Category: Writing

Friday Fictioneers — The Sailor’s Wife

Kitchen Window

Grey and damp, damp and grey, she spends hours propped up against the sink, staring out of the window. The turbulent swell beyond her garden is an ocean grown from her tears.

Her beloved spouse built this house with his bare hands: barnacled seafarer’s hands accustomed to scrubbing decks and pulling ropes. In the kitchen, the windows stretch from one wall to another, so she can watch the horizon for his ship’s return and race along the beach to the harbour to greet him.

She has waited so many years, she’s a wreck and her legs have turned to flotsam.

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Friday Fictioneers: 100 word stories
Photo prompt: image (c) Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

Dreaming of a yellow teapot and awaking to publication day #urban fantasy

ebook_image

yellow teapot

Still pinching myself to check that I’m awake, but somehow I’ve managed to achieve publication of my urban fantasy novel Desiccation. It is now available to buy in Kindle or Paperback format at Amazon.

You may ask what a yellow teapot has to do with publication day. Anybody into dream analysis around here? Personally, I think it indicates that writing, editing, formatting, and publishing can take you to the brink of insanity. It also indicates that I watch too much Nordic Noir on television, not that I know if the Scandinavians are into yellow teapots.

In my dream, I was inside a giant yellow teapot manoeuvring it into a parking space outside a golf club. Once I’d parked it, I climbed out of its top (the equivalent of a sunshine roof) and magicked the teapot down to normal size, after which I proceeded into the golf club to search people’s coat pockets as part of a covert operation to solve a crime.

Well there you are. If you think my yellow teapot dream is weird, I can assure you it’s nothing compared to some of the weirdness in Desiccation.

If you would like to find out more, please do visit my page Desiccation (Blurb).    

A Child’s Eye View — The Pond

Pond

Aware that I haven’t posted much in the last week or two, I thought to delight you with this busy picture of pond life that I drew for my Nature Study homework at the age of eight.

Working on a story set in a school — albeit a senior school — has made me think back to my own studies as a child. At primary school, Nature Study and Art were my two favourite subjects. The main character in my novel, Desiccation,  is a 15-year-old science scholarship girl who discovers that not everything in the universe runs according to the textbook.

I am nearly there with publishing, but it’s taking longer than I expected. First I took a short break to visit family in the Isle of Wight. Then I had flu. After that, in my attempt to catch up with the final proofing and corrections of my novel, I gave myself a frozen shoulder by spending too much time on the computer. But I’m on the mend now, thanks to homeopathy and qigong exercises.

Will return to regular posting, plus visiting everyone’s wonderful blogs, as soon as possible.

Missing you all, of course.

The Proof of the Pudding is in the Reading #Indie publishing

Proof Copy of Desiccation

The proof copy of my urban fantasy novel Desiccation has arrived! Here I am posing in front of my bookshelf that’s populated with the works of all those literary greats who have inspired me to write.

When I showed the book to my son, Joshua, he inspected the front and back cover, browsed through a page or two (just like someone visiting a shop or library) and declared, “Wow, it looks like a real book!”

I am so excited. But now to stay level and proofread it through with absolute concentration. The formatting looks good, but there might still be a sneaky little typo hiding somewhere.

My eBook version is ready, but waiting for conversion to html after I’m sure there are no typos in the paperback copy.

Then it’s all systems go.

But before  cracking on with the last stage, I’m taking a breather until next Tuesday to spend time doing something other than book-related stuff.

Am exhausted, but jubilant…

See you all next week xxxx

Friday Fictioneers — Discarded Vegetable

wired

You’ve agreed with each other, five years is long enough. Your voices  tunnel through my ears into my bruised brain.

The doctor says, “If by some miracle your mother regains consciousness, she’ll be a vegetable.”

What sort? A carrot, cabbage, or potato? Fried, roasted, half-baked, perhaps? Indeed, you’ve decided to uproot me from this life and cast me into the earth like a shriveled pod.

Foolish you, discussing your inheritances while standing at my bedside.

When you leave, I’m going to perform a double miracle and you won’t see me for the dust, my discarded  life-support tubes your constant reminder.

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Friday Fictioneers: 100 word stories
Prompt: image (c) Connie Gayer (Mrs Russell)