{"id":2772,"date":"2016-02-26T23:41:38","date_gmt":"2016-02-26T23:41:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.macnovel.org.uk\/?p=2772"},"modified":"2016-02-27T10:18:11","modified_gmt":"2016-02-27T10:18:11","slug":"selfie-stick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.macnovel.org.uk\/?p=2772","title":{"rendered":"Selfie Stick"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Selfie Stick, <\/em>the\u00a0short story of mine which won through to the <a title=\"Come and Listen to My Story at Liars\u2019 League London \u2014 9th February\" href=\"https:\/\/www.macnovel.org.uk\/?p=2760\" target=\"_blank\">first Liars&#8217; League London event of the year\u00a0<\/a>is now online in all its formats. Watch the video of <a title=\"Lois Tucker's website\" href=\"http:\/\/www.loistucker.net\/\" target=\"_blank\">Lois Tucker&#8217;s<\/a> excellent reading on YouTube below&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/BuospKHlv-E\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>And if you&#8217;d rather read the words, the story is now available on the Liars&#8217; League website &#8212; <a title=\"Selfie Stick -- Liars League\" href=\"http:\/\/www.liarsleague.com\/liars_league\/2016\/02\/selfie-stick-by-mike-clarke.html\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>. And there&#8217;s a podcast too, which you can also find on the LL website.<\/p>\n<p>The story on the website is the edited version of the story, as close to the performed version as I can remember. One of the great things about having a story read at Liars League is the opportunity to attend the rehearsal in which the actor and also the Liars organisers contribute their thoughts on the story. Everything&#8217;s very democratic and the author isn&#8217;t obliged to accept any changes but I&#8217;ve found that everything that&#8217;s been suggested as an edit in my stories has always been for the better. Not that huge alterations are made but it&#8217;s an unusual and very valuable opportunity to get a reader&#8217;s (or listener&#8217;s) perspective on a story.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2777\" src=\"https:\/\/www.macnovel.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Loisl-LL-Tweet.jpg\" alt=\"Seventeen Sizzling Sex Secrets\" width=\"563\" height=\"549\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.macnovel.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Loisl-LL-Tweet.jpg 563w, https:\/\/www.macnovel.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Loisl-LL-Tweet-300x292.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 563px) 100vw, 563px\" \/>I was very fortunate that Lois was able to read my story. I felt confident that she really understood the tone of the story and the character of Ellie, the narrator and protagonist &#8212; she really looked the part too &#8212; and even apparently lives not too far from Stoke Newington (watch, read or listen to the story and you&#8217;ll understand). It&#8217;s a brilliant (and addictive) experience to listen to words that you&#8217;ve written hold the attention of an audience and also produce more than the odd laugh and I&#8217;m very grateful for Lois&#8217;s professional skill in allowing me that privilege.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking of addiction, this is my third Liars League London story and the fifth overall but it&#8217;s certainly not a case of everything that I submit to Liars League being selected &#8212; far from it. Apart from a lucky streak with my first couple there have been many\u00a0short stories I&#8217;ve sent in that haven&#8217;t made the cut. I like to think that&#8217;s because I tend to write them at the last minute and may have run out of time to finesse the ones that fell by the wayside but, in truth, it&#8217;s probably down to the excellent standard of the stories submitted by other writers.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2775\" src=\"https:\/\/www.macnovel.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/On-the-Pull-LL-Tweet.jpg\" alt=\"On the Pull\" width=\"589\" height=\"243\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.macnovel.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/On-the-Pull-LL-Tweet.jpg 589w, https:\/\/www.macnovel.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/On-the-Pull-LL-Tweet-300x123.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 589px) 100vw, 589px\" \/>I was told that the number of submissions for February&#8217;s Clean and Dirty theme was particularly high and, as evidence, the other stories read out on the night were all extremely good. These were: \u00a0Coming Clean by Sherry Morris,\u00a0Zoe versus Zita by Michael Button,\u00a0Saving Face by Emma O&#8217;Brien,\u00a0Gloves by Elisabeth Simon and\u00a0The Marriage Inspector by Niall Boyce. They can all be found on the <a title=\"Liars League London\" href=\"http:\/\/liarsleague.typepad.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Liars League website<\/a> and I highly recommend them.<\/p>\n<p>My story was last to be performed on the night and it was unnerving to listen to the stories preceding mine. I was paranoid whether it would hold its own against what the audience had already enjoyed. Hopefully, in no small part due to Lois&#8217;s performance, it went down well.<\/p>\n<p>As the venue, the Phoenix in Cavendish Square, was packed out with punters who&#8217;d paid for their \u00a35 worth &#8212; with literally standing room only &#8212; I hoped they&#8217;d feel like they&#8217;d got their money&#8217;s worth at the end of the night. For this sort of event it was a very respectable sized audience. It&#8217;s a venue used by many well-known stand-up comedians &#8212; the likes of Russell Howard and Holly Walsh were playing the venue at the end of February as part of the Phoenix Phringe.<\/p>\n<p>Another brilliant aspect to having a story read at Liars&#8217; League is the way the Liars promote the performance on social media &#8212; both before the reading and afterwards when the videos and website are updated.