N.O.A. Rawle: Through the Eyes of a Stranger

I am very proud to reveal the new cover of FEVER DREAMS e-zine. It's First year birthday issue cover was inspired by my story EARTHBOUND ANGEL RETURNS. Follow Fever Dreams and check out my story. Fever Dreams Issue 4   I have to say a huge thank you to Peter Bennett, his wife Stephanie and the Fever Dreams team for putting my words into pictures and print!   

I live in a bubble far from the rest of the world, or so it seems most of the time. I sit and wait the eternal wait of any writer who's submitted work. Sometimes beautiful things will drop into my mail box. Others are ugly little critters that don't like the way I look but I grin and bear them whilst mumbling to myself that they don't know what they're missing! After much activity in the New Year, all is quiet and I'm looking inward and getting maudlin with all those niggling doubts. I saw an interview with Ray Bradbury voicing exactly the same sentiment - it's nice to know that even the greats had these moments! I have so many stories that I work on at any time some blossom others stagnate then I find that jewel of imagery or that character or symbol and off we go again roller-coaster ride. Vanquish was one of these. The stock cubes were the jewel... So here is one of the beautiful things: the cover of Girl at the End of the World Volume Two...

  Here you will find 'Passerby' a flash fiction story and 'Bondage' a poem by me, plus lots of other super stories and poems! The collection is available from Amazon. Click on the link http://www.amazon.co.uk/Darker-Times-Collection-Volume-Two/dp/149737099X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395605757&sr=8-1&keywords=darker+times+collection+two  

I found this great little video of the village that inspired the end of Vanquish, Girl at the End of the World (Fox Spirit) and thought I'd share it. (Sorry if the subtitles are all Greek to you!) No publication date as yet but it will be soon now as the final edit has been completed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3OWBjVzc6A Check out one of my poems, about the less therapeutic side of shopping, on Darker Times Fiction where it got a runner up slot. www.darkertimes.co.uk/winners.aspx  Both this and Passerby will be included in the Darker Times Collection Volume 2 soon to be available via Amazon as an ebook and a paperback.  

Great news for a little story. 'Passerby' got an honourable mention in the Darker Times Flash Fiction January 2014 Competition. http://www.darkertimes.co.uk/winners.aspx  

I was thrilled to hear that my sci-fi story Earthbound Angels Return is inspiration for the cover of the forthcoming issue of Fever Dreams E-zine but that set me thinking. This is actually a test! I have distinct images in mind when I write, like I'm watching a movie in my head, so I try to get the words to describe what I see. Will others have seen the same thing?

How I just love it when I check up my email and I get a positive comment from a publisher, even if my manuscript 'isn't for them' or 'not what they are looking for at present'. It keeps me buoyant in the tide of rejections to know that my 'premise proves interesting' and 'my writing is near poetic in places'!!   What is even nicer are the snippets of constructive criticism. Like the nuggets of gold that they are, publishers and editors use them sparingly it seems!