Maureen Flynn's Blog, page 16
January 29, 2014
Poetry Peek: Books
Without further ado, I present to you the first poem in my upcoming poetry collection, My Heart’s Choir Sings.
Books
The open, sterilized jaws of
your flat beckoned, quiet
Like the yellowed pages of books
That were your long time companions.
Their old, musty scent,
Those dog eared, well worn tomes
See me bow headed, slumped.
Closer now to your essence
Than ever before.
Like it? You can pre-order the ebook on Smashwords by following this Link
January 28, 2014
Cover Reveal: My Heart’s Choir Sings
Finally, the time is upon me! My wonderful cover artist, Tegan Ivison, sent me the final cover art for my poetry collection.
A eulogy and a verse novella. Grief, guilt, redemption. How do you go on in a world without your other half?
Think Ted Hughes Birthday Letters meets Dorothy Porter verse and you’d have My Heart’s Choir Sings. This is the story of Stewart Hinchcliffe, a writer and an artist who loses his lover and fellow creative in tragic circumstances. As he cleans out their old apartment, each new object brings back bittersweet memories. Throughout the 25 poem sequence, grief, guilt and anger color his memories. Who is to blame for what happened? Where did everything go wrong? And how on earth does Stuart move on from his past?
(Click the image for the full size!)
Interested? You can pre-order from Smashwords Here for the 1st Feb release date. Or if you’d rather wait for the release date, or to get the latest news on the virtual book tour, like the facebook page Here.
Review: The Reflections of Queen Snow White
Title: The Reflections of Queen Snow White
Author: David Meredith
Date Published: 2013
RRP: $1.83
The Reflections of Snow White re-tells the story of Snow White… yes… but also not really. The point of this short novel is not to revise a beloved Grimm fairy story so much as to use Snow’s relationship with Charming to talk about life after ever after and the process of grief. I did a bit of internet research and Meredith wrote this story originally as a short story after multiple deaths in his family. It is therefore a story very dear to his heart. He also has loads of fun playing around with the German origins of the tale and experiments with the fairy story tone.
From the blurb:
What happens when “happily ever after” has come and gone?
On the eve of her only daughter, Princess Raven’s wedding, an aging Snow White finds it impossible to share in the joyous spirit of the occasion. The ceremony itself promises to be the most glamorous social event of the decade. Snow White’s castle has been meticulously scrubbed, polished and opulently decorated for the celebration. It is already nearly bursting with jubilant guests and merry well-wishers. Prince Edel, Raven’s fiancé, is a fine man from a neighboring kingdom and Snow White’s own domain is prosperous and at peace. Things could not be better, in fact, except for one thing:
The king is dead.
The queen has been in a moribund state of hopeless depression for over a year with no end in sight. It is only when, in a fit of bitter despair, she seeks solitude in the vastness of her own sprawling castle and climbs a long disused and forgotten tower stair that she comes face to face with herself in the very same magic mirror used by her stepmother of old.
It promises her respite in its shimmering depths, but can Snow White trust a device that was so precious to a woman who sought to cause her such irreparable harm? Can she confront the demons of her own difficult past to discover a better future for herself and her family? And finally, can she release her soul-crushing grief and suffocating loneliness to once again discover what “happily ever after” really means?
Only time will tell as she wrestles with her past and is forced to confront The Reflections of Queen Snow White.
As I’ve said multiple times before on this blog, I have a ridiculous obsession with authors messing around with fairy stories. I just LOVE it. The more unexpected the direction the better. Ironically, I am halfway through my own Snow White revisionist short story so this ebook came to me at a great time! I loved the mirror reflecting memories at Snow White all with one specific purpose. At first I thought she was a bit dense to fail to notice the mirror’s aim but I guess she was in a funk and it’s hard to get out of one without a lot of external help sometimes. I liked that this ebook deals with life after happily ever after and a mature relationship. My favourite part of the story was actually older Snow White.
My main criticism of the book, (and this could be to do with the fact that Meredith expanded out from a short story), is that the flashbacks feel disjointed and rushed. I wanted to hear more about the conflict in Snow’s early life and hear more from her deepening relationship with Charming. I also found Snow to be passive for most of the story even before Charming dies, probably because there was little time to expand on early events, and she relies on others to get her out of difficult situations. There was also the suicide attempt because she can’t bear an heir. Now that really put my nose out. As a feminist, this kind of thing is a bug bear of mine. Otherwise, a solid read.
