Creativity in a world of Zoom
I’ve been thinking about how Damn Cheek has progressed in the last year and blogged about it on the Damn Cheek website. Damn Cheek is the theatrical production company which I co founded and which takes up a fair bit of my time. I thought our Covid journey worth sharing so what follows is a […]
Pointing the way
A month in and it still feels like a new year. Partly because of politics, although that also feels like the same old stuff. Partly because of pure busyness. Every January is the same. A few days of idleness followed by everything kicking off at once. So this feels like a good time to look […]
Dinner theatre returns
No sooner had I shared the latest about The Door than I had final confirmation of the next dinner theatre event. We staged a special dinner theatre evening based on Blessed Assurance back in October at Dorking’s White Horse hotel. The productions a joint effort between Damn Cheek Productions and the Greensand Band and the […]
What the Peacock Replied
I spent a very interesting and enjoyable evening in The Keep, one of Guildford’s friendliest pubs, at the launch of Dempsey and Windle’s latest anthology – What the Peacock Replied. The anthology features the winners and shortlisted poets from the Brian Dempsey Memorial Competition and a fine mix of poems. styles and voices it was. […]
Interview
Last weekend I spent some time in Leatherhead at the new independent bookshop, Book Potato. While there, co owner Tom recorded an interview with me. Here it is – https://youtu.be/q-n8cfz4PC4
More launches…
Another week and more launch events approach. Following the success of June’s event (pictured) I am holding a similar one on 17th July, also at the Community Buildings attached to St Johns church in North Holmwood, starting at 7.30. All welcome. It’s going to be a good crowd. I also have the London Launch on […]
Magic moments
Some moments are special. Like the one where you turn a corner and are confronted by Rhododendrons in bloom, or are surrounded by butterflies while walking the dog. Both happened to me this week. Some Adonis Blues too. But the moment that really felt special was when I first held a copy of Blessed Assurance […]
Pebbles, poets and potatoes
I was musing on poets and publication as I walked the dog between Goring and Ferring at the weekend. This stretch of coast is not only home territory for two of the main characters in the book, Anne and Liza, but familiar territory to me and it struck me that a knowledge of place can […]
Typesetting, and a world of music
Another busy week as we inch closer to publication. The latest stage in the process has been the typesetting. Another task I’m glad not to have to do myself, although I did have to check it through and approve. Fortunately, not much needed changing and we’re now onto the next stage – full print jacket […]
Edits and launches
With some relief, I finished checking through the edits on Blessed Assurance and moved on to other things for a few days. The editing process was a revelation. An immense amount of work, most of it by Andrea the editor rather than by me, though I still had to go through her thousands of edits […]