The Haunting of Strawberry Water

The Haunting of Strawberry Water

Author: Tara Gould

Publisher: Myriad Editions

Published: 2020-01-29

Total Pages: 48

ISBN-13: 1912408511

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'This dazzling series shows that if the barriers can be vaulted there is true beauty to be had from the lesser-walked streets of literature. These works are both nourishing and inspiring, and a gift to any reader.' —Kerry Hudson A gripping tale of post-natal depression, this short story reads like a modern retelling of The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and has much in common with Sarah Water' The Little Stranger in its realisation of psychological distress as a supernatural phenomenon. A new mother, traumatised by an arduous labour, tries to come to terms with being abandoned as a baby by Olivia, the mother she never knew. Set in the eponymous 'Strawberry Water', a mysterious 1920s country bungalow which overlooks a fast-flowing river, the story begins with a faded photograph of the woman our narrator assumes to be her mother. Spotlight Books is a collaboration between Creative Future, New Writing South and Myriad Editions to discover, guide and support writers who are under-represented due to mental or physical health issues, disability, race, class, gender identity or social circumstance.


Cora Vincent

Cora Vincent

Author: Georgina Aboud

Publisher: Myriad Editions

Published: 2020-01-29

Total Pages: 49

ISBN-13: 1912408457

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'This dazzling series shows that if the barriers can be vaulted there is true beauty to be had from the lesser-walked streets of literature. These works are both nourishing and inspiring, and a gift to any reader.' —Kerry Hudson A chance break in a West End theatre production forces a derailed actress to confront her demons and offers her an opportunity to escape her past and live life to the full. Cora, a once promising actress, is trapped by circumstances and immobilised by a disheartening career path, failed relationships and a battered sense of self. Set against a background of a country split by politics and disjointed through lives that are increasingly isolated and lonely, this is a short, sharp story of small victories and immense moral courage. Spotlight Books is a collaboration between Creative Future, New Writing South and Myriad Editions to discover, guide and support writers who are under-represented due to mental or physical health issues, disability, race, class, gender identity or social circumstance.


Memories of a Swedish Grandmother

Memories of a Swedish Grandmother

Author: Sarah Windebank

Publisher: Myriad Editions

Published: 2020-01-29

Total Pages: 58

ISBN-13: 191240849X

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'This dazzling series shows that if the barriers can be vaulted there is true beauty to be had from the lesser-walked streets of literature. These works are both nourishing and inspiring, and a gift to any reader.' —Kerry Hudson Feminist, philosophical and linguistically playful poems on identity, motherhood and the family from the perspective of someone with a mixed cultural heritage. In her debut collection, Sarah Windebank explores her Swedish roots, and especially the influence of Mormor, her grandmother, who brought her up until she was fifteen. Growing up in a household where her mother and grandmother always spoke to each other in a foreign language, but never taught her, she picked up 'glittering fragments, rather like a magpie'. With nods to Sylvia Plath and Elizabeth Bishop, this is an immersive collection of poetry full of accent and domestic detail, at once foreign and familiar. Spotlight Books is a collaboration between Creative Future, New Writing South and Myriad Editions to discover, guide and support writers who are under-represented due to mental or physical health issues, disability, race, class, gender identity or social circumstance.


Summon

Summon

Author: Elizabeth Ridout

Publisher: Myriad Editions

Published: 2020-01-29

Total Pages: 56

ISBN-13: 1912408430

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'This dazzling series shows that if the barriers can be vaulted there is true beauty to be had from the lesser-walked streets of literature. These works are both nourishing and inspiring, and a gift to any reader.' —Kerry Hudson The experience of living with the adventures and griefs of bipolar disorder forms the focus for this remarkable collection of poetry. Ridout uses the language of the fairy story and visceral images of the female form and femininity to explore how personal trauma and instability makes their mark on the wider world. Different voices and twisted accounts of the body and mind are combined with the mythological and the esoteric to create striking, beautifully unsettling and unusual poems—each a celebration of the extremes of being human. Spotlight Books is a collaboration between Creative Future, New Writing South and Myriad Editions to discover, guide and support writers who are under-represented due to mental or physical health issues, disability, race, class, gender identity or social circumstance.


Crumbs

Crumbs

Author: Ana Tewson-Božić

Publisher: Myriad Editions

Published: 2020-01-29

Total Pages: 50

ISBN-13: 1912408414

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'This dazzling series shows that if the barriers can be vaulted there is true beauty to be had from the lesser-walked streets of literature. These works are both nourishing and inspiring, and a gift to any reader.' —Kerry Hudson Written in the winding-down stages of a severe psychotic episode filled with manic delusions, this extraordinary story chronicles Julja's relationship with drugs, family and friends. Julja's teenage games take a serious turn as she becomes inducted into a computer cult. The surge of dopamine in her brain connects her with psychic aliens and chemical conspiracies, sordid and secret. On this dark journey of discovery, she pops pills prescribed by Big Pharm and relinquishes all ties to her sanity as she attempts to reach a heaven full of voices and gods. Spotlight Books is a collaboration between Creative Future, New Writing South and Myriad Editions to discover, guide and support writers who are under-represented due to mental or physical health issues, disability, race, class, gender identity or social circumstance.


