Marie Marshall

Today I received the latest issue of Rubies in the Darkness, a magazine of traditional, romantic, lyrical, and spiritually inspired poetry, and I was pleased to find that they had included a poem of mine. It’s one I wrote in 2008, when I was still flexing my formal muscles. The late Vera Rich had called for examples of a ‘Dyad’ – a double poem using the same end-words in each component. I replied with what was in effect, a ‘Sapphic ode’ in ‘mirror-dyad form’, which is to say the re-use of the end-words was reversed. Vera, I have to say, was not entirely convinced, although other readers were fascinated by what I had done. I shall reproduce it below for you. Just a couple of notes – a crummock is a staff with a gnarled or bent head, and is probably derived from the gaelic word cromag, and Aberdour is a town on the Fife coast in Scotland.

The Song of Girls

The song of girls each Sabbath day
belies the clock’s round, slow and dour,
and makes the moments flit away
across the moor

like dragonflies above the mire.
While sunlight shifts from tree to field,
the could-shade hides my heart’s desire –
I long to yield.

I am a slave to love and lust
who has no willingness to fight;
so lose I shall – if lost, I must
embrace by night!

I woke when last Shrove-Tuesday night
was still, and stale with rind and must;
and, half in sleep, I dared to fight
my wanderlust.

I’m harboured here. How can I yield
to what all travellers desire,
to stride with crummock far afield…
fresh lands admire?

My foot is now upon the moor,
the song of girls calls me away;
so step I down to Aberdour
to greet the day!

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December 5, 2013

Loss (flash fiction)

Because this started out as an idea for a poem, and is prose-poetry rather than straight fiction, I’ve posted it on my poetry blog.

December 4, 2013

How Millie draws a Fresh Cat

I really want to share this with you, just so that you can see Millie Ho’s hands at work. Millie (how could you forget?) is the artist who has provided a cover illustration for The Everywhen Angels. She claims all kinds of artistic influences, but at the end of the ol’ cliche day what she produces is all her own work. The ‘cat’ in this video is – kind of – the Fresh Prince of Bel Air of the cat world. I especially love his copter cap – I haven’t seen a cat in one of those since Hanna and Barbera’s Mr Jinks wore one. And yes, those are fish.

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December 2, 2013

First thoughts on the Phoenix

Poet Ben Mosley writes:

“The organization by sections for subject and theme allows each reader to browse or study according to the mood of the moment – or to be transported into a realm of emotion or thought beyond one’s first disposition on picking up the book. Formal poetry in languages other than English allow us to hear lyrical prosody beyond the constructs of a single language. Phoenix 1 200 These poems remind us that the paths of our thoughts so well-trodden in one language are not the only ways through the dappled shade and sun of our humanity. The artwork included in the book is fascinating, and like the poetry, is selected with an eclectic sensibility that turns all around to view the sweep of human aesthetic expression.

This anthology returns me to the beginning of my interest in the pursuit of poetic excellence. Like most of us, I was introduced to poems selected by my teachers, and I first attempted poetry with grade school assignments. However, it was not until I began to read anthologies as an adult that I began to see that poetry would become my favorite way of hearing what others have to say and for trying to express myself. With The Phoenix Rising from the Ashes Richard Vallance has given us vistas of poetry of this latest century that remind me of those provided by Oscar Williams and others of the poetry from the fourteenth through the twentieth century.”

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November 29, 2013

The quality of ‘Phoenix’

Editor-in-Chief of The Phoenix Rising from the Ashes, Richard Vallance, comments on the physical quality of the book:

“… The slip cover is in rich full-colour on high quality glossy paper. Now, there is a world of difference between cardboard bound and cloth-bound hard cover books, and this anthology is cloth-bond. The thirty-five black-and-white illustrations in the anthology itself beautifully complement it. The page layout of the sonnets (two per page) is highly professional, as readers will see the moment they open the book… As for content, stand prepared, my fellow editors, poets, sonneteers, readers and other publishers. You are in for a most pleasant surprise…’

The anthology is currently available here, and will soon be available at the major on-line retail outlets.

