“Whenever I’m away from home I feel like a different person.”: An Interview with Rodge Glass

We recently nabbed contributing author Rodge Glass to ask him about his Elsewhere short story, After Drink You Can Turn Earth Up Side Down. Read on to hear his thoughts on travel, reading work aloud and his serendipitous adventures due to last spring’s volcano incident.

The Elsewhere stories had a specific theme - namely, to be about something unfamiliar or unknown. What did this idea mean to you, and how did that develop into your story?
Well, the Elsewhere theme turned out to be really lucky for me, as ‘Elsewhere’ could be a possible title for a whole collection of stories I’ve been working on for a while now, each dealing with loners or single people in different parts of the world.
I have one called ‘A Weekend of Freedom’ which was the beginning of this idea, a story based on a nightmare stag weekend in Sofia, Bulgaria, commissioned for the Homecoming year, and which was published in Gutter #2. (Gutter is a magazine of new Scottish creative writing. Find out more on the Gutter website).
At the time of that story I was really wanting to change my style. Loosen up a bit. Be unafraid. After that one I wrote several others, some commissioned, based in Belgrade, Manchester, Tunis, Edinburgh…I’m not sure but I think I’d like to work on the collection steadily over the next couple of years. There’s a powerful poem by Kapka Kassabova called ‘I Want to Be a Tourist’. If she’ll let me steal that title for my book, I’ll be happy.

Did you find a predetermined subject like Elsewhere was a helpful jumping off point or a limiting factor in developing your story?
I know some writers struggle with being given a particular subject but generally I have a few ideas knocking around at any given time, and I like a challenge. As I say, with this one, it was a great excuse to write on a subject I was really interested in exploring anyway.
Whenever I’m away from home I feel like a different person. You can’t avoid that there’s a whole world you can never know or understand out there. You’re forced to confront what you do not know. It’s overwhelming, but it makes me want to eat it up at the same time. Which is an odd feeling.

Your piece is set in a bar in Hong Kong. Is this based on any personal experience of the city?
Yes. I went to Hong Kong for the first time ever last year, in the April, shortly before I was asked to write this story. My Dad has lived out there for a good few years, he runs the family business from there, though he’s moved to China now. I’d never seen that part of the world and I was fascinated.
One night we went to a bar in Wan Chai with just myself, my brother, my Dad, and a cousin who lives out there. We don’t get a huge amount of time together so it was an important few days really. And it was great! But something about those bars set up for Western men to get all nostalgic and cruise for young vulnerable women from Hong Kong, or more likely Thailand or somewhere like that. It made me uneasy. And the Filipino band playing the covers of 60s and 70s Western classics, songs that used to represent rebellion but now represent a kind of comfort. I thought there was something in that. Apart from the bar and the band, the whole story is fictionalised. I’m a bit quiet. I tend to just watch, think too much, go away and write about stuff that might have happened but didn’t.

You've mentioned previously that you like to read unfinished work to audiences, for their feedback and reactions. Does this ever alter your work? Did it affect the final result of this story in any way?
Yeah, I love to do that. Because, as Alan Bissett says, “If it’s dead in your mouth then it’s dead on the page”. When I read out a story, I work out whether it’s alive. And if it is, how I might improve it.
As for this story, I did make all sorts of changes after doing readings over the Atlantic. It’s not so much about the audiences, although sometimes people do engage and give advice. But it’s mostly about reading something out then realising there’s a more succinct, or poetic, or satisfying way to say the same thing.

The Elsewhere stories are meant to be about something "not connected to your own home or your own people". Do you think, accidentally or deliberately, the stories we've collected (yours included) have anything to say about Scottishness or Britishness?
Mine is very much about Westerners abroad – although that Western thing is always fractured and mixed up. The escaping rich man in my story, dancing with the young Thai girl to Eric Clapton’s ‘Cocaine’, could be from Glasgow, or London, or Pittsburgh. The point is, he’s looking for Western comforts in the East.

