Poem: I Forgot To Say 'I Love You'

photo by Clarita (http://claranatoli.blogspot.co.uk/)

I Forgot To Say 'I Love You'

I watched you drive away that night

From the open window on the landing.

The one you said you'd always paint,

But hadn't yet got round to.

I watched you drive round the corner

And I hoped you'd be back soon

Because I missed you already,

And needed you home again.

You went out to get a takeaway -

Chinese, I think. You wouldn't be long.

So I ran myself a hot bath to relax.

And then the phone rang.

You went out at twenty to,

And the call came in at eight,

Making me jump because it was

Unexpected; no one calls on Friday night.

They said there'd been an accident,

And you were just about hanging on.

I ran from the house and drove to you,

But by them it was too late.

They said you hadn't suffered at all, 

But I was barely listening; all I 

Could think as I sat, watching nothing move,

Was that I forget to say 'I love you'. 

And now I sit alone on Friday nights

Imagining you walking through that door,

Bag of food in one hand, wine in the other,

And a ready smile on your lips.

The window still needs painting, but I

Haven't got the heart to do it.

I sit and pick the old dead flakes ff,

As I listen for the sound of your key in the door. 

©Lisamarie Lamb 2012 

A Roof Over Their Heads - Project Update

For a year now, a group of six writers from the Isle of Sheppey have been meeting in order to put together a book entitled A Roof Over Their Heads.

The idea behind the project was to choose a building on the island - and there are so many to choose from, all with so much history to use as inspiration (see the 7th century Minster Abbey, or the Victoria Club, or what about HMP Elmlea?) - and to create a story based around it.

We researched, using the local library in Sheerness, looking at old copies of the Sheerness Times Guardian, taking to locals, and visiting the Blue Town Heritage Centre.

And then we wrote. And rewrote. Ad edited. And read to the group. And rewrote. And spoke on BRFM. And finally, finally, we put it all together!


To download from Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Roof-Over-Their-Heads-ebook/dp/B0091JN2YW/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1345796055&sr=8-13

To download from Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Roof-Over-Their-Heads-ebook/dp/B0091JN2YW/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1345796055&sr=8-13

To download from Smashwords (all formats): https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/218801

The paperback will be available from Amazon soon, but can currently be bought through Lulu.com: http://www.lulu.com/shop/lisamarie-lamb-and-geof-reed/a-roof-over-their-heads/paperback/product-20348882.html

Review: Hailstones in May by Laurie Maitland

Can a free-spirited, punk, goth girl really be friends - best friends - with a middle-aged mother of two going through a painful divorce?

Yes, she can, if Laurie Maitland's Hailstones in May is anything to go by. And why not? Although at first the two women seem an odd combination, and the reader may well ask what they could possibly have in common, as the novel unfolds it all becomes clear. Despite outward appearances, we are taught that shared experiences, lost love, the ability to laugh, all these things are more important than piercings or the lack of them! It's a good lesson. It's about not judging. It's about understanding.

But Hailstones in May is about more than that.

This is not my usual sort of book. I'm more often found reading a horror or a murder mystery. I downloaded Hailstones in May on the recommendation of a friend, and I'm so glad I did.

I felt drawn to the characters and the situation. It was all very real, it could have been happening at that very moment just next door or down the road. There were no overly clever tricks, no twists or turns that make the reader question the story, that bring you out of the novel's world with a jolt; it was simply the tale of a woman and her life after a messy break up with the man she had spent half of that life with. The fall out, the decisions she has to make, the changes she goes through. The friends she makes, and the friends she loses.

Heart breaking and heart warming by turns, I found that I was always eager to get back to the story, making time during the day to have a five minute read if I could. I don't often do that. I don't often find a book that keeps me interested enough to be desperate to find out what happens next.

The Kindle book can be purchased through Amazon here:  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hailstones-in-May-ebook/dp/B006SLZF7S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345096654&sr=8-1 and is currently just £1.26 - worth every penny (worth more, in my opinion - this is incredibly cheap for such entertainment). 

