Free ebook and a review!

Summer give-away by The Friday Project: the ebook version of The State of Me is available as a free download for a limited period! I was pleased to see this new, rather lovely,  review (4 stars) on Amazon yesterday:  I love the honesty of the review and that the s/he feels bad about pointing out the 'negatives'. 

This chatty, funny and insightful book was thoroughly absorbing. Nasim has done a wonderful service to people with ME, by being very open about all aspects of the illness but never self-pitying nor boring! The reader can only cheer her on whilst she snatches what life she can out from under the debilitating illness. All the characters are written well and the writer has a knack for portraying relations deftly but true. It was truly a joy to read, if sometimes a little heartbreaking.The only reason I haven't given the book 5 stars is that I felt it could have done with editing down a little of some of the inconsequential chatty detail. The author plays with form, which is wonderfully entertaining, but I would have liked to have seen it used more consistently which I think would have made it more affective. For instance the author swapped between first and third person for the first part of the book, but at some point that was just dropped. Perhaps it could have been used to great effect later on, or perhaps that needed to be edited out altogether? I feel mean writing the above though, because this book has been my constant companion for days and I've read it every chance I got.      

I felt I wanted to respond to the points made, not as criticism (a reader's views are a reader's views) but more for clarification. The 'inconsequential chatty detail' made me smile, having just ploughed through Knausgaard (see previous post) where the dialogue is often inconsequential. A favourite scene of mine (in A Man in Love) is a New Year party where the dialogue suddenly comes 'alive', there are conversations dripping with meaning, long sentences, which contrast sharply with the previous, often static, 'purposeless' dialogue. Knausgaard's point is that dialogue *is* often boring and inconsequential, he is not concerned, and in The State of Me,  pared down dialogue (that doesn't move the plot along) is to reflect the utter tedium of chronic (at times, severe) illness.

The points about the shifts from third to first person are a little more challenging  as a great deal of time and energy (I view everything in terms of energy)  was used on these shifts. The technique was not simply 'dropped' as the reader has observed, it was deliberate. I shift between first person and third person throughout the book, third person to show her most ill, isolated times, and of course, the third person narrator has a knowingness that Helen doesn't. ie that 'chronic fatigue' will come to be the tragic misnomer for Helen's illness a decade down the line, that myalgic encephalomyelitis, the neuroimmune process that has punched into her life, will be endangered as a diagnosis, hijacked by psychiatrists. The flitting between third and first was mostly intuitive, it just happened. I also use asterisks a lot - and present tense - to slow down the pace, though the asterisks have been lost in the Kindle edition, but I'm told it hasn't detracted from the experience of reading the novel, but I still prefer the paperback version for this reason, while delighted that people can also read the e-version. Still, re. the shifting views  being 'dropped', it is always interesting to hear how your writing is perceived. That is the whole point!

Enjoy the free ebook, it is only for two weeks. Please do write a review on Amazon or Goodreads or blog or Twitter if you can. Reviews are hard to write  (at least, I find it hard) and I always appreciate when people do write a review, even a very short one.

*Just to say the book is only free via Amazon UK and iTunes UK.

Goats going by ambulance

I loved this extract, 'The Saint of Pakistan' - from Benjamin Gilmour's 'Paramédico', published by The Friday Project - in which much-needed goats are delivered by ambulance to poor communities. I had not heard of the remarkable Edhi Foundation, which started with only Abdul Sattar Edhi and an old van - 'the poor man's van' - in the late fifties in Sindh. The extract is, at this time, available as a free download, so go on, go on, go on. And here's more on the truly saint-like Edhi.

Tinsel and Heated Rollers

This is the micro story I contributed to Caroline's fundraising ebook in late spring, 100 RPM. Every story had to be one hundred words or fewer:

Tinsel and Heated Rollers
They were going to Alex and Linda’s for Christmas dinner. Donna liked going to their house. It was bigger than hers and they always had coloured tinsel. Thinking about the tinsel made Donna less sad. It stopped her thinking about her mum crying last night. Her mum said 'Silent Night' always gave her hope. Her mum didn’t like coloured tinsel. She thought it was common. Alex and Linda had given her mum heated rollers for Christmas. When you plugged them in, you could smell them heating up and a red dot on the top turned black when they were ready.

