October Roundup
Going in to this month, it didn’t seem like a lot was happening, and now we’re here, at the end, and I’ve had so many wonderful, busy days, plenty of surprises. Hope you had a great October - and Happy Halloween to those who celebrate.
I’ll be celebrating this evening attending the launch party of Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans’s graphic novel We Called Them Giants, a final London event to cap off this month of definitely-worthwhile commutes. I’ve been to so many wonderful events - films, music, writing of all sorts, meeting new people, seeing new things, gathering many treasured artefacts, and I feel so fortunate to have been able to experience it all. (This’ll be a long one.)
The first of this month’s stand-out London days was perhaps the artiest day of my life. It started out well.
I got to see something I've written properly on a shelf for the first time - my Rex & Roll article on the cover of Star Wars Insider 227! I did indeed have a peek inside!
Then I checked out the British Museum’s new Silk Roads exhibition. It was fantastically laid out from Korea to the UK, and I learnt so much about the different cultures across that network. Here are some photogenic highlights, otherwise we’d be here all day (as I was):
The lower cylinders features Daniel in the den, which leads nicely into the main reason for going to London that day.
I attended an incredible screening of Marianne and Leonard: Words of Love, a documentary by Nick Broomfield who actually knew the couple who met on the dreamy Greek island of Hydra. It was my first time visiting Battersea and I loved what they’ve done with the inside - touchscreen maps and escalators with visible workings, but also the old beams and machinery still lingering.
I highly recommend the Cinema in the Power Station too. It was very comfortable and a great venue - because I didn’t just see the film, a love story that was moving beyond words, even the quote that bookended the experience. I went in knowing little about Leonard Cohen but came out with an intimate knowledge of his life. After the film, there was a Q&A with Nick, who was joined by Bastille lead singer Dan Smith! One of Dan’s latest songs is based on the film, and the main reason I attended was to see him play it live. I got a lot more than that though!
With free drinks, we gathered around a piano while Dan played his song Leonard & Marianne. When he finished, I realised I was standing next to Emma Nagouse, the academic who helped Dan research historical figures for the Ampersand album, and co-hosts the required listening Muses: An Ampersand Podcast! It was such an uplifting and inspiring day and I was so glad to meet everyone, having proper chats with Dan and Nick and the amazing people who organised the event.
So yes, an arty day - writing, ancient artefacts and culture, film, music and creative chats. And all of those things foreshadowed the rest of the month!
I won’t bore you with all my photos of rock, but I had a fun exploratory walk on Oldbury Hill in Kent, finding the caves where ancient tools were found. All I had to go off was a photo I’d taken of an old book that mentioned the site, a dodgy diagram really, and some online instructions.
I spotted lots of cave art, all of which was modern, and plenty of spiders, which are probably ancient beasts. Apparently I had been to the site in my childhood, but couldn’t remember a thing, so it was great fun seeing the ancient trackway and following the impressive iron age ramparts (probably more impressive in person).
A week after that first great London day, I was back again for a mirror day. I took my parents round Silk Roads, but for the first time when I’ve been there, the British Museum’s incredible reading room space was open to the public. It’s an amazing space in the centre of the museum which hasn’t really changed since its opening in 1857.
After that it was off to HMV for James Blunt’s (or Blunty McBluntface’s as he was almost called, long story) signing for the 20 year anniversary edition of Back to Bedlam.
That album is the only one that has existed in my mind since before I can remember. It came out when I was two years old, though it was on long family round trip holidays when I apparently wanted it on repeat. I rediscovered James and his all music since during lockdowns, but it was great to tell him my connection to that special album.
“Engrained, whether you like it or not!” he said.
And as I left the store, James’s music was playing, specifically the song Same Mistake from his second album.
Walk out the door and up the street, look at the stars
Oh, look at the stars fall down
Plus we popped in the Oxford Street Disney shop for the first time, with a whole floor dedicated to Marvel and Star Wars, with so many comics, and some artefacts.
Then it was off to Bristol for a long weekend!
The main reason for me to go was to visit English Heritage’s Archaeology Store for the South West/West as a part of my volunteering at North Leigh Roman Villa.
The team of curators and conservators were so welcoming, and curator Ian Leins didn’t just show us all the artefacts from our site, to go on display/be digitised, but gave us four visitors a lovely tour of the whole facility. It was like a modernised version of the end of the first Indiana Jones! Most of it was stonework or boxes, along with all the environmental controls, but this was a more visually interesting miscellaneous aisle.
As someone interested in a lot of history and having visited many of EH’s site, there were so many treats. I felt very privileged to be there.
They had so many more finds from the site than I knew existed, like a bone comb, some painted pottery, a very nice intact coin. The amount of finds was amazing, and Ian also showed us some star finds from another nearby villa, like a super well-preserved swiss-army-knife-like bath set, and this reconstructed piece of wall plaster, matching exactly the decorations mentioned in the 1816 excavations at North Leigh!
