Outcome in Lancaster and Croydon and Harrow for LGBTHM

It’s the 1st of February, and the first day of LGBT History Month, so Tom Dingley has been to Lancaster and back in the day, to hang a selection of Outcome portraits on the very interestingly textured walls of Lancaster University Library.

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The library’s ‘Magic Box’ that lets you flick through the book electronically (I want one!)

Anyone wanting to buy a copy after viewing the exhibition, Blackwells bookshop on campus has some in stock, if they run out you can order direct from us post free.

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If you are in the area and would like to be part of the Outcome portfolio, with the chance of it being YOUR face in the next exhibition, Tom is having a studio day in the exhibition space on 15th February, the day the exhibition comes down. Contact him at tom[underscore]dingley[at]hotmail[dot]co[dot]uk or via twitter @OutcomeLGBT to book a slot.lancaster-2

 

 

 

 

 

Slightly smaller displays in Harrow Civic Centre in the  room opposite the council chamber,(touring libraries from 6th February).

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Harrow

 

and Croydon Central Library

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Croydon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to Joan Redding for helping organise both of those.

You can still catch the exhibition at Horsham Capitol until the middle of the month too.

We are crowdfunding to pay for additional prints so that we can do things like this on a larger scale with 3 exhibitions of all the pictures at the same time (why not?!), and cover Tom’s expenses as he hares around the countryside putting prints onto interesting walls and taking photos. There are only a few days left, and we are a way off the target, so any help appreciated!

 

 

Final Liberty Tales outing -Greenstead, Colchester

Essex! We are headed your way again, meet us in Colchester.

Wednesday 25th January at 6pm the final planned Liberty Tales tour date! This is the one that was delayed from November.

Join Jim Cogan, Helen Morris and Carolyn Eden in person for stories of liberation – from prison, by war and leaving an abusive marriage;

and Sarah Evans, David Guy and Jeremy Dixon virtually as their work (voting, or not; more freedom than you can cope with;  the right to be who you are) is read by Carrie Cohen and Cliff Chapman.

Sarah, David and Helen are locals, so come and support them!

Greenstead Library, Hawthorn Avenue, Colchester, CO4 3QE

FREE but please phone Greenstead Library to reserve your place 01206 865758.

Midsummer Night in the garden…

Shakespeare fans dust of your doublets and your iambic pentameters. We are celebrating the bard’s big bash (400 years since he died), not on his birthday, not on his death day (which we are using as the deadline for submission), but on Midsummer (or as close as we can get). You know how we like a solstice. The nice people at Lewisham Libraries are hosting us for an event in Manor House Gardens (or Manor House Library if the weather is unseasonable.)
Shakespeare’s great skill was in telling an old story in a new way, so we are shamelessly tearing a leaf from his folio.
You are invited to write us something – poem, short story, song*, play (no more than 2 characters!!) based on Shakespeare’s own work, or the characters he invented or the stories he based his plays on, or if you like, his life.
We aren’t planning a book to tie in with this, it’s just for the sheer joy of it, so previously published work is acceptable. Keep it short. no more than 2000 words and MUCH shorter would be good.
*Songs… happy to have existing Shakespearean songs performed, but would love some new takes. You probably need to be able to perform them yourself. There’s no budget (at the moment) so we are unlikely to be able to support rehearsing singers, though you never know.
We can  offer no more than  a free book and the pleasure of having your work performed in public as a thank you, unless our cunning funding plan comes to fruition, in which case it might get exciting.

drop by our Submittable page to enter. you have until 23th April 2016 to enter

Rebellion: Writing Fantasy

 Rebellion: Writing Fantasy, author talk and workshop

Author Cherry Potts reads from her new novel The Dowry Blade, and discusses ways of writing fantasy with an opportunity for a short writing exercise for the audience.

World building, weird logic and rule breaking at

Brompton Library

210 Old Brompton Road

London SW5 0BS

Thursday 14 April 18:30-19:45

Attending the London Book Fair?  This event is on the final day and Brompton Library is one stop on the tube/overground away from Olympia, at West Brompton, then a short walk.

Balham & Tooting Tea with the Demon

Malini Stevenson recently read a section from Devilskein & Dearlove to a wrapt audience of (mostly) 11 year-olds and a couple of adults, at two events in South West London. Interesting questions were asked about having a bad-tempered, rude heroine; tattoos, crickets who speak Pashto, and comparisons made to Alice in Wonderland (all those locked doors). We couldn’t get a connection to South Africa, so instead of talking to Alex, we showed the animation. Not for the first time, we were asked whether there would be a full length film. Wouldn’t that be great?

Thanks to Andrea (Balham) and Heather (Tooting) for hosting us.

