Navigating the World of Short Stories
INTERVIEW WITH ALEXANDER RAPHAEL 1. From journalism to poetry and short stories, your writing career spans the spectrum of genres and forms. How do you navigate the different styles? Do you have any preferences for a particular form? I think it all starts with a love of language. I’ve always loved the way different words can […]
Interview with RayNotBradbury
Alexander Raphael discusses his new (third) book, his place in the literary world, the power and challenges of writing daily. His first book of short stories The Summer of Madness is famous for moving, funny, heartbreaking, informative, and utterly captivating plots. His second book Illusions, Delusions is famous for a wide range of characters, twisted and humorous […]
Interview with Esther Rabbit, author of Lost in Amber
Alexander Raphael has always been interested in writing but only really started in his late teens when at sixth form college. It was there that his love of reading transferred itself to writing short stories ending with a dramatic twist, inspired by writers such as Roald Dahl, Ray Bradbury and Edgar Allen Poe. Encouraged by success in […]
Notes on Friendship
Notes on Friendship is a series I started last month to prove a point, I have the best subscribers! If you missed my 1st interview with Mark Bialczak, my east coast brother, you can find it here. Today I’d like you to meet Alex Raphael. Alex is a writer who chronicles his inspirations over on his blog where […]
Essence of Beauty
Magnetic, electric, eclectic eyes,That shine like frozen diamonds raised by sunlight,Decorated by free-falling hair that parades and cascadesWith the freedom of flight, that will best strikeThose able to see the beauty within,that goes beyond mere skin
She Loved Me Once
She loved me once and I threw it awayA love so pure there was plenty to spareAnd yet not enough for me to keepAnd not enough for me to share. Her and I loved in different ways, speeds and stylesAt contrasting times and in different placesHer love for me now sat with old newspapersFaded clothes, […]
Interview with Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Image: © Getty Images. This interview with the German Oscar-winning director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck was while I worked as a film reviewer. The website may no longer be active, but I’m still fond of the experience of meeting him and his insightful and engaging answers here. For a day so steeped in superstition, it’s […]
Yesterday’s Tomorrow
Unlost yesterday’s lie luxuriously while life flies fast forwardsLovingly lasting in memory, they await instructionFor when they must be ready for repeated viewingsBy the audience comforted by blurred certainty. But what those memories know, as we know,Is that yesterdays can rust to nothingAnd so unexplored and unfelt memoriesMust be allowed to crash the revolving stage.Because […]
Nightworld
Amidst the silence, shadows and cloak of secrecy,Amongst the dismayed, disgusted and despairedThere lies a place: unseen, unheard ofBeyond anything, care or repairFilled with haunted, taunted, distorted souls,Who, tortured by the tainted nightCreate their own images and ideas.The thoughts and fears,Become tantrums and tearsAs those lost souls wait patiently by the doorFor new members to […]
Before the Embryo
Written just before going to university. If everything has a beginning, then my birth as a writer must have been on a stereotypically sunny day about 2 months before my 16th birthday. It was then that a close friend handed me a book of short stories that was to change my life. It wasn’t wrapped or […]