Carys Bray's Blog, page 10

Win one of the new Issy Bradley proofs & a proof of Dea Brovig's 'The Last Boat Home'.

I'm giving away one of the lovely new proofs of A Song for Issy Bradley and a proof of Dea Brovig's excellent novel The Last Boat Home which will be published on Thursday.

If you'd like to be in the draw, pop over to my Facebook page and press the like button.

All existing 'likers' will automatically be entered.

A name will be drawn out of a hat on Sunday 9th March. I'll dedicate

Win one of the new Issy Bradley proofs

I'm giving away one of the lovely new proofs of A Song for Issy Bradley.

If you'd like to be in the draw, pop over to my Facebook page and press the like button.

All existing 'likers' will automatically be entered.

A name will be drawn out of a hat on Sunday 9th March. I'll dedicate the book and post it anywhere in the world.

Interview with Dan Powell

Dan Powell is a
prize winning author whose short fiction has appeared across the internet, on
mobile phone apps, and in print, most notably in the pages of Carve, Paraxis,
Fleeting and The Best British Short Stories 2012. His debut collection of short
fiction, Looking Out Of Broken Windows, was shortlisted for the Scott Prize in
2013 and is published on 15th March 2014 by
Salt. 

I spoke to

Junk

Like most people, I don't like junk mail and/or spam. Whenever I have the opportunity to tick a box to opt out of sales emails, I tick it. I've registered with the telephone preference service (for all the use it is) and I throw unsolicited post straight into my paper recycling bin.

On Friday my 10 year old daughter came home from school with a Slimming World leaflet. Now, I quite like

Reading - February's best bits

                   

             

            

I've read so many fabulous books this month - I'm knackered, there have been a lot of very late nights thanks to numerous just one more page moments.

It seems terribly unfair not to review them all properly, but time constraints make it difficult (I've *nearly* finished the first draft of my PhD thesis - hooray - which means it's nearly time to

Brighton

I had a lovely time in Brighton. I met lots of very nice book-loving people, ate some lovely food and read Rodge Glass's novel Hope for Newborns on the train.

While I travelled home, my publisher presented my book at a conference. Here's a picture of the cover on an enormous screen and here's me talking about A Song for Issy Bradley in the short film that I did in November.




Unfortunately,

Priorities

We spent half term without a landline or internet connection. The kids couldn't play on Minecraft or watch the football (they were upset) and they couldn't complete their homework (they weren't upset).

I couldn't work on my PhD because I'm at a point in my thesis where I'm discussing several short stories that can only be accessed online (I was upset). It was a bit of a revelation to realise

U.K cover

Here's the U.K cover of A Song for Issy Bradley.









I think it's gorgeous. Not only is it a little bit red, (my favourite colour) but the bird is beautifully collaged out of things that are important in the novel: geese, autumn, the sea and a little girl. And the lovely quote from Nathan Filer is a wonderful surprise. 

National Flash Fiction Day

This year National Flash Fiction Day will take place on 21st June. If you would like to be in with a chance of publication in the National Flash Fiction Day Anthology, you can enter the 100 word Flash Competition (details below). The ten winners will be see their stories published and they will also receive prizes of books from National Flash Fiction Day sponsors (titles to be confirmed).

To

Writing - January's best bits

After a pre and post Christmas break I'm back to writing at my treadmill desk, but it's in a new location. We had to move it at the end of November to make space for the Christmas tree and after the tree came down I decided I'd like the desk to stay put, in a corner of the lounge.

At the moment I'm finishing off my PhD and tentatively working on something that *might* be a novel. It's exciting