Launch of Serialised Novel: Spray Painted Bananas

My serialised novel Spray Painted Bananas launches today on Wattpad.com

It's a romantic comedy about Amber, a broke temp working in a catering firm in London, who after years of scrounging free wine from wacky art gallery openings with her best friend Farrell, decides there’s no reason she can’t become a conceptual artist herself. 

I'll be posting 2 chapters to begin with and then one chapter per week. 

Please come and find me on Wattpad and VOTE if you'd like me to continue the story!

Excerpt:

Chapter 1

There comes a point in your life when you can’t go on being scared. For me that point comes regularly, most often after my third glass of free wine. I say ‘free’ because I do most of my drinking at posh gallery openings. I stand in the middle of them, look around me at all the glamorous individuals muttering appreciatively and I pretend I’m in my natural environment. I pretend I’m an art collector and select pieces for my many rooms in my many mansions, and then I get the bus home.

If Londoners complain that booze is too expensive it’s because they’re not making the effort to track down the free stuff. There must be a show opening every evening of the week in this city and as long as you can stomach a bit of pretentious chatter then you can succeed in having an entertaining and cheap night out.

My partner in crime tonight is my best friend Farrell. He works part-time in a book shop and is as broke as I am. Pretending to acknowledge the striking composition of a randomly placed chair or the depth of meaning of some paint-splattered socks suspended from the ceiling is a small sacrifice to pay for a few complimentary beverages. We’d volunteer our comments if it meant getting free nibbles, but unfortunately the art industry seems to survive on a liquid diet only. And also no one particularly wants our comments.

Tonight the artist’s chosen materials are thick paint and reclaimed plywood. Plywood which has been reclaimed from skips, though judging by the state of them I’d be more inclined to say reclaimed from war zones. It’s the most traditional exhibition we’ve seen in ages. There’s still a concept thrown in though; there’s always got to be a concept typed up and displayed on a wall to be mulled over for months to come. Farrell and I prefer to make them up as we walk around.

A lot of strange things make it into galleries. Frankly I don’t know what went wrong with creating something you might actually want to put in your living room. I like landscapes but a landscape in the world of conceptual art could be anything from a peanut on a stick to a video of a talking meringue.  

The show is called Life & Death of a Ghost and is made up of five paintings on rough sheets of plywood and a stuffed chicken. The artist, who goes by the name of ‘Ghost’ has only used two colours, grey and green. Contrary to what you’d expect, the greener the subject the more dead they are supposed to be. The chicken is a grey lump. This means the chicken is alive. And yet it is stuffed. 

Continue reading on Wattpad...

'SHOPGIRL BLOG' TASTER FOR SITCOM - Starring Katy Wix as ShopGirl

          

I'm so happy to be able to share with you the final edit of the Shopgirl Blog Film. It stars Katy Wix (Not Going Out) as Shopgirl and Annette Badland (Torchwood) as Mum. It also features a cameo by Blake Harrison (Inbetweeners).

For the background story you can read the blog post I wrote not long after we shot the film in my Mum's chandelier shop, 'ShopGirl: Take 1, Camera, Action!'

A massive thanks to all the crew and cast who made it possible. It was a great experience and I'm thrilled with the result. 

Signed copies of my book 'Shop Girl Diaries' are available to order from My Books. 

How (Not) To Make a Book Trailer

                   

Once I’d decided to take on the challenge to write a serialised novel I knew I needed a book trailer. Words aren’t enough anymore. Writers need to know how to use images, audio and special effects to promote their work.

The problem is I had no idea how to make a video.

I spent a whole Sunday fiddling about with Windows Movie Maker and had nothing to show for it at the end.

‘You’re not supposed to know how to make one,’ my husband said, trying to make me feel better about what I felt was a complete and utter waste of a day.

But I wanted to know! 

'I'm not aiming for an Oscar!' I said. 'Just a basic video with pictures moving to a bit of music...'

Do you often hear yourself saying, ‘I’m not technically-minded’? Do you say it when you secretly want to be technically- minded? Well, don’t say it anymore because the more you say it the harder it will be to change. Open up to the possibility and you might just surprise yourself!

Thanks to Paul Carroll’s article in Writing Magazine, I learnt about Kevin Macleod and FMA (Free Music Archive) where I could browse through thousands of tunes to use for my video.  

Great! I had music but no pictures.

I realised after that frustrating Sunday that I was never going to find free pictures to illustrate the idea I had in my head.  

Not willing to be defeated, I began to draw.

I only draw once a year usually and that’s in August just before my Dad’s birthday. He’s been collecting my homemade cards since I was little and they make him so happy that I can’t possibly stop now. 

Step 1 I drew

Step 2 I scanned the drawing into my computer

Step 3 I edited them in Paint (colouring in with a mouse can be very tedious so background music is essential, a glass of wine helps too).
Step 4 I added pictures to the easy-to-use timeline.

