Cherry Potts's Blog, page 7
March 3, 2016
Launching the Dowry Blade – pictures
Launching The Dowry Blade at Lewisham Library last week.
you next opportunity to catch up with me reading from the epic fantasy TONIGHT, 7pm Beckenham Bookshop, high street Beckenham, Kent opposite the church. Get your skates on!
February 25, 2016
It’s publication day
A bit like giving birth – with the idea as conception, the writing as gestation and the editing and production as labour so 20ish years in the writing, this is definitely MY baby.
February 4, 2016
Launch events for The Dowry Blade
Publication day for The Dowry Blade approaches, and pre-publication copies are already available from Arachne Press’ web shop, where there is also a special offer of £25 (free postage in the UK) for combining TDB with Mosaic of Air (normal combined price £27.98) for the first 20 people to get there.
I have 4 launch events lined up (it is a BIG book, it needs several events).
If anyone has further suggestions or indeed offers as to other places to read, get in touch. Will consider anywhere within easy reach of London, plus near Sheffield, Bath, Durham and Newark where friends and family might be prevailed upon for a bed for the night.
Follow the links for full details, and I hope to see you for at least one!
The Dowry Blade Launch, Lewisham Library Wednesday 24th February 6.30-8pm.
The Dowry Blade Launch, Clapham Books Thursday 25th February 7.30-9pm.
The Dowry Blade Launch, The Beckenham Bookshop Thursday 3rd March 7-8.30
January 21, 2016
The Dowry Blade, live and in the flesh
There is nothing to beat a pile of new books, except a pile of new books that you wrote yourself. And this is a big pile, of big books! The Dowry Blade is big! It weighs 620 grams. I hadn’t really thought through the amount of space a 400 page book printed in Royal format takes in bulk. This is just the 100 copies to supply events in places that aren’t bookshops, copies for reviewers and the copyright libraries. Buy one before I have to build an extension!
Julian is delighted at the number of new boxes to play in, and also thinks you should buy a copy so that they empty quickly.
Support Julian’s plans for a small city of boxes to disport himself within by buying a copy direct from Arachne Press, or at one of the launch events (that’s the ‘live and in the flesh’ thing) – Lewisham Library on 24th February at 6:30, or Clapham Books on 25th February at 7.30.
More events to follow in March, in discussions with three more venues.
January 12, 2016
January 10, 2016
Solstice Shorts: Longest Night, the Midwinter Wife
The Midwinter Wife got another outing at Longest Night. Here is the peerless Annalie Wilson reading the shorter performance version
You can buy the full length print version in Latchkey Tales Clockwise – Midnight Blues
January 9, 2016
World Premier… my very first tune
Organising Longest Night kept me away from my own blog for a while, but it was completely worth it, not least because it gave me an opportunity to share my first ever musical composition with musicians who would do it justice. Here are Ian Kennedy and Sarah Lloyd singing The Cold Time.
This is a Trobairitz song from the late 12th Century, written by Azalaïs de Porcairagues, in what is now Languedoc. It is written in a form of Provençal known now as Occitan. The tune is lost, and I came across it in Meg Bogin’s book The Women Troubadours, while researching my historical novel about Cathars and Trobairitz, The Cold Time, which I may eventually finish.
I actually wrote the melody a very long time ago, but coming up with harmonies has been a slower process. Ian & Sarah were incredibly patient with me!
I learnt Provençal, and tweaked Bogin’s translation for poetic rhythm and sense. The original song is a much longer work, but only this first section stands alone without understanding the social mores of the time and the geography and architecture of the city of Aurenga (Orange) – it was only when I went there and visited the museum that I understood a reference later in the song to the ‘Arch with the Triumphs’. A Roman triumphal arch, which for several centuries was built into the castle, effectively forming the front door. This was certainly the case when Azalaïs knew the then count, Raimbaut d’Aurenga. These days the arch sits on a roundabout to the north of the city centre, and getting to it is a death defying race across, dodging massed lorries.
Raimbaut d’Aurenga’s Front Door
Notionally the section here is a typical Troubadour song of the seasons, although Spring was a more popular subject than Winter. However, the song is in fact an extended metaphor and a farewell to Raimbaut, Azalaïs’ ‘Nightingale’. She does not say so, but he had died.
November 5, 2015
Join In: Folk Song Workshop for Winter
LESTER SIMPSON FOLK SONG WORKSHOP
SECULAR WINTER SONGS
LEARN AROUND 5 SONGS
SATURDAY 28TH NOVEMBER 2015
12:45- 17:15
ST HILDA’S CHURCH HALL
COURTRAI ROAD SE23 1NL
bus routes 122, P4, 171, 172 stop on the corner.
train to Crofton Park or Honor Oak Park 10 minute walk.
advanced booking required
£25
INCLUDES REFRESHMENTS
all abilities welcome.
November 3, 2015
Callout for pre publication reviewers
So, experimenting with new stuff, my forthcoming book, The Dowry Blade (February 2016) is on NetGalley, a review site for librarians, bookshop owners, book bloggers and professional reviewers. If that is YOU, you can download a review PDF here. It is UNPROOFED, ok, so no comments about typos!
October 29, 2015
Refugees Welcome Anthology
I’m delighted that I have TWO stories in the forthcoming Refugees Welcome anthology.
These are We Apologise for the Delay… a story of what it means to be a stranger and how communities form in times of need, told through the prism of the London Underground as the site for ‘first contact’ with aliens; and Queues a story about waiting at a border crossing and recognising someone from home. Both stories have at their heart the human instinct to kindness in a crisis, something I have been hearing from friends all over the country – offering their money and help and even their homes to those in need. All we need now is for the government to actually accept a sensible number of refugees: at the moment what we are offering over a number of years,equates too readily to the numbers arriving in a single day at the European boundaries. We need to offer proper help, not pretend we are doing anything when we clearly aren’t. A couple of stories isn’t much, but it is something I can do, so I’ve done it; all the writers are donating their stories, no one will make anything from the anthology. RWA is a charity book that combines inspirational stories. It is the 3rd project run by Greg McQueen and 100% of sales go to Red Cross for Refugees. So: we don’t have a publication date yet, but when we do, you can help by buying a copy (or more than one!). I’ll keep you posted.
