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Garrie Fletcher

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Garrie Fletcher

Tag Archives: Birmingham Literature Festival

Short and Sweet

06 Tuesday Oct 2015

Posted by fletcherski in Birmingham Library, Birmingham Literature Festival, Event, Short Stories, Short Story

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Birmingham, Birmingham Literature Festival, Birmingham Rep, fiction, Heart FM, Performance, Rachel New, reading, Short Fiction, short story, The Door Space, uk

Fletcher’s on the road again!

As part of this year’s Birmingham Literature Festival,  I shall be taking part in the Short and Sweet: Short Fiction Salon and reading a new short story. This event is hosted by fiction writer and Heart Breakfast presenter Rachel New and is Free!

Fiction writer and Heart Breakfast presenter Rachel New.

Fiction writer and Heart Breakfast presenter Rachel New.

So, treat yourself to an earful of fiction and come down to The Door Space at the Rep, next to the Library for a 6pm start.

All details and how to book (remember its free) can be found here.

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

Raven spreads its wings.

02 Thursday Oct 2014

Posted by fletcherski in Art, Birmingham Library, Comics, comissions, Event

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Anya Jung, Art, Birmingham, Birmingham Literature Festival, birmingham uk, blog, comic book, Garrie Fletcher, work in progress, writing

By the time you read this the mighty Anya Jung will have finished her first day’s drawing of our comic strip Raven. Based in the Library of Birmingham for the duration of the Birmingham Literature Festival Anya will be on display scribbling, inking, colouring and lettering until our wonderful story is finished.

I’ve not been able to get in today -work commitments- and I’m itching to see what she’s done so far. As you can see from the rough layout below it’ll be a corker. I’ll be calling in tomorrow to see how its going and if any of my text needs revising. I’ll take some snaps while I’m there and -if I get the time- post them tomorrow.

Rough page layout from Anya.

Rough page layout from Anya.

The guys at Birmingham Literature Festival Control have set up a blog exclusively for Raven where you can see some early sketches and get a feel for where the story is heading.

The Raven blog can be found here, go on, treat yourself.

Raven: Comic Book Commission Q&A with the artists

05 Friday Sep 2014

Posted by fletcherski in Art, Comics, comissions, Q & A, Short Stories, Writing West Midlands

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Anya Jung, Art, Birmingham, Birmingham Literature Festival, comic book, Free event, Garrie Fletcher, short story, West Midlands, writing

Ripped straight from the Birmingham Literature Festival programme.

I’m really looking forward to seeing the finished thing. The Q & A should be interesting, especially if you guys turn up.

Raven: Comic Book Commission Q&A with the artists
October 8 @ 6:00 pm – 6:30 pm | Free
comicsketch

Raven is a collaboration between writer Garrie Fletcher and artist Anya Jung. Commissioned by the Birmingham Literature Festival; they will focus on the relationship between narrative and image, and the journey from snatched ideas and rough sketches to a finished product you can hold.

A modern take on an urban gothic tale, set amongst the twisted architecture of Birmingham; Raven will explore the real and the distorted in this documentation of the loss of childhood and the reclamation of hope.

Raven will be created within the Library of Birmingham throughout the ten days of the Birmingham Literature Festival. This event is the opportunity to see how Garrie and Anya are getting on with the process of collaborating and to find out more about the process of creating a comic book from scratch.

Garrie Fletcher cropped for website
Garrie Fletcher

about-portrait-newAnya Jung is an illustrator and recent graduate from University College Falmouth. She takes her inspiration from stories, myths and fairy tales as well as the world around her, often drawing on location to capture the essence of a place. She enjoys working in traditional mediums and only deploys digital tools in the final stages of the creative process to bring an image together. To see more examples of her work please visit http://www.ajungillustration.co.uk.

Garrie Fletcher likes words, big cities and avoiding Northampton. He writes short stories, novels, comics and poems. He’s a member of the Tindal Street Fiction Group and loves talking nonsense to kids. His work can be found in various anthologies, Unthology 5 being the most recent. You may even have seen his work at the cinema, if you’re not prone to blinking. https://fletchski.wordpress.com/.

This is a free event. No need to book!

Details

Date:
October 8, 2014
Time:
6:00 pm – 6:30 pm
Cost:
Free
Event Categories:
Comic book, Free, Illustration
Event Tags:
2014, fiction
Organizer

Birmingham Literature Festival
Venue

The Foyer, Library of Birmingham
Centenary Square, Broad Street Birmingham, B1 2ND
+ Google Map

Check out the original posting here for maps, art samples and a scary photo of me.

Lost Districts: Text and Image.

27 Friday Jun 2014

Posted by fletcherski in Art, competitions, creativity, prize money, Short Stories

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Art, Birmingham, Birmingham City, Birmingham Literature Festival, Chaz Brenchley, Competition, Districts, Joel Lane, Lost Districts, Photography, Poetry, Prize Money, short stories, stunning images, Text and Image, uk

Hey, there’s a mighty cool project kicking off in Birmingham City called Lost Districts.

IMG_5349Lost Districts are looking to link the dark, moving, writing of the sadly departed Joel Lane with stunning images from photographers and artists.

At the moment they’re gathering extracts of text from Joel’s work, which was predominately set in the West Midlands, getting ready to draw up a list of ten sites that they want images for. The project will take place over the ten days of the Birmingham Literature Festival. Each day a winning image will be chosen and from those ten images an overall winner will receive £100.

So if you’re a budding artist, or a demon with a lens, get over to their site and read on for more details here.

If you’re unfamiliar with Joel’s work you should change that a.s.a.p. This quote from Chaz Brenchley, author of Shelter, Blood Waters, The Garden and other critically acclaimed works of crime fiction, should help:

“Joel Lane documents a life we don’t quite live, in a city we can’t quite find: half glimpsed and half imagined, we know it’s out there somewhere. Waiting, maybe. Mixing fear with desire, reputation with regret. Touching the blood-beat of our secret hunger with the rhythms of a music that never felt alien till now. Wasted lives, with never a wasted word. It’s an extraordinary achievement: vivid as neon, real as rain. Devastating.”

 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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