STOP PRESS…

Thanks to the High Window Press for publishing “Of Gardens and Witches” and a great poetry magazine.

Of Gardens and Witches…

You can buy directly from me. If you’d like your copy signed please say.


The Absolute Truth about Archibald Crump

Just finished the third draft of my latest novel

Want to know The Absolute Truth?

The bones of it are here…

Davey and his young brother Owen are growing up in Texas when the children’s Poppa is executed on death row for murder. Their mother decides to migrate back to the UK, away from  the boys’ aunt, the only person capable of giving them love.

While Owen settles into the new life, Davey feels isolated. He seeks refuge inside a world of ghosts and invented identities, including his friend, Archibald Crump, but slips into an adult life of crime.

By the time Davey reaches his forties he’s taken on a new identity, as respectable graveyard operative and raconteur of ghost stories, though his Poppa still haunts him. Outstanding debts turn into a chaos of laundered money, crime, ghosts and violence, where no one is as they seem, dead or alive.

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ARCHIVE:

Lockdown lockdown lockdown. We all had different experiences. This was one of mine:

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Controlling Aphrodite, my unpublished novel on the writers’ site Inkitt 

has been downloaded over 16,000 times…just waiting to see how many people finish it…

Chaos…

Privileged to be part of the above anthology, Chaos, from Patrician Press… a response to the challenging times in which we live…

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Vindication

Looking back at the London launch of Vindication, a  volume of poetry by six women poets from the marvellous Arachne Press, to celebrate women’s writing.  Writing that contributes to the contemporary poetry scene at its most exciting…in my humble opinion…

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More Exhibitionism – Stairwell Press

It’s taken me a fair while to get back into York for one of Rose Drew’s wonderful Spoken Word Open Mic sessions (well, it is a one hundred mile round trip) but at last I managed a visit this month and at the same time collect my contributor’s copy of “More Exhibitionism” edited by Glen Taylor and published by Stairwell Books. An attractive cover and packed full of good writing from accomplished writers. Hope my three poems measure up!

Still some copies available from Stairwell Books.

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A trio of anthologies in which my work appears are soon to be released, including a small offering from Whitby Writers Group, the most dedicated Patrician Press Refugees and Peacekeepers. Lovely to see so many celebrations of writing as well as some strong messages that people can’t afford to ignore….

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Enjoyed my involvement in artist Barrie West‘s peace project Mapping Armageddon. On 24th November I joined five other poets in reading peace poems, some of which have been incorporated into Barry’s work. That was at Washington Arts Centre.

Crossing Borders – Patrician Press

Just received news that my poem Crossing Borders will feature in Patrician Press’ latest anthology. The poem seems more apt than ever before, given everything that’s happening. Thanks to Patrician Press

Who can stop the march of time? Certainly, as far as saving the environment as we know it is concerned, the clock’s ticking…that was the theme for the recent poetry reading at York University organized by writer Helen Shay, title Tick Tock: Rhythm of the Clock. Click here. Interesting night of powerful poems. Alcuin College, University of York.

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Enjoyed reading a couple of my new Orkney poems at the Blacklight Engine Room’s excellent poetry night in Middlesbrough the other night. Lovely to hear so many enthusiastic wordsmiths. Keeps poetry alive, innit?

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The short story site Pennyshorts recently posted another of my short stories, Queen of the Park, on to their website. A story in which elderly Mary Bacon is a reluctant witness to an exchange in the playground. For the first time in her life, she determines to take a stand…only 50p to read it!

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Kiss New Cover

I can’t believe it’s three years since I published The Kiss on Kindle! I’ve written two more novels since. Still not as many as Bram Stoker, who, apparently, wrote sixteen after Dracula!

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27th June. Check out The Stare’s Nest, great humanitarian poetry site created by Judi Sutherland. My poem Watching Boat People on TV is featured there today. Lots of great poetry and thought provoking stuff!

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Pleased to see that the penny shorts website is now up and running. Two of my stories are there…  www.pennyshorts.com

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Great night at the Whitby launch of my poetry pamphlet Taking Responsibility for the Moon  25th February at the Whitby Deli . Lots of fun, lovely atmosphere, with some excellent readings on Open Mic. Thanks to all who attended for your support!

Adrienne-SilcockCOVER

The pamphlet is now for sale, either by contacting myself or through Teesside publisher Mudfog, who recently celebrated their twentieth birthday. Many congratulations to them and their support of emerging poets over the years!

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Excited about Arachne Press‘s poetry publication, The Other Side of Sleep, in which I’m lucky enough to have a place. It’s an intriguing mix of cutting edge narrative poetry. Thanks to editor Cherry Potts, who did most of the hard work bringing it all together. One of her recent publications has just been nominated for a Carnegie Award.
Draft cover design by Zoe Lee

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My short story The Boy Who Hid Beneath the Piano is now published in the marvellous Mardibooks production, The Clock Struck War as part of the nation’s commemoration of World War I.

Vermin is now available on kindle. It’s my first novella, published as a paperback by Flambard, but a recent reviewer said she would love to see this as an e-book, so, no sooner said than done…. The links are here for amazon.uk  and here for amazon.com…..

