latest news etc

Long story short, I got approached to write some non-fiction recently from my friend Katy aka The Rebel Poetess which can be read here - https://therebelpoetess.blogspot.com/2018/09/guest-post-andy-n-podcast.html

Since then, my lovely partner, Amanda Steel then approached me with questions about said article which has resulted in a follow up piece being blogged not long after here..

https://amandasteelwriter.wordpress.com/2018/09/14/guest-post-andy-n/

I’ll be writing a additional blog here next, and will then be looking at additional follow up blogs for this too (as this will be a series of blogs containing some stories which will appear in my autobiography ‘Losing the Plot’ which will be finished in the next year in much more detail.

Spoken Label is still really, really active with podcasts recently-ish with the last six podcasts or so being released (There are loads more forthcoming):

Zoë Sîobhan Howarth​-​Lowe (https://spokenlabel.bandcamp.com/album/zo-s-obhan-howarth-lowe-spoken-label-september-2018)

Jason A Meuschke (https://spokenlabel.bandcamp.com/album/jason-a-meuschke-spoken-label-september-2018)

Paul Jenkins

(https://spokenlabel.bandcamp.com/album/michael-john-hulley-ii-spoken-label-august-2018)

Michael John Hulley II

(https://spokenlabel.bandcamp.com/album/michael-john-hulley-ii-spoken-label-august-2018)

Melissa Walters

(https://spokenlabel.bandcamp.com/album/melissa-walters-my-carousel-curse-ep)

Kealan Coady

(https://spokenlabel.bandcamp.com/album/kealan-coady-spoken-label-july-2018)

 

Reading in Bed, My joint Literature review podcast with the always lovely Amanda Steel has also been maintaining a monthly schedule of Podcasting, the podcasts for August and September can be seen as below..

https://readinginbed.bandcamp.com/album/reading-in-bed-9-september-2018

https://readinginbed.bandcamp.com/album/reading-in-bed-8-august-2018

 

Ocean in a Bottle has also been steadily releasing singles and Eps (with other releases pending for elsewhere in the new year - more details to follow) the last three releases are:

https://oceaninabottle.bandcamp.com/album/synth-dreams (Synth Dreams)

https://oceaninabottle.bandcamp.com/album/movement-in-the-wind (Movement in the Wind)

https://oceaninabottle.bandcamp.com/album/stepping-into-the-sea (Staring into the sea)

 

Poetry wise, apart from the release of The Birth of Autumn which I am delighted with, me and Amanda have done a number of gigs from a excellent support to Julia Davenport’s book launch and Bolton Diggers Festival too, I have had three poems appear (Twice as Hard, Missing the Point and Held Back) all appear in Helen Kay’s touring Dyslexia Exhibition (worth seeing), two poems (Re-creating the Railway Children and last train from New Mills Central) at the New Mills Poetry Arts trail (Pictures to follow) which are on display until 30 September 2018.

More to follow also including details of guest posts from writers regarding writing.

All go

Watch this space (: 

Birth of Autumn

In my last post, I talked about the reprint as a kindle of my second full-length poetry collection 'The End of Summer'. Now I am delighted to announce that my third full-length poetry collection 'The Birth of Autumn' will now be out on the 1st September 2018.

Composed over a near two year period, The Birth of Autumn is as much a sequel to The End of Summer but as much a look over the gate at what comes next instead of looking back at days gone past rooting itself in the exhilaration and the melancholy in the change of season that follows Summer.

Comprising pieces that cover the change in season with a tenderness and stories carried across the change  in seasons, The Birth of Autumn follows on from The End of Summer as a further exploration of life as well as the change of rural and agricultural rhythms of Autumn all wrapped in a whirl of emotions that follows at the end of one season that follows into the next. The Birth of Autumn is a book lost in shadows as the skies begin to darken slowly but also brings back beauty into your emotions, adventures into feelings and the leaves on the floor into a miraculously vibrant colour.

Interlinked with pictures and photographs from Ben Holton (Epic 45 / My Autumn Empire), Jessica Owen (Northern Scapes), Mark Sheeky, Andy P Smith and Linda Nicholson, 
The Birth of Autumn is more than a book but an emotion when everything bursts into a huge beauty, as if nature had been saving up for a great finale.

Paperback details to follow for the book but a pre order for Amazon.co.uk as a kindle can be purchased here

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Birth-Autumn-Andy-N-ebook/dp/B07FRY8H5L/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1533411717&sr=8-1&keywords=andy+n

Promotional PDFS are available if requested.

The End of Summer (available again)

Last year (at the beginning of 2017), a few of you may remember
I had some dealings with a press called Goya Press who had agreed

to publish my then third full length poetry collection 'From the Diabetic Ward' (which will still happen but likely will be my fourth full length poetry collection now a bit further along while I conclude work on my third - Birth of Autumn) and agreed as a stop gap agreed to re-publish my second full poetry collection originally from 2015 'The End of Summer' (which is still available from Lulu.com as a book) as a stop gap.

Alas, sadly it didn't work out (which i won't go into great details
on a public forum) but it is best to say i certainly do not recommend anybody working with and resulted in the book being withdrawn after a short period of time been available (my request).

Some time later now after a few requests I have now agreed to

republish it again by myself this time on amazon.co.uk with

a few additional selected new poems in the book wrote at the same time as when the book was wrote.

