Carys Bray's Blog, page 5

The Bookshop Book

Today Jen Campbell is visiting the blog and answering some questions about her writing, her work in a bookshop and her new book, The Bookshop Book, published by Constable (Little, Brown). Jen grew up in the north-east of England and went to Edinburgh University. She now lives in London where she works at an antiquarian bookshop. Her first book, Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops was a

Audio Book Giveaway

I'm giving away one copy of the unabridged audio book of A Song for Issy Bradley. It's a box of 9 CDs (a total of 11 hours) read beautifully by Emma Gregory. If you'd like to be in the draw, just click on this link and

a). "Like" my Facebook page (if you haven't already) 
b). Make a comment on the post about the giveaway. 


The draw will take place on Sunday 5th October. You can click on this

Lovely Stuff

On
Wednesday I read at Bad Language at The Castle Hotel in
Manchester. It's a great literature night. The performance space is lovely and
the crowd is enthusiastic and friendly. I really enjoyed the open mic readings
by Stephen James, Jasmine
Chatfield, Alex Webb, Brandon Bissell, Bissell, Roger Fenton, Stephen Quinlan, Anna Percy, Ros Ballinger, John Lean and Dave Hartley.  If you fancy an open

School Shoes - Follow Up

A few weeks ago I wrote this post about school shoes. 

While I was away last week someone from Clarks replied to my daughter's letter.  







I asked my daughter what she thought of the letter and this is what she had to say.

I don't know why they called me Ms Bray when I told them I'm 10 years old.  They didn't read my letter properly because they said thank you for your email - I didn't

The Imaginary Writer

At some point during the 2014 New Year celebrations - on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day, if I remember correctly - I bought a subscription to The New Yorker. It was an optimistic purchase, made during a moment when I was visualising myself as the writer who exists in my imagination. This writer has a strict routine and an organised desk. She reads The New Yorker over coffee, before beginning

Retreat

I've just arrived in Sheepwash in North Devon (here) where I'll be spending the next few days. I'm so excited to get a chance to write without interruption and to (hopefully) get the first bit of novel 2 into a state where I'm comfortable showing it to people.

Of course, most writing has to be done in a workman-like way, in between and around other things, but it's lovely to get away once in a

Nearly there

I handed in my PhD thesis this week. I still have to prepare for (and endure) the viva, and there may be corrections to make, but I'm pretty much *almost* finished. Hooray!

To celebrate, I went to my favourite restaurant (Master McGraths), had my favourite meal (lamb, followed by Eton mess), with my favourite person, and then came home and watched The Painted Veil.

Next week I'm going on a

On School Shoes

Yesterday I took my daughter to Clarks to buy some new school shoes. She didn't actually need new shoes, she has a perfectly good pair of Clarks shoes that still fit her, but they are boys' shoes. Alice has worn boys' shoes to school for a number of years (for the reasons she outlines below), but she is starting a new school next week and is feeling a little anxious about fitting in and making

Take it Cool by Jonathan Pinnock

Jonathan Pinnock is a prize-winning poet and short story writer. His fiction has featured in numerous anthologies and has been broadcast on BBC Radio Four. I first came across his writing when his sharp and witty collection Dot Dash won Salt Publishing's Scott Prize. I spoke to him about writing and his new book Take it Cool, a bio-historico-musicological-memoir. 



When did you start writing?

Listening

Although it was very exciting, it was also very strange to listen to A Song for Issy Bradley on BBC Radio 4. When I found out that the novel had been selected for Book at Bedtime I was delighted and curious about how it would be condensed. It must be tremendously difficult to abridge 105,000 words into 10, fifteen minute segments, and I'm very glad I didn't have to do it because a) it would have