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November 24, 2013

Millie and Marie meet some Angels

The first ‘Angela’ © Millie Ho

Recently it began to seem like a good idea to find cover art for The Everywhen Angels, my soon-to-be-published novel for older children, in a bit of a hurry. The idea was to publish well in time for Christmas, in order to advertise it for the seasonal market. Well, that might not happen, but in any case the perceived urgency gave me the chance to ask Canadian artist Millie Ho if she could come up with something post-haste. I sent her a copy of the draft manuscript, we discussed an idea I had in mind, and Millie set about constructing it.

Almost every day a sketch would come of one or all of the main characters – Angela, Charlie, and Ashe.

The first ‘Ashe’ © Millie Ho

I watched their characters take shape. In the book, we read the same story three times, each version as seen by one of this trio. With each version we get more of the back-story, and maybe more revelations about the underlying mystery. All of it? Hmmm, wait and see. I ask a lot of the young readership; for example, Charlie’s story is told backwards, and one of the first things that happens is that he emphatically contradicts one of the major events of Angela’s story. I touch on ‘difficult’ philosophical matters but, as I learned from my literary hero in the genre of fiction for young readers, Alan Garner, an author should never underestimate the intelligence of his or her readership.

The first ‘Charlie’ © Millie Ho

The book came about as a result of a heated but amicable argument between myself and some friends. They are all Harry Potter fans, and I was tearing JKR’s literary style to shreds*. They said I should either write a fantasy set in a school and make it as good as one of hers, or shut up. So I wrote one! It doesn’t quite qualify as a ‘fantasy’, but it does feature a group of teenagers with weird powers. An early draft was tried out on the twelve-going-thirteen-year-old daughter of one of these friends. It was read to her one chapter at a time, at bed time, in return for tidying her room and doing her homework. Never had her room been so tidy, and never had her homework been so promptly completed! I think I more than won the challenge. So does my publisher, P’kaboo, who has been enthusiastic about securing and publishing the book. I did try it with Head of Zeus first of all, who asked to see the full manuscript and were impressed by it, but decided it didn’t fit with the portfolio they were building up. P’kaboo then practically tore my hand off to get it.

You will soon be able to read the book, and you will soon be able to see more of Millie Ho’s artwork on the cover. There is a teaser of the final cover illustration at the top of this article. From the sketches here you will be able to see how Angela and Ashe developed from waif-like individuals to young people with great presence. Charlie’s sardonic streak was visible right from the word go.

The Angels take shape. © Millie Ho

My publisher was as enthusiastic as I was about Millie’s finished illustration. Millie and I are now talking about further collaboration. There is a possibility of some high-action teen-vampire fiction of mine being turned into graphic novels by Millie’s ink and brush. Millie has already added the word ‘fangirling’ to my vocabulary – it’s what we do with regard to each other’s work. Seems like a good basis on which to continue. I’ll keep you informed.

__________

* Fair’s fair – at the end of the day, JKR can ignore my opinion all the way to the bank, and good luck to her!

4 Comments

November 21, 2013

And so the Phoenix has risen at last!

The Phoenix Rising from the Ashes is – if you didn’t know already – an ‘Anthology of Sonnets of the Early Third Millennium’. by that I mean it contains examples of this long-established form of poetry written by contemporary poets. More than two hundred and fifty poets have been included in this book, and it is the first anthology of specifically 21c sonnets to be published. Editor-in-Chief is Richard Vallance, former Editor before his retirement and the magazines’ closure of Sonnetto Poesia and Canadian Zen Haiku. This anthology is his swan song as an editor. I’m proud to have worked alongside him not only as part of the editorial team of SP and CZH, but also as Deputy Editor of The Phoenix Rising from the Ashes.

At present the book is available at Friesen Press in hardback and paperback, and from eBookPie for your electronic reader, but will shortly also be available at Amazon, Barnes & Nobel, etc.

I really can’t recommend it too much. I know the work that went into it, I know the personal exertion that Richard went through to produce it, I know how the editorial team toiled. Most of all I know the quality of the poetry in the book – it is outstanding. There isn’t a poet in there who doesn’t warrant more reading. The sonnet is far from dead, and those people who choose to take the form as a vehicle for their poetic expression don’t do so out of nostalgia, but because it works. This anthology is a work of quality.

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November 17, 2013

Poor Susie Dean

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Child Ballad 65: I love playing with themes of traditional ballads. This is an imagined Appalachian or Bluegrass version of a song we know in Dundee as ‘Bonnie Susie Cleland’. It has hints of miscegenation and infanticide in it (in the Scottish version the eponymous Susie falls for an Englishman).

