It’s the last INTERROBANG‽and the last 404 INK event of the year tonight, and we’re both going out with a bang! For the 404 INK Christmas Party, we’re going to be joined by one of the best practitioners of live lit in the country, KIRSTY LOGAN!
Kirsty Logan and a rather nice cameo necklace
Kirsty’s featured in issue three of 404 Ink’s literary magazine – POWER! She lives in Glasgow and is the author of The Gracekeepers, A Portable Shelter, and The Rental Heart & Other Fairytales. Her fourth book, The Gloaming, will hit the shelves in May 2018. It’s a queer mermaid love story set on a remote island that slowly turns its inhabitants to stone. She’s currently writing a collection of horror stories called The Night Tender.
“The Ambassador’s parties are known for their exquisite good taste…”
Ross McCleary is still from Edinburgh. He has had work published recently by Five2One and Cease, Cows. He is an editor of the spoken word podcast Lies, Dreaming – which has a new call for submissions out – helps run Inky Fingers, and is overjoyed by the return of the Edinburgh Watch twitter account. His novella, Portrait of the Artist as a Viable Alternative to Death, is published by Maudlin House.
Saltire Society First Book Of The Year-winner Helen’s The Goldblum Variations is already to order as part of 404 Ink’s zine series with a limited run, and said award-winning collection On The Edges of Vision and her new collection Mayhem and Death are forthcoming in 2018.
And this is not least because we get to hear from one of our favourite writers and a star of 404 INK’s legendary Nasty Women, KAITE WELSH.
Kaite Welsh: Superpower – being awesome
Kaite is an author, journalist and professional lesbian. Her debut book The Wages of Sin, the first in a series of Victorian feminist crime novels starring fallen woman, medical student and amateur sleuth Sarah Gilchrist, was published in 2017. The second novel, The Unquiet Heart, is due out in August 2018. She covers LGBT issues for the Daily Telegraph, agitates for LGBT rights on national radio and has a colour-coded five year plan.
And these are her reflections on POWER…
‽: Knowledge is power. But if you could have any superpower, what would it be?
KW: Honestly, I’d settle for being to do 100 squats without wanting to cry.
‽: Oof! That’s bringing a tear to our eye. Moving on…! We love a launch. Can you remember what it was that launched you on your literary adventures?
KW: These two plaques in the University of Edinburgh old medical school building – one to Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, and one to Sophia Jex-Blake, one of the first women to study medicine at Edinburgh. The idea of a crime-solving lady doctor in the 19th century was born then… (see the answer below for what happened next)
Unrecorded Sophia Jex-Blake talent: building narrative tension…
‽: It’s the festive season. What, other than a copy of 404 Ink’s POWER, would make a good gift for a loved one?
KW: A copy of my debut novel The Wages of Sin, out now from all good publishers. [Well, *certain* good publishers! ? – Ed.] Plucky Victorian heroines! Horrible Victorian medical procedures! Feminism! Murder!
‽: Ricky Interrobang’s partner has already powered through it! Oh well. Back to the drawing board…. There are loads of great songs with the word Power in the title. Do you have a favourite that powers you up? Or failing that, a power ballad that’s a guilty pleasure?
KW: The entire Girl Power album by 90s pop heroines Shampoo. The title song is this poppy anthem about violence and drinking and female friendship – you think it’s going to be this Spice Girls-eque lipstick and glitter version of womanhood and actually it’s this incitement to violence on alcopops.
(note: Kaite endorses neither violence or alcopops – it says here – unless it’s the cranberry Archers they used to do in 2001.)
‽: People are telling us how much they’re looking forward to the launch of POWER. Without giving too much away, can you tell us a little bit about what you’ll be sharing with us?
KW: Vlogmas with a difference. And by ‘difference’, I mean ‘cursed advent calendar’.
Sounds scary! But we’ll all get through it with an alcopop or two. Find out what happens when Kaite opens the doors of her cursed advent calendar at the launch party for 404 INK’s Issue 3: POWER this Friday, 8 December from 7pm at Summerhall. Get your tix here while you can.
Congratulations to our pals at 404 INK, who won the Saltire Society’s Emerging Publishers of the Year for 2017 last night. We’re sure you’ll all agree that it’s hugely well deserved.
Countdown to the National Trust for Scotland plaque starts here…
And congratulations to us for having the opportunity to host the launch of 404 Ink Issue 2: POWER in Edinburgh this coming Friday, 8 December. The mag includes work by Interrobang veterans, pals, and known associates Andrew Blair, Ever Dundas, Rebecca Raeburn, Ross McCleary, and Stuart Kenny, so we can’t wait to encourage people to get it in their hands.
Thanks to Flint & Pitch’s Cameron Foster, it looks great, too.
Even better, the launch event features performances from Ross, the incomparable Kaite Welsh, Siobhan Shields, and the fabulous Helen McClory – author of Mayhem & Death, coming March 2018 from 404.
We’re also promised wonderful music and more shenanigans, so get your tickets now, follow 404 INK on Twitter @404Ink, and STAY TUNED!!!
The launch party for 404 INK’s Issue 3: POWER takes place this Friday, 8 December from 7pm at Summerhall. Get your tix here while you can.
It’s Monday – BOO! But according to Facebook, it only four days till Friday and the Edinburgh launch of Chris McQueer’s brilliant short story collection HINGS at the Biscuit Factory – YAY!
The latest performer to submit to the INTERROBANG‽ Interrogation is Martin Geraghty. He’s a man of fine taste.
A collection of HINGS. Apart from the ones I’ve read before, The shed and and Lads are standouts so far. Had to refrain from OD-ing on it? pic.twitter.com/aegwihnKGe
If you’ve seen Martin as an open mic-er at our pals Inky Fingers, then you’ll know why he’s a great match-up for the HINGS launch.
