As if September wasn’t memorable enough (my first ever one woman show in St Andrews) October kicked off with my biggest ever audience (140!) in the Little Big Top at Cheltenham Literature Festival – yes that’s it up there with the lovely swaggy roof and coloured lights – where I was one of the Stroud Short Stories Greatest hits line-up.
Since I now know Silver Harvest almost by heart and had already met everyone else in the SSS group, on the night it was less nerve-racking than I expected.
It was also fun to be part of a bigger organisation where the admin and set-up jobs (all done by one very busy person in Strou!)d are undertaken by a small army of meeter-greeters, technicians, bar-people and ticket-handlers.
You can see more photos of my fellow swans here, or watch the video of my moment in the sun on this page.
The end of the month saw the Bristol Literature Festival kicking off. This is a bit of a counter-culture approach to literature – or at least counter-celebrity-culture. Instead of the usual array of chefs, journalists and politicians, it’s a chance for local writers to strut their stuff or air their knowledge. Our writing group was revving up for a night of sci-fi and fantasy where I had the job of rounding up writing, writers and, hopefully, an audience. Along the way and much to my surprise I found myself on Radio Bristol giving a plug for writing generally as well as our event. You can probably still hear it (I think this is the one) if you really want to, Aim for 1hr 40 mins in, i.e. the last slot of the day. I’m informed I sounded calmer than I felt, so that’s all right, then.
Phew! – this was all getting a bit hectic, and on Saturday night I was on the stage again with a completely new story and a completely new audience (thanks to a few ‘kent faces’ for calming me down!) at Stokes Croft Writers Talking Tales event. That was a really fun evening with live music from The Bookshop Band, a group of community poets, and some great writers I’d heard at other events in and around Bristol. I’m inordinately proud to have added my first ever TT badge to my growing badge collection while proving I have written more than one story this year!
So that was nearly it! Apart from our own Twilight Zone which I thoroughly enjoyed, particularly as I could just sit back and enjoy the show.
You can guess what I’m planning next – a bit of writerly R&R, or possibly even some writing.
*Photo of BBC Bristol CC license
Ali Bacon / Books and Other Things 