Hello, and thank you for visiting my site. I hope that you'll return often and always find something of interest about my world and what inspires me to pick up a pen. (This is a figure of speech, unfortunately. My handwriting is terrible!) Here's what I've been up to recently...
Everything comes to she who waits?
Well, not quite everything, but I was agreeably surprised today.
As those who’ve attended one of my workshops on ‘fillers’ and/or read my article in the December 2012 issue of Writing Magazine already know, I find these a useful way of supplementing my income during the dry spells that most writers experience.
One FAQ is how long to wait before assuming that a submission hasn’t hit the spot and offering it elsewhere. That’s a difficult one to answer, as witness the fact that the item above was sent off in February 2012 and appeared in the issue to hit the shops today. It’s lucky that I wasn’t desperate for the response to my query!
29 August, 2013 - Make the first comment on this story
Nothing wrong with nostalgia!
Most areas of the country have their own ‘nostalgic magazines’ and Down Your Way has featured many of my articles over the last few years.
Woodhouse Moor Revisited was inspired by memories of the part of the great northern city in which I grew up. My family moved house several times but we were never far away from the former common once known as ‘the lungs of Leeds’. It was, you might say, our local park. Childhood picnics and games of ‘catch’ gave way to roller skating round the already disused bandstand, the occasional game of tennis – I was never any good at that – and watching the boyfriend of the day playing football with his friends. Across Woodhouse Lane (formerly the Leeds-Otley Turnpike) from the landscaped section lay the ‘Cinder Moor’, empty and desolate for most of the year but coming to life when Billy Smart’s Circus paid its annual visit and again at Easter and particularly in September when the ‘Feast’ moved in for a few days. As I wrote in the article, ‘the smell of diesel fumes mingled with fried onions always served to heighten the excitement’ and ‘it was all about whizzing round to the latest hit records and flirting with the tough looking young men in charge of the Waltzers’. Well, I did attend a rather sedate single sex grammar school!
In those days, I never gave a thought to the long history of Woodhouse Moor, but a few hours spent in Leeds Local Studies Library gave me plenty of facts to choose from. Famous visitors included Thomas Fairfax, whose troops assembled there in 1643 to capture Leeds from the Royalists, Queen Victoria and Emmeline Pankhurst. The Chartists met there in 1837 to form Leeds Working Men’s Association and both World Wars saw large parts of the Moor turned over to military use and allotments. During WW2, air raid shelters were also added, but morale was kept up by regular concerts on the bandstand and dances in a large marquee on the tennis courts.
It was on a grey and drizzly Sunday in March that I set off with a friend and her dog to take photographs for my article. I was saddened at first to find that some features I remembered had either disappeared or been vandalised. The paths were in sad need of repair, some of the signs were covered in graffiti and paint had been daubed onto the statue of Robert Peel at one entrance. On the other hand, the flower beds and bowling green were still carefully tended, the children’s playground was much more colourful, better equipped and certainly safer than in my day and cheerful youngsters of all shades were showing off their moves in the skate park. The crocuses were in full bloom on the grass verges on both sides of Woodhouse Lane and the Moscow State Circus was preparing to move on from the Cinder Moor to its next venue.
Resolving to return in the summer, when the Moor will have been taken over by picnicking families and students ‘relaxing from their studies’, we equipped ourselves with takeaway coffees and baklava from a little café on Hyde Park corner and hurried back to the warmth of our car.
23 August, 2013 - Make the first comment on this story
Featured in Writing Magazine
Sally Jenkins’s article on independent e-publishing is in the September 2013 issue and I’m delighted to be one of her interviewees. The others are Neneh Gordon, Anne Harvey and Jackie Johnson.
Along with a great deal of practical advice, Sally has explored our reasons for jumping onto this ‘shiny new bandwagon’. My own are twofold. First of all, it’s an opportunity to offer to a wider readership a selection of short stories that have won competitions and/or already been published; secondly to showcase others not written to fit the requirements of mainstream publications.
As Sally points out, independent e-publishing is not a get-rich-quick scheme for most writers. However, knowing that my stories now have a much longer life span than was previously the case will do for the moment.
2 August, 2013 - Make the first comment on this story
Also available in print!
I’ve lost count of the number of people who’ve told me that they’d love to read my short story collections if only they were available in print. Well, here they are and all in one omnibus edition available from any Amazon website!
Readers who prefer to download the omnibus from Amazon as an eBook can also benefit, as this offers all three collections for the price of two.
28 July, 2013 - Make the first comment on this story
Featured in the Yorkshire Post
N.B. My companions and I didn’t just have ‘a trip round’ the Russian capital in a double-decker. We bought the old bus for a very modest sum and drove from Manchester to Moscow via France, Belgium, West and East Germany and Poland. Our route home took us through parts of the Ukraine, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Six weeks on the road and plenty of food for thought!
5 July, 2013 - Make the first comment on this story
‘Quartet’ by the Ripon Rowel Players
Reviewing a play is always a pleasurable assignment and I was happy to oblige one fine Sunday afternoon a couple of weeks ago. Having missed the film, I went along to the Ripon Spa Hotel with no preconceptions and had a thoroughly enjoyable time of it. The seating in the ballroom was cabaret style with optional refreshments during the performance and between acts, all of which contributed to the convivial atmosphere.
My review has appeared in full today in the local press. If anyone connected with the performance is away and unable to get hold of a copy, please let me know.
20 June, 2013 - Make the first comment on this story
E-book project now complete
At the start of 2013, I set myself the challenge to group some of my many short stories into themed collections and try them out as Amazon e-books. This wouldn’t have been accomplished without the technical expertise of my son Richard, to whom I’m eternally grateful. A compilation of all three books may follow and perhaps a print edition. Watch this space!
2 June, 2013 - Make the first comment on this story
Swings and Roundabouts
I’m delighted to announce that my third eBook, Swings and Roundabouts, has just gone live on Amazon.
While selecting the stories for this collection, I was reminded of a line in a song made famous by Frank Sinatra: ‘I figure whenever you’re down and out, the only way is up.’
Triumph can indeed spring from tragedy, although unfortunately the opposite can also be the case. These are not, however, tales of doom and gloom and I hope that you’ll find much to smile at and a fair number of surprises along the way.
28 May, 2013 - Make the first comment on this story
Another triumph for the Doctor!
Always one to rise to a challenge, I recently entered and won the ‘Shaggy Dog Story’ mini-saga competition set by Helen Yendall. The brief was to write a maximum of 250 words and include ‘bone’, ‘dog’, ‘collar’ and ‘stray’ in any form.
How the Doctor came into it, you’ll discover by reading A Timely Solution, now available on my Stories and Poetry page.
Helen has already sent me an Amazon gift voucher, which I promptly spent! The other part of my prize, a full critique of a short story, awaits. Thank you, Helen, for your generosity.
13 May, 2013 - Make the first comment on this story
Check Out My eBooks