Reflections of Queen Snow White: 3/5 inky stars
This book was provided free by the author in exchange for an honest review.
Jill (Poem)
I’m on a poetry roll with my ebook coming out on Saturday 1st! This poem is positively ancient and is based off the relationship between Jill and Rhodry in Katharine Kerr’s Deverry Saga. I am quite fond of it even in its oldness. I hope you get fond of it too!
Jill
Golden locks cropped
to frame powder blue,
can’t help me
understand you.
As the years scud by
and grey irons
out your youth
while wrinkles spider web
across a pale, wane face
not even illness
brings you back to me
and finally, finally
I’ve stopped trying.
Your eyes know truth
and to you I cannot lie.
I’ll keep loving you
till the day that I die.
On the rooftop
your mouth is uncomfortable
so I beg for friendship
though I will forever
dream of you.
Think of bitter dregs
yes, bittersweet crumbs
cast my ever so elegant way
as my wyrd pulls me
somewhere far away.
Chasing words, dreams
obeying my cue.
Doing my best
to find an answer for you.
Oh, I’m morbid they say!
Instead of running from shadows
I yearn for their unsteady touch.
All because
everyone I’ve ever loved
is underground
Or if I tell myself the truth
reborn, recycled
broken on an an endless wheel
where death has no power,
over the emotions we feel.
I see you now; young, fit
and ever so irrevocably mine
how sad you did not live for me to tell you
at last I understand why that love was lost in time.
Brief scattered tears
cannot help
the pain I feel
at your sacrifice
even as I know
it is not the first
nor our last goodbye
the Gods guide us
lead us into
warmth and open arms
and sometimes
they let us try again.
It wasn’t your fault
and it wasn’t mine
But why were we chosen to be torn apart
By Dweomerkind?
And why couldn’t you ever see
that you were the only one for me?
But at last I can answer
because now, oh now I understand
that it wasn’t your fault
and it wasn’t mine
that loves lost and won
are nothing upon the sands of time.
January 13, 2014
Carla (A Feminist Manifesto)- Poem
I wrote this poem a few years back and it is pretty rough (in more ways than one as it discusses sexual assault) but it also is a fair example of what my verse novella will be like in terms of the style of free verse. Enjoy and don’t forget to follow my poetry collection page here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/My-Hearts-Choir-Sings/490774427698379
Carla (A Feminist Manifesto)
In one ill defined moment
I was above and beyond myself.
I saw the shocked faces;
closed eyes, turned away
(as if acknowledgement were
dangerous, affirming validity)
thought I saw behind
a husband long gone into abyss
my greying, blue eyed kindess
an old and young Heavan
(though these days they’d call it
Freudian Slip-
the habit of sexual repression
and nothing more).
Ha! Repression and tirra lee
tirra lee by the sea.
Call me the mad woman
Sweep my cobwebs away
at the proclamation; “we never
saw nothing, that weird one
we never saw her cry.”
One crosses, bow headed, prays
“The Lord giveth, and the
Lord taketh away. Blessed
be the name of the Lord.”
Filthy mouthpiece, what rot!
Your God never cared
about me.
Or at least he turned his face
away
if only for one night of
palms pressed down, tasting teeth
my barricades battered, lifted
up by the roots.
Shoved onto my own bed
where the screaming never
stops.
Nor the hurrying, passing
footsteps (Oh so ashamed)
Nor the ache of the
thrust.
In this house of women
it’s not only periods that sync.
The addition of just one
man
gives shared nightly fears
that he picks and chooses.
Thus selected, let me lie
so that standing on a parapet, a precipice
holds no fear
but rather the promise of
timely escape.
January 10, 2014
Doctor Who Guest Review: The Time of The Doctor
Reblogged from Wine And Roses From Outer Space:
The time has come at last for Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor to face Trenzalore, the oldest question in the universe hidden in plain sight, and his own inevitable death. But this is no ordinary Christmas special. For this ties all of Eleven's seasons together as well as reaffirms what we love most about his character. Indeed as Clara's cracker taught us;
Guest post!
January 5, 2014
My Heart’s Choir Sings Ebook Release
My Heart’s Choir Sings. A eulogy and a verse novella. Grief, guilt, redemption. How do you go on in a world without your other half?
