Cherry Potts's Blog, page 24

Inspirations – The Archetypal Good Wife

The first story I ever got published, Penelope is no Longer Waiting ( A Very, Very long time ago) came from my finally reading Homer (not in the original Greek, comprehensive schooling isn’t that kind of comprehensive) as opposed to interpretations of… and I found that what I thought I knew about the Odyssey was not all there was to know.  I found myself thinking Really? Really? Ten years of war, ten years to get home? Someone as clever as Odysseus? Would Penelope really have waited?

I think not.

You can hear me reading Penelope is no Longer Waiting LIVE this Saturday 5th October at Misty Moon Gallery SE13 7HS as part of the ongoing celebrations for the launch of Mosaic of Air and Weird Lies more info here.

© Cherry Potts 2013

I find myself wondering what it would be like …

Catch ‘Joining’ on ‘Litro’

Anyway, my story Joining (recently performed in a slightly different version at Towersey Festival) was a runner-up in Litro magazine’s cults and clubs competition, you can read it here.

It’s been a month for getting mentioned on other people’s websites, and you can also read my guest blog about publishing short stories on BooksEtc.

and my guest blog for National Short Story Week (Coming up in November)

National Short Story Week

National Short Story Week this year is 13-20th November.

Now that I’m so busy doing publishing and stuff, celebrating the short story is all the more important to me, so I’ve done a guest blog over of the NSSW website, all about performing at Towersey.

Also, continuing the live literature theme, I will be reading my story Mirror at the Arachne Press hosted Armistice Tales, which is on 13th November, in National Short Story Week; at the lovely Ivy House in Nunhead.

Come along and listen, and join in the ‘flash from the floor’ 100 word challenge.

Singing in the Rain

rehearsing, chilly but not yet wet

So we completed our mission, and sou’westers and slickers and oilskins were necessary, but fortunately we only got the edge of the promised storm, Sing for Water has been accomplished! Apparently its the first time it has rained for this event in 13 years. We only got slightly damp, and though I say it myself we sounded awsome – all 700+ of us.

I discovered it is not possible to sing and boxstep with a hood pulled up. There will no doubt be video on youtube in a few days, should you wish to explore.

the rest of the choir

Thanks to  the audience (especially the familiar faces) for braving the wet to listen. Thanks too to the many people, friends and strangers, who have sponsored Vocal Chords to the tune of  £1000 (plus gift aid) on our virgin money giving page – this will remain available for another month, so if you haven’t donated anything to stop waterborne diseases in Africa yet, you still can.

We shouldn’t complain about the rain really, given we sang to Yemaya, goddess of the waters and since we are raising money to get water to people.  It seemed quite appropriate that we were singing next to the Thames, in my lifetime that river has been cleaned from a dead, chemical soup to somewhere fish can safely swim, yet the water we are talking about kills children daily, because there is no other water to drink.

Water Aid put in a clean safe water supply somewhere ever 20 minutes, your Sing for Water money goes exclusively to the projects on the ground – you really are saving lives, please give us your dosh!

bright shiny new book

Mosaic of Air by Cherry Potts (cover Melina Traub)

So I’ve been working through the first box of books sending them out to reviewers. And I’ve been so busy organising things I didn’t get round to posting on the website, so (Trumpet fanfare!!) Mosaic of Air is here, and will be in the shops on 26th September.

There will be a launch party at The Planetarium, Royal Observatory Greenwich SE10 8XJ on 1st October 2013 at 6pm  (Combined with Weird Lies, the latest Arachne Press/Liars’ League collaboration).  Readings will focus on Science Fiction stories. If you would like to come along, it’s free, but we have to have a guest list for H&S and so on, so please contact me and reserve your place by the 26th September absolute latest.

On 5th September at 7:30 there is another joint Weird Lies/ Mosaic of Air event, (also free) focussing on fantasy stories, at Misty Moon Gallery, Ladywell Tavern 80 Ladywell Road, SE13 7HS.

You can still buy copies at pre-publication price of £11 up until 26th September, post free within UK.

Singing for water

There are only ten days to go before Sing for Water, at the Mayor’s Thames Festival. Preparation chez nous has been a bit sporadic, as we’ve only been able to get to two of Vocal Chords rehearsals. However, we had an impromptu practice with a couple of friends on Tuesday, and might gatecrash a Nunhead Community Choir rehearsal tonight if there is one (lost the list of dates) and there’s one more VC evening we can make. Preparation apart from that has gone hand in hand with decorating the hall, bellowing along to Let Love Rain Down (my favourite) or Yemaya on the MP3 while sanding skirting boards, and more mellow carolling has happened to Moon River and Gmerto while painting the bannisters. What must the neighbours think!

