Monthly Archives: February 2015

Selfcontained

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Self-Contained Man by Moira Purver

Self-Contained Man by Moira Purver

My story ‘Selfcontained‘ has been published by the marvellous Café Irreal. Hurrah! I’ve been sending them my less conventional tales for a while now, so am very happy this one has been chosen to be invited to pull up a seat, order a hot drink and join in the conversation 🙂

The Café Irreal specialise in publishing literary fiction that accepts (and welcomes) the possibility of the impossible and makes it common place. They define the genre here.

My particular story drew inspiration from a wonderful piece of art by Moira Purver, titled Self-Contained Man, which featured in the RWA’s open exhibition. I spent an afternoon there in late 2014, gleaning inspiration and taking notes. I rather fell in love with Moira’s beautiful sculpture. An idea about Self-Contained Man took root, and developed into a story told from the point of view of a sculpture grappling with the question of whether or not he has a sole. You can read it here.

I also had the pleasure of being invited to be a guest on the Steve Yabsley lunchtime show for Radio Bristol last week. The show was billed as being “Author Judy Darley, blossom poems and dormice” so I was in great company, though sadly didn’t get to meet any actual dormice. Steve talked to me about my book Remember Me To The Bees and asked lots of questions about SkyLightRain.com and writing in general, some of which I was able to answer intelligently, others less so. I read out snippets of some tales in the collection too – you can still listen to it here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02gwq1y

Midweek writing prompt – carnival

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Prague CarnevaleI’ll admit, I’m not usually a fan of masks. They frighten me in the same way that clowns do – what horrors are they hiding beneath the paint and glitter?

But in the guise of fiction, they offer a wonderful opportunity to play.

The image here was supplied by Prague Carnevale, who promise a ten-day fiesta that’s less about the raucous celebrations I usually associate with the excesses of carnival, and more about culture, with operas, ‘Music for an Aristocrat’ and music for lovers.

That doesn’t mean there’ll be no mayhem, however. One of the beauties of masks, as Shakespeare understood so well, was the potential for mistaken identity, secret trysts and treachery. The possibilities are endless!

If you write something prompted by this, please let me know by sending an email to Judy(at)socket creative.com. With your permission, I’d love to share it on SkyLightRain.com.