Photo: Stuart Evers and Dorthe Nors by Chris Close. This is a cropped image which I took at the festival of Chris Close’s wonderfully creative photos of authors participating in the Book Festival. http://www.chrisclose.com/
On Sunday 16th August I had my first Edinburgh Book Festival experience of 2015. I arrived with the intention of buying tickets for the Matt Haig lecture but this was sold out so I went to Throwing Away The Literary Rulebook with Stuart Evers and Dorthe Nors in the small intimate venue of the Writer’s Retreat.
First impressions: There was a huge queue for the Louis De Berniere talk but there didn’t seem to be anyone queuing for this lecture. My worries were soon dispelled as a queue began to form. It was certainly an interesting lecture and it is always a delight to discover two writers who I had never heard of before. Dorthe Nors read a short extract from Minnie Needs Rehearsal Space, which is from a short novella and short story collection entitled Karate Chop & Minnie Needs Rehearsal Space. Minnie Needs Rehearsal Space is written in the unusual form of headlines, and is one of the fifty-six books listed for a First Book Award. You can vote for your favourite book via this link: www.edbookfest.co.uk. Voting closes at 5pm on Friday 16th October.
Given the preponderance of social media sites such as twitter where short snappy sentences are used to good effect this style was used by Dorthe to convey a crumbling modern relationship in her novella Minnie Needs Rehearsal Space. I was impressed by her reading and Stuart Evers reading of his novel Your Father Sends His Love.
Both of these authors shared similarities in their writing being drawn by the extraordinary aspects of the everyday lives of ordinary people.
So in the spirit of Dorthe Nors headline style and Stuart Evers love of taking the ordinary and making it extraordinary I’d like to do a bit of an experiment, a fun headline story of my visit to Edinburgh up to today. It might be a bit crazy but that’s okay, crazy’s good!
Marjorie Throws Away The Motherly Rulebook
Marjorie Is Obsessed With Being On Time.
Marjorie Leaves On Time But Turns Up At The Wrong Station.
Marjorie’s Husband Drives Like A Demon To Beat The Train.
Marjorie’s Husband Grips The Steering wheel.
Marjorie Clings To Dear Life.
Marjorie’s Husband Crashes To A Halt With Minutes To Spare.
Marjorie’s Heart Beats Too Hard.
Marjorie Is On The Verge of A Heart Attack.
Marjorie Takes Some Deep Calming Breaths.
Marjorie’s Train Arrives.
Marjorie Finds Her Seat.
Marjorie Sits Next To A Red Headed Teenage Girl.
This Red Headed Teenage Girl has Chipped Fingernails.
This Red Headed Teenage Girl Stares At Her Fingernails.
This Red Headed Teenage Girl Refuses To Eat A Tomato sandwich.
This Red Headed Teenage Girl Refuses To Eat A Tuna Sandwich.
This Red Headed Teenage Girl Refuses To Go To The Buffet Car.
This Red Headed Teenage Girl Refuses To Pick Salad Out Of Her Food.
This Red Headed Teenage Girl Is Starving but Just Eats Chocolate.
This Red Headed Teenage Girl Eats A Kit Kat And Listens To Music.
This Red Headed Teenage Girl Tells Her Dad To Leave Her Alone.
This Red Headed Teenage Girl Needs A Kick In The Ass.
This Red Headed Teenage Girl’s Dad Ignores Her.
Marjorie’s Bladder Is At Bursting Point.
Marjorie Pleads With The Red Headed Teenage Girl To Excuse Her.
The Red Headed Teenage Girl Curls Her Legs To The Side.
Marjorie Returns Bladder Emptied.
Marjorie Pleads To Sit Down.
The Red Headed Teenage Girl Doesn’t Answer.
The Red Headed Teenage Girl Is Immersed In Music.
The Red Headed Teenage Girl Doesn’t Hear.
Marjorie Says Excuse Me Again.
The Red Headed Teenage Girl Blushes.
The Red Headed Teenage Girl Says Sorry.
Marjorie Sees The Real Red Headed Teenage Girl
This Real Red Headed Teenage Girl Needs Mothering.
