Storyslingers Fictional Worlds Event & networking party 1st June

Storyslingers Fictional Worlds Event & networking party 1^st June 3-5pm (with after party from about 5pm).

with thanks to Maxime Plasse, cartographer, for supplying the map/ image for this poster http://www.cartographersguild.com/members/-+max+--albums-max%27s+maps.html

Storyslingers is putting on a series of mini events on June 1st, culminating in a networking party for creative people. We will be celebrating fictional place and the art of cartography. There will be an informal exhibition of fictional maps created by cartographers from across the world who specialise in the art form known as geofiction: making maps of fictional places. Don’t miss this chance to see some of the best fictional maps in the world, right here in Dorset.

There are three informal events that are open to the public to drop in on any time throughout the afternoon:

3-4pm Fictional Worlds writing workshop. Creating fictional worlds, thinking about their rules and limitations. Open to all levels. 

4-5pm Open Mic reading event. Share your work with other writers and whoever happens to drop by. All stories must be set in a fictional world/ some new spin on reality. Take us somewhere we’ve never been before. Stories should not exceed 7 minutes or 1000 words. Stories of 3-5 minutes are best (600-800 words). We have short attention spans. Extracts from longer works are welcome. In the case of extracts the focus should be on the fictional world - delight us with a new place we wish we could go to if only it really existed.

5-6pm:  Networking party and drop in session. Writers, artists, musicians, filmmakers, cartographers and readers are invited to come along and talk shop. Working on a piece of fiction? Just read the best book ever? Want to talk about it? Come along.  Let’s chat creativity over cakes and wine. 

Also, book swap and stall. If you've ever been handed a world book night book and it's got stuck on your shelves, now is the time to pass it onto someone new. Same goes for any book you have idling that you're happy to pass on. We'll be displaying some of our handmade books too, which will be on sale.  Published writers/ artists are welcome to add their publications/ cards to the stall. 

The announcement of the results of the 2^nd Map Making competition will happen sometime during the day - most likely at 5pm (Results will be published online later in the following week.) The maps will be on display throughout the event.

Tickets are on the door and it'll work by a system of paying what you think it's worth in relation to your bank balance, from £1 upwards. All profits will go towards funding a future Storyslingers event: specifically a (roving?) exhibition of the winning and shortlisted maps entered in the map making competition. 

Come to all or some of the events, pick and choose, drop in and out. Invite your mates along too.

Join the facebook event page:
https://www.facebook.com/events/185097738314189/?context=create

1st June 2013 3pm-6ish

The Rutter Room

Shaftesbury Arts Centre

Bell Street

Dorset

Map Making Competition Results

Yes, it has been a while since we last posted anything, but that doesn't mean we’ve been idling around not doing anything. In fact, it’s been the opposite. We’ve been so snowed under with going places, doings things and generally being awesome that we’ve had no time for the internet and its many distractions. Some people may have been wondering whatever happened with that map making competition we were going on about at the end of summer. The results were announced back in September during Shaftesbury Arts Week, and then on Facebook. For those who were not at Shaftesbury Arts Week or Facebook, here are the results (drum roll please…):

Awarded a slip of paper that read Excellent: PETER JUMP. This map was colourful and gave us a good impression of the locale of one of his superb stories. 

Awarded a slip of paper that read Highly Commended: JAMES BROOMFIELD. His map wasn't finished. We implored him to finish it and re-submit next time, because it showed a lot of promise and good imaginative scope. We also liked that it comprised of two layers, one of normal paper, the other of tracing paper. We like this sort of inventiveness and use of different paper types.  

Awarded a bronze rosette: JOANNE PAUL: Jo’s map was a classical fantasy map that really sparked our imaginations. The place names were brilliant; a particular favourite was The Three Mages. It really intrigued us and made us want to see more of this world. This map displayed some wonderful colouring-in techniques, the likes of which have not been seen by me since GCSE graphic design class.

 

Awarded a silver rosette: DANNY MORISON. The scope and execution of Danny’s map was incredible. His map encompassed an entire fictional galaxy and was probably one of the most original approaches that we’ve seen. Danny is a professional illustrator, and this shows in how accomplished his drawing skills are. We liked the range of environments that were depicted and it certainly sparked our curiosity and imagination. Unique! Imaginative! Splendid! We loved this map.

 

Awarded a GOLD rosette: ROBBIE CUMMING. What we liked about this map was how detailed it was. The idea of the competition was to ignite our imaginations and make us want to find out more about new fictional worlds. Robbie’s map was so packed full of details that we couldn't tear ourselves away. We wanted to know what the places were, who lived there, what are they doing? This map could spark a whole volume of interesting stories.



