A magazine article by me, and some lovely bookish things in Warwickshire

Several posts ago I mentioned Here Comes Everyone, a newish magazine published by Silhouette Press to provide a forum for writers and other creative types to publish their work and network online with other writers and creative types.  It’s available online, but also in hard copy – we are going to sell copies in the shop.  It’s a local venture (local to Warwickshire), and well worth supporting.

And I’m not just saying this because I have an article in the current issue, Prophecy, just out!  I dashed this one off a bit – an article on the continuing value of books – but was delighted to be asked to contribute, and hope to contribute to future issues too.  I will be on the ball a bit earlier next time, and write something a bit more polished.  But if you want to read about why I think books will always be important, the article starts on p.22 of the latest issue.

Here Comes Everyone are also having an evening of poetry and live music at Taylor John’s House in Coventry on 29 June – more details here.  £3 for a night out with live entertainment, can’t be bad!

I would also like to mention another local second-hand bookshop that is a bit like The Tree House, based in Nuneaton.  Big Comfy Bookshop currently trades online and can frequently be found on a stall at local fairs and markets, and is also looking for shop premises.  Michael, who runs it, has now set up an online book group via Facebook, though you can see details too on his blog and you can look at the Facebook page even if you aren’t on Facebook. I mentioned the idea of starting an online book group a while back, but am much happier joining his while I have so much else to do!  So if you fancy joining a book group and chatting online once a month about the book, and are on Facebook, do join his.   We are just starting the second book, which is Neil Gaiman’s American Gods.

So happy reading!

Here Comes Everyone

I want to use the blog today to mention an excellent new online arts publishing venture.

Here Comes Everyone, founded in 2012, is an online network and magazine for those in, or interested in, the arts.  The founders and editors are Warwickshire-based, and are trying to connect those working in the creative arts, including writing and publishing, and giving them/us an online place to submit work and engage with the work of others.

Gary and Adam, the founders, are hoping to produce hard copies of the magazine, and if/when they do, we will be selling them at the Tree House.  This is a great venture, which ties in very well with what I am hoping to do – my plans are to use a physical space, theirs to use an online space, and these two things go hand in hand in our contemporary world.

It’s also great to find out who is doing what, to read articles, stories and poems by people who haven’t found a published platform elsewhere, and to think about the arts and connections between them.

It’s part of Silhouette Press which Gary and Adam run as a not-for-profit company (something else the Tree House shares!), and it’s great to see this sort of project taking off.  I have linked above to the About page, but you can read current and past issues of the magazine on their website – definitely worth exploring!  The issues have themes – the latest issue is Dinosaurs – the previous one was Colour – the forthcoming one is Prophecy.

This is a lovely and exciting venture; do go to their website to find out more.  I hope we can continue to support each other as things develop both for HCE and the Tree House!