reader, writer, & occasional thinker
Dead Astronauts by Jeff VanderMeer My rating: 4 of 5 stars The cover of this book (I won't call it a novel) must have a mention. It's gorgeous to see in person, it's gorgeous to see in pictures, it's gorgeous to touch. Note above that I feel I can't call it a novel. The book... Continue Reading →
This story took almost 6 months of picking on to finish writing, and another entire year to finally sell. At nearly 7k words, it was too long for most genre fiction zines, and its saleability was probably not helped by my choice to use Second Person perspective. Also, it's more of a character study than... Continue Reading →
via Persona Poetry Competition, Winning Entries
The following short story (satirical fairytale) was read out on BBC Radio Leeds on April 7th, 2020. You can find a clip of that audio recording here: Otherwise, the text of the story is below. ### LOVE CURSE 2.0 The prince fell asleep on the second day of spring, after returning from his honeymoon. At... Continue Reading →
At the time of the Coronavirus lockdown, the biggest success to report is the continuing functioning of the Circle on-line. Ian Harker’s “Places of Poetry” workshop successfully moved to Zoom and proved a great success. The first remote Manuscript Evening was held on Monday, April 6th. Hosted by Graeme and chaired by Lucie, with no less than 18 members appearing on screen at the same time, it worked very well . The other groups are continuing to function too. Writers are irrepressible people.
The adjudication evening for the poetry competition had to be cancelled. The brief from judge Mark Connors was for a Persona Poem and the full results are now on the Competitions Page. Many congratulations to Gail Mosley, Andrew Lambert and Joanna Bucktrout as the main winners, and also to Sue Ryder, Adelle Kirk and Sunyi Dean. Hopefully we can celebrate and hear your poems at an…
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The Plague by Albert Camus My rating: 5 of 5 stars The last time I read a Camus book was 17 years ago, and it was a life-changing experience. Ever since then, I have studiously avoided Camus' writing in case his other novels were similarly affecting. But with the onset of Covid-19 and so many... Continue Reading →
Nophek Gloss by Essa Hansen My rating: 5 of 5 stars Caveat: This is not your usual book review; I've included some "behind the scenes" musings for once. If you prefer my usual reviews, this may not be your cup of tea. Okay, caveats out of the way--let's go! There's a lot of mutual back-scratching... Continue Reading →
I will not live in silent rooms where all my mothers died; forgotten women lost in time feet bound by cultural pride.
I try not to do promo-type stuff very often, either for friends or myself, but I want to talk very briefly about my amazing online writer group. Good critique groups make all the difference in a long writing journey. I remember all too well the confusion and mild horror of sifting through one bad beta-read... Continue Reading →
