Do a Barrel Roll

Writing with 365 Others

2012-01-19T20:09:00.009Z

I was delighted to discover, via tweeters, of the existence of the 3hundredand65 project. It goes like this: everyday, a new writer tweets the next 140ish characters of a developing story and - incredibly - each day the artist behind the project, the unstoppable Dave Kirkwood, illustrates the tweet. As the title suggests it will last one year (unless Dave's drawing hand falls off - although I

Writing in Homage

2012-01-08T10:06:00.006Z

Some you may have noticed, I started a new blog in November called The Exploding Supermarket. I've posted nine instalments on there already and I'm quite enjoying it so far. It is a rolling story told in a series of Flash-length chapters concerning the imminent apocalyptic death of a supermarket, loosly based on ASDA Hulme, just down the road. Its all quite sci-fi fantasy with a fair bit of odd

Deep breath now...

2011-12-31T15:14:00.003Z

Completed Distinction MA, wrote 77% graded thesis entitled "The 007 Mythology: The Rituals and Archetypes of the James Bond Franchise", formed the Manchester Flashtag Writers, ran flash fiction competition for Chorlton Arts Festival, put together smutty anthology Quickies for Didsbury Arts Festival, won Best Blog at the Manchester Blog Awards for Screen150, co-hosted three pub quizzes, attended

End of Level 8

2011-12-21T10:20:00.001Z

Further to my last post, here's the completed version of End of Level 8, mixed by Rick. End Of Level 8 by (murmur)

Writing for Music

2011-12-08T21:47:00.005Z

A couple of weeks ago, myself, my more musically talented younger brother, and a regular collaborator, the remarkable Benjamin Judge, got ourselves together and read some experimental music stories to a small but attentive crowd in Salford.Here's a sample of Rick's music from Soundcloud: Slumber by (murmur)Its not what me and Ben wrote stories to, but it gives you a nice flavour of the sort

Writing for Place

2011-11-25T22:46:00.009Z

Last week (my that was a fast week), myself and five other able writing folk took to the shop floor of the Jigsaw clothes shop in the Triangle Shopping Centre, Manchester to perform Re:Tale - a site-specific one-off (maybe) storytelling experience. It went remarkably well, with a good-sized gaggle of eager audience members and a very accomodating bevvy of supportive Jigsaw staff who exercised

Polygon and Flashtag Mcr presents Exhibit C

2011-11-21T11:24:00.004Z

Order in the court.Tomorrow evening the defendants Rick Hartley, Benjamin Judge, Fat Roland, Nick Garrard, Dan Carpenter, and many others will be judged according to their crimes against music and new writing.The defendants will present their final pieces of evidence before the court at The Black Lion in Salford from 7:30pm. A new and experimental form of music and story fusion is expected from

Re:Tale

2011-11-10T12:21:00.003Z

In precisely one week's time, myself and some good chums of mine:Nicola WestJoe DalyDan CarpenterFat Roland&Nick Garrardwill be presenting to you a one-off performance of Re:Tale - a unique, site-specific short story experience. We will all present various unusual stories based on the theme of retail and customer service and such like while you, the dear listener, will be guided around the

Do A Barrel Roll!

2011-11-03T19:22:00.002Z

Do A Barrel Roll! Do A Barrel Roll!(Hint: type 'do a barrel roll')

The Manchester Blog Awards 2011

2011-10-21T20:49:00.010+01:00

So you may have heard I came away from the Manchester Blog Awards on Wednesday night doubly victorious. Screen150 won Best New Blog and Blog of the Year and I was stunned, humbled and just a little bit giddy.The Screen150 project began about this time last year when I was still a film student but found myself not engaging with films in the way such an academic should. I began making an effort to

A short picture poem about book covers

2011-10-11T08:51:00.005+01:00

NB - click the pictures to see them larger. And never judge a book by its cover.Judgedby David Hartley, 2011

Three lovely updates

2011-10-06T20:45:00.001+01:00

I've been quite the busy little squirrel recently, manning the pumps at two jobs while trying to maintain the semblance of a social life and attempting to keep the writer inside me suitably well fed. Of these 3 things the latter often seems to be the hungriest and the least sated and it's now getting to a point where I'll have to book in an official twice-weekly appointment to see what the little

Bits floating around Post-Launch Quickies

2011-09-29T14:21:00.004+01:00

Last night we launched this:Hosted by Fat Roland:@fatroland introducing tonight"s #flashtag event. And the microphone cable. (mp3)Who made this promotional video:We had lots of readers, like Adrian Slatcher...@adrianslatcher reading his tale in Quickies, The New Club (mp3)...Dan Carpenter....Dan from @badlanguagemcr reads his Quckies tale (mp3)And I read my story 'Lights Out':@lonlonranch reads

Bookmakers

2011-09-24T22:48:00.004+01:00

We've only gone and done it.We've only gone and bloody done it.We've done it.Bloody well done it.Me and the Flashtag gang have only bloody gone and bloody well done it.We haz made a book.Thats my hand, the first hand that did ever hold a physical copy of Flashtag001: Quickies Short Stories for Adults. Inside the wonderous dirty and profound witterings of the Flashtag gang and a whole multitude of

Shoes and Booze

2011-09-20T08:41:00.005+01:00

A quick heads up.On Sunday the unstoppable Bad Language team up with the glorious Shoestring Magazine to bring us the first Bad Shoes festival. Manchester can just not stop being a literary hot spot can it?There will be music and literature, literature and music spinning and spanning between Elecktrik and The Dulcimer in Chorlton. It starts at 1pm and runs on into the evening. Me and the Flashtag

Guest RabbitWatch: 168 Days of Rabbit Part 3 by Samantha Bail

2011-09-11T15:24:00.006+01:00