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Nick Goulding

rank: 106

Last week's position: 105

first registered 31.03.11

last online 39 mins ago

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about me



After a Hertfordshire childhood, 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 became a teacher. I have long since left the profession and miss teaching English, particularly. Few of us miss the 'politics' of Education. I trained as a counsellor several years ago but now spend much of my time writing.

A fascination with the way people tick has always driven me 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 real joy is to walk the shores of the bay with my partner, a selkie, I’m sure, searching for sea glass. She turns these 'mermaid's tears' into fine jewellery. We watch the gulls, dodge the waves and discuss plots and plans.

‘Where She Lies’, set within the landscape of Dorset's Jurassic Coast, is a surreal mystery novel embedded within a 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.

A troubled old author, looking back, is haunted by memories that refuse to lie quietly. Layers of time, like the strata of rock that gave life to her quarrying village, cannot hide the truth. A truth she cannot face, more chilling than her fiction. Weaving between past and present, a dark story unfolds.

Compared by some reviewers to ‘Atonement’ and ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’, neither purely supernatural nor thriller, 'Where She Lies' is fusion fiction with a nod towards steampunk.

I can be contacted at: nicholasgoulding@gmail.com



favourite books

Dostoyevsky - The Idiot, Crime and Punishment
Tolstoy - War and Peace, Anna Karenina
Jean-Paul Sartre - Roads to Freedom trilogy
Herman Hesse - The Glass Bead Game
Mervyn Peake - Gormenghast trilogy
Aldous Huxley - various
Barbara Erskine - Lady of Hay, House of Echoes, Midnight is a Lonely Place
Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine - House of Stairs, etc.
Kate Mosse - Labyrinth
Kate Morton - The Distant Hours, The House at Riverton
Philip Pulman - His Dark Materials trilogy
Iris Murdoch - various
P.D.James - various
James Herbert - various
Thomas Hardy (our local hero!)
James Joyce (having another go at finishing Ulysses)
D.H.Lawrence - Women in Love, Sons and Lovers, Lady Chatterley's Lover
Patricia Wright - I am England
Ian McEwan - On Chesil Beach, Atonement
Ilay Cooper - Purbeck Revealed
Alice Sebold - The Lovely Bones

my websites

    

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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? Drawn by an ancient mystery, the children place their trust in Tewt, the enigmatic 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 journey through time that questions reality and the nature of guilt and responsibility.

 

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latest

Bill Carrigan wrote 4 days ago

Nick, Congratulations on making the Desk with your excellent novel....

PEGUS wrote 4 days ago

G'day Nick, My name is Cyril A. Peters. My submission is called No....

Lozzy84 wrote 8 days ago

Hi Nick, 'Where she lies' is a brilliant book. Thank you for addin....

OperaPhantom wrote 10 days ago

Hi Nick Almost a ditto from me too. Read your pitch an....

LondonFog wrote 11 days ago

Thank you Nick, of course as we all know balancing time to read and t....

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my comments

latest

I wrote 9 days ago

‘Ghosts in the Corner’ The pitch drew me in as I’m interested in Alzheimer’s and attended a conference at The Maudesly on it last year. Ch 1 – A very moving, simple, concise depiction of the moment of death. I loved ‘scattered as a token gesture around unfamiliar walls’ – laden with pathos. ... view book

I wrote 25 days ago

[QUOTE] A very gripping and engrossing start to an intriguing tale. I've so far just read the first couple of chapters and have put it on my watchlist to come back to. Couple of little things which are probably completely inconsequential, so just me rambling. Was the Dorset coastline really calle... view book

I wrote 44 days ago

‘The Sky is not Blue’ Just a short comment for now. The pitch is an absolute winner in my opinion. The theme seems to fit perfectly into contemporary needs – a mysterious, half-remembered past, the nostalgia for the seventies, the urge to run away, yet having to confront our fears. I just took... view book

I wrote 65 days ago

‘The Rothko Room’ I like the title – it suggests the mystery and colour of Mark Rothko’s work, matching Arthur's role. The short pitch drew me in. The sardonic humour of the long pitch promises a high-paced amusing read. Part 1 (Don’t need repetition of Pt 1:Mon) Rome Clever beginning – t... view book

I wrote 65 days ago

Thank you so much, R. Claret was the most popular wine of Edwardian times in England and it was a common descriptor of colour. So, as historical accuracy is important I'll probably keep it. Personally, I enjoy coming across new words that relate to different cultures and periods of history. Ju... view book

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