Thursday the 10th of November dawned and there I was, a published author. How cool is that? Meta cool - that's what! And all courtesy of the on-line writing co-operative Cafe Three-Zero, that came together as a result of an Open University creative writing course and the brilliant vision of Angela Sinclair. We have never yet met, being geographically far flung. But we have pooled expertise and passion, to recognise and nurture talent - and to achieve publication.
But a little more about me (in case you're interested). The following paragraph also appears on the Cafe Three-Zero blog, but is expanded here.
'Life ... started out in a village where dissent had
been rife, where witchcraft was still on the agenda, where unearthed
skeletons lay on the roadside for weeks on end and from where her
schizophrenic mother was carted off to the asylum. Life went on, at home and at school, but those experiences writhed
and grew behind the cloak of her ‘normal’ life. Now, she has bought
herself the time to wrestle them onto the page. She is delighted to be
involved with Café Three-Zero and asks simply that you watch this space.
There is much she has planned.'
The truth is that personal life experience is normality to you, and you are puzzled when your world view is out of kilter. Not that I ever imagined that most people's mothers were like mine, I didn't, but neither was she very distant from the familiar strangeness of the village.Perhaps I was a thoughtful child. I don't know, but I remember going over events that happened, again and again, in my mind - embedding them in all their technicolor glory, in my memory.
For years now, those memories have been straining to emerge. In more recent years, however, I have realised that I was an unreliable witness, seeing things from a child's point of view - but the damage was done. Those remain my truths and, like myths, they have their roots in some sort of reality. My story, 'Neighbours' in 'Tales from the Cafe: Volume One' is based in that village and the street where I first lived. It does not plumb the Gothic depths though, coming more from a topical prompt. The darker writing is under development, in other exciting projects - some hopefully destined for the Cafe.
On that, folks, I'll keep you posted.
Check out our publication for 23 great coffee-time reads. Available at a 'come and get me' price from:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/103508
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B006584WHS
Happy reading,
Pootler x
I'm really excited.