Scott liked it.

And time for The Snowman, the glorious Irn Bru advert, just so gallus. These Scottish landmarks really touch you if you know them.

Being grabbed by one sentence

This spring and summer I've been reading fiction and non-fiction from Pakistan and India. As I've said before,  I feel slightly 'fake' mixed race but, at the moment, I feel very pulled to writing from South Asia. I have the books above on my side table and others I'm reading/have read include Mohammed Hanif's brilliantly cheeky and dark satirical novel A Case of Exploding Mangoes (am impatiently waiting for the paperback of Our Lady of Alice Bhatti to be released); Aboard the Democracy Train by Nafisa Hoodbhoy (very factual non-fiction, taking me a *long* time, I dip in and out on Kindle) and Alok Bhalla's Partition Dialogues: Memories of a Lost Home, which I'm eagerly waiting for from Amazon. I watched this wonderful interview with Alok Bhalla a few weeks ago and was struck by his statement that 'the function of art (culture) is to imagine spaces where we can live differently from the way we have been'. By differently, he means better, more ethically. (approx. 20 minutes in)

This weekend, I learned The Friday Project had published an e-book version of British novelist Niven Govinden's Black Bread White Beer, already published in India. I downloaded the sample and immediately downloaded the whole book, something I seldom do. I was grabbed, particularly by one sentence in the opening pages: Amal, the day after his wife's miscarriage, is in conversation with a Polish car mechanic who says that in his country this is 'something we do not speak of. It is kept in the  preserve of women'. Amal replies: "'My country too'. Automatically, he bows to the Indian gene. Though he thinks of himself as educated and enlightened, it is always the pull of the genes that navigates him through crisis, as if there was a state of sense-making that comes solely from the combined force of his parental cells". I still have to read the rest of the book, but for me a novel or short story often spins on one sentence,  above all, and those words stay with me long after I've finished.

100 RPM - stories inspired by music

100 RPM, a gorgeously designed ebook anthology, is released today, the project of Caroline Smailes,  whose enthusiasm is irrepressible and inspiring.

All money raised goes to One in Four charity, which supports victims of sexual violence.

And an  introduction by Nik Kershaw!

Caroline has explained all on her blog.

There are a hundred stories and every story is one hundred words or less and has been inspired by music on You Tube. The playlist is here.

My own story was inspired by Scottish band Glasvegas' version of 'Silent Night'.

I hope you enjoy the book and pass on the word! I'm off to download my copy.

I'm finding I like microfiction more and more, the possibilities as a writer and the little energy required as a reader. Perfect!

* Review of my story here.

** And thanks to Glasvegas for RTing the anthology.

Damp

Writing on the good and bad of Kindle, Fictionbitch says: My whole life has been wedded to the physicality of books and their shelves, the way they sat beside my bed on the little white bookcase my parents bought me, or on the planks and bricks I set up in my first-ever flat...' I love this, it resonates so much, the connection we have with the physicality of books (and book shelves!). This weekend, I was reading Teju Cole in the bath and afterwards the book was damp with crinkled pages, and although I'm having a troubled relationship with this novel, the damp book was beautiful lying on the floor, and I thought this is a thing of the past, crinkled books in the bath, when we have given up on our books altogether, what will we put on our shelves instead? A friend recently told me 'her dream house would have shelves with a Kindle and perhaps a shell or one perfect candlestick'. I do like this image - I hate clutter. Except books, I don't really mind 'organised' book clutter and I think - I know - I would miss my books as a backdrop.

