Saturday 30 July 2016

Confluence Launch Party - 28 August

Confluence is being launched soon - where the Delta meets the world...

Come join us for a smorgasbord of verbal delights Sunday, 28 August at Only Connect 32 Cubitt Street, London, WC1X 0LR
Confluence Medway

It's FREE and with an open mic available on the night ready to be filled.

We'll be using material from our debut edition, but we'll be looking for contributions for our second edition, due October 2016...

Confluence Medway - online
Confluence Medway - Facebook

Tuesday 21 June 2016

Blogging and competitions

After a long break, I've started to send out work to competitions and for consideration for publication. I have come across some restrictions on what I can send out that I haven't encountered before, and I find it somewhat perplexing.

Computer and mouse

Some editors now consider work posted to blogs etc as self-published and therefore ineligible for their prize or their magazine. Others go further and consider work posted to social media as being "published". I can understand why editors will want to limit their input to material that has not been published elsewhere, avoiding the "I can get it free somewhere else so why bother buying". This also limits the possibility - perhaps - of plagiarism and the messy business of trying to put it right.

However, the restrictions on material published online in forums/ social media is proving difficult for people who want to workshop material, especially those facing barriers to joining the traditional ways of work shopping new material. For those of us without a suitable editor/ critical friend, or the chance to join a writers group, how do we access a suitable critique? If there aren't any writers groups meeting locally, or if our work pattern or caring responsibilities means we can't go, what then?

Writers don't work alone - we are a part of a community. How do you manage to get feedback from your friends without self publishing on shared sites?
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Picture sourced from Pixabay

Friday 17 June 2016

Confluence Medway - looking for submissions

Confluence, where the Delta meets The World

Confluence Medway Magazine


Do you have poetry, short plays or short stories that you would like to share?  A new online writing magazine from the fabulous team at Wordsmithery is looking for contributions. They will publish four times a year (August, October, February and May)

The team are looking for submissions from "the Delta and beyond" - within a shout of "the river"

The topic for Issue one is "memento fluvium" or "remember the river". Be as free with this as you wish - the deadline is midnight on 15 July 2016

More details on how to submit work can be found here confluence medway - submissions

Sunday 5 June 2016

Tim Peake will be a changed man

Tim Peake's set to return to Earth on 18th June 2016. He's been a terrific ambassador, with frequent messages to the media and especially to schools.

When he returns it will be interesting to see how much of his changed perspective he will be able to share. It goes beyond the scientific ideas, the practical matters of living in such a stressful and noisy environment with the weight of expectation on his shoulders.

Tim Peace spacewalk selfie
Tim Peake's spacewalk selfie

Looking back at the planet, what kind of thoughts will he be having about the world he'll be returning to? He's mentioned before how very different space looks without any light pollution.   How many people are going to be prepared to listen to his ideas, once he's seen how fragile our little shared ball of of rock is? Oh, to be a fly on the wall during those conversations.

I think that there great capacity for space to help provide some solutions towards the need to secure a clean, sustainable energy source. One example is the space solar power project (SSP). The cost so set it up would seem to be a barrier - but compared to the cost of not exploring it's potential? With the right levels of co-operation this could become a reality. The question is, who is going to take that chance and begin to work together....?

Return date listed on the esa principia mission blog here

Monday 9 May 2016

ROUNDABOUT NIGHTS PRESENTS - The Defamation Of Mickey Two Suits

Come and join the delta poets tonight as they spin the stories of the damned

Barred... Bard?
7.30pm at Poco Loco Cantina, on the road from Chatham to Rochester

An Assemblance of Judicious Heretics, their exciting collaborative litart project this year is underway. I'm waiting with bated breath.... 

Sunday 8 May 2016

Written Worlds, Inspiring Places

Yes, Rochester literature festival is fast coming our way and I'm very excited about it!

