Susie Wild's Blog: Wildlife, page 41

high-piled books... The Work & Stuff update

Hello long-neglected blog.

So, I've made it to the other side of teaching my first semester on the MA in Creative and Critical Writing at the University of Gloucs (and some undergrad bits and pieces there and at Cardiff MET)... and also to the other side of organising Griff Rhys Jones' Cardiff Cameo Club Book Launch, The Welsh Cultural Embassy at The Wheatsheaf, and trips to both Laugharne (Take 1) and London Book Fair almost intact, bar a sprained ankle - damn you rainy road potholes.

Time for some R&R and a bit of a Spring shake up in between seeing friends and family.

BUT first for two updates...

ONE: THE WORK & STUFF UPDATE

Lots of the books I - and my brilliant authors - have been working on over my last year at the editorial helm of Parthian have recently been, or will soon be, launched into the world and I've been meeting with my 2015 authors too. Congratulations to Craig Hawes who has been longlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize for his debut collection The Witch Doctor of Umm Suqeim , which probably softens the blow of his book recently being banned in Dubai.

RAREBIT / PARTHIAN IS 21

In January my short story anthology Rarebit, celebrating Parthian's 21st birthday, was made Book of the Month in Waterstones, and some of these writers - Dan Tyte, Carly Holmes, Tyler Keevil, Holly Muller and Rachel Trezise - will read at our 21st birthday Gala Evening at Hay Festival on Monday 26th May (The Cube, 8.30pm). They will be joined by Dylan Thomas Prize shortlisted poet Jemma L. King and winner of the Young Person's category of the Planet Essay Prize, Sion Tomos Owen (also 2nd prize winner in this year's Terry Hetherington Award for Young Writers). Many will also be signing their own new (and older) books in the festival bookshop at 6pm.


HALF PLUS SEVEN

Today, it is a Good Friday for Dan Tyte - his debut novel Half Plus Seven has been reviewed by The Daily Mail and they liked it:  'A coming-of-age novel snorting with energy, outrage and scatological detail, it is in places eye-watering. Yet what disarms is Bill’s quasi-religious yearning for order and goodness, plus an outrageous honesty which refuses to compromise.'

Dan has had a lot of good press so far - the book was Book of the Month in Buzz Magazine, Wales Arts Review wrote 'Half Plus Seven could easily be mistaken for a Nick Hornby novel, but a Hornby novel with a touch more Zeitgeist and a slightly sinister, grimy underbelly.[...] Dan Tyte has either been a very dislikable young man at some point, or he is an author with a great deal of promise.' and Dan signed books with Griff Rhys Jones in Waterstones, Cardiff and then read alongside 90-year-old legend Dannie Abse at our Welsh Cultural Embassy at The Wheatsheaf in London at the beginning of the month (see below).

More on Dan:

Dan Tyte's website

Dan on Twitter

The Selling of a Novelist - Plastik Mag

BuzzFeed: 17 Reasons Why We're Generation Y-hine

Wales Online: Through Dan's Keyhole. Who lives in a house like this?

All of Dan's press in one place

We had a brilliant launch with a cast of tramps, misfits and mystics at Porter's in Cardiff (see Dan's website for some amazing photos of the night), Dan will also be reading at a number of festivals and venues over the summer, but if you can't wait that long, why not watch him read from his novel in this short film:

YouTube: Half Plus Seven short by @madebyernest and @NextDoorFilmsUK


KIT HABIANIC

Up ahead, Helen saw the police line harden into a barricade of bodies and shields. Resin batons thudded on Perspex shields; slow, thuggish, brutal. Goosebumps studded her arms and legs. Her pace slowed to the truncheons’ beat. Mary halted a yard from the riot shields, raised her megaphone.‘We are women from Ystrad an’ from all over Wales,’ she said. ‘We are here to make peaceful protest. Here in solidarity with the men.’The drumming quickened.

Also reading with Dan and Dannie, Kit Habianic launched her debut novel Until Our Blood is Dry at The Welsh Cultural Embassy ahead of London Book Fair earlier this month. Based around the 1984 Miners' Strike, the novel is currently serialised in the Western Mail in Wales, and independent booksellers in Wales have chosen Until Our Blood is Dry as their Book of the Month for May 2014.

