It's all been happening!

There has been all sorts going on in this my already quite full life these last few weeks (hence the lack of blogging, sorry but most of these seem to have required pen and paper rather than internet) so it seems only fitting to recap...

Last Thursday the fabulous and very talented Jayne from over at a Novice Novelist came by train (the 4.50 from Paddington  no less) and we hotfooted it down to Oxford Blackwells where author extraordinaire/the crabbit old bat Nicola Morgan was giving a talk on how to get published/write your pitch for your novel (there is a lot more of that kind of advice on her blog here). Jayne writes up the whole thing fabulously here and all I can add is that the workshop was incredibly informative, Nicola was lovely and we managed to drag her out for a drink afterwards (photographic proof of us muchly enjoying the Grande cafe, when in Oxford etc).

I had the Friday off as I wanted to take Jayne to the station & the plan after that was to write but I mostly just sat down to enjoy my friend Ali's second book The Man who Rained, its really good, so good in fact that I'm trying to ration the chapters else I'll speed read it which is glorified skimming and I'm enjoying this book too much to miss any detail (plus look how pretty that and his first novel look on the speculative fiction part of my new bookshelf, indeed!).

Tuesday evening saw me head back to Blackwells (if I'm there enough maybe they will let me move into poets corner?) for the launch of group 2012 the new writing group. The aim is to help with your writing. Having got two novels in first draft (written in the undergraduate years, obviously, when I had time and was doing my creative writing minor) I'm finding it really hard to find the motivation/time to re-write/improve them so the plan was to find some support and some other writers to share my thoughts/time with. I managed to meet some lovely people (quote of the evening: "It's really exciting, like we are the new Inklings. You can be Tolkien" me "Why do I have to be the weird one with elves...", and there was more wine, most excellent) and the next meeting is in a month (by which time I have pledged I will have revisited at least one chapter, gulp). I also managed to find out the dates for this years Oxford Literary Festival at which the author of my favourite novel of all time (An Equal Music - Vikram Seth) will be speaking alongside the literary greats and um Alex James (who is talking about cheese). I'm so excited I may have to take an afternoon off to go and sit in the same room (although they say you should never meet your idols).

Last night was spent at Wood school, trying to finish something I've been working on for a while (I can't really post it on here as I know the person its for is a reader of this blog, ahh the problems) but here is a sneaky peak.

This morning was freezing and my bus didn't turn up (booo) so I was in a pretty cold and bad mood by the time I got to work (after being rescued by one of our lovely neighbours), that was until I found out one of my close work friends James (indeed we used to be desk spouses, until I cruelly moved upstairs) keeps a blog on Dr Who (I'm a massive Who fan & the site is brilliant) and indeed had taken the time to create a pretty epic Sherlock/Dr Who script which you can find here, I also got sent this piece of genius, music students take note!

This year I will be mostly listening to....

Well it may have only just started but 2012 is already looking like a great year for folk music. These are some of the very exciting albums I will be listening to this year
Jim Moray - Skulk

It's accoustic, it has a fox on the cover, what's not to love??? The Moray returns with a fantastic album of new material, all of which is available for your listening pleasure here but please buy the cd or pre order the (hopefully it's happening vinyl because its that good and to quote loreal he's worth it (oh extra fox footage for your pleasure can be found here, I'm talking about Sorrell obviously...)

Mawkin  - Crow

Not to mistaken with the Ralfe band tune of the same name, the Delarre double are back with the additon of Nick (Cookie Monster) Cook and a guy hitting stuff for an entirely new album. If its as good as the single Skymningspolskan / Betsy Likens (which you can listen to here) it should be a scorcher (oh and if you missed any of their previous output its all on the website for a tiny fee too, so hook yourself up!)

Seth Lakeman - Tales from the Barrel House

After the disappointment and lack of tunes of offerings like Hearts and Minds (I would have thrown cabbage but its best not to waste good food) Mr Lakemen returns to his roots (yey) and heads off recording down an disused copper mine to record Tales and it certainly seems like he's mining the tunes again (collective groan) it isn't as good as Kitty Jay but a definite step back in the right direction.

Moss, Moore, Rutter - Moss, Moore, Rutter

Okay technically not released this year but they won the young folk award last year and now being back in the spotlight thanks to Jack Rutters unlikely appearance on ITV's Take Me Out (???). I think I might have heard most of this album thanks to the delights of free musicy listening places but its very very good so this year there will be a concerted effort to find the cd and play it many many times, I recommend you do the same.

Message to Bears - Folding Leaves

Sadly Jerome (who writes all the music for this collection of musicians) has now moved back to Bristol, which means less local gigs for us Oxfordonians. Awesomely however there is a new album of tunes (after getting funding sorted via this site). I've got their last release Departures ad having seen them live quite a few times can confirm that yes they are brilliant, fantastic music to chill out to or watch snow fall, make sure you grab a copy.


And now a couple that are hopefully on the way
Bad Anna - Debut

Uiscedwr split up, I'm devastated, Bad Anna form, I am slightly pacified. Described on their page here as new kind of folk music for our generation, if its got Anna Esslemont playing fiddle it will def be worth a listen

Writings on the Wall - suggestions for a  title welcome!

The idea has been mooted that we attempt a recording, we were going to try a six track until we realised we probably have quite a bit more material than that... Anyway after we play the fringe event in April we should be locking ourselves away and trying to record something. In the meantime however for more informative updates you can like us on Facebook here.

New Year 2012

With Bellowhead uncharacteristicaly not at the Royal Festival Hall we thought we would spend our New Year in Oxfordshire, celbrating with our usual shuffle out onto the grass with the neighbours for sparkly wine and rockets at midnight. These carefully laid plans were however shattered when Jam got invited to his friend Sam's party in Newbury (Sam & Jam went travelling together after college to worldly places lik Japan, this however is Sam in his natural habitat).

We arranged a chicken sitter and soon were having sock off's with the best of them.

 

(that's me on the right in the stars), as well as inpromptu sock showings we played trivial persuit (and lost) and ate and drank many nice things as well as me getting the chance to get to know some of Jam's friends a bit better. (This is Sam & his girlfriend Beccy counting down the moments)

After all that fun there was nothing for it but to go home and sleep for quite a long time. Happy New Year to all the readers of this little corner of the internet, I hope this year makes all your dreams come true.