Alternative Stories and Fake Realities

At the height of the UK's lockdown Holly travels to Cornwall to visit her family. As she learns more about the folklore and customs of the county her story becomes enmeshed with that of Hedrek, a hurler from Cornwall's distant past.

In the Silver Ball by Anna Chorlton you heard, in order of appearance

Tim Cartwright As Conan
Michael Fenner as the Vicar of St Cleer
Jowan Jacobs as Hedrek
Jamie Trotter as Jago
Tiffany Clare as Holly
Kate Edney as Helen
Carly Barnes as Amy and Heather
And Sally Walker-Taylor as Mary

Other voices were played by members of the cast

The music in The Silver Ball was arranged and performed by Mike O’Connor based on traditional Cornish tunes. Additional music is by Chris Gregory

Production, sound design and soundscapes were by Chris Gregory
Sound effects are from Freesound.org
The presenter of this podcast is Sally Walker Taylor

If you would like to find out more about the author of The Silver Ball, the Cornish poet and folklorist Anna Cholrton You can follow her on twitter here https://twitter.com/anna_chorlton
And visit her website here http://www.annachorlton.com/

All the locations and customs mentioned in the story are based on real sites and events in Cornwall. We’ll be chatting to Anna about hurling and especially about Cornwall’s many stone circles and the folklore associated with them in a future edition of the podcast.

We would like to thank all of our actors for taking part in The Silver Ball. Most of the lines you heard were delivered by Cornish actors or actors with a strong connection to the county, recording from their homes. Recording took place before the UK’s lockdown restrictions eased, using the actors’ own recording equipment. If the sound quality varies slightly we apologise and hope this doesn’t interfere with your enjoyment of the story.

We’d also like to thank composer and musician Mike O’Connor for supplying the stunning music you heard in this drama. You can find out more about Mike, his music and storytelling here http://www.lyngham.co.uk/mike_oconnor.html

Finally, we'd like to thank Anne Hughes, Harriet Chorlton, Les Harris and St Column Hurling.

If this has been your first time listening to Alternative Stories and Fake Realities please subscribe to hear more of our audio drama poetry and fiction podcasts the moment they are released.

Follow us on twitter for news of forthcoming releases and to interact with the podcast, our actors and writers https://twitter.com/StoriesAlt

You can also follow us on Instagram here https://www.instagram.com/stories.alt/

If you are a writer wishing to submit a script or an actor wishing to audition please contact us via email at [email protected]

In this special edition we’ll be listening to poems from four regular contributors to the podcast and hearing a little about their approaches to writing poetry.

The presenter is Sally Walker-Taylor
Sound recordings in this podcast were made by the contributors and sound design, mixing and music were by Chris Gregory

The poems in this podcast are

Binder’s Blue by Marie Claire Wood
The Afternoon Route by TAK Erzinger
Bellwether by Kevan Mawaring
Little Red Morrigan by Sarra Culleno
Kintsugi in the Age of Social Media by Marie-Claire Wood
Chemical Bonds by TAK Erzinger
Calving of the Berg by Kevan Manwaring
Ab-Zohr’s Temple Sonnet (Offering To The Waters) by Sarra Culleno
My Mother’s Dresser by Marie-Claire Wood
Canto de mi Sangre (Song of My Blood) by TAK Erzinger
Choices by Kevan Manwaring
The Beach-Goers by Sarra Culleno

Marie-Claire Wood is an actor, writer, model and presenter. She has presented several episodes of Alternative Stories and appeared in our dramas Backdrop. Hare Spell and Out of The Darkness for which she was a co-writer. She is an accomplished poetry reader and can be heard reading poems by Phoebe Stuckes and Maria-Taylor in series 3 of Alt Stories and as the lead voice in our audiobook version of the Invisible Borders anthology by Hypatia Publications. Marie-Claire will be appearing in the new audio drama series Small Gods soon.

Find out more about Marie-Claire and follow her on twitter here https://twitter.com/MarieClaireWood

TAK Erzinger is an American Swiss writer with Colombian background currently living in Switzerland. Her collection “At The Foot of The Mountain” has recently been published by Floricanto Press and is available to buy via links in TAK’s twitter feed and from Amazon. TAK was the writer of our recent audio drama “Stella’s Constellation” which was based on part of an upcoming novel. She is also an accomplished artist and has contributed poems to our “Through The Trees” anthology.

