Fas Fall X.9 - mulled wine and mince pies

The final session of the third season of the Frank Brinkley Pimlico Fruit and Sex Writing Group for Writers and Frank! We met at mine (first time!) and had mulled wine and mince pies and if you missed it, you're a total fool.

Attendees: FB, CW, EP, JW

Read: The Barber (FB short story); A Pathetic Apathetic (JW nanowrimo opening); ideas from EP

First on the block was The Barber, one of two stories I wrestled with throughout November (the brief thoughts on the other are right here). The Barber describes a few days in the life of Faisal, a barber in Hasan Abdal in Pakistan. It's a little about death, about new beginnings, and about being in a community but feeling entirely alone. I'm pretty happy with it; it seemed as though Fas was too. The language problems didn't come across as jarring (How far can one use Pakistani slang in a short story in English?), the tone and pace worked, more or less, and it held up well in the reading. Now onwards, to try to recreate that spurt of productivity.

John boldly offered us the opening of his Nanowrimo novel. He didn't win but was left with this little tidbit of a good idea. The story details the changes that come across a man who's settled for mediocre for far too long. As with any longer form idea, there are plenty of plot and character details that need to be straightened out and clarified, but John recognised that more than anyone. The idea has its strengths, so it's up to him to make something of it.

Finally we did something we've not done in quite a while, and riffed on a few ideas of Ellen's for a short (ish) film. It will be great to see what direction she takes things, as she has the makings of potentially a very engaging, very thought-provoking, violent piece, and once more, she's just gotta put the words down. So, all that's left to say is:

Fas Fall X.8 - just so stories

Attendees: FB, JW, RM, AS, CW, SC (new member! woo! welcome!) 

Apols: IE, HH, JR

Read: The Most Tender Place (FB short story); Mailbait (CW comedy sketch); A Model Employee + 1 (AS comedy sketches)

TMTP was one of two short stories (and two poems) that took over most of my writing mind during November, as opposed to NaNoWriMo (even though I did bumble to a win!). So I thought it best, even after I felt it done and dusted, to give the Faslets a chance to chew it over. It documents details of a relationship from a female perspective, wherein the intense situation has led to the characters creating their own language to bring them closer together.

As ever, I was left with plenty to think about: small detail work still remains, in particular with overly descriptive turns of phrase or overly obvious exposition. We discussed at length the difference between a romantic 'past' and a romantic 'history' (and indeed 'background') - any further thoughts on which is more/less loaded? Also it became clear that my intended / faintly emphasised mood in the second section was far from obvious or indeed effective. Tonal shift needed? Perhaps.

Mailbait and Adam's sketches were all juicy, delicious, re-heated-in-the-oven-at-180-for-20-minutes offerings that came from the comedy session two meets ago. Mailbait is a Daily Mail mocking quiz show, born out of Colin's obvious mastermind-standard knowledge of Daily Mail journos. It followed many of the typical comedy-quiz show conventions, but was sharp and shocking enough to be enjoyable and engaging. As with other sketches we've considered, all that remains is finding a proper outlet for the material - is a sketch show slowly brewing on the horizon?

Certainly Adam's sketches would make worthy contributions to such a show - both were funny, well-written, and after only a few tweaks would stand up very nicely. They were pretty typical Salt humour: the absurd in the mundane, taking simple misunderstandings as starting points and pushing idiocy to its (il)logical limits. Once more: where do we go with this material? What's next? 

Fas Fall X.7 - silence

I go away for one week and phooey: no fas. Next time, amigos, next time.

Fas Fall X.6 - comedy (or 'jizz tartlet')

Comedy at the RFH.

Attendees: FB, IE, CW, JW, RG, AS

Read: Sunday Football (JW sketches); Teddy Bear (RG monologue); An Eulogy (IE monologue).

The themed sessions are always pretty cool, because we get a bit more focused than with the disparate range of material a standard session might throw up. 

We talked comedy. Big big comedy. Suggestions for Sunday Football, which has been through the mill once before, included short character bios, a more firm decision on format (radio/tv/stage) and then we kinda chopped up and spat out mosta the jokes. As is our wont. Perhaps Colin's East-End barrowman voice for John (struggling with character names here...but I think so) and Ian's rather more simpering portrayal of the coach added to the humour, but it was also kinda... weird. And we ended up talking a lot about cupcakes.

