Words on a Page

ThePortsmouth Authors Collective includes authors from all genres of fiction and non-fiction books, including a number of Science Fiction/Fantasy authors. This week, I am pleased to be interviewing the first of these SSF authors, Wendy Metcalfe, a prolific short story writer, and the author of the novels Panthera: Death Song and Panthera: Death Spiral . Author’s Bio: Wendy Metcalfe is a science fiction and fantasy writer. She has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Portsmouth, and is Chairwoman of Havant and District Writers' Circle. She regularly performs her work with spoken word group T'Articulation, and is a regular panellist at science fiction conventions. ~ Loree: Thanks for joining me, Wendy. We’ve known each other for quite a few years, now, but there’s so I’m glad to have the opportunity to find out more about you and your writing—so thanks for agreeing to the interview. I’m interested in how people first came to writing, and I believe you used ...

  In a new series of interviews, I'll be talking to members of the Portsmouth Authors Collective -  a group of local authors who have come together to help promote one another's books. Members of the Collective publish a full array of fiction and non-fiction titles, and in this, our first interview, we'll be meeting the crime writer Carol Westron. Author Bio: Carol Westron is an author, article writer, editor, reviewer and creative writing teacher. She writes primarily crime fiction but also writes children’s picture books, which are illustrated by her autistic grandson. She is an expert on the Golden Age of Detective Fiction and has given papers at many academic conferences. She is a founder member and moderator of The Deadly Dames and the organiser of Mystery Fest, an annual part of Portsmouth BookFest.  ~ Loree:  Welcome to the blog, Carol. I'm thrilled that yours is the very first in a series of new interviews with members of the Portsmouth Authors Collective...

    Jenny’s life is at a crossroads. Her  marriage has grown silent since the sudden death of her youngest daughter, and now her eldest and only child has begun pushing her away. Nobody at home seems to need her anymore. At the Royal Mail sorting office where she is the only woman to have stuck with the job, her position is equally precarious. Though her boss can’t fault her work, he has made it clear he wants her out. Undermined at home and at work, Jenny is desperate for something to change.  So, when a postcard from Australia, begging the recipient for forgiveness, but with an incomplete address on the Isle of Wight lands on her sorting table, she does the unthinkable – she slips it up her sleeve and sets off on her bicycle to deliver it herself. If she can’t save her own faltering relationships, perhaps she can help someone else save theirs. Set in Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight during the turbulent summer of 1984,  Missing Words  captures Thatcher’s ...

If you've attended the Winchester Writers' Conference in the past, you'll know what a fabulous opportunity it presented to make face-to-face connections with agents, publishers and other writers, as well as opportunities to learn more about the craft of writing and how to get your work noticed. While the conference has now been taken over by the good folks at I Am in Print , and has been redubbed the I Am Writing Festival , it offers people the same chance to build their knowledge of the industry and make those valuable connections. I'm excited to be taking part in the inaugural year of the new Festival, working alongside novelist and short story writer Helen Salsbury as we lead a workshop on writing literary fiction. Space is limited, so we encourage people to sign up asap. And do check out all of the other workshops, discussions and events as well. To check out the full programme, click HERE . To book tickets for our workshop on writing Literary Fiction, click HERE ....

I’m pleased to announce that Missing Words was published yesterday, and last night it was sent into the world with a fabulous (if virtual) book launch, hosted by Emma Timpany, author of the award-winning novella Travelling in the Dark . All four of the authors published this summer by Fairlight Moderns took part in the event, reading from their books and answering questions. Covid has changed a lot of things, and book launches are one of them. But you know what? Having an online launch was okay. In fact, it was better than okay. Anyone who knows me, knows that I’m not a schmoozer. I hate crowds, and I hate social events where I’m expected to ‘mingle’ and make small talk. Worse yet, is talking about my book (note to self: I really must get over that). So last night’s virtual event came as something of a relief. Sure, I had to provide my own champagne, but I was very happy to stay home where my internet could unexpected go down if I started to panic. But the main thing that made the...

None of these stories are to be trusted, for they are stories of the dead told by the living and the living always lie. Leafing through a box of postcards at a Parisian market stall, the narrator of Douglas Bruton’s exquisite novella finds a distinctive blue postcard which he recognises at once. The colour is International Klein Blue (IKB), created by the avant-garde artist Yves Klein, and the postcard is an invitation to a 1957 exhibition of his monochrome paintings. Such a seemingly simple postcard, but within it is a marvellously intricate meditation about the way memory reshapes itself over time and how truth is often found in fiction. Bruton weaves together three fragmented narratives to create a story filled with passions that are never fully realised: that of the narrator, and his fascination both with Yves Klein and the colour blue; the lonely tailor, Henri, who sews a string of twisted blue Tekhelet threads into a seam in every suit he makes to bring the wearer luck; and Yves ...

  After my interview with Fairlight Books author, Douglas Bruton , discussing his latest publication, Blue Postcards , and his approach to writing, he turned the tables on me and posed some questions of his own. Here, we continue our discussing about reading, writing, and my literary novella, MissingWords , which will be published on 5 th August. ~ Douglas:   I tried writing in my teens and then again at university – nothing I wrote was worth the ink. It was not until I got a computer (aged thirty) that I found a way to write that worked. When did you know you could write and that it was something you wanted to do? Loree:   I remember dreaming up stories a lot when I was a kid. I’m an only child, and spent a lot of time entertaining myself. I know that I wanted to be a writer long before I ever wrote anything down on paper. In that way, I think I was very typical of a lot of the students I’ve worked with who want to write, but don’t yet have the tools to do so. I...