Stephen Wade's Blog, page 2
October 12, 2017
Launch of Write Your Self
It's been a long time coming, but now is the official launch of my journaling handbook, Write Your Self, from MX Publishing. Although I no longer lecture in creative writing, some of my themes keep nagging at me. For instance, this Sunday I'm appearing on a crime writing panel at the Ilkley LitFest, with two extremely gifted crime novelists. They write superbly about contemporary deviance and urban underclass situations, but once again, the topic of writing misery comes along. My new book stresses the need for writing to uplift also, to celebrate joy and happiness. This is even possible in crime writing- as in Rumpole of the Bailey and Porridge. But the horrendous themes keep on being wanted by agents and publishers. I would like these powerful folks to read my new book and think again about the wider potential of stories.
In my new book, the aim is to help you write your own stories. I hope and pray that they will be joyful, optimistic and cheery ones.
In my new book, the aim is to help you write your own stories. I hope and pray that they will be joyful, optimistic and cheery ones.
October 2, 2017
A Ripping Time
The writing life goes on, and this time it was a conference in Liverpool, concerned with Jack the Ripper. My interest in true crime and crime history is largely one of the wider context of a crime, although I do have certain cases that engross me and I return to them again and again. But the specialists at the conference had staggeringly impressive knowledge in depth of their particular Ripperological interest.
I mention this because, as my next book, written with Stuart Gibbon, is a mix of contextual knowledge and practical policing. This is The Crime Writer's Casebook, from Straightforward Books. I couldn't resist the urge to include some favourite cases from the past in this, but my forthcoming Murder in Mind (Scratching Shed Publishing) includes my ongoing fascination with the story of Louie Calvert, a woman logged in texts as a murderess and fetishist. But guess what- I don't think she was guilty of murder. It's too late to save her. She was hanged. But her story encapsulates everything that absorbs me in reading crime history. More later!
I mention this because, as my next book, written with Stuart Gibbon, is a mix of contextual knowledge and practical policing. This is The Crime Writer's Casebook, from Straightforward Books. I couldn't resist the urge to include some favourite cases from the past in this, but my forthcoming Murder in Mind (Scratching Shed Publishing) includes my ongoing fascination with the story of Louie Calvert, a woman logged in texts as a murderess and fetishist. But guess what- I don't think she was guilty of murder. It's too late to save her. She was hanged. But her story encapsulates everything that absorbs me in reading crime history. More later!
September 3, 2017
Back to Crime Writing
With my journaling book now due to have its official launch next month, my thoughts are turning to my main interest- crime writing.
For many years I have written and researched crime writing, and one reason for this is my fascination with what the great Scottish writer William Roughead called 'the criminous.' This is the word he used for that story which forms the classic 'horrible murder' read.
Some of my thinking on this relates to my forthcoming lecture at the Jack the Ripper Conference (22-24 of this month in Liverpool), and the book due out is Murder in Mind, from Scratching Shed.
So my work is now back to matters criminal, and I also have a book out meant for crime writers, written with ex-detective, Stuart Gibbon: The Crime Writer's Casebook.
But if anyone is interested in journaling, they might want to check out the course I'm doing for Relax and Writer at Keele in October.
Meanwhile, it's back to the archives.
For many years I have written and researched crime writing, and one reason for this is my fascination with what the great Scottish writer William Roughead called 'the criminous.' This is the word he used for that story which forms the classic 'horrible murder' read.
Some of my thinking on this relates to my forthcoming lecture at the Jack the Ripper Conference (22-24 of this month in Liverpool), and the book due out is Murder in Mind, from Scratching Shed.
So my work is now back to matters criminal, and I also have a book out meant for crime writers, written with ex-detective, Stuart Gibbon: The Crime Writer's Casebook.
But if anyone is interested in journaling, they might want to check out the course I'm doing for Relax and Writer at Keele in October.
Meanwhile, it's back to the archives.
August 16, 2017
Cons and Monks
Okay, so that's a strange heading for a blog? Well it relates to the reflection I often had when working as a writer in prisons. Monks spent hours alone and contemplating the eternal verities, we are told. Well, some prisoners do the same. Not all, mind, but some. Those who do, in my experience, really need something to write down. There are stories swimming around their heads, and that's fine, but their own story needs most attention, and that's where journaling comes in.
This is yet another dimension to my new book, Write Your Self, which would lend its content and ordered writing to that readership I think, though I never used this when I worked inside the walls.
People inside prisons are not all like Harold Shipman or Jack the Ripper. Many have made horrendous mistakes; many have lost their way in life. What most have in common is a need to do something, achieve something, start afresh - and words are our best tools for that.
This is yet another dimension to my new book, Write Your Self, which would lend its content and ordered writing to that readership I think, though I never used this when I worked inside the walls.
People inside prisons are not all like Harold Shipman or Jack the Ripper. Many have made horrendous mistakes; many have lost their way in life. What most have in common is a need to do something, achieve something, start afresh - and words are our best tools for that.
August 8, 2017
Writing is Good for You
Here I am, a seasoned writer with decades of work on writing and teaching behind me, and this is my first engagement with the world of blogging. I have an important reason for this: my book, Write Your Self, is soon to appear from MX Publishing, and this entails my revisiting my teaching career.
This is because, around fifteen years ago, I was marking hundreds of first-year university scripts on a creative writing degree. They were, almost without exception, about unhappiness. Students saw writing as an opportunity to dissect their misery. I concluded that writing happiness was hard-much more difficult than writing misery.
I decided to write something about this, and what happened was my discovery of journaling: a method of writing about yourself with prompts from an author. The aim is to look at your life through suggestions from a tutor you never see or meet. But everything is about writing positive, refreshing things.
I'm now hoping that the new book generates smiles.
This is because, around fifteen years ago, I was marking hundreds of first-year university scripts on a creative writing degree. They were, almost without exception, about unhappiness. Students saw writing as an opportunity to dissect their misery. I concluded that writing happiness was hard-much more difficult than writing misery.
I decided to write something about this, and what happened was my discovery of journaling: a method of writing about yourself with prompts from an author. The aim is to look at your life through suggestions from a tutor you never see or meet. But everything is about writing positive, refreshing things.
I'm now hoping that the new book generates smiles.
