I’m delighted to welcome poet, Ellie Rees, to Patricia’s Pen for the first time, and in particular because she has just launched her poetry collection Modest Raptures with The Broken Spine. Ellie has come along to blog about her writing so without further ado, it’s over to Ellie.

My Writing

Ellie Rees

The compulsion to write, to seize and freeze a moment, was already there when I bought LETTS Desk Diary 1963 (pictured below.) I wanted to capture in prose – photograph with words – what I called my ‘magic’ days, those intense adolescent ‘highs’. This habit persisted beyond my Adrian Mole period but if I open one of my journals from ten or even thirty years ago I am startled by how close they are in content, technique, even mood, to the poems I am writing now.

There is one obvious difference though. Before I studied for an MA in Creative Writing it never occurred to me that I could, or would want to create poetry of my own.  Poetry was something written by someone else to be read for pleasure, or studied, or taught.

For many years I taught poetry to teenagers from all over the world who were studying for the International Baccalaureate. I still remember the time I issued a collection of Emily Dickinson’s poetry to a class of students who had never heard of her. There was silence at first as they opened their books and then just the sound of their sharp intakes of breath. That was magic – a different sort of magic from my younger days but one that made me decide to write my own.

My first collection, Ticking was published in 2021 by Hedgehog Poetry Press. It is a deep-mapping of a small stretch of the South Wales coastline and is structured as a walk. My second book is different. Modest Raptures is designed to slip into a pocket, to be dipped into. From the Twelfth Night after one Christmas to the ‘findings’ discovered on a visit twelve months later, a year is explored.

There are dancing pigeons, skylarks and sea gulls and a woodpecker suffering from concussion. Time is measured in swallows, while we listen with rapture to the modest song of a thrush at twilight.

There are secretive yew trees, trees that sing, an ash tree disguised as an oak, lines of trees, fallen trees, those that can hum hymns and the ones on the horizon that measure the sun’s royal progress.

The sun and its seasons affect almost every poem whether it is ‘blaring sunlight’ or ‘low and unremarkable’. There are ‘days when it hardly ever gets light’ or times when it ‘shatters leaves like glass’.

At the end of the year, forced indoors once more, modest raptures can still be felt.

About Ellie Rees

Ellie Rees is a Pushcart Prize nominated poet who lives on the coast of South Wales. She has an MA and a PhD in Creative Writing from Swansea University. Ellie writes across many genres including creative non-fiction, memoir and poetry. Her work is published in journals such as The New Welsh Review, Poetry Wales, The Lonely Crowd, Black Bough Poetry and The Broken Spine.

Her first collection of poetry, ‘Ticking’ won Hedgehog Poetry’s Selected or Neglected competition in 2020 and was published in 2021. Her second book. ‘Modest Raptures’ won The Broken Spine’s inaugural Chap Book Competition in 2022. It will be published in September 2023.

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Please join me in congratulating fellow Hedgehog Poetry Press poet, Julie Stevens, on the launch of her new poetry collection, Step into the Dark.

Step into the Dark

Step into the Dark ventures inside the mind and finds the unimaginable truth. It will show you the true impact of being disabled, whilst bringing a message of care, hope and success for everybody.

Here’s a sneak preview from Step into the Dark

About Julie Stevens

Julie Stevens writes poems that cover many themes, but often engages with the problems of disability. She is widely published in places such as Ink Sweat & Tears, Broken Sleep Books, The Honest Ulsterman, Strix and Indigo Dreams Publishing. She has 3 published pamphlets: Step into the Dark (July 2023), a Stickleback Balancing Act (June 2021) both with The Hedgehog Poetry Press and a chapbook Quicksand (Dreich, Sept 2020).

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‘Patricia’s Pen’ is taking a summer break from Guest and Launch Features but will be back on August 29th with poet Ellie Rees – a guest and launch feature for her new poetry collection.

It gives me great delight to welcome poet, Samantha Terrell, back to Patricia’s Pen. This visit Samantha blogs about her writing journey. Without further ado, it’s over to Samantha.

My Writing Journey

Samantha Terrell

Thank you very much for your interest in my poetry. I’m honored and humbled by the gracious support of my readers and fellow writers.

To tell a bit about myself, writing has been the one hobby I’ve consistently enjoyed for as long as I can remember. I excelled at creative writing in school, but I also have a heart for social justice. So in university, I earned a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Sociology and began working in human services. However, I never stopped writing in my free time. Merging my passions was a natural fit, which is why I say my poetry emphasizes self-awareness as a means to social awareness. Eventually, with my husband’s support, I began to pursue my writing career in earnest.

