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36 Hours of Poetry and Literature

It’s all go in the Forest Cafe over the next 36 hours as 3 Bristo Place hosts a pair of epic marathons in performance and writing.

I had hoped to join in with the latter, ominously titled They Shoot Writers, Don’t They? But unfortunately prior engagements (work today and a mega exciting interview on Friday, more on which after it happens) got in the way and I can’t make it.  Still, I’m planning to pop in and out of the forest for the latter part of the event, and hopefully I will be blogging about it in a live stylee.

Here’s the background, courtesy of Rachel from Inky Fingers:

Continue reading “36 Hours of Poetry and Literature” →

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What’s Your Favourite Geeky Website?

Seeing as this month I am writing a book in the scifi oeuvre, it feels only right to make a wee tribute to geekery.  And those of you about to get up in arms, look around the room at your collection of lightsabres, sonic screwdrivers and vulcan ears before you try to tell me the two don’t go hand in hand. 

I’m not saying geekery is a bad thing, or that it’s limited to Science Fiction.  Lots of my favourite geeky things have nothing whatsoever to do with space travel, aliens, or future dystopias.  Some are just people who are very dedicated to a particular cause. 

Here’s a list of some of my favourite geeky things online. 

  • Molly Ringle’s Lord of the Rings parodies.  She wrote these nearly ten years ago but I still think they’re great. Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and Return of the King.
  • My other half is in the process of profiling every incarnation of Doctor Who on Den of Geek.  So far he’s done William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison and Colin Baker.  He’s funny about them, which is helpful for the less well informed, and knows his stuff which is good when a challenger approaches.
  • Do you like trains?  Do you speak Gaelic?  Well maybe you’ll enjoy this blog about trains, written in Gaelic. 
  • If you like occasionally foul mouthed graphic novel writers, you’ll love the Talk like Warren Ellis quote generator.  Not for the faint hearted.
  • All episodes of TMWRNJ, a TV show from the late 90s starring Stewart Lee and Richard Herring that’ll probably never make it on to DVD now but has a cult following that often discuss it / do bird puns in hushed tones (said following consists largely of me and my mate).

See, barely any scifi at all.  But clearly there are tons more out there, so what’s your favourite geeky thing on the internet? Leave a comment below, the world needs to know!

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How To Successfully Stalk Comedians

In this guest post, award winning author Emily Dodd gives you a taste of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival’s seedy underbelly – the twilight world of stalking.

I’m not talking creepy or romantic stalking. Successful comedian stalking is quite different; a fine art with the ultimate aim of making the comedian laugh. Then you have arrived, then you are funny.

I first started stalking comedians in the Fringe by accident. I’d recognise them and greet them like one greets an old friend. I was so ridiculously friendly that they were polite; perhaps thinking I was someone they knew but didn’t recognise. You could see them racking their brains trying to work out who I was.

A real friend, Vicki once caught me mid-stalk with Simon Amstell.  She edged away, embarrassed. I went to find her afterwards.

“What were you doing?!” she exclaimed.

“I don’t know” I confessed “I just forgot I don’t actually know him.  It keeps happening..”

Continue reading “How To Successfully Stalk Comedians” →

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Seen Any Good Fringe Lately?

Today I went to the first of Inky Fingers’ minifest readings, featuring The Life and Times of an Edinburgh Monster (an historical presentation of sorts) and a poetry reading.  You may remember last week I had a guest post about the first of these, prompting a shout out for other people with interesting events to come forth with more promotional posts.  I’ve had a few responses (four in total, since you asked) but there’s room for more if you’re interested.  In the meantime, a couple of photos from today:

An Historian interviewing Beverly Horndom on why the Edinburgh Monster should not be allowed to work in a bank.

Historian speaks to Pastel Maybe III about the catastrophic climbing trip which saw 16 men killed on Arthur’s Seat.

Mairi Campbell-Jack (who tweets as @lumpinthethroat) reading some of her poetry.

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Writing Liveblog

Today I planned to write and write and write.  Look, this is my ready to write face.  I have to wear my glasses when writing these days because staring at a computer screen for such long periods of time makes my contact lenses angry.

Course I’ve not quite managed to actually write anything yet, and I have a Skype date with my sister in Canada at 4pm and a trip to see Josie Long‘s Fringe show at 7pm…

Still, I’ve got a couple of hours, so I’m going to see how much I can get done in that time.  And I’m blogging as I go, because I can.  I’ve even included a run up to this point in time.  Because procrastination is the key to creativity.  Or something.

Continue reading “Writing Liveblog” →

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Literary Edinburgh at the Fringe

This week I had a guest post called Thar Be Monsters, about a comical literary event happening at the Forest Cafe on Monday as part of the Inky Fingers Minifest, which is just one of approximately 8000 festivals happening in Edinburgh this summer.  It can be hard to decide what to do to in amongst all the comedy, music, theatre, dance, literature, poetry, spirituality, politics and bag-piping due to take place, but posts like that one can help the discerning viewer make up his or her mind.

To that end, I would like to take this opportunity to say that if you are doing something as part of one of the festivals and you’d like a platform to tell people about it, you should get in touch about doing a guest post on the blog.  You can email me on ali.george85@yahoo.com or leave a comment below, on facebook, or on twitter.

Continue reading “Literary Edinburgh at the Fringe” →

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