Most of North Leigh’s artefacts that they have are from 20th century work, including a fantastic paper archive. It was somewhat surreal to flip through the original paper and pencil notebooks, mentioning what was found in each section of each numbered room. Seeing all the old photos, the shorthand descriptions, yet to be typed up anywhere…
But that’s enough of that. On the way back to Bristol from the archives, we checked out Stanton Drew, the third largest stone circle in the UK. The incredible site is actually three circles, two avenues, a henge and a cove, pictured above. It’s a fascinating site with its massive central circle and two outer ones, one of which was made of massive stones. The short avenues run on a collision course for the large and smaller circle, heading towards where the Chew may have flowed, similar to Stonehenge’s (and Woodhenge’s) connection to the Avon.
Much of Bristol I’d seen before, but the Gaia exhibition in the cathedral was a wonder.
The world there seemed a similar size to the massive moon we saw that night, which reminds me of catching the aurora borealis for the first time in my life this month too!
If that wasn’t enough, Ampersand Studios was announced, a special one day only event for the release of the latest Bastille Presents album, Ampersand. If you like stories of any sort, it’s an album for you, each track showcasing a pair of people or ideas or a combination of the two, stories lost or twisted by history.
Most of you wouldn’t be as interested as me to see all the artefacts there behind the album’s creation, like all the test printings, song charts, Dan’s guitar, the frame and painting from the Blue Sky & The Painter music video, and all the photo opportunities… but what I will share is the amazing fact Dan brought the books that he read to inspire the album, ready on a shelf for anyone to browse.
And browse I did! On the left is that famous photo of Marianne and Leonard, nice to see their faces again. As a writer/reader, it was fascinating to see which pages had been bookmarked in that Radioactive book, research for the song about Marie Curie. I read the entirety of the Pirate Queen picture book about Zheng Yi Sao, the same copy Dan brought on the podcast last week! And I went in and out of the studios four times that day, and in such a lucky twist of fate I found two tickets to the sold out show at Shepherd's Bush, flicking through that Munch graphic novel!!! Reading pays off!
But that was just the cherry on the cake for that special day. Meeting Dan again at the signing, after a detailed QnA and a song on his guitar, was of course amazing and he’s always generous with his time.
Behind him at that desk are original prints from artist Harriet Bruce, who produced incredible pieces for each song on the album, featured in lyric videos, on the podcast and within the CD and vinyls. It said on the ad that she’d be there doing live illustrations throughout the day. On my second trip in, I caught her just warming up with a sketch of someone, but throughout the day she used more inks. Anyway, she was lovely to talk to and I said I’d come back later. Flash forward to when I was frantically looking on my phone when I won the concert tickets, and I turned to talk to the people at the coffee desk when I heard my name. It was Harriet, telling me to stay where I was. Then a minute or so later, she handed me the brilliant portrait below, pictured beside all my goodies from the day.
So that was special, to be sketched by the same hand as all the incredible pieces for the songs. I have to thank all the staff there, especially the members of Dan’s music team from varying studios who were there to greet and help everyone, organisers I suppose but a few of them, including Dan’s manager, gave me a round of applause when I gave my name for the QnA guest list, as they recognised me as the ticket winner!
What was even more special was Harriet taking the time, while I was in the signing queue, to do a special drawing, actually asked for by me, of my father to be the cover for his birthday card (which was the next day). She loved the idea, and so drew from my phone, and then, as shown by his facial expression on the signing photo above, Dan liked it too, so properly personalised the card to my dad on the inside, with a Happy Birthday too.
It was really a day showing how kind people can be, and I suppose how art brings people together…
You’re probably checking your watches but we have one more big day to go!
I had another great time at MCM comic con, seeing so many familiar faces (like Stark Holborn, Paul Cornell, Matt Garvey, Alison Sampson, Richard Perry…) and some new ones, as well as some great displays from franchises I love.
A major highlight was The Electric State panel with the Russo brothers and Stanley Tucci, plus their robot friends and a video message from Milly Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt. In that hall, I was amongst the first in the UK, and some of the first in the world, to see scenes and bts from the upcoming Netflix movie.
The film’s based on Simon Stalenhag’s book of the same name. I’ve liked the Swedish artist’s retro-sci-fi works for years, even based one of my final GCSE art pieces on his work, so being amongst some of the first in the world to see it brought to life in animatronics and on the big screen was pretty special. But then there's all the goodies. I was lucky enough to see the instagram post from AGBO films and Doaly, and meet some members of the crew, receiving the con-exclusive poster, a pin, some classy stickers, and the regular poster signed by the directors and the film’s two leads!
But the day was about a lot more than material goods. Chatting with Emily Rose was perhaps the nicest signing table conversation I've had. We had a lovely conversation about my writing, and her time on the show. Though in the ten years since I've watched it, Haven's a little foggy in my mind, I still remember it as some of the best TV storytelling with its mystery and mythos, something which perhaps more subconsciously inspired my writing. I named The Watcher from my Diamond Dimensions Universe Mara after the character from the show! ‘Keep creating!’
