Not long now till Wimborne Literary Festival – I will be running a writing workshop on Wednesday 6th November. I’m listed as Sarah Steele. It should be fun and creative – and if you come you will get some inspiration for writing poetry and short fiction.

Some writers need to hide away in a shed or in a remote croft on Orkney. Others, like Deborah Moggach, welcome interruptions as they write (not too many, she said). A small interruption – a phone call or dead-heading the flowers in the garden – can waken her brain up, a bit like switching a computer off and then on again. I’ve been listening to novelists talking on the Radio 4 series, ‘The Sins of Literature’. You can find these brilliant half-hour programmes on i-player where they should be available for a year. Will Self likes to write a couple of pages a day. His prose is ‘dense’ and layered so it takes time. I love the idea that he measures his writing in ‘Conrads’. Apparently Joseph Conrad wrote 800 words a day and this was enough to earn a good living. Many writers aim for 1000 words a day – a Conrad and a bit! I try to write this amount on a writing day but sometimes thinking is more important than writing. 

Ruth Blaug has just won 1st prize in the Wimborne in Bloom poetry competition. Congratulations, Ruth!

This follows on from a very good poetry reading by poets from Wimborne Writing Group, including Ruth, on June 22nd at the Red House Museum in Christchurch.

Last week I led a workshop with a group of writers and artists in Bridport. Penny, Lorraine, Frances, Geoff, Val, Sally, Karen and I looked at the relationship between poetry and art. There is a thriving artistic community in Bridport, as in some other Dorset towns and villages, and we wanted to explore what sorts of understanding and inspiration art and poetry could give to each other.

‘Ekphrasis’ is the term often used for this connection between two different forms of art and it has a long tradition. Think of Keats’ poem, ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’, in which he describes the scenes on the antique urn, and reflects on the perfection of the moment caught in time.

‘Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave
Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;
Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss,
Though winning near the goal – yet, do not grieve:
She cannot fade though thou hast not thy bliss,
For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!’

‘Not my Best Side’ by UA Fanthorpe uses for inspiration the painting, ‘St George and the Dragon’, by Paolo Uccello. Fanthorpe’s poem is divided into 3 sections, each in the voice of one of the creatures in the painting: the dragon, the girl and St George, in that order. The poem seems to want to give a voice to figures previously considered of ‘lesser’ value than St George.

‘It’s hard for a girl to be sure if
She wants to be rescued…’

Don McLean’s song ‘Vincent (Starry Starry Night’), which could also be considered a poem, uses the paintings and the life of Van Gogh for its subject and its inspiration.

This long tradition of one art form informing, inspiring and developing another can be employed to bring depth to our own writing. I find a visit to, for example, an art gallery, museum, or concert can give me ideas, imagery and new understandings.

The poetry reading and launch of ‘South 47’ a week ago at Bournemouth Library went extremely well with a large and appreciative audience. The library was a great place for a reading.

I read some of my poems, including the one posted here.

If you want to send your poems for consideration for South 48 you will need to act quickly as the deadline is in just a few days – May 31st. See the South website (in my last post) for details of how to submit.

Trees on Lewesdon Hill

They flourish in what we call silence –
rain-clatter, wind-sough,
plant-rustle, path-crunch
and high-spirited hawk cry.

Grown, like us, from star-dust,
they take only rain, air, sunlight.

They are guardians of the landscape,
and give us a sense of safety.

They are characters in a tableau
who don’t walk the undulating path
but seem destined to watch over

folded fields of lime, rose, amber,
hedges, copses, the bowl of the sky.

©
Sarah Barr
2013

The launch for South 47 and an evening of readings is on Thursday, 16th May, in Bournemouth. Gill Horitz and I were the selectors for this issue and will be reading at the launch. See the South poetry magazine website for details.

I was very pleased to learn that two members of our Wimborne Writing Group are winners in the recent short story competition run by Gullivers Bookshop.

Ruth Blaug’s story, ‘Luck, the First God Who Stands Between the Predator and the Prey’, won 2nd prize.

Julie Sharpe’s story, ‘A Star Called Sydney’, won 3rd prize.

Congratulations, Ruth and Julie! Both stories are succinct, vivid and original. You can read them on Gullivers Bookshop website.

First prize was won by Hope Rhodes for her crime story,’Retribution’, which I also enjoyed reading. I don’t know Hope but believe she is a local writer.

The sun is shining and daffodils and hyacinths are bringing colour to the garden so maybe spring is here, albeit a freezing one!

I’m feeling cheerful because the sky is blue but also because one of my short stories is in Woman’s Weekly Fiction Special and they’ve given it a gorgeous illustration! See ‘A Taste of Honey’ in the April edition.

Snatching some Time on the Beach

Sometimes we leave our computers behind
slip out through the pleasure gardens
past the bandstand and the small fairground
along the promenade
and its notices about what’s not allowed
see the dolls’ house beach-huts
and the brilliant gorse on the cliff side
stroll down onto the beach
where people are packing and leaving
and choose a small patch of washed sand
roll out our towels
kick off our shoes, lie down
turn our faces to the sky
taste salt on our lips
hear the waves break again and again
watch seagulls dip for bread and fish
listen to their cry
catch the last of the sun’s rays
wonder about tides
imagine how many we have left
lie back, rest
let sand trickle through our fingers,
our days like grains of sand
trickling through our fingers.

(Published in South 37 & 43)

© Sarah Barr
2008

The next big thing in my life turned out to be a dose of flu which attacked me and zonked me out. In my delirious state I thought of brilliant plots for novels and stories. But didn’t have my notebook handy and have forgotten them now!

The historical novelist Maria McCann has tagged me as part of the expanding blog ‘The Next Big Thing’. Thanks, Maria, for including me in this exciting project.

If you haven’t come across ‘The Next Big Thing’, it works as follows: each participant answers questions about their current or forthcoming work before tagging others to do the same thing on their own sites/blogs the following week.

Maria’s invitation was well-timed since I completed my first novel, ‘Talk to Me’, at the end of 2012.

Where did the idea come from for the book?
The idea originally came because I was working as a counsellor and asked the ‘What if?’ question. What if a dedicated counsellor bends the ‘rules’? What if a client comes back to make demands on her?After that, the story rolled into place. There is, I hope, much more to it than I’ve just summarised.

What genre does your book fall under?It’s a psychological novel with mystery. It’s probably on the literary/commercial boundary.

What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?I’d like a feisty, intelligent actress to play the lead role of Gina. There are so many wonderful female actors to choose from … someone who can do the domestic role but with an undercurrent of potential violence. I’d like someone with auburn hair. Julianne Moore would be good – I hope she’ll consider the role! Not sure about the guys – could Leonardo di Caprio do one role? Is he a bit too young? How old is he, actually? I think he could grey his hair, add one or two wrinkles, and do well.

What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?I’m hopeless with one-sentence synopses.
Let’s just say: A female counsellor with a past tries to help a client, but gets into deep water.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript? Too long! But other serious events intervened after I’d started it. I’ve already begun my second novel and I will definitely get it finished in a quarter of the time.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?My life-long love of story-telling.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?You might find out something about the murkier aspects of the counselling world.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?I’d love to find an agent to help me on the way to publication.

My ‘tagee’ is Janet Olearski.
I met Janet last summer when we were doing a coaching course together in London. Janet is a London-born writer, coach and teacher based in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
She blogs at http://allwriteinabudhabi.wordpress.com and http://lassenoras.wordpress.com