And lastly, you did a surprise reading of this piece at Toronto's International Festival of Authors last year. How did that come about?
When I was in the middle of writing this story, I was invited to do a reading in Pittsburgh (my life isn’t always this rock ‘n’ roll), and on my way home I got rerouted to Toronto because of the Icelandic volcano. No one could get over the Atlantic, basically, and I had two weeks in Canada that I’m deeply grateful for. I love Toronto and had a great time there.
Someone heard about my story and asked me to cover for Andrea Levy, who was in England and couldn’t make it over for the same reason. It was amazing. Writers were covering for each other at festivals either side of the Atlantic. Which was also the reason I got invited to read at the Metropolis Bleu Festival in Montreal around the same time. I was still stuck, and Jason Donald (also part of the Elsewhere project, I believe) couldn’t get over. I was gutted for Jason but he really didn’t want to let them down. He generously recommended me, and I ended up reading my work in Canada. The only thing I had with me at the time was my copy of ‘After Drink…’, unfinished. Thankfully it went down really well and I managed to get it finished before I came home, much delayed by the volcano.

*****

Many thanks to Rodge for sparing the time to chat to us. We look forward to his collection of elsewherian treats when it’s finished!

Rodge spoke about After Drink… at the 2010 Edinburgh International Book Festival. Find out more in this video of his event with fellow Elsewhere contributors Jen Hadfield and Eleanor Thom.

Barry Hutchison on writing The Unclaimed Girl

Award-winning author Barry Hutchison recently took part in our Elsewhere new writing project. You can read his stunning Elsewhere piece, The Unclaimed Girl, on our website.
We’re delighted to welcome Barry as guest-blogger for the day. Read on to find out how he approached the Elsewhere brief, and brought The Unclaimed Girl to life…


Fittingly, I had just moved house when I got the call asking me to take part in the ‘Elsewhere’ project.

I’d relocated my family from the Highlands of Scotland to a town just outside Edinburgh, and was feeling a bit like a fish out of water. I knew no-one, had no idea where anything was, and I was starting to wonder if we’d made completely the wrong decision.

So, when I was asked to take part, I knew I could put at least some of that to use. I just wasn’t quite sure how.

I went through a number of ideas, trying to pick one that excited me. My son had just started a new school, and I saw a potential story there. A new kid, making friends, getting to know new teachers...

There was potential there, but it felt too small, somehow. The short story format lends itself well to smaller, more intimate tales, but I wanted a stronger concept. I was already nervous. My first book was only published in February 2010, and I was being asked to contribute to a collection featuring some major international writing talent. A story about the first day at a new school wasn’t going to cut it.

I needed something bigger.

What if it was a new school in a new country? That was bigger. Suddenly you’re not just looking at a new school building, you’re potentially looking at an entirely different culture.

But, no. It still felt too “normal”, and normal isn’t something I’ve ever been particularly interested in. I scrapped the whole thing and tried coming up with some new ideas. My INVISIBLE FIENDS series features some pretty full-on horror, so there was a possibility of doing something in that genre, but something about that starting a new school idea kept dragging me back to it.

So, what if... What if...?

What if the character wasn’t just starting a new school, but they were staring a new school in the afterlife? What if they didn’t just have to adjust to new classmates, but they had to adjust to the fact they were dead?

I felt a buzz of excitement. The idea was definitely “bigger”, and it was certainly less “normal” than the plain old first day at school idea. I knew then that I’d found my story. A girl starting a new school in the afterlife – what could be more Elsewhere than that?

But, during the course of writing the story, my mum was diagnosed with cancer. Her prognosis was grim, and suddenly my thoughts on the afterlife became less abstract and more concrete.

Without planning it, the story changed. It was no longer about a girl starting a new school in the afterlife, it was about how it would feel to suddenly find yourself there, with no idea where “there” actually was. It was about coming to terms with death, when the death in question was your own.

I’m happy to report that since I wrote the story, my mum’s health has improved dramatically, much to everyone’s surprise. It appears that, despite all expectations, she wasn’t ready to make the train journey Imelda Brown makes in the story. Imelda is tough and stubborn – a survivor. My mum, it seems, is even more so.

Overall, I’m happy with the way THE UNCLAIMED GIRL turned out. I enjoy stories that imply a life for the characters beyond the tale’s boundaries, and I’m 100% sure that Imelda has a whole after-lifetime of adventures ahead of her there in the City of the Dead. Perhaps, one day, I’ll check up and see how’s she’s doing. I suspect, like my mum, she’ll be doing just fine!

