Paula R.C. Readman's Blog, page 83

A Day to Remember

75 years ago the world changed. Once again the guns fell silent and people took to the streets to celebrate peace across Europe. It is only right we should remember the sacrifice made by others to change the course of history and to bring around peace once more. It is important to remember to that all countries in Europe worked side by side, including those who were the aggressors, to bring everlasting peace and freedom to us all.

As we work together to free the world from this terrible virus, we find ourselves working towards the same goals as that generation before us did in 1945. It is only when nations work as one, can we hope to bring about lasting changes for everyone.

Wherever you are in the world today. I wish to send you my blessings of hope, peace and above all happiness. Have a wonderful day.

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Waterloo Art Festival Writing Competition

What a wonderful start to the day. I’m delighted to find my name and story Cobalt Blue in the list of winners of the Waterloo Art Festival Writing Competition this morning. My only disappointment is my husband, friends and cousin won’t be able to join the other winners for a wonderful get together in London.

Mehreen Ahmed: Dolly

Gail Aldwin: The Price of Firewood 

Christopher Bowles: Chroma

Maxine Churchman: Pulling Together

Jeanne Davies: Utopian Dream

Jo Dearden: A Small Clay Vase

Linda Flynn: Fishing in Troubled Waters 

Anne Forrest: Number Twenty-seven

Dawn Knox: Rising from the Ashes

Roz Lyn: Circle Time

Paula R C Readman: Cobalt Blues

Hannah Retallick: Bookclub for the Elderly

Theresa Sainsbury: Transforming Teenagers

Allison Symes: Books and Barbarians

This will be my third winning story, so I’m feeling pretty pleased with myself. Thank you so much, Gill James and the Bridge House Publishing team. Now I’m off to do more editing. Another busy day ahead of me.

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CafeLit 9

A publisher I write for has a site called CafeLit. The site posts a story every day from a wide range of writers. Whether that be a new writer just set out on their writing career or an established writer with writing awards under their belt. So if you’re a new or established writer looking for a place to send your work then try CafeLit

Here’s a list of writers and their story titles that have made it into the collection for publication this year.

Paula R C Readman: No Laughing matter.
Jim Bates: Sirrico peak
Hannah Retallick: Think Pink
Dawn Knox: The Stag Do
Paula Readman: Rear View Mirror
Mason Bushell: The Heart Shaped Carving In Old Oak Tree
Yasmine Lever: Papier mache dreams
Luke S: The Front Lines
Wendie Lovell: The Purple Scarf
Pauline Howard: Hot Stones
Matthew Roy Davey: The Butterfly Hook
Mark Readman: The King’s Shilling
Janet Howson: The Trial Run
Ray Daley : Two Tickets to the End of the World
Hannah Retallick: Unspoken Unheard
Dawn De Braal: Eii’s Worms
Allison Symes: Humourless
Debz Hobbs-Wyatt: Looking for Graceland
Robin Wrigley: Milly and her Iridescent Pantyhose
Mason Bushell: The Magician and The Jinn
Penny Rogers: The Saving of Banerjee
Jim Bates: Was it just my imagination?
Alex Womack: A Summer Morning in 1976
Maxine Churchman: Schadenfrende
Sally Zigmond: The Perfection of Hopelessness
Hannah Retallick: They Want
Wendy Pike: Bonzo the Dog
Allison Symes: The Green Door
Kim Martins: The Trapper’s Torment
Dawn Kentish Knox: Christmas Echoes
Jim Bates: Was it Just My Imagination?
Gill James: The Yellow Bus
Gill James: Three’s a Crowd

I made it into last year’s collection. The sad thing is this year we may miss out on meeting up for the book launch in December. It’s lovely to meet the other writers face to face over a meal and a glass of wine. Though we all belong to an online Facebook group aka The Clubhouse where we chat, it not the same as meet socially.

[image error]Last Year Collection

Learning Somethings New.

Either I’m suffering from lockdown madness or my tinnitus has learnt how to play the didgeridoo. Hopefully it’s just the musician who lives at the bottom of my garden. Maybe he’s either learning to play one or teaching his children. It sounds amazing, and quite haunting. Much better than the sound of traffic and planes.
Are you teaching yourself and your children something new during this lockdown?

