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Welcome

I started this blog in 2013 to share my reflections on reading, writing and psychology, along with my journey to become a published novelist.​  I soon graduated to about twenty book reviews a month and a weekly 99-word story. Ten years later, I've transferred my writing / publication updates to my new website but will continue here with occasional reviews and flash fiction pieces, and maybe the odd personal post.

ANNE GOODWIN'S WRITING NEWS

Heard on the radio (and on YouTube) #flashfiction and singing

12/9/2020

8 Comments

 
Do you listen to the radio? I was weaned on “Listen with Mother” at home on weekday mornings and progressed to “Music and Movement” a weekly treat at infant school. Although we did have television, there was more variety on the radio, as I recall. Nowadays, the only time I tune in is in the car and, since the pandemic, I’m in the car less often. It’s a pity, because I’ve discovered some fabulous music through the radio and, despite the competition from podcasts and the like, there are still some excellent spoken word and magazine programmes on BBC Radio Four. But even in during the old normal, my radio regime was flawed, as I couldn’t always dovetail my journeys with the broadcasts that interest me. I find it frustrating that, stuck in queueing traffic after a choir rehearsal, it’s Hobson’s choice between stabbing rap (no thank you), up-your-arse philosophising and choral Evensong (love the music, hate the prayers).
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Image by Pexels from Pixabay
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But controlled, individualised listening has its downside too. Just as writers often find inspiration earwigging in cafes, the unexpected on the radio can spark ideas too. A fictionalised radio broadcast can provide a similar function for our characters, illustrating some quirk of personality or progressing the plot. I’ve drawn on that option in both my published novels, which provided the inspiration for the following 99-word stories as my response to this week’s Carrot Ranch flash fiction challenge “something heard on the radio”.

He never intended to be a jailer

After years of travelling, responsible to no-one but himself, Steve has resolved to settle down. He gets a job, buys a house and persuades Liesel to move in with him.

Life’s perfect, until Liesel delivers her ultimatum: if he won’t agree to start a family, she’ll have to leave. He can’t bear to lose her, but how can he face the prospect of fatherhood when he has no idea what being a father means? If he could somehow make her stay, he wouldn’t have to choose … and it would be a shame not to make use of the cellar.

Will this be the solution to his problems, or the catalyst for his own unravelling?

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It had to be a sign

 
“Living Doll” crescendoed as Steve pushed through the swing door into Theatre Six. Three figures in scrubs, and no instruments in sight except the whiteboard marker pens held, like microphones, to their mouths. It had to mean something, Jerry dancing in the middle, the father he never had.
 
He used to jive with his mother when his big sisters were at Guides. “Did he really do that, Mummy? Did Cliff Richard lock a lady in a trunk so no-one else could have her?”
 
Now he has a house, a cellar, bolts across the door. A girlfriend, threatening to leave.


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At fifteen, she made a life-changing decision. Thirty years on, it’s time to make another.

When Diana escaped her misfit childhood, she thought she’d chosen the easier path. But the past lingers on, etched beneath her skin, and life won’t be worth living if her secret gets out.

As an adult, she’s kept other people at a distance... until Simon sweeps in on a cloud of promise and possibility. But his work is taking him to Cairo, the city that transformed her life. She’ll lose Simon if she doesn’t join him. She’ll lose herself if she does.

Sugar and Snails
charts Diana’s unusual journey, revealing the scars from her fight to be true to herself. A triumphant mid-life coming-of-age story about bridging the gap between who we are and who we feel we ought to be.
Triggering the howling stage
 
I considered myself happy, that final summer of my childhood, playing housewife, home alone. My mother away, securing my future, my dad at work, my brother at play. My chores complete, I’d doze off with the radio in the afternoon heat. Until a sentimental song kicked me into consciousness, ambushing me with feelings I didn’t recognise as mine. A howling thrusting from my bowels and discharging from my throat. An animal sound, alien, drowning the jingle, almost choking me. Arrhythmic breathing, such wild and weird wailing, it made me laugh. A dramatic overture before the symphony of weeping commenced.

