Event | Writing Fiction

21February2012

Outer space comes to Edinburgh

February 21, 2012Leave a comment

Back in October, I did my first public reading at an Illicit Ink event called Monsters Ink. It was good fun and having practiced public reading in Penicuik I’m back for more. At the next event, on March 4th, I’ll be reading a story I wrote for the event. It’s a short story – with 7 minutes running time it can’t be more than about 1,200 words – about a boy and his rocket. Sort of. The theme of the evening is outer space and the event is called When Words Collide.

It’s a good night with a good mix of story tellers, some of which turn up in character. But not me. Oh no, not me.

When and where: The Bongo Club, Holyrood Road, 20:00 – 22:00. (Map below.)

What: short-story readings from a dozen or so local writer, reading their own stories about outer space.

That’s all I have planned for this quarter. If I sign up to any other spoken word events I’ll post them on the Events page.

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17January2012

Come hear me read at Midlothian’s Love Your Library Day

January 17, 20121 Comment

Midlothian are celebrating their libraries with a number of events on their Love Your Library Day, February 4th. As part of the festivities, me and other writers will read stories at Penicuik Library in the afternoon. The event is free and the stories will be fab, naturally. Penicuik Library has quite a busy schedule that day:

10:30 – Family Bookbug session. (Bookbug encourages parents to enjoy and share songs, rhymes and books with their children from birth.)

12:30 – Tea and cake with best selling crime writer Aline Templeton.

14:00 – Music from Matt Norris and the Moon and The Last Battle.

16:00 – A selection of short fiction by Catherine Grosvenor, Helen Jackson, Lynsey May and Caroline von Schmalensee.

Read all about these and the many other activities going on at libraries all over Midlothian that day.

This seems like a good opportunity to mention that I list upcoming (and past) performances on the Events and Performances page.

30September2011

The (spoken) word is monster

September 30, 20111 Comment

I’m doing my first spoken word event on Sunday. You’ll find me reading a special cut of Liz & Bob to an audience at Cabaret Voltaire’s Speakeasy, some time between 20:00 and 22:30. I’m not the only person performing: you’ll also hear stories by Helen Jackson, Alison Summers and others.

The event is organized by Illicit Ink and is themed on Monsters. Rumour has it there will be cookies.

The event is free, the stories are great and you have nothing to lose. Come and listen!

20September2011

Attending a writer’s club

September 20, 2011Leave a comment

The Edinburgh Creative Writer’s Club meets every Monday at Spoon Cafe on Nicholson’s Street. It’s a loose association of people organised through Meetup. Attendees have different ages, genres, interests. Each week, some five or six people read something to the grop and get feedback on the piece.

I went yesterday.

I read the piece I’m reading at Illicit Ink, got some interesting feedback, listened to other people read, gave some bland feedback, and went home.

It will take me a while to break in or get comfortable with this group, but comfort will come. My plan is to go every second week (except when it clashes with Book Quiz) and bring something to read most times. But not every time. That appears to be bad form.

It was interesting – and useful – to get feedback from people who do not read or write in your genre: they have a very different perspective and are sometimes unaware of genre conventions. The group is very kind so a level of self-criticism is needed to get to the root of the criticism. Still, I got two great compliments. One chap found a sentence scary, another said the story reminded him of Shirley Jackson. There are all kinds of way I could take that, but I’m going to take it straight-up.