Let’s get this show back on the road.

So… it’s been a while. 

A long while, to be honest.

I have had a bit of an up and down year since my last post. But I won’t get into that.

Writing, yes, that thing. I have started bringing myself back into performing poetry again. I was asked to be a part of Anerki at The Font in Leicester when I was down there for UniSlam. It was my first poetry performance in over 18 months, and you could tell. I was a bit all over the place and out of rhythm. I felt like I disappointed after being asked to perform. But they were absolutely lovely and was a great environment, so hopefully I’ll be asked back in the future (and I can do a better effort).

It wasn’t awful, by any means, but it’s hard when you’re a writer and performer and you put in a bad performance. But, if anything, it inspired me to keep going to spoken word nights and writing, and, thankfully, I have finally gotten round to visiting a local spoken word, poetry, and music night in Carlisle. It’s called Speakeasy and I got introduced to it by Nick Pemberton, who runs the night and the poetry breakfast at the Carlisle Borderlines Festival. It’s at a lovely café called Foxes, and it was a great, relaxing night.

It’s on monthly, and I absolutely loved it. I was a lot stronger and only performed a couple of poems that time. I stuck to older work over new ones, so I could build up confidence and get back on track. I intend to go back with others and rework poems, and get back into performing properly. Watch this space.

I’m going to get back into this, too. It’s been too long and blogging is always fun. So feel free to ask me questions, give me ideas for my blog, or just keep in touch.

That is all for now, see you guys soon.

Corey x

BBC Radio Leicester Link

The link to the radio interview is now up on iPlayer, if you want to have a listen to us talking about poetry, UniSlam, spoken word nights in Leicester, and hear some poetry, skip to 2h40m!

Feel free to leave a comment or question!

http://bbc.in/1SqQYrb

BBC Radio Leicester Interview

Just a short update… Earlier today Claire and I were interviewed by Monica Winfield on BBC Radio Leicester as part of the Saturday breakfast show!

It was really fun (despite the early start), and we were talking about UniSlam, the writing community in Leicester, and spoken word nights. I’ll be posting a link later on so people can have a listen!

In regards to UniSlam, it’s being held at the University of Leicester tomorrow, people can come down to the preliminary rounds and semi finals for free, but the grand finals cost £5 on the door. I’m the coach for the team, so I won’t be performing, but the amount of talent in the team is actually incredible. For now, though, all we can do is practice and get ready for the big day tomorrow.

I’ll be posting updates on my twitter handle @thefakecoreyb and maybe on here too, so keep posted!

Happy New Year! 2016 Resolutions and saying goodbye to 2015.

The end of the year is finally upon us. 2015 has been a mixed year for the world, with terrorist attacks, Donald Trump, and a majority Conservative government putting a significant dampener on the whole thing.

For myself, it’s been pretty fun. I’ve graduated university with a 2:1 grade, had a load of fun adventures with people, and trying to settle into adult life for the first time. It’s been a good build-up, but I think there’s a long way to go, and that’s why I’m going to have some New Years resolutions, just to keep me in line and for something to work towards. These are in no particular order, but they shall be a list with explanations.

1. Become vegetarian.
   This year, I’ve been gradually working towards vegetarianism, cutting meat out of my diet and either finding alternatives to replace it or having meals without any meat replacements. I’ve not cut it out completely yet, but by December 31st, 2016, I would like to be a full vegetarian. It’s because of a few reasons, mainly moral, but I won’t go into it.
2. Move back to Leicester.
   Of course this had to make it, it’s my home from home, nearby a large portion of my friends, and the city I have spent the last three years, of which I love.
3. Get a career-based job in a field I want to work in or begin a Masters degree in journalism.
   This is a bit vague and indecisive simply to be realistic. I would rather save up some money and get work in an English-based field before going back into education, just to get some professional experience on top of work experience and my education.
4. Build up my journalism portfolio.
   Already under way with The Mixed Tape, but I am going to be getting heavily involved with Vulture Hound now that my hours are cut down again at work. I want to really get my journalist portfolio full of articles and getting my name out there.
5. Travel to at least one different country.
   Seeing that I’ve not left the UK since 2011, I think it’s about time I visit somewhere different. It doesn’t matter where, as long as I travel to a different country, I’m happy.
6. Lose some weight.
   This has been a constant one for the last few years, to little success. But I am wanting to get some weight lost purely for my health, and just feel a bit fitter and better about myself again.
7. Improve my mental health.
   This is something new that I’ve not often spoken about before. For roughly 6-7 years, I’ve suffered from depression. For the first time in my life I’ve went beyond the basic counselling session and I’m currently going through CBT, or cognitive behavioural therapy, to help directly target my depression and help my brain function differently. I’m also taking anti-depressants alongside therapy, hoping that they will aid me too. Here’s to a (hopefully) happier 2016!
8. Get some creative writing published.
   I’d absolutely love to get some poetry or a short story published in the near future. I’m sure I’ll be keeping you informed on here!
9. Get some significant work on my novel done.
   The plan is there, and I’m a few thousand words in, but I’ve not been able to write as much, recently. I’m planning to get at least half of my novel written this year. This is here to make sure I do…
10. Read more books.
    This is an important one. The ratio of books I own to books I’ve read is shockingly disproportionate. If there’s anything I need to do, it’s to get a lot of them into my “Read” pile, and out of my monstrous “To Be Read” pile.

