PodcastUncategorizedWriting

Audiobook and new short story available

by tabithapotts
written by tabithapotts

I’ve been wanting to create an audiobook for a while so took some time over the summer to create an Audible version of my short story collection. It is quite technically challenging as ACX has specific requirements for audiobook creators, but being a podcaster gives you a punk attitude to technology – basically, do it yourself – and I’m very happy with the finished result. I am now thinking of creating an audiobook of some of our most popular short stories on Storyradio.org.

Here’s the link to listen to a sample: A Book of Short Stories by Tabitha Potts

On Story Radio recently, we featured a short story which I began on my Creative Writing MA and edited recently as part of our Waking the Dead flash fiction special. This was a writing workshop we ran in the Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park, one of London’s Magnificent Seven cemeteries. Claire Slack, the heritage officer, told us all about the stories of some of the graves and we then used them as inspiration for our own work.

You can listen to my short story, Shake and Shiver (Cockney rhyming slang for river) and other workshop stories and flash fiction below:

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PodcastWriting

Waking the Dead Flash Fiction Workshop at the Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park

by tabithapotts
written by tabithapotts

I am very excited to announce I will be teaching a flash fiction workshop in the Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park on the 3rd of June. This is one of my favourite places to walk, think and take photographs and is much-loved by locals for its beautiful trees and wandering paths.

Waking the Dead Flash Fiction Workshop

Sat 3 Jun 2023 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM BST

Come to the Cemetery Park and have a go at writing flash fiction as you explore your local burial ground for part of National Cemeteries Week!

This three-hour workshop will take inspiration from the history of some of the gravestones in the Cemetery Park, which we will learn about from Claire Slack, the Park’s Heritage Officer. Once we have had a chance to explore the park, learn some local history, and enjoy a short break, we will use the material we have gathered to write some flash fiction (‘short short’ stories) of our own. 

You can record your flash fiction at the end of the workshop for a special edition of my literary podcast, www.storyradio.org. No previous writing experience is required – just bring a notebook and pen! Suitable for adults and children aged 12 and older but all under 16s must be accompanied by an adult.

Book your tickets and read more about the event here.

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Writing

📚 A Special Offer for A Book of Short Stories by Tabitha Potts – Free Download on May 12th-14th! 🎉

by tabithapotts
written by tabithapotts

I have some exciting news to share with you! My book, “A Book of Short Stories by Tabitha Potts”, will be available for a FREE download on the 12th, 13th, and 14th of May as part of a Hello Books promotion. Don’t miss this opportunity to read my dark short fiction, inspired by nature, folklore, myth, and local history.

My book is an illustrated collection of short stories published in literary magazines and online. The stories are unified by themes of transformation and transfiguration, and they explore liminal spaces and thresholds between worlds. You will find supernatural stories, realist fiction, and folk horror, such as The Djinn, The Bells of London Town, Crow Girl, Hagstone, and The Edge.

These stories have been recognised in competitions such as the MIR Folktale Festival and the Royal Academy Pindrop Award and one, The Bells of London Town, was published in an anthology as part of a competition run by Brick Lane Publishing.

This special promotion is a fantastic chance to explore the supernatural and the real, the mysterious and the unknown. Just remember to head over to Amazon between May 12th-14th, and download your free copy of “A Book of Short Stories” by Tabitha Potts.

🔗 Get your free copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Book-Short-Stories-Tabitha-Potts/dp/1803524812

Happy reading! 📚

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Alpine Writing Prize Shortlist
Writing

Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize

by tabithapotts
written by tabithapotts

I was checking through my submissions when I discovered that I had made it to the shortlist for the Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize for a short story I sent to them on the theme of freedom. It’s an extraordinary prize which invites winners and runners-up to participate in their international symposium.

I’m extremely honoured to have reached this stage alongside some wonderful writers. I often wonder if I am too thin-skinned to be a professional writer, but then something like this happens and I remember that the magic and the excitement is what it is all about, the chance to spark something in a reader’s imagination and that I feel is enough to make the endless rejections worthwhile.

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Photo of Liberal Democrat candidates for Mile End Ward
Liberal Democrats

I am standing for the Mile End Ward as a Liberal Democrat Councillor

by tabithapotts
written by tabithapotts

I am proud to say I am standing for the Liberal Democrat Party as a councillor in the local elections for Tower Hamlets. I grew up on Brick Lane and have lived in Stepney and now Bow for many years apart from some time spent living abroad in the USA and Spain. While living in Spitalfields I volunteered and worked as a teacher of ESOL to local women and in Stepney I successfully campaigned to keep a local adventure playground open and ran a playgroup as well as setting up a small business selling eco friendly children’s products. I write for a local paper, Roman Road London, as a ‘citizen journalist’ and I live and work in the East End.

