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About the author and blogger ...

Anne Goodwin’s drive to understand what makes people tick led to a career in clinical psychology. That same curiosity now powers her fiction.
A prize-winning short-story writer, she has published three novels and a short story collection with small independent press, Inspired Quill. Her debut novel, Sugar and Snails, was shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize.
Away from her desk, Anne guides book-loving walkers through the Derbyshire landscape that inspired Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
Subscribers to her newsletter can download a free e-book of award-winning short stories.

TELL ME MORE

Spoofed or spooked by a bad hair day

27/10/2014

17 Comments

 
I do hallucinations, but I don’t do the supernatural. I don’t do memoir, apart from when I do. But I’m very fond of Lisa Reiter of Bite-Size Memoir and Charli Mills of the Carrot Ranch Flash Fiction Challenge, and it’s been one of my slightly bonkers blogging goals to concoct a dual response to their imaginative prompts, not just in a single post, but in a single flash. I’m also somewhat partial to spoof horror movies like Young Frankenstein and Shaun of the Dead, but I’m not confident I could pull off something along those lines myself.
As my blog is due a break from serious reviews of serious novels, I took these ingredients with me on my walk yesterday in Jane Eyre territory ...
Lisa’s bad-hair prompt is for a photo on this occasion rather than words. I was never sufficiently adventurous for really bad hair but I did suffer, in my late teens, The Henna and The Perm. I couldn’t find the photo that shows this at its best/worst, so I’m treating you to a selection. Laugh if you wish but these days I tend to look back on my younger self from the perspectives of an indulgent mother, and insist I look rather sweet.
From her fascination with graveyards and a spooky green fog caught on camera, Charli challenges us to compose a 99-word creepy story in time for Halloween. Here’s mine:
Gwendolyn’s smirk at the lych gate, convinced me the mirror had lied. The dye had turned my hair not burnished copper, but green-tinged straw. Even with my tresses pinned up beneath my Sunday hat, I couldn’t show myself in church.

I fled to the graveyard, seeking the final resting place of the mother I’d never known. I thought the strange green lights must be Gwendolyn and her cronies come to taunt me until a ghoulish figure emerged from behind a tombstone, a tangle of snakes about her head. With a bony finger she beckoned me: “Daughter, what beautiful hair!”

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Join me again on Thursday for a double-review post bringing October’s book count to 11 (if you’re checking, The Delivery Room has been delivered back to the library to the public library)


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which, by sheer serendipity, is the exact match of
September’s total.



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.
17 Comments
Jeanne Lombardo
27/10/2014 11:07:24 am

I have seen your comments on Charli's site for months now and finally decided to visit you on your own turf. What a delight! From the walk on the moors and the Charli challlenge to your short story "Stepping Into Dan's Shoes," my wayward and illicit break from my paid work this morning has only left me hungry to explore more. Thanks Anne for your beautiful writing.

Reply
Annecdotist
28/10/2014 09:41:30 am

So glad you could pop over, Jeanne, and I'm very grateful for such positive feedback on my writing. Hope to connect with you more, either here or across at Charli's place.

Reply
Sarah link
27/10/2014 12:20:52 pm

OH! Where to start? I'm sorry, but your "creepy" flash is hilarious. Bad dye job to being Medusa's daughter! I love it! :-D

Unbelievable you could fit both Bite Size Memoir and 99 Word Flash into one post. One piece! It's fantastic.

Of course, I love the pictures (hair and Jane Eyre territory) and Young Frankenstein is one of my favorites. (I've never seen Shaun of the Dead but have heard much about it. Maybe I'll put that one on my list of ones to watch.)