Take tea with a demon – Tooting & Balham

erin dearloveTwo opportunities on the same day for tea with Mr Devilskein, the supergenarian companyman (aka Demon) with a need for a new heart…

Malini Stevenson is reading from Devilskein & Dearlove Alex Smith‘s amazing reboot of The Secret Garden, set in Cape Town and featuring Demons, hidden gardens, a cricket who used to be a Chinese ambassador, and Erin Dearlove, possibly the grumpiest heroine in literature… but not without cause…

Catch the readings of the wildest young adult novel of the season at the following times and places:

Thursday 7th August

Balham Library 16 Ramsden Road SW12 8QY at 2:30

Tooting Library 75 Mitcham Road SW17 9PD at 4:30

Opportunity to buy (signed) copies of the book, and depending on the library’s policy (not checked yet – a job for Monday) we might be offering fresh baked scones…

 

Devilskein & Dearlove readings

mr devilskeinPublication date is approaching fast. Which means we have started organising readings. A bit of a challenge with Alex being in South Africa – but does that stop us? No it does not!

You want a signed copy? No problem!

Alex is busy signing book-plates (based on Ed’s brilliant cover design) to be affixed lovingly to your copy, and we’ve got three actors as volunteer readers who can do South African accents, in Malini Stephenson, Peter Noble and Helen Belbin.

Our very first reading is actually the day before publication, at The Story Sessions: Youthful Tales on Wednesday 23rd July, in Hither Green (SE London).

Then we are reading at Balham and Tooting Libraries (SW London) on the same day, 7th August ,2.30 at Balham, 4.30 at Tooting.

Malini is covering those three.

erin dearloveA little later in the year, on 30th September, Peter will be reading for us at Albion Beatnik in Oxford. This is a departure for Albion Beatnik as they don’t stock Young Adult books as a rule – so come along and show Dennis there’s a market! We will be combining this reading with one for our forthcoming poetry anthology The Other Side of Sleep. Rumour has it tea will be served in between, highly appropriate for a book in which drinking tea with a demon changes lives for ever.

Exact timings tba.

If you like the sound of Devilskein & Dearlove and run a bookshop, library, reading group, museum or other suitable venue (a cafe, perhaps?) and would like us to come and read to you, please get in touch.

LGBT History Month events

LGBT History month poster smallLGBT History month is keeping us busy this year. Cherry Potts is reading from Mosaic of Air at a number of events (Incidentally, should you be keen enough to want to come to all the events Cherry is involved in over February, she will be making an effort to read something different each time, and the focus will vary too, as will the company!

Lewisham Library 199-201 Lewisham High Street, SE13 6LG
6th February 7.45  for 8, until 9.30
free, but ticketed. 40 tickets available so probably wise to book.

Cherry will be joined by poet Kate Foley, humorist  V.G. Lee and debut novelist V.A. Fearon.

The Story Sessions, Queer Tales, 19th February 7.45 at the Ivy House SE15 3BE – Cherry, Catherine Blackfeather, Anny Knight, Rebecca Idris and Clare Summerskill (Voluntary financial contributions welcomed, and of course you can join in with 100 words on theme in Flash from the Floor.)

North Kensington Library 108 Ladbroke Grove, North Kensington, W11 1PZ
(11th February 18:30) is Cherry on her own, reading from Mosaic of Air and some newer work, and discussing how things have changed since MoA was first published. Free.

Walthamstow Library, High Street Walthamstow, E17 7JN 12th February 19:00 is Cherry and actor Sarah Feathers, reading from Mosaic of Air and from Lovers’ Lies in an event called Holding a Mirror up to the 80′s, Lesbian Short Stories now and then, so more historical observation! This is a ticketed event but still free.

And finally: in company with Alix Adams, local author Cherry Potts reads from her short story collection Mosaic of Air, grief, old age, spiders and song, all from a lesbian perspective. Free. 7pm Friday 21st February Crofton Park Library 375 Brockley Rd, London SE4 2AG.

…oh, not finally – we’ve been asked to do another:

Cafe of Good Hope, Hither Green Lane SE13 6RT. Wednesday 26th February. 7pm. Cherry Potts, Rebecca Idris, V.A. Fearon, Catherine Blackfeather Tickets £3.

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Friern Barnet Library Free-for-all

Friern Barnet Library has been in the press a bit recently after campaigners occupied the library which was earmarked for development. They have successfully restocked the library with donated books, and got the building listed to prevent the council doing something unspeakable to it.  They were even open on Christmas Day.

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Despite a sympathetic hearing from the judge, they are due for eviction on 1st February.  Although they hope for a licence to remain we have decided we’ll get in before the deadline and will be there reading from (I hope) all three books on Tuesday 29th January 7-9pm. Come along to support us, and the people of Friern Barnet.

Friern Barnet Road, Bowes Park, London, N11 3DR

Reading: Rosalind Stopps, Wendy Gill, Michelle Shine, Bobbie Darbyshire, Bartle Sawbridge

you can sign the petition to keep the library open here