Events and writing news with Gillian Morton
Published: 16 Oct 2024
In September I was invited, with my sister Maureen Armstrong (my editorial helper and all round encourager) to a lunchtime gathering at Clifton Rotary Club to talk about Bombweed, the wartime novel, first written in 1947 by our mother, Margaret Smith, and adapted by us and published by SilverWood Books in 2018.
After a warm welcome from Jay and Jonathan, Maureen talked about her own early memories of 1944 and I read the vivid description of D-Day from Bombweed, which describes the joyous celebrations of the news of the Normandy landings by several generations on a Wiltshire farm, once the cows were milked. I also read from the start of my (not yet published) novel, Kiss and Don’t Tell, a sequel to Kissed to Death (SilverWood Books 2021). Like Kissed to Death this story begins in 1944. Not with an assault in the Blackout as in the previous story, but as a Lancaster bomber is about to explode over Switzerland.
A few days later I was speaking to an enthusiastic crowd introduced by Kate at The Community Library Hub in Lee-on-the-Solent, supported enthusiastically by Sarah from the local, lively and independent The Book Shop.
Then it was back from the real world to virtual communication when I took part in a regular 'Writers Reading’ zoom session, led by writer Debbi Voisey.
So now it is October, and I’m soon heading off to meet up again with friends from the Portsmouth Authors Collective ( PAC) to read at one of their vibrant, monthly 'Speak Volumes’ gatherings in a local wine bar in Southsea.
It has been so good to reconnect with my home town. There is a strong and active community of writers and although I no longer live there, my novels have grown out of our family’s long standing Portsmouth history.
Helping other local writers to sell their books on the monthly PAC bookstall at the 'Love Southsea’ Saturday market was also great fun and the sun shone all day.
I am now torn between finishing filling in my tax forms, cleaning the kitchen and other self-distracting activities most writers are familiar with, or actually getting on with finishing the last chapter of the new book! And maybe next year, the next children’s book. Watch this space!
Gillian Fernandez Morton
October 2024
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