Monday Club A Collective For Actors and Creatives

Posted on December 22, 2016 by Catherine Balavage

Monday Club is a collective of creatives who meet once a week as a company of actors, dancers, writers, directors and more to generate new ideas and to share skills from our various artistic backgrounds. We encourage collaboration and the development of new writing and performance, and support individuals in the exploration and achievement of their artistic goals.

TAKE THE FLOOR

Take the Floor is an exciting new scratch night, hosted by Monday Club at Chelsea Theatre. The night promotes new work within all forms of the arts and forges connections for collaboration between these varying mediums. At the event, we encourage creative support between participants and we provide ‘no pressure’ networking opportunities. All of our pieces are handpicked from a variety of promising new artists with fresh and dynamic ideas.

The evening begins at 6pm when visual artists exhibit their new work in and around the bar. The auditorium then opens at 7pm for a number of eclectic ten-minute performances on Chelsea Theatre’s wonderfully spacious stage. The twenty minute interval sees the first of our selected singer-songwriters perform in the bar, with the second musician playing at the end of the night, when performers and audience members discuss what they’ve seen, and perhaps even swap details for future collaboration over a very reasonably-priced drink at the bar.

Following our first Take the Floor in October, writing partnerships have been formed, advice has been shared from participant to participant, and pieces shown have continued on their various trajectories with feedback from our Take the Floor audience to help shape their development.

A celebration of diversity and collaboration within the arts, Take the Floor is a stimulating evening of creativity for those interested in seeing short bursts of varied entertainment, and those who are looking for inspiration to create their own work.

Visit www.mondayclub.co.uk to find out more.

Date: Sunday 15th January 2017

Time: 6pm for visual art; 7pm for performances on stage

Location: Chelsea Theatre, 7 World’s End Place, King’s Road, London, SW10 0DR

Tickets: £6 for one or £10 for two tickets for the whole night; £3 entry on the door for music only.

Tickets available from www.chelseatheatre.org.uk soon!

Take the Floor is run by James Bailey, Charlotte Whitaker, Robyn Hoedemaker and Guy Remy.

info@mondayclub.co.uk

Best Endeavours Endeavouring To Surprise: Jane Cable on what happens once that publishing deal is in the bag

Posted on December 14, 2016 by Jane Cable

BEST ENDEAVOURS

Jane Cable’s blog about what happens once that digital publishing deal is in the bag continues.

ENDEAVOURING TO SURPRISE

I was just about to sit down to write this – and to tell you all about my marketing plans for the new year – when I was distracted by my inbox. Hard to ignore an email from my publisher Endeavour Press though. Hard, and probably not a wise choice.

This one was short and to the point: ‘Please find attached the cover that we have designed for Another You – I do hope you like it. Many thanks for returning the manuscript as well, all going well we are hoping to publish it at some point this week.’ Argh… and ARGH!

Seeing the cover for the first time was always going to be one of those make or break moments and I fingered the ‘download attachment’ button nervously. But I could see a thin slice of the title in the preview pane and the vibrant red script drew me in.

First impressions? I loved it. And first impressions are the most important on a crowded page of thumbnails on Amazon. ‘Open me! Read me!’ it screamed. “The past is never dead…” it told me – and instantly I wanted to know why. Well, I would have if I didn’t already, but you get my drift.

The cover works on so many levels. The GIs in sepia in the past, the modern woman with a touch of colour in the present. The sea, the colours, linking them both. Boy oh boy, am I one happy writer.

There is one proviso though, but I am undecided about whether it’s important. Marie would never wear a skirt that short and while she’d love the hat, she probably couldn’t afford it. When she isn’t in her chef’s whites she almost invariably shoves on a pair of jeans – or if she has to dress to impress, a pair of tailored trousers. Now if you’re the sort of reader who likes to imagine their own characters you won’t care a jot, but if you like to refer to the cover to see what they look like then it could be just a little bit irritating… although overall I suspect I am splitting hairs.

More important is the strap line. There were a few different ones flying around. In the original blurb it was ‘What happens when you reach out and touch the past?’ which I replaced with ‘When the present is unbearable, can you be saved by the past?’ (Amazon loves a question). But the line on the cover is snappy and succinct. Job done.

