Sharon Keely
@sharonkeely.bsky.social
Fiction aficionado and fictionist.
So the Hamptons and NYC night scene haven't changed in 40 years. Great read, TY Rob Franklin.
This, along with much else, struck a chord:
'But exuberant expressions of rage seemed to him mere admissions of one's vulnerability, the power the other still held. He'd withhold them.'
This, along with much else, struck a chord:
'But exuberant expressions of rage seemed to him mere admissions of one's vulnerability, the power the other still held. He'd withhold them.'
November 14, 2025 at 7:47 PM
So the Hamptons and NYC night scene haven't changed in 40 years. Great read, TY Rob Franklin.
This, along with much else, struck a chord:
'But exuberant expressions of rage seemed to him mere admissions of one's vulnerability, the power the other still held. He'd withhold them.'
This, along with much else, struck a chord:
'But exuberant expressions of rage seemed to him mere admissions of one's vulnerability, the power the other still held. He'd withhold them.'
The power of the novel... I'd read/heard plenty about Ireland's 'mother and baby home' genocides, but it took this book for me to really feel the enormity of it.
'The further the girl was from poverty, the closer her child was to living. Death wasn't random.'
My aunt's child lived.
'The further the girl was from poverty, the closer her child was to living. Death wasn't random.'
My aunt's child lived.
September 16, 2025 at 6:44 PM
The power of the novel... I'd read/heard plenty about Ireland's 'mother and baby home' genocides, but it took this book for me to really feel the enormity of it.
'The further the girl was from poverty, the closer her child was to living. Death wasn't random.'
My aunt's child lived.
'The further the girl was from poverty, the closer her child was to living. Death wasn't random.'
My aunt's child lived.
'We had more children ... so as not to have to spend so much time together. Had we liked each other less we'd have had four, five. There's nothing like love's dilution to keep things in proportion.'
September 15, 2025 at 12:50 AM
'We had more children ... so as not to have to spend so much time together. Had we liked each other less we'd have had four, five. There's nothing like love's dilution to keep things in proportion.'
I couldn't put this down... I first heard about American nurses in the Vietnam War from a really sweet lady (a volunteer at my local library) who served there. In awe that she lived through such horror and somehow regained her lovely disposition in the years since.
September 2, 2025 at 3:07 AM
I couldn't put this down... I first heard about American nurses in the Vietnam War from a really sweet lady (a volunteer at my local library) who served there. In awe that she lived through such horror and somehow regained her lovely disposition in the years since.
I feel like I know this pub...
'Brendan drank in McCrink's every night where the clientele were already dead to themselves, their elegies long written in the heartbreak of their wives and children and their own brokenness.'
'Brendan drank in McCrink's every night where the clientele were already dead to themselves, their elegies long written in the heartbreak of their wives and children and their own brokenness.'
August 22, 2025 at 1:37 AM
I feel like I know this pub...
'Brendan drank in McCrink's every night where the clientele were already dead to themselves, their elegies long written in the heartbreak of their wives and children and their own brokenness.'
'Brendan drank in McCrink's every night where the clientele were already dead to themselves, their elegies long written in the heartbreak of their wives and children and their own brokenness.'
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain.
Unquestionably the most useful book for writers I’ve read in a long time.
Unquestionably the most useful book for writers I’ve read in a long time.
July 5, 2025 at 12:05 PM
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain.
Unquestionably the most useful book for writers I’ve read in a long time.
Unquestionably the most useful book for writers I’ve read in a long time.
Taking a little break from Wimbledon
July 3, 2025 at 10:00 AM
Taking a little break from Wimbledon
But no session moths spotted??
July 1, 2025 at 7:08 PM
But no session moths spotted??
'He took off his hat and hung it on a peg in her entrance-hall which was the shape and size of a small kitchen table, and from the ceiling of which hung a crystal chandelier.'
May 30, 2025 at 3:38 PM
'He took off his hat and hung it on a peg in her entrance-hall which was the shape and size of a small kitchen table, and from the ceiling of which hung a crystal chandelier.'
Pulled this off my shelf a couple of nights ago. Lovely, sweet stories, set in Cumbria's becks and fells, perfect antidote to the daily news. Thank you Jane Gardam, may you rest in peace.
May 21, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Pulled this off my shelf a couple of nights ago. Lovely, sweet stories, set in Cumbria's becks and fells, perfect antidote to the daily news. Thank you Jane Gardam, may you rest in peace.
Delighted to have a piece in Issue 23 here, at p.43
www.thewellsstreetjournal.com/past-issues-1
www.thewellsstreetjournal.com/past-issues-1
May 14, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Delighted to have a piece in Issue 23 here, at p.43
www.thewellsstreetjournal.com/past-issues-1
www.thewellsstreetjournal.com/past-issues-1
'Cynics see social problems, but [no] solutions. [I]f you think our problems [are] who we are, why do anything about it? So cynics end up voting less often ... protesting less often ... people who benefit from a population that doesn't trust itself are often autocrats and authoritarians.'
Ouch!
Ouch!
May 8, 2025 at 1:55 PM
'Cynics see social problems, but [no] solutions. [I]f you think our problems [are] who we are, why do anything about it? So cynics end up voting less often ... protesting less often ... people who benefit from a population that doesn't trust itself are often autocrats and authoritarians.'
Ouch!
Ouch!
'the philosophers were wrong and the meaning of life is not that it ends but that your one job on earth is to make everyone as miserable as your own sad self.' - a piece on our current leadership??
No - it's from Aria Aber's lyrical novel, anyone who was a wild child will love this, set in Berlin:
No - it's from Aria Aber's lyrical novel, anyone who was a wild child will love this, set in Berlin:
April 25, 2025 at 3:30 PM
'the philosophers were wrong and the meaning of life is not that it ends but that your one job on earth is to make everyone as miserable as your own sad self.' - a piece on our current leadership??
