Small Poisons - a reader's view

The publisher liked it, the proof-reader liked it, the various people who read and advised on chunks as I was writing the novel liked it – but until someone goes out and buys the book with their own money and spontaneously tells you how much they liked it, you still have a few moments of doubt. So a huge THANK YOU! to author Jan Harris for saying, I've just finished reading Small Poisons and thoroughly enjoyed it. I expected skilful writing, imagination and a plot to make my eyeballs pop and was definitely not disappointed. You've created a magical world with some fantastic characters and lots of surprises, and it all hangs together beautifully. Awesome work - well done!

The Final Proofread

… is done. Ah, the relief! The discussions over how far to bend the rules regarding commas are over. The trouble with commas is that if you go absolutely by the book, you don’t necessarily convey the intended meaning, and you certainly can’t go entirely by the book in direct speech, or everything sounds far too formal. If you decide to trust your word processor’s grammar-checker, you end up inserting semi-colons unnecessarily all over the place, so you change half of them to dashes, and then think – hang on a minute. This is stupid. What’s wrong with a comma? And then you count twenty commas in one sentence and take half of them out, and your proof-reader tells you you’re breaking grammatical rules and tries to re-instate them. You’re so busy counting commas that you nearly miss the fact that half your name is missing from the biography page, and a line that should be straight on the cover has a small kink in it.

Too late to change things now. ‘Small Poisons’ is winging its way over to the printers even as I type these words. I will have the first copies in my hands in a fortnight or so. That’s the point at which I’ll notice that Esmerelda’s name changes to Albertine halfway through, and Edgar’s eyes change from blue to brown depending on whether he’s appearing in odd or even numbered chapters.

Luckily none of these characters appear in the book.

Small Poisons

An apple tree with a name, the scratch of bark, pink blossom, scabby fruits – a beginning – not that I knew it at the time. I grew up with this tree. Climbed it, ate its fruit, knew it intimately. Wrote it into my novel, drew it onto the cover.

What else. Beetles? I have no idea where the beetle came from, other than the obvious Kafka connection. The woodlice come from what I thought was an apocryphal tale until I saw a television chef make an inedible woodlouse pie, which set me wondering.

The garden is a ‘misbegotten attempt to tame paradise’, of course. Chaos and order in balance? No, not a hope, especially not in suburbia, that strange interface between town and country, where neither is allowed the ascendance.

So I entered the garden by a side door, one rarely used, and described what I saw from an angle not usually viewed. Mum, dad, couple of kids, nice garden with an apple tree and a shed. Looks okay from the outside. But… there be poisons here. Small ones. Insidious ones.

And there is love.

Circaidy Gregory Press will publish this novel in a couple of months’ time. Details to follow.

County Durham Open Art Exhibition 2009

I'm delighted that two of my pictures have been accepted for the County Durham Open Art Exhibition 2009. The theme of the exhibition is People, Lives and Places. I'm showing a pencil drawing of Upper Weardale Show, and a mixed media painting of the River Wear near Bishop Auckland. Both pictures are for sale.

The exhibition runs from 9th to 28th February 2009 at Bishop Auckland Town Hall, Co Durham.

VOTE FOR ME!!!!

Throughout the month of June, you can vote for the cover art of "wormwood, earth and honey" here. The mere act of voting gives you a chance to win a free copy of the book - so go on! What are you waiting for?

wormwood, earth and honey

wormwood, earth and honey is my first solo poetry collection, and has just been published by Circaidy Gregory Press ISBN 9781906451042

The poems are accessible but never trivial: warm, earthy, intelligent and – just when you begin to snuggle into the intimacy of it – spiked with fire and venom.

mary

yesterday
she walked between trees
from chapel to ruin

followed a path of sorrel
where the ground dips
into a muddy trap

raced past garden walls
neat bricks, secret delights
peaches,
stolen on a whim

remembered, too late
that sorrel poisons
the unwary

wormwood, earth and honey may be purchased from amazon, or directly from the publisher here.

The Plough Prize 2006

Yes! I got a 'highly commended'. Here's what Matt, the adjudicator said:

I don't mind admitting I'm still trying out different ways of reading this, but that was one of its appeals, along with its reminder that sound is every bit as important to a poem as sense. I liked the playing around with repeptition and elision, and the surprise of "laugh" in the last line, which can still be read several ways.