Jamie Newman
Every month we spend ten minutes finding out more about one of our members, how they describe themselves as an artist and what projects they’ve been involved with, both in and outside the Club.
August’s featured member is Jamie Newman. Jamie is a Founding Member of the Leeds Savage Club and also its current Club Secretary Secretary.
So…Jamie, where did you grow up & how did you come to be in Leeds?
I grew up in a village near Weston Super Mare, but since uni, I’ve mainly lived in the Bristol/Bath area. I moved to Leeds for an IT contract about three years ago. The contract was only for a year, but then I got another job opportunity in Leeds and have been here ever since! I like the way Leeds has lots of interesting places, often in areas that you don’t expect – like the Brudenell Social Club, Meanwood Park and, of course, Temple Works, to name but a few. I also think Leeds has a very good Live Music Scene.
When did you first realise you enjoyed writing and what sorts of things did you write about back then?
I’ve enjoyed writing for as long as I can remember. When I was about 5, I read the Tim and the Hidden People books, by Sheila McCullagh. They were about a little boy who got involved in a hidden world of witches, cats, highwaymen etc. This was probably one of my first inspirations to write – when I look at my old school books from that sort of time, they seem to be full of stories about witches!
After that, I wrote lots of stories through school… Thinking about it now, what I would write about was probably determined by what I was interested in at the time. There were stories about footballers, detectives, monsters – quite a range! When I was about 9, I wrote a play with a friend that we performed in front of the school.
And how do you feel you’ve developed as a writer since?
Well, my career went in a scientific/computing direction as I got older, so my writing went off the boil for a while. Then, when I was 27, I took a career break and went travelling. From doing this, my perspective changed on a lot of things and one of the things I decided when I got back was that I should start writing again.
I started writing short stories. They would usually be about characters who were a bit like exaggerated versions of me at the time – twenty-something males trying to juggle their career/moral ethics with their social life/women situation! Most of them would start relatively normally, but end in some very bizarre way! Then I enrolled on a creative writing evening course. The course lasted for 8 weeks, after which me and some of the other people in the class decided to continue meeting up to keep our writing going. I carried on going to this group until I moved to Leeds.
Wow, that’s quite a lengthy writing background! So, if you had to choose one, what would you say is your proudest moment or achievement as a writer so far?
When I became involved with the Leeds Savage Club, of course! ☺
Ha! Flattery will get you everywhere! …And if you could do anything with your writing, Jamie – no limits – what would be your wildest dream?
To be given an advance to write my first novel – all research costs (i.e. travelling around the world to gain inspiration) included! Then, to co-direct the film!
Sounds like a very nice dream! So, how long ago did you join the writers’ group in Leeds and why did you decide to join?
I joined the writers’ group in Leeds through the Meetup website in September 2008. As I was still relatively new to Leeds, I wanted to meet some new people whilst improving my writing. I didn’t really know what to expect when I went to the first meet, but I found everyone to be very enjoyable company and the quality of writing was very high.
Do you feel the Savage Club is meeting your expectations?
The Savage Club has more than met my expectations. The feedback that I get from work I read out has been very constructive and has given me pointers on where I can improve. Also the quality of work other members produce gives me real inspiration and encourages me to raise my game – as well as making the meets thoroughly enjoyable experiences! There are loads of opportunities to work on projects with other members and there are always new and exciting developments on the horizon. I’ve also made some good friends since joining the group.
Is there a piece of work you’ve done or a topic you’ve encountered in the Leeds Savage Club that you particularly enjoyed or were hugely inspired by?
I think my writing has developed a fair amount since joining the club. One of my biggest steps forward was when we all wrote a piece about ‘Love in the Seventies’. I wrote about an old guy that went to 70’s nights in his old 70’s clothes and attempted to pick up women by dazzling them with his dance moves!
When I wrote this, I paid a lot of attention to making the sentences flow. I wanted to create an image without overly explaining things and relied on the reader to form their own opinion. It seemed like a leap of faith at the time, but it mostly worked really well and I have written a number of other things in this way since.
The ‘70s theme sounds like it was a lot of fun! So, are you involved with any of the exciting projects or opportunities you mentioned above within the Savage Club at the moment?
I’ve been working on some musical ideas lately with some other members of the Savage Club. I play the keyboard while others sing or read poetry over the top. But this project is at quite an early stage – we’re really not sure where it’ll end up!
And finally, Jamie…a test of your creativity! Your story must include the following: a mouse, a sweeping brush, a pair of skis. What’s the plot summary?
It is about someone (let’s call him Brian) who lives a relatively normal life, apart from being a bit bored with everything. He is suddenly contacted by a solicitor about an old friend from university (let’s call him Stan), who recently died in an apparent snowboarding accident. The reason the solicitor contacted Brian is because he is named as one of the benefactors in Stan’s will. Stan has left him a pair of Ski’s, a sweeping brush, his pet mouse and a little chalet that he owned in a ski resort. To be left these things is a little strange; particularly as Brian had not seen Stan for over ten years. In fact, no one from his group of old university friends had. Shortly after university, Stan had a nasty split from his girlfriend and had seemed to decide to sever all links with everyone. People had tried to contact him for a while, to no avail, until eventually he was more or less forgot about – until now. Intrigued and also feeling that he should somehow respond to this gesture from the grave, Brian contacts Stan’s family to find out as much as he can about what Stan had been doing. It becomes clear that they too had been more or less closed out of Stan’s life and only knew the bare facts – that he had been living in the chalet for the last 3 years. Brian becomes more and more obsessed, wanting to understand why he has been left these things. Inevitably he books some leave and makes a trip to the chalet, taking all of the items with him, and starts to delve into the life Stan was living. Pretty soon things start to get sinister….
Oh…did you stop?! I was hooked! You should definitely write that story! If anyone else was hooked too, where can they see more of your writing? Do you have a blog or a website, Jamie?
I don’t have a website at the moment, but I do post some of my stuff directly on the Leeds Savage Club website, in forum threads. You can see some of it here.
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