My only criticism is that it is not available in print, so I can't buy my mother a copy. I know she would love it too. In fact, I know many people - family and friends - who would enjoy the book but who don't have eReaders, and who wouldn't read from their computer screen. It seems a shame not to allow a large section of people the joy of this book. I'm sure that if Laurie Maitland sold the book in print she would be a household name by now... Just a thought. 

Enjoy! 

At Peace: 1/3 Complete (2nd Time Around)!

Not that long ago, I recorded an image for posterity. I had reached an exciting and momentous point in my novel, At Peace With All Things, and couldn't quite believe it - I had written 100,000 words. 

That was really something. My previous novel (Mother's Helper) had been just under 70,000 words. My short story collection (Some Body's At The Door) was more like 60,000. My flash fiction collection is around 55,000 words... 

So to have written 100,000 words on one project was something new and exciting for me. It also meant I was almost finished with the first draft. And just under 10,000 words later, I was done. It was done. My first foray into literary fiction, and two years of work (sometimes hard, sometimes not so hard), and now it was over. 

That was a strange feeling. 

What would I do now? 

Of course, I hadn't only written At Peace for the past two years. I'd written my blog, numerous pieces of flash fictions, dozens of short stories, and even a few poems. But this was the big project. This was what people asked about when they wanted to know how my writing was going. "How's The Novel coming along?" "Have you finished The Novel yet?" "When's The Novel being published?"

Always The Novel. Never the novel. It was too important for that. 

No, I had done other writing, other more successful writing, but The Novel was my first love and now that it was finished, I was at a loss. My plan was to leave it alone for a month, maybe two, and come back to it fresh and look at it was different eyes. 

One email changed those plans. It was an email I sent on the off chance, thinking I was too late, but determined to be able to say I tried. 

But I wasn't too late. 

I was just in time. I got an email back which included an e-ticket and a time slot to meet with a Very Important Person. 

Now, thanks to a friend of a friend in a Facebook group who posted the link, I am attending Foyles' Discovery Day, and meeting with an agent from Curtis Brown. Oh yes. I have 30 seconds to pitch The Novel, and six minutes to talk with the agents.

So I wanted to get At Peace edited. Not because I'm expecting the agent to suddenly leap up from his or her chair and grasp my lapels and beg me to hand over the entire book. No, although such a scenario may well feature in my happy dreams between now and 22nd September. I simply want to have The Novel finished, in its entirety, so that I can walk in there with confidence, knowing the book back to front and inside out. Knowing it is correct, that the timeline works, that the characters are consistent, and that it is as perfect as I can make it. 

I've got just under six weeks, and I'm one third of the way through the editing. 

I think I can do this. 

Wish me luck!

Poem: The Only Lonely One

The Only Lonely One (in Tribute to Amy Winehouse)

Too much too soon,

Too young to die,

You were not the only lonely one.

You just didn’t know it, did you?

And did we love you as a mess

As well as love you as a star?

What a star. What a life. What a waste.

But you had to know we were

Rooting for you.

You had to know we wanted you,

And wanted you to live.

You had to.

Didn’t you?

I don’t think we told you enough.

And I’m sorry for our loss.

 ©Lisamarie Lamb 2012

Review: The Control Room or The Demands of Heather by Hollis Jay

The Control Room or The Demands of Heather by Hollis Jay is a collection of poetry that pokes and prods at the ideas and ideals that the reader has, and attempts to invert them. And it works.

Once again, reading work by Jay I am made to stop and think and wonder.

In "And Her Mother With Them", the poet offers up an image of the long dead rustling through the 'desert air' and speaking softly to those left behind. It begins sweetly, a memory of the long lost, and yet the last few lines ('Coated in the earth/ With roaming worms to keep/ Them company') bring the reader back down with a bump and a terrible reminder of their own mortality. Everything is fleeting.

