About
Welcome to my blog. I live in rural Norfolk, UK. I write flash fiction and short stories. Sometimes I’m irreverent, sometimes I write about stuff that hurts. Half finished novels languish in the airing cupboard or gather dust behind book shelves. I write first chapters, last chapters, and the bits in between. Maybe someday I’ll put some of them together…
Every so often I read out my stories on the radio. Occasionally some get shortlisted in competitions. I never win.
After years of belonging to writing groups, I have withdrawn to the comfort of my study where I can write what I want when I want to write it. But writers need feedback sometimes… so here I am.
They say fiction writing has many rules. I like to know what they are, then break them. The rest is alchemy.
And when it all gets too complicated … I curl up on the sofa and write haiku. 🙂
Copyright 2013. Rachael Charmley
Rachael
Changing Skin: modern haiku and other stories 
Hi Rachael,
Thanks for stopping by at Cootsreview.com. I have pretty much just started my blog and do not expect it to be ready for real until Spring. I am mostly sticking to posting my book reviews there, but I also included an element which might resonate with your (our shared) propensity for writing unconnected bits. I wrote beginnings of stories inspired by some photos I had taken. I have no intention of completing these stories. They are whole in their unfinished state. At least that is what I tell myself.
Cheers,
-Will
Hi Will,
Thanks for that. I enjoyed your reviews and appreciate your taste! Most blogs take time I guess. I’m happy just to watch mine evolve in a Zen kind of way. Or is it just laziness or an inability to commit? Nevertheless it’s good to know someone who is comfortable with writing ‘bits’. I prefer to call them ‘moments in time’, which is what ‘Time Warp’ and ‘The Hungry Tide’ are. Nothing much happens but much is intimated or hinted at. I prefer it that way, and I think that is why, in many ways, I prefer the short story medium!
Look forward to seeing your work.
Best,
Rachael
I’ve never been in a writers group, but I’ve blogged for a couple of years and I found the feedback very encouraging. Finally some publisher contacted me and asked me to write a book. I’ve finished now and it is suffering ‘Death by Editing’. . I’m very impressed that you have had the exposure and near misses you have had: you clearly have talent and I will now follow your Blog in the hope I can prod you along the path to success
Really look forward to following you! I know about ducks, in fact I used to live in a beautiful old house which had a moat full of them! You need a tough hide for writing groups – some are wonderfully supportive, and some will tear one to shreds… But I’ve been blogging for a week and it’s so exciting. So much to read and experience, and so many amazing people to find out about. Again, I understand the ‘death by editing’ process. One cuts and cuts until there’s virtually nothing left. All vaguely dispiriting, but you pick yourself up, go and talk to a few ducks,remember why you write, and off you go again!!
Thank you for the email ‘thing’ I have just received saying you are ‘following’ – I have only start ‘blogging’ 48 hours ago so you can imagine how pleased I am knowing I’m not just throwing words into the ether!
🙂
Thank you for finding your way to ‘life and write’, sharing, and connecting. Somehow blogs remind us we do not write alone.
And so they do! I look forward to being inspired by your writing.
Hi Rachael,
I’ve nominated you for the Sunshine Award. This award is given to bloggers who ‘positively and creatively inspire others in the blogosphere.’
For more info, check out this page on my blog: http://wp.me/p3tK67-6g. Whether or not you choose to display the award, thanks for being so inspiring.
Hi Nillu,
Many congratulations on the accolade. Your smile makes it particularly appropriate you should win the Sunshine Award!!
I always enjoy your posts – you’re a talented and exciting writer. More please. And thanks for nominating me too!
Rachael x
Thank you! *Blushes*. Look forward to reading more of your work too, n
I can relate to you having sequestered yourself to the study. Going into exile on a small island in the Sargasso Sea (an ocean within a ocean: what metaphoric potential!), I have done one better. Two different methodologies with the same exultant result–trying to get a few words down and hoping they’ll stay put.
Exile on a small yet relatively civilised island is my idea of heaven. I look forward to exploring your writing from such a place.
