So, Hallowe’en, or nearly, and we got together in The Ivy House to tell stories…
V.G. Lee told us a nasty story of revenge, The Passing Guest (from her collection As You Step Outside) and a ‘true story’ of exorcism.
David Mildon gave us a ghastly take on the lengths to which some people will go in order to forget – in his Weird Lies contribution, Worms’ Feast which puts joining the foreign legion in the shade.
You’ve heard of Flash Mob, you’ve heard of Flash Fiction? Well this is Flash From the Floor, where the audience is invited on stage for 100 words (about 1 minute) of on-theme fiction, (in this instance Hallowe’en) written for, or at, the event.
So here are the flash fictions created especially for our very firstStory Session at Nunhead’s very own community owned pub, The Ivy House. From an audience of about 40 we got an excellent haul of nano stories, everyone agreed to their story being posted, so they are all here – all work copyright the writer-performer, actual video copyright Arachne Press Limited.
Videos of the headlining performers will follow shortly.
V G Lee
If you like the idea, join us at the Ivy House on Wednesday 13th November, for Armistice Tales, stories of War, Peace and Remembrance – with, perhaps, 100 words on the subject from you?
Our Halloween event at the Ivy House has another author signed up – David Mildon will be reading his magnificently creepy Weird Lies story, Worms’ Feast.
A few pictures from the launch of Mosaic of Air and Weird Lies at the planetarium at Royal Observatory Greenwich (who were absolutely LOVELY) . We had a glorious star show (hence the incredible lack of light in the reading pictures) and we had a song from Summer All Year Long, and some weird and wonderful stories.
We are hosting a free live literature event at London’s first co-operatively owned pub, The Ivy House. A beautiful traditional pub building almost next to Nunhead cemetery… Join VG Lee, David McGrath, David Mildon and Cherry Potts for an interactive evening of spooky live literature – think folk club with books. The audience is invited to contribute 100 word on-theme flash fiction (or poetry – but still 100 words) in the flash from the floor spot. Books sales in the interval – free ‘Books are my Bag’ bags to haul away all your Halloween book treats.
Possibility of a ‘work in progress’ spot for a brave author who would like to try out a fresh piece of writing on an audience. if you are interested in this slot, or in being an invited author at this or a future event, get in touch.
This is the first of two booked events at the Ivy House, if it goes well it could become a regular fixture. Come along and support the first community owned pub in London, and live literature!
Tuesday 1st October The Planetarium, Royal Observatory Greenwich, SE10 9NF
Drinks in the foyer from 6.05 (building opens at 6), readings of Science Fiction stories from both Weird Lies and Mosaic of Air from 6.45 in the Planetarium with star show.
RSVP to reserve your place, this is essential because the Observatory is in the middle of Greenwich Park, and access in the evenings is controlled and we need a guest list, and to alert you to how to get in (and more importantly out!) It’s an adventure – space suits not required, fortunately.
It’s always nice to know your marketing works – how do we know? People buy things!
We’ve just had our third pre-order for Weird Lies and first for Mosaic of Air. Yes, it’s modest, but its a start.
So to get the message really clear: YOU DON’T HAVE TO WAIT! You can preorder our September books NOW (at a reduced price) and you will receive them ahead of publication as soon as we have them, at the same time as the reviewers. (And if you know anyone who might review for us, please tell us.)
Of course, the absolute best marketing is word of mouth, so please tell your friends, family, colleagues, your bookshop, your library, your reading group, the person sitting next to you on the bus…
Something else we’d like you to tell them is that there are only 28 hours left to back our Kickstarter campaign. I know, I keep on about it, but if we don’t get all the money we don’t get any, so a big thank you to Steven in the USA who is our star backer so far (most recent and most generous), and who has also just ordered a copy of each of the existing books and preordered both September titles: we don’t know who you are, but we like you! (Thank you also to Rebecca, Wendy, Heath, Clare, Doris, Kenneth, David, Stephen, Carrie, Gloria, Edel and Lyn, whose generous pledges mean an enormous amount to us.)
There are still some great rewards left, including a copy of Weird Lies Author Joshan Esfandiari Martin‘s short Film Test Driving on DVD or BlueRay, or a guided walk around the City of London for up to 12 people with award-winning blue badge guide, (and Arachne Author) David Mildon, or a HANDWRITTEN unique, one-off episode of ‘Mrs Darcy versus the Aliens’ from Weird Lies Author Jonathan Pinnock, featuring YOU (or a nominated other if you are thinking of it for a gift) as a named character. A guaranteed collectors item of the future. (If it wouldn’t mean giving money to myself I’d have that one… Ooh! if anyone is stuck for a birthday present for me…).
Obviously, not everyone is in the position to be promising us money, so if you feel passionately about what we are trying to do here at Arachne Press and want to help, check out our support us page, there are lots of things that will help us, including pre-ordering Weird Lies and Mosaic of Air. And don’t forget, you technical whizzes you can now get our books on Kindle and ePub devices from your prefered retailers.
We thought we’d try something new and see if we can fund our next Liars’ League Anthology Weird Liesthrough crowd funding.
Final cover design for Weird Lies copyright Kevin Threlfall
If you’ve not heard of this before, it’s where lots of people band together to support a project with small(ish) amounts of money, in return for rewards, which in our case range from a thank you and one of our gorgeous badges, via (signed) copies of books (Cherry Potts, Katy Darby, Alex Smith), an exploding tea flower (also Alex, and no, I don’t know what it is either), a cake recipe that features in a story (Peng Shepherd), actual cake (Katy) and story critiques (Cherry & Katy), right through to a signed DVD of Joshan Esfandiari Martin‘s short film Test Driving, a personalised, handwritten Mrs Darcy vs the Aliens story from Jonathan Pinnock, original artwork from Richard Smyth and a guided tour of the City of London from David Mildon.
Our authors are pretty special and I would like to thank every one of those who offered a contribution again, publicly. You are WONDERFUL.
We have 30 days to raise the money, and if we don’t raise it all we don’t get ANY. So if you know anyone who might help us fund this project, PLEASE pass it on to them!
Weird Lies is a distillation of the weirdest ideas Liars’ League authors have come up with. I suppose the current term is ‘speculative’ although I don’t much like that – what fiction isn’t? When I was working out what order to set the stories out in the book, I was labelling, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Myth,Down Right Peculiar, trying to make sure I didn’t clump genres together: DRP came up quite a bit!
You can see our crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter here
A very successful launch for London Lies at the London Review Bookshop. Stock of books sold out! No doubt they will be ordering more for their regular customers who couldn’t make it.
