Carys Bray's Blog, page 15

Just Keep Walking

The treadmill desk arrived on Friday evening. It's pretty big and we had to rearrange the lounge in order to fit it in. We decided to put it in the window so I've got something to look at when I'm not looking at the screen.



Minor Issues:


When I first tried to work on the treadmill on Friday evening, the desk was a little wobbly. Neil packed the bracket with a piece of thin card and it

Shortly Speaking

There is a lovely, detailed review of Sweet Home at Shortly Speaking, a blog about contemporary short fiction. The review concludes with the following paragraph:

Whether she turns her unflinching gaze to the obscure realities of parenthood or experiments with lighter and more playful modes, Carys Bray comes across as a very exciting new voice in fiction. Sweet Home is not only a successful

Ebb & Flow Bookshop

This morning my friend Claire Massey (who has a gorgeous new website) posted this picture on Facebook. She took in a beautiful, just-opened indie bookshop in Chorley called Ebb & Flo. 

Sweet Home is right there next to Nicholas Royle's First novel and below Jenn Ashworth's The Friday Gospels - yipee!

A group of us are hoping to get together to explore Ebb & Flo, buy books and eat cake - all my

I will walk 500 miles

I haven't exercised for ages. I know I should get up earlier; I should take a break in the middle of the day and go for a walk; I should go out running once the kids are in bed - I should do lots of things, but I don't. In recent years my backside has developed into a sort of portable, writer's cushion. 



Neil tries to be helpful and encouraging. He reminds me that exercise has been shown

The Frank O'Connor Award

I was four years old when I saw a child playing the violin on television. Afterwards, I pestered my parents for lessons. I don't remember the television programme or the pestering, but I do remember playing the violin. I spent thousands of hours practising, taking exams and playing in various orchestras throughout my childhood and adolescence.

When I was seven my violin teacher decided I was

Matt Haig's The Humans

To celebrate the up-coming release of Matt Haig's new novel The Humans he asked a group of humans to read their favourite line from a chapter of the book.

My daughter and I had a lot of fun recording her segment which begins at 2:35.

Matt has been writing some excellent blogs for Booktrust, including this blog about his journey as a writer which is funny and extremely moving.

Lancashire Evening Post

Here's a mini review of Sweet Home in the Lancashire Evening Post.

Onwards!

I have pinched the title of this blog post from my colleague Rodge Glass who frequently signs off emails with 'onwards!' It always makes me smile and it also makes me feel strangely optimistic and cheery (I say strangely because I am not the most optimistic or cheery person in the universe).

One of the best things about knowing other writers is that you occasionally get to read their books

Win a copy of Sweet Home

Like or share the Sweet Home Facebook page in order to be in with a chance of winning a copy of the book on 31st March.

'Carys Bray and Carol Shields: Whimsy and Artifice'

I had a lovely surprise this morning when I woke up to a Tweet from @BristolPrize about a blog post by Professor Charles May: 'Carys Bray and Carol Shields: Whimsy and Artifice'.

Professor May writes a blog called Reading the Short Story. He is one of the leading literary scholars of the short story and has
published numerous books on the subject including Edgar Allan Poe: A
Study of the