The End of Summer itself follows on my debut collection 'Return to Kemptown' (published in 2010) and is a poetry collection capturing both the every-moment of perpetual seasons as well as the vital minutiae of daily life, all wrapped up a whirl of words like

autumn leaves kicked up by the last of summer’s winds taking
nature’s contradictions and her false promises and casts them
over our human condition, as hopeful and nostalgic disciples of
the glorious sun and the beautiful snow.

Told often in taut, short little pieces, the book invites
comparisons with the poet Hugo Williams but also shows a love of
music through two of the author’s own favourite music groups with
July Skies and Epic 45, which explores the Englishness of the countryside in sparse, echoing brush-stroke,s which often need more than one read to breathe the images he portraits.

With an introduction by noted American writer,
Amanda Silbernagel. ‘The End of Summer’ is a book that
tunnels into memories, creating new emotions at the end of it.

I am interested in doing interviews for the collection (minus any talk about Goya Press of course) and it can be downloaded from here for just 99p

(https://www.amazon.co.uk/End-Summer-Andy-N-ebook/dp/B07DHBSJF4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1528139029&sr=8-1&keywords=andy+n+the+end+of+summer)

although i do have promotional PDFS i can forward if required.

pictures of my two Yarn thoughts

Latest news

Music

https://oceaninabottle.bandcamp.com/album/awakening-ii

New single by Ocean in a Bottle

“Silence is so freaking loud” 
― Sarah Dessen, Just Listen

“Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.” 
― Leonardo da Vinci

“Seeing her sitting there unresponsive makes me realize that silence has a sound.” 
― Jodi Picoult, My Sister's Keeper

“To understand silence, you have to listen to the sound in-between opening doors

and saying goodbye to your loved one counting emotions counting snowflakes

until you wish you could turn back time’

- Ocean in a Bottle

Spoken Label

https://spokenlabel.bandcamp.com/album/simon-widdop-spoken-label-may-2018

Simon Widdop

https://spokenlabel.bandcamp.com/album/faatima-s-spoken-label-may-2018

Faatima-s

Writing

https://authorsinterviews.wordpress.com/2018/05/12/here-is-my-interview-with-andy-n/

New interview with Authorsinterviews

http://www.apoembymanchester.co.uk/open-your-words-so-the-sound-echoes-around-the-corner/

A Poem by Manchester has accepted the above from myself.

http://ghoststoryv.blogspot.co.uk/

I also recently finished off my 2018 NaPoWriMo epic. Have a look.

All been good, it will return next year for a massive conclusion. 

Latest Podcasts / Music news

Plenty of news forthcoming over poetry as I’ve had confirmation coming through in quite a few publications / opportunities but in the meantime, here is the latest on Podcasts etc.

Spoken Label:

Lots of releases to follow as Spoken Label has and is proving very popluar at the moment but here are the last few releases:

Randy Horton

https://spokenlabel.bandcamp.com/album/randy-horton-spoken-label-april-2018

George Melling (Live Word Central, April 2018)

https://spokenlabel.bandcamp.com/album/george-melling-word-central-april-2018

Hilary Robinson

https://spokenlabel.bandcamp.com/album/hilary-robinson-spoken-label-april-2018

Reading in Bed:

The newish Podcast series by me and my little lady Amanda is going great and we are both reading for Programme 5 at the moment.

Programme 4 is here - https://readinginbed.bandcamp.com/album/reading-in-bed-4-april-2018

OR

https://www.mixcloud.com/amanda-steel/reading-in-bed-4/

and features us reviewing the following books:

Gillian McAllister - Anything you do say 
Jay Asher - Thirteen reasons why 
Alice VL - The Weeping Prince 
Keith Houghton - Crash 
Jacqueline Woods - I have learnt

Ocean in a Bottle:

After a break, Ocean in a Bottle recently released the almost silent single ‘Awakening I’.

Part II and an additional single Reading in the reference library will follow over summer

https://oceaninabottle.bandcamp.com/album/awakening-i

Premature Birth poem published on Bonnie's Crew

The excellent Bonnie's Crew website has just published one of my poems 'Premature Birth'.

Without going into personal details too much over Kate (who set up this project)'s personal background but Bonnie’s Crew was created after problems through the birth of Kate’s youngest child and the hard work Leeds Congenital Hearts put it for her. Paraphrasing the site, the unit is funded by the Children’s Heart Surgery Fund for the invaluable work they do, and it doesn’t bear thinking about that the government nearly closed this unit down. Whether someone’s heart defect is big or small, whether the person is big or small, they do everything they can to save a life.

This experience Kate advises made her want to give back to the unit, to the nurses, the doctors and everyone who keeps the place going which resulted in the creation of this site (and an accompanying anthology will follow, with 100% of the proceeds going to the CHSF Keeping the Beat campaign) to showcase poems of hope, hearts, hospitals, children, survival, love, faith – however those things manifest in the work people send – and hopefully raise some money for the CHSF / Leeds Congenital Hearts.

Speaking from my side, Premature Birth covers the difficult birth my nephew went through years back, and is now a lovely young man of just turned 10 and looks like me I’ve heard more than a few people say like me at that age several times now and made me reflect on my own birth back in 1972 and the problems my mother also had with me. Without the care I received and Jack also received, it is open to debate whether either of us would have survived.

I struggle with money myself at the best of times but the poem needed to be wrote for this excellent cause and I hope you like it and also choose to donate something to their Just Giving Page which can be found here

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/bonnieandcrew