Then we munched through two monologues, Becca's and Ian's. We were baffled why the footlights might have not taken Ian after his sparkling reading of a rather horrid eulogy, while Becca's teddy bear started East-End and wound up Pacino/Brando godfather-y. As one does. At least it gave her options, right?

Next meeting Dec 1st I believe.

Keep cool.

Fas Fall X.5 - "you have pierced the film lid of my heart"

Close second for title: "Fuck you, aphorist!". Sorry Ian. Next time!

Attendees: FB, AS, IE, JW, DC (new member! hello!), CF (new member! hello too!)

Read: Chicken Breasts With Cheese and Ham (JW poem); And I You (IE stichomythic dialogue short); The Quarry (FB short story); The Dog in Greece (IE short story opening)

Scrawled on the back of a cardboard piece of food packaging was a sweet two stanza poem all about food and love. Let's pretend it was really about fruit and sex. It was short and sweet and pretty darn funny (see above title) and we talked a little about focusing the addressee of the poem a little more clearly. It was a great ice-breaker to start the session. Thank you JB!

And I You sees Ian further break-down conventional story-telling modes to try for something a little less formatted, and a little more fun. Two unmarked voices break into argument about ideolect which resolves in some sort of admission that the details they detest in each other are also the things they adore. We talked about Ian's choices of words that emphasised an overly posturing ideolect (whack, nigger), about how successful the piece was in representing two separate voices (some people reckoned it was an internal dualogue), and about marking out the voices more distinctly. As ever, it depends in what direction Ian wants to take his piece. As an experiment in trying to represent an argument in which the participants are so similar that they can barely be distinguished, I think we have some markedly successful results.

I brought The Quarry again. Same version as before; you all have it in your inboxes. It is always interesting to hear the directions people feel a piece should pursue. We talked even more about the character of this narrator, about the limits of his memory and what that means for how he reinterprets his diaries. Inevitably, my own diaries came up. Yes, one day I'll bring one along. And we'll laugh until my face melts off.

Then Ian throughout a bit of a blinder: the opening to a provisionally entitled The Dog In Greece. The story itself, as Ian was told it, is shocking as it is; his opening sees two characters, a couple, talking about the intensity of their feelings for each other as they drive along. As a story opening, it's compelling and fast-paced. It sees some of Ian's attention to physical detail that made the first draft of TOR so readable, while also demonstrates him trying out more attempts at realistic, engaging dialogue. Let's see the rest of it, please! 

Fas Fall X.4 - 'title pending'

Another cool session!

Attendees: FB, JW, AH

Read: Points of Perspective (Annabel short story); Sunday Football (John comedy scenes).

Points of Perspective is a charming short story by Annabel about a country jaunt of a young lady and her potentially-interested foreign friend. It was filled with wry, engaging observations and no little amount of underlying tension. It was not yet complete, but discussion centred around what direction to take the story, and what could be omitted in terms of character development and plot and what needed further fleshing out. It remains a great example of short story writing as a process that forces a writer to make decisions, and it was pleasing to see so many avenues being explored by Annabel. Many of our points on red-herrings and plot-points will all be resolved, no doubt, in a next draft, when it becomes apparent what Annabel wants to do with the story.

Sunday Football is a series of sketches/skits/radio-bits/jokes, all built around the idea of a parish football team. John is keen to find a structure that maintains the speed and regularity of the jokes (which are excellent - some wordplay, some situational), while also providing a bit more, well, structure. We wondered whether trying to pace the pieces like a football game might work - short, sharp in the halves, with longer breaks at half-time and pre- and post-match. But we definitely want another session on this, to build a greater distinction between the character comedy and the repartee stuff, and to see what other comedy writers think.

Fas Fall X.3 - 'i didn't write down any funny lines from this session. oops. sorry'

Attendees: FB, JT, AH, CF, TC, LS (new members! heppity heppity!)

Read: Ridiculous, Outrageous (CF short story); Dark Out (second draft of an FB screenplay)

Ridiculous, Outrageous was the story of a potentially senile, certainly sinister older lady, and the trials and tribulations of her every day, mundane existence. Lurking beneath it was both a desire and an inability to reach out to her estranged son, and a fascination with the past, with detail. It was a most excellently controlled piece, with a clear, humorous narrative voice and a meandering, engaging style perfectly suited to the protagonist's own confused manner. We discussed how it was structure, how speech and narration worked together, the effect of lists within the piece, and more broadly about character and development. Hopefully some of it was helpful... maybe... 

