Category Archives: #Arachne5

The Don’t Touch Garden Audio Book

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To celebrate our 5th anniversary, our first ever audio book. Available to download from our web shop from Friday 8th September £5.

In the (on-line) shops end of January 2018.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kate Foley’s poetry collection, The Don’t Touch Garden.

Here’s the introduction to give you a flavour.

Drawn from poems written over several years, this book’s dizzying ambition is to plot a path through the life of an adopted child. Foley does so with consummate skill, creating poetic forms to encompass the experiences of the child, her birth mother, her adoptive parents, aunts and midwives. Foley’s language is imagistic, fragmentary, full of jump-cuts, yet always vigorously carried forward through a set of clear-speaking voices to show us that the “DNA of years” is just as formative as that “tangle of parental DNA” we are each born with. There is suffering and lies, grief, distance and disappointment, but her message is ultimately an optimistic one: blood is not thicker than water; we are each of us, to a large extent, creators of ourselves, parents of ourselves. Brilliantly focused and carefully sequenced, these poems provide a thrilling and moving account of the processes by which any of us – adopted or not – become who we are.

Martyn Crucefix

These poems are an absorbing account of the legacy of being an adopted child. With language at once forthright and tender, this moving sequence reflects Foley’s unflinching gaze into the mirror in a sometimes excoriating attempt to discern traces of her belonging, and to make peace with the past. An illuminating must-read for adoptees and their parents, both biological and de facto, and for adoption workers who engage with the precarious task of arranging the exchange of one set of parents with another.

 Joy Howard. (Poet, publisher and former Fostering Services Manager).

#Arachne5 more thank yous

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I’ve scheduled this to go live as we start our 5th Anniversary celebrations.

It’s a complex business starting and running a publishing house. People contribute crucial things at crucial moments and sometimes it isn’t until you look back you realise – if that hadn’t happened…

So thank you to all the people who do things without knowing and without being asked, or are so enthusiastic when asked I get over my own doubts and plough on – I’m bound to have missed someone, but here are most of the brilliant people who helped us get started and/or keep Arachne ticking over.

Bartle Sawbridge for introducing me to WooA Writing group something like eight years ago, giving me the structure to start taking my own writing seriously again, and for the rest of the members of WooA at the time, (Joan, Rosalind, David, Anna, Clare, Hilary) for being ace writers and getting me thinking (without saying anything to them) that we jointly needed a publisher, and also for introducing me to Liars’ League.

Liars’ League for being a bottomless cauldron of talent into which I dipped to find the writers for our first book, and especially thank you to Katy Darby for saying exactly the right thing when I approached her about it. If she hadn’t, this would have stayed a pipe dream, and also for co-editing and general cheerleading.

 

On the professional front, everyone at Inpress for not just doing what they set out to, in persuading bookshops to stock our books, but also providing all kinds of opportunities to explore the world of publishing through conferences and fairs made possible and affordable due to their bargaining chops.

Everyone at TJ International for producing such wonderful quality books in particular John Rance, for that first phone call (‘these are the questions you don’t know you need to ask us’) and being so approachable and reasonable and human!

Sabotage Reviews for the most reviews from any one source, and awarding us Best Anthology back in 2014. That plastic star thing is still sitting on the shelf above my desk.

All our Arachne Friends especially David, Jacquie, Pippa, Trefor, and Alison for their support.

Our supporters big and small on various crowdfunds especially Jonathan and Russell

and of course Arts Council England who have funded us twice.

And our authors and artists for coming up with inspired rewards for crowdfunds, especially Inua, Kevin Jill, Pippa and Jeremy.

On the maverick front…All the people who said YES when I came up with what felt like daft ideas, everyone at Lewisham Libraries (literally dozens of them, everyone has got involved and supported us), but particularly Alan Morrison, and Joan Redding (ex Lewisham, now at Carillion) who probably said yes (or more accurately, let’s do it) more than anyone in the known universe, and everyone at Better Libraries in Greenwich, particularly Rebecca Gediking (‘Of course we’ll open the Library at 7am on a Sunday’) and Debra Sullivan (‘This is what Libraries are for’), and many other libraries and librarians especially Gaynor Lynch Foley at RBKC. Greenwich University for a spectacular launch week for Outcome, especially Sarah Creech. Zoltan Abbot at Brockley Deli and Father Bates at St Hildas and Stuart Morriss at Misty Moon for hosting some pretty strange events without batting an eyelid. Dennis Harrison at Albion Beatnik for the most consistent hoster of events outside London. And of Course, V22 (Becca, Simon) for hosting tonight’s PARTY!

