A Little Light Reading • Lynne Garner

By Lynne Garner -

My first collection of short stories
that take place on Moon Meadow Farm
Over the last few months the only writing I've completed has been connected to my day job - I teach writing and craft related subjects. So, it's been handouts and those dreaded schemes of work. It's taken a few months but I'm now missing my characters who live on Moon Meadow Farm. So, I decided to build a small library of non-fiction books that would help me write the third in the series (Hare of Moon Meadow Farm).

The first book in my new library was 'The Inner Life of Animals (Surprising Observations of a Hidden World)' by Peter Wohlleben. A thoroughly enjoyable read, insightful and it confirmed what I already believed about animals. That in many ways we are exactly the same as they are. I have also added to my reading list one of his other books 'The Secret Network of Nature.'

I have also read and enjoyed 'The Wood - The Life and Times of Cockshutt Wood' by John Lewis-Stempel. Again an enjoyable read, made easier by the fact that each chapter is a day in the year. So, on a day when I had plenty of time to read I could just keep reading. Whilst on others days when I was sneaking in five minutes there was always a good place to stop. I enjoyed the snippets of poetry included and the recipes for things such as crab-apple jelly, chestnut soup and hazelnut and mushroom pate. All of which I intend to have a go at making.  


The next book 'A Natural History of the Hedgerow and ditches, dykes and dry stone walls' by John Wright I'm about a third of the way through. It's a drier read than the other books but I've learnt lots of useful/useless fun facts. A couple of these facts will definitely make it into a Moon Meadow Farm story. If not in my book featuring Hare then the fourth in the series which will feature Badger.

Another book to make it to my list is 'The Walker's Guide to Outdoor Clues & Signs' by Tristan Gooley. I have started to read this book - I just couldn't help myself. But I have put it to one side for the moment. Not because it's a bad read but I struggle to read more than one book at a time. However, I can't wait to get back to it because within the first couple of chapters the book has given me a few short scenes.
The last two books on my reading list I discovered lurking on the shelves of our local charity book shop. The first 'Norwegian Folktales' is my wild card as it's not non-fiction. But I'm sure a snippet or two of the stories held within its cover will make it into at least one of my planned books. Finally 'A Pocket Guide to Superstitions of the British Isles.' Because this book is designed for the reader to dip in and out of I have already started the animal and nature section. And within the first few pages I have a couple of scenes based on some of the superstitions included in this book.

So, creating this new library has already started to work for me and the first few scribbles featuring Hare and the other animals on Moon Meadow Farm have started to fill yet another note book.

Blatant plug time

Love a short story? 
Then check out my short story collections (available as ebooks and paperback):

Hedgehog of Moon Meadow Farm (ebook 99p/99¢ - 10 stories)

Fox of Moon Meadow Farm (ebook 99p/99¢ - 10 stories)

Ten Tales of Brer Rabbit (ebook 99p/99¢ - 10 stories)

Ten Tales of Coyote  (ebook 99p/99¢ - 10 stories)

Anansi The Trickster Spider (ebook £1.49/$1.49 - 16 stories) 




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts

A Few Discreet Words About Caesar's Penis--Reb MacRath

By -
Image
Veni, vidi...Wiki! Not long ago I had the all-time greatest Great Idea: one, born of total ignorance, that nearly tanked a novel. As you may have guessed from my opening line, my subject is Julius Caesar. But you might not have guessed from the title that my Great Idea entailed his being reborn as a penis. Don't laugh, please, I beg you. I saw no way around this, even though showing JC as a 'dick' might lead some to think that I've written a spoof. In fact, it's a serious thriller. Without giving the plot away, I can say this: I needed JC's ghost, today, remembering his nights with Cleopatra on her fabled golden barge. There  was the heart of my book--a ghost trying for 2000 years to relive that lost boogie with Liz. And I'd begun to run with this when my memory corrected me: Mark Anthony, not JC, was on the barge with Cleo. And this was after JC's death. What the hell was I to do, lacking the good sense to check memory's 'facts
Read more

