Rob M Francis is a poet and prose writer. In 2019, he was the inaugural David Bradshaw Writer in Residence at the University of Oxford, and in 2020 he became Poet in Residence for the Black Country Geological Society. His latest novel is titled 'The Wrenna'.

The Wandering Bard Podcast Season 3

Ep. 14 | Rob M Francis on Embracing the Uncertainty of the Publishing Process

Inés G. Labarta is a Madrid-born writer and artist currently based in the northwest of England. She is the author of a collection of middle-grade novels, 'Los Pentasónicos' (Edebé, 2008-2010) and two novellas, 'McTavish Manor' (Holland House, 2016) and 'Kabuki' (Dairea, 2017). She lectures in Creative Writing at the University of Wolverhampton. In this extract she talks about how she trained herself to wake up at 5am every morning so she had time to write despite having several part-time jobs and a PhD on the go!

Ep. 24 | Inés G. Labarta on Waking Up at 5am to Write

In this episode, Inés talks about how she started sharing her rejection stories with her writing community - and how this helped demystify them. They are all not that special - everyone gets them!

Ep. 31 | Inés G. Labarta on Rejections as Part of the Writing Process

Dr Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai is a prose writer and a poet born in Vietnam and currently based in Kyrgyzstan. Her first novel, 'The Mountains Sing' was published by Algonquin Books in 2020 and has received international recognition. She has an MA and PhD in Creative Writing from Lancaster University. In this episode, Quế Mai talks about how difficult it was to find an publisher for her first novel since it dealt with very complex and serious issues such as war, rape, and trauma.

The Wandering Bard Podcast, Season 3

Ep. 32 | Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai on Facing Rejection When You Write about a Hard Topic

In this episode, Yvonne Battle-Felton talks to us about a meaningful place for her as a writer: Atlantic City. Yvonne Battle-Felton is an American writer currently based in England. She's written the critically acclaimed novel 'Remembered' and is the co-founder and director of Northwest Literary Arts. She's also a Creative Writing lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University.

Ep. 33 | Yvonne Battle-Felton on Atlantic City

A funky, rocky and electry cover of the Bean Machine Jingle from the Three Bean Salad Podcast starring Henry Paker, featuring Mike Wozniak and introducing Benjamin Partridge.

Three Bean Salad - Bean Machine (Noiselund Cover)

In Episode 25 of First Impressions, I welcome back novelist Lancelot Schaubert for the second part of our chat. Now living in Brooklyn but hailing from Southern Illinois, where his excellent debut novel ‘Bell Hammers: The True Folk Tale of Little Egypt’ is set, Lance has kindly shared some more extracts from the freshly minted audiobook to punctuate our conversation (find them at 00:00, 13:48, 39:34 and 48:15). Along with the novel, we discuss his influences both literary and philosophical, and his thoughts on subjects ranging from Artificial Intelligence to learning Latin; civil discourse to snipe hunting, the latter topic inspiring me to provide a wee musical ditty at 23:39. 

We also talk about the follow-up to ‘Bell Hammers’, which began as a collaboration with Lance’s late father, whose untimely death from hairy cell leukaemia and Covid was partly caused by the dangerous and insufficiently regulated work described in his fiction. Finally, we talk about a terrifying situation Lance and his wife faced on their last visit to the UK. As ever, listen through headphones if you have them and please spread the word if you enjoy the pod. Thanks! 

A few links to content connected to our conversation: 

Lance’s website: https://lanceschaubert.org/about-lancelot/ 

Lance’s book ‘Bell Hammers: The True Folk Tale of Little Egypt’ on Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/Bell-Hammers-Audiobook/B0BXVS1WKQ

‘Bell Hammers…’ on goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/48731251  

Douglas Berman’s short story ‘Ibex Brief’ on Lance’s website: https://lanceschaubert.org/2023/05/03/ibex-brief/ 

David Bentley Hart’s Substack: https://davidbentleyhart.substack.com 

Lance’s ‘All Who Wander’ album on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/1QOE2t9zAKJjz8VySZJvRq?si=jMJNFiwDRAa2QvWmbdjwiA

Jude Edwin-Scott’s new album, ‘Rambling Rose’, available as CD/digital download on Bandcamp:  https://judeedwinscott.bandcamp.com/album/rambling-rose?pk=595&action=buy

First Impressions - Episode 25 - Lancelot Schaubert (Part 2)