So, that’s my 10. What resolutions do you have in mind? Feel free to comment them on my post! I hope you all have a Happy New Year!

– Corey

Writing projects in Cumbria, and the Borderlines Festival, Carlisle.

The books I bought at Borderlines Festival, Carlisle.

It’s been a while since my last blog post, my utmost apologies. I’ve been going through the motions of getting settled in Cumbria and joining the working world, so my blog posts have taken more of a hit than first expected.

In regards to writing, I am now writing for an online music journalism website called The Mixed Tape, which is very exciting! I’ve already reviewed a couple of things on there, so feel free to have a look to try and find me!

My creative writing projects have mainly been writing little bits when I can, but nothing huge. I’ve made a bit of progress with a novel idea thanks to a train journey last week, but other than that it’s mainly been poetry or small chunks of prose. It’s a habit I’m going to have to get back into, which is something I didn’t really want to do as a writer.

One fun thing I’ve done this month, however, was visit Carlisle for the Borderlines Festival on the 5th of September! I started the day at a Poetry Breakfast hosted by Malcolm Carson and John Lucas. It was a nice start to the day, sipping a cup of coffee surrounded by fellow poets. I even performed a couple of poems myself! It wasn’t the best place for it, however, because the Tullie House cafe had Museum guests enjoying a breakfast and having light conversation in the same room as the event. It would have been better in a smaller coffee shop that could let your voice carry a bit better, and even possibly have a microphone and speakers. It was still fun and I left with (another) poetry book for my book collection by John Lucas.

The next event was a lot more concerned with providing a guide for writers, as Marian Veevers (whose pen name is Anna Dean), where we looked at using local record offices for inspirations to crime novels. It was a lot of fun (after a few tech issues!) and the tasks were really interesting and insightful. Definitely something for me to consider when novel writing!

After lunch, I sat down to a talk by Tom Harper and Simon Toyne, who were talking about their latest novels (Black River and Solomon Creed, respectively) and how to write thrillers (without becoming Dan Brown). It was definitely my favourite event of the day, as they discussed fun stories, how to edit with fellow writers, the idea of using a location vs creating a location, and much more. I, again, left the event with a book. A signed first edition of Solomon Creed with some really lovely black trimmed pages. Definitely something I’m looking forward to reading!

The last event was listening to a book reading and talk by Katherine Norbury, who has recently released The Fish Ladder, which is part travelogue, part memoir, and was an interesting change in content from the other events.

The only problem, now, is that I have to wait until next year for the Borderlines festival to come back around (unless I go off on adventures to other reading and literary festivals in the future), but as a Borderlines Festival virgin, I was very much impressed.

I’ll be posting some updates about my writing in the near future, as well as typical rants and comment pieces more than likely working themselves onto here, too.

States of Independence Review – De Montfort University, 14th March, 2015.

Logo owned by States Of Independence

On Saturday, I went along to the annual States Of Independence book festival in Leicester, hosted by the Leicester Centre for Creative Writing and Five Leaves Bookstore from Nottingham.

I went to the festival last year and it was a lovely day, but this year was extra special, the official launch of the novelette I co-wrote, Going Nowhere, and I was selling it at the festival along with fellow students’ work.

The day got off to a great start, the official launch of the publications. This featured readings or summaries of each book, and a chance to sell our books for the first time, which was very exciting! Unfortunately, this meant that I have to miss out on a talk about Leicester murders, but I’m glad I had the opportunity to go up with my co-authors, Charlotte and Thom, and read extracts from the book we worked so hard towards.

Photograph by Ambrose Musiyiwa – CivicLeicester

The next event I went to was The Speculators – A Model for Tea Drinking and Writing. The name pretty much sold it to me. It was an interesting talk, with conversations about the Leicester based writing group and how they came to be, as well as conversations about Fantasy and Sci-fi, which were also interesting. It wasn’t what I expected, but that isn’t a bad thing! I also want to apologise to the people at WORD! for missing their talk, I’m sure it was a lot of fun, as it always is!

Next up was Rod Duncan’s Steampunk Safari, which was probably my favourite event of the day. He ran through lots of different aspects to Steampunk culture, from video gaming, to cosplay, to Steampunk literature! (Though the last one was expected, given his Phillip K. Dick award nominated Steampunk book, The Bullet Catcher’s Daughter.)
The talk was very interesting and Rod covered a lot of ground (impressive for 40 minutes…), and definitely opened my eyes a lot more to Steampunk. The event ended with a delightful extract from Rod’s book, before answering a few questions from the audience.

Photograph by Ambrose Musiyiwa – CivicLeicester

Torn between a talk on Doctor Who and the future of future-fic, I decided to go with the latter, and saw Alex Davis cover the tricky subject of what’s going to happen to dystopian, fantasy, and sci-fi novels in the future, and, potentially, all novels in the future. This resulted in a great discussion between the crowd and Alex, the man who runs Boo Books in Derby, and was a very thought-provoking and interesting talk, especially to those who are writers and readers of future-fic, such as myself.

