About

My name is Candia. Its initial consonant alliterates with “cow” and there are connotations with the adjective “candid.” I started writing this blog in the summer of 2012 and focused on satire at the start. I fictionalised a market town in the South of England and created stereotypical characters to populate it. I tried to use a Alexander McCall Smith ‘Scotland Street’ formula, where real places were referred to, but characters were exaggerated, parodied and enhanced.

This led me to developing one character in particular and I ran with Mr Augustus Snodbury for a while, in order to practise  techniques for a sustained piece of writing which could lead to a P G Wodehouse-style novel. He has been taken to Wine Societies, Twinning Associations, Probus and WI meetings.

Interspersed was ironic news comment, reviews and poetry.

Over the years I have won some international poetry competitions and have published in reputable small presses, as well as reviewing and reading alongside well- established poets.  I wrote under my own name then, but Candia has taken me over as an online persona.  Having brought out a serious anthology last year called ‘Its Own Place’ which features poetry of an epiphanal nature, I was able to take part in an Arts and Spirituality series of lectures in Winchester in 2016.

Lately I have been experimenting with boussekusekeika, sestinas, rhyme royale, villanelles and other forms.  I am exploring Japanese themes at the moment, my interest having been re-ignited by the recent re-evaluations of Hokusai.

Thank you to all my committed followers whose loyalty has encouraged me to keep  writing.  It has been exciting to meet some of you in the flesh- in venues as far flung as  Melbourne and Sydney!