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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

Tale of a Tooth by Allie Rogers, plus a forest flash, or two

21/4/2018

4 Comments

 
Four-year-old Danny lives with his Meemaw in a cramped rented flat. Like many little boys, he’s obsessed with dinosaurs and poo, loving the first and fearing the second, although perhaps not as much as he fears Karen, the new woman in his mother’s life. Is this down to Karen’s clumsiness around young children, or straightforward jealousy in a child accustomed to having his mother all to himself? Or does Danny intuit right from the start that Karen is bad news?

Danny is a highly intelligent and perceptive child, sensitive to the pressures his mother faces while raging when he doesn’t get his way. As the novel’s narrator, he’s extremely sympathetic and endearing, leaving the reader in safe hands. Despite his child-appropriate fixations, he shows the harshness of the benefits system and the way a disturbed personality can cause chaos in other lives. And how could I not love a story with more toilet scenes than the six novels I featured for World Toilet Day last year put together?

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I did wonder why Natalie, Danny’s mother, gave in to Karen’s wheedling so readily. Of course, she must have been desperate for an adult relationship, and flattered by the attention, as well as grateful for the act of generosity when they first met. But when I learnt what had happened to Natalie’s mother, her inability to set boundaries made perfect sense.

Allie Rogers’ second novel is a moving account of single parenthood on the breadline and the damage some narcissistic personalities can inflict on the vulnerable. The title comes from a documentary on dinosaurs Danny loves to watch on YouTube on his mother’s phone. Thanks to Legend Press for my advance proof copy.

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This novel reminded me of both Emma Donoghue’s Room, which is also narrated by a young boy with a very close relationship to his mother in difficult circumstances, and of the rather zany The Story of My Teeth by Valeria Luiselli, which I read and reviewed a couple of years ago. For my own take on creating a child narrator, see my post
The Child in the Clothes of the Criminal from the blog tour for my second novel, Underneath.

At first glance, this week’s flash fiction challenge to compose a 99-word story about forest bathing (which turns out to be Japanese for a mindful walk in a forest) doesn’t immediately throw up connections with this novel. But since Charli begins her post with some musings on contemporary and historical dentistry, I decided to make it fit. Having celebrated the UK’s flash heatwave, an interregnum between weeks of low cloud, cold and drizzle, with a walk in Sherwood Forest yesterday where, although we didn’t find any dinosaur teeth, we did spot two pairs of jays, I’ve set my story there, with a literal interpretation of forest bathing.

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Maid Marian’s #metoo moment

After a grey and soggy winter, the sun makes everyone smile. But there’s a downside: the stink of sweat.

So when the merry men go off to fleece the rich, Marian fills a barrel with spring water and peels off her clothes. Looking up as a jay calls to its mate, she spots Friar Tuck in the hollow of an oak, leering, his hand in his robe.

Do others suffer such intrusions? Robin says she should be flattered. Bids her laugh it off.

Sod serving as camp dogsbody, she’ll form her own band. Women united can change the world.

Follow the link for my post on why #metoo conversations are everybody’s business.
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I was ready to post when I remembered that
my debut novel, Sugar and Snails, features a forest walk my narrator remembers taking with her father. Well, how could I resist another opportunity to wave the flag of my brand? And to interpret the prompt as it was intended? This edited extract is from just before things go sour.
Is the forest enchanted, or the company?

We ambled through ash and spindly silver birch, its bark like alligator skin. A squirrel scampered across the path and up a tree. We heard the tap tap tap of a woodpecker but, despite
straining our eyes and necks to scan the treetops, it remained elusive. Somehow, it didn’t matter; the shared not-seeing was enough.

I pressed further into the woods to inspect some bracken fungus clinging to the trunk of a dead tree like shelves made of scallops. I kicked at the sludge of fallen leaves with my wellies. At last I understood what magic brought my father here.


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.
4 Comments
Norah Colvin link
22/4/2018 01:28:38 pm

And the Queen of Links strikes again with a lovely rich post. Thanks, Anne. I think I'd enjoy The Tale of a Tooth. Children, dinosaurs and poo - what's there to not like? Of course the cover is appealing to the child within and I'd be interested to read the story from the child's point of view. I try using that POV in some of my flash stories.
But my flash stories are no match for yours. In Maid Marion's story you say much. It's an excellent piece. It conjures up the past and present in a few deft brushstrokes. Robin, like so many 'decent' men, is disappointing in his response; but Maid Marion shows the strength of the feminine side in the final paragraph. So well done.
And of course I enjoyed revisiting the forest bathing in Sugar and Snails also. Always a pleasure to read your writing. Thank you.

Reply
Annecdotist
23/4/2018 11:02:20 am

Thanks, Norah. I’m never sure which side of the line I fall on with my links – it’s a tad obsessional, although I do like making the connections as much for myself as for readers.
I’d be interested in your thoughts on this novel. The author takes quite a risk with the voice and Danny’s character (e.g. he’s a very advanced reader yet still over applies the past tense rule – getted instead of got etc) but it worked for me. And I really liked his mix of empathy and murderous rage. But you might disapprove that he doesn’t go to school or nursery – his mother wants him to be free but I think she puts too much pressure on herself to be everything for him.
I was quite pleased with Maid Marian as initially it felt enough to have the local context and the surprise voyeur. Then I had the idea of her determination to do something about it with the contemporary link to #metoo. I’ve never been particularly interested in the Robin Hood myth, but it’s got me curious about Marian, wondering what the story would look like from her point of view.

Reply
Charli Mills
26/4/2018 04:42:39 am

Anne, I enjoyed the birds that wind their way through both your flash fictions as effortlessly as does your brand. The line, ..."the shared not-seeing was enough," makes me appreciate those kind of moments. However, Friar Tuck and Robin take on new meanings in your version. I can just here him say (in American vernacular) "Laugh it off, sweetheart."

Reply
Annecdotist
26/4/2018 01:39:21 pm

Thanks, Charli, it hadn’t struck me that they both contain birds, but I suppose it goes with the territory / habitat. And I’m getting ideas for my next novel but three: Maid Marian’s account in proper Nottinghamshire dialect – or maybe not!

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