Words With JAM: Kit on adapting fact into fiction

Kit on Twitter

Kit's website

Wales Online interview: Kit Habianic

Fellow Parthian author Debz Hobz-Wyatt interviews Kit for her blog and shares an exclusive free sample of the novel

Triskele Books Author Interview: Kit Habianic

Triskele Books: Review of Until Our Blood is Dry

Kit Habianic will be at Waterstones, Newport signing copies of her novel on Saturday 24th May 12.30 - 1.30pm. Come along and say hello.


XX WOMEN'S WRITING FESTIVAL

Kit also previewed the novel on our Writing from Life panel at xx women's writing festival (6-8 March 2014, Chapter Arts Centre), which I co-organise with three wonderful women - Firefly Publisher Penny Thomas, Head of Creative Writing at the University of Southampton Carole Burns and Poetry Editor at Seren Books Amy Wack. The second wonderful xx women's writing festival appeared to go down well with the audience, the panels and guests and the critics. I really enjoyed hosting my two events - (1) Cardiff Literary Salon with my authors Carly Holmes, Georgia Carys Williams, Tiffany Murray and Seren debut novelist Rhian Elizabeth (and some fab music from Hail! The Planes singer and Rarebit contributor Holly Muller) and (2) Script and Screen panel discussion with Sue Vertue (Sherlock), Ceri Meyrick (Eastenders), Rebecca Gould (Soho Theatre) and Helen Griffin (Twin Town, Caitlin). I also enjoyed hearing Shani Rhys James talk about her wonderful paintings with Fran Rhydderch, the poetry of Kim Moore, Katherine Simmonds and Jemma King and the short fiction and witty asides of AL Kennedy.

xx 2014 was ‘an undoubted success’ writes Craig Thomas in New Welsh Review
In Wales Arts Review John Lavin wrote: ‘Taking place shortly after Cardiff Council confirmed it will remove its entire annual funding to more than ten arts organisations, including Chapter (where the event was held), the XX Women’s Writing Festival acted as a timely reminder of why a venue like Chapter exists, providing as it did, an excellent example of the cultural vibrancy of Wales’ capital city. The events combined a fabulous array of the new and the internationally renowned and were all well attended, while Chapter as a whole was full to bursting point throughout. It was also, of course, an ideal and, indeed, an important and empowering way to celebrate International Women’s Day.’


CARLY HOLMES

When I first saw you, I had the sun in my eyes. You shone around the edges, a fireball of a man. In the moments it took me to focus on your centre, I’d absorbed you completely.I re-made myself in tune to your blinks, your frowns, your glances away from me and then back. I read your needs as they soared across your face, and I carved myself anew again and again…
Next Friday, 25 April 2014, we'll be launching Carly Holmes' lyrical debut novel The Scrapbook in Cardigan.Carly has been up to all sorts of wonderful things including guest editing the next issue of The Lampeter Review, being awarded a Writer's Bursary from Literature Wales to work on her second book, a collection of ghost stories, and having some splendid short stories published / accepted for publication by Wales Arts Review, Honno and The Ghastling. You can see a round up that I wrote about all of all these great things on the Parthian website. Carly will be reading at Hay Festival and Dinefwr this summer.



COMING SOON

In May you'll find me in Hay and 'working' some of the time at the first of the Dylan Weekends in Laugharne with Mab Jones, Jeff Towns, Dylan's Mobile Bookshop and Jemma King. See my next blog for more on another side of this...

In June I am looking forward to welcoming Michael Oliver-Semenov (formerly the poet Mao Jones) back to Cardiff to launch his travel memoir Sunbathing in Siberia - like Doctor Zhivago but with a huge reality check. He'll be over from Siberia, touring Cardiff to Aberystwyth and stopping off in Swansea and Cardigan and some other places too. More on this soon.

I will also be announcing my next batch of brilliant authors and titles for the end of 2014 and all of 2015 soon. Exciting!