My dear friend Michele, who steps in and helps whenever she can and never flaps when things go pear-shaped.

All the other stepper-in-ers, especially Laura, Helen, Birgitta, Tessa, Judith, Catriona, Mark, Bartle, Stuart.

Another great friend, Muireann, for eagle-eyed proofing and cheeky margin comments, and regular company at supper on a Monday. Arachne would be a poorer item altogether without her.

Carrie and Wendy for batting ideas about, practical help with storage and logistics, and offering to be a formal advisory group.

Irena Hill for brilliant networking (she knows everyone) and idea thrashing.

Russell Potts (my dad) for vital help when needed, and telling me he’s proud.

And finally, just in case she thinks I haven’t noticed or don’t appreciate it, Alix, the best woman in the world, who comes to events she doesn’t want to come to (and doesn’t let it show), shares the driving on long hauls, fits holidays around festivals, sings with the choir, does front-of-house, staffs bookstalls and even reads for us. Arachne has a huge impact on her life, and wouldn’t exist if she wasn’t such a positive life force.

Here she is doing everything…

#Arachne5 Thank you’s and Author Catch Up Weird Lies

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With the 5th Anniversary celebrations heading into view I was thinking about the thank you speech, and like the Oscars it is in danger of going on, and on. And on. So I thought I’d blog it instead, a section at a time. So I’ve been catching up with authors past and present in the course of the fifth anniversary planning to ask what they are up to now, (not that I don’t know in some cases)  because after all, without them there would BE no Arachne Press.

Several of them will be at the party, TONIGHT!! and even reading, come along and say hello, it’s free (but ticketed)

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Alan Graham
Alex Smith
Angela Trevithick
Andrew Lloyd Jones
Barry McKinley
C.T.Kingston
Christopher Samuels
David McGrath
David Malone
David Mildon 

recently performed a new play, Leaves at the Edinburgh Fringe

Derek Ivan Webster  Derek is now the Associate Director for the Arts at the Yale Office of Career Strategy. On rare occasion he can still be found writing within the cracks, but more often spends his days helping talented young artists pursue creative careers.

 

 

Ellen O’Neill
James Smyth
Jonathan Pinnock Since his appearance in Weird Lies in 2013, Jonathan Pinnock has had two books published. TAKE IT COOL (Two Ravens Press, 2014) describes his real-life search for the reggae singer Dennis Pinnock along with the story of how they came to share a surname, and has the unique distinction of having been reviewed in The Herald, Family Tree Magazine and Songlines. His debut poetry collection, LOVE AND LOSS AND OTHER IMPORTANT STUFF, was published this year by Silhouette Press, and his second short story collection, DIP FLASH, will be published next year by Cultured Llama.

Joshan Esfandiari Martin
Lee Reynoldson
Lennart Lundh
Maria Kyle
Nichol Wilmor
Peng Shepherd 

Peng’s first novel, The Book of M will be published in June 2018 by HarperFiction (UK) and William Morrow (US). The Book of M tells the story of a couple torn apart by a supernatural apocalypse and the courageous, thrilling journeys they take to find each other again.

 

Rebecca J Payne
Richard Meredith
Richard Smyth
Tom McKay

#Arachne5 Thank you’s and Author catch up, Lovers’ Lies

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With the 5th Anniversary celebrations heading into view I was thinking about the thank you speech, and like the Oscars it is in danger of going on, and on. And on. So I thought I’d blog it instead, a section at a time. So I’ve been catching up with authors past and present in the course of the fifth anniversary planning to ask what they are up to now, (not that I don’t know in some cases)  because after all, without them there would BE no Arachne Press.

