Art with Heart returns with a brand new tour of Declaration: October to November

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The winner of the ADHD Foundation Partnership Award in 2017, Art with Heart returns with a brand new tour of Declaration, a comic and candid look at Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder.

Developed in consultation with medical professionals and mental health support groups, Declaration challenges the stereotypes of mental health and gender in the 21st century.

Declaration is a vibrant and daring adventure of school day survival tactics, super-hero alter-egos and the stumbling blocks to self-acceptance.  Filled with great tunes, dancing and humour, Declaration is an upbeat autobiographical piece about the challenges Sarah Emmott faced as she sought diagnosis in her 30s.

Instinctive, curious, bold and bouncy, Sarah is a mighty proud square peg – which wouldn’t be such a problem if the hole wasn’t so damn round.  Her childhood doctor thought it was sugar.  Her current doctor thinks its ADHD. Sarah still feels different, so what will a label do? Declaration is a vibrant and daring adventure of school day survival tactics, super-hero alteregos and the stumbling blocks to self-acceptance.

Performance Dates  Tuesday 12th October – Thursday 22nd November 2018

 

Running Time   70 minutes   Box Office Tickets are available from individual theatre box office. See www.artwithheart.org.uk 

 

Twitter  @artwith_heart, #ADHDeclaration

 

THE BUSINESS OF BOOKS: TRAVELS WITH MY BOOK

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Jane Cable shares her experience of a blog tour

It sometimes surprises me when other writers ask me what a blog tour is – but then maybe it shouldn’t, because when I started out I didn’t even know book bloggers existed.

So, for the uninitiated – what is a blog tour? Put simply, your book does the travelling. From one book blog to another, over a short space of time, with reviews, guest posts and giveaways. A brief burst of promotion designed to boost its visibility.

It is perfectly possible to arrange a blog tour yourself, especially if you’re hot on social media and have been meeting bloggers online and looking after them. But many publishing houses now include blog tours as a matter of course for launch activity which means bloggers are very busy and if you’re a debut or indie author it can be hard to get your foot in the door.

From my point of view most of the bloggers I know reviewed The Cheesemaker’s House when it first came out so arranging a celebration tour for its fifth birthday was always going to be a big ask. I needed help, so I decided to enlist the services of a paid expert, Rachel Gilbey of Rachel’s Random Resources. A book blogger herself, Rachel has set up a business to help authors promote their books and she’d received good results for authors I know so I decided to give it a whirl.

From the outset Rachel was super-professional and she had the tour filled in less than eighteen hours. I was flabbergasted – this wasn’t even a new book. And all but Anne Williams of Being Anne (who I couldn’t do any tour without) were people who hadn’t reviewed the book before. Rachel had their requirements impeccably organised and communicated to me in good time – whether they wanted paperback or ebook review copies, a guest blog, a Q&A, pictures… all set out in one easy to follow email.

I’ve written in detail about planning the tour before so let’s skip to the big day – August 1st – with a blitz of seven bloggers primed and ready to go. Actually, they weren’t. One blog never appeared and another, where I’d prepared an excerpt and lengthy Q&A, caught up only a few days later by just bunging the blurb on her blog.

It was actually just as well because the others came to the party in spades – on Twitter especially – and I had so many notifications in my feed from the bloggers and their street teams I found it hard to keep pace with thank yous and retweets. A hint here – it’s actually quicker to do this on an ipad or phone because it takes you back to the right place in your feed and not to the top where you have to scroll down to find where you were again.

For the rest of the tour, most of the other bloggers delivered. Some just put up the blurb but perhaps they didn’t like the book and at the end of the day that’s their prerogative. But in the main the reviews were really positive – glowing, in fact – and I really felt its visibility improved over the week of the tour.

My author profile was definitely raised too. A cannily organised giveaway increased my Facebook page likes and the general activity on Twitter tipped my followers over the 2,000 mark. I met new readers and bloggers online too – and I know that when I have a new book out there will be more open doors to push on for reviews.

So what of sales? Yes – there was an increase – definitely. I won’t know until I get my royalty statement whether it was enough to pay for the tour, but that wasn’t the point. In terms of profile it worked – in spades. And I would certainly use Rachel’s Random Resources again.

Find out more about Rachel’s services at https://www.rachelsrandomresources.com/

A COFFEE LOVER’S DREAM…

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Did you know that approximately 95million cups of coffee are consumed a day in the UK? Especially for you eager beaners out there, we’ve pulled together our coffee collectables which are absolutely worth your investment and will help you feed your fix of the good stuff!

THE MULTI-CCINO MUG

If pricey coffee machines or tricky filters isn’t your thing, there’s a super simple, genius measuring mug which will help you perfect seven different types of coffee. Designed as a collaboration between the Museum of Modern Art and the School of Visual Arts in New York, this mug allows you to customise the proportions of espresso, milk and water using the handy indicators printed on the outside of the glass. Serves include espresso, macchiato, cortado, café au lait, Americano, flat white and cappuccino.

