Speak Easy - July 2022 List of Readers

 

Ran as always by Andy N, Amanda Nicholson and Steve Smythe with a guest host off Gordon Zola, here is the list of readers for Speak Easy for our July show (Thursday 07 July 2022). 

We shall be starting at 7.30pm as always and everybody shall be reading a 4 minute selection of their work. 

We are now operating a subs lists in case of cancellations etc.

To go on this list, please email me on aen1mpo@yahoo.co.uk (Andy N)

**

Peter Humphreys 

Roy Page

Antonia Fusaro

Regi Agulha Jr. 

Gordon Zola 

Eve Nortley 

Leon Johnson

John Calvert

Karen Lewis

Hilary Walker 

April Manderson

Phil Dalton

Isabelle Byrne

Selina Helliwell

Andy Cash

Linda Downs 

David Bond

Amy Langley

Maria Roberts 

Siobhan Hoy  

Andy N

Amanda Nicholson

Sarah James (Sarah Leavesley) - New Session from Spoken Label

Latest up from Spoken Label (Our Poet/Artist/Writer Podcast) features our returning friend, Sarah James also known as Sarah Leavesley to talk about her latest poetry collection from Verve Poetry Press "Blood Sugar, Sex, Magic"

The book is described as "Blood Sugar, Sex, Magic is award-winning poet Sarah James’s exploration of 40 years living with type one diabetes, a life-threatening autoimmune condition that is now treatable, but remains incurable. The collection tracks her personal journey from diagnosis, age six, to adulthood, including the high and the low points, as well as the further long-term health risks lurking in the background. These are poems of pain, but also of love and beauty, taking in motherhood, aging and establishing self-identity in a constantly updating world. The route to some kind of acceptance and belonging may be troubled by ‘trying to escape’ but it also ‘holds | more light than your eye | will ever know’

‘Sarah James’ Blood Sugar, Sex, Magic compellingly conveys the journey of a life pervaded by type one diabetes and the myriad struggles of that hidden disability. It’s a world of sunlit fields and night sweats, “doorstep birdsong” and pricked fingertips, at once arduous and munificent. Always engaging and often moving, James’ poems deftly immerse as well as inform, urging a deep appreciation of life’s plenty, “breath[ing] in the sky.’ – Carrie Etter

https://spokenlabel.bandcamp.com/album/sarah-james-sarah-leavsley-spoken-label-june-2022

https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/sarah-james-sarah-leavesley-june-2022-spoken-label/id1501847969?i=1000567348472

https://anchor.fm/spokenlabelpodcast/episodes/Sarah-James-Sarah-Leavesley-June-2022--Spoken-Label-e1jgk8p

https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy9kOTA1ZTkwL3BvZGNhc3QvcnNz/episode/MjllYjUyYmYtMTFmNS00MzU2LWFhNjEtYWUwODBhNjBhYTM4?sa=X&ved=0CAUQkfYCahcKEwjo0PLszM74AhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdRYmGkWZSU

https://radiopublic.com/spoken-label-6BalgM/s1!89e19

https://castbox.fm/episode/Sarah-James-(Sarah-Leavesley)-(June-2022%2C-Spoken-Label)-id2678341-id506917019

https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/spoken-label/sarah-james-sarah-leavesley-QUSDXclRZpu/

https://www.bullhorn.fm/spokenlabel/posts/sarah-james-sarah-leavesley-j

https://podcastaddict.com/?id=https%3A%2F%2Fanchor.fm%2Fs%2Fd905e90%2Fpodcast%2Fplay%2F53022425%2Fhttps%253A%252F%252Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%252Fstaging%252F2022-5-4%252F07c430a6-57ec-a9b2-320c-fd9a272f332f.mp3&podcastId=2748767

https://www.podbean.com/ew/dir-gv53a-141deb3f

https://www.himalaya.com/episode/sarah-james-sarah-leavesley-june-2022-spoken-label-175141221

https://podbay.fm/p/spoken-label/e/1655875682

https://music.amazon.co.uk/podcasts/bae49616-2295-4e7c-b931-91415a724cb6/episodes/4cd93a5b-71d2-4d47-828a-d3b279618307/spoken-label-sarah-james-sarah-leavesley-june-2022-spoken-label

https://tunein.com/podcasts/Arts--Culture-Podcasts/Spoken-Label-p1317427/?topicId=173017873

https://www.owltail.com/podcast/5FvX6-Spoken-Label?fbclid=IwAR3eSPKHuRLVeHpQaTHuuduBxEJf1qrzrMzd90TdwGLLl1UwF7wgtO8XYCs

https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Sarah-James-Sarah-Leavesley-June-2022-Spoken-Label-Podcast/B0B4RWPWFQ?ref=a_pd_Spoken_c4_lAsin_0_0&pf_rd_p=a202f891-0d90-47a2-ac3f-8ebc4b2943db&pf_rd_r=59XYT91BJTZ43BMHPHWQ

