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A Book Can Change a Life

February 8, 2015 by Frances Macaulay Forde

‘Teach a child to read… and you give them the world’…

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‘A Letter in My Purse’: From Slain Poet Shaimaa El-Sabbagh

February 7, 2015 by Frances Macaulay Forde

Thanks Jessie Lenndennie from Salmon Poetry for sharing this.

ARABLIT & ARABLIT QUARTERLY

Shaimaa El-Sabbagh, the activist who was shot dead at a rally in Tahrir Square yesterday, was also a poet:

A letter in my purse

By Shaimaa El-Sabbagh, trans. Maged Zaher
————————–
I am not sure
Truly, she was nothing more than just a purse
But when lost, there was a problem
How to face the world without her
Especially
Because the streets remember us together
The shops know her more than me
Because she is the one who pays

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Film friend…

February 6, 2015 by Frances Macaulay Forde

Alan Iverson Credits.

Alan Iverson‘s website is quite impressive. It clearly shows the projects he’s worked on, projects available for development and super easy to navigate.

I’ve read ‘Ghost Town’ and look forward to producers (it’s never just one these days) coming on board to develop the series, so I can say to Alan; “I knew you when…”.

If you’ve got a project you’d like Alan to work on with you, contact him through his website. He’s a top bloke – a hard working and conscientious team player!

@FrancesMForde #FrancesMacForde #AlanIveson #FilmFriend

Posted in COMMUNITY, Film Friends, Other blogs, Scripts, Writers, Writing | Tagged AlanIveson, FilmFriend, FrancesMacaulayForde | Leave a Comment »

Observations on a train…

February 5, 2015 by Frances Macaulay Forde

Avail. ‘For Sale’.

Melissa

Another routine journey before ‘vibrate’ became the norm.

Muffled music begins and everyone near searches in pockets and pouches for their mobiles. Melissa speaks loudly and I observe.

So busy performing, she appears to ski over life!

What people wear and what they say seem more important than any action.

Melissa looks sixteen, but is probably twenty-odd. Her eyes hold age, but not on first impression, you have to look deeply.

She is the sort who falls madly and passionately in love with the best looking guys who orbit her world. But it never lasts.

The falling ~ the flirting ~ the first act of sex… The games, are enough.

She doesn’t really like sex, but knows how to use it, anything after that pales, and Melissa exits without even a backward glance.

Sometimes, she’ll tell them, sometimes not. Often left wondering what they’ve done wrong they’ll question, “Was it my performance?”

The world is slowly becoming populated by good-looking, emasculated guys asking each other “Why?”

Melissa flits happily between her trendy unit in Scarborough Daddy pays for, the city where Mum lets her use her own Gold Visa card and University; a playground of fresh meat every new semester.

Swapping courses frequently, she dabbles in a little bit of every discipline, not concerned with marks, just passing to keep the coffers open.

Melissa has no intention of finishing anything but wants to stay in her young world. She doesn’t intend changing her life and enjoys being looked after.

Daddy’s little Princess.

She has no ambition other than to decorate her reality and be seen and heard in all the right places.

For most people, it’s easier to let her have her own way – her tantrums are awesome.

Because she demands it, she always gets exactly what she wants!

@FrancesMForde #FrancesMacForde #BOOK:RailTales #ObservationsOnATrain #PeopleWatching

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Red

February 3, 2015 by Frances Macaulay Forde

RED is supposed to be

fiery tempered

liable to catch alight

at any time, smouldering

heat – just waiting

to ignite – right?

That’s on the outside…

Her surface simmers

but inside she’s easily hurt,

has no confidence and

feels fat when she isn’t.

She just wants to be

loved for who she is.

Wants someone to see

past her red hair and

the stereo-typing.

@FrancesMForde #FrancesMacForde #POEM:Red #poetry #identity

Posted in Poetry, Writing | Tagged Frances Macaulay Forde, Identity, POEM:Red, poems | 2 Comments »

Announcing the Begorrathon

February 2, 2015 by Frances Macaulay Forde

Thanks to Munster Literature Centre and Salmon Poetry for keeping me in touch while I’m not there but also when I am, the fabulous The Salmon Bookshop & Literary Centre soothes my poetic mind. I LOVE Ireland and applaud Irish Month so sharing everywhere I’m able!

The Fluff Is Raging

The heart of an Irishman is nothing but his imagination.
George Bernard Shaw

March is coming, and that means St. Patrick’s Day, but there’s much, much more to Irish culture than shamrocks (which, by the by, are NOT four-leaf clovers) and driving snakes out of the country (this never actually happened either). St Patrick wasn’t even Irish! He was born in Wales. Or Somerset. Or Scotland. But not in Ireland!

Ireland has a surface area of 32,000 square miles and a population of 6.4million meaning it is the same size as South Carolina and has the same number of inhabitants as Indiana. That’s right, it’s not big, but for such a small island it packs a hefty cultural punch:

Some of the world’s greatest plays, novels and poems.

Four Nobel Prize winners (Yeats, Shaw, Beckett and Heaney) … will their names be joined by John Banville, Emma Donoghue, Colum McCann or…

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The End of the World & The Beginning of a New One – My Journey to Antarctica

February 2, 2015 by Frances Macaulay Forde

This intrepid wanderer deserves a read…

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The House in Smyrna, by Tatiana Salem Levy, translated by Alison Entrekin

February 2, 2015 by Frances Macaulay Forde

You’ve intrigued me. This sounds such an interesting approach to telling a story – as a screenwriter, how could I not want to read it? Thanks.

ANZ LitLovers LitBlog

It took me a little while to come to grips with the voice of the narrator of The House in Smyrna – it’s only fair to let you know from the outset that this novella of only 155 pages takes a bit of re-reading in order to make sense of it. It’s episodic – fragmented, really, and there is a voice either disputing the narrator’s account or consoling her, a voice that the reader can’t identify until page 14, and even then some crucial information is withheld till later on.

There you go again, narrating through the prism of pain. That isn’t what I told you. Exile isn’t necessarily full of suffering. In our case it wasn’t.

There is a lot of pain in this story. The narrator, suffering from some unspecified illness, is in misery:

I write with my hands tied. Here in the stationary solidity of my room, which…

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‘Grandma,’ ‘Obvious Child’ Show Willingness to Tackle Abortion Issue

February 2, 2015 by Frances Macaulay Forde

These films “Grandma” and “Obvious Child” both look interesting. Anything with Lily Tomlin MUST be good!

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Introduce Yourself Here To Other Bloggers And Grow Your Audience!

February 2, 2015 by Frances Macaulay Forde

Calling all bloggers! Lots of valuable blogging ‘stuff’ on this site.

THE EDITOR'S JOURNAL

So I’d been thinking since I began 11 months ago about how I could help other bloggers grow their audience as quickly as I did. Y’all know how passionate I am about making a proper living from blogging already.I started doing Blogging Tips and then I wanted to offer online events that could help boost folks’ audiences. I had quite a few in mind but a busy schedule and some tough periods put paid to getting them up and running last year. But now…here is the first!Feel free to use this post to say hi and introduce yourself to other bloggers. Add links to your books, your poems, your enterprises. Promote Yourself!Tell folks who you are and what you blog about so people will want to check you out. Also go say hi to others. It is all key to growing your audience. Frankly I got tired of…

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