Find out more about TAK and follow her on twitter here https://twitter.com/ErzTak

Dr Kevan Manwaring is a Senior Lecturer in creative writing at the Arts University in Bournemouth. The author of many works of fiction and poetry he was the writer of our audio drama Black Box which was based on his award-winning novel of the same name. A committed ecologist and writer in the field of climate fiction, Kevan also contributed to our special edition on that subject as well as to out discussion on folklore recently. We are planning further projects with Kevan and you should follow him (and us) to find out more about them.

Follow Kevan on twitter here https://twitter.com/bardicacademic

And visit his website here https://thebardicacademic.wordpress.com/

Sarra Culleno may be best known to Alternative Stories listeners as one of the writing team behind our acclaimed audio drama Hare Spell. That drama was partly inspired by Sarra’s original story The Hares of Horsenden Hill which we also dramatised alongside Hare Spell. Sarra has contributed poetry to a number of editions of the podcast and we are incredibly proud and pleased to announce that her debut short fiction collection “Bonds” will be published later this year. We’ll hear much more about that on Alternative Stories soon.

Follow Sarra on twitter here https://twitter.com/sarra1978

We hope you enjoy listening to poems from all four contributors.

In this edition we chat with historical novelist Fiona Mountain about her forthcoming novel and audio drama “The Keeper of Songs”. We include excerpts from the audio drama of and from some of her other novels and talk about the role of music in inspiring Fiona, her historical research and the effects of the pandemic on her creativity.

This edition features excerpts from the forthcoming audio drama of The Keeper of Songs starring Amy Forrest and Keeley Lane and adapted from her novel of the same name by Fiona Mountain. It features the track “Henry and Clara” by Bella Hardy which is reproduced with Bella’s permission.

The audio drama is produced by Nicholas John with Audio edit, mix and mastering: David Pickering Pick at ffg media www.ffgmedia.co.uk

You can find out more about Fiona Mountain and order her books by visiting her website https://www.fionamountain.com/

To join Fiona’s mailing list to be informed when pre-order for The Keeper of Songs opens please click the link at the foot of the website home page.

If you would like to purchase copies of Fiona’s novels you can visit her Amazon page here

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fiona-Mountain/e/B001HMN6QU?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_4&qid=1568592964&sr=1-4-catcorr

You can follow Fiona on social media via twitter here https://twitter.com/FionaMountain

And on Instagram here https://www.instagram.com/fionamountainwriter/

To find out more about Bella Hardy and to purchase copies of her albums you can visit her website here https://www.bellahardy.com/

Fiona mentions folk singer and writer Sam Lee during the podcast. You can find out more about Sam, his music and his latest book all about the nightingale by visiting his website here https://samleesong.co.uk/

If you would like to book a place on our Introduction to Writing for Audio Drama Workshop on 17th May you can do so via our Eventbrite page here
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/an-introduction-to-writing-for-audio-drama-with-alternative-stories-tickets-148761496641

Subscribe to Alternative Stories in your favourite podcast app to have all future editions delivered to your feed the moment they are released and to access our full archive of audio drama poetry and fiction podcasts.

Follow us on social media to find out what we’re up to and to get news on forthcoming podcasts via twitter here https://twitter.com/StoriesAlt

And Instagram here https://www.instagram.com/stories.alt/
You can contact us via email [email protected]

Coming soon we’ll have poetry from Gregory Leadbetter and drama from Anna Chorlton and Emily Inkpen.

In this edition we look at new books from two exciting British writers, poet Lisa O'Hare and novelist and short story writer Alexandra Beaumont. We have extracts from each book and interviews with their authors.

Thank you to Lisa O'Hare and Alexandra Beaumont for taking part in this podcast.
The presenter of this edition has been Sally Walker-Taylor
The interviewer was Chris Gregory
Poems from Lisa's book "Lockdown Life, A Rollercoaster of Emotions" were read by Lisa O'Hare
Extracts from Alexandra's book " Testament of the Stars" were read by Holly Skinner"
Production, sound design and music were by Chris Gregory

We would like to thank Master House Publishing for allowing us to reproduce Lisa's poems and Gurt Dog Press for permission to share the excerpts from 'Testament of the Stars"

Visit all of Lisa O'Hare's links here https://linktr.ee/lisa.ohare
And follow her on twitter here https://twitter.com/TheLisaOHare

Visit Master House Publishing’s website and order Lisa’s book here https://masterhousepublishing.com/
And follow Master House on twitter here https://twitter.com/MasterHousePub

You can find out more about Alexandra Beaumont and read some of her short fiction via her website here https://abeaumont75.wixsite.com/home
And follow her on twitter here https://twitter.com/ABeaumontWriter

