Joyce Barrass's Blog, page 54
October 19, 2015
Goatsucker Harvest: Yorkshire author Joyce Barrass reads from her historical heartstopper
Welcome to your must read moment!
Here I'm reading from Chapter 4 of my Yorkshire historical heartstopper "Goatsucker Harvest." Bloopers, fluffs and all!
In this short snippet, Thirza's Aunt Emma visits Kitson's Windmill to make Thirza an offer she can't get a word in edgeways to refuse!
"Goatsucker Harvest" is yours to own and enjoy in its entirety for your Kindle or in Paperback from Amazon worldwide.
Thanks for watching and for all your wonderful support, reviews and feedback!
Find me on Facebook Twitter and Goodreads
Here I'm reading from Chapter 4 of my Yorkshire historical heartstopper "Goatsucker Harvest." Bloopers, fluffs and all!
In this short snippet, Thirza's Aunt Emma visits Kitson's Windmill to make Thirza an offer she can't get a word in edgeways to refuse!
"Goatsucker Harvest" is yours to own and enjoy in its entirety for your Kindle or in Paperback from Amazon worldwide.
Thanks for watching and for all your wonderful support, reviews and feedback!
Find me on Facebook Twitter and Goodreads
Goatsucker Harvest: Yorkshire author Joyce Barrass reads from Chapter 4: Offers & Opportunities
Welcome to your Monday must read moment!
Here I'm reading from Chapter 4 of "Goatsucker Harvest." Bloopers, fluffs and all!
In this short excerpt, Thirza's Aunt Emma visits Kitson's Windmill to make Thirza an offer she can't get a word in edgeways to refuse!
"Goatsucker Harvest" is yours to own and enjoy in its entirety for your Kindle or in Paperback from Amazon worldwide.
Thanks for watching and for all your wonderful support, reviews & feedback!
Here I'm reading from Chapter 4 of "Goatsucker Harvest." Bloopers, fluffs and all!
In this short excerpt, Thirza's Aunt Emma visits Kitson's Windmill to make Thirza an offer she can't get a word in edgeways to refuse!
"Goatsucker Harvest" is yours to own and enjoy in its entirety for your Kindle or in Paperback from Amazon worldwide.
Thanks for watching and for all your wonderful support, reviews & feedback!
October 14, 2015
Goatsucker Harvest: Yorkshire author reads excerpt from her novel
A couple of almost bloopers, weird morning lighting and a recalcitrant pigeon flying in for his breakfast in the background.
This is an excerpt from the beginning of Chapter 17 "Under the Milk Moon" from my historical fantasy novel set in Yorkshire in 1855 Goatsucker Harvest. Written in Yorkshire, set in Yorkshire, celebrating Yorkshire, here read by its Yorkshire author.
This is a few pages from the middle of the story where canal lass Thirza meets Bram "Dutchy" Beharrell, reclusive pinder and marshman and his kooikerhondje dog Piper, at his mysterious duck decoy in the remote boggy peat moorland known to history as Thorne & Hatfield Moors, South Yorkshire. For the first time, outsider Bram finds a kindred spirit, another soul with whom he can share his secrets.
No plot spoilers here, so you can listen with confidence!
The book is available to buy as a paperback (seen in this clip) or to download to your Kindle from Amazon worldwide.
Hope you enjoy and thanks for all your support.
This is an excerpt from the beginning of Chapter 17 "Under the Milk Moon" from my historical fantasy novel set in Yorkshire in 1855 Goatsucker Harvest. Written in Yorkshire, set in Yorkshire, celebrating Yorkshire, here read by its Yorkshire author.
This is a few pages from the middle of the story where canal lass Thirza meets Bram "Dutchy" Beharrell, reclusive pinder and marshman and his kooikerhondje dog Piper, at his mysterious duck decoy in the remote boggy peat moorland known to history as Thorne & Hatfield Moors, South Yorkshire. For the first time, outsider Bram finds a kindred spirit, another soul with whom he can share his secrets.
No plot spoilers here, so you can listen with confidence!
The book is available to buy as a paperback (seen in this clip) or to download to your Kindle from Amazon worldwide.
Hope you enjoy and thanks for all your support.
October 13, 2015
"Goatsucker Harvest" going global
Humber Keel just like the "Thistle" in 'Goatsucker Harvest' on a Yorkshire canalCreatespace have just told me that "Goatsucker Harvest" will be available in paperback in Canada within the next 30 days, as well as UK/USA/Europe. So if you have friends or family in Canada on the look out for a good read, can you let them know there'll be a new historical fiction fantasy title set in Yorkshire in 1855 on Amazon.ca for them to enjoy in paperback as well as om Kindle? Had my first Kindle downloads from Germany and Spain over the weekend. Intriguing! Can't wait to get more feedback from the worldwide audience!