Compelling, disturbing, bleakly funny

There has been much buzz around 99 Reasons Why because of the choice of eleven endings, however, I quickly forgot about this quirk when I was reading the novel, I was so drawn in to 22-yr-old Kate’s world, a world that would be unremittingly grim were it not for Caroline Smailes' voice - she is brilliant at broken, abused lives, with just enough  humour to keep you from turning away. I laughed out loud a few times. Kate’s Princess Diana fantasies (her collection of eBay memorabilia heartbreaking ), her ‘job’ of spying on the nursery across the road, and the extreme lovelessness she experiences don’t add up to much of an existence, but the narration is compelling, and the chapters are wonderfully titled - and short (I love short chapters!).  At one point Kate describes a police visit to her home: ‘The blue lights are going, bouncing into me bedroom.’ A gorgeous image for a grim situation.

When the choice of endings came, it felt slightly dislocating as I’d been so engrossed in the story - but it also made me think about what we expect - and need - as readers. Then I felt excited. I tried three endings, the third one satisfied me most, I felt it was the rightful piece in the jigsaw. I decided not to try the rest, it could become addictive (though I don't want to miss any of them, and  will  go back). I think Caroline is to be congratulated on the boldness and cleverness of this novel. I loved it.

99 reasons why I should go back to my Kindle

I keep almost forgetting I've got a Kindle but on Monday I will be eagerly downloading Caroline Smailes' innovative ebook 99 Reasons Why. The eleven endings have caused quite a stir, some people getting their knickers in a right old  twist.  You can read one of the endings here.

I am excited and  want to read them all! 

Update* Just saw this Reuters video, where both Caroline and Scott Pack (our publisher) talk about  99 Reasons Why.


(And I should really go back to Tim Winton's Dirt Music which I think I started end of January on Kindle,  was enjoying and stopped for no good reason (I wonder if the paperback at my bedside would have lured me back sooner, the Kindle can seem inert by comparison, it's just not as seductive if you need a bit of  a push). Though I admit chapter two of The Return of Captain John Emmet  - the paperback - didn't really grab me -  I was reading it at the eye clinic, maybe that's why - I loved the first  chapter - so I've lent it to my mother in the meantime. Two chapters is certainly not enough to dismiss entirely. I will go back, I usually do.)

Silly billies

Delighted for Caroline Smailes that her new ebook 99 Reasons Why is creating such a buzz. Having Karachi roots, I was especially chuffed to see her in The Daily Times in Pakistan. In 99 Reasons Why, Caroline plays with  the possibilities of endings and you the reader can choose which one you would like. However, being playful and imaginative - surely, the job of a writer - has its downside, she is apparently threatening the future of literature, and, according to one reviewer in the DT, doesn’t deserve to be taken seriously. The DT also brought us silly billy media doctor Max Pemberton last year talking nonsense about my illness, and at the weekend we learned that Richard Dawkins has a penchant for slaves. Yes, you couldn't make it up, so it's great we have such high quality journalists to do it for us.

'E-books can't burn': essay by Tim Parks

'Only the sequence of the words must remain inviolate. We can change everything about a text but the words themselves and the order they appear in.'

Interesting article on e-books by Tim Parks.

The Opposite of Kindle

Some days ago, I saw an elderly man on the bus reading an old, battered blue hardback - it had no jacket. He was mouthing the words to himself as he read. The pages were loose. I actually craned my neck to look, but I didn't manage to see the title.

Two lovely things

Congratulations to Kitty Aldridge and the other winners of the Bridport Prize 2011, announced yesterday! I was v. chuffed to make the shortlist of 100 (out of 6000 entries) in the short story category, a long time since I had written anything new. Also, delighted that The State of Me has been in top 100 paid Kindle literary fiction for last month (with occasional dips out). I'm sure the bargain 99p has something to do with it.  A nice short Kindle review here.

A modern thought

I'm reading - and loving - a second-hand copy of The House in Paris by Elizabeth Bowen. Pages 17 and 18 fell out when I first opened it and I shocked myself by thinking: This wouldn't happen with a Kindle. I got over my e-moment and sellotaped the pages back in. Since I  still have no desire myself  to read on a Kindle, I really did surprise myself - I guess I was just having a modern thought. And delighted that The State of Me has been in top 100 Kindle literary fiction for 12 days now. This is longest it has sustained a position there and I'm very pleased, it usually dips in and out. I know the 99p bargain must be something to do with it, but the  point is the book is finding new readers and hopefully people are recommending it. Thank you, e-book technology!

