Podcast Catch Up..

Have been a bit busy recently Podcasting and not been blogging them here..

Here is what I have been Podcasting over the past few months:

Spoken Label:

https://spokenlabel.bandcamp.com/album/mel-woodend-spoken-label-november-2018

(Mel Woodend – November 2018)

https://spokenlabel.bandcamp.com/album/kristina-m-serrano-spoken-label-november-2018

(Kristina M Serrano – November 2018)

https://spokenlabel.bandcamp.com/album/freegreenwanderer-spoken-label-november-2018

(Freengreenwanderer aka Roehn – November 2018)

https://spokenlabel.bandcamp.com/album/helen-kay-spoken-label-october-2018

(Helen Kay – October 2018)

https://spokenlabel.bandcamp.com/album/rosa-wright-spoken-label-october-2018

(Rosa Wright – October 2018)

https://spokenlabel.bandcamp.com/album/brian-john-mitchell-spoken-label-october-2018

(Brian John Mitchell – October 2018)

https://spokenlabel.bandcamp.com/album/the-nearly-dead-poets-association-spoken-label-october-2018

(The Nearly Dead Poets Association – October 2018)

https://spokenlabel.bandcamp.com/album/gordon-zola-spoken-label-october-2018

(Gordon Zola – October 2018)

https://spokenlabel.bandcamp.com/album/andy-n-and-amanda-steel-live-bolton-diggers-festival-july-2018

(Andy N and Amanda Steel – Bolton Diggers Festival July 2018)

https://spokenlabel.bandcamp.com/album/the-nearly-dead-poets-association-bolton-diggers-festival-august-2018

(The Nearly Dead Poets Association, Bolton Diggers Festival, August 2018)

https://spokenlabel.bandcamp.com/album/ken-d-williams-live-and-kicking

(Ken D Williams – Alive and kicking)

https://spokenlabel.bandcamp.com/album/simon-widdop-live-bolton-diggers-festival-july-2018

(Simon Widdop – Bolton Diggers Festival, July 2018)

https://spokenlabel.bandcamp.com/album/zo-s-obhan-howarth-lowe-spoken-label-september-2018

(Zoë Sîobhan Howarth​-​Lowe –September 2018)

https://spokenlabel.bandcamp.com/album/jason-a-meuschke-spoken-label-september-2018

(Jason A Meuschke –September 2018)

https://spokenlabel.bandcamp.com/album/paul-jenkins-spoken-label-september-2018

(Paul Jenkins – September 2018)

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

(Michael John Hulley – August 2018)

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

(Melissa Walters - My Carousel Curse EP)

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

(Kealan Coady – Spoken Label – July 2018)

https://spokenlabel.bandcamp.com/album/julia-davenport-spoken-label-july-2018

(Julia Davenport – Spoken Label – July 2018)

Reading in Bed

https://readinginbed.bandcamp.com/album/reading-in-bed-10-october-2018

(October 2018)

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

(September 2018)

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

(August 2018)

Comics Unity

https://comicsunitypodcast.bandcamp.com/album/comics-unity-episode-15-pilot-2-november-2018

(Episode 1. 5 - Pilot 2 - November 2018)

https://comicsunitypodcast.bandcamp.com/album/comics-unity-episode-2-november-2018

(Episode 2 - November 2018)

DIH and friends 2018 Submission call

Back again for its 17th anniversary(Barring a few gaps off course), DIH and friends at Christmas are now after experimental, ambient, songs (on any topic), poetry and music tracks on the theme of Christmas.

Back now in it’s 17th year, as can be seen on www.digitalvomit.com/dih-and-friends, DIH and friends have since 2002 been producing an annual series of anti Christmas songs for people who really don’t like Christmas or have a very alternative viewpoint of the season in question.

The history of the project from Digital Vomit state ‘The origin behind the infamous series of DIH with friends at Christmas began back in 2002 when for a one off joke as a side project from his more official work in DIH, Andy N one year decided with the help of one or two friends decided to do in his words ‘ A Christmas album for those people who don’t really like Christmas’ where in the space of half an hour (as was the original plan) – Andy and a few friends would murder, cripple and take the piss out of as many songs as they could.

