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Lurking Musings

~ Musings of a newly published writer

Lurking Musings

Tag Archives: Poetry

Exit pursued by a Dalek… A tale of a fashionably late World Book Night

27 Sunday Apr 2014

Posted by D.A Lascelles in Musings

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

After the Funeral, Agatha Christie, Anna Percy, Ben Aaronovitch, books, Dalek, Dermot Glennon, Doctor Who, Ed Fortune, Fab Cafe, Flapjack Press, Frances Hardinge, free books, Jackie O'Hagan, Manchester, Manchester Museum, Ninfa Hayes, Poetry, R.A Smith, Rivers of London, Sarah Grace Logan, Starburst Magazine, TARDIS, Tony Curry, Transitions, World Book, World Book Night, Zach Roddis


Myself and Ed Fortune sat in front of a TARDIS. Picture taken by Frances Hardinge

Myself and Ed Fortune sat in front of a TARDIS. Picture taken by Frances Hardinge

World Book Night happens annually on the same day as Shakespeare’s Death, the 23rd April. On this day, volunteers give out free books in order to encourage reading in those who do not read much. Being a World Book Night giver I was of course giving out books on that night…

Except I wasn’t. Because I was giving them away on the 24th April. A day late… Damned temporal distortions again.

That was the base concept behind the Fashionably Late World Book Night party at the Fab Café in the city centre of Manchester. To be fashionably late in giving away our books. So, I turned up at a Geek themed basement bar with a bag full of books and author Frances Hardinge in tow for a night of poetry, prose and free books.

And there were a lot of free books:

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Not only were there the 18 copies of Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London and the 36 copies of Agatha Christie’s After the Funeral provided to our givers by the World Book Night charity but also a large collection of ex review copies of books that had been sent to the Starburst offices and which were now no longer needed. This meant that any SF or fantasy fan could walk out with quite a haul if they so chose and the murder mystery fans were not ignored either. The books proved very popular with the crowd in the venue. Some of them had come here just for the books, some of them had been drawn by the promise of readings by local writers and poets and the chance to hob nob with them. Many more had come because it was a Thursday night and they always went to Fab on a Thursday.

The readings and guest writers were also popular. Everywhere you went there were conversations between writers, poets and their fans in topics ranging from their latest books to why it is not possible to do a decent film version of Lovecraftian horror. The bar was doing a roaring trade and the atmosphere was friendly and open. The SF theme decorations added to the unique nature of the venue and had at least one contributor (who shall remain nameless) running around gleefully with a camera taking shots of Daleks, Cybermen and TARDIS’s left right and centre. I was also taking photos, of course, but in my case it was, um, for professional reasons.

 

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Even the presence of some of TVs most intimidating and scary villains did little to dampen the mood.

 

There was only one critic present at the event but he was notoriously brutal...

There was only one critic present at the event but he was notoriously brutal…

Though they did seem to lurk menacingly off stage whenever a writer was up doing their reading…

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reading3However, the presence of the resident critic from the Skaro evening Chronicle (tagline ‘News to exterminate to’) did little to deter the performers. We opened with R.A Smith who read an extract from his debut novel, Oblivion Storm. It went down well, he got applause and was not exterminated.

This was followed by, um, me… reading an extract from Transitions. This was my first ever public reading and I was petrified. Yeah, I know, I’m a teacher as well as a writer and yes speaking in public (sometimes in front of very hostile audiences) is part of the job. It’s practically all the job (well, apart from the planning, marking, admin and occasional public appearances for publicity) so I shouldn’t have been so scared. Shouldn’t but I was. You see, there is a difference between standing there and talking freely about a topic you know a lot about and reading something out loud. With the former there is room for improvisation and the chance to have discussions and take questions from the audience – to get them involved and active in the process. Reading aloud is more static and you have to stick to the script. It is not the time to start subconsciously editing your own work and reading out this new edited version instead of the published one (which I may have done a little bit). Also, the lack of light made reading difficult (thankfully the representative of Flapjack Press was able to supply a reading light to those who came after me to solve this problem). Despite all these issues I managed to struggle through the section where Gaius Lucius meets the mad old man in the cave and got my own round of applause and absence of extermination.

The poets and writers of Flapjack Press then took the stage in turns and wowed the audience with their poetry and prose. They included Tony Curry who read out poems relating to what it was like to be a man and Sarah Grace Logan whose poetry contrasted nicely with its more feminist vibe and her works based on the objects she sees daily in her work at the Manchester Museum.

reading10 reading11This was followed by Frances Hardinge who read out a chilling extract from her latest and as yet unreleased novel, Cuckoo Song. It was unfortunate that due to a postal service snafu there were no copies of this book available for sale or signing. If the expected parcel from her publisher had actually arrived that night would have been the first time and place that book would have been on sale in the reading15world – a true exclusive.

There was then a short break before the second half of the evening, this compered by another local poet, Anna Percy who also performed her own poetry. She was joined by Dermot Glennon, Zach reading25Roddis and the wonderfully anarchic comedy poetry of Jackie O’Hagan making this night a truly North Western literary occasion. All performers were well received by the audience and did sterling sets that ended in applause. More importantly, none of them were exterminated by the resident critic, for which I am sure they were all grateful.

Unfortunately we had to leave before the end, though I hear that the evening ended with dancing to nineties classics which I am sorry we missed. On the free book table as we left there were no more copies of Rivers of London and only a handful of copies of After the Funeral. The Starburst review copies were also much reduced, presumably meaning that there is now much more room in their offices for future ARCs. I grabbed a handful of the Agatha Christies as we said our final goodbyes to Anna Percy and the other contributors. Those copies were offered to students at my college the next morning and one was gifted to the college library.

