I’m Michael Graeme. I’m based in the North West of England where I write fiction – short stories and novels – also poetry. I’m an independent author, mostly unpublished in the traditional sense, and nowadays I give my work away mainly on Feedbooks . I explain my reasons for this on the Long Fiction page.
As regards this blog you’ll find the occasional plug for my latest work, but mostly it’s an eclectic mix of essays and comments on things that interest me, and which I hope you’ll find interesting too.
Michael Graeme
My thanks go to number one son for the header picture, captured with a quick eye on his LG Cookie, in April 2010, on Southport beach – with just a little post processing in photoshop.
Hi Michael,
The header pic just takes the breath away ! .. Liked your writing too …
au revoir !
Thank you Lakshmi.
It was one of those rare pictures, somehow capturing the feel of the moment. I like your writing too. You keep a passionate, sincere and innovative blog. My respects.
Michael
Wanted to add this info. Have you checked out the GoodReads website. It’s a great place for Indie writers. You can actually enter one of your lulu books in a free giveaway. Also pick up some other indie-writes.
regards, Mary
Thanks Mary. I’ve been dithering about Goodreads for a while. I think a couple of my books are listed by readers on there, but I’ve not taken the plunge yet.**
**Okay. I’ve stopped dithering now and signed up – thanks for the advice.
Regards
Michael
Hi Mr Graeme, i hope that you’ll be able to read this comment, coz i don’t really know any other way to try to contact you.
I started reading your books early this year, where i was holed up in my hostel, running out of material to read and engage myself in. And i have NEVER regretted that decision.
I’m desperately praying that you’ll start a sequel or…perhaps, just a short ending of sorts for “The Road from Langholm Avenue”. I would be lying if i said that your book did not haunt me for the past few weeks, even when i slept, i dreamt about Tom and Eleanor. I liked the way that you ended it, ambiguous, with just the hint of mystery behind it. But i would really, really wish for a ending of sorts, like…the final fullstop to Eleanor’s journey.
The revelation that she loved him came…slightly abruptly i felt, but nonetheless, it felt…right. Perfect. I don’t know much about literature, but i would really, really appreciate it if you could write a happy ending for my favourite couple. A short story…or just…a conclusion. It practically tears me up when i spend time imagining about what could have been for them.
I hope you would not find my request absurd, or unwarranted, considering the fact that i believed that you have already ended the book in your best,possible ending. I would just hope that you would be able to provide a small form of an ending for me….really.
Lastly, thank you for writing the book. It was my favourite, and i gained a sense of understanding after reading it, understanding which i would have never attained in my life if i had not finished “The Road from Langholm Avenue”.
Thank you, Mr Graeme.
Yours,
Amanda Yang (16)
Hi Amanda, first of all, thank you for such a touching comment. When you’re writing like I do, for nothing, hearing from a reader who has got something out of my work really is everything. I appreciate it.
You’re not a alone in asking about a more concrete conclusion to The Road From Langholm Avenue. Others have written to me asking for a sequel and I have thought about it. Tom and Eleanor mean a lot to me too. I’m glad I was able to convey the depth of their connection to someone else.
I was trying to be positive with that ending but without being too soppy – leaving clues for the reader to guess at a happy ending but to join the dots themselves and maybe to think about Tom and Eleanor’s relationship in a way that was personal to them.
Perhaps I tried too hard to be mysterious.
But Eleanor still has his key, and as I wrote that closing chapter I knew that one day she would use it. It might take a while, while she thought things over, but if her love for Tom was true, which it was, then she couldn’t hurt him. She had no other choice but to be waiting for him one day. I think Tom knew that too, which is why, even after the loss of everything else – his job, his marriage, and the love of his life – he didn’t feel downhearted. He still had a future.
He’d walk in, see her sitting at the kitchen table tapping that key impatiently, and just when he was thinking she’d come to simply return it, she’d give him a warming smile, take off her coat, and ask him if he wanted a cup of tea.
Then out of the corner of his eye, Tom would spy the bin bags in the hall, containing what few possessions she had, and which she’d cleared out of that old place on Arkwright Street, months earlier – and his heart would skip a beat, because he knew she meant to stay – that Phil had dropped her off with everything she owned and there was no going back for her.
And in that moment Tom would feel the enormity of the chance she was taking on him, and then at once he’d make the transition from loving Eleanor, which he always had, and dearly, to being in love with her.
Eleanor had had a rough journey and she deserved a safe landing with a decent guy like Tom, just as Tom deserved the warmth and wisdom of a devoted woman like Eleanor. They each completed the other, and maybe speaking as a writer I was still too much in love with Rachel to do them justice. I just figured they’d be all right, and they’d work things out on their own.
I’ll give that sequel some thought.
But thanks again Amanda.
Best wishes
Michael
I just discovered you are following my blog – “A Way With Words”. I am grateful you were drawn to my corner of the blogosphere and you found my writing worthy enough of your attention. I will be following your work as well. Perhaps we can encourage each other on the way.
Thanks again,
Tony “indytony” Roberts