However, as is the nature of the beast with this sort of thing things snowballed and by the time the second album came along, It had become officially a DIH project where they would between the three of them alongside with an ever-increasing cast play around with the myth of the Christmas, which will often be funny and sad sometimes within the same breath.

The music contained within this series of albums are varied and can vary from spoken word (sometimes with musical backing or experimental backing), acoustic singer songwriter stuff to music that could appeal to fans of Aphex Twin, hardcore, breakbeats, dub step, fans of the spoken word, re-imagining of carols and classic songs, faithful versions of Christmas carols and songs and generally people who like their music to challenge and make them think.

For reasons too long winded and boring to go into here, DIH took a break from the Christmas albums in 2012 before starting up again in 2015.

Following on from their 2015 comeback, we are now expecting submissions for our 2018 album, our fourth album since starting up again with anything and everything encouraged from experimental, drones, ambient, Christmas Carols, Poems, songs.. whatever takes your guardian really..

Anything is welcome by email to either myself aen1mpo@yahoo.co.uk. (Andy N)

Me and Keith can also be contacted viva Facebook for further questions 

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100011783198151 (Andy)

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=627682972 (Keith)

The complete archive can be sampled here - http://www.digitalvomit.com/dih-and-friends

and the album will be released on Hicc Records

on bandcamp.com

Closing date is 12^th December 2018. 

Watershed as a writer (2008).. (Part 3 of my Non Fiction adventures as a writer)

Following from my previous two guest blogs at firstly Katy aka The Rebel Poetess (https://therebelpoetess.blogspot.com/2018/09/guest-post-andy-n-podcast.html) and Amanda Steel’s excellent blog as a follow up (https://amandasteelwriter.wordpress.com/2018/09/14/guest-post-andy-n/) 2008 was a watershed year for me certainly after I left the first major writing workshop I was in and ended up forming eventually a different writing workshop / discussion with two other former members of same group.

I am slowly working on my autobiography / auto non fiction or auto fiction (according to Amanda) ("Losing the thread)” that will cover the incident in more details but the difference in changing groups was remarkable at that time in my writing career. That same previous writing group I don’t know when it formed, but it likely formed somewhere at the end of 2004 maybe earlier and I came aware of it after joining a short term writing group at a certain local University (where I studied previously from 1998 to 2001).

After that course folded, one of the people who were there who for the sake of this blog I’ll call Cathy (not her real name) got a few of us to go down to her group which she ran at a local community centre. Almost right from the start, it was apparent that the group was very loosely ran with the advertised start time rarely starting at the advertised time of 7pm sometimes 7.10pm and then later on over time and sometimes over-running past 9pm which over time narked the people who ran the centre.

I’ll talk about the collapse of that group at a later post like I said, as it’s a separate story that will need explaining in major detail of simply how you don’t run a writing group. The group I set up with two ex colleagues from the ashes of it when it collapsed is worth understanding got me going with my writing and I ended up writing over the first three months of entering this new group three times the amount of work I had wrote in the last 18 months of my previous group and entered the live circuit in excitement because of it.

The thing I learnt from this change was one major thing. Happiness. Yeah, happiness in the sense when it became apparent to the three of us that the group we were in simply was holding us back from what we all wanted to it, and in my case enabled to literally got for it and resulted in my first poetry book ‘Return to Kemptown' following at the start of 2010.

It's certainly possible if I had stayed in that group, ‘Return to Kemptown’ wouldn’t have happened and any of my books that came next after that. That first group we were all in went stale because of bad running very quickly (see above). I’ve been going to other groups since, including one which I’ve been going to fairly regularly since the end of 2010 but that group has been evolving constantly into different territories with some of our work appearing in art exhibitions and across art trails all over the North West of England.

Writing I am a firm believer is a process that is constantly developing and needs to be nurtured as such. Of course, the bulk of it is written alone but going to good groups I think is an important process of learning what your writing strengths lays and can only help you develop and develop as a writer. Going to good groups I learnt encourages you to try out different approaches and write things that perhaps otherwise you wouldn’t have attempted to try.

A bad group. Well, I’ll let you work the effect for yourself…

Travelling photographs from Late Summer / Early Autumn

A few people like me who travel to work would have encountered the problems up and down Regent Road and the covering ring roads recently. This has resulted in me leaving really, really early for work and during the travelling resulted in the pictures below that perhaps I wouldn't have normally seen.

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.