Kate Pullinger - Landing Gear

A TOWN HALL full of ballot boxes, party supporters, election officials. Beside the stage, a MIDDLE-AGED WOMAN in a dark red jacket.

Here at Tipton Mallet—a town unaccustomed to media attention—the battle for votes has been intense. Last year’s unfortunate death of the Labour incumbent, Simon Taylor, MP for 25 years, combined with the accusations of Conservative Party HQ interference in candidate selection, and the unexpectedly high ratings in the polls…

VIDEO GOES FULL-SCREEN and plays out until MIDDLE-AGED WOMAN is tackled by MAN (2 minutes)

BLACK SCREEN

VIDEO CLIP of MIDDLE-AGED WOMAN leaving her house, getting into her car and driving away.

(45 seconds) (SPRING)

VIDEO CLIP of MIDDLE-AGED WOMAN leaving her house, getting into her car and driving away.

(30 seconds) (SUMMER)

VIDEO CLIP of MIDDLE-AGED WOMAN leaving her house, getting into her car and driving away.

(15 seconds) (WINTER)

VIDEO CLIP of MIDDLE-AGED WOMAN leaving house, getting into car and driving away. (SPRING AGAIN) CAMERA follows behind, weaving in and out of traffic, falling back, catching up at stop signs and traffic lights. Follows car into SUPERMARKET CAR PARK. MIDDLE-AGED WOMAN parks car, gets out and walks into SUPERMARKET.

CUT TO: Footage filmed from block of flats. MIDDLE-AGED WOMAN exits SUPERMARKET with a trolley full of shopping.

CUT TO: FALLING MAN footage—FALLING MAN dropping through sky.

BLACK SCREEN

REPLAY: FALLING MAN footage played out once again—this time all the way until he lands on car.

CUT TO: FALLING MAN standing beside window, looking out. CAMERA follows his gaze out the window. PAN of London suburb, ZOOM into SUPERMARKET CAR PARK.

CUT TO: FALLING MAN sitting on the sofa.

England is kind of a… funny country, but I’m getting used to it. It’s not as funny as Pakistan, mind you.

CUT TO: JACK on the sofa.

He kind of flew toward me—Yacub. I don’t know how else to explain it. He was on the riverbank one moment, down at the edge of the water. I saw him before I went under once again. I was really losing it now. I’d swallowed a ton of water and my clothes were fucking heavy, and all of a sudden I was so tired, I—Well. I went under and when I came up he was swooping across the water toward me, and then he had me under the arms and—jesus—I’m nearly twice his size—and he hauled me out of the water.

CUT TO: HARRIET on the sofa, MICHAEL watching her speak.

She fell through the air. I saw it happen. I looked up and she was falling. She looked surprised, not frightened, just sort of—hey, what’s this? She was falling. Falling.

BLACK SCREEN

A PHOTOGRAPH—YOUNG WOMAN, smiling, wearing a summer dress with spaghetti straps and a wide-brimmed straw hat.

CAMERA REMAINS on still PHOTOGRAPH

There she is. Your mother. You look just like her.

The story of Yacub and his fall to earth was inspired by an article by Esther Addley and Rory McCarthy in The Guardian , published in 2001. The digital fiction project I developed with Chris Joseph, “Flight Paths: A Networked Novel,” grew directly out of discussion around this story; more than one hundred people participated in the first iteration of “Flight Paths” and I am indebted to them all, including the project’s funders, Arts Council England, and supporters: De Montfort University’s Institute of Creative Technologies, Refugee Week and New York’s Institute for the Future of the Book. Documentation of this iteration of the project, as well as “Flight Paths” itself, can be found at www.flightpaths.net

Invaluable advice on the novel as well as its digital companions has come from many places and people, including Chris Joseph, Andy Campbell, Martha Kearney, Mandy Rose, Mahvesh Murad, Sara Schilt, Sue Thomas and Tom Mellor. Kat Meyer and Peter Brantley’s invitations to TOC NYC and Books in Browsers in San Francisco have furthered my knowledge of writing, books and the digital immeasurably; Sophie Rochester and Joanna Ellis of The Literary Platform, and our project, The Writing Platform, have been a constant source of inspiration. The Electronic Literature Organization’s inclusion of “Flight Paths” in the Electronic Literature Collection, Volume Two, has been vital.

The British Council sent me to Pakistan in 2011; I learned a huge amount from my wonderful hosts and the students I met in Karachi and Lahore. First readers for the novel included Lesley Bryce and Aamer Hussein; their enthusiasm regarding the novel and its structure was crucial. I’d like to thank my agents, Rachel Calder and Anne McDermid, as well as my editor, Nita Pronovost, for their excellent feedback and support. But my biggest thank you is to my family, Simon, Tom and Iris Mellor.

KATE PULLINGER writes for both print and digital platforms. In 2009 her novel The Mistress of Nothing won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction. Her prize-winning digital fiction projects Inanimate Alice and Flight Paths: A Networked Novel have reached audiences around the world.

As well as The Mistress of Nothing , Pullinger’s books include A Little Stranger , Weird Sister , The Last Time I Saw Jane , Where Does Kissing End? , and When the Monster Dies , as well as the short story collections My Life as a Girl in a Men’s Prison and Tiny Lies . She co-wrote the novel of the film The Piano with director Jane Campion.

Kate Pullinger was born in Cranbrook, British Columbia, and is currently a Professor of Creative Writing and Digital Media at Bath Spa University. She is married and has two children. Find her at www.katepullinger.com.

The digital world gives authors and publishers completely new opportunities for experimentation.

With Landing Gear , Random House created an API (application programming interface) that allows programmers to get content in multiple ways. An excerpt-length section of Landing Gear is stored in a content management system and tagged to define characters, locations, events and times. Programmers can access this data and build new products with it.

To get access to the Landing Gear API or see some of the resulting projects, please visit: www.randomhouse.ca/LandingGearAPI

The Mistress of Nothing

A Little Stranger

Weird Sister

The Last Time I Saw Jane

Where Does Kissing End?

When the Monster Dies

A Curious Dream

My Life as a Girl in a Man’s Prison

Tiny Lies

Forcibly Bewitched

Once Upon a Time There Was a Traveller

Something Was There

Waving at the Gardener

Is This What You Want?

Don’t Know a Good Thing

Shoe Fly Baby

The Piano (with Jane Campion)

Flight Paths (with Chris Joseph)