We writers would be nowhere without our readers.
New and old faithful readers alike, welcome to my fictional world!
Goatsucker Harvest on Amazon.co.uk (UK)
Goatsucker Harvest on Amazon.com (USA)
Goatsucker Harvest on Amazon.com.au (AUSTRALIA)
Goatsucker Harvest on Amazon.fr (FRANCE)
Goatsucker Harvest on Amazon.de (GERMANY)
Goatsucker Harvest on Amazon.es (SPAIN)
Goatsucker Harvest on Amazon.nl (NETHERLANDS)
Goatsucker Harvest on Amazon.co.jp (JAPAN)
Goatsucker Harvest on Amazon.in (INDIA)
Goatsucker Harvest on Amazon.ca (CANADA)
Goatsucker Harvest on Amazon.it (ITALY)
Goatsucker Harvest on Amazon.com.br (BRAZIL)
Goatsucker Harvest on Amazon.com.mx (MEXICO)
JOYCE BARRASS AUTHOR PAGE ON GOODREADS
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October 7, 2015
FREE Kindle download of "GOATSUCKER HARVEST" October 8th-11th
FREE KINDLE EBOOK DOWNLOAD of my first novel "GOATSUCKER HARVEST "!
Get it on your Kindle FOR FREE or tell the lucky bookworms in your life right now not to miss out!
To celebrate my birthday, which falls today at Harvest time, it's a birthday treat from me to you and yours. FREE to download from tomorrow, Thursday October 8th, until this Sunday, October 11th, you can lose yourself in a unique Yorkshire yarn of yesterdays that will warm your heart and haunt your dreams!
Thanks for all the amazing reviews on Amazon!
GOATSUCKER HARVEST ON AMAZON.CO.UK free to download from Oct 8th-11th 2015
FREE Kindle download of "GOATSUCKER HARVEST" to celebrate my Harvest-time birthday
FREE KINDLE EBOOK DOWNLOAD of my first novel "GOATSUCKER HARVEST "!
Get it on your Kindle FOR FREE or tell the lucky bookworms in your life right now not to miss out!
To celebrate my birthday, which falls today at Harvest time, it's a birthday treat from me to you and yours. FREE to download from tomorrow, Thursday October 8th, until this Sunday, October 11th, you can lose yourself in a unique Yorkshire yarn of yesterdays that will warm your heart and haunt your dreams!
Thanks for all the amazing reviews on Amazon!
GOATSUCKER HARVEST ON AMAZON.CO.UK free to download from Oct 8th-11th 2015
September 4, 2015
Dribbles and Dabbles with Drabbles
Dribbles? Drabbles?
Not altogether gobbledygook if you bear with me!
When you're writing, "dribbles" often describes the fragmented way the storytelling progresses: a dribble of inspiration here, a dribble of frantic scribbling there, seasoned with a dribble of banging your head on the keyboard!
"Drabbles" on the other hand, are a method I find useful to help pull my "dribbles" of creativity together along the writing journey. I hope this idea may help you, too. Sometimes when those "dribbles" seem to be drying up, a "drabble" or two can prime the pump and get your story-brain refreshed, released and ready to weave those words into gold.
I'm reaching the tipping point of my new novel. The research is done. The plot is arced. The procrastinating side-projects are frustratingly complete. The blind alleys of my storyland are cordoned off with Hi-Vis "Do Not Enter" tape. The characters are alive in my head. I can hear what they'd say and picture the situations they're about to get themselves into. The sense of place just off the Yorkshire Coast is so real to me I can smell the seaweed and feel the spray stinging my characters' skin and the change of light before dusk. I've chalk under my nails from clinging onto the sheer cliffs in my imagination. I'm raring to go! My first draft is beckoning me to plunge over the edge of those risky still-blank pages and swim for dear life to the shore at the end of the tale.
So, when your dribbles run dry, maybe it's time for a dabble with a drabble!
The wiki says: Drabble: A drabble is a short work of fiction of around one hundred words in length, not necessarily including the title. The purpose of the drabble is brevity, testing the author's ability to express interesting and meaningful ideas in a confined space.
In other words, flash fiction. For me, it's just a great way of getting my writing flowing whenever it stalls. If I have a scene from the novel that's in my mind for later, getting in the way of the current plotline, a "drabble" dealing with that character, that plot twist, that conflict, that setting, is a way of getting creative instead of blocked. Maybe the seeds from the drabble will be grist to the mill of a new story, an unexpected turn, a deepening of some exchange within the book. It doesn't even have to be connected. A drabble can get you writing again when you're overwhelmed. It's non-threatening, expendable, achievable almost anywhere, anytime. It's that blank page clothed in purpose, colour, forward motion.
