Avril Joy's Blog, page 2

More Twitter Love for Sometimes a River Song

Hi Everyone

Round about now I should be championing my new book this One Wild Place and more of that very soon but this week there has been yet again more love on Twitter for Sometimes A River Song and I find myself wondering if the universe is trying to tell me something – perhaps that I didn’t work hard enough to promote it when it was first published, that I’m someone who moves too quickly onto the next project, who doesn’t dare value her work sufficiently or take praise and compliments ...

New Life, New Books…

Hi Everyone

It’s some time since I’ve made it to these pages, most probably because in the main life has taken over and my days have been full of visiting family and friends, as well as important birthdays – the most remarkable of which has been the birth of my first grandchild. Needless to say I am overwhelmed and enthralled by her!

Like many I hope I have also been enjoying the early summer sun by being in the garden (my second love after writing) and as if this wasn’t enough I’ve also ...

In a Pond in the Rain – Swimming with George Saunders

Hi Everyone,

from tomorrow we can sit outside in our gardens with up to six people! Though if today is anything to go by, we are likely to get soaking wet and freeze to death! No need for despair however, Tuesday’s forecast is for sun, so here’s hoping that we can once again begin the slow waking from our enforced hibernation.

If we were sitting down together next week in my garden over a coffee or even a glass of wine, I would undoubtedly be telling you how I’ve just read the best book ev...

Not the Cruellest Month

Hi Everyone – it goes without saying that I’m very chuffed to be posting extracts from this month’s newsletter from Linen Press. If you’re interested, in what Linen Press are up to you can sign up to receive the newsletter here

Stories About Love

Hi Everyone – 

Last week, on Wednesday at 7 pm I had my first Covid vaccination. Hooray! and thank you to Astra Zeneca, and to Oxford and all who’ve worked and still do work towards its success. This includes my brother Mark, an Oxford mathematician, who is very much involved in data gathering and analysis and has been working his socks off, since last March! 

Like everyone I’m looking forward to the time when we’ve all had our vaccinations and can begin to welcome the summer and at least ...

Snow, Short Stories and Memoir

Hi Everyone

So, the snow has gone and I for one am very glad. I don’t enjoy the cold. For me, cold is a retreat into myself, another form of isolation – a hibernation if you will. Muffled in layers I grow more silent; still, as if holding my breath to conserve warmth. And the snow, pretty though it is for those first few days, drains the colour from the land. I’m glad to return to the muted palette of late winter, dare I say early spring? The soft greys and greens, the snowdrops and grass – t...

Radio Days

Yesterday in the afternoon, I felt weary and my back ached as it often does, so I thought an hour prone, relaxing with the radio as companion, would be good. A way of treating myself – the radio has been a comfort to me, from the early days of childhood when I lay in bed in my grandparent’s house, Edith and Jack’s, with the smell of bacon wafting upstairs along with the shipping forecast.

I caught the end of Paul Muldoon on Poetry Please – I couldn’t quite connect with the poetry, too much t...

Wallflower

Dear All

I’m not going to lie, (although I am currently writing a memoir piece which tells how good a liar I’d become by the age of ten) making hand sewn pamphlets of my prose poem Wallflower (see previous post, goals for 2021) has not been easy – understatement!

This has mainly been due to my poor arthritic hands which no longer want to sew, or attempt anything fiddly. It’s a shame because I really enjoyed the process. Other problems have been technical, mainly revolving around my new but...

2021 – New Writing Intentions

Dear All

I’m not sure Happy New Year is quite the appropriate greeting yet, certainly not as we move into Lockdown Number 3. But I am hoping for good things for all of us this year, and a return to something approaching normal.

Meanwhile in face of continuing isolation, and cold, snowy weather, what is there to do but write? The turn of the year is for many of us a time to evaluate last year’s work and to set goals or wishes for the future. This year has been no exception for me. On New Y...

What Comes of Lockdown

Hi Everyone

It’s tough being in lockdown and coming out into Tier 3 – its tough whatever tier you may be in – and enough said of tiers because it all feels somewhat lacking in consistency and logic to me. I worry, especially about the North and our future…

Some days I open up my tablet – look at the news, scroll down through the headlines, know I am in danger of being overwhelmed by things over which I have no control – and close it quickly. So much inequality and suffering…

To stay pos...