Last month The Casket of Fictional Delights launched a major new project, Tube-Flash, in cooperation with Transport for London. Tube-Flash is inspired by the London Underground and my collection of vintage and contemporary brooches. Stations have been paired with a brooch and writers have responded to create a diverse collection of stories. Each week a new story is published, or in Tube-Flash parlance, arrives at 09.55. And as The Casket of Fictional Delights is now a fully Made for Mobile website, it is easy to read Tube-Flash stories on your smartphone while on the move.
In the early planning stages there were long and quite heated discussions about the ‘route’ the Tube-Flash stories should take. Various options were considered. There was the direct approach – start one end of a line and just run along it to the other end. Ok, but could get a bit tedious. The logical approach – stations in alphabetical order. The traditional approach – author order. Both these options have merits but their big flaw is how do you add in new stations? In the end I went for the random approach – criss-crossing the network, up and down the eleven lines, darting back and forth from central London to the outer suburbs, making it a more interesting story journey. But where to start and were there any anchors?
At the beginning of each year I make a list of significant events to use as part of my website planning, For example, last year in May for the Chelsea Flower show, the ‘Brooch of the Month’ was a big green flower. So were there any events that could be linked to Tube-Flash? Well the most obvious one was the 150th anniversary of the London Underground itself. But what about other things? As I delved deeper and trawled the wonders of the internet I was amazed at what I found. Over the coming months they will pop up, some better known, some less so. Monday 13th May at 09.55 sees the arrival of the fourth Tube-Flash story ‘A Classic Collection’ by Graham Curtis. It is Vauxhall Station, and 16th May will be the 30th anniversary of the introduction of wheel clamps to combat illegal parking in London. The next one with an anniversary is ‘In the Snake Pit’ by Oana Aristide, but I’m not going to tell you what that is, you will have to wait.
Dawn Reeves’s first novel ‘Hard Change’ was published last week. It is available as a paperback and an ebook.
Hard Change is a contemporary town hall thriller set in a Midlands city with an alcohol problem. A young girl’s discarded body found in a council bin, forces a council officer, a policewoman and an NHS trust manager to emerge from behind their desks and make personal choices. But can they act collectively to do the right thing and prevent another murder?
On her website is a tantalizing taster – Hard Change Prologue.
Dawn lives in London with her partner Simon but has an affinity for the Midlands. She is motivated by social injustice, fascinated by power and all the weird and wonderful things happening below the surface of society. Dawn has been a Guest writer on The Casket where you can read Trust’s Lodger and Three Portraits & Three Tales or listen to them as audio Storycasts.
I am delighted to be able to publish on The Casket one of Moira Knowles’s short stories The Pear. I first met Moira at a novel writing workshop at the City Lit a few years ago. So far I haven’t yet managed to write a novel, I keep being side tracked. Moira on the other hand has not only completed her first novel but has started her second. The course was not a total waste, I did learn a great deal about structure, character and plot. But much more, was the small group of friends I made at the workshop. We meet up regularly to discuss how we were getting on. You see writing can be a lonely place, you need to share it with friends who will support you as your work grows and matures.
So to all you writers out there beavering away over your laptops or scribbling in your notebooks, remember go and have a cup of coffee now and again. Oh and don’t forget the cake.
Exciting news – Leonie Milliner, one of The Casket guest writers is featured in Morley von Sternberg’s portrait photographs. He is one of the world’s best architectural photographers. Morley von Sternberg asked to photograph Leonie a few weeks ago. In the photograph she is standing next to a Robert Adam window detail. Most appropriate as the novel she is working on is all about Robert Adam. Leonie’s portrait is in good company, she is alongside Sir Peter Blake and Sir Steve Redgrave. What a line up!
Leonie’s trilogy ‘Different ways of Killing’ was launched last year on The Casket with ‘Statue’, followed later in the year by ‘Manufactory of Smells’ and then to round off the set ‘The Registrar’s Daughter’. There will be more from Leonie later this year as she is one of the featured writers in Tube-Flash.
People often ask me where I get my ideas from. My stock answer is ‘anywhere and everywhere’. Lots of things can spark a story, especially a Flash Fiction. But for this month’s Flash Fiction I did something different. For Christmas my brother gave me ‘The Pocket Muse – ideas & inspirations for writing’ by Monica Wood and I was flicking through the pages and spotted a picture of a key with the following guide text [Rescue a stray key from that junk drawer in the kitchen. Put it next to your word processor or typewriter. Try to imagine or remember what this key once unlocked, start writing.] A few days later while having a clear out what should I find but this small key.
I put the key next to my laptop and sure enough a story began to take hold. I don’t know what the key opens in my house but that doesn’t matter. In my Flash Fiction The Key perhaps solves a family mystery but then again perhaps not.
If you like Flash Fiction there are plenty more on The Casket of Fictional Delights, including two compilations of all those published in 2011 and 2012.
Why not try your hand at writing a Flash Fiction? You could be part of the Tube-Flash project. I have matched a number of my brooches to London Underground stations and I am asking writers to write Flash Fiction stories for each of the stations or brooches. So for Notting Hill Gate on the Central Line there is a bunch of fruit (Carnival) and Covent Garden (home of the old flower market) on the Piccadilly Line a flower in a pot. If you are inspired, check out the rest of the stations and brooches at the Tube-Flash project and be part of the journey. But hurry as the Deadline is 31st January 2013.
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