Libby Thompson's Blog – January 2011 Archive (3)

Talking books candidate

Ally Finnegan

 

Wednesday

 

Ally Finnegan struggled into consciousness,  everything was fuzzy and everything really, really hurt.

She tried to make sense of her surroundings, but pain overwhelmed her and she slipped into unconsciousness again.

 

Saturday

 

There were voices close by, gentle, careful, loving voices; and music playing. Ally tried to move, and speak, but nothing seemed to work. She couldn’t do anything and…

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Added by Libby Thompson on January 26, 2011 at 9:41pm — No Comments

Talking book candidate

 

OVERHEARD

They obviously thought I was asleep because they hardly bothered to keep their voices down.

Dad started...

“Well, did you tell her?”

“No. I couldn’t face it”

“Well she needs to know”

“Yes, I’m well aware of that, but, well, I didn’t know how to put it. It never seemed like the right time, and anyway, it doesn’t have to be me. You could tell her.”

God, what on earth were they talking about? ‘Her’ was obviously…

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Added by Libby Thompson on January 26, 2011 at 9:37pm — No Comments

talking books candidate

 

 

Secrets

Teddy Taylor pulled his sleeves down over his bruises and hung his coat on his peg. He made his way into his classroom and sat on the carpet as everyone did at the start of the day. His teacher, Mrs. Hetherington, took her place at the front of the class and took the register. When she said “Good morning Teddy”, he was supposed to say “Good morning Mrs. Hetherington” but he didn’t, he never did. He wouldn’t. Teddy never said a word, not at school. He could…

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Added by Libby Thompson on January 26, 2011 at 9:33pm — No Comments

DfC

The Inkerman Writers are members of Darlington for Culture (DfC), which was set up  in 2010 to help save Darlington Arts Centre from closure.

Its members include representatives of arts and community groups.

DfC was established after the centre’s owner, Darlington Borough Council, announced that budget cuts meant that it would have to withdraw its subsidy from the Arts Centre.

Although the centre closed, the organisation remains active - more at www.darlingtonforculture.org

 

Publications

Welcome to the site created by the Inkerman Writers to showcase our work.

Based in Darlington, North East England, and having celebrated their tenth anniversary in 2013, members have enjoyed success in a variety of arenas, including winning, and being shortlisted and highly commended, in short story competitions, having novels published and publishing the short story anthology A Strawberry in Winter, which can be obtained by visiting the website www.blurb.com

The group's second anthology of short stories, Christophe's Farewell and Other Stories, can be obtained, cost £4.95 plus postage and packing, from

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/invited/2173759/4a79a32f5cf205f6bfd37b6f1df30e33900a5ab0?utm_source=TellAFriend&utm_medium=email&utm_content=2692827

The Inkerman Writers latest book, Out of the Shadows, which was launched as part of the 2013 Darlington Arts Festival, is on sale. The book can be ordered direct from

http://www.blurb.co.uk/b/4204019-out-of-the-shadows

The group also produced The Last Waltz, a double CD of short stories, available by contacting deangriss@btinternet.com, cost £5 plus p and p.

Several of our writers wrote original one-act plays in a collaboration with the Green Theatre company, which were performed at Darlington Arts Centre early in February, 2012.

 

Darlington-based Inkerman Writers have produced their latest anthology of short stories, Inkerman  Street, based on the demolition of a fictional northern street and the stories of the people who lived in it.

The book, which features a variety of stories ranging from horror to comedy, was launched to a large audience at the Darlington Arts Festival Literary Day on Saturday May 26 and begins like this:

Inkerman Street is still and graveyard-hushed tonight, the terraced houses cold behind boarded-up windows, silent sentinels among a sea of wasteland. No one lives here now and tomorrow the bulldozers will move in to flatten the houses to make way for the Council’s Grand Plan.

“Although the people are long gone, the houses still have life. Peek into one of the bedrooms and see on the wall a painting of a seaside scene, brightly-coloured boats bobbing in the harbour, fishermen pipe-smoking in the noonday sun and seagulls wheeling high above the choppy waters. In the roaring silence of the night, you can hear the screeching of the birds and taste the salt air, acrid and herring-sharp at the back of your throat. It is an illusion; the bedroom is empty and the blooms on the faded wallpaper have long since wilted.

“The air in the houses is musty with neglect yet but a few months before, these were bustling homes filled with frying bacon and steaming irons, whistling kettles and playing children. The houses witnessed all these scenes for more than 150 years. Behind their curtains were enacted a thousand stories but tomorrow they will be destroyed because Inkerman Street is the last of its ilk.

“Now, on the eve of the street’s death, the people who once lived here have returned, gathering solemn and silent in the mist, the ghosts of the past come to pay final tribute….”

The anthology can be purchased at http://www.blurb.co.uk/bookstore/invited/7524452/bae89c993c98ec8c8b37b12d6b9b37ecced5dec3

 

Members

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