Words on a Page

  In the second of my interviews with members of the  Portsmouth Authors Collective   I talk to the filmmaker and horror writer Rob Ulitski. Author Bio: Rob writes visceral, concept-driven horror stories, anchored by complex characters and offbeat narratives. Having trained in filmmaking, and working as a director and producer on everything from music videos to shorts to feature-length anthology films, Rob’s official writing journey started in 2020. When not writing, he can be found watching cheesy 90’s films, baking cakes and haunting local bookstores. ~ Loree: I’ve only met you once—at the launch of Fleshed Out , your collection of body horror short stories (congratulations, by the way)—so perhaps you can tell us a bit more about yourself. Where are you from, what kind of dog do you have…that sort of thing. Oh yeah—and you also make films. Tell us about that, too. Rob: Thank you so much! I’m from Portsmouth, studied at the University for the Creative Arts in Fa...

  Photo credit: Dominic Alves cc 2011 It's the August Bank Holiday weekend, here in the UK, and in Portsmouth, the Victorious Music Festival is in full swing down on Southsea Common. Over on the island, it's the weekend of annual Isle of Wight International Scooter Rally, and yesterday hundreds of scooters made the ferry crossing from Old Portsmouth. On this very day, in 1984, Jenny crossed over with them - her last chance to find Deborah before the end of the month. ~ It is Saturday morning, the start of the bank holiday weekend, and this time she is taking the car ferry to Fishbourne, a few miles to the west of Ryde. A veil of fog hangs over the water, and the seam between sea and sky, crafted anew each morning, is stitched so finely that from the bow of the ship Jenny cannot tell where one ends and the other begins. Everything is white and empty and thick with silence. Lost in the mist somewhere off to the right of the ship, a foghorn cries out. A moment later, a muffled ...

    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 ...