Sea Defences

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Ah, yes.’ Clearly, Thelma had been waiting for this last agenda item, and now set her jaw and shoulders for battle. Meanwhile Mary, a defiant and distrustful loner, is fighting her own battle against nature as the crumbling Norfolk shoreline brings her clifftop home ever closer to destruction. Powerful and raw, like the sea she describes so evocatively. Really wonderful writing, with characters you feel you know right through to the bones’ Kendall has struggled with hunger ever since she can remember – hunger for bread, yes, but also for community and for the ability to ‘taste and see’ the goodness of God. In her upcoming book, By Bread Alone, she weaves her own faith-filled journey together with original recipes and stories about the role of bread in church history, revealing a God who draws near to us and creatively provides for our daily needs. James is a widely published award winning poet and spoken word performer. His poetry books include Manatomy, Erased and Green Apple Red. James's new collection Wild Life, exploring the nature of queerness, queerness of nature and queerness of 'natural' masculinity, will be released by Nine Arches Press in June 2023. Music at Lunchtime with Tim Sadler at Woodbridge Library

ll. 4-5) which sets the mood for the short story while it could also imply a foreshadowing of what is Hilary Taylor's short story "Defense at Sea" (2018) is a funny story that focuses on how guilt affects life. We got to know this guy named Michael and what it was not his fault he had a lot of guilt. outside while they tell me off about my job (...) and then we get chips and go home.” (ll. 1-3), “Mumma was Ideal for reading during Lent or a season of waiting, By Bread Aloneoffers a testimony of struggling with God but never letting go. It invites us to name our hungers for God and community built on his love. Kendall reveals that when we break bread together, whether at the Communion table or the kitchen table, we are both fed and taught to hunger for God’s healing work in the world.The short story of the same title (published in the Bath Short Story Award Anthology 2018) is told from Adam’s point of view, focusing on his perception of events. The parents of the missing child are mentioned only in one line. When I thought about turning it into a novel, my first question was: “Who is the mother and what impact does this event have on her life?” If she was not only Christian, but in training for the priesthood, this would give me the opportunity to explore how the experience could affect her faith, as well as her family relationships. Once I realised that the emotional heart of the novel was to be found in Rachel’s story, this became the driving force of the book. Adam is also guarding a secret and, when Rachel finds out what it is it threatens to unravel her faith completely.

Come along to Glemsford Library on Monday 6 February for a special event with Suffolk-based, award-winning author and historian Dr Harry Sidebottom!

different people tend to make fun of them, look down on them, and use them as scapegoats. This is the Raw, powerful, gripping and poetic. Next-level good. My heart has been ripped apart. I've cried and I've sat wide-eyed, desperate to read every next sentence’

Beautifully written and structurally perfect, each character goes on a journey and is changed by it. I cared about every single one of them and was completely invested in each rich story. Martin, next to Rachel, exhaled sharply. ‘The lifeboat group approached me,’ he said, with exaggerated patience, ‘to see if our band could play for their summer fundraiser, and then it turned out the venue was double-booked, and it was agreed to hold the concert here and split the proceeds between both worthy causes.’We like to hear about previous prize winners’ successes. Hilary Taylor won third prize in BSSA 2018 with her story ‘Sea Defences’ and her story is published in our BSSA 2018 anthology. In this interview she tells us how she extended this prize winning short fiction into a novel with the same title, which will be published by Lightning Press on January 15th 2023. Congratulations Hilary! We also learn how she discovered her short story ‘Sea Defences’ online, analysed for an exam syllabus. A multi-genre writer, Hilary was recently a winner in the Flash 500 flash fiction contest and there’s a link to the story for you to read. She’s also given great advice for editing final short story drafts if you are thinking of entering this year’s Award. In between the writing of the short story and the writing of the novel, my older brother was diagnosed with a brain tumour from which he died after two years, at the age of 61. I think I was already questioning some of the certainties I once felt as a Christian, and his loss added to that. It is quite special how we as humans can feel so many emotions – and how some of them, such as guilt, can consume our conscience long after the initial incident that triggered that emotion.