Can you believe it’s now May? It only seems five minutes ago it was January. To celebrate Beltane, here’s a little poem about Jack-in-the-Green.
Divine Marriage is included in Taxus Baccata – my debut poetry pamphlet published by The Hedgehog Poetry Press.
Taxus Baccata is a collection of nature poetry based on myth, folklore and legend around trees. I still have a few LIMITED EDITION copies available via my website shop and scroll down.
Tuesday Guest Feature is taking a two week break. Today I bring you a shoutout for my upcoming novel
The Oath
coming soon
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
The Oath: A heartbreaking, coming of age, historical fiction saga from the author of House of Grace family saga trilogy.
Watch this space for snippets and updates
The Oath
Cover Reveal coming very soon
Surely, she could be a prize for any wealthy French man. Why did she have to go all the way to England?
Patricia’s Pen is delighted to welcome poet, Merril Smith, all the way from New Jersey. I got to know Merril via Black BoughPoetryTop Tweet Tuesday on Twitter. Without further ado, it’s over to Merril to chat about her writing.
My Writing
Merril Smith
Thank you very much, Patricia, for inviting me to Patricia’s Pen! I appreciate this wonderful opportunity to discuss writing and my work.
I have considered myself to be a writer for many years, but a poet for only a few. After the publication of my first book, Breaking the Bonds (NYU Press), I wrote/edited several non-fiction books–monographs, edited volumes, and reference work on history, gender, and sexuality published. However, writing and editing these books did not fulfil me the way writing poetry does. I think I needed a creative outlet, but it needed to be at the right time. It’s hard to explain, but I began to write poetry in a type of stream-of-consciousness outpouring on my blog, Yesterday and Today, like the muse just took over and decided now. Gradually, I began responding to online poetry prompts and working on learning how to craft poetry. I believe my first poem was published in 2018.
I compiled my full-length collection, River Ghosts(Nightingale & Sparrow Press) during the summer of the COVID lockdown. It was a scary, bleak time. One week in April of that year, one of our cats died suddenly on a day that began with storms and tornado warnings and ended with clear, blue sky and spring flowers. Then at the end of that week, my mother died. Because of the lockdown, we could not be with her. The deaths of Mickey, my mom, COVID, despair, love, and the beauty of April will always be linked in my mind. In that spring and summer, I walked and saw beauty all around me, even while people were dying. I began my own sort of mourning ritual during my morning walks, where I tossed a stone into the river.
Some of the poems in River Ghosts are about death or witnessing horrible events, but there are also poems of love, family, and nature’s beauty. The collection combines poems written earlier (some published) with some written for the volume. That said, I think my style has changed and improved since the publication of River Ghosts. I believe this is because I’ve concentrated on writing more imagist poetry. So—a shoutout to Matthew MC Smith, his Black Bough Poetry and @TopTweetTuesday, and also for the supportive online poetry community!
There are geniuses in all areas, but for most people, like me, writing poetry is a combination of creative spark, a way of seeing the world, and learned skills. I think River Ghostsworks, but I really didn’t know anything about putting a collection together then–almost three years ago. This month marks the one-year anniversary of its publication. I still walk by the river, I still think of my mom (and dad), but I know they would both be proud of me and this book. My older child created the cover art, so it’s a book that carries family and memory through its pages. The new collection I’m working on will have some of those themes, but I think it will be very different.
About Merril Smith
Merril D. Smith lives in southern New Jersey near the Delaware River. Her poetry has been published in journals including Black Bough Poetry, Anti-Heroin Chic, Acropolis, Humana Obscura, and anthologies, such as the recent Our Own Coordinates: Poems about Dementia (Sidhe Press). Her full-length poetry collection, River Ghosts, was published by Nightingale & Sparrow Press.
As there’s no Tuesday Guest Feature today, I thought I’d give a little background information about what inspired me to write Spirit Mother: Experience the Myth published by The Hedgehog Poetry Press. Now seems the appropriate time to share as copies have recently landed on Hedgehog Poetry Pressmembers’ doorsteps as part of the Cult of the Spiny Hog quarterly bundles.
