Guest Post Sunday: Escaping from Reality

This week’s guest post is written by Patricia M. Osborne.

As a writer I feel privileged to have the ability to transport myself from reality anytime I desire and I believe a good book allows the reader to escape and be carried off to another place. When I’m not transporting myself through poetry, I am reading or writing novels.

For my poetry I can become any person, or thing, such as a tree, swan, or flower. Over the last couple of years, I have been studying myth and folklore around trees which has brought up some amazing stories which I then transpose into fictional poetry such as my poem below, ‘Lady of the Woods’ which shows the myth associated with the silver birch and fertility.

Lady of the Woods

She stretches towards the stars,
heart-shaped foliage dances,
airy, pendulous branches sway.

Gently I peel away
paper-thin white crusts
patterned with black crevices.

I burn the bark
under moonlight
to keep Isolde warm.

Sapphire flames mesmerise,
crackles soothe.

We inhale timbered scent,
drink clear, sweet sap
and wintergreen tea.

I spread a red sheet
onto the clay ground,
ease Isolde down,
caress her shoulders.

We take our final offering,
the promise of fertility,
gifted by the Lady of the Woods.

‘Lady of the Woods’ was first published in Reach Magazine (Indigo Dreams Publishing) and is in my upcoming poetry collection ‘Taxus Baccata’ published by Hedgehog Poetry Press this summer.

In terms of novels, I’m currently working on Book 3 in the House of Grace family saga trilogy. Book 1 sent me to the fifties and sixties where I became Grace Granville, a sixteen-year-old female protagonist who grows from a naïve teenager into a powerful business woman.

The reader is able to travel back and follow Grace through two decades as she struggles with family conflict, poverty, and tragedy. Readers who lived through the fifties and sixties particularly enjoy this as it allows them to reminisce, while the younger reader appreciates learning how things were.

Book 2, The Coal Miner’s Son, allowed me to become two main characters. The first, nine-year-old George Gilmore and the second, his estranged aunt, Elizabeth, Grace Granville’s sister. I stepped back into the sixties, opening in the fictional coal mining village of Wintermore following tragedy.

In this book the reader can travel with George as he struggles with bereavement, rejection and a kidnapping that changes his life forever, with the added bonus of discovering Elizabeth’s story. Elizabeth doesn’t have much of a voice in House of Grace, so it’s a pleasant surprise for readers to unravel her story.

I am currently working on the final book in the trilogy, ‘The Granville Legacy’, which has been my escape since lockdown.

Here I step back into 1980 and begin my journey with George Granville who moves between Granville Hall in Gerrard’s Cross and back to his roots in the small fictional village of  Wintermore on the outskirts of Wigan. This book brings Grace back as a second narrator, as she doesn’t have much voice in Book 2.

The reader can escape back to the eighties and travel with George through love, family disputes, marriage, and heartbreak.

I am aiming for ‘The Granville Legacy’ to be published March 2021 and although it will complete the trilogy it will NOT be the end of the ‘House of Grace’ series. It has to go on because, as a writer, I do not want to say goodbye to my characters and from comments such as the one below, (taken from a review on Amazon) neither do my readers.

‘What will we do when there is no further sequel? I only hope Patricia has something else up her sleeve!’

As a writer, I must also be a reader, because if a writer doesn’t read then how can they write? My first book choice in lockdown was governed by my Book Club’s monthly choice: Raynor Winn’s The Salt Path. I lost myself in it.

Because it was a book club choice, I hadn’t read the blurb, or anything else about it, but had anticipated something about nature along the coastal path. As a poet, I was eager to read about coastal natural imagery, such as waves and gulls.

The book wasn’t at all what I was expecting, but I wasn’t disappointed either. I struggled at the beginning while working out that the character Moth was the husband, and Ray the narrator, and wife. After all, Ray spelt in this way is usually a man. However, once I got into the book, I was hooked, and I was there, along the salt path with Moth and Ray, in the heat, rain and cold. I was with them in their pain. The story is heartbreaking and the determination of Moth is admirable.

Now, what will my next book be? I have so many on my ‘to be read’ list, including: Fin C Gray’s Duplicity, Joy Wood’s Who’s Smiling Now, Madalyn Morgan’s The Dudley Sisters Saga, Sally Spedding’s Nighthawk, Bloodlines and Death Knell, Elizabeth Dulcie’s Gorgito’s Ice Rink, Val Penny’s Hunter’s Chase series, and so many more sitting and waiting on my kindle. All I need now is a little more time.

What’s your next read?

Patricia M. Osborne writes novels, poetry, and short fiction, and has been published in various literary magazines and anthologies. Her first poetry pamphlet ‘Taxus Baccata’ is to be published by Hedgehog Poetry Press in Spring 2020. She has published two family saga novels, House of Grace and The Coal Miner’s Son, as part of a trilogy. The third book, The Granville Legacy, is a work in progress.

When Patricia isn’t working on her own writing, she enjoys sharing her knowledge, acting as a mentor to fellow writers and as an online poetry tutor with Writers’ Bureau. Find her on her blog, facebook, twitter, and linkedin page.

Links to Patricia’s Books:

House of Grace, A Family Saga
The Coal Miner’s Son