Collected Novellas, released March 2025. Early reviews

Cover reveal because I'm not quite done

 Six months ago I announced I was 'hanging up my fountain pen'—I lied!

On March 5th my next book will be released. Those who know, know that this is a 2nd edition of the three novellas Fishermen's Fingers, Eva Matson, and Passport to Perdita, published over the past few years in digital format. Collected Novellas brings them all together in print. The cover is very VERY red. That is because it is part of the 2025 Year of the Womxn for my publisher, the phenomenal Unsolicited Press. 

In other news, I have found a new lease of life with Thelma, pictured with me below. This'll be my author pic for the foreseeable. Yes, she's a T-bird. The 2005 50th Anniversary edition from Ford. Two-seater. Convertible. Beautiful. On the basis that life's too short.

Photo courtesy of my friend, Elke.

Note:  the pages that follow give many more details of these novellas and my other publications. If you are looking for the full list going back to 1958 - my lengthy bio is on the post for August 2020

Hanging up my fountain pen

 I feel the time has come. My next book, a collection of 3 novellas, will be out next year, 2025, in print. Those three novellas are already published individually by Unsolicited Press as e-books.

I feel the time has come. Time to let go of the pressures of deadlines and publishing schedules. Of lovely alpha and beta readers. Of disputing an hotel over a hotel! Of spending time away from the people I love, family, and friends who are family.

I feel the time has come. To stop wondering. Wondering if the remaining mountain of manuscripts could ever see the light of day, or if a bonfire of the vanities would be a better demise for them. Because, as a publisher once said at a forum called 'pitch the publisher', 'Who cares?'

Some of the titles, many written during 17 years of Nano, include, Hens' Teeth, Gececondu, Stones, The Carpet, The Button Tin, a couple of memoirs (in flash), the list goes on. Some made it to publication: Fishermen's Fingers, Passport to Perdita, and Eva Matson. These are the three that will be in the novella collection 2025.

I feel the time has come to leave it all there. To hang up my fountain pen, so to speak. And be content with these achievements. 

I thank you, all my readers, all those who have cheered me on. All those who have understood that the commitments often kept me away. My love for you all never wavers. Thank you.

I feel the time has come. Sue.

The Sequence Dance

The Sequence Dance. Was released April 18th 2023

40 short Fictions. Print. ISBN: 978-1-956692-13-6

Published by Unsolicited Press.  https://www.unsolicitedpress.com/store/p419/THESEQUENCEDANCE.html

The Sequence Dance is a collection that brings together forty award-winning works in one volume. Written over fifteen years, the stories take the reader on a tango around the globe to settings and eras they can smell, they can taste. These are stories filled with human behaviour, intrigue, familiar and yet strange relationships, life’s conflicts and joys, and situations with which a reader may question or connect. 

The book takes its title from a short work of auto-fiction, a story that, as with much of Borgersen’s work, relies on the author’s memory of a time, a place, a conversation, and those unexpected residual emotions.

Cover reveal - Eva Matson

Eva Matson, the novella, was released on May 26th 2022 in digital format. It will be available in print in 2025 as a triple bill with my earlier e-novella, Fishermen's Fingers, and Passport to Perdita (releasing in e-format in 2025).

When Writing is Akin to Knitting

When Writing is Akin to Knitting

Writing for me is like knitting a pair of socks: one-word-at-a-time, one-stitch-at a-time. One-sentence-at-a-time, one-row-at-a-time. Turning points and turning heels. Weaving threads. Overcoming challenges. Running out of yarn/momentum. Shaping. Adding colour. Changing up the intricacies. Keeping it simple. Unravelling the tangles. And yes, pulling all the stitches from the needle, winding the yarn and starting over. Rewriting. And having confidence and commitment to keep going.

Until I write: ‘The End'. Or I cast off.

I’m a knitter. I have been since nursery school where I was taught to knit dishcloth squares before I turned four. That was when I was taught to read and write. These three skills have equipped me through life.

Susan on the lap of her nursery school teacher circa 1947

My approach to writing is so much on a par with knitting I find selecting skeins in luscious colours and textures, winding with the help of another pair of arms, is no different for me to observing human behaviour, being inspired, researching, discussing ideas, and drafting the first elements of a story.

Casting on those first stitches fill me with anticipation of the creation to come. In writing, I build on that, linking ideas, openings, plots, characters, resolutions, settings.

When it comes to knitting socks there are stages—so similar to my approach to writing that I find it hard to separate the two. Once I get started I flow with little to stop me. Like telling a story, I just rattle along. The needles click-clacking to a rhythm. Like the keys of my computer, or pen to paper, just tip-tapping along at speed. In both cases, very often without conscious thought.

Then things come to that, all too often, halt. The story isn’t following the plot, the characters are doing their thing and not mine and it is time to take stock, not unlike like spotting a dropped stitch, knowing it has to be corrected, knowing how to fix it. Recounting stitches. Getting out the tape measure. Asking, what’s the word count again? 

Turning the heel for me is a three-part process. Each stage I tackle in one sitting in order not to lose the thread (pardon the pun). These stages hold up the overall process but are so important.

Like my writing—the stage I always refer to as, ‘the mess in the middle’.

And then it’s bashing onward through the foot to the toe. Bringing the story to a conclusion. Closing the toe. Finishing. Writing: ‘The End’.

There are no other activities I can so closely compare, as I have the two. I am so thankful for my nursery school teaching

Which of your early skills do you still find invaluable? Is there anything you do that you can compare with the writing process?

here's one of my favourite sock patterns

Books by S.B. Borgersen

The following are my 2021 book releases. They are available from all your favourite outlets:

Fishermen's Fingers an e-novella, released on January 1st 2021

Fishermen's Fingers, an e-novella for Kindle

Fishermen's Fingers, an e-novella for Kobo

While the Kettle Boils. 150 micro fictions released on March 9th 2021. The print edition has the novella Fishermen's Fingers included as a bonus.

While the Kettle Boils for Kindle

While the Kettle Boils, print issue

While the Kettle Boils available from Unsolicited Press

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Of Daisies and Dead Violins will release on December 8th 2021 

Available now on preorder

Of Daisies and Dead Violins 

and from amazon  Of Daisies and Dead Violins

More books will be released in 2022 and 2023