Earning a living as a freelance writer can lead one into some tricky situations – iffy earners, slightly regrettable commissions. It is what tends to happen when financial insecurity drives one to say ‘Yes’ when the logical, grown-up answer should have been ‘No’.
Yet my oddest, trickiest situation, now heading towards me like a speeding train, is one which cannot in all honesty be blamed on Lloyds TSB. It has been entirely my own idea, and is taking me so far out of my comfort zone that sometimes wonder whether I will ever find my way back.
I am taking a show of stories and songs, with some thoughts on the writing life, to the Edinburgh Fringe. Between 2nd and 26th August, I shall (except for two Mondays off, on 12th and 19th),be performing every day at 5.30 pm at the Zoo Southside Cabaret Bar.
The show is called My Village and Other Aliens.
I wanted to bring together two parts of my writing, fiction and songs. On the few occasions when, at public readings, I have startled audiences by combining a short story with a song, it had seemed to add something to both.
I began to think that I had stumbled on a new way of telling stories – certainly new for me.
That was start of an adventure. In My Village and Other Aliens, I am the village writer making my way from a village where weird things are happening to an expat community in France, then into a unsettling encounter with marital intimacy, to a writers group, to a folk club, and on.
It was launched this week before a generous audience at the Diss Corn Hall who laughed in all the right places and gave the show a hugely encouraging send-off. Next week, there will be a private preview in London, then on 18th July it will be at the great Albion Beatnik Bookshop in Oxford. After that, I take the high road to Edinburgh.
It is a strange, exciting experience, and I’ll be writing about I go.
More details about the show, and how to buy tickets, can be found here.
