‘Red Lipstick & Revelations’ Book Launch and ‘The Search for the Missing Reading Glasses.’
Many thanks to the 60 attendees who supported the Book Launch of my poetry collection ‘Red Lipstick & Revelations’. These days there are such demands on our time; the world is a small place and people travel but I am so grateful to those people who have or do belong to Creative Ink for Writers and Actors, Past and Present Rhyme & Reason Committee members, Quaker Poets, Cambridge and Royal Central School of Speech and Drama Alumni and friends and family who came along. (My 5 month old granddaughter attended and slept through most of our performance …)
Someone said – and was that the sexy Jess Cox or my sexy daughter Jen Dannhauser? – that attending a poetry recital on a Saturday night is. not. sexy. Well we all were sexy especially Jess and Jen who dazzled us in red and with their readings of poems by Jan Moran Neil. You can buy copies here if you haven’t already done so
http://www.indigodreams.co.uk/jan-moran-neil/4593516523
and book me for my show ‘Red Lipstick’.
I thoroughly enjoyed myself until I realised I had lost my reading glasses which will cost what I probably made on the sale of my books. But hey ho, I had a better time than if I had forked out for a party and tomorrow our Creative Ink ‘Get Inspired’ classes start and what do you know? I had planned to read Elizabeth Bishop’s villanelle – The Art of Losing. Much better to lose reading glasses than one’s sight. Look on the bright side if you can.

PS Comp copy of ‘Red Lipstick’ for anyone finding my glasses.

Blog 161 – ‘Red Lipstick & Revelations’ Book Launch and Reading – Saturday 22nd April.
I put this as my heading just in case anyone reads this and would like to come along to Barn Hall, Amersham Community Centre at 7.00 pm for 7.30 pm on this date. I will be reading along with a couple of Creative Ink for Actors for about an hour. There is a licensed bar, free entry and free car parking. Just let me know.
I’m just back from Cape Town where I met with the Fish Hoek Scribblers and my friend Sybil for whom I wrote a cinquain a few bi-months ago.

Sybil
Bold, Poetic.
Loving, writing, thinking
Of you, dear friend
Sybil.

She’s recovering well from her stroke and I am recovering from my Sudden Hearing Loss. (SHL) but more the steroids I was blasted with before I took flight to Cape Town. Susan Swart, a Tinnitus Specialist in Cape Town www.43deanstreet.co.za told me that the body has an amazing ability to heal itself.
Creative Ink ‘Get Inspired’ classes this term are full with a waiting list. The theme is Time. It’s a great healer. The sun helps too. Isn’t it good to see it has its hat on today?
Here’s the link for the Rhyme & Reason entry form for poetry (which I am judging) and prose. Theme: Freedom. Closing date: June 1st.
http://www.renniegrove.org/docs/default-source/event-pdfs/rhyme-and-reason-entry-form-2017.pdf

Happy First Mothers’ Day to Miss Trial and Mothers for whom this is the First Mothers’ Day. The Early Months can be a trial. But we are mad about Maddie. So happy First Nanas’ Day to me.

2 places left on the Creative Ink ‘Get Inspired’ course beginning on Tuesday 25th April for 5 weeks excluding May 23rd and May 30th. Email me for details.
Free Entry to Creative Ink for Actors reading from my poetry collection on Saturday 22nd April at Barn Hall, Amersham Community Centre – 7.00 pm for 7.30 pm. Let me know if you and friends would like to come.

My Marlow FM 97.5 Radio Interview with the inimitable Diarmaid Fitzpatrick
Mr Red Hat (who manages my website and is one of my oldest friends – no – I mean one of my longest standing friends) had uploaded my Marlow FM 97.5 Radio interview with Diarmaid Fitzpatrick. It can be accessed by hitting the button at the left hand button on the home page of my website.
The first person to discover the word for the constant condition I have will get a free poem appraisal. I hope that has whetted your appetite to listen to me reading my poetry from my recently published ‘Red Lipstick & Revelations’ published by Indigo Dreams Publishing and to stay to the end of the interview and discover which word I forgot to mention. Clue: worse things have happened at sea to people – the trouble is the sea is in my head.
I must now go and bath the baby. No – I mean – I really must go and bath my granddaughter: Madeleine Lily.
3 places left on the Creative Ink ‘Get Inspired’ course beginning on Tuesday 25th April for 5 weeks excluding May 23rd and May 30th. Email me for details.
Free Entry to Creative Ink for Actors reading from my poetry collection on Saturday 22nd April at Barn Hall, Amersham Community Centre – 7.00 pm for 7.30 pm. Let me know if you and friends would like to come.

You can catch me reading from my collection ‘Red Lipstick & Revelations’ published by www.indigodreams.co.uk on www.marlowfm.co.uk being interviewed by the inimitable Diarmaid Fitzpatrick. Marlow FM Radio 97.5. MId-Morning Matters/Friday 17th February – 10.00 am/Listen Again.

Thanks to all who have said they are coming to the signing and reading of ‘Red Lipstick & Revelations’ on Saturday 22nd April at Barn Hall, Amersham Community Centre – 7.00 pm for 7.30 pm. Free entry. Licensed Bar. Let me know if you even think you might be able to make it.

