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Garrie Fletcher

~ writing and all that

Garrie Fletcher

Category Archives: New Birmingham Library

Raven soars.

14 Friday Nov 2014

Posted by fletcherski in Art, Comics, comissions, New Birmingham Library, Raven

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Anya Jung, Art, Birmingham, Birmingham Literature Festival, comic book, Comic book script, Drawing, free, Kings Heath, Raven, short story, uk, writing

At last, after weeks of scribbling, typing, retyping, sketching, revising, colouring, conferring, editing and nail biting, Raven is here. Has it been worth the wait? Oh yes.

Raven

Anya Jung and I were commissioned, what seems ages ago, by those wonderful people at Writing west Midlands to produce a comic strip as part of the Birmingham Literature Festival.

The initial idea was to produce a graphic novel over the space of the festival, a mere ten days. We quickly abandoned that idea. For Anya to draw the number of pages to make a graphic novel, to the high standard that she does, we would need at least a year and whilst it would be wonderful to have a year long festival there simply wasn’t the budget.

So, we decided to do a short story in comic book form, a mere seven pages long. Seven pages is not a lot, but I hope you will agree we’ve crammed quite a lot in and created a story with a punch, an incredibly strong look and a resonance that stays with you long after reading.

Raven started with a  conversation between Anya and I as I drove us back to Kings Heath. We spoke about the power of art, the need for creativity and the loss of innocence, it all sounds a bit pompous, but that’s what we did.

Raven3

I very quickly decided that I wanted to write a story about a woman returning to Birmingham after a long time away. I thought it would be something about childhood and creativity, about travelling home to rediscover something she’s long forgotten or has chosen to forget and it sort of is and it sort of isn’t.

I was shocked by the ending of my story. Not by the nature of it but by the fact that I never saw it coming. I don’t want to get all writers are mystics on you, because we’re not, but I won’t lie to you, I never planned for it to end that way.

I shared the story with Anya and to my great relief she loved it, phew!

I then set about translating my tale from a short story into a comic book script which was not as easy as I’d thought it would be, far from it. All that lovely description and atmosphere that I’d built up through the careful selection of words I had to let go of. and hand it over to the artist. Instead of describing the way the city looked from the rain spattered train carriage you just type: Frame 1, a train travels across a large viaduct that cuts through the city. Gripping stuff.

So, I had to rethink the way that I work and to rediscover the story I’d written by looking at what needs to be said that can’t be shown. Eventually the script came together and I handed it over to Anya.

Raven2

Anya mocked up a rough layout of what the story would look like. She nervously handed over a hand drawn A5 booklet; she wasn’t best pleased with the work it contained, which was odd as the work was stunning. This is great! I thought, if this is what her rough stuff looks like we’re onto a winner and we were.

Over the ten days of the festival Anya was based in the wonderful Library of Birmingham. People were invited to stop and chat to her as she completed the pages and many of you did, we even had a Q and A session in the library entrance! During the course of completing the pages Anya made some alterations which meant I had to tweak bits of text here and there. We sent work back and forth and slowly it all came together.

This isn’t how comics are usually produced, it’s just the way we did it.

Anyway, enough yakking from me. Why don’t you click on this link and read Raven for yourself? When you’ve read it please pop back and let me know what you think of it.

Cheers

p.s Here’s the first page of Raven. Click on it to read the full version.

Raven 1st page

Birmingham Lit Fest….

08 Thursday May 2014

Posted by fletcherski in comissions, New Birmingham Library, writing

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Anya Jung, Birmingham Literature Festival, Birmingham literature festival 2014, birmingham uk, illustration. story telling, writing

Yesterday was rather wonderful. I met with Sian and Joanne, from the Birmingham Literature Festival, and the very talented Anya Jung. Anya is a mighty fine illustrator. Don’t just take my word for it, check out her site: Anya Jung.

Why did we meet? Well, that’d be telling, just keep your eyes peeled and look out for some graphic news soon.

Writing West Midlands

08 Tuesday Apr 2014

Posted by fletcherski in New Birmingham Library, Writers Group, writing, Writing West Midlands

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Benjamin Zephaniah, Birmingham Literature Festival, birmingham uk, Carol Ann Duffy, Cindy George, Fiona Joseph, Helen Cross, Literary map of the midlands, New Brochure, Rochi Rampal, Room204, Support for Writers, uk, West Midlands, William Gallagher, William Shakespeare, Write On!, writing, Writing West Midlands, young writers

I’ve been very lucky to have been involved with Writing West Midlands over recent years. They are a fine bunch of human beings who live to promote literature in the West Midlands region.