The theme this year is Written Worlds, Inspiring Places and I can't think of a more apt description

Is this really the fourth year that the full festival has been running? It doesn't feel like it, but 'tis true Each year following the garden party launch back in July 2012 the theme has been something different, from the first Other Worlds, Other Voices, to the Byronic Mad, Bad and Dangerous to know to the Live'n'Local least year.

The festival will run from Saturday, October 1 to Sunday, October 9 2016 and details of the line-up are available from the festival website here.

Typewriter with magazines SM Jenkin
Olivetti Typewriter. Image credit: SM Jenkin

Knowing how many people are involved in making sure this is an accessible community event I am sure that details of other events and activities will be added closer to the time

Thursday 28 April 2016

Website rec - Open Culture

Springtime is a great time of year to clear away the cobwebs and to try new things - hey any time of year is a good time for that. But I digress.

Open Culture
So if you want to try something new, or if you're looking for inspiration try the Open Culture website. It bills itself as "the best free cultural and educational media on the web", and I'd agree.

There are thousands of free courses including languages, free films, documentaries and interviews, ebooks. There is free music and lots of random cultural things too.

As a writer I'm loving reading all the writing tips from authors as diverse as Ray Bradbury and Toni Morrison, and the recordings made by authors like Sylvia Plath and  Dylan Thomas. The free audio books include some poems.

Website
Google+

Thursday 10 March 2016

Roundabout Nights - where do they get it from?

Roundabout Nights are back!
And they want you to talk about your mother.....


OK, maybe not.
A selection of The Medway Delta's finest writers dig out the bones and shapings of their ancestors, and share the tales of the ones who made them

If you have some writing or music to share, please bring it along and join Philip Kane, Sarah Hehir, Dean Volante, and Barry Fentiman-Hall on the stage

Thursday, 17 March 2016 7.30 - 10.30
At the one and only Poco Loco Cantina, 58 High Street, Chatham, Kent, ME4 4DS

Tuesday 23 February 2016

Hotel dreams Del Estrocho

Hotel Dreams Del Estrocho 

Facing the police flag kicking the sky, 
car exhausts trails dividing the square, banditos on the sly
on the 8th floor, facing away from the view, 
basking in bright weather, coaches with penguins all taunting you,

with cloud soft forms of what could have been,
all the leopard seals and wildlife and icebergs unseen.
Words formed, above the mute phone,
with intimate touch blazing across the screen,
 bald truth reminding you of the obscene
illusion that you are ever alone


Image credit: hot black (morguefile)
image sourced from Morguefile

Saturday 30 January 2016

Londonium 2016 - Mindful Writing

boxes blinking bright in
hoarded sunlight, corralled by
black cabs,
diverted the famous grey
flows of metamorphic concrete

layered down.
the Romans river anchored
offshore, the sign of the skyscraper
follows the length of the
high Thames

London
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Mindful writing is the practice of capturing a moment in writing, described by Satya Robyn as a small stone. Satya describes a small stone as a "short piece of writing that precisely captures a fully-engaged moment".

I think the practice is a terrific way of learning to pay attention. A great description of how to do this very simple exercise can be found here.

Picture sourced from Morguefile

Thursday 21 January 2016

Yes, the planets really are lining up....

If you like in the northern hemisphere, you're in for a treat (if you get up early enough)

Five of our local planets will be visible to the naked sky and will align (zig zaggy) across the dawn sky. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter will be simultaneously visible to the naked eye for the first time since 2004. Details here

The planets will be visible between 20 January 2016 - 20 February 2016, though word is the best view is likely to be in the early morning of February 5

View of Venus from the orbit of Saturn, picture credit: NASA
The picture, courtesy of NASA, was taken as part of the Cassini mission to investigate Saturn in-depth. The gallery of Venus pictures is available here.

And because writers love a good planetary alignment why not check out the Sci-Fi tropes page here for a good list of all the awful things that happen in stories when the planets align. If you dare...!