Ramblings

Christmas Eve

Posted on by Valerie Bird


New as she was to the town, we should have felt sorry for her. All alone, never visitors welcomed to her door. Of course, that didn’t surprise us seeing the look of her, shabby was a polite way of putting it. Her house a tip too, books piled, pictures propped, and she’d painted the walls all colours, positively garish, the place smelling of turps.
I got a glimpse when I went to advise on tidying her garden; ‘unkempt’, I said, and that was being civil. Snapped my head off, she did, said it was none of my business what she grew on her own patch. Slut! None of us bothered after that.
Which is why it’s been a bit of a shock.

Christmas Eve, a man dressed in a red hooded coat, trousers to match and big black boots at her door. Not young as he’d a white beard, but tall with a sort of presence. Right there, for all to see, he threw his arms around her like they’d really got something going. And quick as that, she took him in.

What’s really upset us is the sleigh still parked on her front drive. And nine fat reindeer grazing the grass verge.

According to Reggie

Posted on by Valerie Bird

Reggie is a ten year old mixed race boy with a single mother and a nan who hides a dark secret. Life has always been tough with ominous visitors, fights and a killing, trouble always lurking. Constant anxiety of what he doesn’t understand. This summer, though, things are about to change.  The precinct outside Nan’s […]

Found!

Posted on by Valerie Bird

I found Reggie swinging on railings with a song to be sung. Rap, in his case, a rap to explore what he half knows or doesn’t, fears but doesn’t understand, using language picked up from others, like the lager cans he finds and saves to help his new friend, Ernie. Ernie is a grumpy allotment […]

Leave it out! Let go!

Posted on by Valerie Bird

Writers all; how many times have you had to take out a word, a phrase, a whole paragraph that you love but which adds nothing to what you’re trying to say, even detracts from the plot? Beautifully crafted phrases you can stick up on your wall for possible use on another occasion? Many times necessary […]

Advance readers wanted

Posted on by Valerie Bird

How would you like to read a brand new novel before it goes print? Sent to you electronically with my one plea, that you give me feedback. * The Greenhouse Legacy – has been four years in the making, that is the writing process. However it has been lurking inside my brain for twenty odd […]

My Book of the Year

Posted on by Valerie Bird

‘Shuggie Bain’ by Douglas Stuart is my book of the year, 2020. A debut novel, Winner of the Booker Prize, a remarkable achievement and I love it. I read a hardback copy – borrowed – and am waiting impatiently for the paperback publication later this year to have my own copy. A story of love […]

Creating a story

Posted on by Valerie Bird

This makes me think of how it happens. Behind is a structure, the trellis of phrases, sentences, form. The branches and twigs are bare, no sign or hope of a flower until the eruption somehow magically happens and buds push out to blossom into work worth looking at. Just a thought!

Positives v the negative

Posted on by Valerie Bird

How to manage Lockdown 3 This short article, or whatever it might be, is not advice. There is plenty of that around and I have no right or inclination to add to it. This is entirely for me. The horror of what we’re going through is incredibly difficult to bear. How not to sink into […]