Avril Joy's Blog, page 10

Ten Writing Competitions

Just finishing a short story or a novel and ready to submit to competitions? Here are ten that just might interest you. Writers & Artists and Retreat West have teamed up for a free writing competition that offers you the chance to win a place on one of Retreat West’s incredible writing retreats. All you […]

The Dreaded Writer’s Block?

We all  experience it – the scary time – when the page or the screen is blank. The mind is blank. Nothing comes – is this the end, we secretly wonder? Is it the dreaded writer’s block? (If you want my honest opinion – never! writer’s block is just another figment of our imagination) Will […]

Tutoring for Comma Press & Striking Gold

I thought I’d given up teaching. Well, almost. Even though I loved it, I felt my time as a teacher coming to an end. I was jaded perhaps, and I was protective of my writing time. But then along came Comma Press and whispered devilishly at my ear and before I knew it I’d agreed […]

Amsterdam Launch – Linen Press

I am just back from a gloriously sunny weekend in Amsterdam and the launch at the Boekhandel Van Rossum of Linen Press’s latest publication – Karen Kao’s The Dancing Girl and the Turtle. It was the perfect venue for a launch, surrounded as we were by books, and the crowd, for there was a crowd, […]

Confessions of an Author 3

I confess there are times when I fall out of love with Twitter big style and I just have to stop myself from going there. It brings out the worst in me. It’s not so much the way it can eat into my time as the way it preys on my insecurities and jealousies. (Yes, […]

Confessions of an Author – 2

I confess, I am a thief. I steal – I like to think from the best. I steal ideas, words, form, ways of doing. But I’m not alone… Pablo Picasso is widely quoted as having said that “good artists borrow, great artists steal.” Eliot said something similar about poets and before him Oscar Wilde and […]

Confessions of an Author – 1

I confess, I’m in love with George Saunders, of course I’ve never met him. But at least he’s alive. (I’ve got a friend who’s hopelessly in love with Bruce Chatwin and doesn’t seem to mind him being dead. ) But I ask you, who wouldn’t be in love with the man who wrote Lincoln in […]

Hyancinth and the Astronomer’s House

People keep raising their voices  in my new novel the Astronomer’s House and demanding to be heard. At first there was story number one – the building of the house, how it came to be, the Astronomer, his wife and daughter and what befalls them. I0,000 words and I thought it was over and that […]

The Secret of Writing

I’ve been away by the sea, writing – long walks, wine and writing go well together. I got a lot down in my notebook. Writing in the ‘flood,’  as Whitman advises. The secret of it all is to write in the gush, the throb, the flood of the moment–to put things down without deliberation–without worrying […]

So where do you find the time to do the housework ?

It was a while ago, but not that long ago. It was a wet winter night in a small town west of Manchester where writers had gathered in a community centre hut, heated by an ancient paraffin stove, to welcome my friend and mentor @liftwicetasted. She was there ( as a favour to a friend) […]