RRP: £16.99

 

ZOKU ICED COFFEE MAKER

Let’s face it, in the summer all we want is our coffee to be taken down a Celsius or two. The Zoku Iced coffee maker allows you to have a refreshing iced coffee without pesky ice cubes diluting the flavour. All you need to do is pop your Zoku in the freezer before pouring. It’s spill resistant and has a sipping straw – bonus!

RRP: £23.32

 

KRUPPS MILK FROTHER

Frothy milk is essential to any great latte or ‘cchino so it’s important you have a faithful frother to hand. We’d recommend Krupps – an easy-to-use frother with three functions for barista-quality results at home.

There’s non-stick coating for easy cleaning around those irritating milk stains, plus quantity markings for each function. Pricey, but worth it.

RRP: £109.99

 

MAIYADUO COFFEE SCOOP HYBRID

There’s nothing worse than finding your perfect bag of ground coffee and noticing the flavour’s escaped quicker than your milk has frothed. With built-in bag clip, these nifty scoop hybrids keep coffee fresh and tasting great by sealing the bag straight after use.

They also measure coffee quantities for cafetiere, filters and percolators so you’re covered. There are plenty of these on the market but we love the jazzy colours of the

RRP: £7.99

 

MINIPRESSO PORTABLE ESPRESSO MAKER

If you’re on the go and craving a cuppa, this ‘minispresso’ machine is the perfect sidekick. You can fill it with coffee grounds or capsules and just add hot water ahead of a simple pump.

It’s travel size, lightweight and super easy to use. A few squeezes and the pressure inside the Minipresso reaches a 116psi – the same as a traditional espresso machine – forcing full-bodied espresso coffee out of the spout and into your cup. Ahhh, perfect!

RRP: £49.99

Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy

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antisocial media, Facebook,

2.2 Billion people use Facebook every month. In this age of no privacy and mass commercial surveillance this book was never needed more. Our entire lives are subject to digital tracking. We have never had less privacy. The true scope of it is shocking, and all to sell things to us. Personally I hate targeted advertising. This fantastic book gives a strong argument that Facebook makes democracy a lot more challenging. A must read.

If you wanted to build a machine that would distribute propaganda to millions of people, distract them from important issues, energize hatred and bigotry, erode social trust, undermine respectable journalism, foster doubts about science, and engage in massive surveillance all at once, you would make something a lot like Facebook. Of course, none of that was part of the plan.

In Antisocial Media, Siva Vaidhyanathan explains how Facebook devolved from an innocent social site hacked together by Harvard students into a force that, while it may make personal life just a little more pleasurable, makes democracy a lot more challenging. It’s an account of the hubris of good intentions, a missionary spirit, and an ideology that sees computer code as the universal solvent for all human problems. And it’s an indictment of how “social media” has fostered the deterioration of democratic culture around the world, from facilitating Russian meddling in support of Trump’s election to the exploitation of the platform by murderous authoritarians in Burma and the Philippines.

Facebook grew out of an ideological commitment to data-driven decision making and logical thinking. Its culture is explicitly tolerant of difference and dissent. Both its market orientation and its labor force are global. It preaches the power of connectivity to change lives for the better. Indeed, no company better represents the dream of a fully connected planet “sharing” words, ideas, and images, and no company has better leveraged those ideas into wealth and influence. Yet no company has contributed more to the global collapse of basic tenets of deliberation and democracy. Both authoritative and trenchant, Antisocial Media shows how Facebook’s mission went so wrong.

Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy

Poem for all parents of A level students whose results show they are off to uni. Milly Adams

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With the A level results just in, a poem to enlighten, or perhaps warn, all  ‘packhorses’ (and indeed lecturers) as they help deliver their off-spring to their halls or residence: by Milly Adams, author of The Waterway Girls series (Arrow)

In the Corridor of a College Lodgings by Milly Adams

 

‘Who’s this?’ the lecturer asked my daughter.

She said, all bare midriff with tattoo peeping,

‘Only Mum. She’s carrying my plants,

Helping to move me in.’

‘Hello, Mum,’ he said, not looking, just

Brushing

The leaves of the ornamental fig as he passed.

A plant, my daughter felt, would make her room

Look familiar, lived in. ‘Like you,’ she’d joked.

At her doorway I placed it in her arms,

But it was his bustling back I watched

As he turned this way and that

Distributing greetings to other beasts of

Burden.

Not waiting for their replies, either.

I called, too loud perhaps, ‘My name is

Rosemary.

I usually wear stiletto shoes, and pink jackets.

When not camouflaged as a removal man

I have cycled the Alps for charity. If you’d

Looked

You’d have seen highlights in my hair.

I belly dance and have a name.

My name, again, is Rosemary.’

