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DENARII’S JOURNEY TO HER FIRST NOVEL

Anansi Archive competition winner reaping success

Denarii Peters is lost among the Fens and Wolds of East Anglia and Lincolnshire. It has taken her a long time to get there. Now she can be found gazing into the distance over her computer keyboard with a cup of coffee in one hand.

In a previous life she did many things; worked in quite a few different offices: a communications company, a steel distributors, a maker of artificial limbs and she logged colours for a dyeing company. Later she became a primary school teacher and raised two children of her own. She has lived in several northern places, from Lancaster to Bradford, then, with her husband, spent five years travelling all over Western Europe towing a caravan.

She has always told tales to her friends, to the children she taught and then, after a lot of encouragement, she began to write them down.

Now she can’t stop. Fortunately, and rather to her surprise, in the last few years she has found success in around seventy short story and flash competitions all over the world, resulting in over twenty pieces being included in various anthologies. Each time one appears, she commemorates it with a new plant for her garden (It’s not very big, so is becoming quite crowded!)

Denarii has never believed in ghosts or any kind of supernatural being, so she has no idea why it seems they believe in her and keep picking on her to tell their stories!

October 2024 saw the publication of her debut solo collection Will You Walk into My Parlour, published by Crystal Clear books, and now the first part of her Ross Ferris trilogy, The Reluctant Reaper has just been published.

Nothing makes her happier than knowing someone, somewhere is enjoying her scribblings.

You can find out more about and buy The Reluctant Reaper HERE:

TAA WRITER: Denarii Peters FIRST NOVEL: Reaper series

The Reluctant Reaper review:

AS an accomplished short story writer, Denarii Peters has, for many years, hooked readers with tales of the off-beat and macabre. Her substantial body of work has appeared in many on and off-line platforms and she has won awards for the brevity, wit and imagination she brings to these short stories. Her credentials as a novelist, however, are unknown. Until now.

With The Reluctant Reaper, Peters steps into different order of fiction that has seen many other writers fall by the wayside, confounded and overwhelmed by the immensity of the project and the complexities it presents. Simply put, writing novels is hell.

So it seems Hell is a fitting place for her to stage her premier, full-length tome. Hell as we might be unfamiliar with. Not a place of fire and brimstone – although, in her story, all that lies beyond the Final Door – but of politics, bureaucracy and romance, petty and epic clashes, strategic moves and nuanced interactions. All of which will please readers of action-driven, character-led narratives.

It centres around Ross Ferris, a former highwayman who is bad enough to fall into the clutches of Hell when he meets his end but good enough for us to empathise with his noble deeds. However, Hell it is for him and there he faces the choice of proving himself as reaper of recently-deceased souls or be sent through the Final Door to enter the inferno for eternity.

Ross avoids this fate by passing an ‘interview’ and joining the other reapers. It’s their task to escort the dead who have lived less-than-perfect lives to Hades. But there are great and conflicting forces at work. There are the forces of Heaven – angels, or Poodles as they are known to the reaper Hounds of hell – and much more intriguing powers within the hierarchy of hell itself. And it is the latter where this story takes up much of its time. The daemon Caffiaes, the scheming Joss, the lovely Caroline and a plethora of other souls – some with a heart-beat – to keep up the interest.

The story seems to be ultimately about redemption and whether a condemned man can really find a way of avoiding eternal damnation.

Given that almost all the characters are in hell for a good reason, Peter’s biggest challenge is to make condemned souls likeable and she succeeds for the most part although the deeds that committed them to Hell in the first place is a caveat to the reader’s wholehearted investment. She explains it thus about her main character: ‘bad maybe, but evil, no.’ And who can say which souls cannot be redeemed? That is a key question for the reader to play with. Do her characters offer enough for us to forgive them their mortal deeds?

At heart of this novel is a thumping machine churning out the action with every scene and relaying shifts in its paradigm. Peter’s prose is unfaltering with a momentum that will keep the reader turning the pages and her knack of sensing where the reader thinks this is going and then take it off in another direction is as dependable as ever. Indeed, with much to recommend it, the over-riding blessing of this narrative is its originality.

For that reason, it’s difficult to place The Reluctant Reaper in a specific genre but suffice to say that it will find a willing audience among both younger and mature readers.

To some, this may be a novel that’s Heaven-sent but in Denarii’s hands we are reminded that the devil has all the best tunes.

Dave Jordan

HANNAH’S DAZZLING DEBUT

Anansi Archive writer publishes collection of short stories

It is always gratifying to celebrate a writer who has participated in The Anansi Archive competitions or anthologies and one who has done both is Hannah Retallick. So it is with huge pleasure that we can announce publication of her first collection of short stories.
Something Very Human is available through Bridge House Publishing in Kindle and Paperback and it offers over 30 of Hannah’s stories.
A review of the book is published below with a link to where you can buy it.

