Author: maryjonesthewriter

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Bedtime Story

This is the bedtime story I read as part of the Society of Women Writers Victoria online festival ‘For the Love of Writing. The story,’Wrinkles’, was written by Errol Broome, a much-loved and respected long-time member of the society.

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Festival Launch Online

Festival Cake

The live launch of the SWWVic ‘For the Love of Writing’ festival has had to be cancelled at the last minute because of Victoria’s Covid lockdown. Events for the day have been switched to Zoom – unfortunately, there’s no way the celebration cake I made for the launch can be cut and consumed online! It’s now in my freezer, awaiting the chance to be enjoyed at a later date.

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For The Love of Writing

The 50th anniversary year of the Society of Women Writers Victoria is being marked by a week-long writers’ festival, beginning on Valentine’s Day.

I’m involved in this festival – I’m introducing a poet, hosting a discussion panel on writing for theatre, presenting a session on sonnets, and reading a bedtime story for children.

Details of the full programme can be found on the society’s website, here

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‘I Protest’ Anthology

My poem ‘Shame the Devil’ appears in the Ginninderra Press anthology ‘I Protest’, subtitled ‘Poems of Dissent’.
‘In these poems of protest and dissent are to be found anger, anxiety, compassion, insight and sharp observation, expressed in the way that is the special gift of poets. There’s humour, too, to leaven the more serious poems.’

The anthology is available here.
The poem can be found on the ‘Extracts’ page of this website.

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New Book

Troubled Waters coverAnd now for something completely different! This is my first novel, after four poetry books. Its full release has been delayed by Covid 19, but for anyone in lockdown it should prove ideal – you can curl up with a nice cosy murder mystery set in the Channel Islands.

It’s available on the main Amazon site here.
(but it can’t at the moment be delivered in Australia.)

For Australian readers, you can order it from Green Olive Press here.

For readers in the UK, it’s available on Amazon uk here

The cover photograph is by my grand-daughter Rosalie Ritter-Jones.

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‘Mountain Secrets’ Anthology

Mountain Secrets anthologyMountains are constant but continually changing. Captive to the seasons, they reveal many faces: in winter shrouded in snow and mist, yet so visibly majestic in the summer months that they appear to touch the sky. Lost in clouds at times, so discernible at others. Places of solitude yet at the mercy of mountaineers who swarm them. Both revered and feared; mystical and earthy; elusive but tangible. Does the mystery of mountains lie in the many paradoxes that surround them? Join more than 150 poets from across Australia in a tantalising exploration of mountains around the world, real and imagined, literal and figurative.

This is the Ginninderra Press anthology ‘Mountain Secrets’. It includes my poem ‘Tai Shan’.
The anthology is available here.

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Pocket Poets: Cast of Supporting Characters

cast of Supporting CharactersMy second book in the Ginninderra Press Pocket Poets series, Cast of Supporting Characters, is now available. It can be ordered from the Ginninderra Press website here.

The 20 poems explore the viewpoints of the ‘supporting characters’ in the title, giving a sometimes unexpected twist to stories from literature, plays, the Bible, Shakespeare and history. The stories and characters may be well-loved or less familiar, but I hope all of them gain something from having a quirky sideways spotlight turned on them.

You can read one of these poems on the Extract of the Month page, here.