And it’s just as well one job is, because if the book is going to come out this week then I’m way, way behind. My website updates may have gone to the designer, but they’re still in her in tray; my blog tour is only just beginning to come together; Lisa my PR sent me a draft press release a few weeks ago but I haven’t even had time to open it. And this week is pretty well fully booked… even if I believed that just a fraction before Christmas was a good time to promote a summer read.

A new marketing strategy beckons. Sshh – don’t tell anyone it’s out there. Yet.

Jane Cable is the author of two independently published romantic suspense novels, The Cheesemaker’s House and The Faerie Tree, and a sporadic contributor to Frost. Another You tells the tale of how two young American soldiers born sixty years apart help forty-something Marie Johnson to rebuild her shattered confidence and find new love. Discover more at www.janecable.com.

The life of a Second Wife by Margaret Graham

Posted on April 26, 2016 by Margaret Graham

Frost is so pleased to see Elizabeth Buchan’s novel, The Second Wife picked out by Daisy Goodwin in her feature in the Daily Mail: Second Marriages – key novels to help you through the trickier times in life.

Daisy Goodwin discusses Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier, Before She Met Me by John Barnes, and Sunday Times No 1 bestselling author, and patron of Words for the Wounded, Elizabeth Buchan, and her novel The Second Wife.

The Second Wife explores the world of the mistress who becomes the wife – overtones of Sir James Goldsmith who did just that, and thereby created a vacancy. Ouch.
According to Buchan the second marriage is a world that can be less than appealing, full of pitfalls and of course, baggage. Elizabeth Buchan, who spoke recently at the Words for the Wounded LitFest at Downley, High Wycombe, (Frost’s editor, Catherine Balavage spoke later in the day) examines Minty’s experiences of a second marriage sympathetically, but with her usual incisive wit and elegance. It is a compelling and heart-warming novel, as are her others, the most recent being the thought provoking and excellent I Can’t Begin to Tell You set in Denmark during the 2nd World War.

It’s great to see The Second Wife having another outing. Go on, give yourself a treat – it is very well worth reading.

Elizabeth Buchan’s latest book The New Mrs Clifton will be out in August 1016. Frost is looking forward to reviewing it.

The Second Wife                 published by Penguin
I Can’t Begin to Tell you        published by Penguin
The New Mrs Clifton             published by Penguin August 2016

Greta Stoddart and White Space by Maya Pieris

Posted on April 1, 2016 by Margaret Graham

Greta Stoddart makes very good chocolate biscuits. She is also an award-winning poet, been a performer, teaches creative writing and lives with her family, including Juno the “liquorice allsorts” dog, in Devon, down a steep track with a huge view across the Axe Valley.

Over tea and biscuits we talked about words and silence, 2 big elements in her creative life. Words, she said, were an early love, her first “self-published” poetry anthology written aged 9 and illustrated by her sister but not she said like Jane Austen or the Brontes.

The collection, which included “Master Crash It All” about a particularly clumsy boy, “ was a bit tumpty, tumpty” – her description – but lines would arrive in her head as she awoke and wanted to be written down. The book happened just before a major riding accident which saw her spend 3 months in hospital and then several more on the sofa reading or looking out the window, in retrospect an excellent nursery for a fledgling poet who turned from a “an outgoing child into a more reflective one”.

Her road to physical recovery turned out, however, to be through ballet, almost on doctor’s orders, this leading to the other passion-dance and then theatre. Eventually after reading drama at Manchester Greta went to study with the Jacques Lecoq school of physical theatre in Paris specialising in clown skills. 2 years on found her and 2 female friends touring Europe with Brouhaha, their mime theatre company, which lasted for 5 busy years.

She says the experience “taught me to respect silence- which poetry also values in the white space around the text”, a “pressured silence, to not speak unless you really need to”. Space in both words and performance is certainly central to her writing and her teaching- her workshops are always measured, calm situations where listening is of the essence. It was while on tour in Belfast that the writing bug began to go viral in the form of “lines in my head” which insisted on being written down, as in childhood.

She took a year out of acting and never went back. Her timing was stage perfect- she booked onto an Arvon writing course led by Simon Armitage in the company of other then aspiring poets such as Kate Clanchy and moved on to be tutored by Michael Donaghy. She took to poetry like a duck to water and found an audience in sympathy with her work resulting in her first collection, At Home in the Dark, which received the 2001 Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize. She claims “it was a bit of luck” but was actually the result of 7 years work.