When I began submitting manuscripts over twenty years ago, finding open calls and sending off submissions was a paper process. As we all did at the time, I’d look for opportunities in magazines, mail off my work with an SASE, and wait. It ended up feeling like a lot of wasted stamps! But, of course, the internet opened up a whole new world.

Today – between access to a multitude of journals and lit mags, a streamlined online submissions process, social media, writers’ forums, and Zoom readings – there’s an abundance of resources and opportunities, creating a truly international writing community. This year I started a Featured Poets Series on my website, spotlighting some of the amazing writers I’ve come to know through these online avenues.

I’m eternally grateful for the connections I’ve made, and the many publications which have given my work a home. In 2020, I was offered my first book contract, by Potter’s Grove Press (USA). My poem ‘Just Justice’ was shortlisted for the Poets For Human Rights Awards organized by Poets Without Borders. And, my newest collection, Confronting the Elements (JC STUDIO Press), is my second collaboration with Scottish artist/publisher Jane Cornwell.

Meanwhile, social issues are a recurring theme in my work, and my family and I continue to support human rights issues at home and abroad. Proceeds from my eBooks, Our Neighbors’ Keepers (2022) and Silhouettes (2019), are donated to philanthropic endeavors including affordable housing, food security, medical access, legal aid, and the literary arts.

Thanks, too, Patricia, for this opportunity to share my journey!

About Samantha Terrell

Samantha Terrell is an internationally published poet whose books have received five-star reviews and accolades from her peers. Her poetry emphasizes self-awareness as a means to social awareness and can be found in:  Dissident Voice, Dove Tales, Green Ink Poetry, In Parentheses, Misfit Magazine, Nine Cloud Journal, Paddler Press, Poetry Quarterly, Red Weather, and many other fine publications. Terrell is a wife, mother, and former manager in the nonprofit sector who writes from her home in upstate New York.

For more information about Samantha and/or to purchase her books, or read the Featured Poet Series, please visit Samantha’s website HERE.

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Introducing the Main Characters in The Oath

Who is Françoise Angélique Dubois?

Françoise is one of the main protagonists in The Oath.

She was born on 23^rd March 1895 at Vue de Jardin in Penketh, a fictional village in France.  

She’s a stunning looker with gorgeous emerald eyes and shining long chestnut brown hair that runs loose and wild when blowing in the wind. 

When Françoise’s not running carefree through cowslip, she likes to spend time with her best friend, Geneviève, sharing secrets while embroidering cushions.

Françoise’s family are close-knit, with her parents still very much in love. Françoise hopes to find this same kind of happiness when her time comes to take a husband.

Her dreams are shattered on her seventeenth birthday when Papa announces Playtime is over. Seventeen is old enough to wed and bear a child.

Françoise is bound by a one-hundred-year oath, and although devastated when she sets sail for England with her elder brother André for company, she tries to look on it as a new adventure and hopes she’ll find the same love and happiness with her new husband as her parents share.

Who is Tilly?

The second narrator is Matilda Ann Greenwood known as Tilly. Tilly is English and works in service as a maid at Highwood Hall, the Dubois residence. She shares a room with her best friend Daisy.

Tilly is also a looker with strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes. She’s in love with the footman Archie, and refuses to listen to the rumours that he’s a scoundrel and treats girls like dirt.

Tilly misses her home and family and looks forward to days off when she spends time with her mam, elder brother and younger siblings. Her young twin brother and sister get excited when she turns up as Cook always packs Tilly a hamper with special treats. 

On Françoise’s arrival, Tilly is promoted to Lady’s maid. The girls, both of the same age, instantly connect.

Who is Sir Charles Henry William Dubois?

Sir Charles is a handsome baronet and lives at Highwood Hall with his mother, Elizabeth. He has black hair with dark eyes like rich soil. Charles is no more enamoured about fulfilling the one-hundred-year oath than Françoise but he has been told it’s his duty to marry a woman of good breeding who can bear him an heir. However, he has secrets to keep from his bride-to-be.  

Who is André Dubois?

André is Françoise’s elder brother and he’s a bachelor. Like Charles, André is handsome but his hair colouring isn’t as dark as Charles’.

André is caring, affectionate and a protector for his sister. He agrees to stay at Highwood Hall until Françoise is settled, before returning home to France. In the meantime, he attracts the attention of eligible ladies and their mothers in the district as a good catch.

Who is Lady Elizabeth Dubois?

Lady Elizabeth is mother to Charles. She’s a widow and has also lost a child. Elizabeth is slim and elegant. On Françoise and André’s arrival she arranges a celebratory welcome for her future daughter-in-law. Elizabeth is set in her ways and will always defend her son, no matter his behaviour.

