Welcome to Notes from the Writing Desk, a monthly-ish newsletter with new writing, works in progress, creative prompts, and the odd thing I’ve been reading, noticing, or, inevitably, failing to finish.

This is the first one, so I’m still finding its shape, but I’m glad you’re here.

In this issue: a competition win, new writing on the site, a few images from the notebook, a novel update, a writing prompt, a quick poll, and a recent romance read.

News & Updates

The Brigid 1500 creative writing group, which meets at Woodbine Books in Kilcullen, Co. Kildare, recently held a creative writing competition across memoir, fiction, and poetry. I was delighted to learn in May that my piece “Salach” was selected as the winner in the fiction category.

The winning pieces will be published in The Bridge community magazine, and the winners have been invited to read at an open mic night on June 10th.

New Writing

Here’s what’s new on the website since the last newsletter. I love hearing your thoughts, so let me know what you think.

Hammam

A massage therapist usually leaves the room so that you can strip down to your knickers in private. You position yourself under a towel, face down on a bed with a hole cut out of it for your face, and the massage therapist comes back into the room. Modesty is

Amanda Durkan WritesAmanda Durkan

Extract from Chapter 32 of a Novel-in-Progress

The novel follows Feasa, who has spent most of his life in a mental health institution, believing himself to be ill, but later understanding that he has powers. In this scene, Tiarna (the antagonist) forces him to relive a traumatic childhood memory. He has recently merged consciousness with another character

Amanda Durkan WritesAmanda Durkan

Walking

I walk down the lonely road, nothing to keep me company but my own arms wrapped tightly around my torso. They tremble. It’s the cold, must be. Couldn’t be the other thing. The other thing doesn’t exist; it never happened. It’s not real. My breath hitches

Amanda Durkan WritesAmanda Durkan

999

I don’t know when I first knew that a knife to the gut would be the end of me, maybe I always knew. It calmed me in a way. I used to imagine dying as a way to drift off to sleep, the knife going deep, the gasp of

Amanda Durkan WritesAmanda Durkan

Don’t Say Goodbye

Liam Gordon first met Aidan Costello while browsing the middle aisle of their local Aldi. They both reached for the last inflatable giant hammer. Neither needed an inflatable giant hammer. “Do you, ah, maybe, want to grab a drink?” Liam said as he brushed his fingers nervously through his dark

Amanda Durkan WritesAmanda Durkan

Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss

Her curiosity got the better of her. Psyche had been told in no uncertain terms not to open the jar. But what harm could a little peek do? It wasn’t like she was going to drink the stuff; she just wanted to see it. Well, that’s not entirely

Amanda Durkan WritesAmanda Durkan

From the Notebook

While browsing images for the Psyche and Cupid piece, I came across others that caught my attention. The muted colours and the quiet mystery of each image drew me in. Perhaps a future story will come from these, perhaps not, but in either case, I found them interesting to look at.

Work-in-Progress

My current work-in-progress is my first novel. I started this novel what feels like a decade ago, but really it wasn’t that long. It began about 6 months before COVID, and I’ve been working on it since then. It’s one of those projects that started with heaps of enthusiasm and excitement, which gradually faded as both the world and I changed. I put it aside for a couple of years because I couldn’t bring myself to write it, and the guilt of that was eating me up. Consciously putting it to one side meant I gave myself permission not to look at it, and that space turned out to be really important.

I came back to it, reworked my ending plan, and continued writing. It is going well enough, though the flow state has been a bit elusive, and most chapters have been a bit of a struggle to get through. But I’m slowly making progress.

My plan is to get the first draft done, in as messy and as raw a state as needs be, just get the words down, and then I can think about quality, sequence and editing after that.

I’m coming to the end of the climax, and have about 10,000 words still to go. Wish me luck!

Writing Prompt

If you’re a writer yourself, have a go at this prompt. It’s low pressure and just for fun — write as much or as little as you like.

Write a story that incorporates the following three elements: the colour grey, a bird’s song, and the smell of perfume.

Reader Poll

This issue’s question is: Do you prefer stories written in first, second or third person? First person: "I walked." Second person: "You walked." Third person: "She walked."

What I’m Reading

I am on a romance kick at the moment and have been devouring work by authors I haven’t read before. I’ve just finished the Riven series by Roan Parrish and enjoyed it. I tend to like stories where the reader gets an opportunity to go deep into the character’s thoughts and mindset, and that’s the case with this series.

That’s all from me. See you at the next one!