Wednesday 24 June 2015

News and Views - June 2015



Other writers operate in different ways, but as a poet more and more nowadays I tend to write my poems (apart from little poems which pop out with no place) designed to go into folders.

Some of these folders will likely never get finished into books / sequences etc and some have been going on as far back as my first book ‘Return to Kemptown’ or even longer, but thought some of you may find it interesting how my head works with my poems at the moment.

1)      Mystery Stories…. Last year, Orgiami Press published six short poems of mine into a tiny little chapbook, all stories in the framework of six little poems. Plan now is to write another six to send over to them later on this year (Currently have three done).

Completion date – Maybe end of Summer.

2)      Europa II. Just over a year, Nick Armbrister a fellow anti war poet like me approached me to do a split book with him on Anti War Poetry called Europa. After a long break, I am now ready to write a second book with him called Europa II. My plans this year are to write around 20 to 25 short poems, all based from research on stories in the prisoner of war camps in the Second World War.

Completion date - Currently I am on my 7th poem for this but I reckon another year or so this should be done and maybe out for next Autumn (2016).

3)      From the Diabetic Ward. This originally was going to be my second full length book instead of the end of summer inspired by Hugo Williams topic on his own health, but this book at the time proved very hard to write as it involved writing in more detail than I was really ready to write about it (It took some time to accept the changes Diabetes enforced on me). However, it is now ongoing and I would like to write say 40 or so poems on it.

Completion date - Currently am on my 8th, so some distance to go but would like to get this finished some day.

4)      Nightmare on the tracks. The plan for this to write an epic poem told in Chapters of what happens what a man stumbles into something he shouldn’t have done on a walk through some meadows.

Completion date - I think at the moment, it is around 25 pages or so so it’s certainly over half way (Aiming for around 40 pages or so) or at the end of Chapter three (Aiming for 5 Chapters), so we’ll see if and when this gets done but it’s looking good.

5)      The Beast within. If I complete Nightmare on the tracks, I do have an idea brewing for the above which will be a sequel set on a camping trip.

Completion date – watch this space.

6)      A Means to an End II (Or Songbook). Now my band ‘A Means to an End’ is almost finished, it is looking likely an album will follow before the end of Summer. If this goes to plan, I will release a little book (Only Short) containing the lyrics to a lot of the more well known lyrics the band has done including ‘Return to Kemptown’, ‘Leaving Belfast’ and ‘Tandle Hill’ been just three that I wrote either the lyrics for or the bulk off it and offer it free as a download from where you can download the album from. Watch this space for this baby.

Completion date – Autumn maybe.

On-top of this, I will carry on with my podcasting on http://andyn.bandcamp.com/. Plans include currently to do podcasts monthly for my split book with Jeff Dawson (aka Jeff Dawson) from 2011, A Means to an End, a selection of pieces from my love songs for Cathy (done with permission) and Europa (with Nick Armbrister). Once I have got these completed, I will then move onto some of the above and would like to do eventually do podcasts of new and older revisited poems on a monthly basis.

I am also carrying on with my Ocean in a Bottle eps on a monthly basis too, (https://oceaninabottle.bandcamp.com/) although it is looking less likely they will be less Piano for the next few months as I want to do some ambience based material for a bit now as the next two will be called ‘Homage to Aphex’ and ‘Conversations with the Dead’ (Demos have already been done for both).

Audio Poesis (https://audiopoeisis.bandcamp.com/) has been quiet but it’ll pick up again. We both have been busy.

Sadly my band ‘A Means to an End’ has finished but not before doing a nice gig as a goodbye the other week which I do have a nice recording off (Will upload soon) and also will record an album over the summer.

And I will want to keep submitting to magazines / journals etc.

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