Sutton Park, and ‘Each Year I Forget’
BEFORE YOU READ ABOUTSutton Park, and ‘Each Year I Forget’,
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and give yourself a LAST CHANCE of winning a FREE copy of Paper Lanterns(CLOSING DATE: 31st December)
Anyone who’s visited this site over the last few weeks will have noticed that I’ve not been posting much since I started my Book Cover Design Challenge, not even a ‘Poem of the Week’ - I’ve been too busy responding to everyone who’s entered. I’ve been delighted by the amount of thinking time that people have given to the task of guessing which of the seven covers is my favourite, and/or telling me which they’ve liked best, and why.
I love this clear and sunny frosty weather – it’s one of the things I like about winter in England. I’m not so keen on dank and foggy days, though they can also have charm of their own, especially in the countryside.
In spite of living on the edge of the second largest conurbation in the UK, I don’t think of myself as a ‘townie’, and I’m lucky to have the second largest enclosed park in Europe on my doorstep, where I can roam at will through ancient woods and open heath lands.
These days, large areas of the countryside might look beautiful, but are often inaccessible to walkers. I often think kindly of Henry VIII who apparently gave this land to the people of Sutton Coldfield in perpetuity. (At least, that’s what I’ve been told, but I’ve just come across an excellent website that gives lots more detail of the history and geography of the park, together with pictures of its seven pools.)
This afternoon I went out with my camera, as I wanted to get a picture to illustrate the poem I’ve selected for December. Being a fine day and part of the holiday season, there were more people around than usual, but fortunately, most of them kept to the tarmac (car-free) roads, while I crunched across the frosty beech leaves on the narrow tracks through the woods.
Each Year I Forget
Each year I forget
the shape of twigs and branches
under froth of summer leaves.
October flaunts nostalgia
in scarlet woods
binding with spells of
yellow and orange light.
Don’t go, don’t go.
Each year December
surprises me again
as trunks of beeches
glow with their own green
and twigs crack open sky.
I wrote this several years ago – as you might have guessed, I love each of the four seasons as they come around, and although I’ve experienced several decades of them, I’m always surprised to find that I’d forgotten so much about the details of the pleasures they bring.
Where the Wild Things Are (and Paypal at last)
BEFORE YOU READ ABOUT Where the Wild Things Are (and Paypal at last),
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I’ve had a lovely Boxing Day with my kind, techie son (back home for Christmas)
First off, he’s patiently helped me work out the best way to install Paypal on this site. That might not sound like much, but I kept on changing my mind about exactly what system I’d need in order to make things easy for anyone who wants to buy my books.
We’ve finally settled for a ‘UK’ and ‘Rest of the World’ option. The Dangerous Sports Euthanasia Society is the only one displayed here for the time being, but Paper Lanterns will be available here in a few weeks’ time.
For anyone buying in the UK, not only will there be £2.00 off the original price, but postage and packing will be free.
For anyone outside the UK, the book will be full price, but there will be no charge for postage and packing!
As soon as the cover design for Paper Lanterns has been selected* all the files will be sent to the printer, and once the actual paperback books are ready, they’ll be available here in the same way.
*Since the Bookcrossers are such staunch supporters, I’ll be asking some of them to draw the five winning ID numbers on Saturday 2nd January – watch this space for the results!
Our afternoon walk through sunlit woodland in Cannock Chase was followed, at the insistence of my adult son, by a trip to the local Multiplex to see what I thought would be a typically cosy family Christmas film, Where the Wild Things Are.
I was happy to go along with this suggestion, especially as our long-ago roles were reversed, and he was buying the tickets. (Though I couldn’t help thinking that it seemed rather a strange choice for a sophisticated man-about-town!) But it wasn’t long before I saw why.
The Wild Things were wonderful - dream-like and utterly convincing in their depiction of human emotions and behaviours, both of small children, and on another level, of supposedly mature adults. As this review suggests, it seems to have been made more for adults, than for small children.
