12 Days of Short Stories DAY 2: THE FUN OF THE FAIR
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Tiffany is ready for her life to start but for now, she must suffer another season working at her local seaside amusement park. On Halloween, the last and busiest shift of the year, an unusual drama might just be the excitement she has been waiting for.
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Available to buy on Kindle or paperback soon!
Follow @kpuntonbooks for more updates!
#shortstories #12daysofchristmas
12 Days of Short Stories DAY 1: MJOZI
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A young girl suddenly starts dreaming in a foreign tongue. She has no explanation and she is soon scared that it will take over her identity. She begins to collect the words like gifts in the night.
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Available to buy on Kindle or paperback soon!
Follow @kpuntonbooks for more updates!
#shortstories #12daysofchristmas
12 Days of Short Stories
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To celebrate the upcoming release of my short story collection ‘When Strange Calls You Home’, I’m sharing a sneaky preview of each story with you over the next 12 days.
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Available to buy on Kindle and paperback soon! Follow @kpuntonbooks for more updates!
#shortstories #12daysofchristmas
46 books this year, which I think is the lowest in a few years. But that’s ok. And very exciting that I will be finishing the year reading my own self-published collection of short stories!
Happy new year!
A Spot of Bother – Mark Haddon
Frankenstein – Phillip Pullman
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society – Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Burrows
Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Simon Stephens
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine – Gail Honeymoon
Scattered Servants – Alan Scott
The Winning Conversation – Gareth Morgan
The Lost World – Arthur Conan Doyle
There Will be No More Good Nights Without Good Nights – Laura Van Den Berg
Roar – Cecelia Ahern
Isle of Youth – Laura Van Den Berg
Funeral Platter – Greg Ames
Stardust – Neil Gaiman
The God of the Small Things – Arundhati Roy
The Way of the Warrior – Erwin McManus
The Library Book – Susan Orlean
A Thousand Mornings – Mary Oliver
Sleep – Nick Littlehales
Centuries of Stories – Ed. Wendy Cooling
Telling Tales – AQA Anthology
The House with Chicken Legs – Sophie Anderson
Normal People – Sally Rooney
Presence – Andy Hunter
War of the Worlds – H.G Wells
Letters to the Church – Francis Chan
Skellig – David Almond
Moon on the Tides – AQA Anthology
Daring Greatly – Brenè Brown
Give Me Your Heart – Joyce Carol Oates
The Golden Notebook – Doris Lessing
Driven by Eternity – John Bevere
The Woman at 1,000 Degrees – Hallgrimur Helgason
Dog Songs – Mary Oliver
The Emotionally Healthy Leader – Peter Scazzero
Self-Actualization Through Literacy – The Carnegie Writers, Inc.
The Whitsun Weddings – Philip Larkin
Oh my Gods! – Alexandra Sheppard
Autumn – Ali Smith
God’s Smuggler – Brother Andrew
The Artist’s Way – Julia Cameron
The Strawberry Thief – Joanne Harris
Nevertheless – John Kirby
Simplify – Bill Hybels
The Vocabulary Gap – Alex Quigley
Tell Me The Truth About Life: A National Poetry Day Anthology – curated by Cerys Matthews.
When Strange Calls You Home – Kelly Punton
This rocket fuel inspiration is provided by a comment from a five year old. We were out for the day: playing in parks and then a break for some colouring pages and all that fun stuff.
Whilst colouring intensely, this amazing five year old said, ‘Kelly, I’m an absolute artist’.
‘Yes you are,’ I replied.
Happy New Year!
It’s that time of year again. You can read what I’ve been reading if you’re interested.