Spirit Mother was a follow on from my debut poetry pamphlet, Taxus Baccata, which originated from my MA Creative Writing dissertation researching myth around trees. Discovering myths was fascinating, I loved discovering wonderful stories, so much so, I decided to extend the research, not only to trees, but to flowers, birds, butterflies, dragonflies etc. In fact if I see a photograph, I’m particularly inspired by Mike Powell’s photography, I check out to see if there’s any myth around that creature, flower or tree.
Amaryllis is one of my favourite poems from Spirit Mother. It retells a Greek myth of how the flower got its name.
Although the collection is nature themed it has an essence of darkness uncovering the mythical tales. For instance, my poem, Lavender, portrays a myth of a young girl, raped, and her tears germinating blue and purple seeds.
Spirit Mother opens with White Lily a poem inspired around a myth about Hera, the Greek goddess, breast feeding her baby. This poem has since appeared in Black Bough Poetry’s, A Duet of Ghosts.
I was flattered how a fellow writer, also artist, Oormila Vijayakrishnan Prahlad, was inspired to use my poem as a prompt for a painting, and later a poem of her own. Do check out the artwork Oormila created over on her Instagram page. Oormila’s poem also appears in A Duet of Ghosts.
Numerous books were used for research but in researching myth around trees, Jacqueline Memory Paterson’s Tree Wisdom became my bible. I’d highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the subject.
PRAISE for Spirit Mother: Experience the Myth
“Spirit Mother is a sensory voyage of discovery and delight through a rich landscape of Greek, Celtic, and Native American mythologies. The poems are by turns delicate and earthy, juxtaposing the sensual and sublime with the sharp and shocking to remarkable effect. The ancient feels at once eternal (‘Galanthus’) and starkly contemporary (‘Lavender’), and the senses are fully engaged by a heady palette of shades, scents, sounds, and sensations. Patricia M Osborne has created a collection to be treasured – each poem imprints itself on the reader, and many will never leave.”
Mary Ford Neal
Writer and Academic
“Spirit Mother offers the reader a compelling journey through a subtle plurality of viewpoints; a cumulative, unified and immensely powerful, life-affirming lens. Osborne employs all the writing skills which have earned her regular five-star accolades for her work over many years. You render yourself a clear disservice if missing out on this outstanding volume of poetry. Don’t let that happen.”
Brian McManus,
Reviewer, Writer, Pushcart nominated poet.
If anyone would like a limited edition of Spirit Mother or any of my poetry collections, they can be purchased safely from my website shop HERE using PayPal for payment.
The Hedgehog Poetry Press cult has just re-opened its doors – if anyone wishes to join – go HERE
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On another front, I’m really pleased that my short story, Seascape Children’s Home was published online yesterday by CafeLit. You can read the story HERE
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Next week the Tuesday Guest Feature resumes with the lovely, talented poet, Merril Smith, all the way from New Jersey, chatting about her gorgeous poetry collection River Ghosts. Sign up to my blog to ensure you don’t miss this fabulous article.
Please join me in congratulating poet Andy Breckenridge on the launch of his brand new poetry collection The Fish Inside, published 31st March 2023 by Flight of the Dragonfly Press
Praise for:
The Fish Inside (Andy Breckenridge)
Andy Breckenridge sets scenes from his native Oban and adoptive home in Brighton with evocative economy and inventive imagistic verve. He can be wryly laconic and lushly lyrical; matter of fact and metaphysical; a realist both deadpan and magic. Popular culture – music, fashion, food and drink – is captured with almost eerily tangible recall. These are poems not merely to read but to inhabit; he celebrates, mourns, consoles and notices for us all. The Fish Inside is a debut certain to dazzle and delight. It feels like a big book and deserves to make a correspondingly large impression.
Donny O’Rourke – poet, teacher and broadcaster
The Fish Inside is a beautifully crafted debut collection. Andy Breckenridge’s poetry takes us right to the heart of what it is to inhabit this land, sea and all the metaphorical in-betweens. From poems of love, friendship and family, Andy takes us on a journey of exile, memory, grief and wry humour. This is a collection you will want to return to again and again – a masterclass in poetry ‘for luck and love and light’
Lynn Valentine – poet
About Andy Breckenridge
Andy is a Secondary English teacher living in Brighton but originally from Oban. He writes about self imposed exile, place, relationships, cultural identity and memory, and his poems are likely to include fish and water.