If you haven’t, well – read on…
‽: We reckon Chris has assembled just about the best spoken word/live lit/poetry line-up that anyone can see this year for the Edinburgh HINGS launch event. We’re super-chuffed to be hosting it. How did you come to be on the bill?
MG: I STARTED WRITING JUST OVER A YEAR AGO. I WAS WRITING A NOVEL WHICH WAS QUITE HEAVY AT POINTS, LATE ONE NIGHT, NEEDING A BREAK FROM WRITING I WENT ONLINE, I STUMBLED ACROSS CHRIS READING SHIFTSWAP AT INTERROBANG, I WAS BLOWN AWAY. I WENT TO BED BUT HIS STORY GETTING SWIRLING IN MY MIND.
Yeah. That’ll do it, right enough.
IDEAS FOR SHORT STORIES SWIRLED IN MY MIND, UNABLE TO SLEEP I GOT UP AND WROTE MY FIRST SHORT STORY. TWO WEEKS LATER, I READ THE STORY AT INKY FINGERS. I WROTE ANOTHER STORY & WENT BACK TO INKY FINGERS THE FOLLOWING MONTH, CHRIS WAS HEADLINING THE EVENT. I READ MY SHORT STORY & CHRIS CONTACTED ME AFTERWARDS SAYING HOW MUCH HE LOVED THE STORY. HE LATER ASKED ME TO READ IT AT HIS LAUNCH NIGHT.
‽: A picture question – have you seen all the awesome HINGS photoshops on Twitter? If you haven’t, you can check them out here. Which one’s your favourite?
‽: Funky! Hot Chocolate’s Errol Brown/Interrobang’s Ricky Brown. Coincidence‽ We think not! Is there a particular story of Chris’s that you’re hoping to hear in the flesh at The Biscuit Factory on Friday? And if so, why that one?
MG: THE SHED.I’VE JUST READ IT THIS MORNING. ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT
“I know, right? Levels. They’re having a right fucking rave-up in there, by the way.”
‽: The HINGS launch is going to be a bit of a party, so we’d like to play some walk-on music for you. Care to nominate a HINGS-y tune?
MG: PREDICTABLE AS HECK BUT IT’S GOT TO BE ALL THESE HINGS THAT I’VE DONE: THE KILLERS
‽: We’d probably have picked All The Hings She Said, so you’re alright.Finally, without giving away too many spoilers, what can you tell us about what you’re going to be sharing with us on Friday?
MJ: I SHALL BE READING A STORY ABOUT A WEE MAN CALLED CAMMY AND HIS OBSERVATIONS ABOUT HOW OUR TOWN CENTRE STREETS ARE NOW BEING DOMINATED BY CERTAIN TYPES OF BUSINESSES.
Well, colour us intrigued! Thanks to Martin for indulging the Interrobang Interrogation!By the way, we’re hoping to have a wee Shiftswap-shaped surprise for you on Friday….
For the Edinburgh launch of his brilliant short story collection HINGS on Friday at 7pm at the Biscuit Factory, Chris McQueer has assembled a bunch of his favourite writers and spoken word performers. And we’ve subjected them to the INTERROBANG‽ Interrogation so you can learn a little bit about them before the big night…
If you’ve ever seen Chris and Ross McCleary interact on Twitter, then you’ll know that we’re in for something a bit – Well, read on….
Ross up to his shoulders in art
Ross McCleary is from Edinburgh. He has had work published recently by Five2One and Constellations. He is an editor of the spoken word podcast Lies, Dreaming – which has a new call for submissions out – helps run Inky Fingers, and is obsessed with Flat Earth memes and the Edinburgh Watch twitter account. His novella, Portrait of the Artist as a Viable Alternative to Death, is published by Maudlin House.
And here’s how he answered our questions:
‽: We reckon Chris has assembled just about the best spoken word/live lit/poetry line-up that anyone can see this year for the Edinburgh HINGS launch event. We’re super-chuffed to be hosting it. How did you come to be on the bill?
RMcC: How I got here, how I was selected, and what I choose to interpret as the reasoning for these decisions cannot be shared. What I will say is this. I get a head. I am shoulders above everyone else. All other information is provided on a knee to know basis and you, dear audience, do not knee to know. Suffice to say, though, I toe the line.
Wait – can you say that again, slower?
‽: A picture question – have you seen all the awesome HINGS photoshops on Twitter? If you haven’t, you can check them out here. Which one’s your favourite?
‽: Innit? Sarabi looks a little nonplussed, though. Guess you’d expect a queen to be classist…. Is there a particular story of Chris’s that you’re hoping to hear in the flesh at The Biscuit Factory on Friday? And if so, why that one?
RMcC: Chris is a head of the pack, as we all know, and he’s shouldering his way into the Scottish literary scene whether people think they knee to read his work or not. That’s the way it toes. And if you open yours eyes and ears, and think of the way that the mouth moves and the nose twitches at the bodily nature of Chris’ work, you’ll figure out exactly what I’m doing well in advance. You don’t knee any more clues than that I shouldn’t think.
‽: The HINGS launch is going to be a bit of a party, so we’d like to play some walk-on music for you. Care to nominate a HINGS-y tune?
RMcC: On Bended Knee by Boys II Men.
‽: We’ll hold you to that. OMG. So much dramz. Finally, without giving away to many spoilers, what can you tell us about what you’re going to be sharing with us on Friday?
RMcC: I am a member of the order of knights who say knee.
We reckon Chris has assembled got the best line-up of live lit you can see in Scotland this year, and as much McQueer as you can handle. It’s going to be a book launch like you’ve never seen before.
