Supposed to be the quiet days...

This is usually the quiet time in our year but I'm up to my ears in preparations for the next performance of 'Red Rose - White Rose' during the Big Burns Supper weekend in Dumfries - 4.oo pm in the Hopkin Room, Theatre Royal on 26th January. Do come if you can - its first two performances were very well received, particularly in the atmospheric surroundings of Elshieshields Tower, Lochmaben. Also planning a summer tour with it of various Border locations ( 2013 is Flodden 500) to big historic houses and community halls. These are some of the instruments used in the performance :

Bass & tenor viols and bow, string drum, renaissance guiitar,

tenor, alto and soprano recorders,

bass, tenor and alto crumhorns.

 

Just finished a second re-draft of another story from 'White Poppies' - this time a three-character theatre piece for which I'm fortunate enough to have the attentions of Jacquie Crago. professional dramatist. This may make it to a performance at The Swallow Theatre this year - as with everything, it all depends on scarce funding. But, on February 16th I'll be part of a round-table discussion on this story - 'Three Minds' - at the Nottingham Festival of 

Words, which the publisher, Pewter Rose Press, will make available as a free download to interested parties. Other literary bits and pieces :  I have a two hour master-class with Louise Welsh soon as a reward for making the short list of a competition to write a prequel for 'Hansel & Gretel' for the National Library of Scotland - the poem I wrote for Laurence Jay (who played lute with us for over 20 years) is to be published in the 'Heart Shoots' anthology (Indigo Dreams Press : all profits to MacMillan Cancer) at Easter 2013. It's 15 months since he died and we miss him still every time we pick up an instrument. A childhood poem in the February issue of 'Riptide' - a poem or two amongst the Burns Windows display and in a pamphlet of last year's efforts in Dumfries. I won't go on - suffice to say these happenings are encouraging in the often isolated life of a writer....

Wishing you all a creative 2013

Two happy souls - Louis and Axa

Axa came to us in 2008 - a scavenger cat, found heavily pregnant in a barn, taken into care by the Cats Protection folk, from where we took her once her 4 kittens (silver striped) were re-homed. Looking at the video of her arrival here when she got out of her carrier, took a look around and fled behind the filing cabinet for the first couple of hours, her current serenity makes a huge change in her demeanor.  If you picked her up in those early days she would brace her front legs against you to get as far away as possible though she never bit or scratched either of us. She was terrified of the rubbish lorry for a while but nowadays stays in the workshop when R is using noisy machinery without turning a hair. And she is a great companion, quite gregarious and interested in what we're doing - current favourite bedding place is on top of whatever I'm knitting.  

Now for 2013 --- at the moment I have a lovely blank sheet on my creative desk - one project, dramatising one of my 'White Poppies' stories for theatre performance in the making, but after that, whichever way I go will be up to me. We have several performances of 'Red Rose - White Rose' to do but the preparation for those is done and there's only the fine tweaking to do. www.vivienjones.info for details of all performances. I hope all my creative friends are similarly excited by a new year starting....

.....back again

A thousand apologies - I last posted here in March 2012, with a vow to do so regularly from then on - well, I've not died, been ill, moved house or suffered any personal or professional disaster - in fact, I've had a very creative year which looks like carrying on into 2013 -full details on my website - www.vivienjones.info - rather than here. Knowing I've had another book of short stories published, several writing friends send this questionnaire/profile to me, so I'm making that reason for posting today.



* What is the title of your new book?

'White Poppies - women amongst warriors.'
* Where did the idea for the book come from?

A congregation of family anecdote, personal interest in history, and personal involvement in the peace movement and left wing thinking - the common thread being the lack of women's voices in the telling of history, particularly around the subject of war. I chose to write short fiction pieces because of the disparity of subject matter and because it seemed most appropriate to the points I wanted to make.

* What genre does your book fall under?

Short fiction - women's fiction (though not of the dungarees and crew-cut variety- some of my best friends are men.....)  Two of the texts have been adapted for drama purposes - one, illustrated with 16th century music, a renaissance tale of the wife and mistress of James IV of Scotland just before the battle of Flodden in 1513. We have two successful performances under our belt - the next is part of the Big Burns Supper weekend in Dumfries on Saturday 26th January 2013 at 4.00 pm in the Hopkin Room, Theatre Royal.

and the other, three generations of one family with very different views on morality and duty meet head on, A theatre performance is planned in 2013. 

* What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

Any of the unshowy excellent actors currently working in UK - I think of women like Olivia Colman and Kate Winslett

* Will your book be self published or published by an agency?

Publisher is Pewter Rose Press - www.pewter-rose-press.com
It was written with financial support from Creative Scotland
* How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

18 months but,of course, it's been in my head for about 40 years. The actual writing bit never takes me that long.
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I will try from now on.....

Getting started...

