A Day in the Life of Lorna Windham

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Jess on Helen's Polly 715.

I live in Northumberland.  With the Cheviots Hills, Rivers Tweed, Coquet and Wansbeck and endless beaches, I have plenty of choice about where to walk and think about writing. When I won the North Tyneside Short Story Competition with ‘Spirit of the Age’ and my children’s novel ‘Toby’s Secret’ was long listed in the Times Chicken House competition in 2008, I was hooked.

 

Spurred on by this success, I’m now the author of three local history books ‘Crime and Punishment’, ‘Deaths Disasters & Dastardly Deeds’ and ‘Murder, Mystery & Mayhem’ and in November I was invited to BBC Radio Newcastle to chat with Jonathan Miles about my latest effort.

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I often promote my writing by doing power point presentations for local history societies.  One talk I did was about ‘Deaths, Disasters and Dastardly Deeds’. It was a catastrophe.

Waking at 3am with a razor blade-throat, I used an old operasingers’ trick and gargled with gin. Numbness crept over my vocal chords. I slept. Hours later I was sure someone had performed surgery with a cheese grater. I grabbed a whisky bottle and gargled. My throat was completely anaesthetised. Success.

By that evening I had a dull headache and my eyes had more bags than Louis Vuitton. It was flu, but I had promised to do the talk.

“Something’s up with the heating again,” said the perspiring IT gent as I rehearsed the presentation.

“Really?” I croaked.

The audience trooped in at 5.00 pm. Thirty minutes later I pointed the IT gent’s laser repeatedly at the screen. Nothing happened. The audience groaned. “It’ll be the USB port, we’ve had difficulties with it before,” he said as he fiddled with leads.

Lorna & three books.

 

Should I kill him? I took a deep breath; at least he wasn’t piloting a plane. We began again. Everything worked, the audience clapped in anticipation. By 6.15 pm the talk was going really well. Emboldened by my success I started to move forwards, but couldn’t because my heel was stuck in a hole in the rostra. I was now attached to the stage. “Well,” I said wrenching myself free, “my talk is about disasters.”

Ten minutes later I was on the final furlong. My throat was raw, my head was about to explode and I was perspiring like a woman in labour. However, I was sure I’d delivered a talk which had mesmerised the audience by its sheer brilliance.

I glanced at the front row. One man’s eyelids were going down like blinds, his partner’s were closed and the woman beside him had her head on her chest. I finished quickly and thanked ‘EVERYONE’ for listening. They limped out adjusting whistling hearing aids, leaning on sticks and sucking teeth. Ah well, that’s what you get when you give a talk to octogenarians in an overheated auditorium.

 

Lorna & mouth of River Wansbeck.

 

 

TAKE FOUR WRITERS: JUGGLING, REVEALING, PARTYING, BALANCING

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CLAIRE DYER… JUGGLING

This month I want to talk about loyalty; not to our nearest and dearest, nor our publishers and/or agents but to our books.

Consider this: I have a book that’s just been published and I’m busy talking about it on social media, to library audiences and writers’ groups. I love this book. I have also written another one which is with my agent and which we’re still discussing and editing. I love this book too. And, I’m writing a new book and am at the brick wall that is 60,000 words. I don’t love this book very much at the moment but I should do, and hopefully I will when I’ve climbed over the wall and seen what’s on the other side.

So I’m carrying three books in my head all the time and this isn’t unusual, it’s par for the course for authors. Indeed, some carry even more and/or are different stages of the above process which will require them to concentrate on the intricacies of multiple novels at the same time.

And what does this mean in reality? It means we’re constantly torn; we juggle characters and settings, we have to remember who has which pet, what our heroine’s favourite food is, her deepest fear. Not only this but we have to remember with pinpoint clarity our plot lines and at all times believe in the magic: the alchemy that is writing. There are some days when my brain feels like scrambled egg, but then when it’s just me and screen and I’m back in the zone and it’s making sense, then it’s all worthwhile, believe me.

 

JACKIE BALDWIN… REVEALING

Hello, lots of excitement for me to report this month! First of all there was the Killer Reads Cover Reveal for Perfect Dead. I absolutely love the design! I’ve been getting ready for my Blog Tour, organised by Love Books Group so I’ve been busy writing guest posts, providing extracts etc.

