I am starting a new future fiction today in 60 days of daily tweets. You may be interested to follow @Meanda55555
The Future of Education and Learning
Sun 29 April 12 noon at Hex (Studio 30), Dartington, Devon, UK
I am taking part in a public discussion on the future of education and learning as part of a weekend of events celebrating the lives of Carito and Marina Rodriguez who came to Britain as child refugees during the Spanish Civil War and went on to contribute hugely to life in Dartington and Totnes.
The discussion is focused on the ‘experiment in education’ at Dartington. It is chaired by Alan Boldon, Interim Director of Learning Innovation at Dartington, and the other participants are Mark Dunhill (former Dean of Art at Central Saint Martin’s College and Dartington School alumni) and Jonathan Dawson, Coordinator and Senior Lecturer at Schumacher College. I was previously Director of Arts Management and MA Contemporary Arts Course Leader at Dartington College of Arts and Guest Professor on the Public Art MFA at Bauhaus University in Weimar, which occupies the original Bauhaus site.
The event is free. Further details.
The Water Age – 3 new books for 2018
I have established a publishing imprint called Meanda Books to publish the three small books that are the outcome of my work in the Frontiers in Retreat art and ecology project. The books will be published in July. An expression of interest form is at the bottom of this post. The books are:
The Water Age and other Fictions
Paperback ISBN 9780995490215
ebook ISBN 9780995490222
Includes a revised, expanded version of Meanda, a future fiction novella about an ocean exoplanet. Octavio Paz meets J.G. Ballard meets David Attenborough in tales of hybrid species and aqua technologies. Inspired by spitting fish, spiders’ sticky lines, sliming snails, inking squids and singing whales. [Image: James A. Hudson]
The Water Age Art and Writing Workshops
Paperback ISBN 9780995490239
ebook ISBN 9780995490246
How might we live with more water in the future? Art and writing workshops relating to aquatic biomimicry, walking, swimming, maps, reading water environments, watery language. A wealth of playful exercises to produce art and writing focused on water.
The Water Age Children’s Art and Writing Workshops
Paperback ISBN 9780995490253
ebook ISBN 9780995490260
The water you drink has been through the bladder of a Tyrannosaurus Rex and many other places. The water on Earth is 4.4 billion years old and came here from outer space. The octopus has three hearts and its eyes can look in two separate directions.
What other facts can we find out about the behaviour of water?
What can we learn about aquatic flora and fauna?
What imaginative ideas can we have about living with more water?
The Water Age Children’s Art and Writing Workshops is a book for teachers, artists and writers who are working with children aged 8-11. The workshops focus on water and contemplate a possible future when we are living with more water.
The art workshop suggests drawing and painting waterscapes, building waterscapes in the classroom or playground, designing and making models for water living, creating simple films about water living. The writing workshop helps to develop a story about a future watery world, and suggests performing and recording a story, creating an exhibition or broadcast, or turning a story into a book.
Conquest I briefly available for 99p
Kobo is currently offering Conquest I: Daughter of the Last King for a mere 99p. Conquest I is the first book in my trilogy about Nest ferch Rhys and the struggle between the Welsh and the Normans in the 12th century. It’s available at this price for a limited time in the 99 books for 99p campaign. Snap it up!
Author’s Inspiration
My post on writing historical fiction, and especially the Conquest trilogy, is published today on Mary Anne Yarde’s Blogpost.
(Image above is Fontevraud Abbey, which is where part of the second book, The Drowned Court, is set.)
Second-career writer
This medieval village and castle in the Tarn Valley in southern France was where I was first prompted to start writing historical fiction. A guest post by me charting my mid-life switch from academic to novelist has been published today on M.K. Tod’s A Writer of History blog.
April Writing
March was very busy and I’m hoping to get some settled writing done this month. I’m working in two opposite directions – the future and the past – and trying not to go mad with that!
I’m editing a book called The Midden with Jenni Nurmenniemi, which relates to the Frontiers in Retreat art and ecology research project. I have just returned from Helsinki and a very productive meeting with Jenni and the book designer, Serge from NODE. The book will be published in the summer and includes essays by Taru Elfving, Emma Itaranta, Jenni Nurmenniemi, Jussi Parikka, Antti Salminen and myself.
I’m also finalising a series of books, The Water Age, that I will self-publish, which are the culmination of my own work in the Frontiers in Retreat project. One book is a collection of my future fictions. The other two books present art and writing workshops, one for adults and the other for children. More on the publication dates for those coming soon.
And work on the final book in my historical trilogy, Conquest, published by Impress Books, is underway. The new novel, The Anarchy, is set in 12th century Europe and focuses on the Welsh princess, Nest ferch Rhys and the continuing struggles between the Welsh and the Normans. I have a couple of guest blogposts coming up this month on M.K. Tod’s A Writer of History and Mary Anne Yarde’s Myths, Legends, Books and Coffee Pots. Her first guest this month, is Tom Williams, a British writer who has written a novel about a man he describes as ‘the James Bond of the Napoleonic Wars’. If you are interested in historical fiction this sounds like a good read.