I'm grateful too for the time Emma Vieceli gave me for a longer 'industry chat'. And it was lovely to meet Jim Zub after all the hours he's put into helping others online with his blog and comics school YouTube, educating and inspiring me to get into the medium earlier this year, before my other writing took off!
Since then, I’ve been catching up with stuff here on my laptop, and also attended my fourth (as I also tuned into a live concert) talk by Dan Smith this month, this time about his time with Greenpeace on the Sargasso sea which you can read about, and sign the open letter for the UK government to join the UN’s treaty to protect the ocean, here.
Writing Update
The best news of the month was receiving the online feedback from the readers/judges of the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize Author of Tomorrow Award. My story was commended and garnered lovely responses, such as:
"The sense of place is a really strong area for this author. The descriptions of the land are beautiful, and really draw you into the world of the story. I felt completely transported."
"This story is beautifully written. I'd say the descriptive language and imagery is exceptional."
"There’s so much creativity and promise in this writing. I encourage the author to keep experimenting with ideas and developing their skills. I think this writer has real talent."
My first time receiving any sort of professional feedback like that on my writing, I was reasonably chuffed. I’m very thankful to those involved and it was highly motivating - then receiving this in the post was a massive cherry on top!
I just entered another writing prize a couple of days ago so fingers crossed on that one too!
I also released two articles for VloggerBeat this month. That’s a link to my author page on their site. (A click on each article would be much appreciated!) I finished my guide to jacksepticeye’s ALTRVERSE with a part 3 all about the comics, but before that wrote in detail on his and Bad Egg’s New York Comic Con offerings, unintentionally breaking news that was shared far and wide in the fan community!
I’d heard artist Suzi Blake mentioned the panels would be livestreamed on a stream where she herself was guest, and so put it into my article. Little did I know it would get such a reaction, so I promptly credited her. Sadly, I think only one panel was recorded, and neither streamed in the end! But when that recording goes up there’ll definitely be another article for me!
Early on in the month, and writing related though not to my writing, this wonderful swag delivery came from Beth Revis. It was so kind of her to send these out internationally to celebrate her latest book Full Speed To A Crash Landing. And she’s giving away a free book at the moment on her newsletter! But look at all that gorgeous art, including one of the characters from another of Beth’s books set in medieval Trier, a city I’ve written about in Roman times.
Another major highlight of this month has been receiving lovely guest posts for A Long Time Ago… On the 6th, I released my final showcase of Star Wars shelves and ancient sites that’ve inspired my writing, #14.
Then it was time to hand over to Amy Ratcliffe as the great first guest! I love how varied everyone’s picks have been so far for favourite Star Wars story and favourite historical site. I can’t wait to share all the next ones with you, every other Sunday!
I’ve recruited a few more at MCM ready for the new year too. And the offer goes out to anyone reading this, if you like the format and would like to contribute, please get in touch!
This month's books
This segment showcases the new additions to my research and fiction collections.
Due to last month’s events, this was an especially large delivery, with the last two issues of the incredible runs of Star Wars and Darth Vader which started in 2020. Plus double Ahsoka, and some dark side fun.
If that wasn’t enough comics (if such a thing exists), I feel very lucky to own these two virgin (no text) variant covers of the two ALTRVERSE issue ones. Hoping to one day own the NYCC exclusive variants, I hopped on Forbidden Planet and saw these two. There must be other copies in existence, but I think they’re a one in twenty or something order incentive for shops, which not many will get from Bad Egg’s small press, despite jacksepticeye’s online popularity. I can find one other instance online, but they may well be the only copies in the UK!
My physical copies of the issue 2s also arrived, but I have yet to even open the package as I read the digital editions the moment they came out for my VloggerBeat guide!
And then here’s all the other stuff. The six cards round the edge were lovely gifts for the British Museum’s members fortnight - each one is a different department curator’s favourite artefact, with text on the back about each person and object. That same first BM day, I picked up MAUS after hearing so many good things. It was the first graphic novel to win the Pulitzer.
The Millennium Falcon Owner’s Workshop Manual and the Ravenna book were thoughtful finds from my mother. After visiting Silk Roads, the incredible mosaics I saw in Ravenna were on my mind so it’s nice to have a proper memento all about them. And I remember wanting that manual when I was just really getting into Star Wars as a child!
And I’ve been subscribed to comics writer Brian K. Vaughn’s newsletter for quite a while, so it was great to see 3/5 of the deluxe edition collections of his series out in the wild in Bristol. I looked into the series more as it’s a good potential comp for my own comic…
And that's the end of this month’s roundup. Thank you so much to everyone that reads these, all the way to the end. Please share with your friends and family and ask them to subscribe - that would mean the world to me. I do love sharing my various exploits with you all, and would treasure having more people with me on my writing (and life) journey.
Cheers,
Harvey