Hi Rachael. Thanks for following my blog. I hope you enjoy it. Yours looks very interesting. 🙂
I am enjoying your blog already! Some of your photos resemble my own paintings, and I am a total fan of border collies. I used to run a sheep farm; so know them as both pets and wonderful hardworking souls!
Hi, Rachael. I’ve just tried to open your post ‘Circle’, but the page just comes up as ‘not found’. Thought you might like to know!
Take care, Chris.
Thanks Chris – I’ll take a look.
Thanks for notifying me, Chris. I don’t know why the post didn’t go up, but I’ve changed the photo and it seems to be fine now!
Having utterly failed to be able to give you an award because you already had it, I can give you this one here:
http://jessicahof.wordpress.com/2013/12/30/being-appreciated/
it is the ‘Reader appreciation’ award, and you only have to nominate three others, so nothing too hard I hope – but nice to be able to say how much I appreciate your writing xx Jess
First of all Jess, mega congratulations on your award! Richly deserved too, I might add. Much as we might say we don’t need to feel appreciated, the truth is we probably do. That’s why it’s so nice when such a sweet acknowledgement of my aimless twitterings appear out of the blue. Rxx
Well I wish mine were ‘aimless’ then 🙂 But seriously, so glad just to be able say I appreciate what you write 🙂 xx
Thanks a lot for starting to follow my blog and liking several of my posts. i look forward to getting more familiar with your blog. now that i have a ten-day break from work, i’ll finally have some time to!
How lovely to have ten days off!
Thank you for the follow, it’s very encouraging.
Terry
My pleasure. Look forward to reading your blog. 🙂
Thank you so much for your recent decision to follow Learning from Dogs. Much appreciated. Feel welcome to share any of your writings as a guest post on LfD. Best wishes, Paul
Thank you Paul for featuring my story. It too is much appreciated. I look forward to exploring your lovely blog. My best, Rachael
Hope you get to remove lots of pieces from your blog after publications and wins 🙂 Thanks for following me on Cold.
Thank you! There are an awful lot of stories on the blog now. I churn them out and don’t do anything with them…yet! 🙂
Thanks for following my blog, lovely blog!
My pleasure!
hi Rachael, i really enjoyed the Haiku i read, i’ve become obsessed with the form this year. just thought i’d visit a bit to ty for following my poetry, encouragement is always greatly appreciated. oh and i so relate to you
‘withdrawing to the comfort of your study’, alone is my natural default setting. lol! ty again, and have a wonderful day!.
Hi. So pleased you are enjoying watching me learn how to write haiku, and yes it is addictive, isn’t it! The potential purity of the form really appeals, and makes a lot of my fiction seem too complex, even unnecessary.
I wish you a lovely day too – from the comfort of my rather chilly study! 🙂
‘seem too complex, even unnecessary.’… yes, i agree absolutely. the discipline of the form, that every word choice is so essential has affected and benefitted my free verse and prose. and then there’s the pure joy of writing Haiku, there are weeks that is all i write. i look forward to more of yours Rachael, have a wonderful day!
thanks for liking my blog piece. as you must know as well as anyone, writing is both a labour of love and a love of labour. i’ve been dwelling in obscurity myself for the past forty years. the silver lining for never having made it is at least i haven’t had to sell out (or maybe i have in other ways–who knows?). anyway, it’s all part of the fun!
Thank you for your thoughtful note. Interesting that you speak of obscurity. Do you know, I don’t mind being ‘unknown’, although it used to be otherwise. All I want now is what I have – which is to be read and understand by the few that take the time to look at my blog. Being given the platform via WordPress, is perhaps the silver lining. I look forward to reading more of your lovely work 🙂
Hi, Rachael. You posted a comment earlier on my poem ‘The Mountain’ (I know this because it is in my inbox). However, it hasn’t appeared under my post, on indeed flashed up the option for me to reply. Anyway, I just wanted to say a big thank you for your kind words, support and encouragement for these poems. I am delighted that you have enjoyed them, and hope that you will get the same pleasure from revisiting them in the future.
Hope this reaches you, as I didn’t want you to think that I was being impolite by now responding to your comment. Take care, and thanks again, Chris.
