Rae of Light

    Many thanks for all the messages I received from people after my last post. I truly appreciate the support extended by each and every one of you. If I haven’t responded to your email as yet, please bear with me, I will get back to you pronto.   Great News There’s tons of it to pass on. Airbnb have opened up my calendar and I'm booked up until the end of October. This is a great relief to me.   I’ve been loading my books on Draft 2 Digital which means they’re available for all e-readers and not just Kindle. This is long overdue so I’m very glad I finally got that squared away. I’ve also finally gone ‘wide’ for my paperbacks so can approach local independent bookshops and libraries to stock my books.   I’m working on a short book as part of the Deed series. It will be exclusive to members of my mailing list. That should be done by mid October and with my subscribers once I convert it to an epub and mobi doc. I will also provide a pdf if people prefer t...

  The COVID Lockdown here in South London has been a fraught one for me. It didn’t start out that way. I’m used to spending hours on my own. When I was younger I thought this was a defect but then discovered it had a label – INTROVERT. Shrugging my shoulders philosophically, I gave in to my inner nature and split my time between friends, work, writing and watching my favourite films and TV programmes. So I wasn't unduly concerned about the London ‘Lockdown’.   At the start of the Lockdown I was lucky enough to have a wonderful Airbnb guest staying with me. She came from Canada with her 3 cats in tow and we all got to know each other intimately. Well, more or less. The cats were very shy to begin with. But I charmed them with treats and my innate feline nature. I also made my guest do ridiculous tasks such as carrying an old water tank from a neighbour’s driveway to my garden so I can someday turn it into a water feature. No, that hasn’t happened yet, but it will. Eventually....

Finally it’s here. The poetry collection which my Sheffield bestie Bev Cross and I have been promising you. Sincere apologies for the delay. That has been down to me entirely as I was in charge of the final edit and only just recently got my act together. A huge thank you to our ART team for helping us make this collection reader ready. Your support is invaluable and immeasurable. £1 from the sale of each book will go to our respective animal charities. Bev’s Sheffield based chosen charity is cat-CHING . Follow them on Facebook  or Instagram to see the incredible work they are doing. Also, click on his image and take a moment to meet BBIII (aka Beaumont Barrington the Third), recently rehomed and now settled in the Fulwood area of Sheffield. Bev chose this charity because she admires the selfless work of the two women running it in their spare time. BBIII My chosen charity is Ebony Horse Club which is based in Brixton. Follow them on Facebook , Instagram or...

SciFi Picked Me It came as quite a revelation that SciFi was my chosen genre for my second novel. At the time I didn’t analyse my choice but now I think I understand the why. The genre gives me the freedom to explore ideas to an end point which could be. I can people my world with whomever I please. The very possibility thrills me. Fantasy does this too, but there is something linked to the here and now in SciFi which cannot be escaped I feel. It centres around the fact technology is moving at such a pace now that in my lifespan telephones have evolved into flat slabs of plastic, keyboards can be rolled up and you can tell your TV what you want to watch. Hell, our house didn't get a Blaupunkt TV till I was 13. When I’m reading SciFi these days, it feels as though I’m reading predictions of a future lurking on the very near horizon. Book the 1st Where Rainbows Hide was born out of my love for chimpanzees. As a child I always wanted to have one as a pet and was distr...

Why SciFi? For years Sci Fi has been the purview of male writers. Specifically white male writers. This is the reason Octavia Butler was repeatedly asked in interviews: Why Science Fiction? And her response was always “Why not!” My introduction to screen Sci Fi was through my mother. Growing up in the 60s and 70s, television meant that series such as Dr Who and Star Trek were making their way onto the small screen. I didn’t learn about Dr Who till I came to the UK and went to university. Because of my mother however, Beam me up Scottie, Lieutenant Uhura kissing Captain Kirk and Vulcan salutes regularly featured in conversations. This at a time in my particular part of the world, when cross-racial kissing was frowned upon and not every household owned a TV. The wealthiest families polished their set with Mr Sheen every Friday before friends came round to watch The World at War or Dallas after dinner. Interestingly, I initially only consumed Sci Fi on the smal...

Oh the shame For many years I hid the fact I wrote poetry, even from fellow writers. Why? My shame stemmed from the thought I wasn’t doing it right: my iambic pentameter was bound to be all wrong, my rhythm none existent, my rhyme cliché. I quivered in fear of collective poetic outrage. Instead I secretly sent work off to collections and quietly attended readings. No-one was more surprised than I was when my writing got accepted several times. But still, I refrained from openly mentioning my habit to all but a select few I felt would keep my secret safely stashed. The evidence Whatever… Then I turned 50 and suddenly I didn’t care. Older friends told me this would be so but I doubted their wisdom. I realised I truly didn’t care. About a whole list of things. E.g. Grey hair Hairy legs Nail polish Perfectly arched brows Voicing my opinion freely See how I snuck that one in there. The very day I turned 50 I began to sound remarkably like my mother. I w...

Recently in my writing group we had a very interesting conversation about poetry and why so many people feel they are unqualified to comment on it let alone attempt writing it. Both myself and another very accomplished poet argued that poetry should be for everyone and the reason so many people are put off is because their introduction to it has been stultifying. We are made to feel that if we don’t understand form, method, metre, then we’d best step aside and leave it all to the professionals. But I believe we all intrinsically grasp poetry because it is first and foremost about the sound of words. Us humans relish rhythmic sounds. It’s why we listen to music, sing and dance. I stand by this opinion as I have to teach children about poetry and am met by their fear of it coupled with the idea it will be too difficult to understand. In a classroom full of resistance to poetry I start with just one word. Your basic, everyday common noun. I ask them to list several objects: book...