anthology | the writer is a lonely hunter

Grab a bargain!

by gailaldwin

You can now pre-order a kindle or paperback copy of This Much Huxley Knows from AmazonUK, AmazonUS, Barnes and Noble or if you want to grab a bargain, order it through the Book Depository with a 10% discount and free postage worldwide.

Lovely reviews continue to be posted on Goodreads about This Much Huxley Knows. Do pop over and take a read – I’m really chuffed with the response to this novel. This Much Huxley Knows will be released on 8 July and I’m planning some social media activity to celebrate the launch.

Meanwhile, I’m continuing to write across genres and I recently had word that a poem I’d written during a workshop offered by Tolu Agbelusi will feature in the first Quay Words anthology to be published by Literature Works.

Onwards and upwards!

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Waterloo Festival 2020

by gailaldwin

The Waterloo Festival has been running for ten years and it’s a great celebration of community and creativity. St John’s Church is behind this venture and works with partners in the area to generate a variety of creative happenings during the festival month of June. I’ve entered the annual writing competition for three years in a row and I’ve been fortunate to be amongst the winners each time. In previous years there has been an opportunity to share our stories in the church and I love taking the opportunity for a trip to London. I have a particular fondness for Waterloo. Coming into the station by train, I catch sight of the London Eye, the Palace of Westminster and Big Ben between high rise buildings.

Photo taken from the sky for Pixabay NOT the train!

During my London life, I worked for a charity with offices is situated in The Cut. After work I often met friends or went to one of the shows at the Old Vic or the Young Vic which are both nearby theatres. Indeed the National Theatre is only around the corner and walking along the South Bank of the Thames is one of my favourite things to do. A scene for my novel The String Games is set there:

Where the path narrows, Imogen lingers watching the Thames. Waves of slate and mottled brown weave together like twine. It’s low tide and the river has shrunk, making a beach. Imogen leans against the railing and a glimpse of winter sun is a reward for leaving the office at lunchtime. A woman is standing by the water’s edge and in the shallows there is a boy in wellington boots …

This year the Waterloo Festival has gone online. At the launch of the ebook anthology ‘Transforming Communities’, I met lots of fellow writers via Zoom. There was a chance for chat and some winners read their stories. Here we all are, spruced up for an online party.

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Thanks to Euchar Gravina director of the Waterloo Festival 2020 for hosting the event and Gill James for organising the competition.

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News about my creative writing

by gailaldwin

In all the time I’ve been busy volunteering in Uganda, there has been activity on the creative writing front at home. I was shortlisted in a poetry competition run by my publisher Victorina Press. My entry has now been translated into Spanish and included in this beautiful bilingual poetry anthology. David sent me a photo and I’m looking forward to reading the book when I get home.

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Other news relates to the The String Games. My debut novel is one of fourteen finalist in The People’s Book Prize and voting is now open to select a winner in the fiction category. Thank you to everyone who has supported me to reach this stage. You are now able to vote again and if you haven’t voted before, this is your chance. Find out all about The String Games here. You don’t need to have read the whole novel as the opening pages are available for you to make a judgement. When you’re ready to vote, scroll down, add your details, tick the box and submit. The String Games is up against some stiff competition but wouldn’t it be great to see a Dorset writer on the stage come presentation day? Congratulations to the other finalists.

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Flash Fiction with Retreat West

by gailaldwin

I was delighted to join five other writers at Retreats for You in Devon, where Amanda Saint delivered input to support the development of flash fiction pieces for inclusion in a Retreat West Books anthology to be published November 2019. Each morning we met after breakfast to write three new pieces of flash fiction based on a different theme.

On Tuesday we were inspired by picture prompts to develop characters and settings around the theme of peace and there was a further activity using sentence starters to complete our work. On the following day, Amanda encouraged us to write new fiction on the theme of love using prompts including music, selected words and what if scenarios. Our final day focused on the theme of power where further images and sentence starters activated ideas. My task is now to develop nine pieces of new flash fiction for submission to Retreat West Books in April 2019. A couple of the stories arrived almost fully formed but others will need considerable work to bring them up to publication standard. It was great working alongside other writers to achieve the shared goal of ideas generation and drafted pieces to be developed over the next few months.

We were very well looked after by Debbie Flint and her team at Retreats for You. If you fancy a few days dedicated to writing, you won’t find anywhere better than this. With a warm welcome, comfortable accommodation and meals with wine, what’s not to like?

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Gliterary: a glittery collection of tales

by gailaldwin

Here is a video to promote the newly published anthology Gliterary. This is a glittery collection of glit-er-ary tales that will add sparkle to your life. It includes a story by me titled “Brighter than Jewels”. You can purchase a copy here or if you would like to receive a mobi-file or pdf to enable you to review the anthology on Goodreads or Amazon, please let me know by making contact here.

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Best of CafeLit 2012

by gailaldwin

Product Details When I received an email on New Year’s Day from Debz Hobbs-Wyatt saying that my story The Shallows had been included in The Best of CafeLit 2012, I was delighted. Now I’m looking forward to receiving my copy of the anthology which is available through Amazon. The ezine CafeLit is a fantastic place to submit stories up to 3,000 words. Each year Debz selects 15 of the stories she’s most enjoyed for inclusion in a trade book and contributors receive a share of the profits.

I’m really pleased to see my work appear alongside that of Patsy Collins. Patsy has had considerable success in having her stories published in women’s magazines and now has a number of print and ebooks available. She writes regular blog posts which are well worth reading and you can find the link to her blog here.

Interestingly, Patsy was made redundant earlier in the year and I’m taking inspiration from the writing she’s undertaken since she’s been liberated from paid employment. In the meantime, the date of my dismissal through redundancy approaches and I’m making plans for a refocused future. When everything is confirmed, I’ll let you know more.

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And I always thought writing was hard work…

by gailaldwin

On one the most beautiful days of this year, I was in Waterstones, Dorchester selling copies of The Rosemary Project. The anthology comprises poetry and prose by writers from across Dorset and all money raised goes towards Alzheimer’s Research and Mindful (which supports a memory cafe in North Dorset). Although The Rosemary Project was the branch best-seller for the day, I only managed to sell eleven copies. Read the rest of this entry »

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