Who is Antoinette Dubois?

Antoinette Dubois is known as Maman. She’s the mother of Françoise and André. In looks she’s the complete opposite of Lady Elizabeth. Maman is rounded and shows no sign of elegance. She’s very motherly until something happens to change that. She’s also forgetful, stubborn and old fashioned and refuses to move into the modern world.

Who is Lady Suzanna Astley?

Lady Astley has a good sense of humour. In a lot of ways, she reminds Françoise of Lady Elizabeth due to her tall, slim frame and stylish bearing. Suzanna is in her fifties. She has white hair and is open-minded. Suzanna lives at Hargreaves Hall with her nephew. She is a good friend of Antoinette’s and encourages her to see things in a better light.

Who is Matthew Astley?

Matthew Astley is Lady Astley’s nephew. He’s a complete contrast to Charles Dubois in appearance and nature. Matthew’s blond haired with blue eyes, gentle and thoughtful. He falls in love with Françoise from their first meeting. As an eligible bachelor, Matthew like André, is also under the gaze of mothers looking for a husband for their daughters.

Like what you’ve read? Want to know more or buy a copy? Then go HERE for an early bird price on Kindle of £2:99. Also available to read on Kindle Unlimited

Today Monday 24th July 2023 I celebrate the launch of my fourth novel The Oath. Later on I will share some snippets about my main characters but in the meantime there’s an online TV interview live on Showboat TV where author Judith Barrow asks me some great questions.

If you’d like to see the interview, go to the homepage HERE where it’s available free to view.

My first review for The Oath came through this morning. You can read it HERE

The Oath is up on Kindle at an early bird price of £2.99 (price equivalent in other countries) but that price will go up on 1st August 2023. It’s been set up this way to offer a loyalty price to my family, friends, and followers.
To take the opportunity of a copy at this price – go HERE

If you have Kindle Unlimited, like my family saga trilogy, The Oath can be downloaded FREE.

The Oath is also available in paperback and can be ordered on Amazon or via any good bookstore (brick or online). Alternatively if you pop into your local library the librarian will be happy to order it in.

Watch out later for the snippets about my main characters.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank all my followers for their support, not only for today, but every day.

I’m delighted to invite poet, Zoe Brooks, over to Patricia’s Pen for the first time. Zoe has come along to chat about inspiration for Fool’s Paradise (Black Eyes Publishing UK) so without further ado, it’s over to Zoe.

Inspiration

Zoe Brooks

I have written poetry for as long as I can remember – my first published poem was in the local parish magazine when I was 8 years old. Over the years I have written about many subjects: nature features prominently and of course relationships, but there is often an awareness of the larger context – of our place in time and history, of myth, politics and spirituality.

In early 1990, only a few months after the overthrow of communism, I visited Prague with a Czech friend of mine. She had fled her country in 1968 and was returning at last. I found the visit profoundly moving, I was an outsider but could see the city through the mirror of my friend’s eyes, albeit darkly. When we got back to England, I started writing Fool’s Paradise – a long poem for voices about three travellers (one returning to his home city), who are guided by a fool they meet on the way.

As is so often the way, I started with one trigger, but then what I wrote decided to go on a different journey. My friend was a Jungian, and we had been talking about the archetype of the Fool and his journey in myth and folklore. I am a historian by training, so Prague’s history as a place of occasional freedom and recurring oppression featured strongly in my thoughts, and not just Prague and the Czech Republic, but also those other cities and countries for which this is true – most obviously now of course Ukraine. As a result, the city that the Fool and his companions travel to is not Prague (for starters the oppressors are still there), but an imaginary combination of many places. Nor is the journey just physical, but metaphysical, it is ‘a dive into the uncanny’ to quote Fiona Sampson.

Structurally Fool’s Paradise is influenced by the verse plays I performed in as a teenager and have loved ever since, the most influential of which was Louis MacNeice’s Dark Tower. I love writing in a number of voices and with a number of characters. How my poetry sounds is very important to me and writing a verse play is like writing a choral piece rather than a solo. Multiple voices allow for multiple views and tensions, plus of course dramatic and narrative progression.

When I started writing Fool’s Paradise in 1990, it came in a rush, red hot. But it took me until 2021 before I was finished with it and it with me. In the meantime I had made my own journey – for fifteen years I owned a farmhouse in the Czech Republic and spent about half of my time there. I sold the house in Jan 2020. Was that a coincidence? I think not.