I was approached by them to see if I’d mind being included in their new brochure, this would include being photographed by a professional photographer. Of course I didn’t mind.

I’ve been involved with a number of projects through Writing West Midlands and run one of their many Write On! Young Writers groups. If you are a writer based in the West Midlands you should get in touch with them. Anyway, the brochure is now out. Here’s the cover:

You can just spot me on the left amongst the grime of the old library.

You can just spot me on the left amongst the grime of the old library.

Inside the brochure there a wonderful overview of all the incredible work that the Writing West Midlands team does across the region and across all the possible formats that writing can take. There’s a great map of the region, beautifully put together by Kerry Leslie, that pinpoints some of the outstanding talent that has come from the area. This includes J.R.R. Tolkien, who used to live just down the road from me, Benjamin Zephaniah, Jonathan Coe, Carol Ann Duffy, John Osborne and of course William Shakespeare. Information on the Birmingham Literature Festival, Write On! Young Writers, The New Library of Birmingham and tons more.

The brochure is beautifully put together with great photography, a cool layout and printed on pleasingly thick paper.

Inside there is a section on local writers that WWM work with and there are brief interviews with: William Gallagher, Deborah Alma, Cindy George, Fiona Joseph, Rochi Rampal, Helen Cross and me.

My page can be read below. Just click on the picture and it’ll open at a readable size.

Cheers.

Scary man in cool coat.

Scary man in cool coat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seven Minute Stories

13 Wednesday Nov 2013

Posted by fletcherski in comissions, Event, New Birmingham Library, Reading, Short Stories, writing

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Birmingham, Free event, New Birmingham Library, short story, uk, West Midlands Readers Network, writing

Ooh lookee here:

An event you may be interested in…

2013 Short Story Showcase

Building on the success of their 2012 project Seven Minute Stories, The West Midlands Readers’ Network is once again commissioning regional writers to create short stories in collaboration with readers’ groups. In 2013, six writers will work with groups in locations around the West Midlands. The writers are: Gaynor Arnold, Garrie Fletcher, Ian MacLeod, AL Pietroni, Rochi Rampal and Amanda Smyth. Each writer has been given a few key narrative ingredients by their group and been asked to throw in some magic of their own in order to conjure up a memorable new story. Join us as these stories and their writers come together in a special anthology and showcase event.

Attendees will be able to pick up a free anthology.

The event will take place at 7pm on Monday 2 December 2013, at the Library of Birmingham.

This event is free to attend but booking is essential. To book please call 0121 245 4455 or click here.

20131113-191659.jpg

Seven Minute Stories

29 Tuesday Oct 2013

Posted by fletcherski in Anthology, comissions, Event, New Birmingham Library, News, Reading, Short Stories, writing

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Amanda Smyth, Anthology, bar, Birmingham, Coleshill, December 2013, free book, Free event, garrie fetcher, Gaynor Arnold, publications, Rochi Rampal, short stories, The Box, uk, Westmidlands Readers Network, writing

New Library garden. Don't worry we'll be in the warm.

New Library garden. Don’t worry we’ll be in the warm.

Oo, look, I’m in this:

Building on the success of their 2012 project Seven Minute Stories, The West Midlands Readers’ Network is once again commissioning regional writers to create short stories in collaboration with readers’ groups. In 2013, six writers will work with groups in locations around the West Midlands. The writers are: Gaynor Arnold, Garrie Fletcher, Ian MacLeod, AL Pietroni, Rochi Rampal and Amanda Smyth. Each writer has been given a few key narrative ingredients by their group and been asked to throw in some magic of their own in order to conjure up a memorable new story. Join us as these stories and their writers come together in a special anthology and showcase event.

All guests will receive a free limited edition copy of the anthology at the event.

Presented in partnership with the West Midlands Readers’ Network. Chaired by Roz Goddard, Co-ordinator of West Midlands Readers’ Network.

It’d be great to see you there, tickets are free and you could combine it with some Christmas shopping at the German Market in the city. Also, for those of you in fear of dehydration there is a bar!

You can book tickets here.

You can find out more about the West Midlands Reader’s Network here.

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