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31/8/2013 Events! Advance warning... One of Matt ArtPix's brand new collages, 1930s cinema. One of my favourites! Matt ArtPix and Arcane Publishing will be back on the road over the next two weeks, with two great events! Matt has been hard at work on some brand new designs - and they are all rather wonderful: check out his informative blogs about his glamorous 1930s Cinema, heady Topsy-turvy tens, iconic Beatles collage, and fascinating Classic Cinema Spanish posters. Don't forget: all of Matt's work is made from his very own antique and vintage collection, nothing has been nicked off the internet! It's a real labour of love... Arcane Publishing will be there with copies of I Am a Muse and great second-hand books! I have been hand-picking fabulous stuff over the past month, and I cannot wait to display them. First up will be a 1940s family day at the Mill Race Garden Centre in Colchester next Sunday 8th September (weather permitting): a mixture of Military from the 1940’s along with swing dancing, French Resistance, a bombed out Café in Paris and also the Home Guard in a World War 2 Pill Box. BBQ, refreshments, Boating on River Colne. Then on September 15th, it will be the big one - we are really excited! Nelson events' Alexandra Palace Antiques Collectors, 20th Century & Art Deco Fair - now with a pop-up Vintage Fair!   See you there!
29/8/2013 Ilfracombe (continued)Ah... After having waffled on about Ilfracombe on my blog HERE, HERE and HERE, I was rather pleased to see an article about the town published in the Evening Standard yesterday. THE FULL ARTICLE HERE. 
28/8/2013 What a huge manuscript you have... Kerouac and his On The Road manuscript. Work delays mean that I can get on with the book, so I am making the most of it. I have just reached 130,000 in the first draft of The Book of Thoth, and it's not finished yet. This is far too much and the amount of editing that will be required at second draft is gargantuan. Photo taken from HERE Incidentally, The Book of Thoth of legend is supposed to be a roll. I am getting to a(nother) crucial moment in my story involving The Book!  26/8/2013 A writer's house...In a country whose new obsession seems to be covering as much of its surface as possible with ugly, badly built, poky, soul-destroying rabbit hutches, there is a surprising amount of perfectly good (some amazing) houses that have been abandoned to the elements. I am quite taken with Langleigh cottage in Langleigh Lane, Ilfracombe. It would be the perfect writing retreat for me... It's on the way to the Torrs, in a lovely secluded location overlooking the small town. It's not for sale, nobody lives in it, and I WANT IT. I don't really have the money to buy it, but I'm sure we could come to an arrangement (I am being serious, here)... I could turn it into a cheap but comfy writers' retreat! If anyone reads this and knows anything about it, please do contact me. I'd love to know if I could get my hands on it! The White House, which I had spotted on the Woolacombe seafront earlier this year is still looking forlorn and abandoned, by the way...  It's got a small conservatory!  Perfectly formed...  The roof! Matt ArtPix has done a little blog about our stay in Ilfracombe, go and have a look, his pictures are wonderful... Beware, blog may contain seals! Now here's Woolecombe beach at two different times of the year...  During our visit in January...  Last week (and quite late in the afternoon, so it was not peak time!) 25/8/2013 Now reading...I am reading three books at the same time! One is almost finished, I am in the middle of the second one and just starting the third one!    25/8/2013 More great finds!During my stay in Devon, I have found some great books for the second-hand books section of Arcane Publishing... More details HERE.  A few events coming soon, and Matt ArtPix and I are working hard getting ready for them!
Do check the Arcane Publishing events page for more information! 22/8/2013 Hirst TownSo what do you do if you are the richest artist - read "rather talentless self-publicist trying his best to cash in on his pseudo-controversial reputation" - in Britain with your heydays firmly behind you but a bulging bank account (or two?)? You buy yourself a town. Or at least, this is what it's starting to feel like with Damien Hirst and Ilfracombe, in North Devon. I wrote about the quite horrid Verity in a previous blog; Hirst has also owned a restaurant on Quay Road, Number 11, The Quay, since 2000. Now, he has got his hands on no less than four properties in the harbour (the lovely Driftwood gallery, the first in a series of art galleries to open under the same name in the South West, is having to relocate somewhere else in town), and is also planning a - yes, of course, controversial! - housing estate in the fields opposite the Tesco supermarket (more on this HERE). It looks like councillors have been dragging their feet, but don't fret, Hirst will triumph in the end. Money - and celebrity - talks, and Ilfracombe has been in dire need of regeneration since the railway was scrapped in 1970. True, Hirst could be seen as some kind of "saviour", although things are not as simple as it seems (see HERE for an interesting comment on the situation). Most certainly, something seems to be happening: art galleries are popping up everywhere around the town, and the pub chain Wetherspoon is building a - completely inappropriate - "futuristic" establishment (they have pulled down the wonderful old hotel that used to stand there!).  The plan for the brand new Wetherspoon pub in Ilfracombe. On the up side, one of the new galleries is located on the high street and is definitely worth a visit: the Jessica Dove gallery (a good write-up about the gallery can be found HERE). Set up by a former artist and art teacher who was born in the town before going to live and work in London, the gallery is bright and packed full of very interesting works. I particularly loved the sculptures by Jessica's husband, Stanley Dove, and my new favourite sculptor, Philip Wakeham - see his work on his Beautiful If Oblique website. His sculptures are simply stunning; they have a delicate, mythical, haunting quality. Perfect inspiration for a novel!  Dove Girl Fragment, Philip Wakeham, 2012.  Flying Not Dreaming, Philip Wakeham.  Girl With The Shadows, Philip Wakeham, 2013. More on Ilfracombe and North Devon in the forthcoming days.
Now is time to get back into things after a few days away! 16/8/2013 A short break... Tomorrow, my favourite designer and I are off to Devon for a short family visit. We do need a blast of fresh air!
I have my walking boots, The Book of Thoth manuscript as well as two books to read... The weather is extremely changeable over there so you need to be prepared! No blog until we come back... 15/8/2013 The London Book Fair I have never been to The London Book Fair, even when I worked full-time in educational publishing.
I have decided that I will be going next year (I'm saving the entrance fee!) as a visitor, author and (very) small publisher, with my ears and eyes open. It's high time I took that publishing business seriously! I am hoping that 2014 will bring some interesting and exciting developments for Arcane Publishing (not least the publication of our second book!)... |
AuthorI think therefore I write. Archives
August 2024
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