It is not everyday we are sent a 5 hour mix from someone we have asked to join our Phonica mix series; but when Sheffield & Manchester legend Luke Una sends one… you have to jump straight into it! Having become first recognised in the late 80’s and 90’s as one half of production team “The Unabombers” with Justin Crawford, Luke over the years has shown to be a master in all genres be it Balearic, to Brazilian to E soul, House, Disco and Techno, you name it! With his Worldwide FM show over the years gaining a cult following Luke has gained an even more of a broader crowd from his curation of his E Soul Cultura compilation series via the label Mr.Bongo (Both comps topping our EOY lists in 2022 and 2023). This exact vast taste (that is displayed in these compilations) is very much pummelled into this five hour journey of a mix like a piece of clay and sculpted into a fine piece of art. We had a chat with Luke about this timeless mix and what he has been up to lately: http://offtherecord.net/phonica-mix-series-119luke-una/

Phonica Mix Series 119: Luke Una

Welcome one and all to the first episode of Pet Projects, in which host Pete and guest Karl talk about Karl’s beloved, much-missed and inspirational dog, Lola, and his pet projects, leading to Karl offering some fascinating insights from the world of filmmaking in which he is quickly making his mark as a writer-director. A passionate advocate for Liverpool and northern talent, Karl talks about the making of his award-winning short film ‘Wake’ (shot on the Mersey ferry), his work-in-progress ‘Lucky Cat’ and how Covid encouraged him to pursue his vision more aggressively, in collaboration with his partners at their production company Seven Streets, and a fantastic cast and crew. 

The episode also contains a snippet from ‘Mr Moog’s Dancing Light Rats’, an ancient Decaying Leather song named for Pete and brother Guy’s childhood hamster, performed by their family band. 

Pet Projects is a collaborative project devised by writer and editor Peter Humphreys and artist and filmmaker Ana Rebolledo. 

More about today’s special guest: 

Award-winning filmmaker Karl Livingstone trained as a theatre actor before studying filmmaking at the University of Salford where he co-founded the Salford Film Society. He now runs the Seven Streets film production company in his native Liverpool alongside partner Catherine and partner-in-crime Selina. Their film ‘Wake’ (written and directed by Karl), set on the Mersey ferry and drawing on personal loss, won best narrative short at the Lancaster International Film Festival in 2024. Realised beautifully by a dedicated cast and crew, it also feature’s music by Karl’s father. Seven Streets’ follow-up, ‘Lucky Cat’ is currently in pre-production. Karl has also worked on music videos and is an outspoken advocate for the talent to be found in Liverpool and the north. His inspirations include Christopher Nolan, Hideaki Anno and Werner Herzog. 

You can find more about Karl’s work through these links >>>

Seven Streets on Instagram (@_sevenstreets_): https://www.instagram.com/_sevenstreets_/ 

Karl’s dad’s music on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1XfQ6vPTIUDAZmHfcgkRFw?si=2dtLKugbQ-WzWKoRmf7Edg 

A few more links to subject matter covered in the chat >>> 

Lancaster International Film Festival: https://totallylocallancaster.co.uk/liff/ 

Lessons of Darkness, a Werner Herzog film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMIM-ma2juo 

Interview with Werner Herzog on the Adam Buxton podcast: https://www.adam-buxton.co.uk/podcasts/rhwkafw2z2x3xe6-6ysb3

Pet Projects - Episode 1 - Karl Livingstone

For the fifth instalment of Pet Projects, we are thrilled to welcome Alice and Jeff to the show. Much in-demand as a highly original, multi-disciplinary artist, Alice Evans trained at the Royal College of Art and Chelsea College of Art, and now works from her studio in Lancaster, a city we are unembarrassed about singing the praises of during our chat. 

With at least as broad an outlook as her loyal, mischievous and museful cat, Jeff, Alice’s prodigious output encompasses filmmaking, painting, poetry, photography and music. Today, as well as the irascible Jeff, we focus on her band, The Arcane Hope, who have just released an eponymous album and performed their first gig. 

Snippets from the following Arcane Hope songs appear in the second half of the show: (30:35), The Best Sci=Fi (36:45), Do Not Cry (38:49), Laundry Isle (42:54) and Heavy Sky (50:49).  

Blessed with autumn sunshine, this episode was recorded outside at The Storey Institute’s gardens in the heart of Lancaster, where we suspect – without solid proof – that Jeff may have been watching/listening to us from a nearby tree…

Pet Projects is a collaborative project devised by writer and editor Peter Humphreys and artist and filmmaker Ana Rebolledo, who provides the artwork and video content. It is available on Spotify, SoundCloud, iTunes and elsewhere. If you’re enjoying the podcast please like, subscribe and share.

Links: 

Alice’s website: https://www.aliceevansfineart.co.uk 

Alice on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alice_evans_artist/ 

The Arcane Hope on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/0QK3c8S2OQ2SJrF34PFBgx 

Recent exhibitions and events involving Alice: https://www.aliceevansfineart.co.uk/recentexhibitions

Pet Projects - Episode 5 - Alice Evans

This is the 77th Ambient Sessions presented by Deep Electronics. The monthly released session brings you the best and the most diversity Ambient music can offer. This month Ocean in a Bottle makes his debute.

