Welcome to justthoughtsnstuff

I started posting to jtns on 20 February 2010 with just one word, 'Mosaic'. This seemed an appropriate introduction to a blog that would juxtapose fragments of memoir and life-writing. Since 1996, I'd been coming to terms with the consequences of emotional and economic abuse that had begun in childhood, and which, amongst other things, had sought to stifle self-expression. While I'd explored some aspects of my life through fiction and, to a lesser extent, journalism, it was only in 2010 that I felt confident enough to write openly about myself. I believed this was an important part of the healing process. Yet within weeks, the final scenes of my family's fifty-year nightmare started to play themselves out and the purpose of the blog became one of survival through writing. Although some posts are about my family's suffering - most explicitly, Life-Writing Talk, with Reference to Trust: A family story - the majority are about happier subjects (including, Bampton in rural west Oxfordshire, where I live, Oxford, where I work, the seasons and the countryside, walking and cycling) and I hope that these, together with their accompanying photos, are enjoyable and positive. Note: In February 2020, on jtns' tenth birthday, I stopped posting to this blog. It is now a contained work of life-writing about ten years of my life. Frank, 21 February 2020.

New blog: morethoughtsnstuff.com.

Saturday 21 January 2017

thin chill, trees seared gold, beating the lingering pull of mid-winter torpor..., facing the strange by sb sweeney on amazon!, deb googe


A cold few days, despite the welcome sun. With daytime temperatures only a few degrees above freezing, the air and land gain barely any warmth and a thin chill pervades.

Beautiful lights, beautiful scenes, though, such as the time, earlier in the week, when I was walking to work and the trees beyond the mouth of Tumbling Bay were seared gold briefly by the not-long-risen sun.

Oxford First Week and the University bursts into life, despite the lingering pull of mid-winter torpor.

Excited that SB Sweeney's fine first novel, Facing the Strange, showed on Amazon and other online retail sites throughout the world a few days ago!

Although not officially published in the UK till the 9th February, it can be pre-ordered on Amazon. (And is available from the StreetBooks website at a pre-publication discount!). The paperback is already on sale in the US and other territories. The Kindle ebook is available in both the UK, the US and elsewhere.

For more information about this outrageously good book, see the Facing the Strange page on the StreetBooks website.

'SB Sweeney writes with a clarity and wit that brings to life the less glossy side of the eighties: a world of squats, bedroom bands and cheap drugs, where a CV most likely meant a pint of cider and Vimto. The intriguing and intertwining tales make an addictive read...' Deb Googe: My Bloody Valentine and The Thurston Moore Group.
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