Looking ahead to November, Do Not Go Gentle festival has had a lot of lovely mentions in the press too. Jasper Rees wrote in The Sunday Times - 'Do Not Go Gentle festival, in the Uplands, the lively suburb just down from Thomas's birthplace, features scabrous comedy and raucous music in English and Welsh.' Good work to Pierre and the rest of the team. We're just finalising our literature programme now.

On top of all this, I've still been reviewing the odd piece of theatre or dance for The Stage, and restaurant or bar for RedHanded.

Phew! Hence this long-neglected blog.

NEXT UP... MY OWN WRITING: THE UPDATE

Happy Easter all!

Sooz x

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Lots to report, lots to report...

1. Rarebit , my anthology of 21 illustrated short stories to celebrate Parthian's 21st birthday launched on National Short Story Day - 21/12/2013 and is currently Welsh Book of the Month in Waterstones for January 2014. Contributor Dan Tyte wrote a fab blog about the launch so I don't have to. I'm pleased as punch with all involved, especially that John Abell for all the amazing artwork, and Team Parthian for lots of help in many other ways. Here's a little anecdote from my weekend:

On Saturday I ran into a friend outside the pasty shop, as you do. 'I've just bought Rarebit,' she said, quickly adding 'for a friend' as if it were a dangerous book to be caught buying for yourself. 'I saw it because it was on the Book of the Month table in Waterstones Cardiff. Actually, the person in the queue behind me was buying it too.' Here's a snap of the display of Rarebits in Waterstones after this conversation on Saturday. Book of the Month all month long, who'd have thought...http://www.parthianbooks.com/content/rarebit




2. Dan Tyte! As well as being in Rarebit we launch Dan's debut novel Half Plus Seven with a party in Cardiff Fashion Quarter next month. He's been picked as One to Watch in 2014 by the Western Mail and he's also had other people saying good words about him, words like these:
"A lethal cocktail of Bukowski and Mad Men, finished with a twist of dry Welsh wit."- Mike Williams, NME Editor 








Read more: http://www.parthianbooks.com/content/magnificent-seven-member-6-dan-tyte


3. I've got a new part-time job (...but I am not leaving Parthian). I start lecturing on the MA in Creative and Critical Writing at the University of Gloucestershire this week. I'm very happy about this.
4. I've been working on some wonderful books coming out this year. My first spring/summer batch includes Rarebit, Dan Tyte's novel Half Plus Seven, Carly Holmes' novel The Scrapbook, Kit Habianic's novel Until Our Blood Is Dry, Georgia Carys Williams' short story collection Second-hand Rain, and two titles from Michael Oliver-Semenov - Sunbathing in Siberia (Travel memoir) and The Elephant's Foot (Poetry). I am also looking forward to the release of debut novels from Tom Anderson and Susmita Bhattacharya in the autumn. See you at the launches, festivals and literary tours.

Do Not Go Gentle excitement and teasers

So only one sleep to go until Do Not Go Gentle kicks off and I'm been gathering all my books together and getting excited about all the wonderful writers I'll be chatting to around and about (mostly in Dylan Thomas' old house in Uplands). I thought I could get you a little bit excited too... so here are some lines or paragraphs from their latest books and some links... book your tickets, see you there!

FRIDAY 1ST NOVEMBER

On Friday we'll be opening the festival with Dylan Thomas' granddaughter Hannah Ellis at 5 Cwmdonkin Drive at 5pm. At 6pm we'll be previewing Parthian's special 21st birthday anthology Rarebit, with 4 new talents from the 21 writers involved reading their stories. Here are the first couple of lines from each of these...


'Onwards' by Dan Tyte: 

