EmmaD

Thank you for the comp and the positive comments, Ath. And well done Libby – nice work.

Thank you Ath, both for comments and for setting the comp in the first place. As you probably guessed, I used it as a shameful attempt to find a way into a yet-to-be-written novel and was immensely glad of the opportunity to do so, though knew from the start I’d barely skated your original intent. And well done Libby – I look forward to finding…[Read more]

A very happy new year to all Denizens! The advent competition didn’t have 25 entries as I hoped, but by way of compensation, those that were submitted are all gems that I would be happy to find behind a calendar window.

Janette: A New Opening
A truly positive response to the Covid restrictions. This was beautifully written with a powerful feeling…[Read more]

@dougk if you’d like an alternative to a sedative, you can read the exhaustive cautionary tale of my small press experience here https://airandseastories.com/2019/01/30/my-publishing-nightmare-the-story-of-a-book-deal-gone-bad-part-1/

So pleased with the news! Simply brilliant.

This is such fab news, proving that publishing life doesn’t begin or end with trad agents. Can’t wait to see this in print. Enjoy and celebrate your announcement to the hilt – so well deserved.

I didnt spot the Twitter post so shall go on a hunt now…
I love the name Jesmond, is that a family name? Bet it feels very real now they’ve announced it! Hope you celebrated with some sort of unhealthy substance. xxx

With good intent

‘Let’s face it, it is one of our unadmitted secret pleasures!’
One eyebrow lifting in pantomimed leer, he turned his head away, allowing the wind to carry exhaled smoke along Portobello’s beach towards the Scottish capital.
Aware of the flaring of her too-carelessly clipped hair, she pictured them as opening sequence of some…[Read more]

A New Opening

Lockdown. Away from a contageous world full of contageous people. Away from touch. Away from hold. Away from gossipy nudges and ear-whispers in the office, shrinking my world to room size; specifically the area where work-table met window. I unfasten the latch and swing it wide open in a desperate bid for expanse.
Between remote…[Read more]

‘Instant hit of relateable truth’: yes, that a good way of putting it.

Jane, if you got a result you haven’t been wasting your time, have You?

When I need to be productive, I set myself time slots for internetage. i.e. 15mins when I first sit at the laptop, during a lunch half hour, and then that’s it apart from evening phone-evil-blackhole-of-distraction. Tbh, I like being able to quickly check something as I’m writing – find a photo of a place, or look at a map or whatever, so I…[Read more]

They do have that sort of instant hit of relateable truth don’t they? Ironic, or perhaps not, that Roche’s career might apply to the principle of ‘Connections’, even though it’s clearly about something much more personal. A missed connection here or there is the difference between national treasure status and obscurity.

Also interesting for me to…[Read more]

Jane, I suspect that, er, somewhere on the way you too encountered that anthology, so long ago you’d forgotten about it until my post reminded you.

Yes, I like the Liverpool Poets too. It’s only one aspect of his talent, but Roger McGough has raised that lowest form of wit, the pun, into an art form. Like this, from The Mersey Sound:

The Act of…[Read more]

From JaneShuff (copied from the wall)

Thank you for this, Richard. I spent my childhood and teenage years in Liverpool and The Liverpool Poets were a big part of it. I thought I hadn’t heard of Pete Roche but, amazingly, I found myself able to recite Somewhere On The Way as I read it so the poem must be buried somewhere inside the dusty old a…[Read more]

I’d not heard of Pete Roche, and much enjoyed these two examples, thank you for them.

It’s that sort of recognition/everyday honesty that draws me to certain songwriters (I’m thinking Aidan Moffatt in his Arab Strap days), and why Vicki Feaver spoke so loudly to me.

@Daedalus, I know exactly what you mean: most of my novels start with a conversation between two characters, me thinking they’ll be the opening chapter, then, as things develop, I find they’ve moved to the middle of the middle.