 

‘Way to go, Mum,’ my daughter whooped,

And up and down the corridor’s length and

Breadth

Plants. laptops and kindles were handed

Over.

Students were kissed with love. And left.

‘Yes, we have names,’ we all said.

As thoughts of achievements big and small

Lent wings to trainers. ‘And places to go. And

Lives to live.

Fashion statements to make, and parameters

To break.’

 

Goodbye, Lecturer,’ we smiled, as we passed by.

 

Hope on the Waterways, the final in the Waterway Girls series, is published on 20th September.

The Waterway Girls, and Love on the Waterways are available now. 

 

Life’s Vital Link By Y.W. Loke

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I found this book fascinating. Did you know that the baby makes the placenta, not the mother? Or that it has genes from both the mother and father? There are facts from other animals too. I found Kangaroos particularly impressive. Well researched and written in an accessible way, this book is highly recommended.

The development of the placenta was a pivotal event in evolution. Without it, we would still be laying eggs instead of giving birth to live offspring. It represents the critical link between the foetus and the mother, but its character is extraordinary — it is, in effect, a foreign tissue that invades the mother’s body.

Compared to many other animals, the human placenta represents a particularly aggressive body. But how is it managed and controlled? How did such an organ evolve in the first place? And why is it tolerated by the mother? Y.W. Loke explores the nature of the placenta and what it can tell us about evolution, development, and genetics.

Available here.

Success for Oliver Eade, WforW award winner, in the Segora one-act play competition 2018

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Frost Magazine’s has learned with great pleasure that the Words for the Wounded’s recent winner of the Young Adult Fiction Georgina Hawtrey-Woore Award, Oliver Eade (with The Kelpie’s Eyes) has done it again. He has won the Segora one-act Play Competition 2018 with The Other Cat.

Fiona Frazer was placed second with Gloop.

The judge, Gordon Simms says: It has been such a pleasure to read this year’s entries, including as they did a wide range of themes and styles. Radio and television plays as well as some that would lend themselves to film came in alongside stage plays to make an intriguing mix.

Gordon Simms has been a Head of English, Head of Performing Arts and a Drama Advisor. He has written several full-length and one-act plays. His ten-minute play Zero Contract was presented in August 2017 at theCharroux Literary Festival where he led a workshop on writing ten-minute plays. He goes on to say:  I was struck by the quality of dialogue in many entries. If substance was a little short in some examples, at least the dialogue was entertaining and convincing.

Four very different pieces made up the short-list. Previous winner Doc Watson offers a typically energetic, even frenetic, tussle between two self-important musicians, where it transpires the third member of the trio is the real villain. Anthony Powers’ play begins with exciting action which leads to a definite result, then leaves us with a delicate situation hanging over two friends – a situation which may be resolved in the future. What is unsaid between them creates a poignant finale.

Two plays presented me with a dilemma: totally different, one from another, yet having enough in common to demonstrate just how varied and versatile the craft of play-writing may be. I was torn between Oliver Eade’s fascinating exploration of quantam physics and Fiona Fraser’s treatment of contemporary issues in an historical setting. Both plays deal with time in unusual ways, both have a crime (or supposed crime) at their heart and both involve flights of fancy. But there the similarities end. Oliver Eade has written quick-firing dialogue in a fast-moving scenario, though whether we are invited to move forwards or backwards is not at first easy to know. Fiona Fraser uses a much more relaxed and seamless conversational style which includes, particularly as it is written for sound production, more observational narrative. However, her play for voices could be staged without difficulty. What a double-bill the pair of them would make – humour, intrigue and plenty to stir the imagination.

So close was my decision that I felt I could not ‘abandon’ either, so rather than share first prize I have introduced a second. This addition also reflects the largest number of entries yet received in this section of our competitions.
Once again the judging experience has been informative and uplifting, and I thank again all those who entered to make it so.

Oliver Eade: The Kelpie’s Eyes. 

Words for the Wounded

HIPCHIPS – RESTAURANT REVIEW

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Concept bars are always cropping up in London – whether it’s a loaded-fry focus (mmm), a cereal focus (mmmm) or, in this instance, a fresh crisp focus (mmmmm!)
Based in Soho, the ever hip ‘HipChips’ focusses on making beautifully crunchy, flavoursome crisps out five different potato types. To accompany this classic carb, HipChips offers a range of savoury and, wait for it, SWEET dips.
There is plenty of choice on both sides of the fence when it comes to the sides. Savoury? We’re talking Baba Ganoush, jerk chicken, Moroccan yogurt and the absolute classic, smokey cheese fondue.
If you’ve got more of a sweet tooth you can get your crisps dusted with cinnamon sugar and opt for chocolate mousse, peanut butter and jelly or even campfire s’mores as your dunking delights.
Prices are really reasonable too given the area is truly the heart of Central London. A large dish (with six generous portions of dip) will only set you back £12.95 and we defy you to try and finish it all in one sitting!
Check out the HipChips website for more details.