We will be running another map making competition, most probably to coincide with our 2^nd Birthday party in May 2013. So there you have it, plenty of advance warning this time. We’ll do some more official marketing of the next competition from January 2013.

Shaftesbury Arts Festival was kind of good because we hung out together at a time when we were not at a writing event or group and we could appreciate each other as people rather than writers. This should be a more frequent occurrence  As for the handmade book stall: almost total failure. We sold a couple of things. I think someone stole one of my graphic novels. Generally people don't like to buy original hand made literature, they prefer to ignore it or steal it. 

Other things that we've been doing include: Jennifer K Oliver and I went to about half an hour of an Iain M Banks Book Launch/ talk/ signing in Toppings, Bath. We were meant to be there longer than half an hour, but massive trains delays caused us to spend a disproportionate amount of time on the train compared to time in Bath. We may or may not talk more of this in another blog post. 

Also: Mere Literary Festival. 
Also: Bridport Open Book festival Story Slam.
Also: Robbie's Twitter Cartoons. And probably some other stuff. 

All this to come in future posts. But for now, I have to go and do some work. 

Fiction, Poetry & Music night at Beggar's Banquet

Storyslingers and music cafe Beggar's Banquet teamed up last Thursday to put on a night of stories, poetry and groovy tunes. The gathering wasn't widely pimped, though we ended up with around 17 people in attendance, most of whom were writers, artists or musicians (and those in between who do a bit of everything!).

The venue was cosy and mellow-lit, creating a warm and friendly atmosphere. It was gently buzzing as people started turning up—a lot of readers had only met briefly before, so it was nice to reconnect. We also got to meet a few spouses; now they finally know what we get up to when we're all together. We hope they enjoyed themselves, too!

The universe must have been in balance that night, as we were able to set the playlist as writer-poet-writer-poet. Nine wonderful writers shared their work in the end, reading a varied and vibrant selection. As always with these events, we were excited by and extremely proud of the talent in our local area.

Tish Oakwood reading her superb collection of poems

Sue Ashby also sharing a selection of beautiful rural-themed poems

Me reading my short speculative piece "Ring-Ring" 

(which I posted to my personal blog the other day).

To close the event, our generous host Meru performed a nifty acoustic song about not having anything to sing about. His soft, gravelly tones went down a storm, and we hope he'll sing for us again at future gatherings.

Our line-up:

Peter Jump - who read two short stories.

Tish Oakwood - who read a collection of poems.

James Broomfield - who read a short story.

Elaine Cadogan - who read a collection of poems.

Jennifer Bell - who read a short story.

Sue Ashby - who also read a collection of poems.

Jennifer K. Oliver - who read two short stories.

Juliet Austen - who read a selection of her poems.

John Maynard - who read a short story.

Meru - who sang and played acoustic guitar.

We'd like to thank everyone for coming, especially those who brought material to read. We hope you'll join us again next time! :)

Shaftesbury Arts Festival Literary events

Shaftesbury Arts Festival Sept 5th-9th.
It's a busy week for Storyslingers. Check out the following exciting things that are happening:

I.

MAP MAKING COMPETITION DEADLINE EXTENSION NOTICE:

If you go back a few posts you will see an interesting competition for writers (and vagabonds, comedians, artists and the general public). Here's the link: http://storyslingers.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/storyslingers-launches-its-first-open.html

PLEASE NOTE, THE EMAIL ADDRESS WAS WRONG IN SOME ADVERTS OF THIS COMPETITION. If you sent your map and didn't get an acknowledgement of receipt, please email it to the correct address, which can be found on this blog, here.  Resend by forwarding the original map and message you sent. You have until Thursday 6th at noon to resend. Apologies for this!

Winner(s) will be announced on Saturday, noon at the Arts Centre (see item III.)

Check out the facebook page for inspiration/ procrastination opportunity: http://www.facebook.com/events/341655955921155/

(this is a random map I found from the internet. Thanks internet!) 

II.

PROSE, POETRY, MUSIC EVENING AT BEGGAR'S BANQUET: 

Storyslingers have teamed up with Beggar's Banquet Music Cafe in Shaftesbury and will host an evening of good stories, funky tunes and slick poetry. There will be snacks of fine quality, there will delicious drinks, you can bring some wine of whatever quality you prefer (corkage fees apply!) 

Beggar's Banquet is an amazing place; provider of wholesome veggie foods, player of excellent music (check out all the vinyl for sale in there), host to exciting arts events. http://www.beggarsbanquetmusiccafe.co.uk/

Thursday 6th September, 7:30pm, Beggar's Banquet, Muston's Lane, Shaftesbury, Dorset. Free entry. 