I am particularly interested in the environment and if elected, I will campaign to improve the borough’s air quality which is currently among the worst in the UK. I would like to see more rewilding of our green spaces, a total ban on the use of glyphosate, more trees planted, more electric charging points for cars, an improvement in our recycling and rubbish collection and more provision for cyclists and pedestrians. The pandemic has taught us how important nature is for mental health as well as physical. I’d like to see as much done as possible to get greener, cheaper energy to residents of the borough and to help them insulate their homes.

I’d like a more equal, greener and cleaner borough for us all to enjoy.

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Writing

New audio flash fiction for Prompety Prompt

by tabithapotts
written by tabithapotts

I was asked by the fabulous Prompety Prompt to contribute a spoken word piece to their podcast, which gives writers a set of prompts to use to create their work. The one I found most inspiring was ‘Someone keeps sending you severed heads of birds’ (yes, that might well mean I’m slightly weird, but what’s a girl to do?). Here is the video they made for it, and I hope you enjoy listening.

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Ship
LivingWriting

Happy New Year

by tabithapotts
written by tabithapotts

I have spent a great deal of 2021 in the doldrums, a term I first encountered in that excellent children’s book The Phantom Tollbooth. It can mean a period of stagnation or depression, and in sailing, it refers to an area near the equator where ships sometimes get stuck on windless waters.

I have been extremely fortunate in many ways during this pandemic: no one in my family has been badly affected by Covid-19, I work remotely for a great employer and I have time for my other interests, such as my podcast, Story Radio. Despite all this, I have struggled with my creative writing this year and have only written one short story and about three new chapters of my novel, which I am revising. I have been submitting to agents (mainly) but have only managed slightly less than half the amount of submissions I did in 2020 (I keep track of these using Duotrope). Sometimes it’s hard to keep the motivation and drive to keep writing and putting yourself out there, as a quick scroll through writers’ Twitter will tell you.

However, I’ve just returned from a wonderful and much-needed holiday where I also managed to get a scuba-diving certificate. I was born by the sea and I think I am happiest when I am close to it. Being able to dive among the fish and coral and relax in the sunshine afterwards felt like a huge privilege after this long and frequently dreary year. I’ve chosen a photo of a beautiful ship I took on this holiday as I’m hoping that the doldrums will end in 2022 and I can start moving forwards once more. I can only wish the same to all of you – Happy New Year!

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Shepherd's hut
PodcastWriting

Winter

by tabithapotts
written by tabithapotts

It’s been a long and difficult year, although with vaccines we are at least seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I thought you would like to see this photo of the restored gamekeeper’s hut where I’ve been spending time writing and producing my podcast when I’m in Norfolk. If you listen to the podcast, you will occasionally be able to hear the birds singing in the garden.

We have added a new podcast, Rat Trap by Rebecca Lee, for you to listen to tomorrow and I am planning to read another of my own short stories in February 2022. We are taking a break in January after two years of back-to-back episodes. It has been wonderful being able to produce these magical little podcasts throughout the pandemic and collaborate with so many talented authors and actors.

Some of you may have noticed that I’ve added a members-only area to the website, where you will be able to read more unpublished stories and writing. If you sign up for the trial period of one month, you will be able to download my illustrated book of short stories in Kindle format for £5. I’d love to hear your feedback about this idea, which means I can share more of my unpublished as well as my published stories.

I am still writing book reviews for Roman Road London – you can read my recent review of Graves of Whitechapel by Claire Evans there and they will shortly feature another of Vicky Newman’s Out of the Ashes.

Wishing you all a safe and happy holiday, and I’ll see you on the other side.

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Halloween Pumpkin
PodcastWriting

Happy Halloween

by tabithapotts
written by tabithapotts

After the disappointment that was summer this year, I’ve found myself really loving Autumn – the colours of the leaves in the woods, the moody skies, the abundance of strange-looking mushrooms. I enjoy this time of year and the otherworldly feeling as Halloween draws near. I’ve always liked dressing up for this event and have many photographs of my children cavorting around dressed as wizards and werewolves although they are (mostly) too grown up for this now. This photo is taken from a special Halloween trip we took on Norfolk’s Poppy Line.

I’ve been making some changes to my website using Memberpress. Soon, if you would like to you will be able to buy a membership allowing you to view even more stories and content. Writers often suffer from a double-bind; it can take a long time to get a story published, but if a writer publishes it on their own website it is then ineligible for publication elsewhere. If a writer hopes to publish a collection (traditionally), about half of the stories in it need to be unpublished. I have a collection I hope to publish eventually but I would like to start sharing the stories now.

I am using Memberpress as it is a good way of getting around this problem. Newsletter subscribers will have seen my free PDF of short stories: I will have a Kindle version available for sale on this site shortly and may publish more short stories in this format. The membership will give you a new short story via email every two months as well as the monthly newsletter and discounts on publications.

Meanwhile, if you would like to enjoy some short stories for Halloween, here are some of mine, Swing Me, Crow Girl, Hagstone and (from my podcast) Call Bird.

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