An Author in Progress


This is where you'll find me trying to mould myself into a respectable writer - it may take sometime...
You'll find anything from a piece of experimental creative writing, some thoughts on my novel developments, to even the occasional literature-based academic paper.


Thursday 27 January 2011

A good day.

Just bought myself a book online and I'm very excited.

My uni friends mumbled about having nothing highly contemporary to look at, so I'm gonna bring this in, Marc!

A, B & E by Marc Nash. You can find a link via twitter or through Amazon, so if you like the VERY experimental then go check it out.

On the academic front Walter Benjamin and I are spending a day or two in each others company (in that imagined space between author and audience). I have no comment yet, but hopefully some time soon I will feel smart enough to blog about this. Maybe if my essay does well that'll be something to post! ['Yawn...' say my follow friends}

'Mwahahahaha.' My response.

Had a great night of writing, managed to link two major plot points much more easily than I first imagined. It's all in the details. George Eliot worked that way - though I'm definitely no Georg Eliot. My character, Anna has laid the bed for her own fall. I'm mean, but what can I say? She's a student. She gets it.

Anyway, Sandra takes her first dip into Cuban Salsa this evening. I shall perhaps tell you how it went, providing I succeed!!!

Monday 24 January 2011

Kafka, coffee, and a short story review.

Eeps it's been a while.

I've been totally caught up in essays and overdosing on coffee to keep me awake, but having just been buzzed by a Twitter buddy I'm reminded about why this undergraduate course I'm on is opening fun doors. Being on the editorial team for our university fiction magazine is bringing heaps of reading fun my way. I'm also reading Goethe, Camus and Kafka at the moment[Can anyone PLEASE! tell me there's more significance to Gregor's father imbedding an apple into his mutated body than Nabokov would argue], so it's been fun to break away from the philosophically absurd, existentialist mood I have been falling into to review a short story... Ah the irony.

The Nothingness by Draven Ames

A moment in time and only one afternoon creates the framework for this 'story of the month' (for online SNM Magazine), in which the protagonist, John's visit to his deceased father's house reveals horrors that go beyond the boundaries of family issues.

'This is the story of a girl named Imagination' … a really clever opening sentence that drew me to read on. Some very philosophical thoughts conveyed with, in places, some truly poetic dialogue. Before the end of this visceral horror short, I was completely reading metaphors alluding to notions about cultural disillusionment, oil controversy and the crumbling of the family unit. As for 'Meaning without substance' says the Nothingness to John, she certainly makes herself visible.

I'm really lucky to have read an earlier draft and was really enthused by Draven's keenness to take on feedback and his ability to really go with it. I do, however think that he can do more with this storyline. It's obvious his mind works in the novel framework for the depth of what he is trying to communicate through this short. I almost want him to get John to take Imagination's mad sister out of the attic with him and wreak her on the West! Maybe we could do with a little shake up.

Draven Ames is a published author from Oregon, USA, with a completed novel to his list of achievements. An ex-paratrooper and real family man, he's a young writer – in my opinion, with real potential. All the best of luck to him as he recommences education and refines his craft. I know there's even more quality to come.

If you get a chance pop by the SNM online magazine (snmhorrormag.com)and check this out. Draven really welcomes your comments and feedback.

Find him on Twitter as Draven_Ames or find his webpage at http://dravenames.blogspot.com