Michelle Barker

In my short stories I’ve enjoyed playing around with narrative voice and structure.

I woke up to rain.

The school playground was where it started.

My latest library haul Quiet places for soothing your soul.

I am building a website, for work.

I recently watched Lauren Celenza’s talk, Living Through an AI Takeover Without Losing Your Soul from Beyond Tellerrand conference.

I’ve long felt uneasy about zoos.

An underrated parenting milestone is the day you can finally claim your living room back.

In the quiet evening hours, as the sun was going down, a lone figure could be observed at the end of the platform.

A little slice of freedom is the sweetest feeling.

It’s in moments before you go out there and face your audience that you know with absolute certainty.

Yesterday I took a trip down to Exeter with a good friend to watch Alanis Morissette play Powderham Castle.

It was as I was pulling into the driveway that I spotted it.

I sit at the table in our small back garden, ice-cold drink in hand.

My band played our first gig last night: an open mic night at Mr Wolf’s in Bristol.

Tonight my band, Green Sirens, make our live debut at an open mic night in Bristol.

At the bottom of the deepest ocean, there is a lake.

Self-imposed deadlines can be useful, when the work is something you actually really want to do.

When light hits a surface and bounces back to our eyes, we see a reflection.

This is a book that would certainly fit into the category of “epic” sci-fi, spanning as it does vast intergalactic distances, countless millennia, and various intriguing alien races.

When you’re ten, the funfair is a place of excitement and adventure.

Eleanor hacked at the brambles until her hands were blistered and sore.

The dawn of day The sparkling dew The rising sun The fresh The new The air The sea The breeze The heat The ground beneath your feet.

We must have walked this path a thousand times, my son and I.

The radio this morning announced that today has broken the record for the hottest day in May ever in the UK.

The sea is in my soul.

The first line is always the hardest.

One of the most significant things that inspired me as a web developer was the sense of community.

In the last few days, the swifts have returned.

Elkin couldn’t remember a time when he hadn’t been on the boat.

I’m currently studying part-time for an MSc in Computer Science.

Journeys are time to think.

The future is coming.

“At OpTeq, we don’t just help your business excel; we build the future, together.”

Inside everyone is a magical pool.

It’s hard to overstate the impact of motherhood.

The birds flitter industriously, feeding and preening.

One thing I enjoy about this month-long writing challenge is that I can release myself from the pressure of delivering a perfect finished product.

I don’t usually walk this way late at night.

Spring.

Most of us experience the phenomenon of time seeming to speed up as we get older.

Mark making with indian ink and brushes by my son and I Every mark you make is different from any that’s ever been made before.

Being on a train was something John Thurlow could get on board with, so to speak.

Decaying, great, grey husks of concrete loom over faceless, corrugated metal boxes and prefabricated cabins, with smokeless chimneys towering over all.

One of my favourite parts of the creative process is the bit after the ideas have crystallised and you just have to knuckle down and do the work.

Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away, there was a planet called Ewokland, home to (you guessed it) the Ewoks.

The other day I was invited by a friend to the opening evening of Spike Island Open Studios, an event where artists would literally open up their studios to show a curated selection of work, or sometimes their work-in-progress.

I woke up early this morning, my head fizzing with ideas.

At a crowded art show, my friend and I found ourselves sitting at a table at the end of the evening talking about writing.