Several of them will be at the party, TOMORROW and even reading, come along and say hello, it’s free (but ticketed)

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Alison Willis
Bartle Sawbridge Since Lovers Lies was published I have read from it in a packed room at Keats’ House, a literary festival in Faversham, and lots else in between. I self-published my first novel, A Piece of String two years ago, (look at the excellent reviews on Amazon, and buy it!) and I’m making good progress on its sequel, based not in inner London but in a fictional village in Middle England.

Bobbie Darbyshire Since Lovers’ Lies came out, Bobbie Darbyshire’s third novel, OZ, was published in 2014 and has received much praise on Amazon.  She has completed a fourth, Thinner Than Water, and embarked on a fifth.

Catherine Sharpe
Cherry Potts Running Arachne gets in the way of much writing, but I’ve managed to squeeze a story into most of the anthologies, and publish a collection and a novel, and had several stories published elsewhere.

 

 

Clare Sandling
Darren Lee
Jason Jackson
Jessica Lott
Mi L Holliday Since being published in Lovers’ Lies a poem of mine, A Mother’s Concern, was published in Shooter Literary Magazine, Issue #3: Surreal. Also, myself and my colleagues here in Japan are gearing up for a big seminar on English education to be held at the end of September 2017. This is the culmination of three years of efforts to integrate new teaching methods and technology into elementary and junior high foreign language classrooms, and we’re all very nervous and excited about presenting the results! Hope everyone will wish us luck!
Michael McLaughlin
Michelle Shine
Nichol Wilmor
Nathan Good
Peter Higgins
Rebecca Gould
Richard Smyth
Rob Cox
Rosalind Stopps

copyright Huntley Hedworth

Tania Hershman I’ve published four new books since 2013 – I’m co-author, with Courttia Newland, of Writing Short Stories: A Writers and Artists Companion (Bloomsbury, 2014), my first poetry pamphlet, Nothing Here Is Wild, Everything Is Open (Southword, 2016), won 2nd prize in the Fool For Poetry chapbook contest and was published in February 2016, and in 2017 my third short story collection, Some of Us Glow More Than Others (Unthank Books) and my debut poetry collection, Terms and Conditions (Nine Arches Press), were published. I founded ShortStops, a hub for all things short story in the UK and Ireland in November 2013, and I am now on the last leg of a PhD in creative writing inspired by particle physics, and am a Royal Literary Fund writing fellow at Manchester University.  www.taniahershman.com

Tom Conoboy  It’s been a busy couple of years writing-wise for me. I completed my PhD after five years and I was free to get back to my own writing. What a release that is! The joy of writing! I’ve completed one novel, the story of a young American girl who arrives in Scotland in 1985 in search of the key to her identity and I’ve just finished the first draft of my second novel, based on a real life murder in Perth in 1935.

 

#Arachne5 The Poet’s Journal Scott-Patrick Mitchell

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As part of our Arachne 5th Anniversary celebrations, we’ve asked all of our authors to come up with a blog, that might have something to do with writing or anniversaries. Some of them responded! This one is from Scott-Patrick Mitchell whose poem we published in Shortest Day, Longest Night.

This July I celebrated a really important anniversary as a writer. It wasn’t anything to do with love or marriage or raising kids, although you could say it contained elements of these. No, this July I celebrated the 20 year anniversary of keeping a journal.

What started in 1997 as a recommendation from a university lecturer has turned into a love and obsession spanning two decades. My journals have become a crucial factor to my development as a poet, writer, creative and thinker. Journals are where words first fall, scattering across the pages in a scribble and scrawl, writing and drawl. Here, I unearth the bones of poems and concepts, draw mind maps and lists of things to achieve, collage cut ups when my brain won’t poem.

Since beginning the process, I have completed 75 journals, roughly 3.75 per year. When it comes to my journals, I know exactly which one contains which draft. They’re my own personal database, a seed bank of potential new ideas in the advent of my own personal blocks and apocalypses.

 

 

 

I thought that, for Arachne Press’ fifth birthday, I would share an insight into my own process of journal keeping. So, my basic rules for journals are:

I always use blank paged journals. I don’t know about you, but lined pages remind me of high school. There’s something a little restricting about a lined page: my brain keeps thinking it should be writing a list, filling up the lines or, worse, completing homework. Unlined pages liberate my imagination.

