When I was one of two authors commended for this year's Orange Award for New Writers, I was stunned. To be singled out, together with the 3-book shortlist! I didn't even know The White Road and Other Stories had been put forward. And while this was something that was very hard for me to internalise on a personal level, not being one of those who thinks her stories are better than anyone else's, it was instantly obvious to me what a wonderful thing this was both for short story collections and for small independent publishers. All around me were novels and mainstream publishing houses. And there was my little book!

There was already a slight tinge here because in the press release announcing the shortlist, C E Morgan and I were commended with wonderful words but our books were not mentioned. Had people seen that something which had "and other stories" in its title was being given a special mention, what a boost this would be!

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My very short story, When You're Frightened, Honey, Think of Strawberries has just gone live over at Ink, Sweat and Tears - click here to read it.

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Victorian humour is something of an acquired taste. I trawled through an awful lot of “jokes” that I didn’t get, that were plain unfunny, or that would be offensive to modern readers. Below are a selection of the funniest – yes, the funniest, so you can imagine how bad the rest were...

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Nathan Bransford is a literary agent at the San Francisco office of Curtis Brown Ltd. He is also a blogger extraordinaire - see for yourselves here!

You really must read…
Any book by my clients and GENTLEMEN OF SPACE by Ira Sher

Favourite desktop snack…
Reese’s Pieces.

Which 3 writers, living or dead, would you invite to dinner?
Ernest Hemingway, Paul (from the Bible), and Walker Percy. We’d either get really drunk or all get in a fight. Or maybe both.

Left on a cliffhanger or told all?
Depends on whether the next book is under contract.



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I was chatting with, writer and co-founder of the literary consultants BubbleCow, Gary Smailes after the launch of 20 Photographs and 20 Stories, about writing and publishing and stuff. And we decided it would be a fun and good idea to do it properly.

So, here's what Gary had to say about publishing, how the industry's changing, how writers can become more empowered and about how he can help.

me: So, BubbleCow. What is it? What do you do there?

Gary Smailes: BubbleCow is a literary consultancy. In essence we help writers to lift their work to a commercial standard. We do this in one of three ways. The first is through editorial feedback. One of our professional editors will provide in-depth and detailed feedback on a writer’s work. The second is through mentoring. This sees a writer working alongside a published author over a period of time. The aim is to not only gain editorial support but to also get constant help regarding the writing process. Finally we offer submission support. Here one of our editors will work alongside a writer to help them produce a synopsis, query letter and fifty page extract of the highest quality. Because BubbleCow is an Internet based company we are able to provide the fastest and most cost effective service on the market.

me: So you cover all the bases! Do you cater for all sorts of writers and abilities - and genres? Or do you have an area that you specialise in?

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Why anybody would want to go to Spain when they can go to Regent Street beats me. Well, that's not quite true, but Spain's major attraction was overshadowed, so to speak, on Sunday. How pleasant to be in a Regent Street rendered not only traffic-free for the event, but basking in sunlight.



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Being born and having spent the first half of my life in Ireland, the term 'Seanchai' (shan-a-key) was something I grew up hearing in both history and Irish language lessons during my school years. In the days of old, the ‘Seanchai’ (teller of old lore) would have been either a wise and trusted village elder, or sometimes a travelling itinerant using their oral skills as a means of bagging a meal and a bed for the night. Invited into people’s homes, they shared their versions of folklore and adventure, always in the form of oral shorter narratives. Stories were told, retold, embellished, passed through generations during an era where the resident story teller was a person who commanded respect.

And what are we writers, if not storytellers? As human beings we all have stories to tell, but though the need to tell a story may be instinctive, the art of committing it to paper is not easy. The novelists among us choose to write 100,000 words. Others use less words, telling shorter stories but those of us who seek recognition in either genre have to adhere to many rules. There are always rules.

I’m quite sure the ‘Seanchai’ sitting by the parlour fire was less confined by rules. I’m sure their use of adverbs was frequent. They would have loved ‘telling’ as much as ‘showing’. A switch of point of view would have been a must. Plotting and planning would have been exempt from their lexicon. All very well with each tale being told, retold and lasting mere minutes, not alas for the modern equivalent of oral storytelling – the audio book, i.e. the audio novel.


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And in a packed issue this month: reviewed Matt Bell, Barry Graham, Ali Smith, Josephine Rowe, Nam Le, Mathias B. Freese, Anne Donovan, Pat Jourdan and the InkerMen's Green and Unpleasant Lands - and interviews with many of the same. Happy reading!

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And in a packed issue this month: reviewed Matt Bell, Barry Graham, Ali Smith, Josephine Rowe, Nam Le, Mathias B. Freese, Anne Donovan, Pat Jourdan and the InkerMen's Green and Unpleasant Lands - and interviews with many of the same. Happy reading!

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Salt publishing are a small, independent press publishing short stories and poetry, among other things. They are truly tiny, but have made a big impact in terms of creating a home for the short story and for poetry in the last few years. Unfortunately last year the Arts Council decided to completely revamp the causes to which they supplied funding, as you may have seen in the press, and Salt were one of the losers.

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