She has since written 2 further collections appearing in a fairy tale way around every 7 years. Her latest, Alive, Alive O, published last year deals with death, a subject which has interested her since childhood and which came about after a series of personal bereavements. It is, however, not a depressing collection- sad, thoughtful, painful and also positive as she attempts to cover the complexities of this subject.

So with 3 books completed she is in quiet contemplation of her next writing challenge so we await with interest What Greta Did Next.

Books available at all independent and chain book stores.

Words for the Wounded Host Their Annual LitFest Literary Festival

Posted on March 7, 2016 by Frostie

Great excitement – Words for the Wounded which raises funds for wounded troops and veterans by creating opportunities for aspiring writers and readers is holding its annual LitFest again on April 16th.

The WforW LitFest Day will be held as always at the lovely Downley Community Centre, School Close, Downley, High Wycombe HP13 5TR
10.00am to 5.00pm.

As everyone knows by now, the three grannies, Margaret Graham, Jan Speedie (both Frost Magazine writers) and Penny Deacon absorb all the costs of the charity and therefore 100% of everything they raise goes to where it should.

The speakers this year are: Sunday Times No 1 bestselling author and a patron of WforW – Elizabeth Buchan talking about her work.

Jemima Hunt, editor and literary agent, and director of The Writers’ Practice with advice on editing your work and attracting an agent.
Tracy Baines, successful women’s magazine short story writer with tips about getting published.

Further excitement as Catherine Balavage, blogger and editor of Frost Magazine will be joining the day to talk about blogging, running a magazine, and her various successful books.

Paul Vates, the brilliant actor, and friend of Words for the Wounded, will be reading from the work of our speakers.

Sharon Bennett will be displaying her art.

Cost £35 (which includes lunch with wine, morning coffee and afternoon tea)

For Tickets, send a cheque or postal order to: (cheques payable to Words for the Wounded)
Words for the Wounded
12 Woodcote Green, Downley, High Wycombe, HP13 5UN
Please include a SAE

Trains from London are frequent, and there are taxis for the 10 minute journey.

www.wordsforthewounded.co.uk

An interview with Gillian Holmes – editor by Margaret Graham

Posted on January 19, 2016 by Margaret Graham

Gillian Holmes – aka The Editor – has been working in publishing for nearly twenty years. She started out at Quarto, working on craft books and worked with many publishers, and finally

Arrow Books where she edited many bestselling authors, such as Katie Flynn, Dorothy Koomson, Amy Silver (aka Paula Hawkins), Cathy Woodman, Margaret Graham, Lisa Lynch, and many others.
Gillian now has her own editorial agency, The Editor, and over the following two weeks, she will be giving advice on the first three chapters, and the synopsis. This might well prove useful for any of you who are thinking of entering the Words for the Wounded Independent Author Book Award. Last year’s winner is now represented by Felicity Trew of the Caroline Sheldon Literary Agency. Felicity is this year’s judge. (more details www.wordsforthewounded.co.uk)

Frost asked Gillian more about herself.

What are your passions?

My main passion is reading. My parents moved around the world a lot and because I went to boarding school, I didn’t have many friends at home. So books stopped me feeling lonely. Well, that and my musical box (no music as all tapes warped due to the tropical climate) which I would play while I pretended to be a ballerina. Quite sad considering I have never had a ballet lesson in my life.

I also love to swim. An early morning swim will usually set the day up perfectly. I find solutions to all sorts of problems in the water – including problems with the book I’m working on at the time. Oh, and I am a massive QPR fan; this affliction has taught me forbearance and patience.

What do you read?

I read widely and according to my mood. I usually have several books on the go. I read women’s fiction when I want to be engrossed in someone else’s life. For those days when I’m tired, I read romance – contemporary or historical. It’s comforting and always cheers me up. I also really enjoy real-life tales of derring-do like Agent Zig Zag. Also, Samuel Pepys’s diary is a big comfort read for me; he always makes me laugh. I like crime for when I’m bored, I particularly like books with a long-running characters, so Jo Nesbo and Lee Child are great favourites. Recently I’ve discovered a new character to follow in Tony Parsons’ Max Wolfe: tortured single father, boxer and policeman. What’s not to love? And finally, I adore historical novels. I used to raid my mother’s collection of Georgette Heyers and Jean Plaidys, but my absolute tip top favourite was Katherine by Anya Seton. Last year, my aunt researched our family history and, thrillingly, she discovered Katherine is our grandmother (great great etc). I was in actual heaven! Personally, I think this is the most interesting fact about me. If my friends had ever heard of her, I’m sure they’d agree.