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve taken a few screenshots of the tweets and Facebook posts that have very inventively promoted my story and, if I can be forgiven indulging myself, I&#8217;ve added some into this post.<\/p>\n<p>I particularly like the Tweet below, which I&#8217;ll resist repeating in the main post because I don&#8217;t want to receive even more spam.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.macnovel.org.uk\/?attachment_id=2774\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2774\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2774\" src=\"https:\/\/www.macnovel.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Ear-Prn-LL-Tweet.jpg\" alt=\"Ear P*rn\" width=\"591\" height=\"124\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.macnovel.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Ear-Prn-LL-Tweet.jpg 591w, https:\/\/www.macnovel.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Ear-Prn-LL-Tweet-300x62.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 591px) 100vw, 591px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>As can hopefully be divined by the tone of the tweets, the story is a very post-ironic, tongue-in-cheek description of a couple revitalising their relationship through homage to a particular genre of 1970&#8217;s film-making (and making a few nods to its more modern and ubiquitous re-invention). When I started writing the story I asked my Facebook friends for inspiration on the genre (which is euphemistically referred to as featuring &#8216;soft-focus sex kittens&#8217; in the story &#8212; not to be confused with internet cat memes). My friend Jon, who came along to the reading, pointed me in the direction of this <a title=\"Grolsch Fridge Ad\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=1_oeqKGELg0\" target=\"_blank\">classic Grolsch ad<\/a>\u00a0Fortunately my timeline didn&#8217;t become any more polluted. I have very upstanding friends.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.macnovel.org.uk\/?attachment_id=2776\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2776\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2776\" src=\"https:\/\/www.macnovel.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Spice-Up-LL-Tweet.jpg\" alt=\"Spice Up Your Sex Life\" width=\"590\" height=\"126\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.macnovel.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Spice-Up-LL-Tweet.jpg 590w, https:\/\/www.macnovel.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Spice-Up-LL-Tweet-300x64.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 590px) 100vw, 590px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Despite the tweet above, when I re-read the story I was surprised that despite its depiction of rather graphic situations, the writing itself is not explicit at all &#8212; nothing that would remotely interest the Bad Sex Award. Anything lurid is all in the reader&#8217;s imagination &#8212; and in\u00a0the case of the performance given an expertly knowing wink from Lois&#8217;s reading. As she comments on Facebook&#8230;<span style=\"color: #141823;\">PHWOOOAAAARRR&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2779\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2779\" style=\"width: 445px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.macnovel.org.uk\/?attachment_id=2779\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2779\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2779\" src=\"https:\/\/www.macnovel.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/LL-Selfie-Stick-Facebook.jpg\" alt=\"PHWOOOAAAARRR...Indeed\" width=\"445\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.macnovel.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/LL-Selfie-Stick-Facebook.jpg 445w, https:\/\/www.macnovel.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/LL-Selfie-Stick-Facebook-300x269.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 445px) 100vw, 445px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2779\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">PHWOOOAAAARRR&#8230;Indeed<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Selfie Stick, the\u00a0short story of mine which won through to the first Liars&#8217; League London event of the year\u00a0is now online in all its formats. Watch the video of Lois Tucker&#8217;s excellent reading on YouTube below&#8230; And if you&#8217;d rather read the words, the story is now available on the Liars&#8217; League website &#8212; here. &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.macnovel.org.uk\/?p=2772\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Selfie Stick&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1095],"tags":[1237,1076,1238,1232,1236,39,1235,1077],"class_list":["post-2772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events","tag-clean-and-dirty","tag-liars-league","tag-liars-league-london","tag-lois-tucker","tag-performance","tag-readings","tag-selfie-stick","tag-short-stories"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macnovel.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macnovel.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macnovel.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macnovel.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macnovel.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2772"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.macnovel.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2785,"href":"https:\/\/www.macnovel.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2772\/revisions\/2785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macnovel.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macnovel.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macnovel.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}