His debut pamphlet, The Liquid Air, was published by Dreich in July 2021, and the Chris Riddell illustrated version came out in August 2022.
His poetry has appeared in several print and online journals, and he has been a featured poet on Flight of the Dragonfly Spoken Word, and with the Northern Poets Society.
He is an honorary member of East Kilbride rock group, The Moes.
Patricia’s Pen is delighted to welcome back poet, reviewer and blogger, Nigel Kent. This visit Nigel celebrates his latest collection Benchwarmers published by the wonderful Hedgehog Poetry Press. Without further ado it’s over to Nigel.
Benchwarmers
Nigel Kent
Thank you, Patricia for allowing me the space to talk about my latest pamphlet, Benchwarmers (Hedgehog Poetry Press, 2023), joint-winner of Hedgehog Poetry Press 2022 Wee Collection Challenge.
I have always been interested in poetry’s capacity to make a difference by enabling readers to make a connection with others. Consequently, many of the poems in my previous collections (Saudade, Unmuted, Psychopathogen) have attempted to share the significant in the lives of ordinary, unexceptional people. Benchwarmers is no different, except this time I have specifically focused on those at the margins of society: life’s outsiders, the disenfranchised, those who ‘lost life’s toss the moment they were born.’
The poems explore the nature and quality of such people’s lives and how society has failed them, or constrained them. Some poems focus on the cruelty that they experience, and others on the profound effects of lack of opportunity and the choices that are made for them. That all sounds pretty grim, I know! However, I want the reader, to be able to connect with these experiences and say, ‘Yes, I know what you mean. Life must be like that for them’ for understanding is the first step towards change. Nevertheless, I hope readers will feel that the pamphlet ends optimistically with poems that show life doesn’t have to be like that. Fellow poet, Phil Vernon, writing about Benchwarmers, puts it perfectly: ‘through their own empowered actions, and/or the love and attention some receive, they can…either ‘speed away’ or ‘find their own way home.’
Here’s a little taster.
To purchase a copy of Benchwarmers, contact Nigel via his website or Send him a direct message via Twitter
About Nigel Kent
Nigel Kent is a four times Pushcart Prize nominated poet and reviewer who lives in rural Worcestershire. He is an active member of the Open University Poetry Society, managing its website and occasionally editing its workshop magazine.
He has been shortlisted for several national competitions and his poetry has appeared in a wide range of anthologies and magazines. He is also the author of Unmuted, Saudade, Psychopathogen, and two poetry conversations with Sarah Thomson, A Hostile Environment and Thinking you Home, all published by Hedgehog Poetry Press.
In 2021 and 2022 he was shortlisted for the Saboteur Award for Reviewer of Literature.
My dear friend and critique partner, Maureen Cullen, not only took the winning prize in the short story competition with Ringwood Publishing but the runner-up prize too.
The following link shares her interview with Megan Gibson at Ringwood Publishing.
I’m delighted to feature Swanwick writer, Rik Lonsdale on the launch of his debut novel Water and Blood. Rik has blogged about his inspiration.
Why I Wrote Water and Blood
Rik Lonsdale
To complete the marathon of writing a novel I knew it would need to have meaning for me on a personal level as well as being a good story. I believe climate change is very real, and we cannot know how it will impact on our societies, but it was something I wanted to write about. I didn’t want to write a far-future story set beyond a time that is recognisable but wanted to write about what might happen immediately after a disaster caused by climate change.
I’d read extensively about the glacier shrinkage. If all the ice in Greenland fell into the sea it would increase sea levels by six metres. But that could only occur in a slow way. The West Antarctic ice shelf is a more likely candidate for causing a sudden rise. Scientists are becoming increasingly concerned about this vast volume of ice and snow and the likelihood of it detaching from Antarctica. Should this happen the impact on sea levels would be immediate, flooding cities containing billions of people.