You take a left at the bar nobody could ever remember the name of, the one where the waiting girl wore her hair up and her guard down, where the pool table sloped into the top right pocket and the sharks circled for fresh blood ‘til Vince called time every night by shutting the jukebox off,
'The Bereaved' by Georgia Carys Williams:
For a time, I resembled the coffee mug on the window-sill: mendable, but with cracks so sporadic, it was difficult to predict when I would next shatter.  
'Disneyland' by Richard Owain Roberts:
Happy new year, Robert.  We are very grateful for your hard work over the course of the last year, this effort did not go unnoticed.  We feel this great relationship can go on from strength to strength. 
'Soft but Definite' by Sarah Coles:
I know about grown-ups having secrets.  It’s something to do with the smell of them and their big fingers.  They give each other a look sometimes that they think we don’t notice, but we do, and we store those looks up and use them like an alphabet.  
Other contributors to Rarebit will also be at the festival over the weekend including Holly Müller (Uplands Market, Saturday 11.30am), Robert Lewis (Dylan Thomas House, 2pm), Tyler Keevil and Rachel Trezise (Dylan Thomas House, Sat 3.30pm). 
Here's the first lines of Holly Müller's story 'My Cousin's Gun':
Danny had always considered Ben his best cousin.  The rest of them were losers, or girls.  He thought everyone would understand that he wanted a keepsake to remember him by, so he phoned his sister and asked for the medal.
More about Rarebit here: http://www.parthianbooks.com/content/rarebit
Then local spoken word night Howl will host a mini session of their finest performers followed by a short hop down the hill to Mozart's for performance poetry queens Mab Jones and Clare Ferguson Walker.
SATURDAY 2ND NOVEMBER
Howl will once again take to the spoken word stage, this time at Uplands Market from 10 -11am. After that I'll be hosting a session from 11.15 - 12.15 featuring poetry, fiction, Speakers Corner rants and occasional vocal riots from Howard Ingham (Writer in Residence, Swansea University, 2012), Natalie Holborow (2nd prize winner in this year's Terry Hetherington Award), Holly Müller (Rarebit contributor), Jeff Towns (The Dylan Thomas Man of Mobile Bookshop fame), Sarah Coles (Rarebit contributor and poet - see Here And The Water), and Martin Wilding (Ordinary Person at Ordinary People Governing Themselves).

Then I'm back in Dylan Thomas House from 2pm, talking to Welsh noir novelist turned non-fiction detective of conspiracies Robert Lewis. For his fiction writing Rob has been compared to Charles Bukowski, Raymond Chandler, James Ellroy, and Samuel Beckett. Rob lived in Swansea once, for a couple of months, spending a lot of time in her pubs, all in the name of research. See his novel Swansea Terminal for evidence. We'll be chatting about that and his long, long, long investigation into the death of Dr David Kelly in research for his recent non-fiction title Dark Actors. Here's Rob on youtube talking a bit about the book...




Here's the first line:
One July afternoon in 2003, a scientist went out for a walk and never came back.
Some of you might want to go and see my awesome boyfriend play jaw-droppingly good 12 string guitar instead. I'll forgive you, he is fab. He'll be in Mozart's from 2.30pm.

Then at 3.30pm I'll be chatting short stories, novels, plays, America and Canada with Tyler Keevil and Rachel Trezise. Rachel recently won herself a bunch of new fans for her brave debut play Tonypandemonium with National Theatre Wales. The inaugral winner of the Dylan Thomas Prize in 2006 for her debut collection of short stories Fresh Apples, her second grown-up collection of short stories Cosmic Latte has garnered rave reviews. I also hear that Rachel has recently finished her next novel, so plenty to chat about there.




Tyler Keevil was one of Parthian's original Bright Young Things (remember them?) and, like James Smythe, is putting me to shame with the release of not one but two books in 2013-2014. His latest novel The Drive launched a few months ago with Myriad Editions, and his splendid debut collection of short stories Burrard Inlet is out through Parthian in the spring. Tyler's short fiction has won several awards and appeared in a wide range of magazines and anthologies.  His first novel, Fireball, was longlisted for Wales Book of the Year, shortlisted for the Guardian Not the Booker prize, and received the Media Wales People’s Prize 2011.  
Read 'The Blue Ruin Café', a story from Rachel Trezise's collection, Cosmic Latte. (May 2013)
Read 'Scrap Iron' by Tyler Keevil


