Only For The Fearless

Not sure how to embed this chilling video, so I'll just invite you to follow this link ...

... but only if you're brave enough.

Autumn Sunsets

I'm away to London this weekend, so I leave you with some views of autumnal sunsets from my roof at home, looking up the Tay towards the Rail Bridge.

And, if you wish, you can listen to a Ravi Sankar evening raga here - it's no hyperbole to call him the master, is it.

No Need to Pack My Pitchfork, Then

Okay, I'm an idiot.  I'm going to be taking part in the final 26 Pairs of Eyes event at the Foundling Museum in London next weekend.  It's part of the Bloomsbury Festival.  It's titled 26 Pairs of Eyes Torchlit Performance.  I'm really looking forward to it.  And I had this really clear picture of it in my mind ...

(attribution: Mike Pennington)

But of course it isn't going to be outdoors - it isn't going to be a procession, even though that's how the word performance entered my brain - it's going to be indoors, in a museum packed with irreplaceable artefacts and paintings and wooden floors and wooden staircases, with members of the public and writers trying to read from flammable pieces of paper in the dark.  And yet, still, I was surprised when the email about logistics for the event arrived and included these words:

"What to bring:  A hand-held battery torch."

Also, "Electric candles/tea lights will be dotted about the museum so the setting won't be completely pitch black. There'll also be floor lighting and spots illuminating our 26 objects (or at least those with a writer alongside)."

So no pitchfork-waving peasant mob - no Up Helly Aa - no singed eyebrows.  It's still going to be magical, just not mental.  And without this as the end result -

(attribution: Ann Burgess)

I'd invite you to come but it's already sold out, which is extremely gratifying.  The beautiful booklet is still available here, though.  And you can read that by any form of lighting you please.

Using Cats to Sell Poetry

In the spirit of good-looking young ladies draped over cars, I give you a good-looking young cat draped over The Emma Press Anthology of Age, in which I am really pleased to have a poem.  (I started by saying "dead pleased" but then thought it might be indelicate.)

Okay, so there's still not a lot of what you might call enthusiasm, but hey, he's still young - and at least this time he bothered to open his eyes.  (I refer to another poetical triumph and cat response here - )

26 Children's Winters Opens in Edinburgh

Another 26 project, this time in conjunction with the Edinburgh Museum of Childhood and the charity It's Good 2 Give.  The museum curators chose 26 objects - the organisers pulled 26 writers out of a hat (big hat!) - and we had 62 words (26 backwards) to write our response.

To read the resulting sestudes (i.e. 62 word pieces) you could visit the Museum of Childhood on the Royal Mile between now and the end of March 2016, or you could patiently wait until December, when they will each go online as part of this year's 26 Advent Calendar.

These were my objects - 

 - my mini-blog is here - and as soon as I can get a photo of my sestude in situ, I'll show you that too!

I love 26*!

* so-called because there are 26 letters in the alphabet.  Yes, I know it's obvious, but I had to ask when I first heard of it.

Points in Time Launched at BOOKMARK

Remember this?

Well, now it looks like this!

44 pages of creative gorgeousness, and it's being launched today in Blairgowrie as part of the 3rd annual BOOKMARK Book Festival.  Congratulations to everyone who's taken part, and thanks to the Drumderg Community Fund for supporting us!