Love Audio Week: Strange Waters

This week is #LoveAudio week, an annual celebration of audiobooks. As audio is still quite new to us, this is the first year we’ve joined in with the campaign. To celebrate, we are excited to share excerpts from several marvellous Arachne Press audiobooks, almost all of which are 2021 releases, created thanks to a grant from Arts Council England and in partnership with Listening Books.

To kick off, here is the opening story from Jackie Taylor’s upcoming Strange Waters, a collection of short stories set in Cornwall, that take in modern life, ancient mythology and our future in the face of coastal erosion.

This is fresh from the edit so has never been heard before!

 

 

We are delighted to have actress Sophie Aldred narrating Strange Waters. Sophie has had plenty of practice with her Cornish accent, as she also narrated Clare Owen’s Cornish Gothic YA, Zed and the Cormorants, for us earlier this year. You can hear a first chapter extract of this audiobook here.

If you enjoyed this extract, then please join us, Jackie Taylor, Sophie Aldred and other guests on the evening of Thursday 29 July, for an online launch with readings from Strange Waters. Tickets are free, or £10 (+ a small postage fee) to include a copy of the book, and you can register here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/book-launch-strange-waters-by-jackie-taylor-tickets-161905442537

#LoveAudio is the Publisher’s Association annual week-long digital celebration of audiobooks is designed to showcase the accessibility, innovation, and creativity of the format. Follow the hashtag on twitter.

 

Arachne Press at the Causley Festival (Online) – 25th July 2021

Do join us online at the Causley Festival on Sunday 25th July at 12:45pm, when Arachne authors Clare Owen (Zed and the Cormorants) and Jackie Taylor (Strange Waters) will be reading from their books and chatting to Cherry Potts, Director of Arachne Press about independent publishing, and Arachne’s approach to inclusivity, including supporting writers from geographically dispersed areas.  Jackie and Clare are both Cornwall-based.  Both Zed and the Cormorants, a Young Adult novel published earlier this year, and Strange Waters, a collection of linked short stories shortly forthcoming from Arachne Press, are also set in Cornwall.

Tickets for this event at the Causley Festival are free and can be booked here.

If you’d like to buy Clare or Jackie’s books, please visit our webshop.

Cormorant takes flight in Lostwithiel

Those of you joining Clare Owen at the mini launch for An Outbreak of Peace at Lost in Books at Lostwithiel tonight are in for a treat – she’s been making snacks to fit with her story, The Cormorant.

Dusk – A Wave of Words Across the UK: Redruth

The Writers’ Block is an inspirational creative writing space created by Kernow Education Arts Partnership (KEAP) in Redruth, Cornwall, as part of The Story Republic programme. The Writers’ Block offers a range of programmes and activities for schools, families and the community including workshops to inspire reluctant young writers, sessions for vulnerable children and families, and adult creative writing workshops. Amanda Harris and Helen Reynolds at KEAP are highly experienced programmers and project managers, having worked in arts education with great success for over 20 years. KEAP itself has an excellent reputation with schools and partners cultural organisations for high quality developmental arts in education programmes.

Helen Reynolds will lead on the Solstice project, she has 12 years of creating and managing events for KEAP, in a variety of venues and spaces including 300 children and a string quintet at The Eden project; 20 schools and 1000 children in Truro’s City of Lights lantern parade.

Kernow Education Arts Partnership