News
Coming up in 2023:
Now we are pretty much post-covid it looks like I shall be more active this year. Here’s a summary of what I've been involved in & what I expect to be doing in the remainder of the year. I'm doing my best to keep this column updated as the year progresses, so come back frequently if you will.
I participated in a four-day event from 22nd to 25th March, under the heading ‘Fiction for Fun’, which took place at the Grosvenor Arms Hotel, Shaftesbury. I ran a poetry workshop on the morning of Friday 24th, and gave a short reading later that day. I was also MC for evening sessions on 24th. I managed to sell a few copies of ‘Wilful Misunderstandings’, of course, but if you are as yet without one, don't fret, there are plenty more
The ‘Whale-Poo Quadrille’ (see archive news, 2022) has now become a song, with music written by and performed by Anne-Louise Richards. Here is a link to it on Soundcloud:Whale Poo Quadrilleon.soundcloud.com
I've recently recorded (at the locally renowned Sylvafield Studio) a spoken reading of the piece to accompany a video in which, if all goes according to plan, will contain both whale footage and an animated sequence. The song will be included in the video, which will then be used by the Holland based Rugvin Foundation in their educational work regarding marine ecology. https://rugvin.nl/english/
Tears in the Fence #78 is now published and contains an editorial I've written, which will be a lead-in to the 'festival address' I've been asked to deliver at this September's Tears in the Fence Festival on the topic of 'Permacrisis, Reconciliation & Survival'. Check out the TitF website for publication details at https://tearsinthefence.com/
The theme was not one I'd chosen and I had to research this word 'permacrisis' and figure out my own attitude towards it. I'm hoping to develop my ideas a little more when I get round to delivering the address. I'll be a little more comfortable shortly after that, on the Saturday morning, when I get to tread 2 or 3 of my poems in a 5 minute floor spot.
I’ve recently had three short prose pieces accepted by the online publication Fortnightly Review. They've appeared now in the 'poetry & fiction' section, but here's a permalink that will take you straight to them: https://fortnightlyreview.co.uk/2023/02/foreman-sundry-updates/ And more recently still three of my poems and a short story have appeared in the latest issue of online mag Tigershark, #33. Here's a link to the page from which a PDF of the magazine can be downloaded. https://tigersharkpublishing.wordpress.com/2023/08/05/issue-33-is-here/
On Friday 21st July I performed a show for the Shaftesbury Fringe Festival the Grosvenor Arms Hotel. It was an hour long solo piece mixing talk and readings from my prose and poetry work titled ‘Twenty Six Letters’ – the focus being on how the worlds of the imagination can be opened with just the 26 written symbols. I got an audience of some 30 people (which was more than satisfactory considering I was up against several other, mostly musical events happening at the same time). I have the feeling I left them more than satisfied when I passed the letter 'z' and bowed out. A lot of nice things were said to me, but the one which I think really counted for me was sometime after the show, when I was having a cuppa outside one of Shaftesbury's many cafes. Someone I know who'd not been at my performance tapped me on the shoulder and told me she was sorry she'd missed it because she'd heard it was 'brilliant'. So if you are reading this and in a position to put on this show somewhere other than Shaftesbury, please get in touch - I'd be more than happy to do it again! Here's the poster/flyer I designed for it.
And if you missed it on the Home page, go back there right now & check out the link to my 14 episode podcast series, 'Dodgy Reg Encounters'.