Dark Out went through the grinder a little bit to try to incorporate more of a sense of Pierre, his childishness, his isolation and strangeness to the rest of the bunker dwellers. However, it quickly became apparent that fixes FB thought had worked did not, and through a very useful discussion, he was left... oh, I'm writing in the third person about myself. Odd. Anyway, I realised that while all the disparate elements of Jess's idea were still there, in one form or another, they were not working in unison to provide an atmospheric, impact-laden piece. Instead they were just confusing. And I need to scrap it and go back to the original, very very good idea, of a boy's fear of large spaces giving him privileged information and providing him with the means to survive where other, more obvious candidates fail. Separating him, a tad, from the assumptions that others make. But even things that seemed a given, such as apocalypse, threat from outdoors, fascist regime, missing parents, were all questioned, and that's probably a good thing. Thank you all for your comments!

Fas Fall X.2 - 'Tee off a few ideas' / 'velocirapists'

Attendees: FB, CW, JO, DB (New member! Hep!)

Read: Nice Cup of Tea (Andy Van Terheyden rap lyrics); The Quarry & Dark Out (FB short story and short treatment, respectively).

The rap lyrics are for Andy's competition with his brother. Check out supervtbros.co.uk for more information. Anyway, Andy's having to write and record a rap song, and he sent in his lyrics not so that we could change the words, but so that we could brainstorm some potential locations and scripts for the song. So we did that - amazing how many ideas can be thrown up in a short space of time. He gets an email with loads of info from me as feedback.

The Quarry is the story of a man revisiting childhood diaries after a terrible, unspecified accident. In the story, he has chosen one particular episode to re-imagine. It sees something of a conflict between his new perception of the world and his youthful one, alongside an undercurrent of emotions we are not really privy to. Feedback was fantastic: some suggestion of further experimentation with showing some of the protagonist's earlier writing, along with exploring how to represent the intensity of the youthful man's experience through the mouthpiece of a now tired and sickly man. Furthermore, underlying sexual tensions could be easily heightened by some simple, almost cosmetic changes. While an animated ending might appear tangential, it might also prove to contrast nicely with the lack of animation displayed by the narrator. JO said "a good piece of storytelling". Ain't that nice? 

Dark Out originated from ideas by Jess Cope (puppeteer and film-maker extraordinaire) in collaboration with me. I've sat on the idea for an age, and finally decided getting some kind of workable draft was worthwhile. It's still early days for this story (a young boy in a post-apocalyptic world refuses to go out, when people around him are convinced it is time to leave the safety of the bunker. His fear of open spaces is essentially his salvation),  and there is much more that needs to be added both in terms of the boy's surroundings (narrowness) and personality (shy but with some force), and in the way in which his relationships with Fem and Ohm are emphasised. Again, fantastic feedback from the Faslets left me feeling like the piece was essential moving forwards. A point of particular note: these kids can read. Great reading. Really brought it to life. 

Keep commenting. Love to all,

FB

Fas Fall X.1 - 'Following a man we do not know'

Attendees: FB, JO, IE

Read: Monologue to Camera (JO short); July 28, 1945 (IE short story); Across the River (JO short)

Gray's speech in Monologue to Camera describes his voluntary move to the basement of his home, with his wife and children, to avoid an apparent blight on the earth above ground. During the self-imposed incarceration, his family members have passed, and Gray is left along with some spirits and some carrots to reflect on his choice. Gray's voice is already coming along well, and has verbal ticks and stylings that made us smile. We both (IE & FB) thought it could go even further; there are some quasi-anachronistic phrasings that need to be dropped, and his tone could be polished even more. We also felt removing references to the topside might further strengthen this bleak inner world we are presented with, while the piece itself could even be restructured, so that the announcement of the deaths are postponed to the denouement rather than revealed immediately. Thus the tension between what's apparent and what's aboveground would be heightened. 

The beauty of the structuring and the prose in July 28, 1945, is immediately apparent, so both JO and FB found it difficult to offer constructive criticism without having to add the proviso that nothing should really go. However, the discussion circled around how effective the structuring, a sort-of unwrapping process that moves from the unspecific and broad scale view down to the personal. Meanwhile, the characters of Jackson Pembury and Joshua, the two character-specific narrative voices we are treated to, both had options for development. For Jackson, a man of action, there was the option to remove much of his internal monologue and replace it with silence and physicality. This would provide a greater contrast with the dreamer Joshua, through whose eyes we are brought closer to the central action of the story. 

