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Tabitha Potts
Kanda-myojin shrine, Tokyo
Living

Finally, Spring is on its way

by tabithapotts 31st March 2021
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.

31st March 2021 0 comment
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The Abyss Within cover
Writing

Reviews for The Abyss Within

by tabithapotts 28th February 2021
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.”

28th February 2021 0 comment
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Writing

Winter

by tabithapotts 29th January 2021
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

29th January 2021 0 comment
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Podcast

Radio interview with Chat and Spin

by tabithapotts 6th December 2020
written by tabithapotts

I was interviewed recently by Chat and Spin Radio talking about Story Radio Podcast. Thank you to Ron Clark and Ian Johnson for inviting me on their late show – the catch up link is now live and you can listen to my interview here.

Photo by quicksandala from Morguefile.

6th December 2020 0 comment
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Writing

Two new short stories published recently

by tabithapotts 30th November 2020
written by tabithapotts

Recently I had two short stories published. One, Some Notes on Container Gardening During the Apocalypse, is a satirical short story I wrote at the beginning of the pandemic, and was published by the excellent American literary magazine The Disappointed Housewife. I knew it would be the right magazine for me to submit this story to when I read that it was looking for stories that ‘that strike us as different, always with that idiosyncratic touch. Iconoclastic. Kind of bent.’ Thank you to The Disappointed Housewife for giving my strange little story a home!

The second, The Sin-Eater, was written and workshopped during the Genre class in my Creative Writing MA and is set in a fantasy world whose inhabitants all experience life through synaesthaesia and whose skin changes colour according to their feelings and sensations. I think it’s one of my most original short stories and am very pleased with it. It was published by the UK based Fudoki Magazine which is an online magazine of myths, legends, fables, fantasy, folklore and fairytales. Fudoki captured stories that were passed down the generations in Japan and ensured they wouldn’t be lost.

Meanwhile our final short story of 2020 will go online tomorrow at Story Radio Podcast – thanks to all the writers, actors and producers who have so generously shared their work, especially to my extremely talented Birkbeck contemporaries Tatum Anderson (The Invisibles) who was Highly Commended in two debut novel awards this year, Miki Lentin (Persepolis, Meringues) who was a Finalist in the Fish Publishing Short Story Award and of course my fellow producer, Martin Nathan (The Edge, Mock Crab, The Vulnerable) who is on the shortlist for two international playwriting awards. I am privileged to have been able to work with all of them during this very difficult year.

30th November 2020 0 comment
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The Abyss Within cover
UncategorizedWriting

The Abyss Within – new anthology benefits charity Women’s Aid

by tabithapotts 2nd November 2020
written by tabithapotts

I recently had two stories, Crow Girl and Masquerade, selected to be included in an anthology, The Abyss Within, by new UK publishers SmashBear Publishing. They specialise in fantasy and horror fiction and all profits from this anthology will be donated to Women’s Aid, the national charity working to end domestic abuse against women and children. I’m proud to be part of this exciting new venture.

If you’d like to support this charity, have a look at The Abyss Within on Amazon (affiliate link).

2nd November 2020 0 comment
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Photograph of Elixir Magazine
Writing

Elixir Magazine in print for the first time

by tabithapotts 20th September 2020
written by tabithapotts

The Elixir Magazine is one of the magazines that has frequently published my work. It was started in Yemen in the city of Sana’a, by a remarkable young woman named Esra’ AlNaggar. It gives a voice to women, in particular, who may not always have had access to a platform. The Elixir Magazine was launched on January 1st, 2019 and they have managed to create an international team via Twitter.

It’s a wonderful, hopeful and peaceful project in a war-torn country. As they say on their website: “We try to remind our audience that reading can be both entertaining and beneficial. Also, The Elixir acts as a platform for aspiring poets, short-story tellers, journalists and prose writers”. Have a look at some of the short stories they have published. Or if you’d like to support them, consider buying a copy of their Special Edition print magazine on Etsy. I have a short story in it (Hagstone).

20th September 2020 0 comment
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Writing

Welcome new visitors and followers

by tabithapotts 14th September 2020
written by tabithapotts

I’m not entirely sure why, but I seem to have had more visitors this month – welcome to all of you. I hope you are keeping well in this strange and very disorientating year. I’ve been working in my new marketing role and juggling creative writing, my literary podcast and family commitments throughout lockdown this year. It’s been a challenge at times (as it has for everyone) and I haven’t written or submitted as many short stories as I did in 2019.

I’ve had one short story, The Cabinet of Curiosities, published this year in a new subscription-only lit mag called Writers Egg Magazine. This short story was also longlisted for the University of Sunderland Short Story in Association with Waterstones Award in 2019.

I’ve also ‘published’ a new short story on my podcast and you can listen to Call Bird here. Generally, the podcast has been going very well. Two of our regular writers, Martin Nathan and Miki Lentin have been shortlisted and longlisted for literary awards (I’ll update on Story Radio with a round-up soon) and the podcast is averaging 160 downloads a month.

Otherwise I am working on some new short story ideas – one based on the theme of harvest and Autumn – and working on a collection of published and unpublished short stories. My first novel is now more or less complete and I have been querying the first three chapters with agents and had a few ideas for a second novel which I plan to start work on soon.

