Four Season Summer, the first half of my ‘novelette in two parts’, is free on Kindle today – Saturday 13th August. Meanwhile, part two – Season’s End – is available for only 99 cents (99p in the UK).
But that’s not all! Starting Monday, I’m running a Goodreads Giveaway. So, between 15th and 22nd, there’s a chance for three lucky people to win a signed paperback copy of The Love Poems.
At writers’ group last night, we set ourselves a challenge to write a story that included three prompts: a telephone, a black overcoat, and a Post Office. Here’s what I came up with:
Jack stumbled in through the door of the Post Office, tripping over the welcome mat on his way.
“Honey, I’m home!” he declared, sounding cheerful at first, but finding himself unable to stifle the catch in his throat over the word ‘home.’
It was an old Post Office from the 1940’s, no longer open the public. The place his grandfather had worked in all his life, and now the place where Jack lived. The ‘open’ sign still hung in the window, though it had faded beyond all recognition.
Staggering past precariously high stacks of books, Jack made his way to the small working kitchen in the back. The door fell off the fridge when he opened it, making the glass milk bottle in the door shatter, and two-week-old milk flood to the floor in clumps.
Two weeks. Was that really how long it had been? God! Jack sank to his knees, his head bending to the floor as sorrow weighed him down, before snapping up again as the smell of the milk clogged his sinuses. It sobered him, a little.
In the other room, behind the old customer counter, the phone rang, and Jack got to his feet once more. He took his time crossing the distance – pausing to wrestle his overcoat off his shoulders – having no doubt who would be calling him.
There were only two people in the world that called Jack, and one of them was gone, never to call him again. A fresh stab of grief jabbed at his breast, threatening to knock him down once more, but Jack fought it, managing to stay upright. Just.
Finally in the back office, he lifted the receiver and slurred a ‘hello.’
“Hello,” returned the voice on the other end of the line. The voice that could not be. That could never be again.
“Bernie?” Jack whispered, not daring to believe his ears.
“Yes, Jack, it’s me,” said the voice.
“Bernie!” Jack repeated, this time an exclamation. His face became animated, eyes focusing for the first time in a fortnight, before he paused. “But how?”
“Never mind that,” said Bernie, “It’s time.”
Jack smiled, making the corners of his eyes go up along with the curve of his mouth and releasing tears down his cheeks and onto his dried lips.
Slumping to the floor as he held the receiver to his chest, he recited Bernie’s name over again, reverently as his eyes closed.
“Bernie. My Bernie. You came back.”
I’m pleased (not to mention extremely relieved) to tell you that the very first Women Aloud/FSNI poetry recital (as coordinated by yours truly) was a success. It was a really lovely night, coming together with fellow ladies of literature to share and enjoy our craft.
The first video is online now, and there are some more photos over on my official Facebook page.
If you’re local to Belfast, please come along to the part two on September 1st – more details here.
Camp NaNoWriMo is over for another year and, honestly? I’m a little sad about that. The writing event is usually a bit hit and miss with me – sometimes with me achieving more than I planned, and sometimes coming nowhere near my goal – but this time around I stayed about the middle, getting further than I did in July and being happy with all the resulting words, but still not finishing. Given how my health has been the last two weeks, though, I’m satisfied with that.
But Ellie, I hear no one ask, how many words did you actually write?
Goal for August? 15,000 words total – across all projects.
To read about what work I completed for clients this month, click here.
This month, I finished reading The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephanie Meyer (which I had started last month), I read A Long, Long Sleep by Anna Sheehan cover to cover, I listened to the third audiobook in the Dresden Files series: Grave Peril, and I started reading To All the Boys I Loved Before by Jenny Han, which I’m currently about 60 pages into.
Books I bought this month were Spinning Thorns by Anna Shehan, Room by Emma Donoghue, and Why I Write by George Orwell.
Goodreads Goal Update: 27 out of 45 books read (60%) – 1 book ahead of schedule.
My health’s been a bit crap, recently. Also recently, I became a bit obsessed with Pokémon Go (yes, I know, who hasn’t?).
So, I’m planning to take a completely revolutionary step and try and go walking more, encouraged by the app, and in the hopes of improving my fitness.
If you don’t already know, I’m a writer and – more recently – a carer. I’m also quite introverted. These things mean that A. I don’t have to leave the house a lot and, B. I don’t actually like leaving the house even when I do get around to it.
I’m trying to change that. I’m challenging myself to leave the house every day – even if just for a walk around the block to the local gym.
I’ll keep you posted on that but, in the meantime, here are some of Pokémon Go stats so far (because you may not have got enough statistics in my last post…):
I’m Team Valor (the red one), Level Eleven, I have eleven bronze medals, two silver medals, and I’ve seen and caught forty-three different Pokémon.
Want to know anything else? Ask in the comment section below.
Now three years from when I started writing fan fiction, it’s time for another round-up of statistics. For comparison, you can see last years post here.
One thing that’s happened since my last update that I should mention is that I’ve joined Archive of Our Own.
So, I’m currently going through all my fanfic, re-editing and crossposting it there.
Basic Stats:
I Have Written:
I Have Currently:
Awards Since Last Year:
*This is calculated to the best of my ability. There were a lot to count, and there might be a small degree of human error, hence why I’ve rounded numbers down.
**For this statistic, I’ve combined series and counted them once.
Today, I was at a Black Lives Matter vigil outside Belfast City Hall.
Below is a poem I wrote, inspired by the event.
It’s four years since I became an author, self-publishing my first ever book, and three years since I set up a business around my writing, going after it as a full-time profession. There have been various stages in that process, of course, and now I find that I’m on to a new phase once more.
Back in February, I blogged about how I was moving in with my fiance. What I didn’t say, however, is that he’s unable to work, and the move meant I was becoming his official carer. The change has meant that we’ve become closer in a lot of ways, which is obviously great, but I also had to reassess my entire work-life balance, leaving me back down to only part-time paid hours.
Do I regret it? No. I don’t even think it’s made me any less productive. If anything, I have a better handle on time management now, meaning I get more done in less time. Mostly, though, I get the privilege of taking care of the person who means most to me in the whole world. I get to have my cake and eat it, my dream job and the love of my life. That’s way more than I could have ever wished for, back when I was an unemployed university dropout, playing around with Kindle formatting for the first time.
To those that think it’ll never happen to them? Take heart. All things are possible. *
*Disclaimer: it hasn’t been all sunshine and roses getting here. Life can be hard, but it’s worth it if you work at it. I don’t want to be accused of coming across as false.
I’ve taken this idea from Jan Carson (another one to watch), but what I’d like to do is use this little space on the internet to promote awesome people who, I think, deserve recognition (or more recognition). And who better to start with than a man very much at the heart of the Belfast Arts Scene: Colin Dardis?
In my own head, I consider Colin to be ‘Poetry NI incarnate‘ – a term he will no doubt appreciate (I hope?).
I first met Colin when I, as an inexperienced young thing, entered myself into a poetry slam he was organizing. After pestering him with banal questions about how it all worked, he still let me take the mic. which, secretly, I think was quite brave of him. I was very clueless, and nervous, and boy did it show. But Colin (pretending not to notice) was very nice to treat me like a real performer.
Many months after that, he agreed to be my guinea pig, letting me interview him in a trial run for what would become my radio show about the local arts scene. It was even Colin who introduced me to Lulu.com, setting me on my self-publishing journey.
Always with his fingers in many pies, Colin really inspires me to get involved with cool projects. If you haven’t already heard of him, please go check him (/his poems) out.
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