New Year, New Everything!

January, 2015

Happy New Year!

So it’s officially 2015 and everything is very similar to how it was in 2014. With all those crazy celebrations going on I was expecting to wake up in some kind of utopia where we’ve finally sussed out the meaning of life and all creatures are truly free to live in harmony. Looks like people were just getting a bit overexcited…

I’ve been up to more of the same since my last update; networking and hanging out with people online. And when I say networking; I mean harassing defenceless human beings to read and review Spark. It’s all trial and error at the moment until I figure out what works. I’m the type of person who doesn’t really care about etiquette so please forgive me if I send a message asking you to read and/ or review Spark. Taking too many drugs in my younger years has eroded all sense of what’s acceptable behaviour. I’ve even been messaging celebrities, asking them to get on board the Dreyfus wagon. No joy thus far, but I’ll keep being an annoying cunt until somebody cracks under the pressure.

I’m massively thankful to all those who have read any of my stories and have been in touch. I know it’s really annoying to keep asking, but if you have read Spark then please review it on Amazon and Lulu etc., blog about it, tell like-minded friends about it as this helps it to keep growing; particularly in these early days. Meanwhile I promise to have a rethink about whether or not reviews are that important and will continue to work on not bugging any of you in the future.

I am presently writing a new short story which is as good as finished. It’s about the way in which social media has regimented many of us to behave like idiots. I think Charlie Brooker would approve. It’s very cynical and a nice change from covert political swipes. I will eventually release a collection of short stories so people can discuss them and review them.

The bad news is that I don’t know if I’m going to release my ‘fuck off, you massive bigoted cunt with blinkers on’ story come election time for a multitude of reasons. I’m presently undecided, but I mainly fear the negative backlash could vastly outweigh any positives I might gleam from it. If I had a massive following or there was a movement of writers and artists coordinating some artistic direct action then it’s a no-brainer, but because I’m just starting to get off the ground I feel that such a short story could have a detrimental effect.

People often ask me: why satire and transgressive fiction, Rupert? Well, after years of writing in a more serious style and slowly getting bored of its limits (think a poor man’s Patrick McGrath in the third-person), I wrote Spark and realised that a blend of these two sub-genres allows me to tackle subjects in a way that I’m completely happy with. Satire gives me the scope to take a serious subject and be as ridiculous as I want with it while focusing on ultimately making a serious point. Transgressive fiction allows me to chuck in a sense of the real world while knocking down all boundaries. Anything goes; drug taking; mindless violence; puking; whatever. Transgressive fiction also gives me the freedom to occasionally move away from taking political swipes and to tackle other subjects of interest. I’ve been a massive fan of these genres in my own life so it feels natural. I mean; this journey would be a lot easier if I wrote something commercially friendly with flowery prose and linear plots, but I’d take zero enjoyment from it. I love writing this type of story in this type of style; even if it’s putting me close to the fringes. I can’t see myself departing from it.

So there you go! That’s where I’m at right now. I will write more about writing in the coming months because it’s a subject in and of itself. I aim to write an essay about free expression at some point, but right now it’s all about locating cynical freethinkers who share the same worldview as me. I know there are more of you out there and I’m coming to look for you…

I’ll be in touch soon enough; probably when my next story is uploaded. You can always email me through my website to discuss any of the themes I explore or feel free to tell me what’s going on in your world. In the meantime keep being thoroughly disobedient at every given opportunity. Take up writing fiction because if you can read a story then you can definitely write one. That whole thing about ‘there’s at least one book in everybody’ is condescending nonsense which places authors on a pedestal. We’re all writers; each and every one of us. Don’t let anybody tell you otherwise.

Wizpeck!

Rupert