Didn't See Nothing at Word of Mouth

It's all been a bit full on since my last blogpost (buy me a coffee and I'll talk you through it - all good, but blimey), but a quick thank you to Pippa Hennessy for her support in bringing the Word of Mouth Event to Antenna at the end of 2013.
I had a great night listening to a world of crime-related tales, and a terrifying but worthwhile five minutes performing 'Didn't See Nothing'.  Thanks also to Leftlion for the review of the event.

If you'd like to read Didn't See Nothing, it'll cost you precisely nothing - take a look below:

Performance! Word of Mouth, 7.30pm 3rd December

After finding out it's going to be published in the NWS Crime Sampler Journal, I'll be performing 'Didn't See Nothing' as part of Word of Mouth at Antenna next month.

I've already had some brilliant comments about the story before I knew it was going to be included in the journal, but reading it and hearing it are two very different things - It's going to be really interesting to see how the audience will react to my performance of the story.

Inspiration, collaboration, publication

I’ve started this week with a team meeting, which is easy when you’re a team of one.  Sorting the diaries is a doddle, as is remembering who ordered the coffee (even remembered the cinnamon this time).  The challenge of being a team of one is that no-one else asks you what you’re doing about the Good Ideas you had the week before – so this is a meeting to look at what went well last week, and what I'm doing about it this week.  I guess these are the minutes of the meeting…

I started last week wearing my scriptwriting hat, with a fantastic meeting to discuss ways to support the participants of the new Shine a Light project at Quad in Derby – it’s a fantastic opportunity for people aged over sixty to get involved with filmmaking, and I’m looking forward to seeing the results of the project on the big screen.

Wednesday brought another great meeting with a new writer contact I met through Derbyshire Scriptwriters – we shared an interest in developing a story which was outlined at a recent meeting, so we caught up for a coffee to discuss it (I can see a pattern emerging…)  After writing alone, it’s nervewracking to work your way through a story with someone else, but the experience is invaluable, as are the results – even at the first treatment stage, I think we’ve got a cracking story to show you.

Thursday took me to Creative Brews at Nottingham Writers Studio, where I finished my short film treatment in between talking about the mythology of animals, followed by a great email – my short story, ‘Didn’t See Nothing’ will be featured in the next Nottingham Writers Studio journal (I ordered another coffee to celebrate).  It’s a piece I’m really proud of, and really pleased I submitted it after discussing it with the Young Adult and Children writing group at NWS.  Some of the work will be showcased at a Word of Mouth in December, fingers crossed one of them will be mine…

So that was last week, what about this week?

All of a sudden, after sharing work and ideas with other inspirational writers, I’m working on multiple projects.   As well as my Middle Grade WIP, Red – I’ve a couple of short stories to prepare for submission, a short film to develop, a tricky synopsis to wrangle into submission, and copy edits on ‘Didn’t See Nothing’ following it’s successful submission.  And I’ll be updating the Writing at Rosys team with my progress on a short story they helped to inspire, along with a creative workshop with the YAC group this Friday.
And, of course, writing, writing, writing.

Any other business?  How about another coffee…?

Epic steps at Lady Bay

Words are pretty amazing things- whether they're blobs on paper, or lights on a screen, or vibrations in the air, they can mean different things to different people all at once (especially in the brilliant, confounding, inspiring craziness that is English), and stand out for all sorts of brilliant reasons…

I’ve just read a lovely group email from Mary Small and the team behind the Nottingham Children’s Book Festival to say a big thank you to everyone who played a part in their very first festival on Saturday – hundreds of families joined us in the rain to get stuck into stories, poems, illustrations – and Epics!



Epic preparation!

The young (and not quite so young) writers who joined us for 'Your Epic Starts Here!' on the day were superb as always – and I was amazed again just how creative we can all be – all it takes is a little inspiration and encouragement.  I saw princes in swamps (a bad place for a prince to be, so a good place to start a story!), soldiers resting between battles, and worlds you could only reach in a way that was simple and amazing all at once.  Even the volunteers joined in (to the lady who shared her epic hero – write that epic, or I will!)

But once the pens are collected in and the room goes quiet before the next workshop, you wonder what will happen next to those stories… then I read Mary’s email and saw one word from the great feedback the festival had collected on that day-

‘Epic’

Something tells me that for at least one of those Epics, it's only just the beginning – and I’m honoured to play a part in inspiring people to create their own Epic tales. 

If you'd like to know a bit more about what 'Your Epic Starts Here!' is all about, take a look here.