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Extract from The Book of Remembered Possibilities
“I am spinning tales. I prick my finger on the spinning wheel and sleep for a million years. In this ancient universe I appear, over and over, reaching for meaning, words magnetising to my tongue so I utter all these messages of utter import. I am from the future, I am flying backwards on the
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Sit under your novel in progress, lessons from motherhood
As I mother of four I am very familiar with having to wait, to rein in speed and impetus and to go very slowly or not at all while being present for my children in some way or another. Walking with a toddler or even my 5 year old now there is more standing than
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Submit to the National Flash Fiction Anthology
The UK National Flash Fiction Day is on June 22nd and here is your chance to get involved and submit to the anthology. The closing date is very soon – on May 17th. It’s a particularly interesting challenge this time as you are to write a 500 word flash related to another cultural object/art form
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Amazing Humans
You’ve probably seen this already but I was so moved and touched by this video of Commander Chris Hadfield who has been tweeting from the international space station. He performed a version of Space Oddity in the zero gravity of the Space Station just before he returned to earth after his stint in orbit. In
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Writing: Motivation in the month of May and first drafts
I’ve decided to join the #15kinMay writing folk on twitter to progress a new project based on a flash fiction I wrote last year. This is a very visceral book and to me the book has always had a May feeling. I felt a great impetus last year to just write and write further but
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Get on with writing and forget about the rest
We all do it, whether we mean to or not, and social media is our worst enemy. We all compare ourselves to others, how we’re progressing in relation to them, whether as writers someone else is published, sold more books, got more shortlists, likes and comments on their posts etc. I’m thinking about a post
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Taking the time for the book you want to write
Today I’ve written an article including some Tolstoy quotes sent to me by a writer friend, exploring how to really take the time we need to write the book we really want to write. I talk about incubation, deep reading, George Saunders’ view that this slow writing demands a greater focus and integrity than our
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Dot to Dot Man
Upcoming family occasions, recent family events and getting submissions ready mean that I haven’t been able to blog as much as I’d like. I so enjoyed making new acquaintances during my creativity month in January and I have more posts on the subject to come so hopefully normal service will be resumed shortly. Having said
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Local book launch and a longlist
Mary Grehan’s debut book I just want to extend my heartfelt congratulations to Mary Grehan on the launch day of her debut novel Love is the Easy Bit published by Penguin. The launch takes place this evening in Dubray Books Grafton Street. Unfortunately family events have conspired so that I have a conflicting engagement tonight
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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