Nasim Marie Jafry's Blog, page 11

Warning: do not overheat your lavender wheat bag

I've been wearing my lavender wheat bag like a stole these last few months, I have intermittent neck pain - I'll get a sudden creaking noise like a tree, and a short sharp pain, then toothache in my neck/left shoulder for the rest of day. Last night, I overheated the bag in the microwave, I scorched it - amazing it has not happened before, the scorching - it smelled like a singed dog. I used it anyway, took it to bed and woke up surrounded by wheat kernels, scattered like confetti. The scorch...

Different kinds of light

The exhibition of Chinese lantern warriors at Edinburgh University is beautiful and haunting, the figures sway gently in the wind, the old quad is a gorgeous backdrop. These ninety figures made me think of Jelly Babies marching. And there are benches for resting, always important.


And Bruce Munro's 'Field of Light', which I have not yet seen, has just opened in St Andrew Square. It looks like a glorious field of glass tulips. We are lucky to have these wonderful installations on our doorstep.
L...

Ann Beattie in Granta mag

I love this article by American writer Ann Beattie in Granta mag:

All those echoes, all those memories nipping at my heels. I guess that like a lot of writers, I write for myself, hoping I’ll believe the fiction, that the stand-in will make what happened (or what I thought happened) less painful, or at least more remote.

Short story in The Scotsman

Delighted to have a short story in today's Scotsman, they showcase emerging - I will be forever emerging -  and established writers in The Write Stuff. I sent off  'A Small Punishment' last November and heard back in less than a week that they wanted it. So refreshing to hear back so quickly, usually you are waiting for months and months when you submit on spec. The story should have appeared before Christmas, but I was nudged over by the great man. And thanks to my friend Ciara for...

Part Two of Trusadh: 'The Toxic Tiredness' on BBC Alba

Part Two of  'The Toxic Tiredness' documentary airs tomorrow night - Monday 13th - on BBC Alba at 9pm (and repeated tomorrow at 10pm). My original response to episode two from January 2012 is here.  I am only briefly in part two: 17 secs, 47 mins and 48:50 mins. Professor Behan appears at 35 mins, he diagnosed me in late 1983/early 1984 with after specific antibody titres of Coxsackie including IgM; lymphocyte subset anal...

Art & catastrophe, & BBC Alba documentary, repeated on 6 and 13 January

The BBC Alba 'Toxic Tiredness' documentary from January 2012 is being repeated tonight at 9pm. The Gaelic parts are, of course, subtitled. I previously blogged about both episodes here (part one) and here (part two). I appear in episode one right at the beginning looking like a bag lady, with my usually rather funky prescription sunglasses - they filmed us at weird angles outside for a few shots, the effect is alienating and disorienting, maybe that was the intention. And then at approx - 2.3...

Call me George

I love this time of year, the limbo, no man's land between Christmas and New Year, everyone is out of their routine, there is a lovely quietness, you see people you haven't seen for ages, you eat and eat and eat, television is even worse than usual. I also turned fifty last week, I'm assured I don't look that age, which I love, but there are cards embossed with 50 to prove it; and I often feel about eighty. We had a gorgeous gathering of family last week, my stepdad made me want to laugh and...

Being nudged over by Nelson, gently

When I woke up on Thursday the shed had been blown over on its side like a Monopoly piece. I'd been awake for a few hours before I actually noticed, and it was utterly dislocating to see. I felt powerless. When I went to bed on Thursday Nelson Mandela had just died.  I  lit candles - these rituals we have because we don't know what else to do - and shed a fair few tears at some of the television footage. I was due to have a short story in the Scotsman this weekend but it has been po...

Some thoughts on Doris Lessing

By a quirk, I just finished reading my first Doris Lessing novel last week - The Memoirs of a Survivor - though I have a signed copy of Briefing for a Descent into Hell (which I could not finish) - and was saddened to learn on Sunday that she had died, aged 94. I love this clip of her reaction to learning she had won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2007, she was then 88.  She is one of those hallowed writers you feel guilty for not having read more of. An interesting article on her lif...

Red Cross Appeal and Authors for the Philippines

With enviable coordination,  writer Keris Stainton has organised a fundraising auction to raise money for the Red Cross Typhoon Haiyan Appeal. She did a similar thing for the Japanese tsunami relief fund in 2011. I have donated a signed copy of The State of Me, and am delighted to see there is a starting bid of £20. If you can, please join in the donations, there are many wonderful writing/book-related items to bid on.  
The State of Me is lot no. 288. ...