Finally on Saturday I'll be chatting to the lyrical raconteur Niall Griffiths at 6.35pm in Mozart's. Niall Griffiths was born in Liverpool in 1966 and now lives in Wales. He has published seven excellent novels: Grits, Sheepshagger, Kelly + Victor, Stump, Wreckage, Runt, and A Great Big Shining Star. The film of Kelly + Victor was recently released across the UK. We'll be talking about his latest book, seeing his characters played out on the big screen, absurdity, the state of society and anything else Niall fancies probably. Come along and buy us both a drink.
Here's a few lines from his brilliant satire of fame and pornography A Great Big Shining Star:
---IT HURTS, MUM.    The weight of the dressing, as if there is another face on Grace's face. Or the swelling of her own, as if another face inside her face is ripping its way through to be seen, with talons, scalpel-talons.    The car leaves the carriageway and moves down the slip road and through a village which suggests a world removed from that one in the mechanical thunder on the overpass above which keeps the beamed pub in almost perpetual shadow below. Here, red-brick cottages abut fields, all traffic is stilled, two hunched smokers huddle in the doorway of the Farmer's Arms and the branches of trees still bear traces of off-white snow like growth, like mould. They pass horses, Grace and her mother in the car, two big brown horses standing at a fence, their breath fogging their faces as if they burn inside. Grace takes them in at a glance. Says it again:---It really hurts, Mum.
Then you'll all run over to The Chattery for the brilliant music and spoken word collaboration In Chapters run by Richard James and John Williams. Or watch Twin Town . Or something. and party late...

SUNDAY 3RD NOVEMBER

...So we'll start late on Sunday. Perhaps you'd like to play a game of Scrabble while you wake up or have a hair or two of the dog? Then head over to my last session of the festival, where I'll be cosied up in the lounge with two of my favourite people, debut novelists Katherine Stansfield and Francesca Rhydderch (3pm). A former long-serving editor of New Welsh Review, and also of Planet, Francesca launched her wonderful first novel The Rice Paper Diaries earlier in the year and inspired by the experiences of her great-aunt in wartime Hong Kong. It is beautifully written in precise, poetic prose and reveals her to have a keen eye in observing the subtleties of the human condition. Here's a brief extract:

Marge seems to gather ill feeling around her, like the flesh that bowls out around her hips. She has a way of staring at people and holding their gaze when they catch her eye by mistake. She is unnerving.    She isn't much of a tea girl either. People who ask for milk get it slopped into their saucer as well as their cup. Mostly, though, they keep quiet as it is handed over. 'Thank you,' some of them say, in the same pleading tone of voice they use with the nurses. Marge takes no notice. She understand they don't mean it; what they mean is they'd like someone else to come pushing the tea trolley past their bed, someone who'll talk about the weather and call them 'dear'. Someone homely. Later they shuffle along the corridor in their dressing gowns to Elsa's side room for a chat.   'That Marge,' they say. 'She doesn't know if she's coming or going.'   But nor does Elsa, that's the problem. She's lost the shape of the day, so that beginnings are the end and then the beginning again.
Born in 1983, Katherine Stansfield shares Francesca's love of Daphne du Maurier and grew up on Bodmin Moor in Cornwall. She moved to Wales in 2002 to study at Aberystwyth University where she now works as a lecturer in Creative Writing. Her poetry has appeared in Cheval, the anthology of commended entries to the Terry Hetherington award for Young Writers. Her first book of poems, Playing House, will be published by Seren in 2014. The Visitor is her fantastic first novel. Here's an mini extract:
'Keygrims,' Nicholas says, 'will call you by name. You'll be sleeping. This is how they will sound.' He scratches his knife across his plate. It's answered by a shriek of wind down the chimney. A cold gust blows round the room. She moves closer to his chair, hunching into the wood and biting her sleeve. 
Sneak a longer preview of The Visitor on the Parthian website.
Finally I'll be sitting back to watch the Dylan Thomas Prize short-listed writers read from their books. All under 30 and bright talents. Pleased as punch to have Parthian Books' Jemma L. King on the list, she'll be reading from her debut collection of poetry The Shape of a Forest which we launched in London in the summer. Here are the first couple of lines from one of my favourite of her poems 'Amelia Earhart': 
For someone so accustomed to speed,silence and stillness was something.It fell to a hum.It widened.
-------------
Can't wait! See you there! There will be opportunities for you to ask the authors questions too, and buy books and get books and other things signed.
Susie x

On Not Going Gentle for National Poetry Day at 5 Cwmdonkin Drive– review

A pleasant nod from Natalie Holborow in her review blog of her National Poetry Day jaunt at Dylan Thomas' birthplace: ' Susie Wild followed with an impressive collection of poems and a glowing stage presence, speaking to the audience with an intimacy that brought the room closer together and maintaining the cosy atmosphere.'

