Just a reminder that the latest Writers’ Bloc reading is this Wdnesday.

At the Ghillie Dhu, 2-6 Rutland Place, Edinburgh, 8 pm. Entry £4 (£2 concessions.)

Here’s the press release for Writers’ Bloc’s latest show. The poster is a nice touch, I think.

Planet of the Apps: New Stories of Antisocial Media — Writers’ Bloc announces an evening of spoken word with a technological twist.

Expect new stories about: next-generation Nigerian 409 scams; burlesque-themed alien abductions; stalkings via social media; park keepers dealing with digital debris; and a steamy extension to the Dewey Decimal System, all performed with Bloc’s trademark energy and verve.

Planet of the Apps takes place at the Ghillie Dhu, 2-6 Rutland Place, Edinburgh EH1 2AD, on Wednesday 21st July from 8pm. Admission is an affordable £4 (£2 concessions.)

Authors appearing include: Hannu Rajaniemi, whose first novel The Quantum Thief is released by Gollancz in September; Andrew J. Wilson, co-editor of Nova Scotia: New Scottish Speculative Fiction; Morag Edward, winner of the Highlands and Islands Short Story Competition; and audience favourites Andrew C. Ferguson, Gavin Inglis and Stefan Pearson.

A live Twitter feed will be projected during the event. Bring your mobile!

For further information see the Writers’ Bloc web site: http://www.writers-bloc.org.uk/

Just a reminder that the launch of Writers’ Bloc’s two latest chap books, The Secret of Scottish Football by Andrew Ferguson and Nil by Mouth by Morag Edward, is this Thursday (27^th May) in the function suite at Easter Road Stadium, Easter Road, Edinburgh.

In my previous post about this the start time was given as 7.30 pm. Please note that this should be amended to 8 pm.

You may be unaware that, as well as giving readings of fiction, the performance group to which I am an occasional contributor, Writers’ Bloc, from time to time publishes chapbooks containing fiction produced by members.

To launch the latest of these, Bloc is having a launch do on Thursday 27^th May. Since one of the chapbooks features football exclusively the event will be held in the function suite at the home of Hibernian Football Club, Easter Road. (I’m tempted to turn up wearing a Dumbarton shirt just to be contrary.)

Attendance is free!

Here is the press release:-

WHAT: Book launch, with live readings of original fiction

WHO: Writers’ Bloc spoken-word performance group

WHERE: Function suite, Easter Road Stadium, Easter Road, Edinburgh

WHEN: 7.30 p.m., Thursday 27 May 2010

HOW MUCH: FREE

URL: http://www.writers-bloc.org.uk/
http://www.myspace.com/blocspace

OR FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK OR TWITTER

Writers’ Bloc is pleased to announce the launch of two new chapbooks, and has secured the function suite at Easter Road for the launch!

Andrew C. Ferguson’s The Secret of Scottish Football is a soccer book with a difference. Fife has spawned many famous footballers, but it’s also had its share of the supernatural. As these stories show, when the two collide, the results can be more surprising than the half-time pies at Stark’s Park.

Scotland on Sunday described one of these tales as having “all the energy and vigour of early Irvine Welsh, but with far more humour and nuance”. In his foreword, Pat Nevin says, “Harsh reality sits side by side with sometimes even harsher fantasy, in a long Scottish tradition that echoes much of the work of Robert Burns…”

Continuing the culinary theme, the stories in Morag Edwards’s Nil by Mouth are a dark, spicy mixture, topped off by recipes and Mo’s own fantastic artwork. Just make sure you follow the haggis recipe very carefully…

Booksquawk.com calls this chapbook “a fantastic example of the darkly witty Scottish sense of humour and a punchy little collection of stories that can be devoured in a lunch-break”.

The event starts at 7:30 p.m., and there’s a pay-as-you-go bar. Even Jambos will be made welcome.

Notes for Editors:
Writers’ Bloc is Edinburgh’s premier spoken-word performance group. Its members include published and prize-winning poets and novelists, who present original material with iconoclastic attitude.

