Crowdsourced Sundays 5: CDs

Greetings, Pop Pickers! Welcome to week 5 of Crowdsourced Sundays. This week I asked you to spin me round like a record, baby. Or something. And did you stand and deliver? You better, you bet!

Okay, enough with the song titles. This week’s subject was A RANDOM CD COVER. Music taste is a personal and fickle thing. It changes with the years, with our moods, with our circumstances. So there’s half a chance when you pick a disc at random you’ll find a complete shed. But who is to say what’s hot and what’s not? Nonetheless, I breathed a sigh of relief when I closed my eyes and pulled this off the shelf…

It’s difficult to be completely random when choosing from my collection. Why? Because they’re arranged alphabetically of course. Still, the Isley Brothers is far from embarrassing. It could’ve been worse. A LOT worse…

So to yours!

(Hover over the pics to see the contributor, click to open the lightbox viewer, pictures are randomly ordered so every time you visit they will be laid out differently)

In the words of Billy Wilder, you all have Van Gogh’s ear for music… Actually, I jest. There’s some great picks in there. Some of them even encourage me to take a listen. But most of all, once again I’m totally blown away by your enthusiasm to contribute. These collages get better and better. Thank you one and all for taking part.

Now for the bad news…

Crowdsourced Sundays is taking a breather for a couple of weeks, for reasons which will become clear next week. As Chicago once sang, you’re a hard habit to break, but I’ve been so amazed by the reaction to this, there is no chance it is going away for good.

Crowdsourced Sundays: Week 5

What’s that coming over the hill? Is it a monster? No, it’s WEEK 5 of Crowdsourced Sundays. Want to know more? Read this bit here.

Last week was a tour de force on your part. Such a wonderful collection of school pics; individually great but really brought to life in the collage  – which is what it is all about after all.

So to this week. The theme itself was sourced via Twitter and two followers had roughly the same idea. So send any fan mail or hate mail to Adrian Snood and Claire Roberts (both worth a follow and a chirpy hello sometime).

This week’s theme is…

A RANDOM CD COVER

All you have to do is grab a random CD, take a photo of the cover and send it in! One’s musical taste says a lot about the person, and it is easy to deliberate over which one to shoot, but I want one picked entirely at random. Whether it’s Rachmaninov or Rizzle Kicks, just grab a case and shoot it!

NOTE: I’m going to be strict this week. CD covers only. If you only have music on one of these newfangledangled mp3 players then move along. Nothing to see here.

When you’ve got your picture, send it to me by any of these methods:

• Twitter: tweet me @himupnorth or tweet using the #crowdsourcedsundays hashtag
• Email: send your pic to crowdsourcedsundays@live.co.uk
• Facebook: post your pic to The Blog Up North’s Facebook page
  

Have your pics in by the end of Saturday. On Sunday morning the Crowdsourced Juke Box will be there for all to see (except it won’t have any actual music). As always, tell your friends about Crowdsourced Sundays and get them to join in. My love of music is well documented so I’m REALLY looking forward to this one…

Small Chairs

Two hours earlier comes a nonchalant confession which dials up the apprehension a couple of notches.

You have to understand, getting the true story from this boy is like reading a detective novel whose pages have been scattered around town. You think you have all the clues, then discover an important leaf, with a salient fact, fluttering against a post box. Only by searching, revisiting and doubling back do you get the full story.

After gathering the pages and sellotaping the fragments we discover: there was a classmate, some name calling, and a playtime spent writing the case for the defence.

We have a Mum and Dad conference. The boy’s timing is deliberate and the strategy is obvious: get your rebuttal in now before parents’ evening later. Do we mention it? Or will doing so give the issue more oxygen than it deserves?

The vote is tight (1-1 but she has a casting vote) and the decision is: bring it up.

Two hours later we are sat in the small chairs. This is a much-underrated and clever ploy. It brings you down to a level below that which you are used to. It is all at once awkward and preposterous.

And although I’ve never gotten used to the small chairs, seven years of parents’ evenings have given me a sixth sense for detecting the timbre of these meetings. Tonight, as the academic achievements (on or ahead of target) are dispensed with summarily, it is clear what we will be talking about.

Only not quite.

We are told we need to talk with the boy, to warn him. We need to warn him that he risks getting a reputation.

Is this about the classmate and the name-calling and the witness statement?

Yes and no, she says. He needs to be careful what he says, how he says it and who he says it to, she says. She doesn’t want him to be the one always in the middle of things.

