Blog 69 – One Handshake from Fame – Ms Paige Turner tells a porkie pie on each blog. Spot this one and you will receive a free poetry assessment.
What do Barack Omama, Gavin Extence (winner of most debut novel awards) Noddy, Richard and Judy and Frankie Valli have in common?
Well, unbeknown to them all– barring Gavin – they have all been less than two Kevin Bacon steps from me in the last two weeks. There’s a theory that we are all only six acquaintances from the film star Kevin Bacon and the closer I can get to him the better quite frankly.
Let’s start with Obama. I had been trying to part with a great feature on the Ulutsha Theatre Company which is being founded in the township of Masiphumelele in Cape Town. When I discovered on Face Book that the founders had received a helicoptered visit by the President of the United States one recent Sunday evening – the feature was popular with editors on the Monday morning. See http://scenicsouth.co.za/2013/06/ulutsha-horizon-theatre-company-blossoming-in-masiphumelele-by-jan-moran-neil/ and alsohttp://www.thesouthafrican.com/entertainment/grassroots-theatre-dream-comes-alive-in-cape-town.htmThanks pal Earl Mentor for shaking hands with Barack last week.
I’ve interviewed Gavin Extence for a forthcoming feature in Writing Magazine on the very day that the winner of the Desmond Elliott Debut Novel award was announced. Gavin was runner up but he’s been winning so many awards for The Universe versus Alex Woods – we won’t worry and we’ll see him on Thursday 14th November at 11.00am at the Fitzwilliams Centre in Beaconsfield. Email me to book your £5 seat as it’s filling up.
Gavin’s also a Richard and Judy summer read. Summer is here and so was Richard and Judy at Chorleywood Bookshop talk last week. Richard was promoting his new book with gusto.
Last Saturday I was Noddy, Big Ears, Bumpy the Dog and the female car mechanic Lindi, at the Beaconsfield Library – for the Enid Blyton Celebration 100th Anniversary of the writer arriving in Beaconsfield. See forthcoming local press coverage and photo of moi as Noddy. Noddy was a taxi driver.
And finally, finally, Mister Justin Case, Master Mind and Miss Trial and I had almost front row seats at the Royal Albert Hall a couple of weeks ago. I shimmied to the front of the stage to ‘Let’s Hang on to What We’ve Got,’ and hung on to Frankie Valli’s hand, mouthing the words: I saw you in Denver last year.
After all this star gazing I had to go and lie down for a few days so I’ll be lying low until I get up and go to the Edinburgh Fringe in a couple of weeks.
Sign up for Creative Ink for Writers’ classes in November. Email for details and buy my book BLACKBERRY PROMISES on Amazon. Please leave a review if you have enjoyed.
One Handshake from Fame …
13/07/2013 // by Jan Moran Neil
My admiration for you grows and grows. As your path criss-crosses those of the rich, famous, richly-famous, and famously-rich I wonder if all of it is a whopping porkie and I can claim my prize. Perhaps not, though what the real porkie is this time I’ll have to ponder on and return with my stab in the dark later.
Ah … Mr Double Cream from Uxbridge – I have just left a message on your FB emails to ask
if we are still in dialogue: a huge relief that I have not been banished to a midlands city.
I owe you a poetry assessment for a back blog spot and ten quid so you’re quids in as they
may say. But as for meeting the high and mighty here – it’s all true.