It is, they say, advisable for a singer to know their vocal range. Understanding that they are a soprano or tenor can help them produce those pitch-perfect songs and exude the confident delivery that is the mark of an artist who has mastered their craft.
Hannah Retallick has not one voice but a plethora of them that she advances to explore a gamut of story-telling octaves. Just like the accomplished singer, she delivers each with the gusto of a veteran and we are swept away with aplomb of their execution.
In her collection Something Very Human, we have the voices of children or adults captured with equal potency in her trademark first-person narrative stories. Coupled with her knack of finding something deep-seated in the ordinary, the collection is a celebration of a narrative maestro at the top of her game.
She wastes no time in sinking us deep within her character’s psyche, captures the situation with adroit concision and draws us deep within that persona’s predicament. The voices carry all this. Like Elmore Leonard, her dialogue is crisp and character-led while the thoughts of her players express sedimentary conflicts.
But at her best, Hannah is inside the mind of a child. That innocence and bewilderment captured on the page with touching sensitivity as if the child were hers. The absurdity of A Long Line of Straws is transformed into a tale of a damaged mind healed by obsession; dashed, sees the child as a catalyst for grief while the ruinous life of adults shows the victims it leaves behind in The Naughty Step. Moving, haunting.
This collection with its 31 stories offers a range of lengths and themes. But whether you prefer the five minute reads of They Didn’t See Him and The Word Has It or the longer Clara By Any Other Name, it is the voices that carry the narratives. And it is the voices that will stay with you long afterwards.

Dave Jordan

Kindle and Paperback editions of Something Very Human can be found here:

The Bridgetown Café Bookshop: Something Very Human by Hannah Retallick

JANUARY 2025: Well, another year begins with us lauding the talent reaching out to us at The Anansi Archive. In our latest season, we applaud Tony Warner (The Interview), Charles Kitching (The Bed) and Jo Riglar (Carnival) for their winning entries to the Autumn competitions and thank all those who took part. If you didn’t get placed, please keep trying because there are always opportunities that can open up.

Which brings us to the year ahead. We are hoping to make a few changes to our operations in 2025 and hope that you will find them progressive in terms of our main objective which is promoting your work. In addition, we are pencilling in a new anthology for publication in the Spring.

Keep checking out our website for news on all fronts and, as always, keep writing.

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APRIL 2024: Our tenth season of competitions has come to a close with another outstanding intake that made us shiver, laugh and sigh…..sometimes all at the same time. Not an easy feat!

This season we welcomed author, Julian Anderson onto our judging panel. Here’s what he thought of our entries:

“I’ve always been a big fan of anthologies. They provide the reader with an opportunity to find new authors and writers with a chance to reach a new audience. That’s why I was delighted when the Anansi Archive invited me to be a guest judge.

“Having reviewed a couple of these collections, I knew I was in for a hard time selecting the best from stiff competition. Whilst there can only be one winner, I had a fantastic time reading all the entries. My congratulations to everyone who submitted their work. I know from personal experience it can take a lot of courage.”

For more information about Julian and his work please click the link below.

Author Julian Anderson

http://www.julianaanderson.co.uk/

NOVEMBER 2023:

That’s right, we’ve just hit our sixth anthology with The Nine Lives of Billy Nightjar and we think it just may be the best yet! That’s not to belittle the previous editions which have produced some fine work but in this edition, we have accomplished a range of genres, styles and locations as never before. Yes, ‘locations’. It’s always interesting and provocative to find yourself in another part of the world experiencing a different culture throught the eyes of someone who knows and understands it – NOT (gratefully) filtered through the eyes of a western observer. So, we present to you as great a diversity as we have had in this anthology and hope that you like it.

As always, if you buy it, please review it on Amazon or any other platforms. Alternatively, just pop us an email and tell us what you think. Is there anything we could have done better? Let us know.

OCTOBER 2023: ENTRANTS to the summer season of Anansi Archive competitions have done themselves proud. Picking Tony Kirwood (Short Ficiton), Nikki Davison (Flash Fiction) and Sam Hendrian (Poetry) as our eventual winners was as heart-searching a task as our judges have experienced. Entries read, re-read, discussed, debated, pored over, reviewed…..we do not undertake this assignment lightly. Alas, there has to be a decision at the end of this task and it is no reflection on the quality of many that they have not – in our opinion – quite crossed the line.

So, did we get it right? Perhaps you can be the judge of that when you read them here on our website. Or you can compare these with other entries that were not placed in our forthcoming anthology. We are particularly excited by the sixth Anansi Archive collection as it will feature the best of our last two seasons which have been of an exceptionally high standard.