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1VEEEa4IWUCwVfJ0Rrg8qX

 

Just Stories, Manchester

 Pictures from a lovely night Amanda and me went to last night at Gullivers, Manchester called Just Stories 

Chelsea Tadeyeske and Edie Roberts (Spoken Label, August 2022 - New Session)

Returning to Spoken Label after a long break are two dear friends (off) ours the wonderful Chelsea Tadeyeske and Edie Roberts who we met in Manchester years back (speaking to us from the Gamli Skoli Residency on Hrisey Island) in Iceland

Chelsea Tadeyeske is a poet, performer, and bookmaker from and currently based in Milwaukee, WI. She is the founding editor of pitymilk press where she publishes short-run chapbooks and edits both online and print journals.

Edie Roberts is a multi-disciplinary genderqueer performer and curator living in Detroit, MI.

This can be streamed at:

https://spokenlabel.bandcamp.com/album/chelsea-tadeyeske-and-edie-roberts-spoken-label-june-2022

https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/chelsea-tadeyeske-and-edie-roberts-spoken-label-june-2022/id1501847969?i=1000566496537

https://anchor.fm/spokenlabelpodcast/episodes/Chelsea-Tadeyeske-and-Edie-Roberts-Spoken-Label--June-2022-e1hhpm6

https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy9kOTA1ZTkwL3BvZGNhc3QvcnNz/episode/MjE0NWRjODktYzlkYy00OWMwLWFkODQtYTFlYWYxOWJkYzU4?sa=X&ved=0CAUQkfYCahcKEwj45ZK1uLr4AhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJnjErvUzxw

https://radiopublic.com/spoken-label-6BalgM/s1!1aa27

https://castbox.fm/episode/Chelsea-Tadeyeske-and-Edie-Roberts-(Spoken-Label%2C-June-2022)-id2678341-id504901002

https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/spoken-label/chelsea-tadeyeske-and-edie-p_jlAb568Ux/

https://www.bullhorn.fm/spokenlabel/posts/chelsea-tadeyeske-and-edie-ro

https://podcastaddict.com/?id=https%3A%2F%2Fanchor.fm%2Fs%2Fd905e90%2Fpodcast%2Fplay%2F50963590%2Fhttps%253A%252F%252Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%252Fstaging%252F2022-3-22%252Ffe1b0b39-1b68-a3ed-306e-002122a37b40.mp3&podcastId=2748767

https://www.podbean.com/ew/dir-zhnjq-140c3146

https://www.himalaya.com/episode/chelsea-tadeyeske-and-edie-roberts-spoken-label-june-2022-174314869

https://podbay.fm/p/spoken-label/e/1655287550

https://music.amazon.co.uk/podcasts/bae49616-2295-4e7c-b931-91415a724cb6/episodes/55359d86-001c-42a8-86f0-e5a00b05a956/spoken-label-chelsea-tadeyeske-and-edie-roberts-spoken-label-june-2022

https://tunein.com/podcasts/Arts--Culture-Podcasts/Spoken-Label-p1317427/?topicId=172865322

https://www.instagram.com/tv/Ce64r7ZjfKvRULACVklS5fCoCW2-iyHeCbNKis0/

https://www.owltail.com/podcast/5FvX6-Spoken-Label?fbclid=IwAR2ZsMsimhUBzPTr-T-0I3V2vGvcgiAzS4DISU443MJ-ORhOV5Tz2vWqpMg

https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Chelsea-Tadeyeske-and-Edie-Roberts-Spoken-Label-June-2022-Podcast/B0B42MZ8QB?ref=a_pd_Spoken_c4_lAsin_0_0&pf_rd_p=a202f891-0d90-47a2-ac3f-8ebc4b2943db&pf_rd_r=VXGAPSQNKRV0S1RNM6FQ

https://open.spotify.com/episode/2PySE1q9sdkYff4MChFUZ2

Book Review - The Wilhelm Conspiracy (A Sherlock Holmes and Lucy James Mystery)

 

* Audio Review of this review will appear on the Book Review Podcast 'Reading in Bed' at the beginning of June 2022 *

Blurb:

A prominent banker is found dead in an unsavory part of London. Hours later, the charred remains of another body lie on a beach in Dover. Both deaths—and their possible link—attract Sherlock Holmes. Then the Secretary of War summons the detective with catastrophic news whose consequences could harm the nation for generations: on the eve of war, a new British superweapon has fallen into the wrong hands. Holmes must recover it.