If you’ve seen it, I’d love to hear your views!
Oh, and another new thing you’ll notice is the Twitter link, thanks to my son.
Looping the Loop with Free Harmony
BEFORE YOU READ ABOUT Looping the Loop with Free Harmony, Click here for my BOOK COVER DESIGN CHALLENGE
and give yourself the chance of winning a FREE copy of Paper Lanterns(CLOSING DATE: 31st December)
I’ve just experienced the weird (but rather nice) sensation of hearing my voice coming at me from my computer screen, and suddenly I’m back in the headquarters of Radio Wildfire, being interviewed by the presenter, Dave Reeves. I’m reading an extract from The Dangerous Sports Euthanasia Society, the part where Agnes Borrowdale, (‘75 years old, a week on Tuesday’) prevents Felix from throwing himself under a high speed train on New Street Station.
I shared the ‘live’ part of the broadcast, on Monday 7th December, with Adrian Johnson, the current Birmingham Poet Laureate, but although I had the pleasure of hearing him recite his poems, I wasn’t able to listen to myself and hear how I’d have sounded to the fans of Radio Wildfire, so it was a relief to find that I didn’t make a complete prat of myself (in spite of some hesitation and stumbling over a few words.)
I’m quite used to talking about my first novel, but this was the first time I’d been interviewed about Paper Lanterns so it took a bit longer to collect my thoughts. I have to say that I was enthralled just now when I was listening to two of the real-life love letters from China in the 1920s that inspired one of the main story threads in the novel. (I’ll post more information about these letters soon.)
Meanwhile, if you want to hear more of this broadcast, it’s now available here on the Loop.
The Loop is a non stop (24/7)transmission between the live monthly broadcasts, and it’s just been updated today, 23rd December. Once you’ve got the hang of how this works, it’s very easy to follow, especially as Dave has listed what you can expect to hear on each of the 12 tracks. If you miss anything, all you need to do is wait till it comes round again – (a bit like those baggage carousels at airports when you fail to recognise your own suitcase before it’s swallowed up by those dangling bits of rubber - but waiting on Radio Wildfire is a good deal more entertaining than watching the sluggish progress of other people’s luggage!)
So here’s the programme, and it’s part of the fun to identify which track you’ve landed on. It’s all good stuff, but make sure you listen out for tracks 6 and 9!
Tracks 1-3
Adrian Johnson Birmingham Poet Laureate reads…
All the Jam
Happy Birthday Brummie Floozy
Birmingham’s What?
Tracks 4-6
Office Party Roz Goddard (live)
Thank you letter Xmas 1969 (2008) Brendan Hawthorne with Nigel Self
Christine Coleman reads from The Dangerous Sports Euthanasia Society
Tracks 7-9
Twelve Days of Christmas, a story by Susan Hulse
A Poor Man’s Excuse Dave Reeves (live)
Christine Coleman talks about her forthcoming novel, Paper Lanterns
Tracks 10-12
Adrian Johnson talking about the National Storytelling Laureate and reading the poem Deep Mercia
Christmas Do Geoff Stevens
Let Your Little Light Shine (Trad spiritual) Free Harmony*
(* I liked this so much that I ordered the CD of Free Harmony from Chris Hoskin’s website (a bargain at £8.00)
Paraglider’s three times lucky december
BEFORE YOU READ ABOUT Paraglider’s Three Times Lucky December,Click here for my BOOK COVER DESIGN CHALLENGE and give yourself the chance of winning a FREE copy of Paper Lanterns(CLOSING DATE: 31st December)
DECEMBER HAS BEEN A LUCKY MONTH FOR ME, SO FAR
1) I was invited to take part in a live broadcast on Radio Wildfire to talk about my novels, The Dangerous Sports Euthanasia Society, and the soon-to-be-published Paper Lanterns.