Writers’ Bloc’s publishing arm, Bloc Press, has now produced six chapbooks, all in limited editions of 250 signed copies. The first two have sold out.

For more information:

E-mail: embassy@writers-bloc.org.uk

Phone: Andrew Wilson (0131) 467 0410, or

Andrew Ferguson (07981) 805976.

For a review of Nil by Mouth, see http://www.booksquawk.com/2010/04/nil-by-mouth.html

Review of one of the stories in The Secret of Scottish Football: http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/books/Speculative-reading-is-a-Halloween.3476961.jp

Review of The Secret of Scottish Football, and interview with Andrew C. Ferguson: http://tsgfootballfiction.wordpress.com/2010/02/23/the-secret-of-scottish-football/

I reproduce below the latest information from my spoken word performance group, Writers’ Bloc.

You’ll see the theme of this event chimes with a couple of the posts I have made recently.

You may be wondering what has happened to Writers’ Bloc. Well, preparation is in progress for some exciting new shows, but in the interim, some of us will be gathering with some well-known associates for a major event at Glasgow’s Aye Write! book festival next month:

http://www.ayewrite.com/Programme/Events/theearlydaysofabetterfuture_events.htm

Leading SF and fantasy novelists Richard Morgan, Ken MacLeod, Hal Duncan, Deborah J. Miller and Mike Cobley discuss the shape of things to come with editor, critic and general ne’er-do-well Andrew J. Wilson at “The Early Days of a Better Future?”.

Can things only get better or do we have to look over a mountain of rubble to see beyond the next fifty years? Scottish writers are leading a renaissance in British speculative fiction, but does our national identity have any future at all? Are rhetorical questions all we’ve got to offer?

Join the panel for a lively debate punctuated with short, sharp and shocking stories — and some very special surprise guests.

THE EARLY DAYS OF A BETTER FUTURE?

Sunday 7 March, 20:00-21:30 at the Mitchell Library, Glasgow G3 7DN.

Tickets: 7.00 (6.00 concessions).

Book early to avoid disappointment and ensure that it’s not just
Glaswegians who get to have their say.

We hope to see you there!

Writers’ Bloc.

http://www.writers-bloc.org.uk/

better read than dead

Don’t forget Writers’ Bloc’s Hallowe’en show tomorrow night at the Pleasance Cabaret Bar.

Here’s the blurb:-

Late October is traditionally the time of year when our ancestors huddled closer to the fireside, glancing fearfully now and then at the rattling door lest the storm outside was about to unleash some frightful creature of the night upon them.

Well, never mind all that bollocks. This is the 21st century, after all, and the thing to do at Halloween is huddle round your pint, as those creatures of the night Writers’ Bloc read tales of mayhem and immoderate threat in the Pleasance Cabaret Bar. The show is called THE SLIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE.

This outing does promise a more feminine — if not necessarily softer — side of Bloc than usual, with Morag Edward, Jane McKie and new comrade Kirsti Wishart all presenting new stories for your delectation.

All this plus the usual undead European white males. We can’t promise you the creme de la creme, but perhaps the creme de la slime …

Writers appearing at “The Slime of Miss Jean Brodie” will include:
Stefan Pearson, Morag Edward, Jane McKie, Kirsti Wishart, Andrew C. Ferguson, Andrew J. Wilson and Gavin Inglis.

Show starts 8pm, Thursday 29th October, Pleasance Cabaret Bar, 60 The Pleasance, Edinburgh. Admission 3 pounds for the creme de la creme or 2 pounds concessions.

Writers’ Bloc. www.writers-bloc.org.uk

The latest Writers’ Bloc reading is on Thursday this week at The Pleasance Cabaret Bar, Edinburgh, 8 pm. Entry is only £3 (£2 for concessions.)

It’s the annual Halloween special, hence the title.

Here’s the poster.

Go along. You know you want to.

You’ll be safe. I’m not reading.

Here is the latest update from Gavin Inglis re Underword.

