A flurry of short stories

Posted on September 28, 2015 by Judy

Reading © Carol Peace

October is aglow with literary happenings, and I’m happy to be able to share the news that I’ll be at several literary events in the coming weeks, reading short stories and flash fictions.

First, on Friday 16th October, I’m excited to be heading over the Severn Bridge to the launch of Skylark Journal, a brand new literary magazine from publisher Little Lantern Press. I’ll be reading my story Breathing Water during the annual Made in Roath Festival in Cardiff on the 16th of October in the Waterloo Gardens Tearoom from 6.30-8.30pm.

Then, with Bristol Festival of Literature kicking off on 15th October, I’ll be preparing for two very different events. The first, led by Mike Manson, is Unreliable Histories on Tuesday 20 October, and takes place down in Redcliffe Caves, so wrap up warm! I’ll be reading a tale based on the life of World War II aviator Elsie Davison, better known among her friends as Joy.

The second is Written from Art, led by me and hosted by sculptor Carol Peace in her beautiful studio at Bristol Paintworks on Wed 21 October. Ten writers will be reading stories and poems inspired by art. It promises to be an uplifting evening. Tickets are free but essential due to the small and atmospheric setting of Carol’s studio. Get yours here.

A flash flood this Saturday, and a poem

Posted on June 25, 2015 by Judy

My story On The Rocks is getting another outing this week as part of National Flash Fiction Day’s FlashFlood event.

National Flash Fiction Day is on Saturday 27th June this year, and the organisers plan to flood the internet with flash-fictions. I’m pleased to say that my story ‘On the Rocks’ will be published on the FlashFlood journal blog at around 9am (BST) on 27th June 2015.

Stories will be posted at flashfloodjournal.blogspot.co.uk throughout National Flash-Fiction Day, so do pop by to take a look!

In other news, I’ve recently had a poem published!

I admit, I have a curious fondness for pigeons. Something about their dauntlessness as they crowd the city streets, pecking for crumbs and dodging vehicles impresses me, possibly more than it should. So when I saw a call for poetry submissions about these generally unbeloved birds, I had just the poem in mind.

Happily, my poem Crusty was accepted for publication and now roosts in the poetry anthology Poeming Pigeons along with many feathered friends. It’s available from The Poetry Box, but you can read it here.

Crusty by Judy Darley

We’ve reached an understanding, he and I
sharing the same street corner
ignored by the same passersby.
His stained blanket mirrors my ragged wings
We both limp from hunger and on twisted limbs.
His fractured, fractious stories echo my plaintive call
His rheumy eyes, filth-clouded, reflect my skies, dismal.
We’ve both experienced the same fall from grace,
existing on life’s edges in this wretched place.
He raids the bins, eats what he can, and what he can’t he passes on.
When night crowds in, I rise to roost
watching over him till dawn.

Reading at Novel Nights

Posted on June 12, 2015 by Judy

Very excited to announce that I’ll be reading from my novel Ghosts in the Eaves at Novel Nights on Thursday 25th June.

I’m part of the first half, along with authors Christie Cluett, JNick Edwards, Susie Nott-Blower and Steph Minns.

In the second half, literary agent Kate Johnson from Wolf Literary Services (based in New York and Bristol!) will be present to answer questions about submissions, pitching or anything else you want to find out about gaining representation in the literary field.

The literary night takes place from 8-10pm at The Lansdown, Clifton. Hope to see you there!

National Flash Fiction Day celebrations

Posted on June 5, 2015 by Judy

This year National Flash Fiction Day falls on 27th June, with events unfurling across the UK to celebrate and share creative writing’s shortest form.

“It is with words as with sunbeams—the more they are condensed the deeper they burn.” Robert Southey.

Over the years, Bristol has become the hub for National Flash Fiction Day, and will kick off with free flash fiction workshop sessions at the Central Library. The workshops will take place from 1.30-4.30pm, led by NFFD director Calum Kerr and prize-winning author KM Elkes.

