Tag Archives: Café of Good Hope

The Story Sessions – Beastly Tales

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Tiger yawning

Tales from the mouths of creatures, great and small – dogs, stoats, tigers, rats and more.

Who is really man’s best friend?

Live stories read by the authors:

Special Guest Robert Shearman (who wrote one of the top 50 Doctor Who episodes of all time), reads A Joke In Four Panels.
Liam Hogan reads Rat
Esther Saxey reads Come Back Early or Never Come
Anand Modha reads Tyger
Cath Blackfeather has had to pull out, but instead we have
David McGrath, with The Elephant in the Tower

Wednesday, 17 September 2014 from 19:00 (for 19:30) to 21:30
Cafe of Good Hope
216 Hither Green Lane
SE13 6RT

View Map

Get your ticket on EventBrite or on the door. £3

Opportunities to chat with the authors, buy books, and other delicacies we might bring along, And of course to join in with Flash from the floor – come prepared or write in the interval – 100 words fiction or poetry on the subject of animals.

Food and drink available to buy, so no need to rush your dinner.

Hope to see you there.

Last Night’s Q&A with Alex Smith

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A wide ranging discussion of Devilskein & Dearlove, and children’s books in general over the last 100 years, the invention of Childhood and all sorts!

find the discussion on GoodReads here

The group is public so anyone can join, read and comment. You can always ask more questions, which Alex will answer if & when she notices them! (We get an email when someone posts, so should be able to prompt if necessary).

If we can get the technology to work, Alex will be live on skype from Cape Town tomorrow (Wednesday 23rd) at The Story Sessions, at the Cafe of Good Hope 216 Hither Green Lane, SE13 6RT. Doors 7pm. £3.

Devilskein & Dearlove is after the interval – so you can grab the mic and ask her something ‘face to face’ (ear to ear??). If we don’t manage that, you can at least listen to a section being read by the lovely Malini Stevenson, and catch up with our other readers and authors present in person. You can even join in with your own YA influenced 100 word ‘Flash From The Floor’.

Youthful Tales at The Story Sessions

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story sessions youthful tales final23rd July 7pm for PROMPT 7.30 start

Youthful Tales (Stories FOR young adults and BY young adults – 12 years old and up.  It’s not a school night as it’s the first week of the holidays!)
Confirmed stories:
Launching: Extract from Devilskein & Dearlove by Alex Smith, read by Malini Stevenson (this is launching the book – it is actually published the day after – get a pre-publication copy at a special price.)
Revisiting: Extract from Claude at Harfleur by Marjorie Phillips read by Alix Adams
Introducing: Elizabeth Noir and the Titanic Adventure by (Young Author) Beth Broughton-Jones read by Sarah Feathers
Exploring: Home Rock by Sue Oke (who will read it herself)

Join in with 100 words of poetry or fiction in the Flash from the Floor session.

Come along, bring your soon-to-be-adults, or your parents as the case may be!

£3 on the door or from EventBrite

Cafe of Good Hope, 216 Hither Green Lane, SE13 6RT

Soft and Alcoholic drinks available, some snacks.

Youthful Tales – Call Out

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Coming up at the Story Sessions, in July Youthful Tales – stories for young adults, and in some cases by young adults.

Story Sessions logo copyWe still have room for ONE or possibly TWO, depending on length, stories from younger authors. So if you are between 12 and 18 and have written a story that is NO MORE than 2000 words long get in touch using the contact form on the Story Sessions page. We need to read and approve your story by 7th July, so don’t delay. If you are shy of reading your own work in public, or don’t live near enough, we will read it for you, we have actors! (The actor bit only applies to YOUNG authors!)

Any theme except horror or erotica – because Cherry who choses the stories doesn’t like either so you’d be wasting your time and upsetting her.

Nothing written but want to join in? Come along on the day and write 100 word flash fiction on the spot and read it after the interval.

If you are over 18 but know someone who might be interested please pass this on!

The Story Sessions is a bi-monthly event held at The Cafe of Good Hope on Hither Green Lane SE13.

 

 

Story Sessions – May 2014 – Technician’s Tales – Video

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Here’s the video snippets for our May event, our first at new venue The Cafe of Good Hope.

The Technician’s Tales – Science Fiction, of all kinds and flavours.

Cliff Chapman – Extract-Terrestrials

Dan Carpenter – Old Sheets for Dirty Jobs (from new Boo Books anthology After the Fall)

Catherine Sharpe – Another Lesbian Space Fantasy (read by Carrie Cohen)

Cherry Potts – The Dark is My Delight

And finally

Liam Hogan – Candle

 

Flash from the Floor at Technician’s Tales

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Our first Story Sessions at The Cafe of Good Hope, and the audience were very keen to join in. Not to be outdone, so did the readers.

I can personally vouch that all the following were written in the interval, so hot off the press that they were still warm to the touch.

Utopia…

Dominic Elliot’s take on reading in public

Carrie Cohen’s timely warning to be careful what you vote for

Cliff Chapman’s take on a quiet drink

The Story Sessions are back!

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Wednesday May 21st 7pm, at our new venue The Cafe of Good Hope, 216 Hither Green Lane SE13 6RT join us for

The Technician’s Tales – stories with a Sci Fi leaning.

Featuring:

Liam Hogan, Cliff Chapman, Daniel Carpenter, Cherry Potts and Catherine Sharpe (Catherine’s story will be read by Carrie Cohen)

with tales of extraterrestrials, space walks, opinionated machinery, and all sorts of strange, otherworldly things.

£3 on the door or for advance booking.

Drinks snacks and books available.

story sessions sci fi A6

 

The Story Sessions has a new home

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Story Sessions logo copyWe said we’d take a break in April, and we have. During that time, we’ve found a new home.

From 21st May once every 2 months, we will be taking over the Café of Good Hope  216-218 Hither Green Lane SE13 6RT. It’s licensed so you can still have a drink (fiendish coffee cocktails!), and there are snacks and hot drinks too. See (and like if you are so inclined) them on Facebook.

What has changed apart from the venue?
We are now charging a modest £3 entry to cover readers’ expenses and a drink or two for them as a thank you. We will be reading every other month, instead of every month. Apart from that, the same high quality interactive entertainment and potential for silliness there’s always been – but no gold lamé curtains – sorry!

Usual format: It’s always a Wednesday, usually the third one of the month: We run it like a folk club, so we have headliners, a support act of a ‘test bed’ – a new story from an emerging writer (if anyone volunteers), and Flash from the Floor, audience joins in with floor spots of 100 words on theme: written in the interval, or on the bus, or the day before…

If you want to come along and listen, please do! £3 on the door

Confirmed dates and themes are as follows.

21st May 7pm Science Fiction  Technician’s Tales

25th July 7pm Young Adult (haven’t come up with a good title yet – this will feature work FOR young adults and also I hope BY young adults – 12 years old and up, watch for the call out.  It’s not a school night as it’s the first week of the holidays!)

17th September Animal stories (Beastly tales??)

19th November Poems that tell stories (Showcasing Arachne Press’s  forthcoming narrative poetry anthology, The Other Side of Sleep. – we will have more readers for this session as even long poems don’t take that long to read.)

Watch this space for more details of who is reading. If you are interested in joining us as an author and reader, either headlining or for the testbed slot please use the contact form at the bottom of the main Story Sessions Page. We prioritise actual short stories, but will consider poetry and novel extracts on theme.