Marcus Sedgwick talks about his Twitter Q&A

We spoke with Marcus Sedgwick after today's exhilarating Twitter Q&A. He talks a little bit about the experience and also tells us about his Elsewhere story, 'Archipelago'.



Marcus also discusses a few of his favourite questions from the Q&A. Here's the five he picked as the best. Each wins a signed copy of his 2011 Carnegie Medal shortlisted White Crow.

Transcript of Twitter Q&A with Marcus Sedgwick

Here's the Twitter transcript of our Q&A with Marcus Sedgwick on Saturday 2nd April.

Twitter Q&A today at 1200BST

Hi all. Just to remind you of today's splendid Twitter Q&A with award winning author Marcus Sedgwick. Today's event is all about celebrating the finale of our 'Elsewhere' new writing commissions - read Marcus's chilling contribution 'Archipelago'.

Tweet your questions for Marcus by adding the #askmarcus hashtag to your tweets. The best five questions will win a copy of Marcus's 2011 Carnegie Medal nominated White Crows. So - the countdown begins and get tweeting those fantastic questions. And don't forget the hashtag!

If you don't do Twitter, we've added a widget to the right which will display constant updates from today's Q&A. And, of course, many thanks to the Scottish Government Festivals Expo Fund for supporting this #ElsewhereStories project.

More from our Elsewhere authors

We spoke with Jackie Kay over the telephone to ask her about how she approached the challenge of writing about Elsewhere. She thought about picking a foreign place but nowhere seemed to be quite foreign enough. So she decided on death - it was certainly somewhere she had never been - and invented a place based on stages of bereavement and dying called "Elsewhere". Jackie wanted to have the opportunity to talk about death positively - and come up with fresh ideas about taboos concerning suicide. [Update] And now 'Kindred' is available to read!



Elizabeth Laird and David Almond talked about their Elsewhere stories last summer at their event in Charlotte Square. Elizabeth's story 'Red Wolves in the Mist' is about the wolves of Ethiopia who live in the high alpine regions. It was an area that was as about as far away as she could think of and she chose to write a non-fiction piece about one night with two British vets in that harsh African landscape. David's story 'Paper Boat, Paper Bird' came from an experience he had in Japan a few years ago where his daughter was given an origami bird on a bus. The memory of being given that bird lingered with him and he was delighted to explore it for this new writing commission.


Joan Lingard decided to write about a very vivid encounter she had with the idea of Elsewhere when she visited the Soviet Union for the very first time in 1989. Like Elizabeth Laird, she chose to write a non-fiction piece. 'Other Times, Other Places' intentionally keeps the name of the country hidden from the reader. Everything Joan experienced seemed to refer to other places and other times, infused with the sense of oppression from the Soviet Union. In many senses the country she visited does not exist anymore - and this is partly a feature of it being distanced by time but also reflects the political upheavals which all the countries of the former Soviet Union experienced.

Audio morsels from Elsewhere

It's all go in the land of Elsewhere... Not only do we have our very exciting Twitter Q&A with Marcus Sedgwick on Saturday at 1200, we've also got a number of exclusive interviews with our authors talking about how they explored the theme of elsewhere in their stories. Today we feature two of these - but keep checking the blog over the next days as we'll be adding more!

Julia Donaldson's story on the theme of elsewhere, 'The Ballad of Jemmy Button', is really a song but it also works as a narrative poem. It centres on the story of the voyage of the Beagle, on which Charles Darwin was the ship's naturalist, and its mission to take some of the natives of Tierra del Fuego back to England. In our exclusive interview with her below, Julia tells us why she was drawn to write about this episode in colonial history and how it explores the idea of elsewhere.




Gill Arbuthnott's story 'Marilyn's Hands' takes as its starting point the idea of elsewhere being on the outside, of not being quite part of the normal swing of things. Her story is very different from what she normally writes - it is for adults rather than children and has a distinct science fiction theme. She tells us in our interview below how she explored her own background in science and themes of identity and being an outsider in her wonderful story.



Also - we've started releasing audio recordings of some of our authors reading their stories. You can subscribe on iTunes to make sure you get the recordings as they are released. We've already got Anne Fine and Roddy Doyle up and will be adding three a week for the next few months.