Susie Dean and Billy Blue they ran away, ran away,
Susie Dean and Billy Blue they ran away.
Susie Dean she ran away,
But they catch’d her yesterday.

Now they’re gonna hang poor Susie Dean, Susie Dean,
They’re gonna hang poor Susie Dean.

What’s that pretty little bundle by your side, by your side,
What’s that pretty little bundle by your side?
That’s no bundle by my side,
but my little dog that died.

Now they’re gonna hang poor Susie Dean, Susie Dean,
They’re gonna hang poor Susie Dean.

Won’t someone find a fearless little boy, little boy,
Won’t someone find a fearless little boy?
Well here comes a little boy’ll
take a message to your joy

That they’re gonna hang poor Susie Dean, Susie Dean,
They’re gonna hang poor Susie Dean.

Her father paid one dollar to a man, to a man,
Her father paid one dollar to a man.
Her father paid a man,
And through the town he ran,

Sayin’ “They’re gonna hang poor Susie Dean, Susie Dean,
They’re gonna hang poor Susie Dean.”

Her brother built the gallows strong and high, strong and high,
Her brother built the gallows strong and high.
He built the gallows high,
Sayin’ “Susie, you must die!”

Now they’re gonna hang poor Susie Dean, Susie Dean,
They’re gonna hang poor Susie Dean.

They hanged poor Susie Dean at noon today, noon today,
They hanged poor Susie Dean at noon today.
She was hanged at noon today,
And now all the people say,

That they went and hanged poor Susie Dean, Susie Dean,
They went and hanged poor Susie Dean.

It weren’t for Billy Blue that Susie died, Susie died,
It weren’t for Billy Blue that Susie died.
It weren’t for him she died,
But the bundle at her side

That they went and hanged poor Susie Dean, Susie Dean,
They went and hanged poor Susie Dean.

4 Comments

November 9, 2013

How to get a copy of ‘Lupa’ in the UK

You can simply walk into your local branch of

Waterstones

and order it!

November 8, 2013

So, what next?

author clip art

… I hear you ask. What’s next after crashing into the world of teenagers and vampires? Well, you know me of old, how I proudly state what my current or next project is, and then you hear no more about it. The fact is that writing a teen-vampire novella at breakneck speed has knocked me back on my heels. It was such fun! I’m left wondering whether fun increases in indirect proportion to literary merit, but frankly I scarcely care. Last night as I lay awake I suddenly had the premise for a sequel. I wonder. Maybe not yet. Anyhow, finishing the first draft of a book does not mean the end of working on it. The novella is currently with a couple of readers who are proofing through it with a specific task in mind. Then it will go off to my publishers (who asked for it in the first place) to see if it will do. That’s when the really hard work starts, as it is scrutinised in minute detail by the in-house editor. That’s a process I have just been through with The Everywhen Angels – tedious, but necessary.

Which brings me on to the task(s) which will be engaging my attention next. Hopefully The Everywhen Angels will be out before Christmas. There will be the job of bringing it to the public’s attention. A similar job will be needed for The Phoenix Rising from its Ashes – that’s the major, new anthology of 21c sonnets, of which I am Deputy Editor. Also on the desk is completing a macabre story for this year’s Winter Words literary festival; this task involves getting to grips with the dialect of the Shetland Isles, a very specific branch of Scots, in which a major character speaks throughout, and which pervades the story.

I think that takes us up to Hogmanay. So what then. Well, I still have another novel on the desk, one for which I have done a lot of research but which is proving difficult to write convincingly. The main problem with it is that I have decided to use the third person (as an ‘omniscient’ narrator) rather than the first, and this is a major departure for me as regards longer fiction. My usual mode is first person, because I like to get under the skin of my protagonist and draw the readership close to her/him. Writing in the third and yet being able to carry readers with me is no easy option, but I won’t let it defeat me. I’ll get there some time. However, competing with that novel-in-progress, are other ideas. Will the sequel to my teen-vampire novel seduce me? Will I write a totally different novel, the seed of which is in my mind, about a cynical wizard-detective? Or will I go off at a tangent to all of these? Already I’m considering proposing a collaboration with an artist on a project to produce a graphic novel – such a tempting idea for me, but maybe not for the artist. So who knows. I’ll make you no promises, and meanwhile you can be sure my mind is bubbling.