Bio:
Ocean in a Bottle is the solo ambient and drone project from Manchester (UK) based Andy N. 
Ocean in a Bottle was started in 2015, and since 2019 has being following a solitary, imaginary mostly instrumental journey mostly through Space using a mixture of ice sound, vocals and frozen ambient to take the listener through a journey that is unseen before in Space.

Ocean in a Bottle has had releases on labels such Ambient Online, Slightly Off Kilter, Off Records, Persitent Vegetative Records, Silber Media, HICC and Xylem among others.

Andy N is also a poet with four length poetry collections to his name, the most recent being 'The Streets were all we could see' and with his partner Amanda Steel 'The lockdown was all we could see'. 

He also is the host / co host of Podcasts such as Spoken Label, Reading in Bed, Comics Unity, Koll Andy N and Amanda, Wrestle Up and From Inner Room to Outer Space as well as doing a regular column for the Sunday Tribune. 

Tracklist:
01. Leaving Earth 
02. Angel Synth
03. First Patrol on Mars
04. Final Approach before landing on Mars
05. Letters to the future Part 1 and 2 (with Amanda Steel)
06. Space Dust
07. Neptune
08. Global Warming on Mars 2129 (part 6)
09. On Saturns Wings Part 1
10. Venus (with Amanda Steel)

image provided by Ocean in a Bottle
Design by Jeroen

1 - from 'Forbidden Love Volume 2'
(https://oceaninabottle.bandcamp.com/album/forbidden-love-in-space-volume-2-demos-alternative-takes-and-out-takes)
2 - From 'Forbidden Love Volume 4'
(https://oceaninabottle.bandcamp.com/album/forbidden-love-in-space-volume-2-demos-alternative-takes-and-out-takes)
3, 4 - From 'Ambient Online Themed Compilation 11 Mars' 
(https://ambientonline.bandcamp.com/album/ambient-online-themed-compilation-11-mars)
5 - From 'Letters to the future' 
(https://oceaninabottle.bandcamp.com/album/letters-to-the-future-part-1-and-2-by-ocean-in-a-bottle-featuring-amanda-steel)
6 - From 'dulect-business-news-two' 
(https://slightlyoffkilter.bandcamp.com/album/dulcet-business-news-2)
7 - From 'Re Imaging the Solar System' 
(https://stilll-off.bandcamp.com/album/reimaging-the-solar-system)
8 - From 'Global Warming on Mars 2129'
(https://oceaninabottle.bandcamp.com/album/global-warming-on-mars-2129)
9 - From 'On Saturn's Wings' 
(https://persistentvegetativestaterecords.bandcamp.com/album/on-saturns-wings)
10 - From 'Vocalising the Solar System' 
(https://stilll-off.bandcamp.com/album/vocalising-the-solar-system)

Links:
http://www.onewriterandhispc.blogspot.co.uk/
 
https://www.facebook.com/andynstorytellerpoet/
 
https://www.facebook.com/speakeasymanchester
 
https://www.thesundaytribune.com/author/andy-npoet/
 
https://www.facebook.com/Ocean-in-a-bottle-802773986422467/
 
https://oceaninabottle.bandcamp.com/
 
Podcasts Series: 
 
Spoken Label (Ongoing Podcast currently weekly or bi weekly 
features chats and sessions with lots of writers, artists and musicians). Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1640184132900821/
 
Reading in Bed (Monthly Podcast on Book Reviews with Amanda Steel - 
usually a hour long or so)
Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/readinginbed/
 
Koll, Andy N, Amanda (a short 15 minute podcast every Monday 
discussing poetry, literature and Nature - Weekly) On Youtube
 
Comics Unity (Monthly Podcast with Michael and Amanda on the latest in comics 
news and culture usually monthly but does have little episodes inbetween on the 
following networks - Bandcamp (Episodes 8 and before), Bandcamp (Episodes 9 and beyond), 
Itunes/Apple, Spotify, Breaker, Anchor, GooglePodcasts, 
Pocketcasts, Radiopublic, Youtube, Castbox, GooglePodcasts, Overcast, Castro
Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1366264170126341/

Ambient Sessions # 77 - Ocean In a Bottle

I'm a writer and editor based in Lancaster. Check out my podcasts Pet Projects (in which I interview creative types about their pets - and their projects), First Impressions (a surreal slice of literary cheesecake), and Monkey Scribbling (two older blokes reflect on their youth in the '90s through the letters they exchanged at the time). 

Pet Projects is a collaboration with Ana Rebolledo and Monkey Scribbling with Richard Pye. 

The family band I formed with my brother, Decaying Leather, in 1989 continues to write and record. Our music can also be found on SoundCloud and elsewhere.

Pet Projects - Episode 5 - Alice Evans

Peter Humphreys

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