Paint is old-school I know, but I wasn’t going to wait around until I’d learned Photoshop. You've got to start somewhere.

I loved making it and although it’s not very polished or professional, I think it captures the mood I’ve been in since starting Spray Painting Bananas: 

Upbeat and happy!

My first chapter should be out on Monday 15^th October on wattpad.com – so sign up and come find me!

  
Meanwhile I hope you enjoy my lovingly-made book trailer:

                    

If you like it, share it! 

UPCOMING WORKSHOP: Blogging for Beginners

There's now less than a month to sign up for my next Blog Workshop! 

Blogging for Beginners (& Improvers) will take place on 

Saturday 27th October.

It's a 3.5 hour information-packed workshop ideal for those who have yet to begin a blog or for those who want to improve on what they have started. 

The workshop will give you the chance to develop your blog idea, learn the tools to set it up, keep it interesting, promote it, and gain a readership. I will share with you all the do's and don't I've learnt over the last 4 years of blogging.

Below is a rough guideline of what we'll cover:

Introduction to Blogging 

Online vs Offline

Inspiration - Analysis of Material
The Blog Post - do's & don'ts

The Big Idea – Group discussion; exercises to develop your idea

Set it up – Blog platform, layout, design, style...

Content – multimedia, changing content, linking, widgets 

Building an Audience – tools for marketing your blog

Social Networking – Facebook, Twitter

There will be handouts to take away so you won’t have to remember everything!

If you've been meaning to start a blog for a long time, why put it off any longer? Come along to a friendly, fun and informative workshop! 

WHERE? WHEN? HOW MUCH?

Saturday 27th October

10am - 2.00pm (including 30min break) 

@ 77 Tower Bridge Road, SE1 4TW * (above 'Lost & Found')

Fee: £40.00

Limited Places. 

* Some of you may recognise the venue which inspired 'Shop Girl Diaries' - yes, there will be lots of sparkling chandeliers above your head!

ABOUT ME

I began my blog in June 2008. Since then it has been turned into a book and a short film. It won the Completely Novel Author Blog Awards (published writer category) in 2010 and it has just been featured in the new guidebook ‘Blogging for Creatives.’

WHAT PEOPLE HAVE SAID:

'Emily Benet's Blog Workshop is ideal for anyone interested in 

blogging and not sure where to start. Emily takes you through the 

basics and really gets you thinking about what your blog should be 

about. I picked up some great hints and tips from the workshop and am 

already seeing an increase in traffic to my blog. A morning definitely well-spent!' – Amy Duthie, blogger of my tattered notebook

'A really inspiring workshop with a friendly and knowledgeable tutor. Hands-on with lots of great ideas to put into practice straight away' 

- Marianne Powell, playwright

For more information please don't hesitate to get in touch with me: emily@emilybenet.com

Or to book your place via Paypal, please visit my Workshop Page. 

Author Interview: Naomi Alderman

THE LIARS GOSPEL

"It was a time of brutal tyranny and occupation. Young men and women took to the streets to protest. Dictators put them down with iron force. Rumours spread from mouth to mouth. Rebels attacked the greatest empire the world has ever known.The Empire gathered its forces to make those rebels pay. 

And in the Midst of all of that. One inconsequential preacher died. And either something miraculous happened, or someone lied."  

*

At the launch of THE LIARS GOSPEL, Naomi Alderman was introduced to us all by Penguin editor, Mary Mount, as 'one of the most important writers of her generation'. I've been very lucky to have spent time with her at a writers group and seen her work in progress. She is a brilliant writer and a gorgeous person. I am thrilled to have her on my blog.

We all cheered when you told us that so far you’ve had no death threats. Is this a genuine concern?

I have already had anti-Semitic emails about the novel, so... maybe? I'm a bit worried about what will happen when the novel is published in the US. But we'll see!

Are you apprehensive of people feeling angry?

Yeah. I don't actually want to upset people, but when I gave it to a Christian friend she burst into tears at a section where she said "but Jesus just wouldn't have done that!" I had to point out to her that I'd taken it directly from the New Testament.

How do you deal with criticism?

I have therapy ;-). I mean, constructive criticism is fine of course.

But now the book's done the best thing is to try to ignore the criticism and just move on with the new one.

I was brought up a Catholic and when I read your book, I was aware of myself feeling defensive and thinking, ‘Wait, Jesus didn’t say that!’ I was quite surprised because I’m a very cynical Catholic! Is this your book’s fundamental aim? To challenge the people who have accepted the story of Jesus without question?