I also had the most unexpected thing happen this month. My first novel, Dead Man’s Prayer had a one day Book Bub promotion and, to my surprise and delight, became an Amazon UK Kindle bestseller in two categories. I was absolutely over the moon! As I write this it is only three weeks until publication day on 15th June. This is always a nail-biting time for an author as you wait with baited breath for those reviews to start trickling in. Wish me luck!

See you next month!

 

LUCY COLEMAN… PARTYING

May has been an exciting month! The Romantic Novelists’ Association Summer Party prompted a trip to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. It was great to meet up with writerly friends old and new. Which, I might add, included fellow Frost Musketeer, lovely Claire Dyer.

A pre-party meet-up with a group of Aria Fiction authors, my lovely editor – Lucy Gilmore – and Melanie Price (who is a whizz on social media) was accompanied by Prosecco. It was a great start to the evening.

The week prior to that, structural edits arrived for the second manuscript in my four-book contract with Aria fiction, writing as Lucy Coleman. I despatched those very quickly and I’m now waiting to see the cover for this Christmas novel, set in Caswell Bay on the Gower coast.

Then back to work on book no. 4 which currently stands at around fifty-thousand words. Never a dull moment!

 

ANGELA PETCH… BALANCING

On May Bank Holiday, we loaded our car and set off for our six-month stay in our Tuscan home, stopping overnight in beautiful Alsace (I am itching to include this location in my next Tuscan novel … bizarre, but I have an idea).

May has been productive. “Mavis and Dot” are with my editor and while I wait for feedback, I have sent off a serial to The People’s Friend. My wonderful editor there instils calm, reiterating that good writing comes when you are at peace with yourself. Tomorrow I should receive my illustrator’s first designs for M and D. I have organised new covers for my two earlier novels. I have an appointment with a special Museum of the Diary in the valley for research for my third Tuscan novel. And, finally, I have been approached by a publisher for my Italian books. Decisions, decisions… but, ringing in my ears are my husband’s words: “Don’t take all the fun out of your writing.” Watch this space.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Into The Woods at The Cockpit Theatre, Marylebone, London – review by Paul Vates

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“a bold and adventurous take on a Sondheim beauty”

 

 

 

 

There are seventeen in the cast, five in the band. The stage is in the round. The wood is actually made of wood. The music and lyrics are classic Sondheim… Ambitious to tackle such a large production – and director Tim McArthur just keeps this show under control.

 

Into The Woods ensemble Photography David Ovenden

 

The story does have a modern twist. The mixing of all the well-known fairy tale characters is brilliant anyway, but this production has influences of the UK today. Jack and his mother are superb characters straight from an episode of Jeremy Kyle. In fact, the part of Jack’s mother can be immensely forgettable – but not Madeleine MacMahon’s interpretation. Jack himself, played by Jamie O’Donnell is innocent, dumb and lovable in equal quantities.

 

Jack’s Mother condescending her son, Jack photography David Ovenden

 

The leading triumvirate that drive the plot along are The Witch (played at the start as a bag-lady by Michele Moran) and the two Bakers: Tim McArthur and Jo Wickham.

 

The Witch has words with The Baker, as his Wife looks on Photography David Ovenden

 

In these demanding roles, Jo Wickham shone as the Baker’s Wife. She wants a child and her journey is a tough one – full of ups and downs (literally, when you include the ladders!) and is thrilling to watch. Abigail Carter-Simpson’s Cinderella is, likewise, a key character in the story and she also excels in the role.

 

Cinderella Photography David Ovenden

 

Coming from a household very much in The Only Way Is Essex genre, she meets the Prince and discovers his world is Made In Chelsea. She approves of neither.

 

Overall, I think the best element of the show is the setting itself  – the clash not just of fairy tales but of class and accents. The set (all wood, of course) is a rambling forest of ladders and pallets and boxes designed by Joana Dias.

 

The bag lady Witch shows her true colours Photography David Ovenden

 

This rambling, annoyingly, comes across in the whole feel of the show. There are some stunning solo performances but the whole is a little blurred. The witch isn’t scary enough, the jokes aren’t funny enough, the loss isn’t painful enough. Needing a little more focus and smoother group choreography, this intriguing interpretation of Into The Woods doesn’t quite hit the mark. It is still a bold and adventurous take on a Sondheim beauty.