Lucy James, an actress and Holmes’s recently discovered grown daughter, has inherited the family sleuthing skills. Despite her father’s objections, she insists on helping him find the weapon and solve the murders. Along with Dr. Watson, they follow the trail to Germany, uncovering a sinister plot that puts them directly in the line of fire. Featuring appearances from real-life notables Nikola Tesla, King Edward VII, and Kaiser Wilhelm II, this electrifying new mystery puts the greatest deductive mind of his era into a race to save the Empire.

Strengths:

First of all, I discovered this series and downloaded the first two books out of interest, but read the second book in error thinking and realised when Lucy was introduced into the book I thought I may as well carry on with this book.

In this ways, this could caused a major problem, but to give the author credit it didn’t jar atall and proved easy enough to read from this book without causing tons of confusion.

I have read some of the original Sherlock Holmes stories from Conan Doyle and did enjoy the way it was shared via the memoirs of Dr John Watson.

Watson’s narrative throughout the book felt perhaps not always historical accurate was I felt got to grips with the original books and I also felt got to grips with his friendship with Holmes and his newly found daughter.

The book itself as it was fairly compact seemed to flow along at a fairly good pace if it had gone on for say 400 pages, it would have proved too much and would have lost my interest I think straight away.

The mystery in the book was perhaps slight, and the logic that Ms James shows throughout the book is overdone, but needed to show that was she was her father’s daughter.

Weaknessess:

A few things, as above the use of Ms James in the book does take away from the two main characters where it felt bringing her into the book had to give her something to do or be involved in the plot more I did feel sometimes and found her sometimes a 21^st century woman more in a narrative from the early 20^th century.

If anybody is looking for a detailed mystery, I worked out who the villian (s) were by about the halfway stage of the book and I am no expect on thriller / mystery books and suspect if my father who does read a lot of these books would have solved the mystery fairly quickly.

Interestingly as a side note too, Telsa one of the main characters in this book was a real life person and also had it is recorded OCD but was not touched on in this book which was a interesting decision at best or badly researched take your pick.

I’ve got other books to read, so whether I would go to read more I am undecided to be honest at the moment, but I did enjoy so it’s got a 8/10.

Amanda and Me live at Celebrate Festival, Whalley Range

 

A few pictures off Amanda and myself at Celebrate Festival today, Whalley Range where Amanda read three poems, two about the Gym and one about Medusa on Tinder and I read three flash fiction pieces about Manniquens, Bus stop fights and Alien Invasions. A varied afternoon lol

The Birth of Flash Fiction

 

Over the past 18 months if you have seen me read you may have noticed I have slowly being introducing flash fiction slowly more and more into my live sets.

Where this came from is down to my wife Amanda really as when we went into lockdown in April 2020 we decided to set up a online writing workshop to keep ourselves going over that crazy period. 

Over the early days of this I wrote a quite bit of poetry and then started branching out into sonnets, tankas and haikus some it has to be said were more successful than others but it gave me chance to use them as a springboard into trying something else. 

My first attempt happened in August 2020 by the look of things and it was aborted horror story called the room. It was okay I guess as I remember grasping the mood of the piece I wanted to explore but I got stuck on an ending so I left it open ended and put it away thinking it was fun doing it and that would be it.

Of course this wasn't the case as at another workshop around a month and a half I ended up writing another piece, this time a cheerful Christmas piece called unexpected Christmas present which shocked more than a few people with the use of the f word and one very crude sexual reference to father Christmas but also made a few people laugh.

Into 2021 I began to brush up my taste for short fiction and flash fiction with a few true life short stories / flash fiction and by the time we were able to return to the live arena with the night me and Amanda corun with our friend Steve 'speak easy' and not long after that won 3rd prize for a major horror story competition for a prose piece 'winter and only winter' , I had managed now to take my work full circle with my flash fiction adding a odd element to my work which is perfect fit for my often more serious technical image based poetry.

Unlike my poetry which are always mapped onto folders of possible books, if I ever do with my flash fiction it will be sometime off I can admit as it took years and years before I felt was the case with my poetry and has rebooted my love of performed spoken word.

In the meantime, it's proved a real surprise getting third prize in competitions I would never would have dreamed entering a few years ago, showed people I don't just liking in one style and as I proved in a recent writing workshop Amanda and me were at I can surprise myself with flash fiction completing a piece in 15 to 20 minutes in a style the writer off me 4 years ago wouldn't have dreamed attempting.