I suppose a bit! There are a few things. Firstly, there are things in the Christian story that are either *really weird* or clearly anti-Semitic, like, for example, the Jews at the crucifixion shouting "let his blood be on us and our children!" and this idea that the people would never have asked for Barrabas if the evil priests hadn't stirred them up. I've been thinking about those things for a long time and how silly it is to imagine that there mightn't have been perfectly good reasons for most of the people not to have liked Jesus. So there was that "can we just stop saying nasty things about Pharisees and really interrogate this story?" feeling.

Also, I got interested while researching the novel in the world that's usually just the backdrop to Jesus' story. It's a really fascinating political and military landscape which gets lost because of this overwhelming story. So I wanted to put that in its right place again - and I feel now that the story of Jesus really only makes sense if you understand the politics of the time.

I was struck particularly by the description of the protests against Rome that were happening at the time of Jesus, and the greater historical context which is generally ignored! 

Was it a subject that was discussed at home? Is it true you had the idea to write this book when you were a teenager?

Yes, it's funny how little we tend to look at that period, since it was the explosive meeting between Jewish and Roman culture that really created the modern world. So many of the tensions in Christianity come from turning a Jewish cult into the state religion of Rome (e.g. how did 'the prince of peace' end up inspiring *so many* crusades?).

My dad's a historian and my mum's also very keen on history so I suppose this sort of conversation happened at home quite a bit – not necessarily Jesus, but the general principle of tracing the reasons for the present in the events of the past.

I did get the idea for this novel when I was a teenager! It was when I was studying Hebrew and Latin at the same time - I remember saying to my Hebrew teacher that someone ought to write a novel about the Jewish Jesus, and she said "no no, that would be terrible for the Jews!" Because she thought it would cause anti-Semitism.

However, I've done it anyway ;-). Let's see...

What’s your writing routine like?

I have a word count I have to reach every day: usually 800 words when I'm working on a new book. And I never sit down to write saying "I must write 800 words", only ever "I'll do 100 words and then I'll have a break". I'm very creative in the evenings, but I do try to get my words done earlier in the day so they don't hang over me.

What are you greatest distractions?

TV. Instant messenger. But the truth is, if I know where the book is going then I usually can't wait to get to it. If I'm distracting myself, it probably means there's a problem with the novel I haven't resolved.

Margaret Atwood is now your mentor! I’m very jealous! What is she like?

It's a really wonderful thing - she is so funny and so intimidatingly clever, I'm incredibly inspired by her sharp honesty and wide-ranging mind.

What advice do you have for aspiring authors?

Keep writing :-). Do it because you love it. If you don't love it enough to do it for its own sake, you probably won't get far anyway.

                                     

The Liars Gospel is available on Amazon and all good book shops. 

New Challenge: A Serialised Novel

I’ve accepted a challenge to write a serialised novel.

If I manage to come up with 35,000 words by the beginning of November my book will be featured on Wattpad, which is a huge online platform for writers.

Normally that amount of words would take me about 6 months so I’m excited but also quaking in my socks.  

The book is about Amber, a feisty young woman on a mission to blag her way into the bizarre world of Conceptual Art; her plan, of course, being to grab some fame and fortune.

The novel will be a light, upbeat romantic comedy, unless the pressure gets to me, in which case I’ll start killing off characters. 

To be honest, my plotting has barely begun but I have a cork board and post-it notes so there’s hope.

I don’t know why I think I can pull a novel out of my pocket in a few weeks but I believe in saying ‘Yes’ when an opportunity arises.  

If my blog starts to look neglected, now you'll know why.

But I won’t be away for long.  

The first chapter of  Spray Painting Bananas has already been written. Now I need a book cover.

To read my serialised novel, you'll need to sign up and find me on Wattpad which is quick and completely free. Once registered, you'll be able to browse through a huge variety of stories and novels.

I'll let you know when my first chapter is up.

Wish me luck, I'm going to need it! 

My New Book: Short Stories for Busy Adults

Now Available on Amazon Kindle

I have a love-hate relationship with short stories. 
How can they be so short and yet so difficult to write?

Sometimes it feels like trying to squeeze a horse into a jam jar.

I’ve started stories and left them brewing for years before finishing them off.

Other times I fall so deeply into my fictional world that if you were to interrupt me I’d stare at you blankly and wonder where I was.

My favourite stories were written in short bursts when I’ve been gripped by a sense of urgency to get the words down. I feel like if I don’t write the whole thing in one go I’ll never be able to finish it.

After all this time writing short stories it made sense to publish a collection and here is it:

SHORT STORIES for busy adults

Why ‘busy’? Because the stories are short enough to slip into a busy day but long enough to offer escape!

The collection includes 10 stories which have either been shortlisted, highly commended or performed at literary events.

Comedy and drama appear side by side. There are characters in love, in denial, insane, in character and one who just can’t make his mind up.

It’s available on kindle for just £1.49 – less than the coffee you’ll drink with it!

So please buy it and spread the word to all short story lovers.

I really hope you enjoy it. And if you do, an review on Amazon would make my day!