2) I received a lovely recommendation for the back cover of Paper Lanterns from prize-winning author, Linda Gillard . She is writer of uncompromisingly high calibre and her third novel, Star Gazing, was shortlisted for Romantic Novel of the Year 2009.
I have great respect for her judgement on literary matters, so I’m delighted that she enjoyed my novel enough to name it in the same breath as the two novelists she mentions below:
“A vivid and absorbing tale of family secrets and illicit love, observed with the keen eye of a poet. You can almost smell and taste Hong Kong. Recommended for fans of Margaret Forster and Penelope Lively.“
3) I’ve just had an article published in the Bookcrossers’ monthly newsletter. You can read it here, and see why I think that all authors should love Bookcrossers.
It’s exciting enough to think that some of the 829,653 members from all around the world might read my article, but on top of that I’ve been awarded a month’s free membership of ‘Members Plus’, and this means that my Bookcrossing name, paraglider will now display wings for the next few weeks. (It does bring other privileges, but I might not have time to take advantage of these.) Still, I feel very proud when I click on my Bookcrossing name and see those wings - the nearest I’ll ever get to being angelic!
Radio Wildfire & a mountain-climbing Guinness drinker
BEFORE YOU READ ABOUT Radio Wildfire Live, Click here for my BOOK COVER DESIGN CHALLENGE and give yourself the chance of winning a FREE copy of Paper Lanterns(CLOSING DATE: 31st December)
I’ve been so busy replying to the numerous kind people who entered, that that this is the first new post for a couple of weeks
One of the many nice things about the Writers’ Conference I attended a couple of weeks ago, was the chance of catching up with former writing friends and making new ones. The only other Writing Conference I’d attended was a residential weekend in Winchester in June 2008. It was inspiring, informative and great fun, and it made me wonder why there was never anything like that in Birmingham. (Even the East Midlands seemed to have more going on for writers then those of us in the West)
That is, until Jonathan Davidson puts things right with his Writers’ Toolkit. James Walker, a writer from East Mids, has written an excellent report of that day – I’ve just spent time I haven’t really got to spare, browsing his own site. But then again, he’s saved me some of that time by expressing a lot of what I’d intended to say myself.
So now I can skip that and get to Dave Reeves, director and programmer of Radio Wildfire,a spoken word radio station that streams content 24 hours a day over the internet. It’s the LIVE transmission that is the really exciting part for me, as Dave has invited me to take part in this TOMORROW, Monday 7th December, between 8.00 and 10.00 pm UK time.
Dave has a great way with words – I’d sent him a few short paragraphs about my writing life, and here’s how he introduces his Monday evening guests:
The Laureate and Plinther is Adrian Johnson, “the current Birmingham Poet Laureate and a man with an enthusiasm for storytelling… Earlier this year he became a ‘plinther’ in Trafalgar Square, standing in the sunshine at 3pm on a Saturday - almost exactly 20 years from when the Poll Tax riot erupted on 31 March 1990.” He’s a great performer of his own poems, and from this YouTube video,it looks as though it’ll be a lively evening.
Here’s the more serious part of what Dave has written about me: “Christine Coleman’s first novel The Dangerous Sports Euthanasia Society came out in 2005. While that was mainly set in Birmingham and Sutton Coldfield, her forthcoming book, Paper Lanterns, was inspired by finding a cache of love letters written in China by two separate women to the same man.”
And there’ll be a lot more to squeeze into this couple of hours:
“Amongst the artists we’ll be playing from CD is Coventry based Chris Hoskins from her collection of monologues Relatively Speaking, and singing with the superb a’cappella trio Free Harmony. And there’ll be some of the sort of Christmas literary offerings that you’ll only get on Radio Wildfire as we look at office parties with Roz Goddard; Christmas presents with Brendan Hawthorne; and reinterpret a couple of well worn seasonal tales.”
And now I’d better go and sort out which extracts from my books the listeners might like to hear me reading on Monday evening
