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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Photograph from Viktor Wynd's Museum of Curiosities
Writing

The Cabinet of Curiosities to be published in print anthology

by tabithapotts
written by tabithapotts

I’ve been a little quiet on here recently as although life has been busy, I haven’t had much writing news to share. I’m happy to say that that is about to change as one of my pieces, a short story about innocence and experience set in the eighteenth century (with more than a passing nod to Angela Carter) is coming out in print. The story will be available in Part 2 of the printed anthology, which is available in two parts – or you can buy the complete version.

I’ve always been fascinated by curiosity cabinets and I decided to use them as a metaphor for the idea of forbidden knowledge. This story was also long-listed for the University of Sunderland Short Story in Association with Waterstones Award in 2019.

Writer’s Egg Magazine, an award-winning new writing literary magazine (print and online) is publishing this anthology and you can buy it from their shop from August 1st onwards.

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Engraving of a nightingale
Writing

Singing with Nightingales

by tabithapotts
written by tabithapotts

I happened to see an email from Tower Hamlets Council asking residents to contribute to a recording, A Nightingale Sang in Pollard Square, run by Sam Lee of the Nest Collective. Every year Sam Lee records nightingales – which only sing between April and May in the UK – at night with the help of other singers and artists.

I wanted to write something for this performance (which was part of the celebration of St George’s Day in the borough) and was inspired by the fairy tale, The Nightingale, written by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen about an Emperor who prefers the tinkling of a bejewelled mechanical bird to the song of a real nightingale. When the Emperor is near death, the nightingale’s song restores his health.

So many of us, including myself, have taken so much comfort from nature, including the birdsong we could suddenly hear, during the pandemic. The story of the nightingale that could heal the dying man is very relevant to us all in these strange times.

I tried to think of a way to retell this old fairy tale while reading about nightingales – which are now on the Red List – and ended up with a different idea: a nightingale in a museum, a holographic representation of the real thing, telling us how it became extinct. We need to save these amazing birds so that we are not left only with mechanical nightingales instead of the real thing.

You can hear my recorded piece just after the beginning of the video, and I’m honoured to be part of this beautiful recording.

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Kanda-myojin shrine, Tokyo
Living

Finally, Spring is on its way

by tabithapotts
written by tabithapotts

What a draining and exhausting year it’s been. I am very grateful to have had my vaccine and to be looking forward to seeing my friends and family soon, but it’s going to take a long time to shake off the general feeling of dread that COVID brought with it. One thing that’s been really helping my mood is just getting out and about and looking at flowers. The photo above was taken on a wonderful holiday we had in Japan two years ago during sakura (cherry-blossom) time. I loved watching crowds of people just taking the time to admire the flowering trees.

Here in London the cherry blossom is not quite out but the blackthorns are in our local cemetery park. I walk there every day with our dogs and there is an explosion of colour from wild violets, daffodils, crocuses and grape hyacinth. With the clocks going forwards and the roll-out of the vaccines we’re all starting to shift a little from our winter lethargy and look forward to the summer. I hope you are too.

I have had some very kind reviews of two of my stories from Lisa Shea on her Youtube channel – she has reviewed Masquerade and Crow Girl. Thank you Lisa! I’m constantly amazed at how supportive the blogging community is to emerging writers.

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The Abyss Within cover
Writing

Reviews for The Abyss Within

by tabithapotts
written by tabithapotts

Some reviews for The Abyss Within, a charity anthology benefiting Women’s Aid which features two of my short stories, Crow Girl and Masquerade, appeared recently as part of a book tour and I had to share a couple of them.

Strange Books wrote of The Abyss Within:

“This anthology is perfect for any “beginners” of the horror genre, wanting to dip their toes in these murky waters. Each story is quite short and makes for a fast-paced reading experience. Various tropes of horror are explored throughout these tales and I was particularly drawn to the weird and fantastical elements of some stories… The second story I’m going to highlight is my favourite of the anthology – “Crow Girl” by Tabitha Potts. This is precisely the kind of story I love. The story tells the tale of a young, deaf and mute orphaned girl who is taken in by a childless couple. When she falls pregnant, she is kicked out of her home and goes to live in the woods with her friends- the birds, especially the crows. Potts’ use of bird imagery is carried seamlessly throughout. There is a brightness present in this story amongst its horror. Potts writes how mother and child “spoke together with a language we invented ourselves.” This is a story to remember.”

Another great review by Read by Dusk said: “Tabitha Potts’ Masquerade describes a woman’s fight to survive an abusive marriage. The story is arranged in snippets of scenes which made for a cinematic read.”

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Winter
Writing

Winter

by tabithapotts
written by tabithapotts

Strange times continue, and we plod on trying to cope. I’ve been walking a lot, like I imagine everyone has, finding a lot of comfort in looking at the winter landscape, the sea and the woods. I’ve been taking a lot of photographs with my new camera, most of which I share on Instagram, trying to find a way of recording these landscapes which move me so much.

Photography shares some aspects with writing, in that you can see something very beautiful and satisfying and yet struggle to capture it. I think I’ve always understood that frustration was part of the creative process, as both my parents were writers (perhaps that’s why I took so long to commit to it). But I’ve also been trying to let go of perfectionism and fear and actually enjoy the process of writing again. As part of that, I attended an online flash fiction course run by Emily Devane and joined a Zoom writing retreat run by Sarah Dale. Both were inspiring.

Sometimes, you have to accept that it’s the wrong season for things to grow, and I’ve been feeling like that a lot last year when it comes to my writing. So I’m writing when I can, and just enjoying the scenery when I can’t. I wrote this poem, inspired by a witch ball that I was given by my mother Jocasta for my birthday, in one of Sarah’s retreats. It’s about superstition and how we surround ourselves with the little things that make us feel safe. I see it as a spell or charm. I hope you like it.

The last gift my mother gave me

Silver wind in the trees
Acorns on windowsills
Smoke in the night
We can see ourselves
In candlelight
A charm of protection
A caged cat
In the foundations
Of an old house
To keep the devil out

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