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I’ve also made a playlist for each of these novels – here for Underneath and here for Sugar and Snails – but I should have done as Charli has and added them to my YouTube channel. But that was just a spindly seedling when my novels were released; I’ve recorded several more readings in the past couple of years – click on the image to subscribe.
 
My latest short story recording is “Fat Footprints” about a woman haunted by her carbon footprint.

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I’m thankful to my publisher for the logo in the corner and for editing out a chunk towards the end where I repeatedly mangled my words! But videoing a reading is nothing to the challenge of submitting an audio recording of my singing for the self-isolation choir. I previously shared a couple of tracks from the first two weeks of summer school in another post; here are a couple more from the third week. (Doesn’t sound like a choir that would let me in to me either!)
But hey, the thing gets progressively more ambitious. This weekend, I’ve managed to record the rest of the piece (another seven tracks) to be included in a ‘performance’ later this month and on the summer school CD. Given my lack of talent, it’s a major achievement. Once my copy arrives, that'll be another reason I won’t be listening to much radio!
Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
8 Comments
Norah Colvin
13/9/2020 12:57:26 pm

Not one flash fiction story, but two - one for each novel. I like the way you've done that. There's always time to add a Youtube playlist for both books, Anne. I find that quite an interesting thing to do. I love that you are recording so many stories. I enjoy listening to you read. I'm pleased you enjoy your choir. How wonderful to sing along with and contribute to that beautiful sound. Each voice adds it own beauty to the composition.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
16/9/2020 05:16:40 pm

Yes, fortunately when it comes the choir the whole is so much better than the separate parts – otherwise I wouldn't dare submit mine. We've now started Mendelssohn's Elijah online which I'm really enjoying. Pity no opportunities to plug my books!

Reply
Jeanne Lombardo link
13/9/2020 05:18:34 pm

Great post, Anne. Very clever tie-in to your books. I'm in awe of how you are harnessing different media and look forward to listening in soon to your playlists and readings.
I'm a huge radiophile, partly for the very thing you identified here, "the unexpected on the radio" that takes you to places you have never been and treats you to sounds and music and voices you would not have otherwise encountered. I love, too, the immediacy of it, especially live radio, that connection to others out there in near and distant places. By the way, I have the fondest memories of radio in England, when I was a stay-at-home "mum" in London in the early nineties. It was then I encountered the long-running radio program The Archers. Listening in became a daily treat. These days it's National Public Radio, which I used to listen to twice a day on my daily commute. Still tune in though during my quarantine. Oh and hardly ever miss the BBC radio hour they broadcast! It's soul-saving to get an "un-American" perspective on the news! Cheers!

Reply
Anne Goodwin
16/9/2020 05:19:30 pm

Lovely to hear from you again, Jeanne. Yes, the Archers is/are still going – I don't listen anymore but I used to be a fan, probably around the time you were also tuning in. Sadly, I think the BBC news is going the way of the American.

Reply
Charli Mills
18/9/2020 03:36:28 am

I'm listening to Gloria as I contemplate my comment. I'm thinking how beautiful music is that we can create from many voices and sounds. I wonder what we could do in concert as writers? Some fill in description, others carry the dialog, a maestro to direct the plot?

You do a great job of reading your work. I hope you don't mind, I started an Author Anne Goodwin playlist at the new Carrot Ranch channel on YouTube. As I read your posts and catch your readings, I can add them for our followers. Not sure what to do with the channel other than archive and collect readings. Maybe we can do interviews and our Zoom events live.

Great shorts that connect your books to the prompt this week.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
21/9/2020 04:22:27 pm

I think the analogy with singing would be when we get together to read each other's work, as we did for The Art of the 99-Word story for Buxton Festival Fringe. Meanwhile, I'm excited that Gloria has its full world premiere tomorrow.

As for the playlist, do I mind? I'm deeply honoured! I'm going to be tinkering with my readings as I have just found out today how to add reminders at the end for people to subscribe and/or read a connected story. It might be chaos but you'll see when you come to my response to this week's challenge.

Reply
Chel link
19/9/2020 12:48:33 am

I got a bit lost in the flash, but felt the eerie tingling of the unknown.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
21/9/2020 04:23:34 pm

Oh, sorry didn't click for you, maybe you've never had to howl? ;-)

Reply



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