Headlines & Other Growing Pains

Stories by Celia Bryce

£5.99 paperback
ISBN 978-1-903914-23-6

You couldn't shine packing the shelves in Finnegan's Store. Be noticed. All those tins and boxes. Pricing them, stacking them, moving them. And then more tins and boxes to price, stack and move. You could only shine if you were full-time and on checkouts. Like Lorna. We Saturday girls longed to be Lorna. The world of checkouts was a glamorous one. It was silver lined and shone like something glittering at a dance. And we Saturday girls were just Cinderellas. Waiting for our chance. Breathless. But the day Lorna didn't turn up for work was the day the world stopped and we knew something was wrong.

Extract from Saturday Girls

Celia Bryce is an accomplished writer of plays and short stories. Her short stories have been published in national magazines and broadcast frequently on BBC Radio 4. In 2003 she received the Richard Imison Award for radio drama. Headlines & Other Growing Pains is a collection of short stories, a bittersweet, sometimes poignant, sometimes humorous take on the adult world seen through the eyes of a growing child.

Also available: No Deals, No Promises

Singer and songwriter Celia has recently launched a solo album under the Vermillion Road label. Celia is lead vocalist with Tyneside country rock band The Katy Freeway but her album No Deals, No Promises which was recorded mainly at Cluny Studios, Newcastle upon Tyne, features a range of styles and is the culmination of a decade of writing for band and solo performance and reflects the many musical influences which have appealed to her over the years.

"I’ve been singing for ever, it seems," Celia says, "and I’ve often been asked about recording an album and well, here it is, better late than never!" The CD includes two non-original numbers and these are Irish traditional songs. "It’s to do with way back, when I was younger," Celia explains. "Jarrow born and bred, Irish songs and music played a big part in my life; these two songs are very special to me."

Further details from celiabryce.co.uk or smartchoicemusic.com