Thursday, June 6, 2013

THAT SADIE THING BLOG TOUR WITH ANNALISA CRAWFORD

I am so excited and honoured to have the awesome and talented Annalisa Crawford over, visiting my little blog. Welcome Annalisa and enjoy!


Thanks for having me over today, Murees!

Open Windows is a peculiar story for me to talk about, because I don't really remember writing it. That's quite strange, isn't it? I do remember that the first thing I wrote was the part where Michael's ghost asks Jackie if she has a pencil, and she throws it into the empty room. For ages that small passage stayed in my notebook.

I wrote this story in 1994 - you might see me mention that year a couple more times during this tour because it was one of my most prolific years for short stories. I was unemployed at the time, and between applying for jobs and opening letters telling me I hadn't been successful (back when they used to let you know you were a failure rather than just let you forget you'd applied in the first place), I wrote a lot.

Open Windows originally won third prize in a competition called Little Acorns, held by a lovely man who would hand-write one or two sentence critiques. For that reason alone, I entered almost every single monthly competition he held, because just having someone take me seriously as a writer was a huge boost. On a couple of occasions these critiques came with a cheque attached - you can probably imagine my joy!

A couple of years later I entered the story into another competition, a local writer's circle comp, because Little Acorns didn't publish winning entries, so I could resubmit. This time it was published - yay!


About Annalisa
I live in Cornwall, with a good supply of beaches and moorland right on my doorstep. I live with my husband, two boys, a dog and a cat. Despite my location. I neither surf nor sail, and have never had any inclination to try. I much prefer walking along the beach and listening to the waves crashing over rocks. For this reason, I really love the beach in the winter!

Buy That Sadie Thing here (this link should take you direct to your local Amazon)
Follow Annalisa here, or Like her here
Read her blog here

12 comments:

  1. Yay! My first time on your blog. Thanks again :-)

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  2. This sounds like a very interesting collection of stories. Thanks for the interview.

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  3. I love reading about your writing journey, Annalisa. I feel inspired!

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  4. You wrote that almost twenty years ago. I would've forgotten as well!

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  5. You've been in this game for a very long time! I can imagine your wealth of writerly knowledge...

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  6. Elizabeth - thanks for reading.

    Dana - I could get used to being an inspiration :-)

    Alex - it's the only one I forgot the story behind - all the others were at the front of my mind.

    Michelle - I can cope with 'knowledge' but 'very' cuts deep :-)

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  7. Another one of your stories that made me cry! Looking forward to having you on my blog on Tuesday! :-)

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  8. Linda - I'm still thrilled anything I write can provoke a reaction like that. Tears are a badge of honour :-)

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  9. Annalisa - Thank you for sharing this experience with me. I hope that you had fun.

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  10. Open Windows is one of my favourite stories in the collection!

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  11. Hi Annalisa .. I must get to read your collection and thus Open Window - interesting you kept the snippet for so long.

    Good to meet Murees .. and be in a South African blog!

    Cheers to all - Hilary

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  12. Kyra - thank you!

    Hilary - I have a folder full of snippets that sometimes I just read through to see if they fit or inspire. I think Ian Rankin does something similar :-)

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