Carys Bray's Blog, page 9

The Drowning of Arthur Braxton

A few weeks ago I entered a Twitter draw to win a copy of Caroline Smailes' novel The Drowning of Arthur Braxton and I won - hurray! The book arrived and I didn't plan to read it straight away, but I glanced at the cover, scanned the first page and changed my mind. I read the book in twenty-four hours and I'm still thinking about it nearly two weeks later.

The Oracle used to be a public

Book Launch

The WoMentoring Project

The WoMentoring Project launches today and I'm really excited to be a part of it.

About

The WoMentoring Project exists to offer free mentoring by
professional literary women to up and coming female writers who would otherwise
find it difficult to access similar opportunities.



The mission of The WoMentoring Project is simply to introduce
successful literary women to other women writers

Beautiful Words - an interview with Nik Perring

Today I interview writer Nik Perring whose new book Beautiful Words is published today!



Congratulations on the new book, Nik. Beautiful Words is really unusual. You employ a combination of fact, flash fiction, gorgeous illustrations and, of course, beautiful words. How did the book begin?




Thank you! And thanks for having me over. It's a lovely place. It actually began a couple of

Thinking about second novels

This week I've finally finished John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany. What a book! The story was meticulously crafted; so many disparate images and ideas came together in the closing scenes. The ending was perfect (and very sad). I'm glad I read A Payer for Owen Meany, a. because it was *so* good and b. because reading it was an exercise in practice-based research. The dénouement was perfect

London and back

This week I passed my Transfer Viva (hooray!) and then I went to London for an interview, a meeting and a very enjoyable dinner (during which I attempted to eat a fish as big as my arm and failed). 



Best bits: meeting some lovely bookish people; a funny recorded message in the toilet on the train that asked passengers not to flush their hopes, dreams or goldfish down the toilet; check-in at

Thresholds Feature Writing Competition

There's still time to enter the 2014 Thresholds Feature Writing Competition. It's a great competition, not only is entry free, there are prizes of £500 for first place and 2 x £100 for the runners up, and the shortlisted essays are often published. 

I was shortlisted in 2012 with this piece about Helen Simpson and again in 2013 with this piece about Adam Marek. 

This year, if I have the time,

Creative Writing Plus at MMU

On 19th March (tomorrow) I'll be reading from Sweet Home and A Song for Issy Bradley at MMU's Cheshire Campus between 1-2 o'clock.



The event is free and will take place in the Axis Arts Centre.

'Love, Life and Longing' - a review of Sweet Home

It's been almost 18 months since Sweet Home was published, so it was lovely to discover a new review, written by Impress Prize winner Carol Fenlon and posted at Thresholds, home of the international short story forum. 

Here's an excerpt:

"The stories in this collection are permeated by loss. Sometimes this loss comes in the form of an unexpected tragedy, such as the death of a child in ‘

Short Stories

This week I have been written a short story for the first time in *ages*. To get me in the mood, I read some great short stories by Tony Williams, Jackie Kay, Nuala Ni Chonchiur and Gee Williams.









Stories I especially enjoyed were Jackie Kay's 'These are not my clothes,' Gee Williams' 'That Story,' Nuala Ni Chonchiur's 'Queen of Tattoo' and Tony Williams' 'Gareth.'



This little book