Words on a Page

  The Portsmouth Authors Collective seeks to put the spotlight on local talent who live in or take inspiration from the city and its surrounding areas. Today’s interview is with the poet and debut novelist Tina Cathleen MacNaughton.   Author Bio: Tina Cathleen MacNaughton has written and published four books: a collection of poetry entitled On the Shoulders of Lions (The Choir Press, 2021); two children’s books, When the Elves Rescued Christmas and Santa’s Still Asleep (WriteRhymes, 2020 and 2021), and a novel with a 1980s music background Delphy Rose – the Girl Who Wrote Songs (Troubador). ~ Loree:  Welcome to my blog, Tina. And thanks for agreeing to be interviewed. Every time I scroll through Facebook, lately, I see that another of your poems has been accepted for publication. What is your biggest achievement to date? Tina: Finishing and publishing my novel Delphy Rose . It was my dream to publish a novel before I was fifty. I am eight years late, but w...

  So far in this series of interviews with writers from the Portsmouth Authors Collective , I've focussed on novelists. But we also have many non-fiction writers in the Collective, and in this interview I speak with Paul Newell who has published numerous books on Portsmouth History, as well as books on a number of other historical subjects. Author Bio:  Paul was born in Portsmouth and returned after studying in London. He now works as an HR Manager. A keen genealogist, Paul has a passion for local history and in recent years has been researching the history of Portsmouth during Victorian and Edwardian times. Paul’s first publication, Shocking Tales from Victorian Portsmouth , was a huge success, and several books around these topics have followed. ~ Loree: Welcome to my blog, Paul. It’s great to have you hear. Let’s jump right in. You write historical non-fiction. How did it all start?   Paul: I was researching some family info after I found out a great grandfathe...

The Portsmouth Authors Collective  was created to promote the work of the city’s current crop of authors, and this series of interviews offers a glimpse into the work their doing and their writing lives. This time around I'm speaking the the thriller writer Christine Lawrence. Author Bio: Christine Lawrence is an ex-psychiatric nurse turned author and spoken word performer whose fiction draws on real life experiences and local settings. She was one of the BookFest 2012 ‘ Writers to Watch ’ . Since then, her shorter fiction has been featured in a variety of local anthologies and projects including  Portsmouth Fairy Tales for Grown Ups , the Writing Edward King project, the transmedia event  Cursed City Dark Tide , and  Pompey Writes: the Best of Star & Crescent . In 2021, she facilitated a series of writing workshops as part of the Libraries Connected/BBC project, ‘Novels that shaped the world’ . A creative writing tutor, she is passi...

Portsmouth and its environs have inspired an impressive number of well-known writers over the years, and the area continues to be a hub of creative activity for writers of every persuasion.  The Portsmouth Authors Collective  was created to promote the work of the city’s current crop of authors, and this series of interviews offers a glimpse into what they're doing. Author Bio:  Chris Blackwater is an engineer-turned-writer from Leeds, who now lives in Fareham. His first novel, Emergency Drill , set on a North Sea oil rig, was shortlisted for the 2020 CWA Debut Dagger Award and was published by Dark Edge Press in 2022. ~ Loree: So, Chris, welcome to the interview. I’m looking forward to getting to know you a bit better. You’ve said you began writing stories to pass the time when working away from home. Was working on oil rigs really that boring? Chris: Working offshore can be quite tough: it’s a 12-hour shift for 14 days with no time off. However, I was only going ou...

Douglas Bruton’s latest novella is as stunning as his last – the wonderful Blue Postcards , also published by Fairlight Books . Like the earlier novella, With or Without Angels glisten’s with finely-wrought prose. But there are other similarities, too: a contemplative aging protagonist attempting to untangle memory from illusion; a fragmentary structure; and use of real artists as inspiration. In Blue Postcards , one of the storylines follows the enigmatic artist Yves Klein, and according to the author’s acknowledgements, With or Without Angels was inspired by the Scottish artist Alan Smith . The unnamed protagonist, an artist himself, draws inspiration (as did Smith) from the 18 th century Venetian painter GiandomenicoTiepolo ’s painting Il Mondo Nuovo ‘The New World’. No longer able to paint, but still with ‘too many thoughts in his head’ the artist takes a young assistant, Livvy, to help him express his artistic vision. As his hands have become unsteady, he has swapped his...

  The   Portsmouth Authors Collective   is   a group of local authors who have come together to promote not only their own work but also that of other members. Members of the Collective publish a full array of fiction and non-fiction titles. In our latest interview, I talk to crime novelist Pete Adams. Author Bio: Pete Adams is a Portsmouth-based architect and writer. He describes himself as an inveterate daydreamer, and escapes into those dreams by writing crime thrillers with a thoughtful dash of social commentary. He has a writing style shaped by his formative years on an estate that re-housed London families after WWII, and his books have been likened to the writing of Tom Sharpe. Pete lives in Southsea with his partner June, the children having flown the coop, and has three beautiful granddaughters who will play with him so long as he promises not to be silly. ~ Loree: Welcome to the blog, Pete, and thanks for agreeing to the interview.  We’ve kn...