It’s my pleasure. I think there is something weird going on with my blog at the mo…
Can’t fathom emoticons – must be my age – but I’m showing a big grin!!
Neither can I! And it isn’t one. It’s a ‘:’ and a ‘-‘ and a ‘)’. But I think you jest…
Hi, Rachel — Just a word to thank you for following my “Randa Lane…” haiku blog. So glad to have you with us! I’ve looked at many of your haiku and was REALLY impressed! So…with joy I am following your blog as well! Looking forward to traveling the haiku path with you, knowing it’s going to be a great journey!
Warmest Respect and Admiration,
Ron
Lovely to be following you too, Ron. Thank you for your support – as you can see I am just learning to use this amazing medium. The writing of haiku really is a peaceful, spiritual, and surprising journey. I’m loving it!
We shall travel alongside one another from time to time.
Rachael
Good Evening, Rachel! I’m so glad you liked my haiku “Daddy.” You may want to read a short sketch I posted about him a few months ago. The shortlink is:
http://wp.me/p2GyyJ-fj
Warmest,
Ron
That’s so moving. A passionate and loving rendition.
Thanks for stopping by Island Vignettes Rachel!
Heh! It’s my pleasure 🙂
Thanks for stopping by and reading me.. much appreciated =)
It’s my pleasure 🙂
Thank you for visiting my blog, Rachael. I’m following and looking forward to reading more of your work.
Nice to have you here, Liane. I shall be following you too, and look forward to reading yours.
No reason to curl up, you may flourish as well, you can that, you know.
Absolutely – curling up works so well for some writing, and sitting at my desk is so right for other stuff 🙂
You mean the technology, then I agree.
The haiku has the advantage it can be invented in the mind without writing. Earlier long poems were composed this way and memorized, to be eventually written down. Nowadays we cannot do more than three lines.
First of all, warm welcome to another photo-haiku writer. We have to organize a WP-club. I’m terribly buse now, but past 20 May I come back to this issue. There will come a post for my new 200 followers “What is a photo-poem”.
Yes, I endorse that. I look forward to ‘photo-poem’ post. I have been thinking about the function of graphics in relation to the haiku for some time, and would like to share.
Hello! Call me Amyclae. I ran into your blog, I think NEO liked one of your posts and it showed up on his feed. Naturally, I followed.
I’m not as much a fan of the cubic poetry as I am the short stories, but don’t listen to me.
Hi Amyclae – good to meet you. Yes, that lovely man from Nebraska goes back awhile.
Cubic poetry? Interesting idea. Haiku? Never took it seriously – until writing stories stopped being fun. Take a really tight structure and then play.
I like your writing, and I’m browsing…
Ha ha, that sounds so like me. I generally manage the first few chapters all enthused and then loose momentum. So many novels begun, non finished. My solution – Haiku, so much shorter its finished before you have even realised you’ve started – ideal 🙂
Haha. I could have written that! I love the precision of haiku, and it so mirrors how I try and live my life! Can’t think why I turned my nose up at it for so long! Actually I can – snobbery 🙂
Rachel, you’re surely aware that your haiku enthrall me, but I’ve never told you how intriguing I find your Gravatar.! Every time I see it, I think how much it looks like the planet Mars! (turned on its side a bit!). The colors, the polar cap…all remind me of the Red Planet and future home of a few intrepid colonists from planet Earth! Oh, to live to see that!
Ron
I never thought of that, Ron. Such a vivid imagination! It’s a painting by the Jewish-French painter Sonia Delauney. She, like her more famous husband, Robert, were part of the Orphism movement. Wonderful paintings. She was originally a textile designer, and, after Robert died, started to paint. They use colours in such a positive and cheerful way. Really inspiring stuff. She would be happy to know that you had been taken to Mars with this one!
Hi Rachel, thank you for following .. even more wonderfully, I now get to follow you! Looking forward to reading more of your posts ..
My pleasure, Inge. So glad you’re here 🙂
Hi Rachael, thanks for finding and following my blog! SD
My pleasure 🙂
A marvelous intro and blog. Thanks for following mine.