You can also check out my photoblog which will have some new posts too! Link here: https://kpnupappearances.blog
Uncommon Type – Tom Hanks*
Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls – Elena Favilli*
How to Write Short Stories – Courttia Newland and Tania Hershman
Harry Potter and The Cursed Child: Parts 1 & 2 – Jack Thorne*
Wolf Hollow – Lauren Wolk
Does the Sun Rise Over Dagenham & Other Short Stories – ed. The Independent
The Angel’s Game – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Glimpse of Truth – The 100 Finest Short Stories Ever Written – ed. David Miller
God’s Blueprint – Andy Elms
Shine – Candy Gourlay
Smart – Kim Slater
Jesus Culture – Banning Liebscher
The Guardian: Review – Book of Short Stories
Death of a Salesman – Arthur Miller
Beyond the Bright Sea – Lauren Wolk
Dennis Kelly – Plays: Collection Two
Prayer Through Paradox – Charles Elliot
The President’s Hat – Antoine Laurain
The Life of Lee – Lee Evans
Leadership Pain – Samuel R Chand
The Mindfulness Playbook – Dr Barbara Mariposa
POSH (The Fascinating Stories We Tell About the Words We Use) – Michael Quinion
Release – Patrick Ness
The Boy, The Bird and the Coffin Maker – Matilda Woods
The 15 Laws of Invaluable Growth – John Maxwell
The Shell Collector – Anthony Doerr
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings – Maya Angelou
Full – Asheritah Ciuciu
What The Dog Knows – Cat Warren
The Reason Why I Jump – Naoki Higashida
Where Things Come Back – John Corey Whaley*
Beyond the Stars (12 Short Stories) – ed. Sarah Webb
This Book Will Save Your Life – A. M Homes*
Nine Folds Make a Paper Swan – Ruth Gilligan
Noggin – John Corey Whaley
Rooted – Banning Liebscher
Empire Falls – Richard Russo
My Rock, My Refuge – Timothy Keller with Kathy Keller
Three Cups of Tea – Greg Morstenson & David Oliver Relin
The Chocolate War – Robert Cormier
The Sad Part Was – Prabda Yoon
Ready Player One – Ernest Cline
Highly Illogical Behaviour – John Corey Whaley
The Night Circus – Erin Morgenstern
Beyond the Chocolate War – Robert Cormier
The Man Who Ate A 747 – Ben Sherwood
Divine Direction – Craig Groeschel
Lonely Planet Guide to California
Children of a Lesser God – Mark Medoff
The Economy of Desire – Daniel M. Bell Jr
The Tortilla Curtain – T.C Boyle
Jamaica Inn – Daphne du Maurier
The Casual Electrocution of Strangers – Ed. The Literary Salmon
The Little Book of Hygge – Meik Wiking
54 books this year!
Another year, another reading list. Every year I publish what I’ve been reading for the last 12 months. And in the last few years, I have been inadvertently trying to read more each year. In 2016 I read 54 books and this year 59. A small margin, but margin nonetheless. As usual, I’ve also picked out my top 5 with an asterisk*.
A Little Life – Hanya Yanagihara
The Little Red Chairs – Edna O’Brien
The Tempest – William Shakespeare
The Notable Brain of Maximilian Ponder John Ironmonger
Talking Heads – Alan Bennett
The Picador Book of Contemporary American Stories – edited by Tobias Wolff
Maggot Moon – Sally Gardner
The Understudy – David Nicholls
Wolverine: Origins – Marvel Comics
The Book of Happenstance – Ingrid Winterbach
The Artisian Soul – Erwin Raphael McManus
Imagine (How Creativty Works) – Jonah Lehrer
Wolf Wilder – Katherine Rundell
The Trouble with Goats and Sheep – Joanna Cannon
To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
Everyone Brave is Forgiven – Chris Cleave
*The Museum of Extraordinary Things – Alice Hoffman
A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
Lord of the Flies – William Golding
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas – John Boyne
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime – Mark Haddon
Life of Pi – Yann Martel
The Bone Sparrow – Zana Fraillon
The Buried Book – D.M Pulley
Curious Reality – D. K Cassidy
*Small Great Things – Jodi Picoult
*The Versions of Us – Laura Bennett
*The Essex Serpent – Sarah Perry
Orlando – Virginia Woolf
Worldkeepers – Jo Tilley
Love Does – Bob Goff
*How to Stop Time – Matt Haig
The North Water – Ian McGuire
Capitalism – A Graphic Guide
Leaves of Grass (Poetry Collection) – Walt Whitman
The Smell of Other People’s Houses – Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock
After Tomorrow – Gillian Cross
How to Look for a Lost Dog – Ann M Martin
We Are Called to Rise – Laura McBride
The Circle Maker – Mark Batterson
Spilt Milk – D.K Cassidy
Catcher in the Rye – J.D Salinger
Mind the Gap – Phil Earle
A Little, Aloud, for Children – Angela Macmillan
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry – Rachel Joyce
Centuries of Stories – Wendy Cooling
Simply Jesus – Tom Wright
Reasons to Stay Alive – Matt Haig
Macbeth – William Shakespeare
Lily and the Octopus – Steve Rowley
Things Fall Apart— Chinua Achebe
Wonder by R. J. Palacio
Murder in Midwinter by Fleur Hitchcock
The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy by Rachel Joyce
Stumbling Blocks – Gavin Calver
Long Shot – Dick Francis
Face (The Play) – Benjamin Zephaniah
The Prisoner of Heaven – Carlos Ruiz Zafón
The Keeper of Lost Things – Ruth Hogan
This year I’ve beaten the 33 on 2015 list and have managed to read 54 books. I was close to making 55 but I chose to read a 700 page novel so that one will crept into the 2017 reading List!
