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Life Fiction in Thailand

I have been invited to run my Life:Fiction course in Thailand this February. Running 5-16 February on the paradisal island of Koh Samed, I'll be joining my fellow Skyros tutors, Michael Eales (Mindfulness Meditation) and Ari Badaines (Choose Life at Any Risk) and for what promises to be an inspiring and life-enhancing time. For more information see the Skyros Website.

The Sky's the Limit - Bard of Bath appears at Bath Literature Festival

I'm appearing in a newly-commissioned show to be premiered at the Bath Literature Festival 2012 with my fellow members of Fire Springs. On 11th March at the recently reopened Holburne Museum we'll be performing our show: Forgotten Lives, Inspiring Stories III: Memory, History, Legend. Here's the blurb:
take a trip back through time to meet, in person, an astonishing assembly of the city’s forgotten and half-remembered denizens. Adventurers and inventors, kings and clerics, writers and visionaries, they’ll all be here to tell their own true stories – brought back to life by Bath’s own storytelling company, Fire Springs, in this specially commissioned performance. I'll also be running a series of creative writing workshops for Sky Arts Den. Come and have a go, or just pop by to say hello.

Desert Brothers bring Midnight Sun to Stroud

On the longest night of the year my dear friend Jay Ramsay and I are going to be launching our revamped collections (Places of Truth: journeys into sacred wilderness; & The Immanent Moment respectively) at a winter solstice celebration in Stroud. Both collections feature sequences of poems inspired by the deserts of Egypt (in 2010 Jay was a guest of the Makhad Trust and I was Writer-in-Residence in El Gouna). Midnight Sun - a Garden of Awen seasonal celebration - will feature Poetry, Storytelling, Music and Dance from the likes Adam Horovitz, Anthony Nanson, Gabriel Bradford Millar, Rob and Jehanne Mehta and others. A mandala of light will be created by Maria Sophia Rose and there'll be a chance to perform a poem on a wintery theme. The event takes place at Lansdown Hall, Stroud. Guests will be offered mulled wine and mince pie.

See Diary.

My latest book, Turning the Wheel, is due out from O Books in November. There is a launch event planned in Stroud at Five Valleys Foyer (ex-The British School) on November 25th. After that I plan to be out and about on my Triumph Legend, promoting the book. If you have a group who would be interested in a talk by the Bard on a Bike, get in touch.

Turning the Wheel tour - dates confirmed so far ...

2011
25 Nov - Five Valleys Foyer, Stroud
27 Nov - Wessex Research Group, Bogan House, Totnes
1 Dec - Crown & Sceptre, Horns Rd, Stroud
3 Dec - Isbourne Holistic Centre, Cheltenham
9 Dec - The Bear, Holwell
10 Dec - Cat & Cauldron, Glastonbury
15 Dec - Bath Waterstones, 10-2pm
21 Dec - Midnight Sun, Lansdown Hall, Stroud

2012
5 Jan - Bonn Central Library, Germany
28 Jan - Swindon Brunel Plaza, Waterstones, 10-2pm
28 Feb - Northampton Waterstones, 10-2pm
1 Mar - George Hotel, Bridport
26 Mar - Words and Ears, Bradford-on-Avon
29 Mar - New Brewery Arts, Cirencester
21 April - PFNE Conference, York
28 April - Trowbridge Waterstones
7 May - Hawkwood Open Day

More to be added ... Details to be added. What this space!

Folk Tale-Hunter

I've been commissioned to write two collections of folk tales for The History Press - beginning with Oxfordshire Folk Tales. I'll be out and about in the county hunting for good tales to include - I'm especially interested in modern folk tales set in the area. Get in touch if you know any!

Fantasy Works

I've just won a contract to write a book on fantasy and the power of the imagination with Compass Books (an imprint of O Books). This is a genre I am very familiar with, having written my five-volume fantasy series, The Windsmith Elegy, the final part of which is due out next year from Roundfire Books (see above). Desiring Dragons is due to be published December 2012.

Italian Storytellers of the Future

In April it was my pleasure to spend 10 days running storytelling workshops (for the 3rd year running) in Udine, NE Italy. Thank you for inviting me back Liceo Marinelli! Once again I was overwhelmed with the hospitality and beauty of the place and its people.

Watch this space for more news...