Tue 24th Aug is a double blow of performance poetry with Anita Govan
and Laura Hainey. West coast wit meets east coast energy.

Wed 25th Aug is Dirty Words, a sex-themed charity night in aid of the
Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, which will not shy away from the
f-word, c-word or indeed outright porn. Two Bloc readers and you can
probably guess which ones.

Thu 26th Aug is Stefan Pearson with stories of salt air and drunken
sailors. You might have heard some of these before but you won’t have
heard his take on the real truths behind the decline of the Scottish
fishing industry.

Fri 27th Aug is Writers’ Bloc. We almost have a programme ready!

Sat 28th Aug is the closing night, a hell for leather rush through as
many readers as I can cram into 45 minutes.

Underword is 19.50-20.40 at Fingers Piano Bar, Frederick Street.
http://underword.co.uk/ and admission is FREE.

You may also enjoy Alba Ad Astra, an exhibition about the Scottish
space programme, at Transreal Fiction in the Grassmarket.

Writers’ Bloc member Gavin Inglis is running a series of spoken word performances at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Sorry for not clueing you in before – it’s been going for over a week.

Here are Gav’s notes for this week.

“Mon 17th Aug is the second open mic night. Some popular names are already signed up and I have had to start turning people away. Be prepared to be surprised — if that makes sense.

Tue 18th Aug is pretty special. If you are a loooong term Bloc follower you may remember Under The Bright And Hollow Sky, Andrew J. Wilson’s post-modern, multi-voiced tale of terror. We are staging this chilling episode for the first time in seven years.

Wed 19th is Newbie Night; poets and writers who have never performed their work on stage before. Come and support them — and y’know, I might still have one slot free …

Thu 20th is wasted on some guy called Gavin Inglis.

Fri 21st features Word Dogs, our sister group from Glasgow. Bark worse than their bite? Come along and find out.

Underword is 19.50-20.40 at Fingers Piano Bar, Frederick Street.
http://underword.co.uk/ Admission is FREE.

And a quick reminder that the West Port Book Festival is in full swing:
http://westportbookfestival.org/.”

It’s a busy season for Writers’ Bloc and a good time to get your spoken word fix. Here’s a heads-up for the next six weeks: charity, poetry, dirty punk, sad songs and twenty-two solid nights of free spoken word.

Thursday 16th July: Oxfam Bookfest @ the Jazz Bar, 8.30pm – 11.30pm

Some Bloc regulars — Andrew J, Gav, Stef and maybe even the elusive Hannu will appear with Ron Butlin and Jenny Lindsay as part of Oxfam’s national Bookfest. http://www.oxfam.org.uk/books/

Shortly thereafter:

Look out for “When The Sun Turns Green”, Jane McKie’s new collection published by Polygon. Celebrating the points at which the everyday intersects with magic, the poems explore ultrasounds and ley lines, wind farms and grandmothers, fighting hares and water monsters, sculptures and Sussex dialect. All in a day’s work for our Jane.

Saturday 18th July: Freak Power 72 — Hunter S. Thompson tribute night, Henry’s Cellar Bar, 11pm. 5 pounds/4 concessions.

Filthy garage punk rock’n'roll with Acid Fascists, The Brutes, The Fnords, Davey Sloan and some intoxicated writers of your acquaintance, reading from Hunter S. Thompson’s work to celebrate his 72nd birthday.

Saturday 8th – Saturday 29th August: Underword @ Fingers Piano Bar, 7.50pm-8.40pm, free entry.

Bloc’s own Gavin Inglis has assembled twenty-two different nights of spoken word for the Fringe this year, every single one free. Dip in for an extended session by some of your Bloc favourites, and discover new voices from Edinburgh and further afield. Come every night.
Full programme now up at: http://underword.co.uk/

25th August: Venus Carmichael @ tePOOKa

Is this the last ever performance for Andrew C. Ferguson’s tribute act to the troubled hippy chick Venus Carmichael? Step behind the Big Red Door and find out.