Don't be an arsehole

Please?

What’s new with you?

Hi!

It’s Mat here. I hope all’s well with you and yours.

This is going to be a ‘newsletter-lite’, because summer, and holidays, and all that sunny, jazzy, chaotic malarkey. Okay?

If you feel shortchanged, you can take it up with my lawyer. Who doesn’t exist.

Okay, onward…

This month has felt turbocharged. But not in a good way.

First came the X-odus. Loads of my amazing writer friends quit Twitter because of… Well, everything. I started a Threads account (please click the link and add me, I don’t know anyone there yet), but it feels weird and empty and quiet over there, so I’m still mostly hanging out on the bird app.

Then some presses I loved closed their doors. Wrong Publishing announced they won’t put out any new titles in the future. Tales From Between is on indefinite hiatus. I think there was another announcement too, but the name escapes me. There’s an unwelcome whiff of widespread overwhelm in the air.

Meanwhile, other presses decided to throw their weight about, picking on writers for tiny infractions of their over-pedantic submission guidelines, insisting on being addressed in specific ways at the start of cover emails, publicly calling out those who disagreed. These editors outed themselves as self-important, entitled dickheads.

As someone who has toes in both pools - as a writer/submitter, and an occasional (and profoundly unreliable) member of the TrashCat Lit team - I have opinions about this. Lots of them. But I’m going to do us all a favour and not air them here.

I will say this, though… You, as a writer have the power to choose. Vote with your feet. Choose to send your words to the places that appreciate you and your creativity. Don’t be dazzled into an abusive relationship by the apparent prestige of these badly-behaved presses.

Two mags earned themselves places on my personal “will not submit” blacklist this month. But there are loads of editorial teams out there who don’t act like complete arseholes. I would recommend you seek them out.

Here’s hoping next month calms down a bit.

Speaking of next month:

The day after tomorrow, on Saturday, 1st September, the Writers’ HQ “Writing As Resistance Festival” begins. It’s a month-long series highlighting the potential for stories to change the world — exploring the subversive, rebellious, revolutionary power of creative writing.

Loads of amazing writers are presenting workshops and sessions. And I’ll be joining in too - playing agent provocateur and encouraging a mass-submission at the end of the month. It’ll be fantastic.

Click the links or the image above to get involved.

What am I writing?

Not a lot, is the short answer.

But I think I’m okay with that. For starters, even Kafka went through fallow periods (see above). And also, I’ve come to recognise that summer is a creative dip for me. My job goes through a really intensely hectic period, I have time away from my regular routine, I spend more time doing fun stuff with family. It’s a recharging time, rather than an outputting time. And I’m okay with that. Which leads me nicely on to…

Top tip: Be kind to yourself

Creativity isn’t a tap. So if ever you find it’s not flowing, don’t be hard on yourself. Or try not to be. Perhaps you need to recharge — read more, watch a movie, go for a walk, listen to a random podcast you’ve never even head of about a topic you know nothing about. All the creatives I know need to do this from time to time — flip a switch and go into absorbing mode. We can’t pour words all day every day. And that is fine.

What am I reading?

Not long ago, I finished The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman by Angela Carter and it was utterly brilliant. Weird, surreal, steamy, strange, and satirical. Full of dazzling prose and startling imagery. It’s the first I’ve read by Carter, but I am an instant fan. Love it. Highly recommended.

Straight off the back of that I plunged into a collection of short stories by Ananda Lima, called Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil. I finished reading it last night and it’s another corker. There are some wonderful post-modernist, meta touches to the collection — writing about the act of writing, telling stories about the stories we tell. But Lima does this without becoming wanky about it. The stories are clever, but also grounded, true and incredibly human.

Signing off

I know this has been short and sweet (or maybe blunt and bitter?), but next month, I promise I’ll be back with a full-length bulletin, packed with thoughts, tips, prompts and other groovy things.

Until then, take care and enjoy your writing.

Best wishes,

Mat