There are 4 places left on the ‘Get Inspired’ Tuesday morning classes beginning April 25th for 5 weeks to exclude May 23rd and May 30th. £170 to include 3000 word assessment, coffee and biscuits.

‘Get that Book’ arrangement – £120 for 4000 words including synopsis and one and a quarter hour one to one consultation.

Bread Pudding Days by Jan Moran Neil

On soggy days
when the rain spits
my mother’s house is filled
with the warmth of cinnamon sticks,
rich dried fruit
and softly sifted sugar.
She folds and wraps our words:
– the bargain cost of my orange gloves
– the price we paid for our lost loves
– our woeful tales of wicked hate
– our splendid plans to be great.
All are measured, sieved, considered
for their mixed worth
baked into something sturdy,
crusty, spongy and deeply palatable.
And in that cooking fragrance
– the weight and varied textures
touching half remembered edges –
my mother’s syllables and smiles stretch on:
a balm against the greying bits,
a refuge against the rain which spits.

For Muriel – 10.6.22. – 14.2.01.

You can buy my poetry collection ‘Red Lipstick & Revelations’ here.

http://www.indigodreams.co.uk/jan-moran-neil/4593516523

Book Reading and Signing at Barn Hall, Amersham Community Centre on Saturday 22nd April – 7.00 pm for 7.30 pm. Licensed Bar. Free Entry. Email me.

4 places left on the Tuesday ‘Get Inspired’ Creative Ink for Writers’ summer term starting 25th April for 5 weeks to exclude 23rd and 30th May. Email me.

Book Reading by Jan and Creative Ink for Actors and Signing of Jan Moran Neil’s

‘Red Lipstick & Revelations’ Poetry Collection published by Indigo Dreams Publishing.

http://www.indigodreams.co.uk/jan-moran-neil/4593516523 (You can order here now if you wish.)

At: Barn Hall, Amersham Community Centre HP6 5AH

On: Saturday 22nd April at 7.00 pm for 7.30 pm start

Car Parking, Licensed Bar, Free Entry. Books are £7.99.

I would love you to come and re-unite with Creative Ink Writers, Actors and Techies. Please email me if you would like me to reserve seats.

Blog 155 – A Cinquain for Sybil by Ms Paige Turner
Here is a cinquain:

Sybil,
Bold, poetic.
Loving, writing, thinking …
Of you, dear friend
Sybil.

The first line is a name.
The second line is two adjectives describing the first line.
The third line is three verbs ending in ‘ing’
The fourth line is a sentence of four words or more. (My fourth line is not a complete sentence but I cheat.)
The fifth line is one word.

That’s the technique. Here’s the emotion. Sybil has had a stroke. I have been enriched by knowing this wonderful woman. Like Shakespeare, I would be diminished by the not knowing of this person. I can’t wait to see her on my next trip to Cape Town.
Creative Ink Tuesday ‘Get Inspired’ classes are back on their new term with a waiting list and an all consuming theme of ‘Food’. The ‘Get that Book Out of You’ arrangement has some spaces. Email me if interested.

Dancing …
I hope the New Year brings you all you wish for yourself and that you danced into 2017. I didn’t. The twisted nerve syndrome was however alleviated by Poetry with the Quakers yesterday. The theme was ‘Dancing’ so I chose Belloc’s ‘Tarantella’ and then read my own poem ‘Dressed to Kill’ which was inspired by Hilaire’s own and something I used to do before Twisted Nerve Syndrome. ‘Dressed to Kill’ will be in my collection ‘Red Lipstick & Revelations’ published by Indigo Dreams and will be on the shelves shortly. (Cover is in creation.) The twisted nerve was probably also alleviated by New Year Ginger Wine which was provided. Quakers know how to dance and party.
Tuesdays/Get Inspired beginning on January 10th for five weeks is now full. (Thank you, Maureen for taking the last place. Blog notifications really do work and we welcome you to Creative Ink!) But if you are interested in coming and tasting email me.
There are still some places left on the ‘Get that Book’ arrangement – £120 for 4000 words and a one and a quarter hour consultation.

Blog 153 – Twisted Nerve
Dear Three Blog Readers – Here I am writing on the darkest day of the year. Yesterday was Miss Trial’s 30th birthday and our NCT group of 1986 have been seeking out those thirty years. Usually at this time I go Turkey Counselling but I’ve been busy teaching Maddie, the new granddaughter, ‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas’ and ‘Lili Marlene’. At almost four weeks she knows both songs and I may christen her Ms Einstein. We’ll see. Time will tell or as WH Auden said, ‘Time will say nothing but I told you so’.
We had a Roaring Red Workshop at Ms Irish’s house last week. Ms Irish hosts these private evening workshops which are ‘by invitation only’. Email me if you would like one. Ms Irish and I will decide shortly on next year’s theme for these evening workshops and I will post on here. This year it was ‘Colour’ and we had a rainbow of a time despite the fact that on the last workshop I had twisted a nerve in my back which has affected my left leg. That will teach me to go lifting Christmas trees. But what a great title for a short story.
There is one place left on Creative Ink for Writers’ course (Get Inspired) beginning Tuesday 10th January for five weeks at the Fitzwilliams Centre, Beaconsfield. £170 to include up to 3000 word assessment, copious hand outs and coffee and biscuits. Email me for more info’. I wonder who will take the last place?