Janet Gogerty's Blog: Sandscript - Posts Tagged "hallows-and-heretics"

They are the 'raison d'etre' for sports people, but are competitions right for musicians, artists, writers? If you don't win you are comforted by the thought that judging can only be subjective. But if you do win or are placed, you have confirmation that at least one complete stranger, who knows nothing about you, likes, even loves your painting or novel. Away from the world of the famous, big money novel awards, many short story competitions are held, with writers hoping for a big break or at least some handy pocket money.
Lat year the phone rang on a particularly noisy day in our house and when the telephone was finally handed to me I thought the woman on the other end said 'You have been shortlisted for the World Literary Competition and we are inviting you to the reception at the Bishops Palace.'
I did not recall entering such a prestigious competition, but had visions of meeting the Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth Palace. Actually it was the Wells (Somerset) Literary Competition and Wells is a very nice place for an outing, but unfortunately we would be on our way back from Scotland that day. I didn't win.
This month was the reception for Christchurch (Dorset) Writers' Competition, a pleasant afternoon with readings from the stage and interesting talks by the judges. I came second in the short story section and when I went up to receive my prize the female judge was surprised I was a woman! For a moment I did wonder if I should be using only my initials for my books, maybe selling more! My story 'Experiment' could be called science fiction. You can read it in my new anthology 'Hallows and Heretics' published last week on Amazon Kindle. Read more about it at my website www.ccsidewriter.co.uk

The black sky was full of bright stars as we left our club's annual D.I.Y. Christmas party. It was a good start to 'Wintermas', which I have decided is what we are having this year; the period between the first Christmas event and the first birthday of the year in January. Last year the family Christmas get together in January was postponed by bad weather until my birthday in February.
However you choose to celebrate or ignore Christmas, most of us would agree it is over commercialised and over hyped by the media. 'Christmas Department' the last story in my new anthology 'Hallows and Heretics' (Amazon Kindle)takes a different look at Christmas shopping.
If do you want to keep a check on the days till Christmas, visit the Advent Calendar without chocolates in the prologue at my website www.ccsidewriter.co.uk

What’s in a name? Unless an author writes science fiction set on another planet, or fantasy in a fantasy world, he has to set his story on earth. I once read a novel by a well known writer; unlike his other books it was a tale of wanderings in vaguely European lands, in an unspecified century. I felt no attachment to the characters at all and did not enjoy reading it.
But a crime thriller or romance can be set in a village with an invented name, helpful to avoid a libel case; you only have to look at the map book or drive around Britain to know real villages and towns have names stranger than a writer could create.
I recently read ‘The Cornish Coast Murder’ by John Bude, written in the 1930’s. His pen name is derived from a real Cornish place, the name of the village in the story is invented, but Boscawen sounds genuine. You can read my review of his book here on Goodreads.
Authors are safe in big cities, they are sprawling and anonymous. London has a well know centre surrounded by an endless variety of suburbs. In ‘Brief Encounters of the Third Kind’ the story starts in the back garden of an ordinary house, in the large suburb of Ashley. You won’t find Ashley on the map, but like many other outer London suburbs it has a common popular with walkers, several underground stations, a busy bus service, a hospital, a town centre and local shops. The residents of Ashley think nothing much ever happens there, but they are wrong.
When the characters hop on ‘the tube’ to go into central London well known landmarks feature in the plot. In ‘Three Ages of Man’ the stranger who appears at the beginning of the novel is overwhelmed by sprawling Ashley and the city centre, luckily he has an author to look after him. Waterloo Station is Britain’s busiest station, characters can slip through unnoticed. Here you catch the train to an obscure part of Wiltshire; a good walk from the station, near a little known village, is Holly Tree Farm; an ideal place for people who need to keep a low profile.
Perhaps one day I will set a novel in my current home town. It is big and busy, with students and holiday makers and occasionally, bizarre real life murders; plenty of scope for a novelist. Its real name is Bournemouth, but Thomas Hardy called it Sandbourne in his Wessex novels.
In the meantime it is June at Holly Tree Farm and I am busy writing the third novel in the trilogy.
In my two anthologies ‘Dark and Milk’ and ‘Hallows and Heretics’ you will find stories set in London and the Bournemouth area. In ‘Hallows and Heretics’ you can read the Hambourne Chronicles. Google Hambourne to see if it is a real place.