It's a important thing for all writers to bear in mind. I had really being a poet for many, many years ago and since meeting my wife, Amanda 

Speak Easy June 2022 thank yous and bookings for July 2022

 

* Speak Easy Thank yous and News of next booking for our July Show *

Thanks to everybody who attend our latest Speak Easy (Spoken Word Open Mic) show from last night at Dulicmer, Chorlton from last night.

Special thank you to the following who kindly read for us: 

1) Roy Page

2) Sean McGlynn

3) Selina Halliwell

4) Terry Caffrey

5) Antonia Fusaro

6) Sarah Attwell

7) Leslie Cunningham

8) Leon Johnson

9) Regi Agulha Jr.

10) Andy Npoet

11) Darren Lea-grime

12) Amy Langley

13) Karen Lewis

14) Angela Whiteley

15) Anna Percy

16) Amanda Nicholson

17) Phil Dale

18) Steve Smythe

19) Lorenzo

20) Sarah-Clare Conlon

21) Grant Curnow

Booking for the next Speak Easy on Thursday 07 July 2022 starts this Sunday 12 June 2022 from miday by facebook messaging me or email (aen1mpo@yahoo.co.uk).

Photographs are here - 

Amanda is currently uploading the photographs and I am uploading the full audio of the show (More links to follow)

Book Review - Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children – Ransom Riggs

 

* Audio version of this review will appear on the Book Review Podcast - Reading in Bed at the start of June (readinginbed.bandcamp.com) 

Blurb:

A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of very curious photographs. It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow-impossible though it seems-they may still be alive. A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows.

Strengths:

The story is told through a combination of narrative and a mix of vernacular and found photography from the personal archives of collectors listed by the author and also a film from Tim Burton (which did okay from what I understand but not well enough to warrant a sequal or sequals).

The book itself has a interesting idea behind where reading up on the book, it was originally intended to be a picture featuring photographs the Author Riggs had collected, but he was advised from a editor as a guide to put together a narrative. The result was a story about a boy who follows clues from his grandfather's old photographs, tales, and his grandfather's last words which lead him on an adventure that takes him to a large abandoned orphanage on Cairnholm, a fictional Welsh island.

The book does have great atomsphere and I felt like the Author knew Wales when Jacob went there and the setup was great when Jacob’s grandfather reveals certain aspects of his life to them before then meeting his own fate and the use of the other children, which could have easily span into young X Men territory easily did work.

Weaknesses:

Too slow moving if I am honest and the book fell flat around the 200 to 250 page mark for me and didn’t recover for me and was nowhere as creepy or weird as the hype I’ve read it was.

The use of the pictures frequently throughout the book don’t fully work for me and in places the pictures which in the first half kinda worked in the 2^nd half, it started to feel like the author either ran out of ideas or got tangled up in the world he was creating and wrote himself into a corner.

The film version of this which I have seen I think was far from perfect, but felt a lot more clearer and cut out a lot of the fat and confusing sub plots that were littered throughout this book.

A shame as it got off to a good start, but I can’t recommend this because of what happened in the 2^nd half of the book – a better editor would have helped the book not fall off the edge of a cliff which is what happened to me during the last 100 – 150 pages of this book.

I really wanted to like this book but alas it only gets 6/10

Book Review - Sarah James – Blood, Sugar, Sex and Magic

 

* Podcast version will appear on Reading in Bed for their June 2022 Episode due out at the start of week commencing 06 June 2022 *

Blurb:

'Blood Sugar, Sex, Magic' is award-winning poet Sarah James’s exploration of 40 years living with type one diabetes, a life-threatening autoimmune condition that is now treatable, but remains incurable.

The collection tracks her personal journey from diagnosis, age six, to adulthood, including the high and the low points, as well as the further long-term health risks lurking in the background. These are poems of pain, but also of love and beauty, taking in motherhood, aging and establishing self-identity in a constantly updating world. The route to some kind of acceptance and belonging may be troubled by ‘trying to escape’ but it also ‘holds | more light than your eye | will ever know’

Strengths:

This is not a easy flowery poetry book to read that is sure not because it is a book about a very serious topic indeed people need to be aware off – Diabetes (Something I can relate to myself after getting registered with Diabetes when I was 39) and the courage writing this book is admirable and it is difficult for somebody in my situation to find fault with this.

