Wintering

Hi Everyone

We meet again in lockdown mark 2, as winter draws in. It’s tough I know – so I hope you have some writing plans for the coming month that will give you pleasure, or if writing just isn’t possible for you right now, then some good books or podcasts lined up and a few box sets – recommendations welcome, I love nothing better than a good box set.

Before I talk writing, I really want to thank everyone who bought a Linen Press book bag. I gather from your messages that they were a real pleasure to receive and open. I’m pleased to say we raised £140.00 and have made the donation accordingly to Women’s Aid. It’s not a king’s ransom I know, but every penny helps and we hope to find more opportunities to support this cause in the future.

Now to writing –

My own news is that I’ve been considering whether my novella (written in lockdown mark 1) is in fact a very long short story. It came in at approx 18,000 words, which is really shy of novella length, although it has the arc and complexity of the novella as opposed to the short story. In the end I think I’ve decided it doesn’t really matter (especially as queen of the short story Alice Munro’s The Love of a Good Woman, comes in at 50 plus pages) and I’m delighted( and frankly a bit surprised) to say my editor at Linen Press loves it and is very keen to publish it. No contract has yet been signed but tentatively it will be published in a collection of my short stories, later in 2021.

If you’re looking for inspiration for your own writing the renowned Aldeburgh Poetry Festival is online this year and whereas the workshops may be full by now there are readings and discussions worth checking out. Walter Mosley in his slim but brilliant volume – This Year You Write Your Novel (I highly recommend it!) suggests that writers of novels should read poetry and try their hand at it ‘You don’t have to be good at it. Your poems can be bad. But what you will learn will include the tools that can stand you in good stead when it comes to writing that novel…’

With this in mind Durham Pop Up Poetry is offering a whole day of online poetry and diary workshops free on Sunday November 22nd in their Winter Gathering

This is my workshop ( there are other great opportunities, so do look at them all) and I’d love to see you there – I hope it will be enjoyable for everyone – poets and non poets, beginners and experienced writers alike…

9.30-11.30: Avril Joy: What are we feeling as these winter months draw in, and what creature is it? Goose, groundhog, whale, mountain lion? In this workshop I will share with you how I grew the poems in my collection Going in With Flowers, including my poem Skomm, and together we will write our own, new ‘feeling as animal,’ poem.

I had an email recently from a writer who’d read – From Writing With Love – my book on writing – and who told me it had encouraged her to start writing again. I LOVE this kind of email, and I’ve decided to leave From Writing With Love free on the website here for a while longer. So if you’re interested or need inspiring just click on the tab above under the header.

I’m conscious as I come to the end of writing this post that I’ll probably go back to checking out what’s happening across the pond in the U.S. ( I try not to but it’s hard to resist ) Like many of us, I’ve spent days worrying about the outcome of the election but it’s still undecided and the spectacle only gets uglier. No matter how little we do, or where our mind is, when we sit down to write, even if we just to make a list, and lists are good things – writing can provide us with the safe, quiet space we all need just now when the world around us can feel like it’s unravelling.