Keep checking the website for details of the publication date. We are aiming for the beginning of November.

Talent blossoms in Spring season competitions

JULY 2023: MANY congratulations to our top entries from the Spring competitions. This season was exceptionally difficult to judge because the standard was so high and there were many contenders for our best three in Short Fiction and Flash Fiction. While the quality and quantity was particularly high in these categories, curiously the number of poetry entries was our lowest ever.

All the judges expressed what a pleasure it was to read the Short and Flash submissions and it is occasions such as these that we get really excited about the writers out there.

There was a marvellous diversity in styles and so many of them nailed the essence of writing concisely to a purpose with vivid characters established quickly, prose that carried the narrative forward in a compelling way and some very satisfactory denouements that left the reader wanting more.

Wry humour, pacey action, gripping suspense and insightful character sketches provided some absorbing reading.

Yes, it made the judging hard – but we can’t wait to see the next anthology! Watch this space….

The Anansi Archive competitions entries pass the 2,000 mark

APRIL 2023 – Thank you to everyone who participated in the Winter writing competitions and congratulations to Holly Hamp, Harriet Watson and Fiona Dignan for their triumphant entries in the Short Fiction, Flash Fiction and Poetry categories.

The winter 2022/23 intake represented our sixth season of competitions and during this time we have received more than 2,000 entries and produced four anthologies. From the feedback we receive, it’s clear that for many writers, competitions are an important platform for their work. While it’s disappointing when your writing doesn’t receive the recognition you hoped it would, for those who keep the faith and persist, eventual success can spur them on to even greater things. Our advice to those who have not achieved this so far is to keep trying. A number of our winning or runner-up entrants have only achieved this after repeated attempts. If you want some specific feedback on your entry, please email us. We will be honest but gentle! Or, if you need a bit more help, why not sign up for one of Christopher Fielden’s writing courses (see below).

Free course

STRUGGLING to write that killer story (who isn’t?)? Award-winning author Christopher Fielden is offering some top tips for writers on his courses.

You could try his free short story writing course or his comprehensive course, which uses short story case studies to clearly show how all his advice has been used in practice to generate publishing success. Check out the details below:

https://learn.christopherfielden.com/

And, for one of the most comprehensive lists of writing competitions anywhere on the internet, have a look at this page on the same site:

https://www.christopherfielden.com/short-story-tips-and-writing-advice/writing-competitions.php

New season of competitions

The Anansi Archive’s Winter season of competitions is now open with entry fees as low as just £1. Find out how you can enter here:

https://www.anansiarchive.co.uk/competitions/

HANNAH’S DAZZLING DEBUT

Anansi Archive writer publishes collection of short stories

.

It is always gratifying to celebrate a writer who has participated in The Anansi Archive competitions or anthologies and one who has done both is Hannah Retallick. So it is with huge pleasure that we can announce publication of her first collection of short stories.
Something Very Human is available through Bridge House Publishing in Kindle and Paperback and it offers over 30 of Hannah’s stories.
A review of the book is published below with a link to where you can buy it.

It is, they say, advisable for a singer to know their vocal range. Understanding that they are a soprano or tenor can help them produce those pitch-perfect songs and exude the confident delivery that is the mark of an artist at the top of their craft.
Hannah Retallick has not one voice but a plethora of them that she advances to explore a gamut of story-telling octaves. And just like the accomplished singer, she delivers each with the gusto of a veteran and we are swept away with aplomb of their execution.
In her collection Something Very Human, we have the voices of children or adults captured with equal potency in her trademark first-person narrative stories. Coupled with her knack of finding something deep-seated in the ordinary, the collection is a celebration of a narrative maestro at the top of her game.
She wastes no time in sinking us deep within her character’s psyche, captures the situation with adroit concision and draws us deep within that persona’s predicament. The voices carry all this. Like Elmore Leonard, her dialogue is crisp and character-led while the thoughts of her players express sedimentary conflicts.
But at her best, Hannah is inside the mind of a child. That innocence and bewilderment captured on the page with touching sensitivity as if the child were hers. The absurdity of A Long Line of Straws is transformed into a tale of a damaged mind healed by obsession; dashed, sees the child as a catalyst for grief while the ruinous life of adults shows the victims it leaves behind in The Naughty Step. Moving, haunting.
This collection with its 31 stories offers a range of lengths and themes. But whether you prefer the five minute reads of They Didn’t See Him and The Word Has It or the longer Clara By Any Other Name, it is the voices that carry the narratives. And it is the voices that will stay with you long afterwards.

Dave Jordan

Kindle and Paperback editions of Something Very Human can be found here:

https://www.thebridgetowncafebooksshop.co.uk/2024/10/something-very-human-by-hannah-retallick.html