Cherry Potts's Blog

Short stories and poems on Image

recordings from BrockleyMax session of stories and poems about image.

Inspired by the fact that our venue, The Brookmill Pub, was also hosting a photography exhibition, we chose ‘image’ as our theme.

My story, Double Exposure, is about doppelgangers and alternate lives.

and three poems, Great Queen Street, from Joy//Us Poems of Queer Joy ; 20:20, and How Does It End

Many thanks to Robin Green, photographer and audio engineer for these magnificent recordings.

Short stories on Image

Join me and my fellow WooA writers at BrockleyMax for a free session of stories about image. 2nd June 7.30

Inspired by the fact that our venue, The Brookmill Pub, is also hosting a photography exhibition, we chose ‘image’ as our theme.

My story, Double Exposure, is about doppelgangers and alternate lives.

You can bring along your own piece of flash (max 500 words) on the theme of image to read, or just come along and listen.

Not entirely sure who else is getting involved, but probably: Jane McLaughlin, Bartle Sawbridge, Nicola Rossi and Neil Lawrence.

Writers of our Age

Judge’s comments on The Bog Mermaid

While I wait to read the actual publication contract, Red Hen Press are keeping me happy with the delightful comments from Elizabeth Bradfield, the judge of the Quill Prose Award (the one Mermaid just won!)

What does a bog contain?  Water, layer upon layer of sphagnum, darkness, cold; things preserved in that airless chill beyond what light and air would allow.  So the past burbles into the present, and currents between people and within families haunt the pages of this book.  Something of Sarah Waters’s restrained sense of strange eddies through “The Bog Mermaid,” a disturbance more emotional than narrative.  There are silences here left unspoken, unexplained, but I know they hold truths, and I trust the writer’s restraint, their urging to listen to echoes and, by that, understand the shape of what creates them. The book haunts me. 

What a wonderful cover blurb this would make!

The Bog Mermaid wins Quill Prose Prize

Excited to announce that The Bog Mermaid has won the Quill Prose Award 2022, run by Red Hen Press

There won’t be a publication, we couldn’t agree terms on the contract, but still, a prize is a prize.

Read about the book itself here

Read about searching for the right place to set the book here

Watch a video of me reading an extract at the Writing the Past event for Hither Green Festival 2019 here (yes, it does take a long time to write a novel, doesn’t it!)

I want to thank Muireann, Maria and Paula for the stories and permission to use them, and the woman in the audience at a reading in Brixton for the title.

And Cat, Henry, Katy, Ruth, Jenn’s dad and various others for letting me pick their brains for accuracy and science.

And WooA, especially Neil and Bartle, for listening to the entire thing in 15 minute slots over a couple of years!

The Bog Mermaid to be published by Red Hen Press

Excited to announce that The Bog Mermaid has won the Quill Prose Award 2022, and will be published in 2025 by Red Hen Press

There’s nothing on their website yet, so you’ll have to make do with some posts I made along the way about writing the book.

Read about the book itself here

Read about searching for the right place to set the book here

Watch a video of me reading an extract at the Writing the Past event for Hither Green Festival 2019 here (yes, it does take a long time to write a novel, doesn’t it!)

I want to thank Muireann, Maria and Paula for the stories and permission to use them, and the woman in the audience at a reading in Brixton for the title.

And Cat, Henry, Katy, Ruth, Jenn’s dad and various others for letting me pick their brains for accuracy and science.

And WooA, especially Neil and Bartle, for listening to the entire thing in 15 minute slots over a couple of years!

Seabirds and Spiders

On Sunday at 12:45 I’m joining Cornwall-based authors, Clare Owen and Jackie Taylor at the Causley Festival, where we will be talking about Cornwall, writing fiction imbued with nature, and the role of seabirds in their writing.

We had flirted with the idea of meeting up somewhere in Cornwall for this, but instead it is online, so anyone can come. Free!

My contribution is to talk about why spiders matter to me, and more generally about publishing writers who live in geographically isolated places. Our individual sections are pre-recorded and then we’ll talk about writing, publishing, the climate crisis, and anything else that grabs us, in a Q& A that the audience is positively encouraged to join in.

Book a ticket

Back in the Water – video

The idea behind back in the water as a theme (Brockley Max festival, Writers of Our Age) was getting back to normal life. We still haven’t really, and we didn’t stick to that brief, but water definitely came into it! Two stories from me, Lift Off, which will be featured in FlashFlood 2021 on 26th June, and Greenlanders, which was read at Liars’ League a while back.

Back In The Water

I’m joining my WooA mates to read at Brockley Max on 3rd June at 7.30.

Our theme is Back in the Water, a sort of post lockdown dipping of toes into the sea type of idea. We may not be taking either of these ideas literally.

We are staying on line because although WooA (Writers of OUR Age) originated in Brockley, some longstanding members have moved away and it is impractical to get us together in real life.

We think there will be five writers, with five stories, of betweeen 1000 and 1500 words each, but like our theme our plans are fluid.

Come and join us, the water’s lovely!

Tickets are free, and available from Eventbrite. Please book to receive the zoom link.

Hosted by Arachne Press.

Yes, Shortlisted for the Bridport!

Had to keep quiet until now, but just been watching the award ceremony so it MUST be ok now.

I was shortlisted for the Bridport Flash Fiction prize 2020 for my tiny story Medusa Wonders.

Ta da!!

Air: Sylphs, Spirits and Swan Maidens

My latest publication!

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I couldn’t make the launch, which although on line was at 2am in the morning, so I recroded a reading of the first page or so. Here it is.

my creature of the air, is nothing like the cover image. I had something more like this in mind, but with wilder hair and feathers on her face.

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