Thank you 🙂
Hi Rachael, Welcome to the world of blogging and sharing our words. I’m enjoying exploring your site. Thanks for visiting my blog. Brad
Hi Brad. I look forward to reading your posts 🙂
Hi Rachel,
I really love your site and your photos. I thank you for commenting on my brand new blog, which is changing and growing every day. I say this because your comment prompted me to check out ‘your blog’ which I thoroughly enjoyed exploring. I must add I love your First Chapters idea. It’s such a fresh and exciting idea. I have a few ‘unfinished first chapters’ myself! I am looking forward to posting a few. I love your haiku and your photos as well. It’s fantastic work.
Thank you, Pamela. I am a master of ‘unfinishing’; that is perhaps why I find haiku so enjoyable. So pleased you like this idea. One of the lovely things about blogging for me is that it has removed the pressure to always complete. It really doesn’t matter: the most important thing is simply to write. 🙂
Rachael your world sounds wonderful to me. Thanks for the follow I look forward in reading more. Your photos are wonderful too.
I love how one finds such lovely inspiring blogs by ‘accident’! Glad to know you 🙂
I only follow those that I know I will enjoy reading. Thankful that you found me and now I can read more about you. I love this blogging community. My new internet friends come from all over the globe.
So true. I think the blogging community has made so many people’s lives so much richer 🙂
Rachel, no reply is necessary on my invitation to join the Blog Hop. Due to the lack of interest on the part of my other two invitees, I am dropping out as well. Thank you, though, for your consideration of the invitation. –Ron —
Hi Ron
I replied to your email on the 30th July – the day I received it. I have re-sent it to you today. So sorry it didn’t work out this time round.
My best.
Rachael
Finally, someone from my part of the world. Thank you for engaging with me and I enjoy your work.
Haa! Look forward to exploring your blog.
I’m modest about the content but I look forward to your feedback
I consider it a mark of distinction if certain people like something I post.
I like your writing voice. More please.
Thank you. I’m deep into the writing and editing cycle but I enjoy haiku and I’m experimenting with some opinion pieces.
The important thing is to write – whatever it is – even crap – just do it. Haiku are wonderful as a means of honing one’s editing – I’ve always written in a very bare minimalist style, so haiku fits in well. I also find if I’m stuck with my fiction, the haiku keeps my hand in. Go go go 🙂
What a beautiful site you have here…. !
Thank you kindly 🙂
Hi, Rachael! Thanks so much for following me on Cold 🙂
I like how you say everything and then end with, ‘I curl up on the sofa and write haiku.’ 🙂
Haiku’s are like that…since they’re short, its fun to play with words and assemble them.
You’re so right. When I started writing haiku I thought they would be ‘just’ something to do until I got back into writing stories again – but it doesn’t seem to be working out like that. I get to say all I need to now. I love the ‘leanness of the medium and the way it can capture a moment, a story, or even a whole life – in just a few words. Thank you for your sensitivity and understanding Mariam. Glad you’re here 🙂
🙂 You may want to read this Haiku I wrote some time back, ‘Cascading’- http://mariam03rehman.wordpress.com/?s=cascading
Hello Rachael!
Thank you very much for stopping by my page and liking my posts. Before I learn about your works, I wished to know about you and here I am on your ABOUT page. It is very interesting and honest. I loved the way you have put this- ” And when it all gets too complicated … I curl up on the sofa and write haiku.” I guess it is the best option.
As of now, touring your beautiful short stories, haikus and other moments. Stay Motivated! Reva.
Thank you, Riva. So happy you liked my ‘About’ page. It is over a year old now since I wrote it – but it still fits the writing part of my life. I enjoyed what I saw of your blog. You have a delicacy, a fineness of touch, which is rare. Not something one can learn. Rachael
My pleasure, Rachael. Thanks for your presence on my blog. Your time and your kind words are greatly appreciated dear. “You have a delicacy, a fineness of touch, which is rare. Not something one can learn.”- Now, this is very rare to hear …………..treasuring it in all love. Thank you once again. Hope to stay connected with amazing bloggers like you. Stay motivated and blessed. Love, Reva.
