye, Influx Press
Come Let Us Sing Anyway, Leone Ross, Peepal Tree Press
The Dead Lake, Hamid Ismailov, Peirene Press

Thank you!

L-R Kit Caless, Abondance Matanda, me, Sam Berkson, Holly Pester. Photo by Ricky Adam

Phew! It's been a mad few weeks. I'm so grateful to have been asked to do so many events over the past month or so: I've been to Bolton, to London, to Leeds (twice); it's been a knackering few weeks, but I'm so glad to see the spirit of literature is alive and well, and that activism, print and protest is well and truly alive. Thank you to the wonderful people who have hosted me and put some terrific events on. Just look at the crowd at the Blackwell's Leeds Short Story Salon, from 9th November! 

Blackwells Leeds Short Story Salon (photo from @blackwellleeds)

It was wonderful to see so many people there, and great hearing Martyn Bedford read from his new short story collection, Letters Home.  

(photo from @blackwellleeds)

Similarly, a couple of weeks ago I went to Bolton. This was a fab event in their Central Library - many thanks to Simon Holloway at the Bolton Creative Writing MA for hosting me, and to Liz at Bolton Libraries. There's nothing quite like entering a venue only to be greeted with a massive photo of your own face. 

Super weird. 

The students were attentive & engaged and asked some brilliant questions; I was glad to have been invited (and gone) to Bolton. 

Another thing was the time when I went to Seacroft, to appear on Peter Spafford's show Love the Words on Chapel FM. Peter is a great fellow, and Love the Words is a great show, so I was really chuffed to be invited. Even better was that I appeared alongside poet Ian Harker, and historical crime writer Mark Knowles, each of us talking about our recent books, and our musical inspirations. You can listen again to it on the Chapel FM website here.

Perhaps my favourite thing of all in these most recent weeks has been talking to like-minded, and sometimes not-so like-minded people, having conversations about the role fiction can play in protest and resistance. In this post-truth world, what role can fiction play in representing and questioning the truth? Many of the literature events have reminded me of the huge importance of writing the truth in our fiction, and of building and creating networks that resist existing systems of oppression and dominant narratives. Discussions around this were a particular feature of the Housman's event in London. It was a particular treat at this event to run into some of my fellow Dead Ink authors, Marc Nash & Haroun Khan. 

L-R me, Marc Nash, Haroun Khan

In case you were wondering - I'm currently working on my third novel, 80,000 words into the first draft, and wondering whether I'm going mad, as usual. Will I have some time off?

Probably not, to be honest.

Currently reading 

Death and the Seaside Alison Moore

Finch Jeff Vandermeer (I cannot recommend the e-book version of this, because it's full of errors. Read it in print if you can.)