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Jibbernocky & Education

I grew up in a poor household. University was a place where wealth and clever people went. Both my parents had a basic education, though my mother had learning difficulties, and could hardly write. So education has always been very important to me even though I did badly at school.

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I’ve always been in awe of third world countries where their children are willing to walk miles to go to school and work in classes that are no more that a shed, or outside under trees. What’s important to them is they know education will give them freedom, freedom from poverty. When Black Hare Press gave a call out for their Books in Homes charity anthology, Jibbernocky a Lewis Carroll’ themed submission, I jumped at the chance. I really wanted to get my story into this collection for young readers aged 8 to 12.

All profits to Books in Homes (Australia and USA)
Books in Homes is a charitable foundation that provides books-of-choice to children living in remote, disadvantaged and low socio-economic circumstances, ensuring crucial early literacy engagement and the development of reading skills needed for lifelong achievement.

My story Jelly and Ice Cream is the retelling of the mad hatter’s tea party from a boy’s point of view. I was overjoyed by its selection and to find it has been illustrated by Amy Cunningham, adds to my excitement.

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My novella, The Funeral Birds is doing well too. I now have 12 reviews on it. All positive so far. I discovered another new one today. Thank you, Gail It was a lovely surprise and I’m so pleased you enjoyed it.

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Best wishes all and keep safe.

Just a little dip.

I love the village where I live. It has an interesting history. Created by a Francis Henry Crittall, a man who was before his time. He was part of the garden city movement. He wanted his workers to live in modern dwellings with ample garden, with playing fields for recreations and amusements. A real businessman with a heart of gold who knew the real heart of his business was his employees. The village was created in 1926.

[image error]Silver End, Essex. taken in the 1930’s

When he built the village, after buying the land in the 1890’s, he employed men coming back from the First World War who were disabled to build the houses. Anyone who worked for him were entitled to a house and a job once the village was built. He made plans for the village to have its own hospital too. There was three farms to supply fresh food, a Co-op shop, bakery, hardware, hairdressers, post office, and a school. We still have the shops, doctors, post office and the school here.

[image error]Silver End, Essex

There’s only one down side to live here and it can be very annoying when it happens… a sudden drop in power. I write on a tower computer. It’s my main one, and holds my writing projects, family history and photos. I only connect it to the internet when updating the program I run it on. This morning after working through the edits, the power dropped. When it started up again, I had lost the last two sentences that I had spent ages getting right.

[image error]In the Heart of the Essex countryside.

All is sorted now until it happens again. Have a great day all.

Earth Day

Sorry I’m a bit late with acknowledging Earth Day, but as you know a lot of good things are happening to me while all the craziness is going on in the world. The Covid19 has slowed humanity’s pace and given Mother Nature a small breathing space. In fact Covid19 has given humans a window of opportunity to glimpse our world, if we moved at a slower pace. Unfortunately, it has come at a high price as the death rate continues to grow.

I for one hope we as a race that share this planet with hundreds of other different species have learnt a valuable lesson. We must be more respectful to the creatures that inhabit this world with us. The publisher at CafeLit selected my story ‘ A Message in a Bottle’ last year for Earth Day 2020. On Wednesday in celebration of Earth Day, they posted on their site. If you would like to read my story please follow this Link. I hope you enjoy it. Have a wonderful day.

[image error]Taken in Whitby, North Yorkshire, England

Stone Angels

After years of writing, editing, rejection and rewriting my novel Stone Angels has found a home with Darkstroke. Stone Angels tells the story of an artist, James Ravencroft and is set in the 1960’s. The setting for the book is between London and Suffolk during the movement of British Pop culture. The novel is told from James’s point of view and start in the early 60’s and finishes in the early 70’s. You will uncover the dark truth about James’ ten paintings known as Roofscapes.

I shall keep you updated on the timeline of its release.

[image error]Just an artist at work not James. Picture came from pixabay.com

The Times They are a Changing…

When I set out on my writing journey in 2002 I had to climb a mountain. I felt the cards were stacked against me, with only a basic education and no understanding of English Grammar. I left school with no qualifications and was unskilled so the only jobs open to me were dead end ones. I had one ambition in life, a childhood dream, and something I felt I was good at. I did try to get into art college, but failed due to the lack of qualifications in Maths and English. Next I tried to take the route via evening classes. At first these were affordable for me, but life took me in a different route.

