Elizabeth Baines's Blog

Just a reminder that Robert Graham and I are reading at Manchester Central Library tonight. I've got my share of the wine (but I forgot the orange juice, so I'll have to go out again!). Robert will be reading from his lovely wry stories in The Only Living Boy, and I'll be reading from Too Many Magpies and something else (not sure what yet: I want to read something the audience won't have heard, so I guess that means seeing who turns up and deciding then!)

Do come: Committee Room, Manchester...

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It's that time of year again! This year's call for scripts for this vibrant theatre festival opens officially as of NOW.

This year the format has changed a little: of 20 plays chosen, 10 will receive full performances and 5 rehearsed readings, and the authors of a further 5 will receive mentoring. This is a good development, I think: for the audience it was always well-nigh impossible to get around all of the performances - though I know some people who made a point of doing so! - and I like ...

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This morning I went off to Levenshulme and ALL FM's community radio station, invited by Andrew Edwards to be interviewed about Too Many Magpies on his Sunday lunchtime Art Beat programme. I was there once before, when I was producing my 24:7 Theatre Festival play The Processing Room. It's a quirky place, a converted Victorian house on a corner, the green room being the old dining room and the two studios being the once front parlour and back sitting room, I presume, though in fact it's pretty...

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I've had a lovely review for Too Many Magpies from Lisa Glass on Vulpes Libris. It's one of a series of mini-reviews she has written on her 'favourite books of the autumn'. She says: 'I read most of this book in one sitting as I could not drag myself away from its eerie storytelling' and 'Elizabeth Baines has a gift for creating lyrical, penetrating prose, and characters who seem all too real in their flaws, obsessions and neuroses', and calls the book 'an accomplished, thoughtful novel that...

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Here's the video Jen took in our back garden when she came up for the Northern Salt reading:

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Well, Salt have now done a second printing of Too Many Magpies, and that's a lovely feeling. It had to be done in such a rush, though, that there wasn't a chance to sort out the typos I'd found. Never mind: when I told my sister she said, 'What are you talking about?' (in her inimitable what's-she-on-about-now manner). 'What typos? I never saw any!' (As if there couldn't be any then!)

I'm having a bit of difficulty settling down again after all the rushing around and promotion, but actually fe...

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I had a great launch for Too Many Magpies at the Calder Bookshop on Tuesday evening. The shop is a lovely place which includes a theatre area set up by John Calder to provide a performance space for his Godot Theatre, and there is a really nice atmosphere. And so many of my friends old and new came to celebrate with me: writer friends and blogger friends, my wonderful publisher Jen Hamilton-Emery, and also my long-lost cousin whom I'd never met before in my life - now you don't often get that...

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The London launch of Too Many Magpies will take place on Tuesday (17th November), 7pm at the famed Calder Bookshop 51 The Cut, London SE1 8LF Tel. +44 (0)20 7620 2900.

The Calder Bookshop was founded by John Calder, legendary publisher of Burroughs, Beckett et all, so it's a lovely place to have a launch.

All welcome. Come and have a glass of wine and get a signed copy for yourself or as a fittingly spooky Christmas present!

And I've had another nice brief Goodreads review for the book. Evie sa...

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Today is the last day to enter a competition to win a copy of the fabulous Short Circuit, the guide to the art of short story writing just out from Salt. Head on over to Salt's blog and get your entry in - it's a nice easy quiz for literary types! Here's Salt's information about the book:

Short Circuit is the first textbook written by prize-winning writers for students and more experienced practitioners of the short story. The 288 page guide brings together twenty-four specially-commissioned ...

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