Across the river remains a powerful piece: Frank and Richter meet in a nearly ruined house as Richter tries to persuade Hans Frank, governor of Nazi-occupied Poland, to flee before he is killed by the Gestapo or the Red Army. Frank has found God; he refuses to leave. There are obviously so many intense emotions at stake here, and it's impressive that JO has managed to weave these together while avoiding the obvious military cliches that could blight a piece like this. We all agreed that the performances of the two men would also make or break the script. IE suggested a further militarisation of the character of Richter as a way to give greater contrast between his spouting of Nazi maxims, and his hurt at the death of Frank's wife. It's fantastic to see how far the piece has come along between drafts. I hope to see a further draft anon.

Over and out.

Fas: Spring X.6 - The Cold, Cold Winter

Attendees: FB, IE, CW, JT, SB


Discussed: The Cold, Cold Winter (And How It Almost Broke Her Heart) (FB play)


The Cold, Cold Winter is a three-act drama charting the break-up of a relationship between Tom and Imogen, as Tom's illogical obsession with his work documenting deaths around the world takes him further and further from his loved ones. Because I wrote the thing, rather than comment on what was good/bad about it, I'm just going to note some of the major changes that the reading suggested:

1. There was a call for more of the data / toying with data that Tom does. That would provide a more fitting contrast with the heavily 'emotional' discussions he has with Edward and Imogen.
2. The data could also be better explained if it were being pitched to Edward rather than Imogen. We already known Imogen is intimately involved with the death-project; in I.1, she doesn't need it re-explained to her and it's too much of an exposition. Why not leave the audience wondering until I.2 when Edward arrives?
3. The central scene, II.1, could be tightened and reworked. After a second reading by IE and CW, it became apparent that the scene could be practically inverted and it would still have the same, if not more weight. It requires a thorough re-write. 
4. After these three major changes, a consideration of the final act is of course meet, to see how they have changed and what needs to be adjusted to stay in keeping with the piece. In other words: REWRITE.

Roll on draft 4 or 5. 

Fas: Spring X.5 - breaking up

Attendees: FB, JO, HH, DS, PO'D (New member! Hahawoo!)


Discussed: A Break (RM screenplay)


A Break is a fifteen minute short film screenplay written by Rory, who's not quite made it to Fas yet, but will, I am sure. It tells the story of one John, a presumed private detective in Dublin on the case of a missing girl. Yet as the plot progresses, it becomes clear that things are not as they seem, and John must face up to his worst enemy: his past. 


As a reading, it was a shame we had only a single copy, but I felt we gave it a good go all the same. There were questions of tone here too: would the film noir element be pushed beyond the norms to heighten the sense of confusion at John's situation, or would it remain realistic? How much would things be brought into contrast with devices like colour and saturation, and by the characters? An email to Rory follows and if I get a reply, I'll bang it up.

Fas: Spring X.4 - it's bound to be good

Attendees: FB, JO,IE, CW, SB, JT, MG, NM (new member! hep!)


Discussed: Bound (JT's play); 3 sketch ideas (MG)


Bound tells the story of Ezra, Robyn and Emma, or at least, of their final reunion, and what happens when one has sacrificed all for another. We were fortunate enough to have Joe with us to talk through some of his ideas behind the script, and as a reading it was fascinating: repeated language devices and the potentially fantastical Ezra sat side by side with naturalistic language and then characters stealing words from each other. It was the kind of piece that Fas thrives with, because there was plenty to look at and toy with. 


Martha had also brought along three sketch ideas of hers. That led to another lively discussion, but this time it was far more a case of people chipping in with new ideas, new directions for the sketches, and Martha could take / leave what she liked. Hopefully we'll see those sketches down the line.

Fas: Spring X.3 - poetry corner

Another week, another meeting. (Feb 14th)


Attendees: FB, IE, CW, JT (new member! woo!)


Discussed: The Girl Who Has Nightmares (NG submission); NYC ('85), Text (CW poems)


My friend sent in a piece of writing she'd penned at 3am, so I thought I'd bring it along to Fas and see how we handled it. It was poetry, of sorts, with an aim that it might be one day converted into song lyrics. As such, it was bound to a series of metres to get a sense of the musicality of the piece, and included not one but two separate refrains. Perhaps this was where it essentially fell down - that too many different ideas of form and rhythm were being played with and integrated into a piece that only really had one pained message. 