Hello there
Just wanted to thank you kindly for visiting and following my blog.
I think yours looks very interesting and you appear to be very talented?
I look forward to reading more about you again soon.
Good luck in your writing
Bob
Thank you Bob. Look forward to reading more of you!!
Thanks Rachael
a tantalizing array of delicately assembled words and pictures
delivering a sincere and exciting message
Thank you. I found your posts quite beautiful too.
Rachael!! Thank you sooo much for “liking” my haiku! 🙂
May you have a fantabulous Thanksgiving! (((huggggs)))
Ron
Thank you for being here, Ron. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, my talented poet. Hugs to you. x
Discovered your blog via O at the Edge. Lovely words, interesting thoughts, intriguing title! I am just taking my first tentative steps into the world of blogging and wondering what direction it will take me. Also attempting to write ‘stuff’ – not sure where that will go either but easing myself in with a few haikus in the meantime. They’re not for public consumption quite yet but love yours and shall check back in here for inspiration and insight!
Hi Emma. Thanks for the follow! I hope you enjoy your time on WP. Be flexible, be open and have fun. I used the platform initially to showcase my short stories and forays into much longer pieces. After a while I ran out of steam as I was spending too much time writing for the blog. A dear blogging friend across the pond suggested I try haiku, which I did; and my stats went crazy. That pleased me then, but in reality it doesn’t matter now either way. Have fum experimenting – there are some wonderful people out there and some extraordinary writers. x
Rachael, just had to take a moment to thank you for clicking “like” on a couple of my haiku. For a poet such as you to like what I do is a source of great pleasure! I hope your new year is going well, and I’ll check in more often “the good Lord willing and the creeks don’t rise”! *g* ((HUGGGS)) ❤
Ron
In my humble opinion those haiku were stunning – probably perfect! You know how it that happens when you’re not expecting it. You’re truly on a roll, and thanks for sharing such beautifully crafted poetry. xxx
Hello there, I can understand your wanting to write what you want when you want! Some lovely work here and I am looking forward to experiencing some more 🙂
Lovely to have you around! The only problem with writing what I want when I want – I have discovered – is motivation!!
Glad to find your blog and thank you for visiting mine… I have mostly been reading and trying to write haiku, senryu, tanka, haibun and other related short poetic forms and very much enjoy the community of others who focus on the same… Wishing you the pleasure of writing just what you do- and what makes you happy. All best, always now…
I have not really discovered a haiku community yet,so am learning by reading, imitation and intuition! I wish you continued pleasure in your writing, and I look forward to sharing your poetry.
My best.
Rachael
Really happy I came across your blog via a reblog of some of your poetry! I’m really enjoying your writing and look forward to reading more! 🙂
Thank you! You’ve made my day 🙂 I look forward to reading your work too.
Thank you for visiting flutterings and liking my poem, “Single Tapestry!” I’ve enjoyed reading some of your poems.
Thank you, thoughtseeds. You have quite a gift with words.
You are so sweet! Thank you. How did you know I was one of those people who need daily encouragement? Oh, yeah, I’m a writer. Ha, ha.
Most writers all like that. They just don’t like to admit it!
Good morning, Rachael, thanks for following my blog! I look forward to perusing your posts 🙂
Good afternoon, Barbara. I too look forward to reading your thoughts 🙂
Hello Rachael! You have a nice blog. I read your ‘about page’ with keen interest. You write beautifully. Don’t mind that you’ve never won. You have been winning only its never been announced. You are failing your way to the top. There are many great people who failed their way to the top. Each time they did not have what they desired people thought they had failed; and yes they had; but they were failing their way to the top. I have some posts on this on my site. You are definitely failing your way to the top. One day what happened to Abraham Lincoln will happen to you. The first time you win may be the Nobel prize. Who knows? Keep on writing. Today I wrote “When you feel discouraged…” That is good to look at. Many blessings to you.
Hello, and thank you for your great compliment. I shall indeed look on your blog for inspiration. Blessings 🙂
Nice to get your response. Many blessings to you.