(writers take note of this amazing opportunity: we have one or two reading slots still available. If you're a prose writer or poet, please email Jennifer Bell or Jennifer Oliver to declare your interest. Time guideline of 5 mins/ 800 words.)

http://www.facebook.com/events/263686563750118/

III.

STORYSLINGERS CURIOUS STALL OF HANDMADE LITERATURE

Come to Shaftesbury Arts Centre at about 10am-4pm on Saturday the 8th of Sept, we will have a stall of handmade books, zines, comics, bookmarks, cards, origami, chapbooks and also published works and postcards. We're not sure which room we'll be in yet, but the mystery will only add to your experience as you wend your way around the labyrinth of SAC in search of wondrous treasure (ie: us). 

(a recycled image from last years' arts festival.)

Map making competition winner(s) will be announced on Saturday, at the stall/ display table in the Arts Centre, at noon. All the maps will be on display, along with a display of members' achievements, previous and forthcoming events, information and pictures. 

SAC Arts Festival - Quick Round-Up

Things have been busy for both of us these past couple of weeks, but we wanted to post about the Arts Festival before we move on to newer news.

The festival was booming on the Saturday and a big success for SAC, and the writing group learned a valuable bundle about promotion and presence—things we plan to take with us to the next event. We had a fantastic turnout of loot in the end, as you can see here:

 

We also got to finally meet our sister group, the poetry writers, and even take part in a poetry workshop. I'm not sure if we're ready to start sharing our poems just yet, but it was fascinating trying out some of the processes of transforming prompts and stream-of-consciousness writing into poems. We didn't realise we had it in us!

Next up, we will be showcasing more of our work at the Mere Literary Festival (October 10^th - 16^th 2011). We hope you'll come along and visit us! There will be even more creative writing available in the form of booklets, flyers, bookmarks, and creative writing games. We'll post more about this closer to the time.

Our loot so far...

Just a quick update to show you our loot (so far!) from last night's meeting:

We were all amazed and thrilled with how much stuff we already have to put on show at the arts festival, and we're still in the process of making more booklets, leaflets, and bookmarks, so there'll be even more by the time the weekend lands.

Part of me is enjoying this way too much, and the other part is looking forward to kicking back and catching up on sleep when the festival is over. :)

SAC Arts Festival 2011 – more creative stuff

After Jenny's awesome post about her flyers and story printouts, I thought I'd post about some of my own creative endeavours for the Arts Centre Festival. There's just under a week left and I'll bet the remaining days zoom by. So far I've been sorting out story flyers and booklets, but there's still a lot to do. It's a good thing we'll have some time to set up beforehand!

I'll be showcasing three separate pieces, two of them printed on large postcards (a bit slimmer than the exquisite 300gsm card Jenny's stories are printed on, but still sturdy enough to be satisfying), and a single page, folded booklet for a slightly longer piece that was actually written for one of our very own writing prompts. Here is a little taster:

I'm also planning to make some bookmarks promoting Storyslingers and possibly samples of micro-fiction (a post highlighting what micro-fiction is can be found at my website here). These will be the standard slim card style bookmarks that slot easily between pages. I've got some nice black card, stickers and gold and silver pens to play with. We'll see how they go!

I've also been making cute origami bookmarks that fit neatly over the top corner of the page. These are much easier to manoeuvre as they're small. They'll make great holiday gifts, too.

There's even the possibility of a collaborative activity, if we can tempt visitors to our table to participate, in the form of a giant round-robin story. This is where the first person writes an opening sentence of a story, then the second person picks it up and writes a sentence, then the third person adds a sentence, and so on until you have a full story. Similarly, a game of Consequences could be fun. Maybe we'll do both!

We'll try to take photos at the Arts Festival and post them here, but if you can make it, please do drop by.

Meticulous

We’re hard at work preparing for the arts centre’s festival next weekend. We’ve been making booklets, postcards and bookmarks to showcase our work; some of which will be on sale. I’ve had two of my stories printed at Meticulous Ink, a fine printing and stationary company in Bath. Meticulous Ink specialise in exquisite traditional printing methods, including letterpress. I only needed digital prints this time around, but I’ve been salivating over their letterpress products for quite some time. Storyslingers will definitely be getting some of our work letterpress printed in the future.

My digital prints came beautifully packaged. I felt like a very spoilt child at a birthday party when I unwrapped these goodies. Amazing!

I designed an invitation style flyer to promote our table at the festival, which I got printed at the same time; all three on lovely posh 300mg. I’m thrilled with them. They look fantastic, very professional and slick.

x

Check out Meticulous Ink’s blog: http://meticulousink.blogspot.com/2011/08/change-of-address-cards-liz-kingston.html