Harry O'Byrne, the Lion of my Life
My father passed away on the 15th of July, and that has still to fully sink in with me, it’s too raw for me to think about properly and my brain shuts that side down if I start to think about it. There will come a time I’m sure. But the one thing I have learnt from it is to make the most of every day now, to keep feeding the fire of creativity. To stop thinking about it and get on with it. After The Haunting of Blaine Manor tour in October and November I’m going straight into producing and directing the next short film in the Tales from Paradise Heights series, The Last Drop, it’s a winter’s tale. I'm also going to be working with Darren McGinn and Justin Wetheril on the animated short The Night Death Put Me Down - see below's update.
Tales from Paradise Heights is yet to hit London, that’s all going to change in the new year, I’m looking for venues both for that series of plays and for The Haunting of Blaine Manor, that play is at the London Horror Festival in November. As well as that I’m trying to organise my first art exhibition.
On top of this there were two very favourite characters of mine from my play and novel The Bench.
Eric. The homeless guy. He’s a poet and a king, a lost soul, a man that carries a torch for Gabrielle, the burn scarred shoplifter that lives on the streets and in the hostels, an unrequited love for her burns in his heart. He’s a man with worldly experience - but what brought him here? A battle scarred lion of the streets. I like him, there’s a lot of me there.
And Gabrielle. The burn scarred orphan who grew up in the shadow of The Heights. She dresses to hide her burns, to shield her from looks that would find those scars, she hides her sexuality, but there’s such an inner beauty with her. Frank Morgan destroyed her family and almost her too. She’s a street thief, a shop lifter, an artist. She found Eric, but she’s not sure what she’s found. To me they represent the couple from The Pogues and Kirsty McColl’s A Fairy Tale of New York. I’m currently story lining another Tale from Paradise Heights, a play, it’s called Banshee...and it will be a story of Eric and Gabrielle.
There’s a fire lit under me now and it’s not going to go out. I have so much more I want to do, to say, to express in so many different forms, I feel like I have only scratched the surface. I’m going to be busier than I have ever been before, I am seriously committed to that now. Before the light bulb starts to get dim there are a lot more characters, stories and canvas’ that need to find the light. And I’m dedicating the lot to Dad.
The Bench - The Novel
I was very fortunate this week to be interviewed by the lovely poet and columnist Emily Oldfield, the Editorial Assistant and Writer for ilovemanchester.com
Emily has a deep love of music and poetry and of Manchester's cultural history, writing many well researched articles and colourful reviews of musical gigs, poetry and spoke word, theatre and film. She also covers food and fashion and has many excellent articles throughout the site. It's safe to say that Emily has her finger firmly on the pulse of of Manchester's Creative Culture. Click the link below to view Emily's writings for ilovemanchester.com
ilovemanchester.com/author/emilyoldfield
What shines though clearly is Emily's love for all things creative and for the City of Manchester, it's voices like hers that really help the creative(s) of Manchester find a wider audience.
We talked mainly about my novel, The Bench and of Tales from Paradise Heights, the interview is at the link below.
ilovemanchester.com/2017/09/07/meet-man-whos-called-scorsese-salford.aspx
Thank you Emily and thank you ilovemanchester
A quick word on the novel itself, which you can purchase for the princely sum of £3.49 at Amazon.co.uk
It's not easy being an unknown writer on Amazon, or any site where you are trying to sell your book online. I'm a first time author there and I'm among 700,000 other novelists, many of them first time writers too, you're a grain of sand in a sand storm. If you're unknown it is of course difficult to get anyone to buy your book, to read it. New writers are encouraged to run campaigns from time to time where they give the novel away, with the hopes of gaining reviews, which in turn it would be hoped would generate further sales.
I tried this, announcing that if people downloaded something I had worked on for so long for free, would they in turn do me the courtesy of writing a short two or three lined review on the novel. Out of one hundred and thirty seven free downloads of the book I received two reviews. Now whilst it's nice that twelve of my thus far thirteen reviews at he time of writing are 5 star, it's disheartening to see so few reviews come in for it - and of course I'm giving it away! Dad would go mad.
I don't think I'm going to be giving it away anymore, £3.49 is a fair price for the endeavour I put in. I hope you download it and I really hope you enjoy it, but of course be honest in your reviews. You can download the novel by clicking the link below, and thank you if you do Dear Reader, it's a fabulous introduction to the world of Tales from Paradise Heights, but don't take my word for it, check the reviews.
www.amazon.co.uk/Bench-Tale-Paradise-Heights-Tales-ebook/dp/B013VNYZOY
Emily has a deep love of music and poetry and of Manchester's cultural history, writing many well researched articles and colourful reviews of musical gigs, poetry and spoke word, theatre and film. She also covers food and fashion and has many excellent articles throughout the site. It's safe to say that Emily has her finger firmly on the pulse of of Manchester's Creative Culture. Click the link below to view Emily's writings for ilovemanchester.com
ilovemanchester.com/author/emilyoldfield
What shines though clearly is Emily's love for all things creative and for the City of Manchester, it's voices like hers that really help the creative(s) of Manchester find a wider audience.
We talked mainly about my novel, The Bench and of Tales from Paradise Heights, the interview is at the link below.
ilovemanchester.com/2017/09/07/meet-man-whos-called-scorsese-salford.aspx
Thank you Emily and thank you ilovemanchester
A quick word on the novel itself, which you can purchase for the princely sum of £3.49 at Amazon.co.uk
It's not easy being an unknown writer on Amazon, or any site where you are trying to sell your book online. I'm a first time author there and I'm among 700,000 other novelists, many of them first time writers too, you're a grain of sand in a sand storm. If you're unknown it is of course difficult to get anyone to buy your book, to read it. New writers are encouraged to run campaigns from time to time where they give the novel away, with the hopes of gaining reviews, which in turn it would be hoped would generate further sales.
I tried this, announcing that if people downloaded something I had worked on for so long for free, would they in turn do me the courtesy of writing a short two or three lined review on the novel. Out of one hundred and thirty seven free downloads of the book I received two reviews. Now whilst it's nice that twelve of my thus far thirteen reviews at he time of writing are 5 star, it's disheartening to see so few reviews come in for it - and of course I'm giving it away! Dad would go mad.
I don't think I'm going to be giving it away anymore, £3.49 is a fair price for the endeavour I put in. I hope you download it and I really hope you enjoy it, but of course be honest in your reviews. You can download the novel by clicking the link below, and thank you if you do Dear Reader, it's a fabulous introduction to the world of Tales from Paradise Heights, but don't take my word for it, check the reviews.
www.amazon.co.uk/Bench-Tale-Paradise-Heights-Tales-ebook/dp/B013VNYZOY
I'll be writing a more in-depth peace to my Dad on here soon, something deserving of the Lion in Life that he was. He's still here, in my blood and in my beating heart.
Joe x
Joe x
RSS Feed