Take Page 21 of the book this – the title of the piece ‘listen, the silence is in pain’ which is heavy hitting enough in itself but within this title are crossed out words ‘difficult, hidden, disability’ a clear point to show that Diabetes is a invisible condition which you can’t see – something you can’t see on somebody walking down the street.

When I contracted Diabetes at 39 in 2011, I remember being told it was invisible, be it rare for a adult to get this as it was usually more something older people got (My Dad got it when he was 63) or children got (A dear friend who lives around the back of me got it when it was 7), something Sarah got when he was with the haunting poem ‘Admitted, Nov, 30 1981’ aged 6: diabetes, mellitus’ when the image of glass syringe is terrifying as it shows how much society has moved on in just a generation ago to plastic needles and containers and the problems I had at 39 learning how to use a plastic needle , a glass one scares the shit out of me thinking about it.

One of my favourite pieces in the book is ‘Freshly Baked’ which is a piece that brings hope in the middle of the book which takes about a ordinary memory of baking with her mother which most children do with their parents at that age are given higher emotions considering what they would all be going through.

Weaknesses:

The book isn’t a easy read like I said and the book has loads of frankly quite upsetting pieces like in it which I suggest you just go and read for yourself. It is not a poetry book I feel that can be read in gulps and chunks, perhaps read a piece and come back to the book a few days later.

This is a book that looks at the reality of getting and living with Diabetes

and makes you look at it from a different angle altogether.

8/10

Writing on Tablets

As a writer although I finish off a lot of writing on my laptop etc nowadays previously it nearly all was wrote on a little note pad enabled with a pen of course and then finished off on my laptop or PC.

In some ways it has to be said it was easy and could easily be set up in just a few minutes and then I could scribble to my hearts content. 

However I started going to a new writing workshop near where I grew up in Stretford things and recently had a change in perspective there. In this workshop which was the first I had gone to which I hadn't ran in years or hadn't being online (where I do most of my writing on my laptop) and for the first time I found myself struggling to keep up with the excercises.

It wasn't because they were difficult they weren't but I simply couldn't write quickly to give them the attention they needed which of course caused a rethink.

I could have took my laptop but considering I was on public transport afterwards going home that simply wouldn't have being practical. I considered doing what my wife Amanda did at the workshop by writing on my mobile but that was simply too small for my eyesight to manage (perks of rotten eyesight).

I considered buying a netbook before then trying my kindle only to dismiss that when it became apparent that although it was great for reading much beside it was simply too slow.

The use of a tablet came by chance actually as I bought one last year as a top up to go with my mobile upgrade for next to nothing and I got it thinking it as a backup for both my laptop and kindle. I didn't think it would ever prove as important as my kindle and my ipod.

First of all the one I use isn't much more bigger than the A5 ring binder little books I had been scribbling away for years on and while the text is a little smaller than I was used to using on my laptop but was better than my mobile certainly but once I got used to the predicted text element off it, it wasn't perfect but it enabled to get ideas down quicker. 

Second despite the constant issue with automatic text and the fact because of the size of the keyboard it has resulted in me typing one handed quite a bit instead of both handed it has helped me increase what I am actually writing . 

Now of course this doesn't mean what I have wrote is always any good as it certainly hasn't being but it's stopped me worrying about it if it is any good as much bizarrely enough as doing it this way has helped me with the editing side of it a little. (Of course whether this means I will share them is another ball game of course).

Whatever next things has certainly changed. 

New Music / Writing Publication / Radio appearance

 

Some new bits of music and writing have being released.

First of all, the amazing Alta Mabin has published three of my new haikus in her June 2022 'Haiku for the Soul'

This can be seen here

Two pieces of my Prose "Grief" and "Conversation with myself" have appeared in the June Magazine in Alta's other magazine 'Poets Unlimited' which can be found here

On the music side of the spectrum, a new unreleased Ocean in a Bottle track has appeared on the latest various artists album by camembert electrique 'Sitar on Sitar' called Out of tune Sitar by Ashton Market. This is a pay what you want download here

On my Andy N productions page on bandcamp - My archive page of unreleased and rare ambient / noise projects etc for June there is two new releases:

Grey Ear, White Noise - Instrumentals / Dub versions - 2007 - 2010 - out-takes and instrumentals from Grey Ear, White Noise. Pay what you want here

Distance - Steve Reich Remixes.  Done for fun in 2008 I seem to recall. Pay what you want here

After a few months break. I have sorted out some new tracks for my Piano project 'Piano in a Bottle' too on the series of Fragments. Volume 1 is here on pay what you want.

Lastly, I am on All FM between 4pm and 5pm on Sunday 04 June 2022 on Ruth O'Reilly's radio programme. This can be streamed here