Two years ago, I fell in love with London. I began to write a sequence of connected poems telling the story of Stewart Hinchcliffe; a writer who loses his fellow creative in tragic circumstances. As he cleans out their old apartment, each new object brings back bittersweet memories. Throughout the 25 poem sequence, grief, guilt and anger colour his memories, so how then can he ever move on?
The poems were messy and confused. I gave up. And then one day I pulled them out of the dust drawer and started to edit them with fresh eyes. I sent a pdf out to some friends and they all told me how much they loved it but what was it all doing mouldering in silence on my desktop? Indeed.
I have Isobelle Carmody to thank for her 2013 Greylands ebook experiment. So many interesting people weighed in and deep down, I knew I wanted a turn too. So two years later here I am. On the 1st of February I am going to erelease My Heart’s Choir Sings to the world. Like the Facebook Page to come along for an experimental ride. Here I will discuss the trials and tribulations of ebook publishing, where I am at, and more importantly, why you should fork out the 99c and buy my collection come Feb.
To those people who have asked me for the past three years where they can buy my stuff officially, thank you, I love you, and this erelease is for you!
xx
Website: https://www.facebook.com/pages/My-Hearts-Choir-Sings/490774427698379
Twitter: https://twitter.com/InkAshlings
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/14943418-maureen
December 31, 2013
2013 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 2,700 times in 2013. If it were a cable car, it would take about 45 trips to carry that many people.
Click here to see the complete report.
December 29, 2013
December 23, 2013
Song of the Slums Book Review
“I use Grammarly for proofreading because I am afraid of someone leaving grammar Nazi memes in the comments.”
Song of the Slums, Richard Harland
Allen and Unwin 2013.
RRP: $17.99 Aust.
Back what feels like a thousand years ago (and was really a couple of months), I was lucky enough to score an interview with Richard regarding his latest novel, Song of the Slums. Sadly, my book backlog has reached such epic proportions I still haven’t read books that I’ve bought from the beginning of the year (sorry Margo. I promise you I am reading Cracklescape. One day.) That’s why this review has taken literally forever, Richard. Please don’t come to my blog with the Rowdies in a fit of music driven rock n roll rage. Not unless that rage is accompanied by awesome images of steampunk guitars.
Anyway, back to Song of the Slums. From the Allen and Unwin website:
What if they’d invented rock ‘n roll way back in the 19th century? What if it could take over the world and change the course of history?
In the slums of Brummingham, the outcast gangs are making a new kind of music, with pounding rhythms and wild guitars. Astor Vance has been trained in refined classical music. But when her life plummets from riches to rags, the only way she can survive is to play the music the slum gangs want.
Charismatic Verrol, once her servant, is now her partner in crime…and he could be so much more if only he’d come clean about his mysterious past…
And the bonus endorsement quote from Kate:
‘I loved the music, the syncopated rhythm, the dark, smoky atmosphere, the call to arms, the love story…this is gaslight fantasy at its best.’ Kate Forsyth
Having played sax. in a school concert band for eight years, Richard had me at the rock n roll in the nineteenth century part. Also gaslight steampunk. Who doesn’t enjoy this kind of crazed genre mish mash. I can’t help it. I love genre subversion. The first part of the novel kicks off with a bang as Astor is mistaken about her marriage prospects and is forced to become governess to three children from hell. Verrol helps her to escape and she and him are forced to join a street gang to survive… how do they join? By making good art, that’s how! Political revolution, family secrets and fame collide when The Rowdie’s Grandmother has a vision of slum music making it big.
How many members of the band will succumb to Lady Gaga’s fame monster? Will the British monarchy gain a back bone and a conscience? Is war justified if it gives the poor something to occupy themselves with? And is this society really just the fault of the loathed new money Plutocrats? Richard always features political upheaval in his steampunk works which adds a great dose of adventure, excitement and danger to his stories and Song of the Slums is no exception. He is also interested in romantic relations between people of different social strata’s. In Worldshaker, Col is the upper class male in love with a lower class woman. In Song of the Slums, Astor represents the fading landed gentry in opposition to the nouveau riche; the privileged girl who falls in love with the slum born Verrol. This romantic angle gives Richard the chance to complicate Astor’s faith in her own middle class values and makes for some really interesting character development.
A book full of rhythm, dark backstreets, concert halls and plenty of political and physical action, I could really see this YA book made into a steampunk film. Someone buy the rights.
Song of the Slums: 4/5 inky stars
The interview I did with Richard is Here
