Gareth Preston's Blog, page 20

Diversity wins as the Sad Puppies lose at the Hugo awards

Diversity wins as the Sad Puppies lose at the Hugo awards

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Helping Potting Shed Pete arrive on social media

I first met the performance poet Potting Shed Pete about a year ago, when he came along to Bolton to appear at Scott Devon’smonthly open-mic evening George’s. He’s an engaging character, with a fully worked out stage persona of a cheerful Northern bloke in flat cap and white gloves. Most of his poem’s are light-hearted observational fare, but occasionally he’ll reveal a more serious side to his work, which is more effective by the contrast.

A little while ago he got in touch to ask if I could...

Pantomime season for me starts in the Summer

It’s been an encouraging time for me lately on the pantomime front. This year I published my first panto as solo writer – Rumplestiltskin – via Lazy Bee Press. It’s always nerve-wracking to send my work out into the world, waiting to see not only if people like it, but will some people actually put real money on the table to stage it. My last panto, a version of Treasure Island co-written with Adrian Barradell, had failed to attract much interest. So it was a pleasant surprise when I received...

How To Approach Literary Agents – free seminar in Bolton

Creative Industries Trafford have been running some excellent events for new and upcoming writers locally. I’ve been to several of their previous events and will be turning up for this one next week in my home town of Bolton. There are still places available – so book now if interested. Here’s their description:

How To Approach Literary Agents
7th July 2015 – 6.30pm – 8.30pm

The Gallery at St Georges, St George’s House St Georges Road, Bolton BL1 2DD

Free

Join Juliet Pickering (Blake Friedm...

Shapeshifters and crime – “Hopcross Jilly” the first Mercy Thompson graphic novel

Mercy Thompson GN

I’m delighted to learn that the first run of comics featuring were-coyote Mercy Thompson has been collected together into one hardback volume. Based on the popular series of horror-fantasy novels by Patricia Briggs, this series has been written by my good friend and in-demand comics scribe Rik Hoskin, based on a storyline by Briggs. Illustrated with marvelous artwork by Tom Garcia.

Mercy Thompson is a beautiful young woman by day, and coyote and honorary member of the Tri-St...

Writing Rumplestiltskin the pantomime

Now available for theatre groups of almost any kind is my pantomime version of the Grimm’s fairytale “Rumplestiltskin”. It has been published by Lazy Bee Scripts and I want to thank Stuart Arden for his help. It’s my first solo panto outing, having co-written versions of “Dick Whittington”, “Aladdin” and “Treasure Island”. You can take a look at all of them on the Lazy Bee website – http://www.lazybeescripts.co.uk/Authors/Author.aspx?iIA=239

Rumplestiltskin has become one of the slightly les...

Watch the best of our Bolton poetry festival – Live from Worktown 2015

So after all the stressful planning, the filming and the late nights, the second Live from Worktown festival of the spoken word is over. Well I say over, you can still buy copies of our accompanying poetry anthology with contributions from all over the UK and beyond, not to mention a long overdue reissue of Hovis Presley’s bestselling collection “Poetic Off-License”. Sometime soon the committee will have a review meeting to consider what succeeded and what could have been done better.

Plus y...

Brian Patten and John Hegley are coming to Live from Worktown

Live from Worktown 2015 has begun, with three well received social events, including the launch of the Anthology, an evening with Flapjack Press and a debate on which famous poet to throw out of a balloon. I’m gearing up to film several of the coming events and put edited versions online. Expect a compilation post once they are up. But I just wanted to take the time to recommend two of our flagship events.

John Hegley

As well as running an afternoon workshop which is nearly sold out. John H...

Boy Gets Girl

Rebecca Gilman’s disturbing drama about stalking is being put on by Bolton Little Theatre in May 9th-16th and I recently went down there to interview its director Peter Scofield about it. The video is now up on their site http://www.boltonlittletheatre.co.uk, my Youtube channel, and now my blog!

Live from Worktown 2015 Festival is nearly here

Bolton’s festival of art and the spoken word is coming in May. I’ve edited a brand new trailer to promote it, which you can watch above.

Amongst the festival highlights:
18th May John Hegley Workshop and Show
19th May Hovis in Wonderland – A play for voices, celebrating the life of Hovis Presley
20th May Jackie Hagan and Open Mic
21st May Brian Patter and Mandy Coe
30th May John and the Baptists free concert

For more information visit http://livefromworktown.org and you can order tickets onl...