No - it's from Aria Aber's lyrical novel, anyone who was a wild child will love this, set in Berlin:
No - it's from Aria Aber's lyrical novel, anyone who was a wild child will love this, set in Berlin:
Before the amazing Belfast writers now on the scene, there was the brilliant Robert McLiam Wilson. Keep a dictionary handy when reading Ripley Bogle. The erudition is way beyond mine - but that doesn't stop it being a great read.
March 20, 2025 at 2:36 PM
Before the amazing Belfast writers now on the scene, there was the brilliant Robert McLiam Wilson. Keep a dictionary handy when reading Ripley Bogle. The erudition is way beyond mine - but that doesn't stop it being a great read.
Picked this up with no expectations, and find I can't put it down! Pure serendipity that it centers on a topic of great interest to me: a life derailed by an out-of-character moment, particularly in our age of cyber-bullying
March 12, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Picked this up with no expectations, and find I can't put it down! Pure serendipity that it centers on a topic of great interest to me: a life derailed by an out-of-character moment, particularly in our age of cyber-bullying
'These are sudden times' says a character.
To which I can only reply, 'No kiddin'!'
To which I can only reply, 'No kiddin'!'
March 7, 2025 at 3:43 PM
'These are sudden times' says a character.
To which I can only reply, 'No kiddin'!'
To which I can only reply, 'No kiddin'!'
Just a reminder, Ireland - tiocfaidh an samhradh - summer will come...
January 26, 2025 at 3:44 PM
Just a reminder, Ireland - tiocfaidh an samhradh - summer will come...
Powerful poem of the poor, everywhere, from Tangier poet Rachida Madani, translated by Marilyn Hacker. ('Shahrayar', vengeful one...)
wordswithoutborders.org/read/article...
January 11, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Powerful poem of the poor, everywhere, from Tangier poet Rachida Madani, translated by Marilyn Hacker. ('Shahrayar', vengeful one...)
wordswithoutborders.org/read/article...
‘curry favour’
from ‘curry Fauvel’
based on 14th century poem Roman de Fauvel.
Fauvel (‘false veil’), a horse, became king and was curried (groomed) by the nobility and clergy; he wanted no dung to remain on him.
Acronym of Flattery, Avarice, Vileness, Envy, Laxity
Satirical prophecy?
from ‘curry Fauvel’
based on 14th century poem Roman de Fauvel.
Fauvel (‘false veil’), a horse, became king and was curried (groomed) by the nobility and clergy; he wanted no dung to remain on him.
Acronym of Flattery, Avarice, Vileness, Envy, Laxity
Satirical prophecy?
December 22, 2024 at 7:47 PM
‘curry favour’
from ‘curry Fauvel’
based on 14th century poem Roman de Fauvel.
Fauvel (‘false veil’), a horse, became king and was curried (groomed) by the nobility and clergy; he wanted no dung to remain on him.
Acronym of Flattery, Avarice, Vileness, Envy, Laxity
Satirical prophecy?
from ‘curry Fauvel’
based on 14th century poem Roman de Fauvel.
Fauvel (‘false veil’), a horse, became king and was curried (groomed) by the nobility and clergy; he wanted no dung to remain on him.
Acronym of Flattery, Avarice, Vileness, Envy, Laxity
Satirical prophecy?
'..how helpless desire is outside its little theater of heat, how ridiculous it becomes the moment it isn't welcomed, even if that welcome is contrived.'
Universal truth from @garthgreenwell.bsky.social
Universal truth from @garthgreenwell.bsky.social
December 20, 2024 at 4:06 PM
'..how helpless desire is outside its little theater of heat, how ridiculous it becomes the moment it isn't welcomed, even if that welcome is contrived.'
Universal truth from @garthgreenwell.bsky.social
Universal truth from @garthgreenwell.bsky.social
‘…when a man speaks from his heart, in his moment of truth, he speaks poetry. …embarrassment, self-consciousness, remembered criticisms, can stifle the average person so that less and less in his lifetime can he open himself out.’
Ray Bradbury's motivational musings and notes on craft:
Ray Bradbury's motivational musings and notes on craft:
December 19, 2024 at 6:43 PM
‘…when a man speaks from his heart, in his moment of truth, he speaks poetry. …embarrassment, self-consciousness, remembered criticisms, can stifle the average person so that less and less in his lifetime can he open himself out.’
Ray Bradbury's motivational musings and notes on craft:
Ray Bradbury's motivational musings and notes on craft:
On the land grab in the American West:
'You could take your slice. Those who had been dispossessed would forever remain so - this was the golden promise of the Republic.'
Kevin Barry in his lyrical and wonderfully funny 'The Heart in Winter.'
'You could take your slice. Those who had been dispossessed would forever remain so - this was the golden promise of the Republic.'
Kevin Barry in his lyrical and wonderfully funny 'The Heart in Winter.'
December 16, 2024 at 2:48 PM
On the land grab in the American West:
'You could take your slice. Those who had been dispossessed would forever remain so - this was the golden promise of the Republic.'
Kevin Barry in his lyrical and wonderfully funny 'The Heart in Winter.'
'You could take your slice. Those who had been dispossessed would forever remain so - this was the golden promise of the Republic.'
Kevin Barry in his lyrical and wonderfully funny 'The Heart in Winter.'
I visited one in Louisiana and one in Florida. Had a trucker play chicken with my teeny car en route to the Louisiana one. I pulled over...
December 11, 2024 at 7:10 PM
I visited one in Louisiana and one in Florida. Had a trucker play chicken with my teeny car en route to the Louisiana one. I pulled over...