Wildlife

I've been meaning to get into foraging for ages... so we went and picked some wild garlic and ate it... My new favourite flower... Bleeding Heart... Stealth Cat Take 2: we're happy to have a new house visitor in Ziggy and flowering rosemary and sweet bay in the garden...

I went along to The Lonely Crowd launch at Waterloo Tea @ The Whyndham Arcade. This is a lovely looking new short story and poetry journal produced by John Lavin (Fiction Editor at Wales Arts Review). The first issue features a number of writers that Parthian publishes and on the night Carole Burns, Gary Raymond and Nigel Jarrett all read. Here are some snaps... I'm currently reading:

This weekend we've mostly been cleaning the old flat... Mission accomplished... onwards!

Lovely to see so many Rarebit writers and friends featuring in Seren's New Welsh Short Stories...   and to hear Joe Dunthorne, Cynan Jones and Eluned Gramich read a few of my favourites at our London local The Wheatsheaf in Fitzrovia. New Welsh Short Stories (Seren, 2015) Rarebit: New Welsh Fiction (Parthian, 2014)

Car trouble may have prevented a few of our Parthian Rarebits getting to Laugharne, but local poets and the brilliant band The Newly Deads pitched in to help our sessions sing and dance as planned and I read some new work too. Thanks to Francesca Rhydderch and Damian Walford Davies for my lift from Carmarthen Station and Jo and Jo for the lift back... and to The Tin Shed for being a brilliant venue, as ever, and my free drinks... and to Sion Tomos Owen, Tyler Keevil and Georgia Carys Williams and their cars for not breaking down!

Also I have been unpacking things and found this old school report...

I organised a pop-up short story festival to celebrate the launch of Carole Burns' short story collection The Missing Woman and other stories (and her birthday) and also celebrate the release of Goldfish Memory, a new English translation of the bestselling stories of German author Monique Schwitter by Cardiff-based translator and writer Eluned Gramich. Mark Blayney and Richard wain Roberts, who are both based in Cardiff and both have story collections forthcoming with Parthian also performed... Here are some snaps... Parthian Editorial Assistant Ruth Mullineux wrote us a brilliant blog about the event too .