Story Cities is an Arachne Press project, bringing together 42 writers and 51 stories about the city – any city, every city, in flash of under 500 words.
The brief for the book was: no names, no recognisable landmarks, and to fit one of the themes – termini, transport, hotels, cafes, squares and parks, markets, main streets, side streets and crossroads.
When I started thinking about it, my reaction was, no, this isn’t what makes a city, it’s the people.
Here’s some video of my contribution to the book, Foundation Myth, read at Greenwich Book Festival, same story, slightly different take.
and at the book launch, at the Stephen Lawrence Gallery, also in Greenwich.
Although I couldn’t be there, Kirsty Cox did a grand job reading my story Rising Dawn at Story Fridays in Bath last week for their Speed of Light evening.
You can listen to her reading it, and other stories read by the authors and Kirsty here.
21st December 2016 ORDER NOW from Arachne Press
Edited by Cherry Potts
978-1-909208-28-5 print £9.99
978-1-909208-29-2 epub £5
978-1-909208-30-8 mobi/kindle £5
144 pages
The Solstice Shorts festival celebrates the shortest day of the year, which is also short story day, with stories poems and songs to an appropriate theme. In 2015 that theme was Longest Night, in 2016 it will be Shortest Day, and will be celebrated (appropriately) with flash fiction. These are the combined stories and poems for both events.
Featuring work from
with themes as various as friendships betrayed, birth, atheism, searching space, strangers in the night… and genres from fantasy and science fiction to poetry and realism.
Friday 7.30 06/01/2017 Oxford Albion Beatnik
Poem (and story): Sarah James. Story: Wendy Gill, Pauline Walker, David Mathews, David Steward.
Tuesday 7.30 10/1/2017 St James Wine Vaults 10 St James Street, Bath, BA1 2TW
Combined reading with Liberty Tales. poem: Bernie Howley, Elinor Brooks, Jeremy Dixon, Jill Sharp; story: Nick Rawlinson, Pippa Gladhill, Cherry Potts
Wednesday 7pm 11/01/2017 Lewisham Library
Poems: Lisa Kelly, A J Akoto. Stories: David Steward, Cherry Potts, Liam Hogan
Sat 3pm 14/01/2017 Essex Wivenhoe Library
Stories: Rosalind Stopps, Cherry Potts, David Steward, Katy Darby, Poem: Lisa Kelly
17th November 2016ORDER NOW from Arachne Press
978-1-909208-31-5 Print
978-1-909208-32-2 ebook
978-1-909208-33-9 mobi/kindle
£9.99
198x129mm
144 pages
2015 marked the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta and Arachne Press celebrated with an evening of stories, poetry and song on the subject of Liberty. The call out continued until the end of the year, and here are the collected and eclectic responses.
Liberty, personal, and legal, is the starting point of this wide ranging collection of responses to the Magna Carta, some directly relating to specific clauses of the document signed by King John, others more concerned with how we experience and search after freedom in the 21st Century, particularly with the Human Rights Act constantly under scrutiny.
Tuesday 7pm 10/01/2017 Bath The Gallery, St James Wine Vaults (Combined reading with Shortest Day Longest Night)
Poems from Bernie Howley, Elinor Brooks, Jeremy Dixon, Jill Sharp: passports, religious freedom, coming out, reading in the dark,
stories from Nick Rawlinson, Pippa Gladhill, Katy Darby, Cherry Potts, David Mathews: Fish weirs, old gods, and… we’ll see which stories everyone else decides to read…
Wednesday 25/01/2017 Essex Greenstead Library Colchester time to be 6pm
Carolyn Eden, Helen Morris, Jim Cogan, and Sarah Evans read by Carrie Cohen, and David Guy and Jeremy Dixon read by Cliff Chapman. FREE but please phone Greenstead Library to reserve your place 01206 865758.
Past… with video/sound recordings
16/11/2016 Brockley Deli story sessions
Jim Cogan joins the Freedom tales line up for a prepublication sneak preview.
17/11/2016 Greenwich Launch West Greenwich Library Video
Stories from Katy Darby, Alison Lock, Cherry Potts, Anna Fodorova (read by Carrie Cohen) David Guy (read by Cliff Chapman), poems from Bernie Howley, Jeremy Dixon, plus extracts… touching on prisoners, the right to roam, emotional freedom, going too far, passports freedom of sexual expression, and more.
18/11/2016 Oxford Video
Stories from Jim Cogan, Carolyn Eden, Nick Rawlinson, Katy Darby, Poems from Jeremy Dixon, Elinor Brooks, Bernie Howley. Explore an unusual Gaudy Night, fish weirs, walking out, when it safer to appear witless, finding yourself in San Francisco, religious intolerance, and exactly what the value of a passport really is.
23/11/2016 Lewisham Library Video
Stories from Jim Cogan, Liam Hogan, David Mathews, Cherry Potts. Day release, love in captivity, crossing borders and escaping the past.
Thursday 6.30pm 01/12/2016 Newcastle Blackwells Video
poems from Brian Johnstone, stories from Alison Lock, Richard Smyth, Cherry Potts. Slave ‘stealing’, the right to roam, escaping the past, and how freedom is punished.
Saturday 5pm 03/12/2016 North London Housmans Bookshop Sound Recordings
Stories from Cassandra Passarelli, Liam Hogan, Carolyn Eden, Katy Darby. Freedom to travel and grow, love in captivity, walking out, and a small prison drama.
Saturday 2pm 10/12/2016 West London North Kensington Library Video
stories from Carolyn Eden, Jim Cogan, Cassandra Passarelli, Cherry Potts. Poems from Jeremy Dixon. Walking out, being let out, finding a way out, breaking out, coming out.
So if by some miracle you, like them, have finished reading it, and feel moved to vote, follow the link above and do that thing – for your vote to count you need to vote for 2 books, and write a 100 word review of at least one of them (obviously it would be great if it was The Dowry Blade!) by the 14th August. So you’ve got 2 weeks to read it if you haven’t already – that’s only about 12,000 words a day – you can do it!
I can’t imagine we have sold enough copies to be in with a chance of making the shortlist, but if it gets a few other people interested in buying a copy, it would make me immeasurably happy, as opposed to just modestly pleased, which is where I am right now.
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!