My top 5 books are marked with an *
The 2016 Reading List:
A Boy Called Christmas – Matt Haig
Go Set a Watchman – Harper Lee
Impossible – Unknown
Garden City – John Mark Cromer
The Blind Willow (Short Stories) – Haruki Murakami
The Sleeping Baobab Tree – Paula Leyden
The Man Who Was Thursday – G. K Chesterton.
Red Moon Rising – Pete Grieg
Stoner – John Edward Williams
Sabra Zoo – Mischa Hiller
Elizabeth is Missing – Emma Heaney
*All The Lights We Cannot See – Anthony Doerr
The Buried Giant – Kazuo Ishiguro
Trail of Broken Wings – Sejal Hadani
The Eagle Tree – Ned Hayes
The White Tiger – Aravind Adiga
The Shock of the Fall – Nathan Filer
Vegetarian – Han Kang
A Year of Marvellous Ways – Sarah Winman
Bear – Claire Cameron
The Irresistble Revolution – Shane Claiborne
The Light of the Fireflies – Paul Pen
A House for Happy Mothers – Amulya Malladi
In a Land of Paper Gods – Rebecca Mackenzie
*Midair – Kodi Scheer
Boy, Snow, Bird – Helen Oyeyemi
The Shelf Life of Happiness – David Machado
Pierced by the Sun – Laura Esquivel
*The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
The Red House – Mark Haddon
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
The Winning Keys – Gareth Morgan
Strange Pilgrims – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Good Son – Paul McVeigh
*Us – David Nichols
The Stories of Your Life and Others – Ted Chiang
STORGY Short Story Prize Anthology 2014
Nexus – Ramez Naam
The Ice People – Maggie Gee
Short Stories from The New Yorker
The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly – Sun-Mi Hwang
*Five Rivers Met on a Wooded Plain – Barney Norris
The Autograph Man – Zadie Smith
Echoes: An Anthology – First Story National Writing Competition
Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of a Fist – Sunil Yapa
*The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
A Little Life – Hanya Yanagihara
A Snow Garden & Other Stories- Rachel Joyce
The Girl Who Saved Christmas – Matt Haig
To Kill A Mockingbird – Harper Lee
City – Poetry Collection – Black&Blue
N W – Zadie Smith
Boy, Snow, Bird – Helen Oyeyemi
Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
Theseus and the Minotoar (Adaptation)
One Day – David Nicholls
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas – John Boyne
*What the World Will Look Like When The Water Leaves Us – Laura Van Der Berg
Noughts and Crosses – Malorie Blackman
The Vagina Monologues – Eve Ensler
The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
Blue Like Jazz – Donald Miller
Holes – Louis Sachar
*The Other Hand – Chris Cleave
*The Goldfinch – Donna Tartt
Red Rising – Pierce Brown
The Coincidence Authority – John Ironmonger
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde – Robert Louis Stevenson
Private Peaceful – Michael Morpurgo
The Tempest – William Shakespeare
Blood Brothers – Willy Russell
Skin (Short Stories)- Tobias Hill
How To Be Good – Nick Hornby
Beatrice and Virgil – Yann Martel
The Urban Circus – Catriona Rainsford
How to Read the Air – Dinaw Mengstu
Trash – Andy Mulligan
Selected Poetry – e.e cummings
Rickshaw – David McGrath
*We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves – Karen Joy Fowler
Prayer – Timothy Keller
*Oh the Places You’ll Go – Dr Suess
* these books were probably my favourites!
I was supposed to do this project almost a year ago and shamefully I never got round to doing it. But, I have now! It was my grandma’s well-used typewriter when she was a clerk assistant. When she died many years ago, I was given her typewriter as a budding writer. It’s been well-loved and cherished since then. My parent’s agreed that cleaning and restoring it from its older days would be a great way to give the typewriter a new lease of life in the twenty first century. Even more so, it’ll soon be connected to my iPad so it can be the coolest iPad stand and keyboard around (thanks to Ben’s technical skills!).
The Guide
Tip: hold the can about a 6 inches away from object.
Tip: Don’t lose any screws or loose ends whilst you’re spray painting elsewhere.
Just for a picture reference, this is what it’ll look like when the USB converter magic has been finished and my iPad will sit where the paper feed is and *hopefully* it’ll type onto the iPad from the typewriter keys. I’ll keep you posted.
Kelly Punton 