“Enchanted Isle”

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'Catching the Wind', 'Family Fiction', Amusement parks, Christianity, Lake District, Melanie Dobson, Twitter

 

I wrote in an earlier posting about Catching the Wind by Melanie Dobson, a time-shift novel set largely in Kent and Sussex in WW2 and the present day (https://ninevoices.wordpress.com/2017/09/01/catching-the-wind-2/). I’ve just seen, through the wonder that is Twitter, an interview with the author on the Family Fiction website (https://www.familyfiction.com/melanie-dobson-finding-beauty-unexpected-places/).  In it she talks about Catching the Wind and also her newly published novel Enchanted Isle. This is also set in the past, in the 1950s, and is set in the Lake District, an area she is clearly taken with, with its inspiring “labyrinth of lakes and rich history”.

She speaks of her love of history and her need to set a limit to the research she does for her novels, so much does she enjoy that research. She also tells of her Christian faith and how that informs her writing.

The focus of Enchanted Isle is an abandoned amusement park, and “an unforgettable romance and an unsolved murder” dating from a generation before.

My copy is on order. Thanks, Twitter.

Anglicanism and Women Novelists: A Special Relationship

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Barbara Pym, crime fiction, P D James

 

The lecture at the 2017 May meeting of the Barbara Pym Society  in London looks like being a good one for anyone interested in the relationship between Anglicanism, women novelists and detective fiction. It’s being given by Alison Shell, a professor in the English department at University College London. She is currently co-editing Anglican Women Novelists (Bloomsbury 2018) to which she will be contributing an essay on P D James – Baroness James was an honorary  life member of the Society and a great admirer of Barbara Pym’s books.

The Barbara Pym Society website is http://www.barbara-pym.org

‘A Different Joy’

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autism, children, special needs

I’ve learned of a forthcoming book written to help parents of children with autism, dyslexia, ADHD and other special needs. It’s A Different Joy, and is by Sarah-Jane Critchley. She writes that she has “two amazing and wonderful children who don’t do things the way everyone else does” and she is also Programme Head of the Autism Education Trust.

A Different Joy is written to tell parents what they need to know to help them relax and enjoy their children. It can be read before, after, with or without a diagnosis. It contains reassurance and practical signposting to organisations, sites, research and further information, and is intended to be not just a guide to raising a child with special needs, but also how to do so with grace, humour and joy.

It includes chapters on the things that worry parents most:

• An introduction to sane-ish parenting
• Diagnosis, acceptance and moving on
• Know your child
• Neurodiversity – what type of difference and when does it matter?
• Surviving competitive parenting – of course it’s personal!
• Stamina – keeping going when it seems impossible
• Family dynamics, siblings and wider family
• Perfect schools don’t exist. How to find the best you can
• Bullying, vulnerability and resilience
• From surviving to thriving.

You can read more at http://differentjoy.com/, where a sample chapter can be downloaded and the book can be pre-ordered. Printed copies will be available in the autumn.

Writing Opportunities in February

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chapbook publication, Poetry Competition

Some of these deadlines are soon, so no time to lose!

Lumen/Camden Poetry Competition for poems up to 40 lines. Prizes: chapbook publication. Entry fee: £2.50, or £10 for six. Closing date February 14. Email adele@wardwoodspublishing.co.uk

Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook Short Story Competition. Up to 2000 words on the subject of ‘Joy’. £500 prize, plus place on an Arvon writing course of your choice and publication on their website. FREE ENTRY. Details from http://www.writersandartists.co.uk/competitions

BBC National Short Story Award. Stories up to 8000 words on any subject. Prizes: £15000, £3000, three £500 runners-up. All to be broadcast on Radio 4. FREE ENTRY. Closing date 28 February. Details http://www.bbc.co.uk/nssa/

Exeter Writers Short Story Competition, any genre and theme, but not children’s. Up to 3000 words. Prizes: £500, £250, £100.
Closing date 28 February. Details from http://www.exeterwriters.org.uk

Grace Dieu Writers’ Circle Short Story & Poetry Competition. Poems up to 40 lines and stories up to 2000 words, on any subject. Entry fee for poems, £5 for three, £3 for each additional; short stories £6, then £4 for each additional. Closing date 28 February. Details http://www.gracedieuwriterscircle.co.uk

Open submissions – a publishing opportunity

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literary novels, submissions

Little, Brown Book Group’s digital first imprint Blackfriars is to hold a week of open submissions for literary novels.

Authors will be able to submit unagented work to Blackfriars from 1st December to 7th December. Novels need to be previously unpublished (this includes self-published) in any form.

Authors have to submit a first chapter, a one page synopsis and an author biography to blackfriars@littlebrown.co.uk

Hilary Mantel on Bring Up The Bodies

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Anne Boleyn, BBC Radio 4, Bookclub, Bring Up the Bodies, Henry VIII, Hilary Mantel, Man Booker Prize, Thomas Cromwell, Wolf Hall

Just listened to Bookclub on Radio 4, with Hilary Mantel talking about ‘Bring Up The Bodies’ and looking forward to the third volume in her Thomas Cromwell trilogy. Well worth tuning in if you liked ‘Wolf Hall’ or ‘Bodies’: certainly an appetiser for Vol 3. As she described it, ‘Wolf Hall’ led up to Thomas More’s demise, ‘Bodies’ to Anne Boleyn’s, and Vol 3 will take us to her hero’s own, with the focus on his relationship with Henry VIII. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03c2mys is the link to the Radio 4 page; the programme will be repeated on Thursday at 3-30 pm and will soon be available on I-Player.

Zadie Smith on Radio 4

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BBC Radio 4, Zadie Smith

Zadie Smith fans may like to know that she’ll be on ‘Desert Island Discs’ on Radio 4 on Sunday, 22 September, at 11-15 in the morning. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03bg4v7 .