Ok, we’ve had enough with the enquiries. We weren’t going to open submissions until the end of the month, but due to popular demand they are now open, but only until the end of MAY. So that’s your window – or possibly letterbox?
Read the GUIDELINES and get in touch, we are really interested, and excited, wondering what you have in store for us.
Where is your favourite place for spending time with the love of your life? What about it gets you hot and bothered, or meltingly romantic?
Dramatic scenery, intimate eatery, garden, beach, mountain, chocolate shop, theatre, fleapit,hotel, nightclub, pub, market, skating rink, crossroads … what makes for the perfect time out with your beloved?
Thinking about the (possibly world – no stop – don’t get carried away!) tour that will launch Lovers’ Lies, we’d like your thoughts on the best romantic places in the UK (for now, although we apparently have a small fan base in Switzerland…) and what it is that makes them special.
The Brief Encounter clock at Carnforth copyright Cherry Potts 2012
It doesn’t matter if you’ve never been there, or if it seems completely impractical, tell us anyway. It can be the site of a great fictional romance (Carnforth Station! Waterloo Bridge!) name-checked in a famous lovers’ ballad (Allanwater!) or it can be where you first met your one-and-only, just so long as it’s a real place, and still there, not built on since.
If you think it’d be a great place for a reading tell us that too (especially if it’s somewhere near a literature festival or a really good bookshop), and if you can broker an introduction for us, even better – think of it as a blind date between publisher and venue, the sort of thing where you think they’d be perfect for one another, and with just a little nudge…
Give us your suggestions (tweet, ‘comment’ on this post, or use the contact form) and we’ll see which we can make work for us. And if your suggestion ends up being our launch venue, and we’ve got your contact details, you’ll get an invitation to the wedding – sorry – launch.
© Arachne Press
I was chatting with Robert Hulse the Director of the excellent Brunel Museum the other day about Stations, and mentioned Barbara Vine’s King Solomon’s Carpet which got me on to thinking about how the London Underground turns up all sorts of places. Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere being an obvious example. So I did an idle search (the way you do, and found this: Wikipedia list of fiction on the underground.
I don’t suppose this list is in any way complete, and for a start, I remember a story set on the Piccadilly line I read on-line last year which involved spectacles left at Cockfosters and lost luggage offices which was very entertaining which isn’t on here (Can’t remember who it was by, can anyone help?). And I met Sarah Butler at a NAWE workshop a couple of weeks ago, and she produced The Central Line Stories with London Underground a couple of years ago – so, with next year the 150th Anniversary of the Underground, maybe its time to read some London Transport fiction? You could start with Stations, which will be gracing the bookshops and not a few railway carriages, I shouldn’t wonder in only a months time!
Stations Cover. Image copyright Gail Brodholt
Our second reading for Stations, in honour of New Cross, will be at the Library at Deptford Lounge, a short walk from New Cross Station.
Library
9 Deptford Lounge,
Giffin Street
SE8 4RW
Thursday 29th November 2012 7-8.30pm
(Although free, you need to book via the Albany 020 8692 4446)
As this is on actual publication day it is in effect our Local Launch so we are aiming at quite a few writers, all reading shorter snippets, so the line up is:
David Bausor (New Cross)
Rosalind Stopps (Brockley)
Paula Read (Honor Oak)
Joan Taylor-Rowan (Anerley)
Adrian Gantlope (Surrey Quays) Getting Adrian to speak in public is a major event, you won’t want to miss it!
Ellie Stewart (Wapping)
Bartle Sawbridge (Shadwell)
Katy Darby (Shoreditch High Street)
Join us for a whirlwind tour of the Overground by way of a foreign student’s first taste of South London, a brief encounter at Brockley, homelessness and homebaking, a lesson the birds and bees, transience by the Thames, failing to learn from beetles and film makers in East London.
More video snippets from Wednesday’s jolliest outing of the week, the London Lies launch at London Review Bookshop.
Want more? Want to hear stories read live? Come along to our next events.
MVMNT Cafe
The enthusiastic folk at MVMNT have offered to host a London Lies spectacular Wednesday 12th September. 7pm
Waller Way, SE10 8JA right by Greenwich DLR (NOT Cutty Sark).
Writers reading onthe night:
Katy Darby
Alan McCormick
Rosalind Stopps
Liam Hogan
Copies of the book will be available to purchase.
MVMNT is unlicenced but you can bring your own for a corkage of £3… We suggest something fizzy would be appropriate!
Access by car from Lewisham direction is a bit tricky during the Paralympics as Greenwich High Street is temporarily One Way from a bit before the corner of Norman Road (not shown on the TfL info),and there are lots of parking restrictions, so consider public transport.
Kilburn Library
The kind people at Kilburn Library (42 Salusbury Road Kilburn London NW6 6NN) are hosting a reading of London Lies on
27th September 6:30 -7:45, at which our more northerly writers will read from their stories.
The library is reopening that week after a refurbishment, and we are helping to celebrate its shiny newness.
confirmed line up of authors is:
Recording of the excellent Mike Burnside reading David Bausor‘s story O Happy Day, from London Lies at our June event, Tall Tales at the Tavern, in Ladywell, South London.
In a rain-soaked park in Peckham, James gets to grips with the British attitude to communal celebrations.
o happy day by david bausor read by mike burnside
© David Bausor and Arachne Press
When my very first story in an anthology was published (In and Out of Time a long, long, time ago) it was a strange experience, it didn’t seem real until I had put it on the bookshelf, nestling between Sylvia Plath’s Bell Jar and Arthur Ransome’s Coot Club. These days my books sit next to my mum’s – Ghillian Potts rather than Arthur Ransome – Plath is still there, and so is Ransome, just not touching covers anymore.
I’ve just added my advance copy of London Lies. So it’s real now, for me, anyway.
Definition of a REAL book – putting it on the shelf. Copyright Cherry Potts
I’ve been chatting to someone at one of the large online retailers, and I suddenly realised that they, and a large number of their competitors, already have London Lies on site available for pre-order. So it works, then! Very exciting, it makes it all seem much more real for everyone else, not just that little version of reality on my bookshelf. And I got my first order from a wholesaler yesterday! This means you can order the book anywhere, and they will be able to get it for you – any bookshop, any on-line book retailer – even from us (short delay while I set up the systems, but soon!)
Publication date is 8th September – order a copy now, from your prefered retailer, and be one of the first people in the world to hold a copy in your hand, or indeed put it on the bookshelf next to Ms Plath or Mr Ransome!
© Cherry Potts 2012
thoughts about books and writers and the tales they tell
Acerbic, pithy and/or witless bookstuff
NLP Coaching and Training
9th-16th September 2011