Where the first piece might have struggled with form and content, Colin's poems stood, quietly, unimposingly, as excellent examples of poetry working the way it should. Personally I loved them both, and I'm aware that I might wax too lyrical in their praise. But the economy of language and the choice of style and form complemented the ideas behind the two poems, and indeed heightened the sense of an idea well and simply expressed. A delight to read, a delight to dissect.


And, happily enough, Text was a little about romance, and the hope or disappointment it can cause, which left us grinning at the end of our Valentine's Day session. 

Fas: Spring X.2 - back in business

Disaster strikes! The Cardinal wasn't free! The Cardinal, not free, equals disaster. It's only on leaving the secure bosom of our usual haunt that I realised how utterly enamoured I've become of that cool upper room and the cheap drinks and all. Dammity damn.


Attendees: FB, CW, BL (first time).


So, I think the move and such threw some people. It was also one of those shocker days where I got apologies from six people in the last half hour before the session. No fun!


Discussed: A Still Life (RG); Hasaina Love Jan (FB)


A Still Life was submitted by Becca an age and a half ago. But I dragged it out of the frankbank as something to discuss. Colin read it out for us, and over the noise of our temporary location (Oh Albert, you are a nice pub but too loud), we tried to have some sort of discussion about it. Generally our feelings coincided that while there were elements and characters of interest, more work was required in sorting out temporal shifts and narrative voices to ensure it was more engaging and cohesive. We also felt that if this were a short story, it was woefully undeveloped. As it happens, Becca emailed me to tell me it was the start of a longer narrative, so that was as we had suspected, fortunately.


I then read my third offering to Fas, Hasaina Love Jan, a short story about teenage love and fascination in Hasan Abdal in Pakistan. Some brilliant comments and advice provided by both Bella and Colin, including tweaks to character, language, and, regrettably, the removal of a personal favourite of a paragraph. After all, the destruction of heritage didn't really sit that comfortably next to swooning and excitement and stuffs...oh well....


If anyone has any other comments they want to add, do so, please. (Watch as we hit ZERO comments).

Fas: Spring X.1 - nanowrimo

Still really a background post...but I'm finally catching up. Ish. Maybe.


Attendees: FB, IE, JR, JO, SB


Our first session of 2010 was a bit of a special one. Ellard and I had both taken part in the National Novel Writing Month (nanowrimo) project in November 2009 and were cajoled into presenting our pieces to Fas for ritual humiliation. Ian had read mine, Spire & Pearl; I'd read his, The Otford Raptor. He presented a synopsis and then read selected passages; I did likewise. John, Jake and Sophie listened and were surprisingly kind. It was a strange sort of session: these novels were short, only 50,000 words, and only really first drafts that had been written at a rate of knots. So critique could not really be offered on the overall form, as that was incomplete, or indeed on any individual passage because each author was able to say "well, I'll change that". As such, an odd exercise. But important for two reasons:

1. The stories seemed to remain, in themselves, watertight. Or at least, there was interest from the rest of the group in hearing what happens next and how plot and characters develop. That suggested that at least some of the ideas behind the writing were sound.
2. The individual sections read did hold the attention of the group, to a certain degree, meaning that even if there were plenty of tweaks to be made, at least the prose of a given section was coherent and workable. 

In itself both those things were promising pieces of news.

A personal thanks to Ian for slogging through Spire & Pearl.

Background: Fas 5

This was our fun Christmassy session. We'd hoped to do the nanowrimo reading, but unfortunately Ian was at the last minute unable to join us. So instead, we did other things!


Attendees: FB, SB (new member!), CW, AS, MG (I think)....think that's all. Yup. Checked my notes.


Discussed: Gem and Itch (BI)


Gem and Itch are both short stories by the wondrous Ben, both following fairly similar lines. They both explored fairly dysfunctional male/female relationships, from a male perspective, in which it becomes apparent that the protagonist really has no handle on the world at large at all. Both were written with skill and a satisfying attention to detail, and led to an excellent discussion as to the merits of such a style. Melanie came up as a suitable comparison (read about it here).


December '09.

Background: Fas 4

A bit of a bumper session, this 'un. 


Attendees: FB, HH, AS, CW (new member!), MG, JL in spirit... think that was it. Maybe I'm wrong....hmm....