From 6pm, head over to Foyles Bookstore Bristol for An Evening of Flash Fiction I’ll be sharing a couple of stories at this free event, along with some serious writing talents, including KM Elkes, Zoe Gilbert, Kevlin Henney, Sarah Hilary, Susan Howe, Calum Kerr, Adam Marek, Freya Morris, Grace Palmer, Jonathan Pinnock, Jane Roberts and Diane Simmons.

It’s a free evening of literary entertainment, so please do come along!

Scattered stories – Redcliffe Future Way story walk

Posted on May 15, 2015 by Judy

Last week I had the uncommon pleasure of walking a story trail I’d contributed to. Two of the other writers who’d written pieces featured in the Redcliffe Future Way story walk, plus Toby who’d set the whole thing up, met outside St Mary Redcliffe and took a wander, pausing to pick up snippets of site-specific stories along the way.

We had a brilliant time. Toby had cunningly picked out intriguing lines from each section of our tales to tempt passersby into scanning the QR codes with their smart phones.

Here I am beside the first part of my story Under The Surface, which reimagines this area of Bristol deluged by water. Toby chose the line “its only parishioners are fish and eels”.

Grace Palmer’s story Redcliffe Mornings comprises four sections evocatively connected by the sense of smell. The one pictured below is from the POV of a fox and features the line “He smells man”.

The brief was to set each work of fiction in the future, and David J Rodger’s tale, Redcliffe Requiem, takes you right to the brink of the end of the world. You can find the final part of his story in front of one of my favourite Bristol sculptures.

The goal of the trail is to make you experience this part of the city in a new and thought-provoking way – weaving together real, physical places with fantastical imaginings. It’s also a fun and unusual way to share fiction. Highly recommended both as a user and participant.

The organisers describe the venture as “an amazing first-of-its-kind, art project collaborating with published authors, budding writers, artists, architects and community groups to challenge the way we view our city.” The featured stories each explore, in their own way, how these streets will look in years to come.

To find trail points, check out the Future Way Map and visit bristolstorytrail.wordpress.com/redcliffe-future-way/.

Brilliant hues with Zandra Rhodes

Posted on May 14, 2015 by Judy

Early this year I interviewed the inimitable Zandra Rhodes for Simply Sewing magazine, and it was an absolute pleasure. The piece has been published in issue 3 of the mag.

I began the feature with the paragraphs:

It’s 1973, 6am in the Red Centre of Australia. In the desert chill a young woman sits sketching Uluru, the sandstone monolith then better known as Ayers Rock. Her hair is bright green, but within a few years it will be shocking pink, and will remain that colour well into her seventies.

“I sat there very early in the morning in the freezing cold light and waited for the sunrise,” says designer Zandra Rhodes, now aged 75. “Then I drew the way the shadows laced over that rock.”

Zandra Rhodes’ Ayers Rock sketches from 1973

Decades later those early sketches have become a series of fabric designs for Coats, which was the reason the interview took place, but it was fabulous to delve into a mind with so much creative energy, to gain an insight into her celeb clientele, but, even more fun, chat about her trademark meandering wiggles.

Zandra Rhodes’ Lace Mountain fabrics cr Coats

“All my things have wiggly lines!” she exclaims, seeming amused by this. “When I fill in a background it’s far more likely to have wiggly lines than be plain.” She hesitates then adds: “Wiggles are friendly. Prints have the power to make you happy. They supply extra depth to what you’re thinking about. You put the thing on and the print supplies a jolly face for the day.”

There’s an awful lot more to this interview – and lots more images too. Find the full piece in Simply Sewing issue 3, available from www.simplysewingmag.com.

Made up words

Posted on May 12, 2015 by Judy

I’m very, very excited. Three words I invented are to appear in an actual, published dictionary!

Not your average Tuesday morning announcement.

The Dictionary for Dylan has been put together by the marvellous Emily Hinshelwood in honour of poet Dylan Thomas, who said: “words are the most important things to me ever” and commented “Out of them came the gusts and grunts and hiccups and heehaws of the common fun of the earth.”

Emily invited submissions from anyone who loved the idea of creating a word, so how could I resist?

My words are Drybernate – to put off going outside due to bad weather, Wellybegging – happily anticipating a soggy day out (get the feeling it was raining a lot when I came up with these) and my personal favourite, Droowlish – struggling to make mind and mouth meet – the gap between succinct thoughts and what actually gets said.

