The Benefits of Failure (From a Former Struggling Writer Now Worth Over $1 Billion)

My hero – J.K.!

Screenwriting from Iowa

This is a reprint of my 2010 postJ.K. Rowling on the Benefits of Failure that touches on her life before writing the Harry Potter series of books.

“A mere seven years after my graduation day, I had failed on an epic scale. An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded, and I was jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless. The fears that my parents had had for me, and that I had had for myself, had both come to pass, and by every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew.

Now, I am not going to stand here and tell you that failure is fun. That period of my life was a dark one, and I had no idea that there was going to be what the press has since represented as a kind of fairy tale…

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Skywriting…

Beautiful! I confess I’m obsessed at the moment – I’m learning to paint clouds…

looking up/looking down

A few favourite skyscapes of recent months…

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Interview: Ewen Leslie

Looks interesting…

Cinema Australia

Ewen Leslie was just nine years old when he started acting professionally.

It was on a popular children’s television series called Ship to Shore, filmed in and around Rockingham – a small coastal town about forty minutes south of Perth.

After graduating from WAAPA in 2000, Leslie’s first feature film role was in Matthew Newton’s Right Here, Right Now. A year later Leslie nabbed the lead in Tony Krawitz’s Jewboy and that’s when people really started to recognise his talent as a serious actor.

Since then, Leslie has gone on to star in many productions across screen and stage including Kokoda: 39th Battalion and Sleeping Beauty. 2015 saw him cast in one of Australian cinema’s greatest acting ensembles which included Geoffrey Rush, Sam Neill, Odessa Young, Paul Schneider and Miranda Otto in Simon Stone’s powerful family drama, The Daughter.

This month Ewen joins Reg Cribb and Cappi…

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Van Morrison : GLORIA! GLORIA! GLORIA! GLORIA!

“A youth (Van) who looked down more than he looked up…”

The Immortal Jukebox

Let’s remind ourselves what’s A1 on The Immortal Jukebox and why!

Some songs have a brutally simple primal perfection.

Usually these songs are recorded at the very beginning of an artists career before they start to look into the rear view mirror and become conscious that they do indeed have a career, a legacy and a reputation to protect.

These are records that come at you full bore and demand you listen now!

Think of the primitive perfection of the last song recorded on the day the Beatles recorded their first LP.

You want to know what The Beatles sounded like in Hamburg? Listen to the raw bleeding magnificence of John Lennon’s vocal on, ‘Twist and Shout’ and the eyeballs out commitment of Paul, George and Ringo.

There was no way a second take could top that!

Think of the stupid beauty of the Undertones debut single, ‘Teenage Kicks’ –…

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On Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox : Save the Last Dance for Me

It’s the passionate authenticity of your posts I enjoy, so much, Thom – and another beauty!

The Immortal Jukebox

‘The Jukebox. I lived beside Jukeboxes all through the Fifties … You want to hear a guy’s story, and if the guy’s really seen a few things, the story is quite interesting’ (Leonard Cohen)

‘Oh I know that the music’s fine,
Like sparkling wine go and have your fun,
Laugh and sing, but while we’re apart,
Don’t give your heart to anyone.’

(Doc Pomus/Mort Shuman ‘Save the Last Dance for Me’)

Once in a very Blue Moon you turn on the radio and a song comes on that you know, know, from the first instant you hear it, is a song you will love for the rest of your life – however long that may be.

It’s a song you’ve never heard before yet at once you feel familiar with it.

Somehow, it seems you’ve been waiting for this song.

A song that you know, know, is true.

You know…

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ATOMIC BLONDE

Another excellent review!

Film Mafia

**** (out of five)

There are some movies you just can’t imagine with a different actor in the leading part. Casablanca, Citizen Kane, Cool Hand Luke, Dirty Harry, On The Waterfront, Raging Bull. The central performance carries these films, bears all their weight. So it is with Charlize Theron in Atomic Blonde, and she is magnificent. She lifts a very good action spy thriller into another echelon entirely by her total commitment, professionalism, ability and class.

You’ve never been this up close and personal with Theron. From her introduction, bathing her bruised – seriously bruised, like seventy percent of her body bruised – naked body in an ice-bath, to lingering, ravishing close-ups – one of them dwells for what might be ten seconds on just one of her eyes – to an emotional complexity completely unexpected for a noirish, often brutal, hyper-stylised graphic novel adaptation – she is present in…

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The Light on the Water

Wonderful story – dense with emotion and cleverly constructed, slowly revealing her story. I loved it.
Fully deserving of a win for July in the Hennessy New Irish Writing Competition. Well done and huge congratulations, Niall!

The Fluff Is Raging

It’s been a busy few weeks (months, actually) for me between work, trying to write, and just, you know, stuff, that I haven’t had time to do any blogging, so apologies for not posting anything in a long, long while.

But now is as good a time as any to return because I’m excited to announce that I have had another short story published in the Irish Times.

Illustration: Brendon Deacy

It is a privilege to be included in Hennessy New Irish Writing for the second time. I was included a couple of years ago for this story.

My new story, “The Light on the Water” is one I worked on for some time; cutting, moving bits around, and cutting more until I got it where I wanted it to be.

The absolutely gorgeous illustration to accompany it is by artist Brendon Deacy. It captures the mood…

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