Reply
Annecdotist
28/10/2014 09:44:42 am

Thank you, Sarah, it was rather satisfying to be able to pull them both together. I was interested that the trailer I'd found for Shaun of the dead had American accents – I don't know if that was to make it more appealing to you folk over there or, dare I say it, part of the humour. Either way, it's much more fun than those super serious straight zombie movies

Reply
Lisa Reiter link
27/10/2014 02:37:21 pm

A flashy bite of genius Anne ! And delightful photos! I barely recognise you 🙊
I find I too can look back with a certain fond detachment. We're all being rather brave though, flashing our tortured tresses around the blogosphere! Younger members will be laughing their heads off!

Reply
Annecdotist
28/10/2014 09:48:06 am

Lisa, I've got to the age where younger members will be laughing their heads off whatever – thanks for prompting that bit of fun. And I'm delighted you've brought your lovely monkey icon my blog. You're very clever!

Reply
Charli Mills
27/10/2014 03:16:17 pm

What a fabulous post to frame (owlishly) an even more fabulous flash! We had similar tastes in frames and hair. I like that you look back on your younger self with a gaze for sweetness. I do see the sweet side smiling beneath those lenses.

The mention of Jane Eyre brings us to the right frame of mind, and brings to life the sort of graveyard your character has fled to, fully gaining insight into the origins of her bad hair...a classic!

Reply
Annecdotist
28/10/2014 09:55:32 am

Yup, the similarities between our photos are quite something. Of course I was inspired to post by seeing your version. I really like my hair that colour but couldn't be arsed to do it now. I had forgotten how bushy it was though.
I think my flash came from a cross between Jane Eyre and Anne of Greene Gables – my memory is hazy but I'm sure there was a point where she dyed her hair and it came out wrong, although I suppose she might have been trying to cover over the red.

Reply
geoff link
27/10/2014 04:02:05 pm

They're just being nice, the bloody sisterhood; I know that smile. It was the smile of girls who knew stuff I didn't and wouldn't tell me. It's the smile of those who'd threaten you with being dragged into girls toilets for untold shaming. Nice? Sweet? Oh not it isn't, oh Siren! Oh Scylla!!! Great post mind you and I'm pleased you squeezed out a memoire even if only pictorial! Looking forward to the next review...

Reply
Annecdotist
28/10/2014 10:01:16 am

Haha, Geoff, feeling somewhat on the fringes? I suppose with that hair I could be rather witchy. But you're safe now, honestly. And we are nice.
Actually, I think you've slightly foreshadowed the next review – in fact, in the light of this maybe I need to rewrite it.

Reply
Linda link
28/10/2014 11:02:03 am

Hope you don't mind but your creepy story just made me laugh out loud. And I, too, remember henna and perms (and tears and tantrums when they went wrong!) One of the advantages of getting older is that I can now see the funny side of bad hair days.

Reply
Annecdotist
29/10/2014 07:39:27 am

Glad to hear it, Linda. I don't do humour very often so it's good when it works. And I do think youth is overrated, it's such a stressful time with so many threats to one's equanimity, I'm glad to leave it behind.

Reply
Teagan Kearney link
28/10/2014 11:07:54 am

Lovely twist at the end of your flash, Anne, which I didn't see coming. And I rather like that hennaed look!

Reply
Annecdotist
29/10/2014 07:40:27 am

Thank you, Teagan. I quite like that look too – and the dungarees!

Reply
Norah Colvin link
29/10/2014 03:17:58 am

Lovely photos Anne. The hair may have changed but the smile is the same! And yes, you do look sweet! I enjoyed your flash too - not a lot of consolation in the graveyard though. I'd rather a head of henna than a head of snakes! Congratulations on replying to two prompts in one piece. Is that a bit like killing two birds with one stone?

Reply
Annecdotist
29/10/2014 07:43:20 am

Thank you, Norah, after our conversation some time ago on Twitter, I'm glad you got to see my red hair.
I've never killed one bird, never mind two, so I'll have to pass on that one ;)
I was quite pleased with myself, though.

Reply
Norah Colvin link
29/10/2014 10:58:06 pm

I'm pleased you passed on killing the birds! And you have every right to feel pleased with yourself! :)




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