I’m also still writing book reviews for Roman Road London. This has been a great way to learn more about my local area, I’ve written about subjects as diverse as the Kray twins, Victorian boxers, kickboxing champion Ruqsana Begum, artist Doreen Fletcher and the Huguenots…. all my book reviews and journalism go onto my Authory page which is automatically updated so if you don’t find them here, you’ll find them there!

14th September 2020 0 comment
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Cover image of A Book of Short Stories by Tabitha Potts
Writing

Download my eBook of short stories for free

by tabithapotts 20th May 2020
written by tabithapotts

With the help of graphic designer Elaine Odlin, I’ve created an ebook with a selection of my previously published short stories, illustrated with my photographs. For a limited time, I’ll be giving it away for free if you sign up to my website newsletter. If you are already signed up but don’t have a copy, please email me and I’ll send it to you!

20th May 2020 0 comment
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Photo of ruined priory
Environment

All changed, changed utterly.

by tabithapotts 2nd May 2020
written by tabithapotts

In the early days of the pandemic, I found these words kept repeating in my mind and went back to reread the poem. Yeats’ poem Easter, 1916 is of course about the human cost of politics, not of contagion – but there is something political about this pandemic. The virus seems to have exposed weaknesses in our political structures, the way in which people continue to act as though the world fits their expectations when in fact it has completely changed, leaving all our systems unfit for purpose. Our leaders are frantically grasping at solutions, some with a lot more foresight and imagination than others. I am hoping the ones who succeed will be the ones who can help us create a better future, not the one we were headed towards when the virus so abruptly forced us to stop.

We struggle to maintain our ‘normal’ in the face of all this, but perhaps normality itself was the illusion. The slow inevitability of environmental disaster brought the pandemic to us as humans came disastrously too close to wildlife whose own ecosystems are being destroyed. We are now forced to question some of the fundamentals of our society up till now. Can we continue to have economic growth at the expense of everything else? 

A terrible beauty is born
I started reading Tarot cards recently, to see if it would help me come up with ideas for my writing, and two cards come up a lot in my readings. The Hermit (which makes a lot of sense for obvious reasons), and the Tower, signifying destructive change but also rebirth. Change, my Tarot book tells me, is terrifying but also necessary. There’s something surreal about the contrast between the achingly blue skies and clouds of blossom I see when I go for my daily walk and the appallingly high death toll I hear about every day when I watch the news.

Nature appears to be thriving during this enforced cessation of human activity – we’ve all seen the photographs of wild creatures venturing out of their usual territories – but this recovery will probably only be partial and will need a huge amount of effort to sustain once the pandemic is over. 

I keep hoping that out of all of this chaos and misery something good could come in the future. A chance to rescue our planet and the other creatures we share it with? To stop the pollution, environmental degradation and endless war and destructiveness we’ve created? For the UK, the country which Yeats holds to account in his wonderful poem, a chance to become more forward-looking, equal and inclusive, instead of heading in the opposite direction? I don’t know, but I can only keep hoping. 

An extraordinary book I read recently during lockdown was Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel. It was written in 2014 and tells the story of a pandemic which wipes out most of the human race and the aftermath as the survivors attempt to create a new society. I was almost too afraid to read it but actually it’s a hopeful book showing how the stories we have created (a comic book which one of the characters draws, the Shakespeare plays acted by The Travelling Symphony, a group of actors who are permanently on the road) live on after us and can inspire new worlds – both good, and bad. 

The most recent Tarot Card I drew was The Artist. As we wait indoors, it’s our artists who are saving us with their stories, music, plays and drama. I’m hoping that the terrible beauty of their visions will inspire us to create a new and better world, when the pandemic is finally over. 

2nd May 2020 0 comment
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Newer Posts
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Read my stories on Kindle

RSS Listen to Story Radio Podcast (hosted by Tabitha Potts)

  • Interview with author Ava Glass and reading from The Chase 31st March 2023
    Martin Natha interviews spy insider turned author Ava Glass about her debut novel, The Chase, published by Penguin. Listen to this podcast to find out more about how Glass found her inspiration, and hear her talking about how she structured her novel which has been highly praised by various critics for its gripping plot and […]
    Martin Nathan
  • Interview with Helen Fields author of The Institution 1st March 2023
    In this episode Martin Nathan and Tabitha Potts speak to best-selling crime novelist Helen Fields, criminal law barrister turned writer, about her new book The Institution. The Institution is a nail-biting psychological thriller about a criminal profiler, Dr Connie Woolwine, who goes undercover in a high security prison hospital while she tries to solve the […]
    Helen Fields
  • A terrible thing has happened by Elinora Westfall 1st February 2023
    It is March 1941 during the Second World War, and a young evacuee, Tabitha, is fascinated by the stories about a famous author who lives nearby. Content warning: contains references to suicide. The story is written and read by Elinora Westfall. Influenced by David Bowie, Virginia Woolf and Sally Wainwright, Elinora Westfall is a lesbian […]
    Elinora Westfall

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    27th June 2022
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    27th March 2022
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    5th February 2022
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Tabitha Potts
  • Home
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