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Nick Goulding

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Last week's position: 96

first registered 31.03.11

last online 5 hours ago

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about me


-Just back after inability to access internet for several days - sorry for not messaging those I needed to.

After a childhood in Hertfordshire, I now live a seagull’s swoop from the sea by a beautiful bay in The Isle of Purbeck, Dorset.

I studied psychology and philosophy at uni and, after working at a psychiatric unit, went into teaching but I have long since left the profession. I trained as a counsellor several years ago but, after downshifting, I spend much of my working time writing.

A fascination with the way people tick has always driven my choices in life and it informs my writing now. When not writing, I love to paint and sculpt (the artwork for ‘Where She Lies’ is my own).

A further great joy is to walk along the shores of the bay with my partner, (a selkie, I’m sure!) looking for sea glass ('mermaids tears' which she turns into fine jewellery) and watching the gulls and dodging the waves.

‘Where She Lies’, set within the landscape of Dorset's Jurassic Coast, has evolved considerably since its conception several years ago. It is now a surreal novel embedded within a broadly literary fiction frame - a book within a book with two distinct narrative voices. It explores themes of growing sensuality and awareness within childhood, set against a repressive Edwardian backdrop. The troubled mind of an old author, looking back, is haunted by the past. Weaving between past and present, a dark story unfolds. But the truth she cannot face is even more chilling than fiction.

Neither fantasy nor sci-fi, supernatural or thriller, 'Where She Lies' is 'fusion fiction'.

I am delighted to be a member of the Literary Fiction group 'LF40', on Authonomy, where some rewarding reads await.

I can be contacted at: nicholasgoulding@gmail.com

favourite books


Jean-Paul Sartre - Roads to Freedom trilogy
Dostoyevsky
War and Peace
Herman Hesse - The Glass Bead Game
Mervyn Peake - Gormenghast trilogy
Aldous Huxley
Barbara Erskine
Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine - House of Stairs
Kate Moss (not the model!)
Philip Pulman
Iris Murdoch
P.D.James
Thomas Hardy (our local hero!)
James Joyce (having another go at finishing Ulysses)
D.H.Lawrence
Patricia Wright - I am England
Ian McEwan - On Chesil Beach, Atonement
Ilay Cooper - Purbeck Revealed

my websites

    

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Self-publish with CreateSpace

my books

Where She Lies

Nick Goulding

Dark secrets haunt the old novelist as she strives to complete her final work before it is too late. Can she really re-write childhood?


She turned her body into stone. Stone cannot feel. Stone cannot bleed.

As Emma lies dying, she has one urgent request. Words must be spoken if she is to finally let go.

In Edwardian Dorset, four children running carefree through Heaventree Wood become entangled in threads of good and evil that have rippled and weaved since time beyond memory. Enmeshed, their lives will never be free. Three men plot to take over the wood, but what is their real motive? Who is the girl in white flitting between the trees, and why is she so afraid? Threatened by an ancient evil, the children place their trust in Tewt, the mysterious man of the woods, and face betrayal.

Were they really days of innocence and imagination? An old lady, haunted and tortured by the past, prays she has enough time to finish her last work. The wood had always healed itself and hidden its secrets. But some things refuse to lie quietly. In the dark, evil does not always recognize itself.

A surreal novel within a novel, a tale of hidden things, 'Where She Lies' is a spiritual journey through time that questions reality and the nature of good and evil.

 

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latest

Wanttobeawriter wrote 12 hours ago

Nick, You left my book WHO KILLED THE PRESIDENT a favorable comment l....

Zijn wrote 23 hours ago

“It was two kids against the world. And the world didn’t stand a chan....

Casimir Greenfield wrote 1 day ago

Hello again...glad you enjoyed. The last show also featured yours tru....

Sam Rivers wrote 1 day ago

Thanks very much Nick, looking forward to reading your work too. Sa....

Casimir Greenfield wrote 1 day ago

Nick - I play requests too...as long as it's not 'Shut Up!' Which ....

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my comments

latest

I wrote 2 days ago

‘A Traveler's Soliloquies: a collection of poems, illustrated!’ This is a wonderful collection of poems. I particularly enjoyed those dedicated to childhood, emphasising the need for freedom and the absorbing of nature’s beauty. The poems are sensual, particularly visual, I think and they evoke... view book

I wrote 12 days ago

‘Swimming Naked’ Such a hook in the title and the wonderful cover – both carefully and courageously chosen. The pitch draws me in totally as a repressed Brit confused by a lifetime of bafflement at the complexities of female desire – perhaps I am not alone in this? That first paragraph won me ove... view book

I wrote 25 days ago

I'm delighted to back this wonderful book. I'll read more of 'A Relative Loss' and comment more fully at a later date. Nick 'Where She Lies' view book

I wrote 31 days ago

Hi Kit, Thank you so much for taking the trouble to read 'Where She Lies' and for your helpful and constructive comments. I really appreciate your words. I'll take a little time to go through the review, naturally. Just a quick response - I've just been working on a dialogue between Emma and Ivy wh... view book

I wrote 36 days ago

'The Licenser’ The cover is okay, though it doesn’t come over as strongly in the small Authonomy image. The title too, is quite good – mysterious in that I was not sure what a licenser is or does. Short pitch: To the point, setting and character, inviting. Long pitch: Nice parallels to the prese... view book

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