Read the blog in full here: http://thesirenswansea.wordpress.com/2013/10/08/on-not-going-gentle-for-national-poetry-day-at-5-cwmdonkin-drive-review/

Come join us for more intimate literary events at Do Not Go Gentle, 1-3 November.

Witch Doctors and Rarebits and Not Going Gentle.

Hello

It's been a while, hasn't it?
This is what happens when you get a proper job, see. So... I've been up to some things.
Things like editing beautiful books for Parthian Books. Need evidence...?
Craig Hawes with his first book!
...Look, it is Craig Hawes with his brilliant collection of short stories The Witch Doctor Of Umm Suqeim. I think I am beaming like a proud Mum out of shot. On general release from October 1st! We had a little launch party with family and friends at Monkey in Swansea on Sunday evening. Craig said some nice things, I blushed. His book is on general release from 1st October.

Craig and I were also joined by Sian Preece to talk about how to win short story competitions in our session at the Rhys Davies Short Story Conference the day before. There were lots of fab people on the bill including Will Self, Clare Keegan, Cynan Jones, Alex Clark and the brilliant Edna O'Brien -- If I am that awesome at 82 I'll be happy, and it is good to remember that if I my long life line tells the truth, I've still 50+ years of writing life left.


Moody morning
Team Parthian also managed to get away together after summer breaks to play killer pool (badly), watch Hungarian music, dance on new carpets and spot dolphins (Number spotted = 0, there are around 3 - 400 in the bay but they must have been sleeping or hiding. The next boat trip saw a few.) and porpoise who breached three times, then vanished (Number spotted: 3 - 10, depending on how observant we were / which side of the boat we sat on) off the coast of Cardigan. Here's a picture of Mwnt from the water.



[image error]
Next up I'm looking forward to a bunch of events for Rarebit , the anthology of 20 illustrated short stories I've been collating and editing ready for launch / Parthian Xmas Party in Cardiff on National Short Story Day on the shortest day of the year December 21st (on general release from January 2014). We'll be doing preview events at Made in Roath Festival (Crwys Pub, 7pm, Thurs 24th October) and Do Not Go Gentle Festival (6pm, Fri 1st November, Swansea). 

I am also working on great 2014 titles by Dan Tyte, Michael Oliver-Semenov, Kit Habianic, Carly Holmes, Georgia Carys Williams, Susmita Bhattacharya and Tom Anderson.


I've a couple of gigs coming up myself too:
Made in Roath Festival, Sat 19th October, 2pm at Wellfield Bookshop - I'll be reading from a new short story, or the novel, or both. Something you've not heard before, at any rate.
Various events at Do Not Go Gentle Festival (1-3 November, Swansea), where I'm literary programmer, including the Rarebit event already mentioned, and chats with Rachel Trezise, Tyler Keevil, Robert Lewis, Niall Griffiths (his film Kelly + Victor is out at cinemas today, we'll be talking about that and his new novel), Katherine Stansfield, Jemma L. King and Francesca Rhydderch.
Finally, I'll be talking about Jampot Smith by Jeremy Brooks and the Library of Wales Series at St Fagan's Book Group on Sat 23rd November (11am - 1pm)
More on the book group here: https://www.facebook.com/StFagansBookGroup
Looking ahead to spring 2014, I'll be talking publishing and then later performing at Cardiff Met and co-organising the second outing of xx women's writing festival, back to Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff in March 2014 (Fri 7th & Sat 8th).
Oh, yeah, and the novel has been let out of the drawer. Don't say I didn't warn you. Expect periods of antisocial behaviour and a distracted appearance.

