Lazarus Carpenter at Quiet Space Studio

It is so lovely to welcome storytellers, poets, authors and writers from all over the country to come and share their work at Quiet Space Studio. 

Every month I have a Resident Author in so much as they are resident on the Quiet Space Website and their work is promoted within the studio.

This month it has been a joy to promote the work of Lazarus Carpenter. Although he is best known for his award winning songwriting and festival events, he is in fact a prolific writer.

In my last blog about him he gave a deep insight into his first book the Ballad of Penygraig and in this interview, he tells us about his new trilogy, The Prophecy. 

It is sounds absolutely intriguing based on part legend, part history and a good part of Lazarus' never ending creative mind, he explores ... well ... I won't give too much away ... have a listen and hear it from the man himself ... 

Eyes to the Soul of a Welsh Woollen History

This is the 3rd blog about my trip to the National Wool Museum of Wales, last week. I was totally inspired by it in so many ways. I want to show you these wonderful window panes from the old part of the mill, upstairs. They are completely shot through but there is something about them that really touches me. 

If we take that windows are the eyes to the soul of a building, what do these windows tell us about the soul of the mill and those that worked within her in during times gone by?

Interestingly in this window above, someone has replaced a broken pane with clear glass and we see the welsh green grass calling. Perhaps this is why the old mill glass is textured, to stop workers from gazing at grazing sheep? It really made me think about the Industrial Revolution, how it focused on speed and standardisation almost stripping the human joy from it.

To my mind, these fractured panes are pieces of art in their own right. Stressed and broken but still holding together creating a landscape of what has been.

        

And this is the window that lit the room where the bobbin carriers, the cardroomers, the doublers, the draw boys, the fettlers  the heck makers & so many more, will have spent their lives as they set about weaving our history.

Tinnitus Solutions for Writers

One of the most difficult things since having severe tinnitus and hyperacusis with my hearing loss, is my ability to concentrate for long periods of time. It can be very distracting having a constant cacophony of tones going on in one's head. I have gotten round this by stopping regularly while writing and finger knitting to clear my head with my tactile mantra ... but it is stopping the flow I am used to when writing. Then I came up with a plan.

I don't know why it didn't dawn on me before because I have collected likely 1000's of stories in my lifetime, editing recordings and digital films for community based projects. 

So, I decided to start recording my quiet pathway in the style of a children's story ... 

'In our village, just opposite the bus stop, behind a large trough of wild flowers that generously spill summer fragance for those passing by, there is a corner shop. It is not an ordinary corner shop for inside, sits and old woman who spends her days weaving wool and penning poems ... '

However, when I came to type up the story from my recorded spoken word, it was as if I had hit a block. Then another idea came to me.

A friend of a friend (who I won't mention just yet as I need to make sure she wouldn't mind being in my blog) came to visit me. She has increasingly struggled with her tinnitus. She has worked in primary education all her life. Like I did, she is finding is increasingly difficult to manage her tinnitus in this environment and is looking for new ways of working for the future. She had thought of editing because she has an English Degree and loves books.

I contacted her and asked if she would like us to help each other, where I would be her first editing job, to trial and see if it is something she could do as a alternative career.

Today, I sent her the first short story in a series entitled Quiet Space, recorded in my Quiet Space Studio.

I love that 2 women coming to terms with tinnitus and new ways of being, have come together with their strengths to find a solution.

And I share this with you to help you think about ways you might collaborate with others to become re-empowered should the wind have been knocked out of your sails, in the way that it has mine. But with no wind, it is time to sit still and enjoy the sun, to wonder at the depth of the ocean and make friends with a new type of lifestyle.