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I got married and had a son. For a while, the same as with all women, our dreams take a backseat as we put others before us. Life isn’t always kind to us, and things don’t always follow the routes we plan. My greatest problem has been my lack of confidence and self belief. Too often I have allowed other people’s negative opinions shape me over the years rather than dig deep within myself and fight on. In my thirties I was lucky enough to meet my second husband. He became my backbone and strength. He gave me a card quite early on in our relationship. The words still haunt me.. I Believe In You. One of the verses says I’ve seen so many of your strengths. I know that there are great things out there for you and it’s within your power to make them happen. I have always kept this card beside my computer, and reread those words whenever I felt my self-belief waning.

Since climbing the mountain of doubt, rejection and lack of confidence I’ve never quite believed in my successes. Every accepted publication has been a fluke as far as my inter voice is concerned. It’s as though all my past demons won’t allow me to enjoy a moment in the spotlight for even the briefest of moments. The Funeral Birds is my first step toward my main goal. My long term plan has always been to publish a novel. After hours, months and years that goal is a lot closer than I could have thought possible.

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As I sit here writing these words, I know in truth, I’m only half way up the mountain and the demons are closing in as the voices in my head make me question my ability. The problem is when you’ve never had the belief in yourself you begin to create obstacles for yourself. Of course the book won’t sell, can you write another one as good as this one.etc….

So as the mist lifts and I look to the next part of my journey, I must silence the voices and kick back the demons snapping at my ankles if I’m going to move on. It must be remembered the only thing that stands between my dream of success and failure, is me. My single collection is with the publisher and we have talked about cover design. So I’m looking forward to seeing the finished book.

Yesterday, I received an exciting email, but I can’t say anything more about that at the moment. I know, what a tease I’m being, but I’m sure you’re happy to wait a couple of days to find out, my dear readers. After all it is said, the best thing come to those who are willing to wait.

The Poet’s Words

Last year I had an acceptance by Kandisha Press for their ‘Women in Horror’ anthology. In January this year, the publisher asked all the writers who were accepted for that collection to name a theme for their next anthology, so I put forward the idea of ‘Graveyard Smash’. Jill got in contact with me to say they had selected my idea. As I had been busy with other writing projects, I didn’t have time to think about it.

Yesterday, before starting work on editing my novel again, I decided to clearing my desk of some paperwork, I came across a copy of Jill’s email with all the submission guidelines on it. As I hadn’t anything suitable to submit, I spent yesterday racking my brains to come up with an idea and found my idea shelf was lacking. What I normally at times like this, is to reach for a poetry book. I have a quite a collection ranging from Victorian works through to 1945. I find reading poetry unlocks my creative thoughts.

Poetry allows my mind to visualise what the poet has creating through their choice of words. Poets are expressionists. They view the world around them from a single point of view. They are exploring the world through their emotions via smell, touch, sight and hearing. As a writer of short stories, I’m viewing the world from my characters’ view point, what they see, smell, hear and touch. I have to show the whole picture by telling my characters’ story. Poetry is about glimpsing the world through an image. How the poet visualise it at that moment and how it effects them.

I then flick through the poetry book hunting for a sentence that leaps out at me, or I’d find a theme poem and read a few lines hunting for something that jumps out at me. If my story theme is horror then may I’ll read a poem about death or anything that touches something deep within me. It’s about finding a trigger to create a picture in my mind. Once I’ve found a sentence that excites me, I ask who would be saying it? What are they talking about and why?

My finished story bears no resemblance to the poem that has triggered my storytelling. I once read the poem ‘Midnight on the Great Western by Thomas Hardy. It’s about train journey. The emotional feeling I got from reading the poem allowed me to tap into my creativity. I was able to write a story about a young man returning from war to his family. On a train he meets a man who at the end of the story, the reader meets again. The story I wrote is called, ‘Gemini Rising’ and its published in Cafelit 8 if you would like to read it. If you live overseas you can find it on Amazon. There are two of my stories in this collection, as well as other great stories by other amazing writers.

Yesterday my poetry reading session has reaped some rewards as I now know who my main character is, why he is where he is, and what the problem was that has him in the situation he’s in. Thanks to the poets, Sylvia Plath, A Alvarez, and Peter Porter.

I hope you’re all keep safe and keep distance too. Remember your health service needs you, as much as we need them at this difficult time. My best wishes to you all.

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