A few words...

I saw my book as an ebook for the first time, last night, my friend brought over her new Kindle. I'd seen the 'raw' epub file on Adobe Digital but it's not the same, you don't get a proper sense. I'd already downloaded the first Kindle for PC version, a year ago, but the spacing was wonky in parts so it was withdrawn. The spacing is thankfully fixed, though, because they can't convert asterisks easily, in Chapter 17, FAQs, it looks like one long conversation between the stranger and Helen rather than snippets. Original is here. I also came across 'the Tag', this should be the Tay, in case you are wondering, a river in east of Scotland, we have not gone to Germany.

I imagine in many books where the format is not exactly straightforward there are wee glitches, the technology is still evolving. So, yes, I am happy enough with my ebook, though it still seems odd to me, I cannot imagine reading one. Scrolling through the text, my arm got tired, repeatedly pressing the same key. My friend's a total convert, she downloads stuff to her phone too, and finds it thrilling. I think the key is to see ebooks as well as not instead of. We toasted my first glimpse of the Kindle TSoM with pomegranate juice, I would've preferred champagne but I have antibiotics for wisdom tooth (being taken out next week).

Still, paper books are objects of beauty. They are irreplaceable, to me.

Scrolling to the end of the ebook, I was struck by the epilogue, and probably the most important fragment of my novel, especially resonant now:

If we look through the round window, and really strain our eyes, we can see some of the powerful people who didn’t believe in the illness – GPs, psychiatrists, journalists – standing shamefaced in the corner. They are wearing dunce hats and stuttering apologies.

There has been a leap in ebook sales since 'The Threats' so I can only hope more people are reading and learning (and enjoying the novel as a novel). And for that I am very grateful to Kindle.

*I should add I've started using Kindle for PC just to download book samples and that is very handy. I love the immediacy.

** International Consensus Criteria for ME, July 2011, now on PubMed.

Shameless

Some shameless self-promotion for which I apologise (to myself mostly), it feels a bit wrong with all that is going on, but the Kindle version of my novel is currently only 99p. What on earth can you buy for 99p these days? (And while I'm sure the Kindle version is lovely, it's not identical to the paperback, asterisks have been substituted with white space to indicate new sections/episodes, so the narrative pauses *may* feel subtly and slightly different in some places. I'm very interested to hear feedback from anyone who has read the Kindle version, what does it feel like?)

(And if you are an Apple person, 99p here too).

Tweets & Kindles & Tulips

Am almost afraid to blog after the last few days of chaos, previous comments still not restored, but I just want to link to an excellent post by Johan Mares. And this is positive news too. I felt like I'd been on a demo on Thursday night after tweeting for #may12th (reading tweets is energy consuming too, a cockpit of information), and I was pleased that Marco Biagi (newly elected MSP) and AL Kennedy (one of my favourite writers) RT'd one of my tweets, but of course the health editors ignored me, they ignored all of us. Someone remarked that Richard Horton (The Lancet editor) has his head in sand, I would like to suggest that his - and all the PACE supporters' - is somewhere considerably less pleasant. This is a timely article on the editing of health journals: 'Are journal editors like used car salesmen?'

The Kindle version of my book was briefly at #92 in literary fiction, I guess it spiked as a result of tweeting. I am told that Kindle is now 80% of market (of ebooks), though when I see one on the bus - kind of infrequent up here - I still think it has something of Star Trek about it.

I went into the garden on Thursday evening - post-demo - even though it was very windy, I needed air. My arms felt like rags, and my head had that horrible heated up, inflamed feeling. The tulips were streamlined by the gusts and made me think of a dog's ears being blown from a car window. They made me smile.

Staggering

I love this quote from historical crime novelist Diana Norman - wife of Barry Norman, the film critic - who sadly died recently: 'I stagger towards the last line of a book like a drunk navigating furniture.'I was staggering from the first line of The State of Me. Have sent a copy off to Ian Swales, the magnificently ME-aware Lib Dem MP for Redcar. He will be the second Lib Dem MP to read my book, John Barrett, formerly representing Edinburgh West, read it in 2009 - bought his own! - and I still love that he said it was 'like the West Wing, took a while to get into but once I did I was hooked'. I would like to see the novel as prescribed reading for the House of Commons. Am still waiting for my own MP to get back to me about signing EDM 778.

