The Sequence Dance

The Sequence Dance. Releasing April 18th 2023

40 short Fictions. Print. Available for preorder:  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 

An Interview with the Arts and Literary Journal, ArtAscent

It is May 2021.  With the launch of Fishermen's Fingers (my e-novella) in January. And While the Kettle Boils (micro fiction) releasing in March, it slipped my mind that I did an interview with the fabulous arts and literary journal, ArtAscent, a couple of months ago. You can watch it here:

Link to my interview with ArtAscent.

Publication release for While the Kettle Boils

While the Kettle Boils released March 9th 2021

My long awaited collection of micro fictions is here.

150 stories each of approximately 150 words. These stories were written one-a-week for three years with breaks for Christmas from 2016 to 2019. They were originally drafted, yes, while my kettle boiled (then went through a fair bit of editing in the months that followed). They are humorous, sad, thought-provoking and all points between. They are brief enough to be read while your own kettle boils. Short enough to read from your phone even.

There's a bonus novella at the back. It's supposed to be a surprise!

Availability is noted at the end of this post. A launch will be announced in the early summer. 

978-1-950730-74-2

Here's the Press release:

 While the Kettle Boils

Remarkable Nova Scotian Author Pens Flash Fiction Collection

PORTLAND, OR; March 9, 2021—Unsolicited Press announces the release of WHILE THE KETTLE BOILS by S.B. Borgersen, a short fiction collection that reaches into the hearts of every reader. 

WHILE THE KETTLE BOILS by S.B. Borgersen is a fervent and economical collection featuring 150 perfectly manicured micro-fictions. Jude Higgins, the event organizer at Bath Flash Fiction, called the collection, “Witty and insightful... Borgersen’s tiny stories have inspired other writers from all over the world.”

About S.B. Borgersen

S.B. Borgersen is a British/Canadian author, of middle England and Hebridean ancestry, whose favoured genres are flash and micro fiction, and poetry. She had a diverse career path, an analyst in a shoe factory, the same thing for a children’s book publisher, teaching art, and filing for the civil service, but mostly she climbed a precarious ladder in the IT industry culminating in strategy and project management, which, by necessity in those days, included writing writing writing mountains of non-fiction — always allowing herself to be slightly creative with proposals, reports, technical and training documentation.

 

Sue turned her back on industry and commerce in the early nineties, escaping the stressful rat-race and finding the simple life and peaceful place she’d always sought to allow for creativity. That place was Nova Scotia where she returned to her skills from art school and made an uncomplicated living as a visual artist and potter. That is, until she got the creative writing bug. Since 2000 her writing has won prizes, been mentioned in Hansard and published internationally in literary journals and anthologies (print and online). The list of publications is extensive and can be found at www.sueborgersen.com. She is a member of both The Society of Authors UK, and The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia. 

Sue lives in a crumbling old house on the shores of Nova Scotia with her patient husband and a clutch of lovable rowdy dogs. 

About Unsolicited Press

Unsolicited Press was founded in 2012 and is based in Portland, OR. The press strives to produce exceptional works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from award-winning authors. Learn more at  www.unsolicitedpress.com. Follow the press on Instagram and Twitter @unsolicitedp.

While the Kettle Boils is available on March 9, 2021 as a paperback (248 p.; 978-1-950730-74-2)  and e-book (all major retailers). The title is distributed to the trade by Ingram.

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Press only, Unsolicited Press

Eric Rancino

619.354.8005 

marketing@unsolicitedpress.com 

For artist interviews, readings, and podcasts:

S.B. Borgersen

sueborgersen@hotmail.com

Available from your regular book shop or library, just quote 978-1-950730-74-2. and check the Borgersen spelling!

Some of the places you can find it too:

Unsolicited Press

Barnes and Noble

https://www.booktopia.com.au/while-the-kettle-boils-s-b-borgersen/book/9781950730742.html

Waterstones

https://bookshop.org/books/while-the-kettle-boils/9781950730742

https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/while-the-kettle-boils/9781005388249-item.html

Announcing Two Books by S.B. Borgersen

 Unsolicited Press is a publisher that does not mess around. Once the proposal is accepted—contracts are agreed and the editorial schedule is established. And this is what happened to me in the summer of 2019.

As a result of working closely with Managing Editor, Summer Stewart, two of my books are now available on pre-order from an Amazon near you, and from Unsolicited Press (be still my beating heart): 

Fishermen's Fingers direct from the publisher. Or from Amazon. 

Kicked from one orphanage to another, Lenny’s had a raw deal from his first breath…until the rebel in him finds a way through. 

"Fishermen’s Fingers" peeks into the underbelly of a remote coastal community, revealing how poverty, an unwanted pregnancy, and a bad start in life can lead to a precarious adulthood for those who are different, like Lenny.

There are no real worries in small communities where houses are not locked and children are sent alone to the store for a loaf of bread, but when 10-year-old Betty isn’t in her usual seat at school, her teacher, Miss Watson, has to explain to students the perils of talking to strangers.

Like most aftermaths, this becomes a story of ‘if-onlys,’ where naivety and trust blind those who should have seen, should have known.

But where strong bonds of friendship, love and caring are never far away.

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Also announced for pre-order this week is my collection of micro fictions, 150 in all. The print issue will come with a bonus. There is also talk of an audio book, but keep that under your hat for now...

This is what my publisher says: WHILE THE KETTLE BOILS is a spunky and economical micro-fiction collection with 150 baubles to savor. Readers will be thrilled to find a very special surprise at the end of the printed collection. Preorder today for release on March 9th 2021.

As many of you know, this is a collection written over three years. Micro fiction is a favourite genre of mine and forces me to edit out anything extraneous. They are quick reads, but often they make you wonder and want to read again. This is what early readers have said:

Again, you can pre-order from the publisher Unsolicited Press or from an amazon near you Amazon.ca books by S.B. Borgersen

My third book for 2021 will be released in December. It is a 20 year collection of Poetry, Of Daisies and Dead Violins. Please let me know if you'd like to be on the mailing list for advanced information. Thank you.