Questions began popping into my head. How would people survive this disaster? How would they live in the immediate aftermath. Nuclear power stations, oil refineries, and logistical infrastructure are all commonly sited on coastlines. People would have no power, no fuel, no transport.
On this small island of Britain, currently dependant on imports to feed its population, what might occur in the weeks and months after the flood?
Water and Blood is an attempt to answer some of these questions; not at the macro, governmental organisation level, but how individuals and families might experience this catastrophe.
The way people behave towards each other has long held my interest and I have worked as a family therapist in the past. I have witnessed what stress can do to family relationships.
Water and Blood is more than a record of potential disaster. It is a story of the breakdown of family relationships, a story of deviousness, deception, and betrayal; and the extremes people will resort to when compelled.
‘Not for the faint hearted but I couldn’t put it down.’ – Penny Mountain
When the flood came people drowned; or starved.
Few were prepared when water ravaged the world. Lucy Marchand and her family believed they were the lucky ones.
Isolated in their North Cornwall smallholding the family thought they had enough to survive the bleakest of winters.
Shortages, attacks, and sibling rivalries bring out the best, and the worst, in the family, forcing Lucy to make impossible choices.
A story too plausible to be ignored.
Compelling and fast paced, “Water and Blood” is both thrilling and horrific.
About Rik Lonsdale
Rik Lonsdale’s lifelong desire to write had to wait to find expression through three previous careers and the raising of children. In the quiet of the Dorset countryside, he was finally able to turn his energies to the art and craft of writing. Since then, he has had over forty short stories published. His first novel, Water and Blood, is published on 22nd March 2023 and is available through all the usual channels. When he isn’t writing you can probably find Rik at the bottom of his garden tending his vegetable plot.
Patricia’s Pen is delighted to introduce debut author, Anita Chapman, with her new release The Venice Secret. Anita has come along to blog about what inspired her to write this brand new historical fiction novel. Without further ado, it’s over to Anita.
Inspiration behind The Venice Secret
Anita Chapman
When I write a book, it starts with one simple idea and then I think of more pieces that I want to include to make a story. Often, the story grows naturally as I spend time thinking about it during those quieter moments such as when driving or walking.
With The Venice Secret, I’d had the idea of someone discovering a hidden painting in a loft for a while. This kind of thing happens all of the time and finding something potentially valuable somewhere in your house is something many of us dream about.
When my children were small, we started to visit country houses and their gardens in my local area. Whenever we went away to a different part of the UK, I’d always enjoy discovering new country houses and the stories that went with them. And so, I had to include a country house in my book about the hidden painting.
And then, which painting and what would the story be about? My mother used to take me to see the Canalettos at The National Gallery in London as a child and so it had to be a potential Canaletto that was discovered in the loft. His paintings are often huge and I visited The National Gallery in order to find a painting that would fit through a loft hatch. And I found two companion paintings which were just right.
The Canaletto worked perfectly as I’d studied Italian and lived in Siena plus spent a lot of time travelling around Italy, a country I love in my twenties.
How to connect them all? I’d found the era of The Grand Tour interesting for some time and loved E.M. Forster’s books about travelling to Italy such as A Room with a View and Where Angels Fear to Tread, although they are set later than The Venice Secret.
The story became about Rachel, a twentysomething stuck in a rut who found a painting in her grandmother’s loft with a note, written in 1782, addressed to Philippa and from the mysterious ‘R’. And then the story of Philippa, on the verge of destitution after her father died who became a governess at the local country house, but when the earl proposed she become his mistress, escaped to Venice as companion to bluestocking, Lady Cordelia.
And that is how The Venice Secret came about. There were many drafts and a lot of thinking in relation to bringing the two timelines together. But with the help of a fantastic editor, I got there in the end.
About Anita Chapman
Anita likes to read journals and diaries from the past, and one of her favourite pastimes is visiting art galleries and country houses. Her first published novel, The Venice Secret is inspired by her mother taking her to see the Canalettos at The National Gallery in London as a child.
Since 2015, Anita has worked as a social media manager, training authors on social media, and helping to promote their books.
Patricia M Osborne 