Photograph by Ambrose Musiyiwa – CivicLeicester

Last but not least, we have the delightful East Midlands Book Awards Shortlist! A pretty much packed lecture theatre watched over glasses (okay, plastic cups) of wine as the nominees were announced, followed by a short reading from each of their books. To my surprise, one of my current course tutors, Rod Duncan, was announced in the shortlist with The Bullet Catcher’s Daughter! Even though this resulted in hearing the same passage from the book that we heard at Steampunk Safari, it was great to see that he was a contender! Another nominee which was a surprise for my friend was Kim Slater, with her book, Smart! Both are great contenders for the book, so I wish them both the best of luck!

Photograph by Ambrose Musiyiwa – CivicLeicester

Then it goes on to the book stalls at the festival. As usual, the festival was filled with tables full of books all around the ground floor of DMU’s Clephan building. It was a beautiful sight for readers, not so much for the bank accounts of said readers. I started out by buying other publications by fellow students. These were Let Me Explain by Graeme Tait and Adam Womersley, The Other Half of Me by Jennifer Masters, A Citizens’ Guide to Lungsod by Maw (Matt Watts), Jamp (James Parnell), and Suzwo (Suzi Woolley), and The Nemophilist by M. Haggerty-Wood and Gryphon Moffat! I will comment and cover their books on a separate post some other time.

Third Year DMU Students’ publications

Next book I bought was After The Fall, which is an anthology of short stories about what would happen if technology failed us, and the effects it had on the world. This is an anthology by Boo Books, and it features work by Adam Roberts, Allen Ashley, Mike Chinn, Caren Gussoff, and more.

Boo Books anthology, After The Fall

After that, I got Kim Slater’s book, Smart, after the shortlist was announced, and got it signed by the author. It’s the story of a teenager with learning difficulties who finds a body of a homeless man, who then decides to investigate when the police don’t care. It has been compared to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, and looks like a fantastic read.

Smart and Incognitum definitely win my choice of best cover designs!

Then it comes to the poetry books. The first purchase was Incognitum by Aubrie Marrin. What first attracted me to the book is its absolutely beautiful cover. The poetic content inside was just as fantastic, too. I am very excited to read through it.

The next few poetry books were all one large purchase. Nine Arches Press had a 3 for 2 sale, so I kinda did that. Extra poetry books (or just books in general) are a great way to get me to buy things

The first book I picked up was Earth Records by Alistair Noon. It looks at place, and, like the title suggests, has content which covers most of the world with a turn of the page. The next was Issue 14 of Under The Radar. I’ve wanted to buy previous issues of this anthology but never got around to doing so, so it was good to finally get a copy. The third book (that I was also looking at before Earth Records) is After the Goldrush by Peter Carpenter. Just flicking through it, I found some great poetry, and was definitely worth getting.

Nine Arches Press’ poetry books!

Overall, States of Independence was a fantastic (yet costly) day for me. As usual, it delivered a large amount of culture and book related fun right on my doorstep, bringing the East Midlands writing community together for an entire day of talks, book launches, shortlist announcements, and more. The only problem is we have to wait until next year to do it all over again.

Photograph by Ambrose Musiyiwa – CivicLeicester

Going Nowhere is finished!

My publication project, Going Nowhere, is now 100% finished and printed in its first edition! I’m now a published (even if only self-published) author!

The deadline is later today for hand in, and we’re looking to sell the unreserved copies (if you wish to reserve, get in touch) at States of Independence on March 14!

The price of the book is £5 per copy!

So glad to have it finished and the finished version in my hands. It’s a fantastic thing to experience, putting in hours and hours of writing and editing to get a finished project like this.

I just want to say thanks one last time to Thom and Charlotte for working with me on this project. We’ve achieved something awesome and I hope you’re as proud as I am!

CB

Going Nowhere is going somewhere.

I’m just making a small post to talk about my upcoming joint project, Going Nowhere.

It’s part of my publication with my Creative Writing course, and we should be able to make an announcement soon. But it’s looking really promising and I’ve absolutely loved working with Thom and Charlotte, and the project, despite having problems come up along the way, is most certainly my favourite work to date.

It’s a novelette written in the haibun form (a prose and poetry combination).

It focuses on the lives of three creative writing graduates 15 years after they have graduated and entered the real world.

Robert Francis (my character), Louisa Westerfield (Charlotte’s character), and Jim (Thom’s character, which we never gave a surname… I’m not sure why) have all got themselves stuck in a rut. Jim is an unhappy teacher, surrounded by pupils that don’t care about anything, Robert is a famous adult fiction writer (and a published crime fiction writer), miserable with his fame and broken by his desire of being a serious novelist, and Louisa is still living a broken life after everything she worked towards was stolen by an old friend.

After a university reunion takes an unfortunate turn, the three characters meet up for the first time in over a decade and come up with a plan, a plan that will take them on a trip to the other side of the world, pushing their friendship to its limits.

More will be announced in due time, plus information on where to buy it and cover art etc!

Thanks for reading.

CB