Tag Archives: birmingham uk

The Tooth And Nothing But

12 Wednesday Sep 2018

Posted by in Art, Drawing, Sketchtember, workshops, writing

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

Here’s some bloke with a toothy smile.

This is pencil on cartridge paper. I wonder what his name is?

I’ve been focusing on people recently because I want some interesting characters to use with my young writers group this Saturday. We’re going to look at advice columns/blogs. I’ll ask them to choose a character and to come up with a problem they need advice on. When they’ve written the problem, I’ll get them to swap with other members of the group and they can then write replies. I think it should be a good exercise for developing characters and stories.

SEN Comic Book Workshop…

07 Monday Mar 2016

Posted by in Comics, Special Needs, teaching, workshops, writing

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

What’s coming up on the writing workshop radar? Well, this.

Bournville_BookFest_cover

Those crazy people at the Bournville Bookfest have only gone and asked me to run a comic book writing workshop as part of their programme for children with Special Needs!

book fest slot

From the Bookfest brochure.

The workshop is aimed at anyone who’s interested in making comics. I’ll be using the Comic Life app to show you how you can very quickly make slick looking comic strips. We’ll be focusing on the essentials: character, plot and dialogue. Everyone who attends will have the opportunity to develop a unique story and to produce a finished comic strip. We won’t worry about drawing ability or drawing full stop, if you’re not comfortable with that, as you can use anything you want to tell a story. (You can use photographs from your iPad or take pictures on the day.) The only boundaries will be your imagination!

adventure-time-comic-book

Adventure Time meets the Avengers.

I’ve taught children with Special Needs for many years and have found that the visual, sequential nature of story telling used in comics is something that they easily relate to – just the same as mainstream kids – and that they can get a great deal of pleasure out of producing their own.

The workshop will be at Selly Oak Trust School on Saturday the 19th of March. There’s no recommended age for the workshop. We’ll leave it up to parents to judge for themselves, after all, no one knows your children better than you. All I would ask is that participants have an interest in comics and that they can tolerate me working with them. They will need some level of literacy – I’m not bothered about spelling – as they will be writing dialogue for their marvellous characters.

 

adventuretime-036-press-7-118908

Finn and Jake in trouble again.

 

How do I book this great workshop? Scroll to the end and I’ll tell you.

phoenix-weekly

The UK’s finest weekly comic.

 

Here are some examples of what you can do with the Comic Life app:

chubby bunny and dusty hare -1horrendous holiday!-1Blank-1

Booking for the workshop can be made by clicking here. The link will take you to the Bournville Bookfest booking page.

The programme can be downloaded here.

If you have any questions regarding the workshop please leave them in the comments section below.

 

4th October: March on the Tory Conference

28 Monday Sep 2015

Posted by in Demonstrations, Manchester, Politics

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

Many people say that they’re not interested in politics. They say that one party is pretty much like another and no matter what you do nothing ever really changes. There may be an element of truth in this, but one thing is certain: doing nothing changes…..nothing (hello double negative.) For those of you who would like to voice your concerns/displeasure at our current government’s cut-happy approach to public services and the arts then those lovely people at UNITE have laid on free coaches to the Tory Party conference. Just check out the blog post below.

Birmingham Against The Cuts

The TUC / People’s Assembly demonstration at the Tory Party conference on 4th October in Manchester looks set to be massive, with transport being arranged from around the country.
https://www.tuc.org.uk/about-tuc/no-austerity-4-oct-march-and-rally
http://www.thepeoplesassembly.org.uk/demonstrate_at_tory_party_conference

We are pleased to announce that UNITE theUnion has offered us free places on their coaches!
UNITE coaches will be going from Broad Street and West Bromwich.  If you want tickets please phone 0121 553 6051 by Wednesday and tell them if you want to go from Birmingham or West Bromwich.

View original post

Raven spreads its wings.

02 Thursday Oct 2014

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

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

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.

Birmingham Lit Fest….

08 Thursday May 2014

Posted by in comissions, New Birmingham Library, writing

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

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 in New Birmingham Library, Writers Group, writing, Writing West Midlands

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Night Swimming

18 Friday Oct 2013

Posted by in comissions, News, Short Stories, Writers Group, writing

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

This summer (2013) I was commission by the West Midlands Readers Network to write a short story for a library book group. It turned out that the book group in Coleshill Library were not interested but that the writers group that was also based there was.

I went over in late July and met the group. They were a friendly bunch who made me very welcome. I talked a little bit about the type of things I write and they told me about the stories that they were interested in; it was quite a range. We had crime stories, historical fiction, satire, science fiction, comedy and so on. I made lots of notes.

It would be impossible, in the time I had and the amount of words available (2000,) to write something that covered everything they wanted. As it was I wrote two stories, both set in Coleshill. I couldn’t decide which was the story for them, which was the story that would best please them and cover some of what they asked for. In the end I asked Roz. Roz Goddard is a fine poet, short story writer and she runs the West Midlands Readers Network; her advice was bang on. She said use the best one.

I knew which was the best story I was just worried it wasn’t right for the group.

I visited the Coleshill Writers Group last Monday and read them the story. They liked it and had some excellent questions for me afterwards. If you’re near Coleshill and are interested in writing you should get down there.

If you’d also like to hear my story entitled Night Swimming, then come join me and a whole host of others at the New Birmingham Library on Monday the 2nd of December, it’ll be great.