Discussed: The Hunt (HH); Melanie (JL); three poems (LR); Adam's funny poem (AS)


Henry's piece, The Hunt, described some cavemen of sorts hunting an elephant. It played around with narrative form and stance, and took us from a Kipling-esque benevolent narrator through to a postmodern anti-structuralist voice... It might feature in his new book, too! 


Melanie depicted, amongst other things, the ineffectual weakness of twenty-first century man in all its glory. Melanie moves in with our humble narrator, and sets about stripping him of everything, including the paternity of his child. Some people thought this was all about Melanie as a device for the prefigured womb-creature that would tear about boyfriend and girlfriend; others thought Melanie was just a bit of a bitch. Wry, funny, horrificially self-deprecating, it was a delight to read and discuss.


Lettie and Adam's poems both received a spirited response from the group. It was the first time we read something (Lettie's work) without the author there, which led to an interesting shift in response from the group. I took more of a back seat, taking notes, which meant we got all sorts of things said and discussed to a level of detail that having the author there to clear things up might not have permitted. It was, nonetheless, a worthwhile discussion and much was made of the high quality of the poetry (totally bitchin', yo). 


November '09

Background: Fas 3

The second proper discussion session. Cardinal, as before. Pretty bumper session.


Attendees: FB, IE, JO, RG, MG, LR


Discussed: Why I'm Where I Am (IE); Crushing Butterflies (JO)


Ian's first offering to Fas was a short story all about a chap who was abstaining from sexual congress to try to clear his head a little bit. Written in a faux-obscurist style and riddled with quasi-biographical references, it was the story that contained both fruit and sex for the first time. Afterwards, as we talked about how much fun it was to discuss fruit and sex, something like a tag for the group emerged. Something like that anyway.


John's first offering was a draft of his screenplay for a short. The story follows Alexei, an eccentric puppeteer, and is told through the eyes of his girlfriend, Annie. RG, FB and MG read it, and John sat lording it over us and pondering whether it all really worked. I suppose I can say now that it did, as he's currently (as of February 2010) trying to film the thing...


November '09 or so.

Background: Fas 2

The first proper session. Oh how we wept when the numbering all went wrong after that first session not really being a discussion session. Egad!


Attendees: FB, MG, JO, HH, AS, NG, AH, RG, and maybe some more...?


Discussed: The Legacy (FB); Untitled (RG); Untitled (MG); three sketches (MG)


I know that this is a retrospective, so how much can be said that seems relevant or even memorable now? Little. But some points, of the top of my head:


The Legacy prompted some questions about the writer's idyll - was it really something one might seek? It also got FB thinking about audience, reception, the pairing down of style and the contrast between straight descriptive prose and dialogue.
RG's piece was much more racey, more tight, and perhaps more obscure. It prompted questions about God and was praised for its rhythms and pacing. Perhaps it needed a touch of polish.
MG's pieces all displayed wit and engagement. The sketches were very early drafts to be worked on, but the short story was, despite a couple of slips, thoroughly enjoyable and amusing. FB's comments were all towards tweaks rather than major structural changes. Stylistically the epistolary moments were a particular highlight.


October '09

Background: Fas 1

The first meeting of Fas. This was as much as chance for me to feel out whether it might work at all as it was an actual session. 


Attendees: FB, LR, JR, IE, AS, JO. 


We just talked, about what we wrote, whom we felt influenced us, how the sessions might work, where we'd meet, for how long. It was a beginning. There was a sense of enthusiasm, or at least, there wasn't the feeling that I was most terrified of: some kind of haughty condescension to the work of others. I was pleased by that. 


September '09

Aims and all that....

So this blog will serve a fairly simple purpose, which remains twofold:

1. To document meetings of the badly named Frank Brinkley Pimlico Fruit and Sex Writing Group for Writers and Frank (fas) - with a simple record who turns up, what we read, and what we plan to do.
2. To document things going on in the similarly badly named 'Year of the Eph' - a year dedicated to, among other things, seeking happiness, exploring creativity, and treating others with a slice of decency. Ish. More posts to follow on that too.

For now, you can ask me more about either of these things on twitter (I remain @eph_brinkley) or even just read for yourself - they both have hashtags (#fas and #yearotf respectively; please note that the former is also used by all sorts of other things and will come up with all sorts of crap. so be selective). They're both meant to be vaguely collaborative too. If you feel you might like to contribute, just let me know and we'll see what we can do.

Apologies in advance that the next few posts will all be from a very short space of time and yet really be documenting the last 4 months or so... I was slow off the mark.