It can even become a part of your work in progress. It can ignite a dormant creative spark. It can be your own private pool of light-bulb moments. It can be a short holiday break for your imagination to go exploring again before coming home rejuvenated to the work in hand. It can be just what you need it to be!
Wishing you joy and word-woven blessings, whether you're a fellow writer, reader, a fan of GOATSUCKER HARVEST or you've just wandered in to do a bit of procrastination from your own personal challenges today! Welcome!
"Tropical Storm Zeta 2005" by NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center
Here's a quick 102-word drabble I've written which may or may not get its seat at the banquet in my WIP:
Waves roll upside down, sucking the sky beneath through lips like a dolphin's. Head spinning now.
A guillemot skittles out of a cliff-face inverted inches from her nose. A vortex of fish oil tang closes her throat.
"Did you see it? Careful! Sit down, you'll have us overboard!"
Disembodied voices far above.
"Below, I mean..." Trying to correct herself, steady herself. The strap creaks. Too much give in it.
Blood-singing, suffocating closeness all around, yet the salt spray's icy, flinging itself down in an arc and falling back upwards into stormclouds.
The scream seems to be her own as the sea explodes.
Like Joyce Barrass - author on Facebook
Follow me on Goodreads
Find out more on Joyce Barrass's Amazon author page
Follow me on Joyce's Twitter
Joyce on Google +
Not altogether gobbledygook if you bear with me!
When you're writing, "dribbles" often describes the fragmented way the storytelling progresses: a dribble of inspiration here, a dribble of frantic scribbling there, seasoned with a dribble of banging your head on the keyboard!
"Drabbles" on the other hand, are a method I find useful to help pull my "dribbles" of creativity together along the writing journey. I hope this idea may help you, too. Sometimes when those "dribbles" seem to be drying up, a "drabble" or two can prime the pump and get your story-brain refreshed, released and ready to weave those words into gold.
I'm reaching the tipping point of my new novel. The research is done. The plot is arced. The procrastinating side-projects are frustratingly complete. The blind alleys of my storyland are cordoned off with Hi-Vis "Do Not Enter" tape. The characters are alive in my head. I can hear what they'd say and picture the situations they're about to get themselves into. The sense of place just off the Yorkshire Coast is so real to me I can smell the seaweed and feel the spray stinging my characters' skin and the change of light before dusk. I've chalk under my nails from clinging onto the sheer cliffs in my imagination. I'm raring to go! My first draft is beckoning me to plunge over the edge of those risky still-blank pages and swim for dear life to the shore at the end of the tale.
So, when your dribbles run dry, maybe it's time for a dabble with a drabble!
The wiki says: Drabble: A drabble is a short work of fiction of around one hundred words in length, not necessarily including the title. The purpose of the drabble is brevity, testing the author's ability to express interesting and meaningful ideas in a confined space.
In other words, flash fiction. For me, it's just a great way of getting my writing flowing whenever it stalls. If I have a scene from the novel that's in my mind for later, getting in the way of the current plotline, a "drabble" dealing with that character, that plot twist, that conflict, that setting, is a way of getting creative instead of blocked. Maybe the seeds from the drabble will be grist to the mill of a new story, an unexpected turn, a deepening of some exchange within the book. It doesn't even have to be connected. A drabble can get you writing again when you're overwhelmed. It's non-threatening, expendable, achievable almost anywhere, anytime. It's that blank page clothed in purpose, colour, forward motion.
It can even become a part of your work in progress. It can ignite a dormant creative spark. It can be your own private pool of light-bulb moments. It can be a short holiday break for your imagination to go exploring again before coming home rejuvenated to the work in hand. It can be just what you need it to be!
Wishing you joy and word-woven blessings, whether you're a fellow writer, reader, a fan of GOATSUCKER HARVEST or you've just wandered in to do a bit of procrastination from your own personal challenges today! Welcome!
"Tropical Storm Zeta 2005" by NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center Here's a quick 102-word drabble I've written which may or may not get its seat at the banquet in my WIP:
Waves roll upside down, sucking the sky beneath through lips like a dolphin's. Head spinning now.
A guillemot skittles out of a cliff-face inverted inches from her nose. A vortex of fish oil tang closes her throat.
"Did you see it? Careful! Sit down, you'll have us overboard!"
Disembodied voices far above.
"Below, I mean..." Trying to correct herself, steady herself. The strap creaks. Too much give in it.