What do you love about what you do?
I have never managed to write a book, so I admire and respect authors enormously. Books have been my constant companion throughout my life, so to read one in the rough, and help an author shape it to be the very best it can be, is enormously satisfying. Editing is very subjective, so as an editor I must never lose sight of the fact that this is not my book, so I need to set my ego aside. Just because I’d do it differently, doesn’t mean I should advise the author to do it my way. An editor has to be a different person for every book they edit and work within the parameters of the author’s style and vision. I like that challenge, and if an author seems genuinely happy with my suggestions and work, I’m thrilled. I love knowing that I have helped create something without actually having to do all the work. I’m a bit lazy, you see.

The first three chapters or so are important in drawing in the reader.

What would be your first piece of advice?
Firstly, your first line needs to grab the reader’s attention and set the tone of the book. Don’t save your best line for half way through the first chapter, or even half way through the book. Get it out straight away so the reader wants to keep going. Then the challenge is to follow through on that promise. Try not to fill the first chapters with backstory and description. Always remember you’ve got another 70,000 words plus to fit that in. Just keep it moving. Hook us in and don’t let us go.

I find a synopsis difficult. Will you be helping Frost readers with this? If so, in a nutshell, what should a synopsis do?
Yes, absolutely, because having worked as an acquiring editor, an agent’s reader and a reader for competitions, I know how important a good synopsis is. Firstly, remember why you’ve been asked for it and who you’re writing it for. Usually it’s for a competition or a submission to an agent/publisher. They want the synopsis because, if they like the first three chapters, they want to see how you’ve developed the rest of the book. It will give them a clear overview of the concept and structure, and often determine whether they will want to see the rest. They don’t want irrelevant detail and descriptions, and they don’t need dialogue. And most importantly, they DO NOT want you to leave a cliffhanger. Finally, keep it short – 1500 words or fewer.

Will you ever write a novel?
I’m not sure. I have a butterfly mind and I tend to get bored quite quickly. Writing a whole book would entail me concentrating on one thing for far too long. Having said that, I did write half a book once – it was a romance inspired by my crush on Daniel Craig (I know, I know, I’m a sad cliché). The heroine (who wasn’t at all based on me, not at all) rescued him from some dastardly kidnappers. I got so involved with my characters (well one in particular) that I expected him to email me to let me know what happened next. Sadly, he never did, which I know he regrets.

Or a short story?
Short story writing is a very particular skill and not at all easy to do. I might try it one day, though. The great thing about short stories is they can be just as satisfying as a good novel, but they don’t take as long to read.

Your favourite book as a child?
I had two. Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfield – I wanted to be Posy so badly, that when I had my daughter I (briefly!) considered it as a name. And A Little Princess. I went to boarding school when I was very young, so I related. Which is a little dramatic of me, as I was treated perfectly well by the school and, disappointingly, I never did discover that I owned some diamond mines.

What question would you like to be asked?
How does your husband Daniel feel about the fact that your career as a prima ballerina keeps you away from home so much?

To contact Gillian. gilliansholmes@hotmail.com
To find out more about The Independent Author Book Award: www.wordsforthewounded.co.uk
Words for the Wounded are also holding a LitFest on April 16. www.wordsforthewounded.co.uk

Spotlight interview with Maya Pieris

Posted on December 7, 2015 by Margaret Graham

Pinning down this writer was easy as it’s me, trying out the Spotlight idea:

In this new series, conversations with writers, I aim to shine a brief spotlight onto what makes someone begin that uncertain path from brain to book, and to consider what makes us write.

Have I always written? Yes and no- I thought about it, had periods of trying but too often gave up. For a few years I attended various workshops but it’s since being in Bridport, Dorset, that writing has become almost a reflex reaction. There’s something in the air here that really encourages people to write to be read. And to be published.

And now ideas run about like kids in a playground. I keep pens and paper around the place though on occasions thoughts have been scrawled on the back of my left hand. This affliction does affect others as the need to make notes comes at any time, and from any and everywhere. Writers are like grave robbers: plundering anything- ourselves, others. My response after the recent French tragedy was to write 2 poems though it’s not always a comfortable thought that creativity and inspiration come from such events. Seeing a dead mole led me to write a poem about an Islamist group whilst another idea came from seeing thousands of whitebait washed up on the shore near Bridport.