As in, “Sorry, I’m droowlish before my first coffee.”

The idea that these slightly bonkers contributions are going to be printed in the Dicionary For Dylan is pretty immense. The book is being launched on Thursday 14th May, so look out of it cropping up on a shelf near you soon.

Two small poems

Posted on April 17, 2015 by Judy

A small poem of mine, Strays, has been published in the current issue of Literary Bohemian, one of the most beautiful online publications of travellers’ tales that I know.

The poem appears in Issue 22 – Something About Water, although my ode is entirely earthy (it is set on an island, but a sizeable one) – curious when so many of my poems and stories are water-themed and inspired. As the editors comment, the issue is mostly about water, but also about sex and war. I think my poem encompasses both of the latter in a small way.

There are some wonderful reads in the issue, so do have a browse. I’m particularly taken with Ariana Nadia Nash’s The Pond. It holds the depths of a novel in just four brief, beautiful paragraphs. Impressive.

You can read Strays here. I’ll warn you, it isn’t one of my prettiest. I wrote it during an extraordinary trip to Borneo. The lady pictured here features in the poem, though she doesn’t have a starring role.

My small poem Intimacy has been published by Nutshells and Nuggets, a lovely lit mag that focuses on very short poems. I’m really pleased they chose to publish this one because it was written from the heart about my beloved. A small poem, about a big man!

You can read Intimacy here.

A literary radio recording

Posted on April 2, 2015 by Judy

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to perform one of my short stories for a BBC Radio Bristol show called Speech Bubble. The event was designed by lovely Mark Olver to showcase local writing talent, but then the BBC, deciding we need more humour in our lives, asked him to focus on burgeoning comedy writers.

This is a bit of a weird one for me because, um, I’m not that funny. A lot of life amuses me, and I’m drawn to the absurd, but much of my short fiction dwells in the darker side of the human psyche. While it’s often uplifting, it’s probably as likely to make you shed a tear as crack a grin.

However, I did my best, wrote a whimsical short tale (just a couple of minutes reading time) called The Notes, and you know what? They liked it! On a Wednesday evening in March we recorded the episode at Smoke and Mirrors (apparently the UK’s only ‘magic bar’) and I became the “and now a change of pace” provider – a key role, I’m sure you’ll agree, in any ensemble show.

For the next 20-something days, you can listen to the show here: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02mx80z.

The monthly six-part series has three more episodes to air and is hoping to return soon, so if you fancy your chances of making the ex-housemate of Russell Howard and Jon Richardson (what must that have been like?) chuckle, send your comedic ramblings to bbcspeechbubble@bbc.co.uk – you could end up performing your work!

In other news, a piece of my flash fiction, On the Rocks, has been published by the lovely folks at Gambling The Aisle (not Isle, as I keep wanting to type!) It’s called On The Rocks and is a perfect beach read at only 171 words. You can click here to read it: gamblingtheaisle.com/2015/05/01/may-flash-fiction-on-the-rocks-by-judy-darley/ The editors commented “It embodies the risk-taking that Gambling the Aisle prides itself on.” Thank you kindly!

They’re currently on the lookout for fiction, non-fiction, poetry, interviews and visual art too, so do swing by if you fancy submitting something.

Listening to Bees – a short story

Posted on March 6, 2015 by Judy

My tale ‘Listening to Bees’ is the bedtime story in the beautiful March issue of The Simple Things magazine. Isn’t that a gorgeous cover? It makes me think of things budding and bursting into bloom, filling the air with fragrance.

I’m really happy to have ‘Listening to Bees’ published in the mag, not least because the talented Hannah Warren has illustrated the tale.

The story is about a woman trying to reunite an elderly brother his rather eccentric sister, with a scene in Bristol’s Botanic Garden.

In other writing news, my flash fiction Gloss has been published by Visual Verse. You can read it here: http://visualverse.org/submissions/gloss-2/

And on March 19th I’ll be reading one of my short stories at Bristol literary regular, Novel Nights, taking place at The Lansdown. Hope to see you there!

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