"Ben" throws a similar spanner in the works, although this starts on a sad level with a woman pondering lost love ('I wonder if/ You'll ever love me/ Ever again'). The call of a child (we assume) from the back seat of the car his mother is driving jars us out of the expected melancholy and reminds us that there is more than one way to lose a love. And more than one type of love. Is the driver actually thinking about a man? Or her son? Just who is Ben and what does he want? This poem could become a short story - maybe even a novel - on its own.

"Every Whim" is a different take on Robert Frost's "Birches" and gives us an insight into what happens when the playing stops. It is simple, and it is thoughtful.

If you've ever felt the pang of lost youth and the boredom of responsibility then "In Suits and Ties" will ring true for you. I particularly enjoyed the lines, '...Bermuda shorts/ Worn by older men/ With dreams unrecognised/ Who got to work in suits and ties/ Holding up subway platforms/ With their resent'.

In "Mud" I love the idea that the sun is fed up with humanity ('The sun against my shoulders/ Running out of gas/ And patience'). Perhaps, Jay suggests, the end of the world will not be a n unstoppable thing, but rather the sun's choice, when it can see no more hope for humankind.

I can't write a critique of every poem (well, I could, but then where is the fun for you in reading them?); this is a hefty volume, and a good one. Better than good.

I recommend that you buy this, and read it, and soak up the words between the lines, because that's where the power lies: http://www.lulu.com/shop/hollis-jay/the-control-room-or-the-demands-of-heather/paperback/product-18885647.html

Frighten Brighton - Prepare to be Scared!

What are you doing on 11th August? Bathing in the great British sunshine? Paddling in puddles? Perhaps you're still undecided. Well, I've got an idea for you.


Why not sit back and try to relax as you watch five classic horror films from the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s? I dare you not to be chilled as you watch blood spilled, and limbs severed. As you contemplate the giant mutant ants in Them! or hide your face from the Tall Man in Phantasm.


That's what I plan to do. Because I'm attending the Frighten Brighton Classic Horror Film Festival. I simply can't resist horror, and I love a bargain, so eleven hours of terrifying, classic films, prizes from Diabolique Magazine, shopping with Hemlock Books, the chance to see scream queen Emily Booth (she's co-hosting the event - read her interview about Frighten Brighton here) all for only £15 for an all day pass was too good an opportunity to miss! 


Intrigued by the whole idea, and surprised that nothing like it had been done before in an area of such diverse culture and horror links (see The Horror House, check out the photos from the World Horror Convention in 2010, and, while you're at it, why not pay a visit to The Horror Hotel to make your Frighten Brighton experience complete?), I asked creator Rick (known as Cyberschizoid) what had given him the idea:


"I always felt that Brighton should have its own horror film festival and was always surprised when it didn't. Every other major city seems to have one and yet not Brighton, one of the UK's most vibrant cultural centres!


"Because I had started running Classic Horror Campaign screenings in London (and occasionally elsewhere) with the lovely Scare Sarah, a Brighton-based horror film festival seemed the next logical step. Sarah is also based in Brighton and had been thinking exactly the same thing for a while, so we just pooled our efforts and had a little brain storming session in the pub regarding the name and content. The name 'Frighten Brighton' was actually thought up by my partner, Niall, and we initially used it for a one-off Classic Horror Campaign double bill at The Komedia last summer."


So where does Rick see this going in the future? 


"If this is the success we are convinced it will be then the Frighten Brighton Horror Film Festival will become an annual event and just keep growing!"

I can't wait! I am looking forward to a fear-filled day at The Komedia (where I'll be watching Mad Love (1935), Cat People (1942), Them! (1954), Plague of Zombies (1966), and Phantasm (1979)), followed by a nervous drive home (complete with the sure and certain knowledge that something is hiding in the back seat of my car and is bound to pop up in my rearview mirror at any moment), and topped off with a sleepless, wide-eyed night, listening to the creature under the bed, not to mention the one slowly climbing the stairs... 


Just my sort of thing! 


Tickets are available here: http://komediabrighton.ticketsolve.com/shows/126525115/events - go on, treat yourself to a scare (or five!)!