Explode

I feel as if I can stare
Into your eyes for eternity
As if all the people around are no more
Than specs of exploded stars
And your eyes are their sun

And it's starting to hurt
To see you there talking to strangers
To not be able to touch you
To not have all of you

You tease me with your smiles and
You lead me on
But in the end, you leave me
Right where I was

Desecration Smile

Our third Elham Evening is upon us!

Check out this month's line up, including a special "international" guest featured for the first time. We hope we'll be able to attract more established international writers/artists in the future alongside new and upcoming talents. The event start from 7pm this Tuesday.

The image provided for this month's invitation-card is by student filmmaker-photographer Samar Ameen. Please also check out the new content added to the Elham website.

I don't think I've achieved much the past couple of days. All I know is that I'm once again trailing behind with deadlines fast approaching.

And just because I feel like it, I give you the songs that I've been playing constantly on my mp3 player/laptop for the past week or so…
Top 5 Songs of the Week:

Desecration Smile – Red Hot Chilli Peppers
Trouble – Ray LaMontagne
Crazy – Ray LaMontagne
Rewind – Paolo Nutini
Grace Kelly – Mika

Should My Fiction Be Responsible?!

Recently, I keep being told to be more "responsible" in my writing which I'm finding it rather difficult to digest the probable implication of what that might mean.

A couple of days ago I finally finished my latest short story Keep, which is about Love, literally. I've written 90% of it and got stuck at the ending (typical!), and what I ended up with is not what I had in mind to begin with.

So far, especially when it comes to writing short stories, I've been relaying on instantaneous instincts, taking a impulsive and random approach in writing them and I am yet to really, fully decide if that is a good or a bad thing. I suppose, just like everything else - like Love, like Life - it has its pros and cons.

My submission has been accepted to appear in the upcoming anthology Strange Stories of Sand & Sea, to be published by Fine Tooth Press later this year.

My presentation/reading at the TARA Conference will be held on Saturday, Feb 24th, from 11.15am to 12.15pm at the Crowne Plaza Convention Centre (Upstairs Room 2), during which I will be talking about our group Elham, my work, experience and read a short story. You can view the full four-day programme by visiting the website.

I will let you know how it all goes!

Trailer Roundup

Eye-candy for your pleasure... watch out for these super-looking flicks:

Across the Universe

First Snow

Grindhouse

Zodiac

The Lookout

Smokin' Aces

The Host

29

Yesterday, I discovered that being 29 feels no different than being 28.

Other Such Writings

An idea for a new project occurred to me a few days ago and I've been working on it since then. I'm not certain it's a great idea, but I'm nonetheless getting excited about it. I've decided to put together an illustrated book of poems, songs and "other such writings" and try to get it published sometime late this year or early next.

These are very personal and intimate pieces I've written over the years and have not been published or even publicly shown before. The current working title for the project is Sad Man Dancing. Will keep you informed on it's progress.

Meanwhile, you can finally log onto the Elham main website at www.elhambahrain.com so go ahead and check it out. It looks pretty good, if I may say so, having come up with the original design/concept for the WMP people to work with.

Bookmark the link for future updates and loads of new and exciting content over the coming weeks and months. Speaking of Elham, I've been told that the City Tribune will run a piece on us in today's (Thursday) paper, and of course you can check out the feature in Ohlala this month as well.

Six Sentenses

I've been asked to talk at the upcoming TARA (The Arabian Reading Association) Conference here in Bahrain on February 24th. The conference is targeted more towards educators and teachers and aims at promoting reading and writing at schools.

I shall also be having a book signing session during the two-day program. I will post more details as soon as they are confirmed but in the meantime you can learn more about the conference and how to attend it by visiting the TARA website.

There's not been a lot of writing news to report lately, but I have actually been working on a new short story over the past week or so. It's basically completed now, but I still need to lock in a solid ending to it.

It's strangely been one of the easiest, smoothest stories I've written yet and at no point did I struggle with where and how it was going. It's just the wording of the ending I'm not happy with. Also, the current title sucks. (I'm not saying because it's self-explanatory!)

By the way, can you tell a story in SIX sentences? Well, check this website out. It's cool and some of the stories there are excellent. You can read my contribution here.

Quirk

Quirk
Originally uploaded by *A*L*I*.

I've never had my portrait drawn before so I was a bit hesitant at first, when I was asked. But I'm glad I did. Turned out to be a very unusually rewarding experience.

Phoebe Boswell first 'drew' me in a three hour session which was uncomfortably engaging, she told me it was for her next show. I hadn't seen the painted version until the opening night at Al Riwaq Art Gallery a couple of nights ago.

So it was an odd feeling to encounter your painted self. As a representation Phoebe has done a brilliant job. Her portraits always have this exaggerated, surreal almost comic sensation to them. I loved my painting and it makes me smile when I see it, and I'm glad that, by the response we gauged at the opening, that others did too.

Phoebe's show at Al Riwaq also features installation, video screening of the film 'Faces' – which I helped make – and the original drawn portraits featured in the book. So I suggest you go down there and have a walk around, because you're likely to like it. It’s on until the 11th.

As I tried to explain in my recent column, people can be a bit suspicious of portraits, for their own reasons. How would you see it?

Something Gud

I figured after the rather dreary poem and somewhat depressing posts, I'd share some slightly good news.

I have sold my very first artpiece! A new journal for fiction, poetry, are and more, called GUD "Good Uncommon Denominator" magazine, has selected one of my photographs to be featured in their next issue. I have never sold/published a photograph before!

Also, Gold Dust Magazine, which comes out of the UK, and which previously interviewed and published me, have accepted another short story of mine "Where Was Woody Guthrie?" to appear in - I believe - the autumn issue.

Finally, I heard again from the editor of the Strange Stories of Sand & Sea anthology, letting me know that my story has made it to the final stage and that I will be informed if it's accepted for publication or not, within a few weeks.

Don't Read This Post

Be quiet
Shut up
Leave me alone
Go away
Fuck you
For being there
For always staring at me
For loving me

Be silent
Piss off
Leave me behind
And watch me fade
Fuck me
Stab me
Kill me
I wouldn't even feel a thing

Put me to sleep
Make me dream
Wake me up
Make love
To me
To them
To the world
Take my anger
Keep it in a box
Feed it
To the monsters

Be quiet.

Stardust in Their Eyes

If you know what's good for you, you'd click on this link faster than you'd say cotton-peaches!

It appears to be a temporary website for, according to Neil Gaiman on his journal. But damn, I can't wait till summer.

Quite simply, Stardust is one of my fave novels of all time. I've read it more than once, which is saying consideirng how picky I am about books. Go out and get the book, read it. Twice. I bet my CD collectin you'll love it! And then when the film comes out this summer, go out and see it. Twice. It'll be like visiting old friends!