Carys Bray's Blog, page 13

Lovely Books

I've been a bit of a literature magnet in recent weeks and have managed to acquire several piles of fantastic books. Above is my current 'to read' pile. Next up is Jo Baker's Longbourn which has had amazing reviews and I know it's going to be gorgeous because I had a sneaky read of the first chapter a couple of weeks ago. Below are some of the books I've been reading.

I really enjoyed What

Writers' Forum

Here's a small piece about Sweet Home and competitions in Writers' Forum Magazine. 


There are a couple of mistakes (including the book title and the surname of one of the authors who kindly wrote a cover quote) but hey, you can't have everything, right?

At Books Are My Bag

I had a lovely time on Saturday afternoon during the Books Are my Bag event at Formby Books.

I read the title story from Sweet Home and stayed for a while to chat to some of the bookshop customers about publishing, novels, and erotic fiction - theirs, not mine! One man had even made special cakes, how good is that?!

Guest Post: Poet and Short Story Writer, Alison Lock

Poet and writer Alison Lock's short story collection Above the Parapet was published in April 2013 by Indigo Dreams Publishing. Her stories have been described as 'soulful, unsettling and beautifully written.' Below, she discusses the interesting relationship between poetry and short stories and her writing influences.



Questions of Influence and Origin from Above
the Parapet by Alison Lock.

Books Are My Bag

I'll be at Formby Books on Saturday 14th September from 2 o'clock as part of the Books Are My Bag campaign.

The idea is to visit your local bookshop on 14th September, join in their party and buy books. The best place to connect with books is in a *real* shop where you can see and smell them (smelling books is very important - no-one in my family understands this, but it's true!).




Here is

Out on submission & a playlist

It’s autumn and things are dying everywhere. Flies speckle the windowsills in the school toilets and the leaves on the hedge in the back garden are as crispy as Bran Flakes. There’s a big, dead spider in Jacob Bradley’s bedroom, all folded up like a hairy umbrella and Mum is there too, lying in the bottom bunk, silent and still like sleeping beauty. 

The bit about Mum is a secret. Dad says

Is anything sacred?

All that remains for the summer (ie. the next 72 hours) is the completion of a piece about The Book of Mormon Musical. I'm busy tying myself in knots as I try to
define what I mean by 'sacred stories'. In his essay ‘Is Nothing
Sacred’ Salmon Rushdie poses the following questions: ‘Do I, perhaps, find
something sacred after all? Am I prepared to set aside as holy the idea of the
absolute

Come Dine With Me and other summer fun

The children and I like to watch Come Dine With Me. We like to laugh at the awful food, the awful entertainment and, in particular, the awful people. Occasionally, for a treat, we watch it while we eat our tea (frozen pizza or some other equally desperate, Saturday evening concoction) and still manage to feel superior to the poor contestants. At the end of the show, we say, 'We should do that,'

Ultimate Multi-tasking

I love this New Yorker article about treadmill desks by Susan Orlean.  She writes:

"The biggest problem with working at a treadmill desk: the compulsion to announce constantly that you are working at a treadmill desk. It’s a lot like the early days of cell-phone calls, when the simple fact that you were doing what you were doing seemed so amazing that most conversations consisted largely of

Walk this Way

After numerous late nights finishing the latest draft of the novel and a brief holiday, it's time to get back into the swing of things. I've missed my daily desk-walking and this Walk Your Waist Off article in the Telegraph has made me anxious to begin again.

In the article, Joanna Hall claims that daily walking (with the correct posture) improves balance, cardiovascular health and stamina,