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Story to be published by First Edition magazine

My short story Mangled is to be included in the next issue of First Edition. This was my first submission to the magazine. It took almost as long to write my baby-biog to accompany the story as it did to write the fiction.

Issue 10 will be in the shops in the middle of December, carrying my dark tale for the dark nights.

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Live reading at Waterstone's for radio play

Total Theatre Workshop presented a live reading of my radio play The Mayor and the Monkey at Waterstone's Book Shop, Slough, in September. Packed between the book shelves in front of the coffee area, the audience heard the theatre group read, with sound effects, four radio plays featuring aspects of Slough.

One listener commended the script of The Mayor and the Monkey and its evocative rendition by Total Theatre Workshop, saying: "This is a play I will always remember."

The image shows three of the cast following the reading.

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Website upgraded as improved catalogue of writing

On the left is how the previous version appeared. This update is to improve the site as my writing catalogue, not just a presentation make-over. The content now includes a good deal more of my work with a variety of ways to access the items.

Along with greatly expanding the catalogue of work and projects, use of PDF files and pop-ups has enabled me to put up more samples of my writing.

To make the site more presentable and useable, I have coded a little Javascript and used the easy facilities of my Mac - a result of winning the BCS story competition.

The embellishments include: pseudo-random images on page loading, slide-shows, pop-ups, simple sidebars, trail-following navigation (see previous paragraph!), indices on pages, navigation by universal top bar and local button.

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Novel 'Love Locked' regenerated for the credit crunch

The latest revision of my novel Love Locked is now available. This sees the restoration of the original colour and character in the work following a too severe previous edit.

The reinstatement of historical references to the period of the story allows the themes to show more obviously. For example, the characters are vociferous about the catastrophe to their lives caused by the bursting of the South Sea Bubble, better showing the analogy with the present credit crunch.

The illustration is The South Sea Scheme by William Hogarth.

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Fresh After Fifty last article published

After two years I decided to end my regular article for the Slough Observer, running under the series title Fresh After Fifty.

It certainly went out on a high, featuring Paul Screen (centre in image) for the final article. He decided to mark his 50th birthday by climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.

There was high praise from the Slough Observer:
I'd like to say thanks as well, it's all too rare these days to read the well-written clean copy you have always supplied.

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Story 'Physics Frolics' highlights reader duality

This short story concerns two delivery men after making their drop-off in Brighton. They are there, behaving the way they do mingling polari with quantum physics, in response to the story competition theme.

This was to interpret a quote from Paradise Lost by John Milton:
"Subtle he needs must be, who could seduce Angels".

Judges' and readers' comments ranged from "seductive, crude and X-rated" through "lively dialogue" to "the sex was well handled".

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Radio play 'The Mayor and the Monkey' gets reading

This radio play takes the folklore of the Slough village of Chalvey and adds a fiction of fertility rites round the young Whitsun Princess to ensure the prosperity of the villagers.

First performed as a radio-reading by Total Theatre Workshop Compnay.

The image shows the stab monk mannequin in Slough Museum.

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Story 'Hair-brained Notions' about the death of the people's mistress

The sudden death at only 28 years, in 1450, of Charles VII's mistress, low-born Agnès Sorel, is investigated by a young English chromatographer. His controversial findings are suppressed and covered-up by the establishment. They are believed by Jeanette, one ofles gens du communwho is a server at his favourite café.

Judge Hester Davenport commented: "An ingenious and dramatic tale, well told, with sly parallels to Princess Diana's death."

The image shows Fouquet's painting entitled The Madonna, for which Agnes Sorel is reputed to have been the model.

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Judging the Townswomen's Guilds poetry competition

I and three fellow writers were asked to judge the poetry section of the `Smalley Plattern Event for the local Federation of Townswomen's Guilds. Poems were on the theme of 'Harvest' with a maximum of 25 lines, presented on a single sheet of A4 paper.

The judging was tricky, having only 11:00am until 13:00pm to read and evaluate all the displayed poems. Conferring and agreeing the winners took place over a hurried lunch. The entrants had been expecting written feedback, but this was given orally.

The image shows the judges with the entries (from left) Kathleen Adkins, Roy Cecil, Terry Adlam, William Campbell.

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Festival play 'Relief' published by Lazy Bee

Loosely based on a true story, the play features two women who drive clothing, food and medical supplies to a women's mental hospital in a destitute country.

The torments of their journey raise questions for themselves and their cause.

The play is published by Lazy Bee Scripts. Visit the Lazy Bee summary from where you can get to the on-line version of the text.

The characters and sequence of dramas in the play are fictional and this photo is a composition for the website.

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National story competition win

My story Computer Dating was chosen as the winner of the British Computer Society (BCS) WriteIT short story competition by cult fantasy fiction novelist Jasper Fforde. He is pictured (left in photo) during the prize-giving at the University of Bath, Swindon Oakfield Campus.

My winning story was published in the BCS's magazine ITNow (Nov 2007) and is published in PDF format on the BCS website.

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Fresh After Fifty newspaper column

The monthly column in the Slough Observer features interviews with Slough residents who have taken on a new activity since their 50th birthday.

The aim of the column is to promote and spread awareness of the active lives of older members of the community. The articles are sponsored by Age Concern with Slough Older People's Forum, with funding from Slough Social Fund.

The image shows the first interviewee, Mary Parris.

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Kennet Navigation article

An article relating the troubled first decades of the Kennet Navigation (now part of the Kennet & Avon canal) was published in the best-selling UK waterways magazine, Waterways World.

Troubles Along the Kennet came out of research for my novel Love Locked. It is a romantic drama set in the 1720s following the inaugural barge journey along the new waterway so violently despised by the citizens of Reading.

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Poem 'Family Men' wins competition

Published poet Tony Turner awarded first place to my poem Family Men in the SW Poetry Competition. The poem compares males over three generations of my family: the variations on their given name 'William' and their characters.

In making the award, the judge commented on the poem's "well-drawn pen pictures, strong images and conciseness of language."

The image shows one featured family man, my grandfather Our Will.

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Another best actress award for 'Guernica Goodbye'

Hilary Harvey of Seesaw Productions won the Best Actress Award for her portrayal of Solana in Guernica Goodbye.

The Seesaw production was competing in the Pembrokeshire Drama Festival held at the Torch Theatre, Milford Haven.

Pictured with myself and Hilary is Ken Harvey, who directed the piece.

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Articles on electronically running a writing competition

Based on personal experience of organising and administering a short story competition, along with sheets of optimism, my first article for Writers News listed ten tips for administering a short story competition entirely electronically.

A second article with ten tips about the reality of running such competitions was published in Writing Magazine.

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Chaucer adaptation 'Cecilia' splits drama group

This work is a naughty, contemporary adaptation of the Second Nun's Tale from The Canterbury Tales. Cecilia, a Christian martyr, is here a martyr for hedonistic feminism. The format is mime clarified by occasional lines of rhyming pentameter coaxed from Chaucer.

The script did not reach stage performance due to "artistic differences" between the director, the lead actress, the producer and the company.

The image shows St Cecilia's tomb in Albi Cathedral, France.

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Community glasswork in Slough building

The giant five-metre high glass panel installed in Landmark Place, Slough, was a collaboration with architectural glass artist Martin Donlin.

Included in the work are words and phrases from Slough residents that describe Slough. I collected, edited and arranged the words and phrases for inclusion in the glasswork. Part of the concept was to include translation into the four major languages, but this was scuppered by political positioning.

The work was commissioned by Slough Borough Council.

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