Margery Allingham and ... knitting? Casting on a summer’s mystery -- by Julia Jones

By -
Image
The Watchtower from the Saltings  (Photo Tom Barr)  How to connect a 1940s naval watchtower on the Tollesbury marshes, a brilliant Scottish knitwear designer and my all-time favourite novelist?   The investigation led me along the single-track lanes south-east from Tollesbury, heading towards the end of the old railway line to Tollesbury Pier. I began to get goosebumps as I remembered coming here before. Once on a long walk with my dog, when I was never quite sure where we were trespassing but was determined to explore anyway.  That was when I first saw the six-sided building, stark and guarded against the weather. Then I saw it again in my imagination: ‘It’s a t-tower,’ said David. Xanthe loved the way he said it with a shiver of excitement in his voice. ‘It’s in the m-middle of a f-field and it looks right down the r-river.’ ‘And when it was wartime the Navy built it so they could keep a lookout against invaders,’ added Kieran. ‘Then p-zow they’d press a button and the whole
Read more

Irresistably Drawn to the Faustian Pact: Griselda Heppel Channels her Inner Witch for World Book Day 2024.

By -
Image
Happy Easter! Griselda Heppel channelling her inner  Maggie Smith as Professor MacGonagall from Harry Potter. World Book Day has been and gone and I can now reveal my costume, having kept you in suspense for a whole month. I know. Lucky me, I found this splendid Professor MacGonagall outfit online and have been channelling my inner Maggie Smith ever since (soon to move on to the Dowager Countess What is a weekend? Grantham from Downton Abbey ). I was pleasantly surprised by how comfortable it was and reckon these Hogwarts wizards and witches know a thing or two about Practical Wear for Muggle Workshops (Spells, Charms and the Magic of Books Part 1, for instance). I’ve never before given author talks on each of my books all in one day (including two separate ones on The Fall of a Sparrow ) and I did wonder if I’d end up muddling all 3 of them (oops) or conking out altogether. Fortunately the stories are each so different in theme and background, and the Christ Church Cathedral Schoo
Read more

A writer's guide to Christmas newsletters - Roz Morris

By Roz Morris aka @Roz_Morris . Blog: Nail Your Novel -
Image
Let me confess: I'm a fan of round-robin christmas letters.  It's fashionable to diss them in the UK, but I disagree. Even if the missive is smug and airbrushed and claims the golden offspring can split the atom, it’s more meaningful than a card that only says 'from Nina and Frederik'.      But since I approve of Christmas newsletters, that means I must compose one. And I don't know what to put. I spent this year writing, rewriting, talking to other writers and, er, working out what to write next. Sure, there was adventure and atom-splitting, but it happened on the page and in my head.      And that's my update. One paragraph. How can I spread it out?      When in doubt, study the requirements of the genre. Boasting     Christmas letters need boasting, with bells on. Your friends will report a mighty throng of promotions, bonuses, and other unceasing achievements. Traditionally published authors can name-drop with the i
Read more

What's Your Angle--by Reb MacRath

By -
Image
You may be in either camp or be a hybrid, as I am. In the course, though, of writing a novel we may all come to the same block: we know where to go  and exactly what to do there...but we can't seem to figure out how to get there smoothly and efficiently. I found myself on a roll with my WIP when the ending of the seventh chapter threw me for a loop. Consider: Chapter 7 ends with two of the three main characters--let's call them A and B--engaged in risky business in a small Arizona town. They've arranged for C to follow them days later on a different pretext, apparently looking for work. But, unknown to them, something has happened in Tucson. Chapter 8. Change of POV. Cut to character C, left behind in Tucson. Because of what's happened, he chooses to leave a day early though he can't reach A and B by phone. The challenge: getting him on the road and to his destination, while filling readers in on the Tucson tragedy. Road trip? Flashbacks? I tried a dozen different t
Read more