Blood-singing, suffocating closeness all around, yet the salt spray's icy, flinging itself down in an arc and falling back upwards into stormclouds.
The scream seems to be her own as the sea explodes.
Like Joyce Barrass - author on FacebookFollow me on Goodreads
Find out more on Joyce Barrass's Amazon author page
Follow me on Joyce's Twitter
Joyce on Google +
July 24, 2015
One percent inspiration: what makes your writing tick?
Whether you write for pleasure, for a living, for the hell of it, because you can't help it, we all know inspiration's an elusive butterfly that can be hard to harness.It doesn't take a genius to know what Thomas Alva Edison said is true: "Genius is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration."
But in between the sweat and buckling down to write in order to write, each of us snatches at precious personal muses that help to place us in the moment, with our words, our characters, our plotlines, our message, our soul-sharing.
When I felt a bit blocked with my second novel this week, I woke one morning from a dream encounter with my central characters. They reminded me not to be timid and self-editing while the first draft is humming along. Feel the fear and tap away regardless! Characters that are real flesh and blood to me, closer than family, will reassure or challenge me by living the next twist in the tale with me.
Yorkshire bard Ted Hughes's poem "The Thought Fox" explains the way inspiration came to him as a writer. You can hear the poet reading his poem here.
Set on the Yorkshire Coast like my novel, below is my own latest poem trying to capture how one flash of inspiration for my work in progress came to me in the waking watches of the morning.
Chatterthrow
They sailed through me in dream last nightMy hero and my heroine,His eyes reflect rainbows over marshHer scent of quay and salted sheets
Watched my hovering hand over blank pageTraced their fingers through knots of plot,Unpicking and beachcombing unwritten wordsLips smiling at unmet characters
Over us, gulls of ChatterthrowWheeling and skimming the coffee cliffs,Kittiwake held against her breastAs he whispers his breath under trembling wings
His palm facing the centred earth,Her palm raised to the sky and spray,My hand cradled between their warmthTelling their story in woven waves
Guiding my grasp to the tiller of talesUnder the hush and howl of the fretCogs connect and the synapse sparksCompass and craft over bar and block
(c) Joyce Barrass 2015
You can get my first novel, set on the peat moors and canals of South Yorkshire, "Goatsucker Harvest" here (some of the reviews may persuade you to dive in - it's FREE on Kindle Unlimited & crazy cheap on Kindle or in Paperback in UK & USA & some other parts of the planet.)
July 11, 2015
Set sail down the South Yorkshire canals of yesteryear!
You look like you might need to de-stress and chill out for a while on a calming canal!
Here you can watch a wonderful historic film clip of a voyage down the Yorkshire canals where my novel "Goatsucker Harvest" is set. You'll see the Stainforth & Keadby Canal, the River Don and the watery world where "Thistle" would have sailed on her regular round trips from Hull to Sheffield. You even get a glimpse of Conisborough Castle from the water in the extended version of the archive film, just as Thirza remembers in the book!
All aboard for your 1959 trip on the waterways, or travel back to 1855 to experience this beautiful landscape in the pages of "Goatsucker Harvest." Enjoy!
Yorkshire Film Archive: Is Rotherham a Seaport?
Here you can watch a wonderful historic film clip of a voyage down the Yorkshire canals where my novel "Goatsucker Harvest" is set. You'll see the Stainforth & Keadby Canal, the River Don and the watery world where "Thistle" would have sailed on her regular round trips from Hull to Sheffield. You even get a glimpse of Conisborough Castle from the water in the extended version of the archive film, just as Thirza remembers in the book!
All aboard for your 1959 trip on the waterways, or travel back to 1855 to experience this beautiful landscape in the pages of "Goatsucker Harvest." Enjoy!
Yorkshire Film Archive: Is Rotherham a Seaport?
May 19, 2015
They say the dead tell no tales...
Two of the hundreds of names on gravestones in Wentworth's old churchyard, near Rotherham, South YorkshireVisited gorgeous Wentworth village in South Yorkshire to see the Old Church with its medieval tower, 16th century memorial statues, 1684 rebuild by the 2nd Earl of Strafford & its damp & gloomy subterranean burial crypt of the Fitzwilliams built c1824. I was amused to see two tombstones nearby, one bearing the name of my heroine in "Goatsucker Harvest", 'Thirza', the other the surname of my villain, (Darnell) 'Salkeld'. Not surprising really, as all my characters bear local Yorkshire names taken directly from my own family tree. What was touching is that the names on these graves were pointed out to me by two people who are enthusiastic readers of my novel!
Flamborough graveyard also holds links to my next story; and they say the dead tell no tales...