THE STAGE REVIEW | DIARY OF A MADMAN

Diary of a MadmanPublished Tuesday 28 May 2013 at 10:46 by Susie Wild
Based on a short story by Nikolai Gogol, Robert Bowman’s one-man show charts the unravelling of 40-something civil servant Poprishchin in 1830s Russia. Sharpening pencils for His Excellency, he is schoolboy impish when describing the beautiful object of his affection: “Her dress was white like a swan, and when she looked at me it was like the sun shining - I swear it.”Robert Bowman in Diary of a MadmanPhoto: Katy StephensonFirst performed in Chapter in 2011 as a development piece funded by the Arts Council of Wales, Diary of a Madman was created using the Michael Chekhov Technique and sees Poprishchin move down a scale of emotions from naively quixotic through a spat of psychosis giggles - can dogs write? Could this handwriting be described as ‘doggy’? Could he be the next King of Spain? - to a dark and surreal place. Illness meant that Bowman was croaky and performing under par to start with. However, the audience warmed to his initially endearing character and laughs came fairly easily. Directed by Olivier Award nominee Sinead Rushe, Bowman utilises the imaginative, simple set (designed by Sarah Beaton) well, pulling up the planks of his palette stage to reveal paper sculptures and other ephemera to pin to his mobile chain of charms.As Poprishchin tunnels further and further into his madness, scribbling and scrambling about for his own ‘crumbs of happiness’ the audience disengage, and the show begins to feel more like an acting exercise rather than a complete piece. Despite wonderful lighting (Katy Stephenson) and an eerie score (Roland Melia); this jumbled epistolary production doesn’t manage to find its way back.

THE LAMPETER REVIEW | NO LAUGHTER AFTER MIDNIGHT

'Boxes lined the lounge and the hall and built a cardboard city across the spare bed. It wasn’t as if she wanted them there, not really, but she didn’t know what else to do.' 

I've a brand new story, 'No Laughter After Midnight' in the new Lampeter Review:

http://issuu.com/lampeter-review/docs/7_issue

THE STAGE REVIEW | THE BLOODY BALLAD

Had a wonderful time at The Bloody Ballad in Newport on Saturday. You can read my review over on The Stage website, here's an extract:

The Bloody Ballad featuring Mary and the Missing FingersPublished Monday 25 March 2013 at 10:57 by Susie WildThe Bloody Ballad is a gloriously grotesque rockabilly riot of a night out based on Mary Maid of the Mill, an old Welsh Romany folk tale by Abram Wood about a girl who gets betrayed by her lover and then goes on a revenge killing spree. Using live music theatre, Gagglebabble (Lucy Rivers and Hannah McPake) have created a unique, playful, immersive work in which the wrong-side-of-the-tracks Mary - “a girl with a dark past who’s had one hell of a week” - shares her gory story through words and song and invites you to sing along. [...]
Read the review in full on The Stage website
The show is touring until the end of August (Edinburgh stint) and Gagglebabble are back with a new show in the Autumn too. See the trailer and listen to the soundtrack to The Bloody Ballad over on their Facebook group.

Western Mail: Women writers head Welsh book lists for 2013

Abbie Wightwick, WalesOnline Mar 16 2013

What’s will we be reading this year? Abbie Wightwick asks industry insiders to look to the future and predict the trends for 2013

(With my Parthian hat on, I predict your reading in this feature as part of the Western Mail's Books Special)

Read more: Wales Online http://www.walesonline.co.uk/showbiz-...

Parthian Appoints Two New Editors: Susie Wild and Alan Kellermann

Two editors will be joining the Parthian editorial team in the new financial year. Editor and writer  Susie Wild  has extended her role to general editor with Parthian and is currently working on a list which includes sparkling new fiction debuts by Craig Hawes, Dan Tyte and Carly Holmes. She is also the editor of an innovative range of memoirs which starts Dorothy Al Khafaji’s Between Two Rivers, an honest, funny and moving story of Baghdad life from the perspective of a young woman from England, transplanted into another culture by love and family, and then in 2014 by Michael Oliver’s innovative Sunbathing in Siberia: A Marriage of East and West in Post Soviet Russia. 
Read the article in full on the Parthian website.

Also see interview with me in The Bookseller on 8th March.