 

 

 

Photography:     David Ovenden

 

Venue:               Cockpit Theatre, Gateforth Street, London NW8 8EH

Running:            Until Saturday 24th June 2018 at 7.30pm (no Monday performances)

Sunday Matinees at 3.30pm

Running Time:   2hr40m (with an interval)

Tickets:              £15 – £26

www.thecockpit.org.uk – 020 7258 2925

 

Twitter:               @allstarpro, @TheWoods2018, #Woods2018

 

Producers:         All Star Productions and Trilby Productions

Director:             Tim McArthur

Musical Director: Aaron Clingham

Music & Lyrics:  Stephen Sondheim

Book:                 James Lapine

Set Design:        Joana Dias

5 years old and 50 publications! by Maya Pieris

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No, not an annoyingly clever 5 year old but an amazingly vibrant young publishing house called The Emma Press and named after Emma Wright, who started the venture along with Rachel Piercey, my featured poet and Newdigate prize winner in 2008. And in the 5 years of its existence they have supported over 400 new writers and some of them like me with a “6” in front of their decade.

Their mission which they have accepted with great energy, professionalism, commitment and kindness, has been to seek out poets and prose writers and encourage them through their “calls for submissions”. This has allowed an amazing array of talent to see the light of day. These “calls for submissions” are on their website and open to all, topics ranging from the traditional love theme to aunts and beyond! They want to encourage literature that is welcoming and accessible. And, importantly, they are concerned to foster writing for children. They are also committed to having a live persona and can be found at their local well known national bookshop in Birmingham and at book events at venues up and down the country.

But their greatest virtue, in my opinion, is the blending of an intellectual rigour with a sense of fun to deliver the writer’s words. I attended the London launch in January of their Anthology of Love held in a café serving fab cakes iced with our words – a convivial and enlightening experience.

 

Anthology of Love

Their Anthology of Love contains 50-plus new poems from a variety of pens, some more tried and tested than others. Edited by Emma and Rachel it is has black and white illustrations by Emma and is wrapped up in a vibrant, colourful cover which will not be missed! Rachel has one poem included, titled Symbiosis, a witty and tender poem, in sonnet form, about love between two unlikely participants, an Egyptian plover and a Nile crocodile. Despite their obvious differences they “share four-chambered hearts which beat in time”. In the fourteen lines she creates the intimate world of two intimates allowing us glimpses of the tenderness of this “unlikely pairing”.

Rachel Aunts Launch

In addition to her writing Rachel also runs workshops in schools and at festivals and I shall be welcoming her to Dorset in June, Saturday 16th, when she will be running a poetry writing workshop at Littlebredy Walled Garden, Dorchester, Dorset, a real haven of peace, entitled “I hear it in the deep heart’s core”. Information is available at www.littlebredy.com.

 

But now they’re in process of editing the next anthology and selecting their next series of individual pamphlets. Not surprising, then, that they won the Michael Marks Award for Poetry Pamphlet Publishers in 2016. They deserve it and more.

Poetry Writing Workshop at Littlebredy: www.littlebredy.com

www.theemmapress.com

 

A Day in The Life of Sandy Hogarth

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Sandy Hogarth is the acclaimed Indie author of The Glass Girl which Frost will be reviewing shortly. 

 

Breakfast and a beautiful day. Perfect for the Nidderdale Show – an arch temptress. I have a lot to do today. The Glass Girl must go off tonight. I will feel a little lost when Ruth, my protagonist, goes. She has a troubled life but she’s tough.

 

‘Say thank you to your sister for me were his words. So Ruth fled, first to Australia, then to the outback.

 

Sisters. I am fascinated by families; by their honesty, their brutality, their love. And fascinated also by only-ones, so I have made Ruth’s lover an only-one: gorgeous Daniel. Everything she is not.

 

Music and voices from the loudspeaker drift up the hill, scrambled. Enticing

I give in, cease checking my MS and hurry down the hill with Ruth still in my head. And her sister Alexis.

 

Cars are queuing. I Pay my £10 and walk through the ancient turnstile.

In the first judging arena I come to is a magnificent bull with curls behind his horns. I wonder if it will win.

 

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I remind myself that I must not stay long.

I pass a pig that is bored or asleep. They say pigs are the most intelligent of animals.

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My head is still with Ruth.  I especially loved writing the early part: Ruth’s time in the Australian desert.  I love the deserts there with their dunes of red dirt scattered with spinifex, and occasional wild camels.

I try not to laugh out loud when I see a cow receiving a final back-combing to the last 8 or 9 inches of its tail.

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Some of the sheep waiting in pens are shivering. It’s a hot day so it must be fear.

One puts up its head to me to have her curls admired.