I love this time of year when it's all planning and beginning the year's projects - pepped up by bits of publication - new work in 'Abridged' from Ireland, work to come in 'The Eildon Tree' and 'Pushing Out the Boat' and 'The Waterhouse Review'. Drama and early music projects, readings and workshops all in the planning stage, including an invitation to read at this year's Edinburgh Fringe. Two manuscripts with publishers - fingers crossed - sometimes I feel that I'm not getting enough new work done but when I look back at the year, it's not so bad.  I'm a Giver  for World Book Night again - Monday 23rd April venue tbc - this year I've chosen 'Rebecca'  (Daphne du Maurier) to touch my Cornish roots.

World Book Night 2011

Some great music-making with visiting musicians in the last couple of months but how I long for some local musicians to discover early music and love it enough to want to meet regularly to play. R and I play every day that we're here but it would be great to extend that to include another early wind or string player, or two or three. Perhaps our needs are too specific to meet - players have to be able to read music, hold a part and love the repertoire - but on the other hand we could provide instruments and music and performing opportunties. Meanwhile we'll continue to invite musicians from Edinburgh, Durham, Glasgow, Sussex....

maybe not such a bad time after all...

I'm currently putting together Southlight 11 which has survived the collapse of dgArts, its funding organisation along with its excellent Literature Devlopment Officer,Carolyn Yates, who has helped us find a new funder, a Glasgow based arts charity with a particular interest in Dumfries and Galloway. We've had to search for a new printer too - fortunately we've been directed towards an excellent one based in Newton Stewart.  Although this is a very bad time for the arts financially there are good things happening - for example - the sheer number (136) of writers who sent work for the recent Windows for Burns project in Dumfries town centre and the celebrations surrounding it, Creative Places awards for Wigtown and Creetown. There are lots of festivals and arts venues planning their 2012 programmes and more and more writing groups forming. In Powfoot the writing group has formalised its operations and is working hard on a second publication, on life writing this time.
Crichton Writers have taken SPACE for their 2012 theme and this is producing all manner of creations. Fankle ( Dumfries Writers bi -monthly origami publication) flourishes too. Coming up, I have work in Split Screen, poems in response to adverts, a short story in Pushing Out the Boat, a poem in  A Thousand Cranes - Scottish Writers for Japan and a poem on Silence in Abridged (Eire).

Powfoot : silvery shore in low winter light

Back again....

 

I haven't posted a blog here since July 2011 but I'm going to make a promise to write a post once a week minimum from now. You can catch up recent writing business on my website- www.vivienjones.info - music business on www.thegallowayconsort.co.uk - it's been a busy year all round, mostly happy but darkened by the death in October of our dear friend Laurence Jay who played lute, vihuela and recorder in our band for the last twenty or so years. He last played with us in public in May at Blackwells Bookshop in Edinburgh and continued to come for lunch and  practice through the summer. We'd planned to perform again at our Wigtown Book Festival concert in October but he was too unwell to make that. We miss him terribly.

 But to current activity - I'm adapting a couple of my women-amongst-warriors stories for possible theatre workshop and performance later in the year. Working on stage two of the Powfoot Writers project - life-writing this time to which they are bringing all their enthusiasm and growing skills. Crichton Writers have chosen 'Space' for their 2012 project - so the minds are dutifully boggling. I've just given a most rewarding reading from my books to the Kirkcudbright Literary Society in the library at Broughton House - it's always gives me such a lift to know that people are enjoying what I write - such a solitary business so often which is why I sometimes write in collaboration with others.

It's been cold down here, and foggy.

Playing catch-up

Some links that might interest you about recent happenings :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7z-NZ-kY4J4  The son of my Pewter Rose publisher, Matthew McDonnell, has made a film of one of my stories from 'Perfect 10' -it's the internet romance called 'Net Babe'. He and I would love to know what you think - you can comment on this You Tube link.

http://26treasures.tumblr.com/  This is the 26 Treasures website - a project running for the public from St Andrew's Night 2011 to Burns Night 2012 at the National Museum of Scotland in Chambers Street, Edinburgh - where 26 writers were selected to create a piece of writing about 26 individual objects drawn from a hat. This link takes you to the blog pages that the writers undertook to contribute about how they appraoched their task.

Other than these I've been busy with a combined programme of our two new-writing/music
events -The Wood and The Water - at The Catstrand, New Galloway - a delightful evening in a delightful place which went down very well.  In Powfoot, we're very close to publishing an anthology of creative writing that's been generated over the last six months by people who live here, supported by dgArts. A launch reading in the newly refurbished Bowling Green Pavilion is planned for Saturday 13th August at 2.00 pm along with a celebration of the work done on the building.

 cover design by Ian Burdett - Powfoot resident

It has been a pleasure and a privilege working with these writers.

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And, very soon, will come Southlight 9 - which contains a very fine eco-section and some fine photography along with essays, poetry and short stories from this region and well beyond. Available from The Mid-Steeple soon.