A pure blank page reminds me of a page in a book in the moments before the ink of words are printed into it. As such, my mind opens and I fill the page however I want. If lined pages work for you, that’s awesome. But if you struggle with them, maybe switch it up.

At the beginning of each new journal, write a list of things you’re interested in exploring in this edition of your practice. You don’t have to stick to this list, but it works as something to come back to if you ever get ‘stuck’.

Speaking of getting ‘stuck’ – or as we call it, writers block – one technique I use to overcome this is collage. Cut up images from a magazine, instinctively, and make an image. Then, write in response to this image. Use the adage ‘first thought / best thought’ for this exercise.

Make up your own rules. Your journal is a safe space for your writing. Be wild, be formal, experiment, try. Explore. Allow yourself to be messy. And tidy.

On completion, title each journal. Go through it, find a common theme and from this, create a title. The title makes it easier to remember which journal is which, which draft is where.

Hopefully, these insights might be of assistance to other writers, especially those in the early stages of their career. And remember, these insights might not work for everybody, but will certainly provide you with options.

Come to the Party! free, but ticketed.

#Arachne5 Thank you’s and Authors catch up Stations

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With the 5th Anniversary celebrations heading into view I was thinking about the thank you speech, and like the Oscars it is in danger of going on, and on. And on. So I thought I’d blog it instead, a section at a time. So I’ve been catching up with authors past and present in the course of the fifth anniversary planning to ask what they are up to now, (not that I don’t know in some cases)  because after all, without them there would BE no Arachne Press.

Several of them will be at the party, and even reading, come along and say hello, it’s free (but ticketed)

As they were…

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What they are doing now…

Adrian Gantlope
Andrew Blackman Since Stations was published, I’ve had my second novel A Virtual Love published, and am at work on a new one. I’ve also been travelling around Europe and North Africa for three years, freelancing to pay the travel expenses as I go.

Anna Fodorova My novel The Training Patient was published by Karnac in 2015 and is now in the process of being translated into Czech to be published by Prague publisher LABYRINT next year. I am writing another novel called In the Blood.

Bartle Sawbridge Since Stations was published I have read from it and Lovers Lies to two people and a dog in a public library in Harrow, a packed room at Keats’ House, a literary festival in Faversham, and lots else in between.I self-published my first novel, A Piece of String two years ago, (look at the excellent reviews on Amazon, and buy it!) and I’m making good progress on its sequel, based not in inner London but in a fictional village in Middle England.

Caroline Hardman I’m still writing, although not as much as I would like to… I went  freelance a few years ago, and that took over my life a little more than I thought it would! However, I do have a story (Straw Houses) appearing in the forthcoming Stories for Homes 2, a charity anthology raising money for Shelter. The e-book is due for publication next month and a paperback version in November.
The other project I’ve been working on over the summer is Raw Stories, a new fiction podcast which launches 4th September! A new episode every fortnight. I read a story (which may still be a work in progress – hence the ‘raw’ in the  title) and then chat a little bit about it afterwards.  It’s on iTunes or there’s an RSS feed.  I’m tweeting about it  @rawstoriespod.

Cherry Potts Running Arachne gets in the way of much writing, but I’ve managed to squeeze a story into most of the anthologies, and publish a collection and a novel, and had several stories published elsewhere.

 

 

David Bausor
Ellie Stewart Since being published in Stations I’ve had my writing published in various places including Popshot Magazine, Ink Sweat and Tears and Hippocampus Magazine. I spent 3 months travelling round New Zealand in a camper van with my partner at the end of 2016, and I’m currently working for a children’s charity in Kent.

 

Jacqueline Downs

 

 

 

 

Joan Taylor-Rowan

Katy Darby 

 

 

 

 

Louise Swingler
Max Hawker
Michael Trimmer
Paula Read
Peter Cooper
Peter Morgan
Rob Walton Since being lucky enough to have two stories in Stations, Rob Walton has been writing flash fictions and poetry, appearing in various anthologies and magazines.  Publishers included Butcher’s Dog, The Emma Press, Sidekick Books and The Interpreter’s House. A poem for children found its way onto the 2016 National Poetry Day website, and he won the 2015 National Flash Fiction Day micro-fiction competition.

