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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  • “Breaking News” on Metazen

    In it’s own words Metazen is an online zine that  “is a flytrap for metafiction, existentialism and absurdism.” My story “Breaking News” is published there today and I’m quite chuffed about that.

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  • Flash fiction in the Irish Times

    Regular readers of the blog will know that I am a great fan of flash fiction and that I regularly take part in #fridayflash on Twitter where writers post their short fiction and read and review each others pieces. I’ve also talked about what flash fiction is on writing.ie Today in the Irish Times, crime…

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  • The Eighty Nine Anthology launches!

    A few months ago I joined in with Jodi Cleghorn’s Literary Mix Tapes venture where crowd sourced fiction meets music. The particular project was Eighty Nine, the result is 26 stories of speculative fiction prompted by songs from 1989 and including events from the Berlin Wall to Tiananmen Square. My song prompt was Cher’s If…

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  • Tuesday Interview: Jane Travers on Tweet Treats Blog Tour

    Jane Travers was one of the first people I met on Twitter and I’ve subsequently had the pleasure of meeting this intelligent, friendly and wry lady in real life. The Tweet Treats project is a brainwave with a difference and the book has just been released. I asked Jane all about it…. (Sincere apologies at…

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  • Interview with Sarah Bannon: Head of Literature at the Arts Council (Ireland)

    I recently had the pleasure of meeting with Sarah Bannon, Head of Literature at the Arts Council. (Ireland).  Sarah’s role is diverse and includes working with and helping to fund a variety of literature organisations and festivals and also assessing grants for individual writers under the Literature Bursary Awards Scheme. She is also active in…

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  • Results Not Typical Tour: Guest Post from Catherine Ryan Howard

    The energetic and talented Catherine Ryan Howard has released three wonderful non-fiction titles: Mousetrapped, Backpacked and Self-Printed all hallmarked with her wry and engaging writing style. She’s now releasing Results not Typical – her first novel. I’m delighted to welcome her here today on her Result’s not Typical blog tour with a guest post on…

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  • My useless writing genius knows no bounds

    Oh this tightrope between delusion and despair, between confidence and crisis! It’s something that is familiar to every writer especially those who are endeavouring, really endeavouring to create something that they hope ultimately might be enjoyed by someone other than themselves. I’ve written a collection of stories called Random Acts of Optimism and that’s what…

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  • #fridayflash Cleave

    In this flash another outing for Emily and Eddie, some of the characters in my still-in-progress interrelated flash collection. Setting sun, last dash grasped memory of fun, rollercoasters on the prom. Scuff, scuffle, sleet, duffle, caress, ruffle. Kerfuffle. Summers last forever, last summer. This time she was late, she had been out with her mother…

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  • The bounties of blogging

    Last week Hazel Gaynor (Hot Cross Mum) and I featured in an article in the Irish Independent by Bernice Harrington on Mums and blogging. Here is the Facebook link to the article which was the cover story in the Mothers and Babies supplement (requires a further download)  I started blogging in April 2009 and as…

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  • The Tuesday Interview: With Catherine Ryan Howard (author of Self-Printed)

    Catherine Ryan Howard lives in Cork, Ireland. She has very successfully published a memoir about working in Disney, called Mousetrapped. She has documented the story of her self-printing experience and success in her blog Catherine, Caffinated and just lately released Self-Printed in which she shares the knowledge and expertise she gained from her self-printing experience. …

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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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