And what do I write? Poems, short stories, magazine articles and plays. The last time I tried writing one I was aged 10 and the play was a “who dunnit” written in turquoise ink.

The writing challenge is to focus. It really is important not to get seduced by too many possibilities. And validation from peers is also invaluable, though I write firstly for myself- to try and fix a feeling or thought in words. I’m not sure why but I seem to have to. But I do have people I trust to edit and critique work. It is, however, necessary to let your work go. In a way once it’s written it’s on its way to becoming public though it was a year before I could look at my first published book without wanting to change it.
Future plans are to write more regularly and finish work- too many unfinished “jumpers”. Writing is a private process. You have to enjoy the jigsaw of arranging your thoughts and ideas. There are lots of excellent courses to join and so many other writers to read but in the end it’s you, your pen or computer. And for me it’s an entry to a large uncharted world.

A Day In The Life / Hester Young

Posted on August 25, 2015 by Margaret Graham

Today finds me far from the New Jersey suburb that I call home, in the midst of a research trip for my second novel. My husband and I have left our kids with my mother and journeyed to Arizona. The timing isn’t perfect–my first book, THE GATES OF EVANGELINE, has a lot going on publicity-wise as we prepare for our U.S. release. But the sequel needs some love, too, so here I am!

Today, we begin the morning at a B&B on the edge of Tucson, a city I used to live in. I take a 5 AM stroll on the trail out back and watch the sun come up. Lizards, birds, and rabbits scuttle and hop about, and I even spot an antelope jackrabbit. I make notes on the different types of cactus and desert plants I see so that I can accurately describe them in the book later.

My husband and I enjoy a breakfast of tortilla chips, black beans, and nopalitos (a type of cactus)at a place called Coyote Pause. I scan through publicity and marketing emails regarding THE GATES OF EVANGELINE while he frets over the weather reports. Looks like we will be braving temperatures of up to 46 degrees Celsius! My first novel required research trips to Louisiana during Mardi Gras–this is not quite as cushy. We chat and review our plans for the day, and then I sneak in some writing time with a notebook in the courtyard before it gets too hot.

Next, we head an hour south to Nogales, an Arizona town that borders a Mexican city by the same name. I’ve arranged a tour tomorrow with an officer at U.S. Customs and Border Patrol to get info for the book. Today, we are meeting Scott Nicholson, an American charity worker who has offered to guide us through the Mexican side of Nogales and show us one of the city’s poorest communities.

Scott brings us to Tirabichi, a garbage dump once home to thirty families who made their living recycling found materials. The dump has recently been shut down by the government and its dwellings destroyed by a pair of suspicious fires that killed one resident. Few families remain. My work-in-progress has a scene set here, so I get a good look around and speak a bit with the caretaker in my stilted Spanish.

Over lunch, we chat with Scott about his life and work. Though American, he lives and works at a Mexican community center called HEPAC, which offers free lunches for local children, adult education courses, and a new affordable child care center. In his free time, Scott hikes seven miles through the desert to leave water for desperate migrants who might otherwise die as they seek to cross the border. I am amazed by his big heart. Meeting interesting individuals with powerful stories is one of my favorite parts of being a writer.

My husband and I return to the U.S. mid-afternoon and check into a local hotel. I spend a couple hours writing while he naps. When he wakes, we do a Facetime call with our children, who breathlessly relate their day’s adventures.

Although we aren’t expecting high cuisine from this dusty border town, we find a surprisingly delicious Italian restaurant in a neighboring town. It’s strange to go from the poverty of Mexico to sipping wine and nibbling an eggplant appetizer, but I suppose this is what writers do: move in and out of worlds. Tonight I am particularly grateful for all that we have. I can’t wait to integrate the things I’ve seen into my latest novel.

Frost Magazine

Books and Lifestyle

Tag Archives: writers

Monday Club A Collective For Actors and Creatives

Best Endeavours Endeavouring To Surprise: Jane Cable on what happens once that publishing deal is in the bag

The life of a Second Wife by Margaret Graham

Greta Stoddart and White Space by Maya Pieris

Words for the Wounded Host Their Annual LitFest Literary Festival

An interview with Gillian Holmes – editor by Margaret Graham

Spotlight interview with Maya Pieris

A Day In The Life / Hester Young

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