And for the link to the review on GoodReads, which, incidentally, includes the short stories in the original paperback publication….

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/822381109

Amazon review for the kindle now available

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If you fancy a trip to the Mediterranean but you don’t wish to leave your armchair, why not go for a poetic tour…. http://www.odyssey.pm/?p=2531

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Just published: two poems in issue 12 of the rather special literary mag, Prole…. http://www.prolebooks.co.uk/

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“Unleashed” from The Review Board have given my novel “The Kiss” a great review….

http://theunleashedreviewboard.wordpress.com/2013/10/03/unleashed-speaks-on-the-kiss/

It’s also featured on GoodReads… http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/722032253

…and Amazon…. http://www.amazon.com/The-Kiss-ebook/product-reviews/B008T4TEQU

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My short piece “Email” from Flight Path is now featured in ReadWave‘s Staff Picks… true story…. http://www.readwave.com/

Email - a true story cover

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Sad to hear of the passing of Seamus Heaney, such a wonderful writer… here’s my very humble tribute to him….

Cormorant

dedicated to the memory of Seamus Heaney

So often I have seen the S of the neck

the black majesty of its poise

steady on a post or other construct

the glossy outline affirming estuary’s flow

its inky darkness almost two dimensional,

rock-still, so that even though I stand and wait,

willing the cormorant to move,

it outwits me with its acceptance

of eddy and of tidal race, watching, watching…

How wise to know when to stretch and dry the wings

to catch the warm breeze or benefit from arctic chill,

to know the precise moment, the exact now

to open up into that vast span

profiling water’s surface in unhurried scoop

before flying entirely away, away,

leaving vast expanse of empty sky.

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My novel “The Banning of Mr Bray” is finished, edited, then finished again…hmmm….is a novel ever quite finished?….However, like a puppet after a show, it’s going back in its box for now…until I manage to find a publisher, that is….

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Just changed the cover for The Kiss, courtesy of my daughter Hannah Thomas…

Kiss New Cover

Check it out at amazon ….

This novel is now listed on the Awesome Indies website. Means it’s quality-assured.

Then, check out the latest reviews…

Kiss New Cover

A girl on holiday with her partner offers to take a photograph for another couple against the backdrop of the complex and ambiguous statue El Beso – the Kiss. Seemingly, both couples are deeply in love. But trouble bubbles beneath the surface. Neither couple expects to meet the other again, but when Rick is handed the brief on an alleged fraud case, he steps into a complex entanglement of game-playing, deceit and blackmail, where love goes astray. He struggles to discover his true identity at the risk of losing his girlfriend and jeopardising his career, while Tom exploits Rick’s love. All four of them must find a way through the maze…

The Kiss –  Hopefully it’ll be worth the £1.96 read, judging by web comments and reviews…

hooked half way through the first chapter and I loved it”   “very poetic

“talented, gifted writer”   “an absorbing story ”   “beautifully written

A chance meeting on holiday followed by a second coincidence ensnares two couples into deceit, blackmail, lost love and a desperate search for identity.

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I still have available some copies of my poetry pamphlet The Fibonacci Sequence, where light, dark and shadow, wend a journey through the mathematics of the Golden Section, where words build up into cameos of human life, studying themes of place and otherness. Crafted to the numbers of the sequence, the forms of the poems range from a single word to a ten-line rondeau, through to free verse and a sonnet, the ultimate example, according to some poets, of the Golden Ratio….

Fibonacci Sequence Cover

To buy a copy at £3.50 to include P&P, please click the Paypal button below.

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My story Goats has just been listed on Readwave’s Staff Picks … http://readwave.com/goats-acrosstheages_s2855

Check out musician Phil Lochlann’s  arrangement to Peace Dream, one of the poems included in my pamphlet Flight Path: Peace Dream

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Also published: Issue 7 of Prole Magazine.  http://www.prolebooks.co.uk/page5.html      Check out my short story (set in Portugal) The Lovely Water.

Flight path    

Not currently available, as I’m lucky enough to have parts of this published elsewhere, which would counter copyright agreement.     

A pamphlet of poems (including two prose poems) reflecting my time abroad. If you would like to buy a copy, use the button below or please get in touch…(£3) Title Flight path is a plea for world peace, taking its inspiration from the stunning Corsican landscape during a time when Libya was being attacked by Western Allies, but also from mixed responses  whilst travelling, of delight at the surroundings and reflections on exile…

 
  

3 thoughts on “STOP PRESS…”

  1. Hello Adrienne,

    I had the great pleasure of reading The Kiss for Awesome Indies. By now, you should have my “little” comments, in case you come out with a “second edition”.

    I did not look you up until I finished. Now I would add one more comment. In many places, I thought this is pure poetry, wonderful poetry. Now I know a bit more, and of course that thought fits.

    George (San Diege, California)

    1. Thanks so much, George, for reading The Kiss and recommending it. I thought your comments were very apt and if I get a chance I will try to do something of an edit.
      Thanks, too, for your enthusiasm!

      Adrienne

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