Gaynor Kavanagh and the Story Telling Years
My plans for retirement were pretty straight-forward. A trip to Bhutan, having a go at printmaking and adopting a German Shepherd dog were all high on my list. I didn’t do any of them. Instead, I began to write. (I also began to garden, but that’s another story).
I had published quite a lot in my time as a Professor of Museum Studies and an Art School Dean, but creative writing or story-telling, as I would prefer to call it, is different. To be frank, it has been a learning curve.
Sharing my research through publication is a world away from attempting to write rich, image-laden, dialogue-driven fiction. They are as far apart as the experience of driving a double decker bus and that of riding a motor bus. Suffice it to say, working away at this has brought me here, most probably on a broomstick. 'Here' is this websitey blog, kind of thing.
Part of my purpose is to share my writing with the writing groups, co-conspirators, friends and family who have been my support and inspiration. But it's here too for anyone who is wondering what I've been up to since I retired from being Dean of Cardiff School of Art & Design and stopped (more or less) writing about museums, memories and the senses.
Much that is here began on writing courses at Cardiff University with the brilliant tutor, Briony Goffin. It's fair to say that without her and the generous writers who make up her groups, I would never have got this far. Information on her Writers Studio can be found here https://www.cardiffwritersstudio.co.uk/
What you have available on this website are assorted stories and other tales, much of which started out as 300 word exercises and have stayed that way. Others, such as Po and Anna, have taken flight as short stories or are now parts of longer stories. The short piece I wrote about a Welsh contemporary dancer led on to the draft (and redraft upon redraft) of a novel. It now sits in a drawer, as these things often do.
Those of you who remember my Dad, Eric Coles, will recall how he was very much a story teller. I hope these stories do his memory justice and that you will enjoy what you find here.
© Gaynor Kavanagh