We shift in our small chairs.

She likes our son, she says. He’s bright, popular and always honest, she says. But she is concerned that his attitude might make him a target for those looking to draw him into trouble.

We nod our heads in our small chairs. And then OH starts talking…

It goes back two years, she recalls. He was part of a circle of friends and was happy. Then a new pupil joined the school and our boy was given the responsibility of looking after him. The new pupil inveigled his way into the circle of friends and our boy was edged out. Since then, since that very time, we could tell he was different. Less confident. More aggressive. He has had other friends since but it hasn’t been the same. It is as though some damage has been done.

And then she cries and cries.

I’m glad because if she hadn’t gone first, I know I would have. I know too this moment has been two years in the making, born from a period when incredible strain was crammed into a few months, when the playground was not a pleasant place and the end of the school year couldn’t come soon enough. Moreover, this moment is born of two years of regret, of wishing what might have happened, and it hurts.

Then, as we sit in our small chairs, the teacher only has one thing to say:

“What can I do to help you?”

Driftwood

DRIFTWOOD

What good is driftwood?

I’d tell you if I could.

Remains which are dead,

From a sea or river bed.

 

You’ll choke on the smoke,

You wood-burning folk.

For it is noxious when burned,

So I have learned.

 

Should you find driftwood,

After a high tide or a flood,

Don’t be swayed by its feel,

Or its gnarly appeal.

 

Let’s be frank, it’s the bank,

Not the decorative fish tank,

Where, might I suggest,

All tidewrack should rest.

 

But ask what good is driftwood,

If you have art in the blood.

Because with all natural resources,

It’s horses for courses.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This week’s prompt is this photograph…

It is a driftwood sculpture of a horse by Heather Jansch, an artist renowned for her work in this medium. Her website is here… www.heatherjansch.com She is also the ex-wife of the recently deceased British folk musician Bert Jansch whose music I can’t recommend highly enough. This supplementary info is all part of the service at The Blog Up North.

Click the badge above to visit Julia’s blog and the other contributions.

Self Publishing: An author’s view

Do you have a book inside you? I don’t mean as a result of some freak surgical accident, or because of an argument in WHSmith, but a story, a plot, an outline, buried in your head awaiting the light of day. Thousands of novels are published every year, and a larger and larger proportion of those are self-published.

This article in the London Evening Standard was brought to my attention on Friday. The columnist posits the theory that self-publishing is sounding the death knell for quality. This “calamity”, as he puts it, is occurring because the traditional selection and editorial process acts as a filter, meaning only the good stuff reaches the shelves (and subsequently your shelf). Meanwhile self-publishing lacks such quality controls, allowing anyone to “inflict” their strangled prose on the world.

So is self publishing a threat to quality literature? Or is Sebastian Shakespeare merely being elitist? I wanted the view of a respected, published author…

The novelist Gary Murning has experienced both sides of the debate. His first novel, If I Never, was published in 2009 by Legend Press. His second novel, Children of the Resolution, followed in 2010 and was self-published by Gary via Lulu.com and Amazon. Gary’s third novel, The Realm of the Hungry Ghosts, signals a new venture, it being published on Gary’s own imprint, GWM Publications.

I asked Gary for his thoughts on Sebastian Shakespeare’s article, starting with his theory that traditional publishers provide “an imprimateur of quality”.

“I can’t help wondering if Mr Shakespeare has read some of the stuff currently being published by traditional publishers,” Gary responds. “Granted, there is some incredible work being produced but let’s not be coy about it, publishing is a business and profit is king. Consequently, quality is not always top of the list of publishing concerns.”

I ask for an example.

Gary’s response: “Two words: Dan Brown.”

Fair enough. So, given that Gary has both embraced self-publishing AND has recently started a publishing venture to market (for the time being) his own novels, does he agree that we still need traditional publishers, or for that matter book critics, to act as “the great filtering process”?

“Publishing is not dead and will not die,” he says. “It will, however, change form, and writers are going to be at the forefront of these changes. For too long they have been at the bottom of the food chain. The way things stand today, everybody claims to know more than the author. The most creative members of the team are, far too often, left out of the process, and I honestly do not think that that is the way forward.

“As for the filtering process we no longer need publishers or critics for this. The internet has already replaced much of that with websites where readers can share their favourite books, etc and where word-of-mouth has become a real force in bringing little known fiction to the fore. Who better to judge of a specific piece of work than readers themselves? This notion that the publisher somehow knows best is, to my mind, just a little noxious.”