Slightly bemused to see that James Franco has an anthology of short stories out, Palo Alto - with Faber, no less. He is a talented and handsome actor, I saw him cut his arm off in 127 Hours, but I'm not sure his writing is quite as dazzling, not from this review anyway. I know Palo Alto - the place - from many years ago, but don't think I'll be rushing to read this. Can't help feeling that he is spreading himself too thin (though I haven't read it so cannot truly judge). And I am sure equally - if not more - talented writers are having their collections rejected because they are not famous movie stars.

An ME-aware psychologist, Professor Rhona Johnston, has written this staggeringly good post Mitochondria not Hypochondria. There is poetry in that title, to be sure. Thank you, Prof Rhona for displaying such intelligence, maybe you could have a word with Prof Simple Simon. And his buddy, Myra McClure, has it seems resigned from her appointment to the USA's NIH committee SEP, which oversees research grants for ME, after a coordinated wave of email protests. This is brilliant news! (So much for not blogging about ME but these are happening times.)

This post is getting too long, it has been in the process of being edited since Saturday, my neck is like a brick, but The State of Me is STILL waiting to be linked up to its new ebook file on Amazon and Book Depository sites. Apparently, because the original glitchy version was withdrawn, it has caused procedural nightmares getting it reinstated. So if anyone sees the e-version of my book anywhere, please let me know! I believe it is on iPad and iPhone, but no way of checking unless you are Appled up (I am not). I saw a woman on bus with a Kindle the other day, my second sighting of one, it still all feels like Star Trek to me.

*Meant to add this from Michael Cunningham interview in Guardian last weekend, it made me laugh out loud. On long novels he has this to say: As a reader, I prefer a shorter novel. When someone hands me a 750-page tome, my first reaction is, oh fuck you, I don't want to read your giant book...

** And it appears TSoM is now up again on Amazon USA Kindle, which feeds Amazon UK so that is something.

Rosy and not rosy

I'm sorry if you got a Kindle for Christmas and wanted perhaps to download The State of Me - the e-book is still not showing on Amazon - or Book Depository (this is not rosy!). On a happier note, I got a collection of Norman MacCaig poems as a gift, loving it, there is a poem about a toad that you just want to read again and again ('Stop looking like a purse...' ). And everyone should drink this, my new favourite tea: black with a hint of rose. I can also tell you that the best fairy cakes are made when you are on codeine (you simply don't care about the oven/timing, the whisking does not seem so exhausting and all is dandy). And the thaw is still on (this is rosy!). I would love if the snow melted to reveal all the spring flowers in bloom, a real Wizard of Oz moment. Needless to say, Happy and Healthy New Year, when it comes, to all who read this blog.

50 Stories as ebook

The fabulous fundraising anthology 50 Stories for Pakistan is now available as an ebook from Smashwords.com. (I wish I could say the same for The State of Me, but it is still not up on Amazon or The Book Depository, though my understanding is the revised ebook was submitted weeks ago. I am told the delay is with the retailer end of things. I had hoped it would be up by Christmas so that all those young modern people out there could read me on their new Kindles, but I fear now this may not happen.)

*Just seen that 50 Stories has made £439 for Red Cross in its first month. This is wonderful news!

Is the Wizard of Oz the magic behind ebooks?

Epublishing seems so random, I think there is a drugged up Wizard of Oz behind it all. I heard today - through Twitter - that The State of Me is now available in the Australia iBook store. I had no idea! Meanwhile, the corrected Kindle version for Amazon UK (there were glitches in the original) is still in a queue, and The Book Depository, for reasons I cannot fathom, has just removed the ePub/Sony link to my book. (I also see the one review displayed there used to be five star but is now demoted to three star.) All of this makes me dizzy, best not to think about it. And, yesterday, the Guardian asked, Is the ebook the new hardback?