Category: Uncategorized
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Seaview House… out-takes, part three.
Here’s a short scene from early in the story, when Jill is waiting to take the bus to her new house on Walney. Most of that part of the story didn’t make it into the novel- there was no need- but there are some funny moments, none-the-less. I’m sure everyone who has ever stayed for…
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Seaview House… out-takes, part two.
This was a London scene that didn’t make it to the final novel, even in draft form. I was playing around with how I could show Jill’s despair at the way her university life had turned out. I also wrote the one with her and Bonnie, at the same time, and that did make it…
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Seaview House…out-takes, part one.
My debut novel, Seaview House, changed dramatically over the course of my MA… I have at least as many chapters and flashbacks on the cutting room floor as I have in the final book. This is one I was sad to see go: a quiet moment of binding between the teenage Stoney and Jill…what do…
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Fabulous book launch at The Dock Museum in Barrow.
I’ve had so much local interest in Seaview House, I wanted to celebrate its launch into the world. From the wonderful Dock Museum in Barrow, it is possible to take in the dramatic position of Walney Island, so what better place to celebrate a story set on the island itself. Jackie Baxter, proprietor of the…
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Seaview House is about to make its way into the world!
It’s almost February 10th… that’s the publication date for my first novel, Seaview House. It’s a literary mystery, set on Walney Island, and with lots of seascape and landscape to become immersed in. I am so grateful to Bloodhound Books, my publisher, for having faith in me and my writing. I’ve dreamed of getting this…
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Radio shows!
After the news story about my graduation and writing, Radio Cumbria contacted me about doing a short interview. It was fun working with Jennie Dennett, she’s brilliant… and here’s the link to the show: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_radio_cumbria (you can listen 1 hour and fifty-one minutes in). What surprised me was then getting a call from BBC Radio…
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Between the cracks.
I’ve been in my sick-bed this week, but I couldn’t do nothing, so I wrote this short story, inspired by a throw-away comment about Cavendish Villas. The story is pretty grim at the start but stick with it…this is my take on Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Between the cracks by Paula J. Hillman Evening starts…
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Anthem to my hometown: A piece I wrote about Covid for my MA.
Anthem to my hometown. A pair of herring gulls wait in line outside the butcher’s shop. But the shutters are down, the green striped canopy tucked neatly away. Oily pigeons peck away at slabs of yellow limestone. One has rotted toes. A match for the man that limps by, sockless, in slapping shoes. Buttery curls…
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Memoir sample chapter: Stevie
Chapter one: Stevie, 2017. There is the patter of rain against glass, a pewter afternoon. My work weighs on me like the taste of a hated food. I want to spit it out. Then the classroom door flies open. Short and seething, there she stands. Head of all she surveys, my boss. ‘You’ll have…
Paula Hillman, author 