Finally, I ask Gary if he has any sympathy with Sebastian Shakespeare’s opinion that “democratisation of the written word [is] a calamity.”

“I feel it is far from being a calamity,” Gary says emphatically. “Christopher Hitchens once said that everybody has a book in them, and with most people that’s where it should stay – and I’m inclined to agree! That said, there are many, many good writers out there who, as far as the mainstream industry is concerned, would never get published. The predominant reason for this is the ‘risk factor’.

“With the advent of new self publishing methods,” he continues, “these are the writers who can really benefit. They may not achieve huge international stardom, but it does offer them the opportunity to get their work out there.”

Many thanks to Gary Murning. You can read more about his new imprint GWM Publications and the ethos behind it HERE. All his novels are available to buy in printed and e-reader format on Amazon.

When I read the London Evening Standard article I was slightly incredulous. For me, the revolution going on in publishing is akin to the one we have seen in music: technology is giving artists opportunities to promote their work and is bringing a wider spectrum of work to a public hungry to take a punt on stuff outside what is pushed by the big boys. Not all of it is brilliant but no one gets to say what is wheat and what is chaff, what is worth selling and what isn’t.

Maybe more importantly, with publishing as with music, the revolution brings creator and consumer closer together than ever before.

What are your thoughts? Do you agree that self-publishing lowers the quality bar or is it a force for good in literature? Are you a writer who has turned to self-publishing? If so, what is your story (so to speak)?

Crowdsourced Sundays 4: School

Hello and welcome to week 4 of Crowdsourced Sundays. Steely Dan once sang, “I’m never going back to my old school…” but what did they know, the hippies?

Going back is the best bit. Or at least, going back to your old school photos, which is why the subject was SCHOOL PHOTOS. This week I changed my Twitter profile pic to my first ever high school photograph. Not wishing to scare the bejaysus out of you, I’ve opted for a younger me for mine, so here we go…

Before you say anything, I’ve heard all the “Can’t believe my ears…” jokes. And yes, my hair really was that colour. Dunno about you but even I want to pinch those cheeks.

And without further ado, here are yours!

(Hover over the pics to see the contributor, click to open the lightbox viewer, pictures are randomly ordered so every time you visit they will be laid out differently)

To quote Rodney Dangerfield, now I know why tigers eat their young… No, I’m kidding! What a bunch of bright young things. What happened???

Thank you to everyone for contributing this week. School photos offer some technical challenges for the majority of us (not least of which is digging through old photo albums or shoe boxes) so huge props for taking the time to be part of it.

Come back on Friday 9th March for the theme of Week 5. As ever your support is appreciated and your promotion is encouraged. Tweet or retweet the blog, mention it on your own blog if you have one, do whatever you can to help propagate this project. Next week, something much simpler…!

Now, do me 100 lines: I must always take part in Crowdsourced Sundays…

Crowdsourced Sundays: Week 4

Say kids, what time is it? It’s time for WEEK 4 of Crowdsourced Sundays. What the feck is that? I hear you cry. Well you can read all about Crowdsourced Sundays here.

Last week you surpassed yourselves. The theme was obviously one you could all relate to. *Makes a note to include more vices in prompts*

This week’s theme is at the opposite end of the spectrum, because we explore the innocence of childhood (and deliberate on where you all went wrong…).

This week’s theme is…

SCHOOL PICTURES

I want you to send in your own school photo! It’s up to you which era of your education it comes from, but it must be you, either an official portrait or perhaps one taken by a proud and slightly teary mum. If you only have prints, you can still take part either by scanning (if you have the technology) or by simply taking a digital photo of the print itself.

A year ago, top blogger Tara Cain hosted one of her very popular galleries on this subject. If you took part in that perhaps you still have the picture. Of course, this is open to anyone who can upload a photo, so maybe you have some on your Facebook page or you’ve used one as your Twitter avatar.

However you source your photo, send it to me by any of these methods:

• Twitter: tweet me @himupnorth or tweet using the #crowdsourcedsundays hashtag
• Email: send your pic to crowdsourcedsundays@live.co.uk
• Facebook: post your pic to The Blog Up North’s Facebook page
  

Have your pics in by the end of Saturday. Come back on Sunday morning and enjoy rogues gallery. In the mean time, tell your friends about Crowdsourced Sundays. Happy photo hunting, and don’t let the nostalgia get to you!