here’s an interview with me on Craig Sisterson’s NZ-based crime-y blog.
and, while I’m here, here’s the great-picture, great article, dire headline Evening Standard piece, in all it’s ‘glory’.
I think the online comments that follow, homophobic as they are (and conflating coming out with the same thing as active sexuality, believe me, it took a lot longer than 15!) explain exactly why that headline is such a damn shame. The journalist’s actual headline was “Stella : Actress, Novelist, Wife” … see what she’s done there? Smart, Theodora-linked, summing it all up. But there’s no accounting for sub editors and the arresting nature of the word ‘lesbian’. Sigh.
So, just for the record :
– I was joking, as is obvious from the line in context (just not when plucked out in the headline)
– my teenage boyfriends weren’t Maori guys, the Maori/Samoan/Cook etc etc guys were the ones I FANCIED (in fact teenage boyfriends at all is a bit of an exaggeration …unless 17/18/19 still counts as teenage these days? the 17-year-olds I know now all seem like adult women!)
Still, when the Standard uses the word wife without quote marks, and the article talks about our marriage and wedding, when the being out (just about) isn’t the most interesting thing about the piece, AND when there are lovely things said about the work, it’s probably worth it? (and hey, only half a dozen homophobic comments right, so maybe it is progress after all?!)
Meanwhile, great Harrogate, AND I managed far earlier nights than many! (Yes, Simon Kernick, I am talking about you.)
this week I am mostly :
– really definitely and finally getting through the page edits on Theodora 2, oh yes. yes I am. yup. yes. indeed. (page edits – boring, much?)
– writing a theatre monologue in response to an Emmeline Pankhurst speech. how far have we come, sisters? not far enough.
– reading up on space-time as the 4th dimension for a short story for the Comma Press Eureka series. never has one short short story taken so much mind-boggling research. and that’s well before the actual writing. still, I might learn something. maybe. I already have, this excited me no end for starters : +, -, -, – and -, +, +, +. go figure. literally.
– and working on the very very beginning of a film idea/story/thing.
all while waiting on (fingers crossed, candles lit, chants chanted) news. come on, news.
Was lovely to meet you albeit briefly Stella, and good on you for sticking to your early night plan – I think I may have to set myself the same goals for next year (my head still hurts from Saturday night!)
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you too Rin, at least one early night (well, 1am) per Harrogate is vital! x
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The Daily Mail might only have 24.9% of their nastiness in the Evening Standard, but when it comes to the Comments, reassuring to see that flip to 94.2%. Ah, the reliability of tabloid-think….
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Tres excited you writing a response to an Emmeline Pankhurst speech – when will we be able to hear that?
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(er, when I write it!) and when these people then make it, newly written responses to classic women’s speeches (Shell’s doing one too).
http://velvetensemble.co.uk/index.php
they’re doing a selection of speeches & responses later in the year for a couple of fundraisers for a bigger production they have planned.
Not surprisingly, I rather fear the response will be a bit darker and less hopeful than the Pankhursts might have imagined 100-odd years ago …
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How GORGEOUS do you look in that photo?!
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heh, thanks Mobes xx
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