A Son of the Rock

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/