Marjorie’s Teenage Daughters Are Not With Her.
Marjorie’s Teenage Daughters Are Missed.
Marjorie Has No One To Laugh With.
Marjorie Wants To Laugh With The Red Headed Teenage Girl.
Marjorie Chickens Out Of Laughing With The Red Headed Teenage Girl.
Marjorie Fears That The Red Headed Teenage Girl Will Tell Her To Go Away.
Marjorie Hears A Rumpus.
Raucous Fringe Performers On Edinburgh Bound Train.
Raucous Fringe Performers Are Laughing Non-Stop On Train.
Raucous Fringe Performers Set New Laughing Record.
Raucous Fringe Performers Set Everyone’s Nerves On Edge.
Raucous Fringe Performers Crave Attention.
Raucous Fringe Performers Think Northallerton Is In Narnialand.
Marjorie Arrives At Capital Of Fringe Fever.
Raucous Fringe Performers Arrive In Edinburgh.
Raucous Fringe Performers Gather For Photo Opportunity.
Red Headed Teenage Girl And Family Troop Past.
Marjorie Pushes Through Fringe Crowds.
Marjorie Walks Past Taxi Rank.
Marjorie Takes Tourist Route Through Princess Street Gardens
Marjorie Nudges Past Crowds.
Marjorie’s Mother In Law Is At Bus Stop.
Marjorie’s Mother in Law Doesn’t See Marjorie.
Marjorie Says Hi, Where You Going?
Marjorie’s Mother In Law Appears Lost.
Marjorie’s Mother In Law’s Bus Stop Is The Next One Down.
Marjorie Gets Her Bus In Minutes.
Marjorie’s Mother In Law Is Not At The Bus Stop.
Marjorie Feels Guilty.
Marjorie’s Mother In Law Is Still Walking.
Marjorie Mother in Law Walks All The Way To Haymarket.
Marjorie Arrives At Her Parent’s House.
Marjorie’s Mother Looks So Well
Marjorie’s Mother Has Just Had An Operation.
Marjorie’s Mother Is One Feisty Lady.
Marjorie’s Mother Makes Marjorie Laugh.
Marjorie’s Mother Keeps On Moving.
Marjorie Tells Her Mother To Behave.
Marjorie Gives Up Telling Her Mother To Be Good.
Marjorie’s Mother Tells Her To Go Out.
Marjorie Goes To The Edinburgh Book Festival.
The Matt Haig Lecture Is Sold Out.
Marjorie Is Disappointed.
Marjorie Buys Unknown Authors Tickets.
Dorthe Nors And Stuart Evers.
The Queue For Louis De Berniere’s Is Long.
There Is No Queue For Dorthe Nors And Stuart Evers.
Panic Sets In, No Queue, No One There Yet.
People Line Up For Nors And Evers Literary Lecture.
Marjorie Aka Kyrosmagica Smiles.
Happy To Be Part Of Something Different.
Throwing Away The Literary Rulebook.
Sounds An Interesting Premise.
Marjorie Returns Back home.
Marjorie’s Mother Is White As A Sheet.
Marjorie’s Mother Is Now Feeling The Effects.
Marjorie Pledges To Stay In.
Marjorie Throws Away The Motherly Rulebook
Marjorie Is An Ordinary Girl Having An Extraordinary Day.
Well that was quite fun to do, I enjoyed my experiment, hope you enjoyed reading it too.
Apologies to the Red Headed Teenage Girl! Oh and to those performers on the train too, I’m just a nosy so and so who likes to eavesdrop!
It’s good to try new things, to explore new types of writing. I would recommend that you check out these two writers so with that in mind here are some links:
Links:
https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/writers/dorthe-nors
http://stuartevers.blogspot.co.uk/
https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/writers/stuart-evers
Have you been to any events this year at the Book Festival? Do feel free to comment, I’d love to hear what you’ve been doing this summer.
Marje @ Kyrosmagica xx
Attending Sunday a reading of Iain Banks poetry…I have posted about it yesterday, in case you’re interested 🙂
Oh, I’ll take look Stephen, thanks for letting me know. 🙂
My pleasure 🙂