If you would like to sponsor Vocal Chords for our contribution to Sing for Water, which raises money for WaterAid, to bring safe clean water to those who need it, you can donate via our virgin money giving page

We have raised £690 (£853.75 with gift aid) on the page so far, and it would be great to get that to £1000.

It would also be great if you can come and swell the audience on the day. 15th September 2.30ish. get there for 2 to be on the safe side, and get a seat, there will several hundred of us singing, so space for the audience gets quite tight!

Towersey Tales – and video

We had such a lot of fun at Towersey, courtesy of Spread the Word, and a wide variety of venues were performed at. Audience for readings between 30 and 100, participants for workshops around 30, and some of them came back and did the workshop again!

Here are some snippets of video of me performing on the Friday in the Ceilidh tent (reading, before you imagine me prancing about the dance floor) though I was tempted – excellent bands.

And here are some photos of us all doing our thing. All copyright me, apart from the one of me, which is copyright Debs Newbold.

Debs story telling – the disappearing pub

Debs Newbold outwitting death

Debs Newbold all around the Wrekin

debs being taught to tweet

David McGrath reading various tales of Rickshaw driving

Esther Poyer reading poems about fruit cake and homesickness, and growing up in South London

Paul Sherreard reading poems about pencils and romans…

Me reading about 17th century folk songs made flesh, with all the incest and murder definitely left in. I think the audience were a bit shocked…

so something for everyone really.

and finally Tom Banks reading from the Great Galloon, in which a balloon/galleon plies the open sky…

Inspirations – claustrophobia in the closet

To celebrate HM the Queen’s royal assent on Gay Marriage, some thoughts about what it used to be like when I was first coming out in 1982… when I wrote

Trying to Tell You…

A story about coming out,  not to straight colleagues or family, but to the only Visible Lesbian ( this is my version of the only gay in the village and predated Little Britain by a decade or two). The story is based on my partner’s one time workplace, where she was the Visible Lesbian, meshed with my memories of school. A. and I have a running joke about people who ought to be Lesbians but haven’t worked it out yet. And this is about one of those women, at the moment the penny drops. Who is she going to tell? How? Because the Visible Lesbian is too busy fighting her own battles, and isn’t listening.

Anyway one of the pleasures of republishing Mosaic of Air(out at the end of September), which includes Trying to Tell You … is finding that what I have written is now a period piece.

© Cherry Potts 2013

Oh the weeping and the wailing

The trouble with having a brilliant time at Blackheath Halls prancing about singing is that inevitably it comes to an end. The party helps make the break, and it was good to hear from orchestra members how much they enjoyed the process too, and either wanted to know what on earth we did to Macbeth (because seated with back to action) or admiring the way we faded into the darkness as assassins (which we didn’t know we were doing.) Also good to chat to everyone and say thank you properly for what has been the best opera yet, and the bar was high already. I am unreservedly proud to have been part of this production, thank you Nick, Chris and Rose (and everyone else) for making it such a joy.

Having lots for the chorus to sing really gave us the freedom to show what we are capable of – even the drunken spoofs at the party were in proper harmony this year, (if not absolutely the right key) usually I feel sorry for Rose’s neighbours.

Undertakers convention in Kiev

Howsoever, very glad not to be donning black polo-neck, combat trousers, heavy boots and woolly hat today – all that stuff is on the washing line, it looks like we’ve just got back from an undertakers convention in Kiev.

I can’t settle to work today so I’ve made a vat of Gazpacho (too much to fit in the fridge, which is going to be a problem…) and started sifting through the nearly 3000 photographs from Lena Kern (official photographer this year) They are absolutely brilliant, and there are actually several of me this year, usually (apart from the year Tony Stewart did the photographs) there’s only  one or two. I will post my favourites later. The accounts can be put off for (yet) another day.

There is a groundswell of opinion amongst the chorus and some audience members that we ought to have recorded the performance. Nick, if you are reading this – maybe we could at least get the chorus back together and just do our numbers? Guaranteed 60 sales!

© Cherry Potts 2013

More Macbeth Reviews and more unsung heroes

The Independent have reviewed Macbeth as have Classical Source they both really liked it, and the chorus get special mention.

I would just like to mention another set of unsung heroes – the stage managers. Managing sixty amateur chorus members thirty children and all the principles, to say nothing of guns, knives, glasses, trays, beer cans, playing cards and cigarette packets, gold watches, lit lanterns and sixteen stakes (that’s sixteen, whoever it is who kept bringing on an extra one!!) is no mean feat. We take them for granted. That is quite an accolade. Thank you Richard, Sarah, Charli and Osnat.

© Cherry Potts 2013