Lytham Lives launches at last!

Amazon link



Woo hoo!!!!
At last - Lytham Lives - A Community in Writing launches today at a special launch at Park View Community Centre in Lytham. 

Lytham writer Alexandra O'Toole and I have had the most unbelievable palaver with our original choice of publishers - so we gave up and did it ourselves, and I have to say the finished product is cracking! :oP

The anthology is a part of the forthcoming Lytham Festival of Stories, a project dreamed up by Alex O'Toole and developed in conjunction with Cath Powell at Park View 4U, and with fantastic support from Lancashire County Council, Fylde Borough Council, and Arts Council England.

We ran writing and conversations-in-the-community workshops in Lytham at Park View and at St. Bede's High School to get the ball rolling, and opened out the invitation to anyone connected with Lytham to submit their contributions to the anthology, and then chose the final pieces to be included.  With specially-commissioned photographs from local photographer Ruth Brooks-Carter, the finished anthology is a fantastic slice of life writing, memoir, and poetry, and a fittingly resonant slice of Lytham past, present, and future - a real festival of stories. 

You'll be able to buy your own copy of the anthology from Park View Community Centre, Plackitt and Booth bookshop on Clifton Street in Lytham from 15th July, and from Amazon by clicking on the image of the book here:

Amazon link

  .

And the winners are...

The deadline for submissions to the Lytham Lives Anthology has been and gone, and we’ve had the difficult task of selecting the successful submissions for inclusion in the book.

We’ve had a fascinatingly eclectic pile of submissions to read through and consider, both in form and subject matter.  Life writing and poetry made up the vast majority of the entries, with some short stories also in the mix, and we’ve had great fun reading through them all.  It was particularly pleasing to see several entries which began during the writing and conversations in the community workshops we delivered in Lytham. 
Subject matter has ranged through stories of Lytham childhoods, school days and festival days, to tales of ordinary folk and their lives in Lytham, past and present, eulogies to mothers, eulogies to knickers (!!!), days spent wandering through Lytham – whether on foot or on bicycle, in rain, wind or glorious sunshine, and whether loved or hated! – and the endlessly fascinating ecological landscape of Lytham, which has been a recurring theme, along with dreams and memories of things past, and future possibilities, and a scattering of ghosts, geese, and of course, windmills.

Making the final decisions were difficult, and to some extent informed by the desire to create a book which has diverse themes and voices but which hang together to create a coherent whole, and with a fantastic selection of photographs old and new – some specially commissioned from a local photographer – the Lytham Lives Anthology will be a great memento of Lytham’s unique character, in both landscape and people.  A real festival of stories. 
Letters and emails are winging their way to the successful entrants, but we would like to heartily thank everyone who submitted their poems, life writing, and short stories to us as it has been a privilege to read all of your work – so thank you.

The successful entrants are H. A. Pearson, Doreen Riley, John Hobson, Robert Michael Boddy, Jean Cunliffe, Sarah Simpson-Bostock, Fay M. Ford, David Forshaw, David Williams, Joyce Warwick, Janet Lees, J. E. Cartmell, and ‘The Lytham Ghost’, Sir Cuthbert Clifton.

The Lytham Lives Anthology is part of the forthcoming Lytham Festival of Stories, due to take place over a 4 day festival weekend next May. It's going to be brilliant. You can keep track of what's happening on the Festival of Stories blog. I'll keep you posted on when the Lytham Lives Anthology is published.

FREE Writing Workshops @LythamStories & Flash Fire Live Lit & Journeys with the Ghosts of Pendle Witches

Busy week coming up!

Really looking forward to the FREE creative writing workshop I'm running for the Lytham Festival of Stories on Monday!

It's at ParkView4U Community Cafe on 26th November 6.30pm to 8.30pm. I'll be using photographs and artefacts to help you write about family, history and memory, to get your creative ideas flowing. Places are going fast, so booking is essential. Please call Cath or Julie at ParKView4U to reserve a place: 01253 741955.

And I'm really looking forward to spouting my stuff at the Flash Fire Live Lit event in Lancaster on Thursday 29th!

It's at The Park Hotel Lancaster, 8pm start, and I'm well chuffed to be performing my work alongside the fab talents of David Gaffney, Zoe Lambert, Jeanette Greaves, Rob Wood, Peter Smith, and Ros Ballinger - AND there are open mic slots, plus comedy and poetry.

And all for a mere £3.
What more could you want?

~

Well, MORE it seems - I'm thrilled to have been invited to join Lancashire Libraries and author of Lancashire Reads 2012 Malkin Child, Livi Michael, on a journey through Pendle Witch country on Lancashire Day Tuesday 27th!

We'll be starting at Colne Library in the morning, and journeying to Lancaster, roughly following the geographic route that the witches took prior to their trial in 1612.

In Lancaster Library we will be joined by guests from Lancaster district for a light lunch and the opportunity to walk key points in Lancaster associated with the trials. Author Livi Michael will be on the bus for the duration of the journey and will speak at brief celebration events at each venue along the way – including at Clitheroe, Garstang and Lancaster Libraries.

The bus will stop at libraries in the places listed below plus culturally significant points such as the statue of Alice Nutter in Roughlee.




Full timetable:
Colne Library – 9.15 a.m.
Travel via Roughlee to Clitheroe Library – 10.20 a.m.
Garstang Library 11.20 a.m.
Arrive Lancaster Library 12.45 p.m.
Light lunch at Lancaster Library and Tour of Lancaster castle
Leave Lancaster 2.30 p.m.
Arrive Clitheroe 3.30 p.m.
Arrive Colne 4.30 p.m.

If you've taken part in Lancashire Reads or have read Livi Michael's Malkin Child and would like to join this fantastic event, click the Lancashire Reads link here.

Friday 30th? Might spend the day in a library for a break!