Saturday, March 24, 2007

News and photos of the booklaunch




The launch of 'Flames of Herakleitos' took place last night (Friday 23rd March) The event was opened by David Woolley, published poet and director of The Dylan Thomas Centre and I then gave my opening address welcoming quite a large number of guests, old and new friends. Music and song was supplied by Franco Rinaldi a Welsh/Italian singer/musician and then a reading was given from my book by my niece, Holly. Who, I have to admit, did an excellent job, much better than I could have done. However, I didn't get away with keeping a low profile and gave a rendition of two poems of mine, Follicly Challenged (sub-titled- to all the curls I knew) and was assisted by my daughter, Juliana who supplied the last line, here is that poem:

This barren dome, damned cranium bare
That once so flowed with lustrous hair
You betray me with your flashing beam
That startles horses when I’m seen

Those lovely locks so careless shed
Found on my pillow and not on head
I mourned them all as their life did wane
And swirled round sink, disappeared down drain

“Comb over” I tried, to hide the loss
Made jokes of rolling stone and moss
But in my room I cried alone
When finally threw out my faithful comb

And shaved off the last few failing strands
That clung to scalp with desperate hands
Then heard the words I do most hate
As my daughter slapped my naked pate.

“Hi baldy…”

Holly then recited a poem of mine entitled 'In your hand' and then Rhys Hughes was kind enough to give a rendition of poem of his which drew the audience into a surreal world where Vikings invaded his bedroom ( we all waited with bated breath to see if he was either ravaged by them or forced to join in with their Abba songs) Finally Holly read my 'Magic Colouring Book' poem and I ended the reading session with ' Mother please don't cry for me.' The evening was rounded off with a mixture of music and singing ranging from old Neapolitan songs to Tom Jones's Delilah.






Some of the literary, artist, publisher, musician guests included: Mike O'Driscoll - Steve Lockley - Paul Lewis - Chris Teague - Brian Willis - Rhys Hughes - Ian Simmons - Steve Upham - Tony Harwood - Stuart Ross - Monica Konggaard - David Woolley


Thanks to everyone who attended and made it the happy night that it turned out to be :)



Thursday, March 08, 2007

First book has arrived!


The first copy of ' Flames of Herakleitos' burst through my letter box and set fire to my hall today and I can't say enough good things about how the finished product looks. I'd heard that the printers, Diggory Press, had a good reputation for delivering the goods on time and for the quality of their work but I was pleasantly surprised to find it better than my expectations.


Here I am doing a 'look at me I'm an author pose and I also eat spectacles'
(I won't post the photo of me holding the book upside down...)
Diggory's site says the book will be available from them this Saturday 10th March for the rrp of £9.99 and P&P within Europe of £1.99 I'm not sure if it will also be available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble etc on the same date, but it should be in the near future. I also think Steve Upham will be selling copies from his Screamingdreams site too. If you go to your local bricks and mortar bookshop and quote the ISBN 978-0-955518515 they'll be able to get you a copy too.


UPDATE: Amazon has it listed here

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Whispers of Wickedness


Whispers of Wickedness, an online, and printed magazine of Dark Atmospheric Art and Fiction have appointed me as their Poetry Editor. Their original poetry editor John Saxton has gone AWOL it seems, so for the time being I've taken on the position. Let's hope I prove to be up to the challenge!
Whispers of Wickedness

Sunday, March 04, 2007

A new constellation is born in the firmament of Welsh SF/F/Horror

The writers, Steve Lockley, Paul Lewis and myself were talking about the lack of any Welsh group or method of meeting like-minded people in Wales whilst we were supping a few beers in The Old Inn in Penllergaer a week or so ago and Steve thought of starting things off with a Yahoo group.
The name chosen for this distinguised collection of people is
SOUTHWALESFANTASISTS and it can be found on http://groups.yahoo.com/ . As suggested by the title of this post, it is populated by only the brightest stars in the Welsh SF/F/Horror heavens, okay, there might be a black-hole or two and a stray brown dwarf, but as they say, that is another story....

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Happy St. David's Day!


March 1st in Wales is our patron saint's day, St. David. It's a day when most of Wales's natives can be seen out wearing our national flower in their lapel, the daffodil. It's the time of year when minds turn to springtime and the promise of summer. Our daffodils with their yellow nodding heads seem to confirm that winter is almost over.

Bore da!