 

Rosalind Stopps
Wendy Gill Since being published in Stations, one of my stories was chosen for the inaugural anthology Words and Women One, and I was delighted to have another story published last by Arachne Press in Shortest day, Longest Night. I have written and released a charity Christmas single and my musical That Man had it’s West End debut at The Hippodrome in 2016.

It’s #ReadABookDay let’s make it easy #Arachne5

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As part of our fifth anniversary celebrations (8th Sept! Party!) we have reduced the price of our first 5 books to £5.

get them here.

bookshops – we’ve set up with our distributors NBNi that you can get these books at trade discount to sell for £5 too!

#Arachne5 The Hazlenut Grove Paula Read

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As part of our Arachne 5th Anniversary celebrations, we’ve asked all of our authors to come up with a blog, that might have something to do with writing or anniversaries. Some of them responded! This one is from Paula Read whose work we published in Stations

 

The publication by Arachne Press of my two stories in Stations back in 2012 was a significant moment for me. I’ve made my living as a journalist and teacher, so writing has always been essential to those roles. I continued to squeeze imaginative writing into this life and, like most aspiring writers, had folders full of half-finished novels and abandoned stories.

Publication by Arachne, however, changed everything. It signalled that I could write a story that someone else would want to read. It signalled that I should be serious about writing for publication. It signalled potential.

But I realized I needed help – and deadlines. I signed up for a creative writing MA, with a non-fiction book in mind, and with time to devote to it. I am about to start my second year, with many thousands of words still to write – and I am having the time of my life.

A huge thank-you, therefore, to Arachne for the part it has played. Without Arachne’s founder Cherry Potts and her decision to publish my stories, I should not now be able to say the following: I expect to finish my book, the story of my cousin’s eventful move to a mountain top in Italy, by the end of 2018. Look out for The Hazelnut Grove by Paula Read.

Come to the 5th anniversary Party! free, but ticketed

#Arachne5 Thank you’s and Authors catch up London Lies

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With the 5th Anniversary celebrations heading into view I was thinking about the thank you speech, and like the Oscars it is in danger of going on, and on. And on. So I thought I’d blog it instead, a section at a time. So I’ve been catching up with authors past and present in the course of the fifth anniversary planning to ask what they are up to now, (not that I don’t know in some cases)  because after all, without them there would BE no Arachne Press.

Several of them are reading at the party, come along and say hello, it’s free (but ticketed)

as they were…

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As they are now…
Alan McCormick
Cherry Potts Running Arachne gets in the way of much writing, but I’ve managed to squeeze a story into most of the anthologies, and publish a collection and a novel, and had several stories published elsewhere.
 
 
 
 
recently performed a new play, Leaves at the Edinburgh Fringe
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Emily Cleaver
Emily Pedder I recently set up an editorial consultancy, The Book Edit offering editorial advice and developmental edits to writers of fiction and non-fiction. 
Harry Whitehead
James Smyth
Jason Jackson
Joan Taylor-Rowan
Katy Darby
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Laura Martz
Laura Williams
Liam Hogan My two stories published in London Lies in 2012 were my first to find their way into print, quite a lot has happened since! I’m now in over forty anthologies, ranging from Alice in Wonderland to Sci-Fi steampunk. Full list here  I even snuck a story into NewCon Press’s Best of British Science Fiction 2016, and, of course, this year Arachne published my collection of twisted fantasy, Happy Ending Not Guaranteed. Here’s to what the next five years may bring!
Martin Pengelly
Nichol Wilmor
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

#Arachne5 Joy Howard

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As part of our Arachne 5th Anniversary celebrations, we’ve asked all of our authors to come up with a blog, that might have something to do with writing or anniversaries. Some of them responded! This one is from Joy Howard whose collection Foraging we published this year.

Cover Karen Keogh

A real pleasure getting my third collection (but my first with Arachne) underway with Cherry. Carefully edited and beautifully produced. Some poetry publishers produce a nice book and that’s it, but as most poets love showing off, it’s good to have a publisher who also actually sets up reading opportunities. So Happy Anniversary, Arachne, and all power to your elbow for 2018 and beyond.

Pictures (by Nelly Naylor) of Joy getting her chance to ‘Show Off’

Joy Howard reading from Foraging

Kate and Joy signing books

Come to the Party where other people will be showing off!