Sandy 4

In the next tent, I find the winner of my ‘best hairdo competition’.

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Odd, this fixation on hairdos. From one who often forgets to brush her own.

I’m hungry so I get fish and chips from a van. We are almost as far from the sea as it is possible to be but they taste great.

 

The sisters take over my head again. And the glass girl. An old man in the desert gives it to Ruth.

 

“an exquisite glass girl, a dancer, with straight back and proud posture. Her body is draped in a mid-calf-length pink dress, the folds caress her long legs and her feet are encased in delicate oyster pink ballet shoes, the ribbons winding round her slender ankles. Her dark hair is shoulder length, her face tranquil and her hazel eyes as fathomless as the ocean. A brittle beauty. He says that it carries the desert within itself.’

6.Sandy

The Glass Girl calls. I walk/run back up the hill.

 

The Glass Girl is available here.

 

 

 

Michael Rowan welcomes the return of an Icon

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In 1840 James Pimm, a successful entrepreneur, established himself as ‘the Oyster Man’ within the Square Mile, where he served oysters together with his famous Pimm’s No 6.

Pimm’s No 6 disappeared in the early 1900s but has been brought back in 2018 thanks to an imaginative partnership between Seafood Merchants, the Wright Brothers and Pimms, to once again offer the classic pairing of Oysters and Pimm’s No 6.

Intrigued, a friend and I headed for Kingsley Road, a busy thoroughfare in the heart of London’s Soho to see for ourselves if history was worth repeating.

The Wright Brother’s Seafood Restaurant, one of three restaurants (the other two are at Spitalfields and Battersea) are serving their Oysters together with Pimm’s No 6 for the summer.

The white tiled restaurant with its antiqued mirrors has a suitably relaxed and friendly vibe where the friendly staff are so passionate about the food it would be impossible not be swept up in their enthusiasm.

The Pimm’s No 6 is delicious and refreshing, Pimm’s Vodka Cup with Botanical Tonic water poured over ice and completed with a twist of orange peel to release its citrus oil and a sprig of lavender to add a welcome dash of colour.

To be honest I could drink Pimm’s No 6 on its own but with the most delicious oysters our taste buds were transported to another level and the face of my companion said it all. If Pimms No 6 tastes of summer then the Oysters most definitely taste of the sea.

Oysters from Morecombe, Lindisfarne and Waterford Bay, Ireland, nestled on a bed of crushed ice and tasted as fresh as the sea where the only accompaniment required was a wedge of lemon, and a salad onion Vinaigrette and of course a glass of Pimm’s No 6

Pimm’s No 6 is exclusive to Wright Brothers Restaurant’s and will be served at various iconic events in London including the Wimbledon Championship.

At school I was taught that history repeats itself and in the case of Oysters and Pimm’s No 6, I for one am very glad that it does.

To purchase Pimm’s No 6: www.harveynichols.com/brand/pimm-s/328701-number-6-vodka-cup/p2596460/

 

http://thewrightbrothers.co.uk/

 

 

 

 

A Day in the life of Adam Burgan, Arts & Entertainment Manager at The Octagon Theatre

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Adam Burgan, Arts & Entertainment Manager at The Octagon Theatre in Yeovil.

One of the joys of managing a busy regional theatre is that there is no such thing as a ‘normal day’. While some tasks and duties remain the same you never really know what opportunities, challenges and, at times, rather surreal moments will come your way. At the moment we are in ‘pantoland’ with a spectacular pantomime production of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’. The show runs for 49 performances (our biggest ever run) with two performances a day so the theatre is a hive of activity with large school groups in the day and then family audiences in the evening.

A Day in the life of Adam Burgan, Arts & Entertainment Manager at The Octagon Theatre

Over the next few weeks over 25,000 people will ‘climb the beanstalk’ with Jack on a magical adventure and my job is focussed on ensuring that everyone has a happy time at the theatre and to lead and support my team in delivering their roles effectively in order to achieve this. Theatre is a ‘leisure choice’ and though I would consider it essential to living a happy and fulfilled life it is important to recognise the various barriers that people feel may be in their way. It is our job to try and make patrons entire experience of visiting the theatre the best it can be, from the moment they pick-up a brochure, to booking a ticket, making their way to the theatre to the time they step through the door and until they leave. I feel that a large part of my day is spent speaking to staff and trying to ‘keep the team happy’ something that isn’t always possible but we know the key to success is communication and trying to keep the team focussed and working together to achieve a common goal – making our customers happy. Using the word customer I also mean the artists who perform at our theatre – it is important for us to ensure they are happy and have everything they need to give the best possible performance.

jackandthebeanstalk

Much of my day will be spent speaking to agents and producers and local companies looking to bring their performances to the theatre. Programming is one of my favourite parts of my job and the most satisfying. Booking in an artist I know will prove popular (especially if I’ve been trying to book them for a while) is very rewarding. A number of meetings normally looking at future events and projects will always be on the agenda and one of the things we have grown very successful at is building partnerships with organisations we have a shared agenda with and who can help us to achieve our goals.