About Zoe Brooks

Zoe Brooks’ poetry career began when she was discovered by Michael Horovitz of Poetry Olympics in the 1980s. Following post-natal depression, she stopped writing for three decades. She resumed in 2018, since when she has had two collections published – Owl Unbound (published by Indigo Dreams 2020) and Fool’s Paradise (Black Eyes Publishing 2022). She is currently working on a collection about her time spent in a Czech farmhouse.

Zoe also likes to hear and support other people’s work. As a result she is a leading member of the team at the Cheltenham Poetry Festival.

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Please join me in congratulating Allan Gaw on the launch of his poetry pamphlet Love & Other Diseases published by Seahorse Publications

Love & Other Diseases

Love & Other Diseases, Allan Gaw’s debut poetry collection, was launched by Seahorse Publications this week.  The book has been hailed as ‘a triumph, pushing the boundaries of form and content all the way out’ (Julie McNeill), and its author has been described as ‘a fresh voice in contemporary verse exploring with crafted perception and emotion the connections between self and the things of the world around him’ (Jim Mackintosh).

The collection of 50 poems range from subtle poems of love and loss through to eerie personifications of the diseases that have ravaged humankind.

Order your copy now (free p&p for UK addresses)

About Allan Gaw

Professionally, Allan Gaw worked as a doctor and pathologist for over 30 years. Now he has returned to his first love of writing using his experiences in medicine to fuel both his prose and his poetry. His short stories have won the UK Classical Association Creative Writing Competition, the International Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize and the International Globe Soup 7 day Writing Challenge. Previously, he has had poems published in anthologies by Dreich, Soor Ploom Press and Black Bough Poetry.  Love & Other Diseases is his first collection.

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Thank you to Colin Ward a fellow author who invited me over to his blog for an interview about my books. Fancy a read? Go over to In As Many WORDS HERE

Please join me in congratulating Elizabeth M. Castillo on the launch of her poetry pamphlet Not Quite An Ocean published by Nine Pens.

Not Quite an Ocean by Elizabeth M. Castillo is a paean to the feminine, to motherhood and to the natural world. At once these poems are both unabashed in their celebration of womanhood, and are searing in their unflinching confrontation with darker undercurrents that threaten to break and destroy. The poems in Not Quite an Ocean are beacons, are rallying calls, and are ultimately a roars of strength, pride and hope that cannot be silenced or subdued:

Order your copy from HERE

About Elizabeth M. Castillo

Elizabeth M Castillo is a British-Mauritian poet, writer, workshop teacher, and a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee. She lives in Paris with her family and two cats, where she runs a variety of different businesses, writes a variety of different things, in a variety of different languages, and under a variety of pen names. In her writing Elizabeth explores the different countries and cultures she grew up with, as well as themes of race & ethnicity, motherhood, womanhood, language, love, loss and grief, and a touch of magical realism. Her writing has been featured in publications and anthologies in the UK, US, Australia, Mexico and the Middle East. Her bilingual, debut collection “Cajoncito: Poems on Love, Loss, y Otras Locuras” is for sale on Amazon, and her debut chapbook “Not Quite an Ocean” is out now with Nine Pens Press

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New Release – The Oath

As this is my 500th blog post, I thought it should be a big announcement. So here it is:-

The Oath is now available to preorder via Amazon Kindle at an early bird price which will increase on 1st August 2023.

The Oath takes the reader on an emotional rollercoaster with its captivating story set in the late Victorian era.  Although heartbreaking, it is also uplifting, both of which may cause the reader to shed a tear or two.

Opening in France on 23rd March 1895, Françoise’s seventeenth birthday, her father announces she’s to leave her homeland and travel to England to marry distant cousin Charles Dubois.

‘Playtime is over. Seventeen is old enough to wed and bear a child.’

Narrators, Francoise and her servant girl, Tilly, defy class boundaries and become close friends.

Both young women have their own story to tell.

Marry the baronet, or vulnerable parents face la prison des pauvres

France 1895 – Seventeen-year-old Françoise abandons her carefree life and sails for England to marry distant cousin Charles Dubois. On arrival she finds her groom aloof and evasive.

Draped in expensive silk brocade, she yearns for her homeland and comfortable gowns, and when she discovers the baronet’s clandestine visits, it is her cheery maid she turns to, her new confidante and friend. 

BETRAYAL – HEARTBREAK – FRIENDSHIP

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The Oath will be released in paperback format on 24th July 2023 and available to buy from Amazon, or ordered from any good bookstore, or requested from the library.

The Oath: A coming of age, historical fiction saga from the author

of House of Grace family saga trilogy.

Preorder The Oath on Amazon Kindle HERE