Stroking Cerberus

Stroking Cerberus

Author: Jacqueline Haskell

Publisher: Myriad Editions

Published: 2020-01-29

Total Pages: 58

ISBN-13: 1912408473

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'This dazzling series shows that if the barriers can be vaulted there is true beauty to be had from the lesser-walked streets of literature. These works are both nourishing and inspiring, and a gift to any reader.' —Kerry Hudson The living have always told themselves stories about the dead, but few of us stop to wonder if the dead ever tell tales of the living. Through the prism of Haskell's identity as a deaf poet come the themes of communication—or miscommunication—across worlds, languages and between the living and the dead. Mythical dogs, the dead who mourn the living, and the sorrow of those reincarnated, join hands around Jacqueline Haskell's unique and very personal poetic Ouija board to resonate with the living, the dead and all those in-between. As forcible as they are humorous, these are poignant and thought-provoking poems. Spotlight Books is a collaboration between Creative Future, New Writing South and Myriad Editions to discover, guide and support writers who are under-represented due to mental or physical health issues, disability, race, class, gender identity or social circumstance.


The Haunting

The Haunting

Author: Esther Locascio

Publisher: Tate Publishing

Published: 2010-02

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 1615661646

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Ebram Casas-Treski gets the shock of his life when he moves to a new town and learns that he will not be finishing elementary school at the top grade level but going to middle school instead. But loneliness, isolation, and bullies are only the beginning of his problem. Something mysterious is going on, on Texas Thistle Avenue, and it's difficult to ignore. Ice from the tap and in the toilet? Strange voices inside his siblings' heads? His grandfather's story about El Da de los Muertos? And then there are the flying Santas! Ebram needs an answer, and the truth is not what he thinks. Enter the Shroudas, a strange group of tweens and teens who challenge the community with their active belief in doing good and helping others as themselves. But are they too uncool for Ebram to befriend? Parents and children will be drawn into this inspiring first book of author Esther Locascio's Ebram's Story series. The mystery has just begun. Join in the adventure and find out how Ebram gains self-confidence and a sense of purpose. Locascio also extends to readers an invitation to incorporate service to others into their daily lives.


Strawberry Summer

Strawberry Summer

Author: Melissa Brayden

Publisher: Bold Strokes Books Inc

Published: 2017-04-18

Total Pages: 298

ISBN-13: 1626398682

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Just because you’re through with your past, doesn’t mean it’s through with you. Margaret Beringer didn’t have an easy adolescence. She hated her name, was less than popular in school, and was always cast aside as a “farm kid.” However, with the arrival of Courtney Carrington, Margaret’s youth sparked into color. Courtney was smart, beautiful, and put together—everything Margaret wasn’t. Who would have imagined that they’d fit together so perfectly? But first loves can scar. Margaret hasn’t seen Courtney in years and that’s for the best. But when Courtney loses her father and returns to Tanner Peak to take control of the family store, Margaret comes face-to-face with her past and the woman she’s tried desperately to forget. The fact that Courtney has grown up more beautiful than ever certainly doesn’t help matters.


Pondweed

Pondweed

Author: Lisa Blower

Publisher: Myriad Editions

Published: 2020-07-09

Total Pages: 311

ISBN-13: 1912408732

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A love story in the slow lane about loss and getting lost—two childhood sweethearts take a trip via pints, ponds and pitstops to find their future on a road less travelled from Stoke-on-Trent to WalesApparently, we spend almost two weeks of our life completely lost. If you add up all the times you take a wrong turn or find yourself somewhere you don't want to be, it equates to fourteen days of essentially being missing.One Monday afternoon, around three o'clock, pond supplies salesman Selwyn Robby arrives home towing the Toogood Aquatics exhibition caravan and orders his like-wife, Imogen 'Ginny' Dare, to get into the car. He's taking her on a little holiday, he says. To Wales. So begins their road trip west, via blasts from Selwyn's past, and a fortnight's journey of self-discovery for them both. But it's a fishy business towing this caravan, with its saucy mermaid curtains and fully stocked bar, and Ginny must untangle the pondweed to get to the bottom of it, even it does mean unearthing her own murky past to find out.


The Big Book of California Ghost Stories

The Big Book of California Ghost Stories

Author: Janice Oberding

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2021-09-01

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 1493058630

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Few states can rival California in terms of natural beauty and exciting history. But nearly three centuries of violent crime, sickness, greed, and murder have tarnished the Golden State and made it ripe for ghosts and hauntings. From the Spanish priests who founded the first missions in their quest to bring Christianity to the Native people of the region, to the ill-fated Donner Party committing acts of cannibalism in order to survive. This book explores the most famous ghost stories from California’s past (dating back to the 18th century) with spine-tingling details that will delight readers.