Cherry Potts, Writer

Category: Writing

  • Me and My Pianos

    I’ve been decorating the living room, and the piano was really getting in my way – too heavy to move!  Solved that, (thanks Muireann) with a bit of lateral thinking and a long pole.  So my imaginary blog reader is now asking themselves: Why is she on about pianos? Can she even play the piano? Naah… I can pick…

  • Early Music part 2

    Early music is a passion I share with my partner A, and a chance discovery led to the inspiration for an historical novel, The Cold Time. Sometime in 1993 , arriving early for a film at the Odeon at Marble Arch, we headed into HMV to browse, and I picked up a new release in…

  • March of the Women

    Sandi Toksvig, Sue Perkins, Susan Calman, Marin Alsop… sorry, what? The finest lesbian (or lesbitarian as Calman would have it) comedians of the decade all on stage together and … the world’s leading woman conductor?  OK you got me, I didn’t know what I’d got tickets for, but I’m very glad I was there, for Mirth…

  • Early Music

    Music I found early, and Early Music I found… My passion for words nearly got in the way of my interest in music, and I was almost oblivious to tunes until I introduced myself to a wide variety of music via the library I worked in when I was nineteen. I think I took music…

  • What’s folk got to do with it?

    I was brought up on a diet of Beatles, Blues and Ballads. (I once had a cat who loved to be sung to, and the sadder the song the better: he was very partial to John Dowland, but his favourites were Bruton Town and Waly, Waly .  Morph used to scream in terror on the way…

  • How do you do that?

    At some point writers will always be asked ‘Where do you get your ideas from?’ If I tried to answer that I would probably never finish, and consequently never write another story.  This post is in response to a different question that I have been asked- about the details that end up in my stories…

  • Little White Lies

    I tell lies all the time, mostly for my own entertainment.  I will exaggerate the awfulness of the journey home, I had to wait hours ’n’ hours for a train… To tell the truth, I will retell conversations in which I appear much wittier than I was in reality. If I’m honest, if someone asks…

  • Stone Carving for Beginners

    Sometimes talking to an expert isn’t enough, I have to try something out for myself.  I started writing a novel about thirteenth century musicians and masons over ten years ago.  I know what is going to happen in The Cold Time but I struggle with making it convincing.  I’ve read a lot of books, I’ve…

  • The Imposter

    Another Genealogy letter: My partner’s maternal Grandfather is a bit of an enigma: He vanished, apparently without trace, leaving his wife with three young children.  The children suffered a great deal as a result, their mother took them back to live with her parents, but as the progeny of a broken home, they were shunned…

  • The Arsonist’s Demise

    National Short Story Week is coming to a close, and with it all my good intentions to do some writing in honour of the event.  Having a house full of builders isn’t conducive to creativity, even when they are charming, careful and considerate, which they are. I did however make it to Spread the Word’s…