Alison Wells Author

Head Above Water – Writing, Headspace, Creativity, Verve

Head Above Water Blog – Writing, Headspace, Creativity, Verve

  • Head Above Water Blog: My Debut short story collection Random Acts of Optimism released September 2023!

    Fantastic news: September publication of my debut short story collection! Readers of the Head above Water blog will have followed my story since 2009 of writing endeavours, resilience and persistence, shortlists and near misses. I have written alongside raising a family, challenging circumstances, a new job in public libraries and a Masters by night in…

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  • #FridayFlash Self-Possession

    I have a 300 word flash up on the #amwriting site today. It’s called Self-Possession. It was written in response to one of the paintings on view at the Irish Writers Centre. (Full details on my guest post). If you can’t post a comment there I’d love to have your thoughts here. Update: I’ve added…

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  • Help Michael’s dream to walk

    My eldest son’s classmate in St. Cronan’s school, Bray, Co. Wicklow is Michael Tiron. Eleven year old Michael has Cerebral Palsy and has been in a wheelchair since the age of three. He has just been accepted for a significant operation in the USA in St. Louis Children’s Hospital which will give him greater mobility…

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  • Reading as a writer and my novel is finished!

    Today on Writing.ie I ask if being a writer ruins your love of reading. I’ve also been reading this lovely optimistic and interesting article on the short story by Arminta Wallace in the Irish Times. Apart from that I’m almost ready to submit my new novel The Book of Remembered Possibilities.  It’s my nanowrimo 2010…

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  • Flash 365 plus 1

    Calum Kerr the organiser of National Flash Fiction day is also writing a flash a day on his Flash 365 blog. With this, Feb 29 being a bonus day, he has got lots of us to provide the bonus day stories on his blog including one of mine to be put up. With some great…

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  • Melting Moments

    In the spirit of promoting short stories: here’s a link to a story called Melting Moments by one of the marvellous people in my writing group. It’s one of a few shortlisted for a competition to be decided by public vote. If you like it, please vote. She would very much appreciate it! http://www.facebook.com/AVogelROI?sk=app_305458682847766

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  • Hosting: Split Worlds Story: Coming of Age

    Emma Newman’s (or EJ. Newman’) Split World project’s aim “is to immerse you in the Split Worlds with a mixture of storytelling, live events and online interactive events culminating in the launch of a five book series.” The Split Worlds “is an urban fantasy setting with gritty noir, fantastical magic, evil faeries and people just…

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  • Which books have you thrown at the end of the bed?

    I’ve just been having an interesting conversation on Twitter about books we’ve thrown at the end of the bed either during or at the end of the reading process. Of course there are many reasons why we might be frustrated with a book. Much of the time it just didn’t live up to the expectation…

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  • #fridayflash Ice cream dreams

    It’s been quite a while since I did #fridayflash. Here’s one with some of the characters from Origami Flamingos. All day the ice cream van was circling. Ice dream van. Rat catchers, child snatchers from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Singing 99 bottles of beer on the wall while waiting for it to arrive. Eating in…

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  • Short stories: Dead or alive on Writing.ie

    I’ve put up a new post called Short stories: Dead or Alive on my Random Acts of Optimism blog on Writing.ie with links to two articles on opposite sides of the argument.

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  • Short Story: Agatha Burns on Metro Fiction

    Today my new story Agatha Burns features on the Metro Fiction site. It’s a short fiction from my work of interrelated flashes in progress Flashes of Sadness and Light. For those who’ve read Flash and The Solid Table Fallacy you might recognise the character who had a walk on role in this new story.

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Welcome to my Head above Water blog! I’m Alison, writer, mother and public librarian with a background in Communication Studies and Psychology. I have a particular interest in creative resilience, motivation and how nature and wonder can restore us. In my day job I run book clubs and creative events for children and adults.

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