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Throw in some budget monitoring, a walk around the building to check on our maintenance, checking figures for last night’s show and a look ahead at sales figures for the shows on sale and a trawl through the endless amount of emails and phone calls and the day quickly fills up. ‘Theatreland’ certainly isn’t a ‘9-5’ job and nor should it be. Evenings are often filled with the choir I teach at the theatre on a Monday night, popping in to see some of the performance (even if I can’t stay for the whole show) or supporting local events – I judged ‘Strictly Come Langport’ last weekend! There is never a dull day at the theatre and though it is long hours, and as with every job, there are ‘ups and downs’ I still consider myself very lucky to work in a place that brings joy and happiness to thousands of people every week. I have the pleasure of working with a very talented and dedicated team of people who share my passion for theatre and I try to remind myself that there really are dream jobs and I am one of the lucky ones who found mine.

 

 

A Day In The Life of Shelagh Mazey

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For years I’ve been a frustrated story-teller, never having the time or peace to be able to concentrate and hurtling through life from one crisis to another, but now every day is like a blank page, here in my thatched cottage in Somerset.

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I met Margaret Graham years ago, at a writing circle in Yeovil. We have been friends ever since and good grief, the adventures we’ve had, as awe snatched moments from the home-front. I remember with fondness a trip across Ireland on a coach, enlivened by two America Baptist Ministers. We’ve seldom laughed so much, alongside absorbing the history of the place for a book Margaret was writing. It was here I kissed the Blarney stone. Perhaps that’s where the story telling began.

shelaghkissinghebarneystone

As time went on the sleepless nights with newborns; the back-breaking, lifting and chasing of toddlers; the homework of school years; the endless chauffeuring of teenagers, and the frantic the frantic worry of them prematurely experiencing the joys and heartache of the opposite sex, drunkenness, drugs and all-night raves became a memory.

No more renovating the derelict cottage sold long ago. No more rising at 6:30am to rush off to work as a practice secretary. At last my ship, with its rather bedraggled rigging, has sailed into a harbour of refuge. I am retired. Whoopee!

Now I listen as my husband leaves for work and lie in bed for a few more minutes, where in a state of alpha I’m able to dream. Then I soak in the bath, empty my mind and plan the trials and tribulations, love stories, intrigues, and let’s not forget the murders and rapes of my 19th century stories.

After breakfast I type out my bath-time plots. I usually write or research on-line, with a short lunch-break, until about 3.30pm and then I need to take a breather. I might do some gardening; mow the lawn, weeding or dead-heading just to breathe some fresh air.

Shelaghgarden

Yes, my life has indeed reached peaceful harbour; my daughter-in-law takes the ironing each week and I take the grandchildren. I’m lucky, they’re lovely.

Shelaghwithgrands

Of course, aside from the writing, I do have to participate in marketing the books and I’ve made many friends, particularly on Portland, through this. Every now and then I take a friend with me and drive down to the coast to deliver to my outlets there. We usually enjoy lunch at the Lobster Pot on Portland Bill.

Shelaghportland

The tales my father told, as a born and bred Portlander have inspired my writing, and my first two books are based around that area. Somehow it makes me feel closer to my parents.

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I’ve now published two books with Matador. The first is Brandy Row (A love triangle and family saga set on Portland, involving smuggling and the preventive service).

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The sequel is Dawn to Deadly Nightshade (continuing with the family, but adding witchcraft in Somerset to the mix).

Shelaghmazey
My third novel is located partly in Dorset, Somerset, Tasmania and Australia. It tells the tale of the ex convicts who were transported to the antipodes and involves the excitement of the Victorian goldfields. I’ve finished the first draft and I’m busy doing the revisions. I hope to bring out Legacy of Van Diemen’s Land next spring.

I totally love my life now. I am a writer. It is my dream come true.