Shown here are only a handful of the photographs I took that evening. I’d try to cram more in but I fear this blog post would be an endless sea of photography. If you want to seem more of them, you can go and look at my Flickr account. If any of the poets or writers who were there wish to  make use of any of these for their own web pages or blogs you may feel free. Contact me and I can send you the original copies. I’d appreciate an acknowledgement in return.

With such a successful night I am not sure how we can beat it next year but I am sure we will have a damn good try. There may have to be ballet dancing elephants.

 

 

[Vampire Month] Dianna Hardy Interview

20 Tuesday Mar 2012

Posted by D.A Lascelles in Guest posts

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

A Silver Kiss, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Demons, demons and angels, Dianna Hardy, Eric Northman, greatest weakness, guest blogging, guest posts, poetic things, Poetry, professional writer, Spike, The Witching Pen, Vampire Poetry, Vampires, Witches, writing


This week we take a close look at author (and Vampire poet) Dianna Hardy as she suffers the probing questions of the interview…

Dianna Hardy is a multi-genre author of paranormal things, dark things, poetic things, sexy things, taboo things, and sometimes funny things. Writes about witches, demons and angels. All info can be found on her website DiannaHardy.com

What is the earliest memory you have of writing? What did you write about?

I think the first “book” I ever wrote was Little Miss Rainbow, when I was around eight years old. I drew pictures in it and stapled it all together, but don’t ask me what the story was actually about because I have no idea – I can’t remember! Possibly something about how Little Miss Rainbow got her colours, or shares her colours to make people happy.

When did you decide to become a professional writer? Why did you take this step?

I thought I was going to be a professional writer at around sixteen and seventeen, when I was heavily into my poetry phase, and also writing a few short stories, some of which I managed to get published in small press magazines (before the days of eBooks!). Those ideas were quickly stifled by people that scoffed at the idea, and by a general disappointment in the education system at the time (I was doing my ‘A’ Levels). So I sort of brushed it aside for other stuff. More recently, it was giving birth – almost three years ago now – that had be going insane with boredom, and wondering what the hell I could do with myself. There’s something about being a mother that really asks you to tap into your creativity, and I refound my love of writing again. Only now, digital books exist and self-publishing is accessible. I never looked back.

What would you consider to be your greatest strength as a writer? What about your greatest weakness? How do you overcome this weakness?

Greatest strength: characterisation (that is, getting inside a character’s head).

Greatest weakness: procrastination. The solution? I have no idea I’ll let you know when I find it!

Tell us about the place where you live. Have you ever derived any inspiration from your home or from anywhere you have visited?

I am not inspired at all by where I live at the moment. I like countryside, or at least being within 20 minutes walking distance of a good country / woodland walk, and at the moment, I’m living in a town that’s sort of grey and a little urban, and … ugh … I’d love to move away. Countryside and natural things around me inspire me: rolling hills or mountains, trees, woodland, etc.

Which book, if any, would you consider to be your greatest influence and inspiration?

I do not even know where to begin with this question – there have been so many over the years. More recently, it was reading Heather Killough-Walden’s Big Bad Wolf series that inspired me to write paranormal romance, not least because that was a self-published series that hit the Kindle bestseller list (and has since then gone way beyond that). I loved her writing style and the story, and it motivated me to write my own paranormal romance series – The Witching Pen Novellas. (This one’s not about vampires.)

What drove you to write about Vampires?

Vampires have always been a huge love of mine. They’ve always represented a shadow to be embraced; monsters in which you can find beauty within ugliness. It was this concept that inspired me to write A Silver Kiss (Vampire Poetry). This is a gothic collection of dark, freestyle and rhyming poetry that studies the above idea of the shadows within human nature, using the vampire as a tool for that study.

I’m also a third way through a novel called Project Veil (working title), which is my own brand of vampire mythology. There’s no release date yet, but keep an eye out!

What do you think is the attraction for Vampire fiction? Why is it such a popular topic?

Everyone is looking to find beauty and acceptance within their darkness – that is what vampires represent, and that is why I feel they are popular.

In a fight between all the greatest Vampires of fiction, who do you think would come out on top?

Oh God, I don’t know! Probably Spike from Buffy, because he handles his torture with tongue-in-cheek humour and is forever the optimist. That smacks of ‘winner’ to me.

What about in some other contest such as sexiness or dress sense? Who would win that one?

Eric Northman for sexiness (when he’s being a bad boy, not when he’s being a drooling romantic).

How well do you think your character would fare against the winner(s) of the above?

Oh, my main guy in the upcoming Project Veil would win hands down. Even I’m drooling over him, and I wonder if that’s the real reason why I had to stop writing the novel for a bit 😉

Tell us the basic premise behind your latest novel.

 I can’t really talk about Project Veil yet, as it’s so new and still being written and plotted out. But I can talk a little about The Witching Pen Novellas and its spin-off novel The Last Angel. I touch – just touch – on vampires in the third book of the series, The Demon Bride, and they’ll be mentioned again in The Last Angel, although vampires will not play an active part. They are intertwined with my mythology involving ‘bloodthirsty angels’. From this mythology, comes the book Project Veil. So although there will be no direct link between my current series and Project Veil, there will be that mythological tie that is touched on in The Demon Bride and The Last Angel.

 Current info can be found here: http://www.thewitchingpen.co.uk and anything about Project Veil will be updated on my main website, or my Facebook Page.

 

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