Visit Alexandra’s publisher Gurt Dog Press here https://gurtdogpress.com/
And follow the press on twitter here https://twitter.com/GurtDogPress
Pre-order a copy of Testament of The Stars here https://gurtdogpress.com/testament-of-the-stars-by-alexandra-beaumont/

To find out more about our forthcoming audio drama productions The Hunt by Emily Inkpen, The Silver Ball by Anna Chorlton and our next podcast, Keeper of Songs by Fiona Mountain please follow us on social media

You can follow Alternative Stories via twitter here https://twitter.com/StoriesAltAnd on Instagram here https://www.instagram.com/stories.alt/

In our extract from Keeper of Songs you heard the voice of Nicholas John
In our extract from The Silver Ball you heard the voices of Carly Barnes, Kate Edney and Tiffany Clare

If you would like to join one of our workshops on writing audio drama please follow the link below We are taking bookings for our course on 17th May

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/an-introduction-to-writing-for-audio-drama-with-alternative-stories-tickets-148761496641?aff=ebdsoporgprofile

There'll be no Alternative Stories podcast next week. We return on Friday 7th May with a new audio drams Keeper of Songs by Fiona Mountain starring Amy Forrest and Keeley Lane

Emily Inkpen is a a British science fiction writer and audio dramatist. Her drama The Bomb was one of our most popular podcasts of 2020. In this edition we talk to Emily about world building for Sci Fi writers, her working practice, the influence of writing audio drama on her prose work and her forthcoming audio drama The Hunt. We hear extracts from her novel The Blood Road and from The Bomb.

In this edition you heard readings from Emily’s novel “The Blood Road” read by Laura Dunnion and Harri Rees Jones

You also heard extracts from the audio drama “The Bomb” with the voices of Emily Inkpen, Warren Graham, Kelsey Griffin, Harri Rees Jones, Charlie Richards, Lewie Watson and Annika Kordes.

The presenter of this edition is Tiffany Clare

The interviewer is Chris Gregory

Sound design, music and audio drama production are by Chris Gregory

You can find out more about Emily Inkpen’s work and writing by visiting her website here https://www.emilyinkpen.com/

You can follow her on social media via twitter here https://twitter.com/emilyinkpen

And on Instagram here https://www.instagram.com/emilyinkpen/

The play-out music in this edition is an exclusive extract from the theme music to Emily’s forthcoming drama “The Hunt “ written by Allen Stroud.

As well as being a composer, Allen Stroud is a writer and chair of the British Science Fiction Association You can find out more about Allen by visiting his website here https://www.allenstroud.com/

Subscribe to Alternative Stories to hear The Hunt when it is released.

You can access all our science fiction and climate fiction content including Emily’s first audio drama The Bomb via this link

https://www.podchaser.com/lists/sci-fi-and-climate-fiction-on-alternative-stories-107aDoFzmM

And follow us on social media via twitter here https://twitter.com/StoriesAlt
And Instagram here https://www.instagram.com/stories.alt/

If you are interested in learning more about writing audio drama you can join one of our zoom workshops on the subject. Our next Introduction to Writing For Audio Drama workshop will be on 17th May at 6.30PM UK time and you can register via the Eventbrite link

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/an-introduction-to-writing-for-audio-drama-with-alternative-stories-tickets-148761496641

Next week on Alternative Stories we bring you new writing from Alexandra Beaumont and Lisa O’Hare as well as previews of two forthcoming audio drama productions “Keeper of Songs” by Fiona Mountain and “The Silver Ball” by Anna Chorlton.

Chris Beckett is one of the UK’s leading science fiction writers. His novel Dark Eden won the prestigious Arthur C Clarke Award for the best UK published science fiction novel of the year in 2012 and his latest novel Two Tribes was published to considerable critical acclaim in 2020. In this podcast we have an interview with Chris and extracts from his novels. Listeners are advised that there is some explicit language in this podcast.

Thank you to Chris Beckett for taking the time to record this interview with us. The excerpts you heard were from the following novels

The presenter of this podcast is Tiffany Clare
The interviewer is Chris Gregory
Sound design and production were also by Chris Gregory

America City (published in 2017) The reader was Marie-Claire Wood

Beneath the World, A Sea (published in 2019) – excerpts were read by Harri Rees Jones

Tomorrow (due to be published in July 2021) – excerpts were read by Charlie Richards and Tiffany Clare

You also heard excerpts from our audio drama adaptation of Two Tribes with the voices of Verity Blyth, Rosa Samuels, Sadie Pepperrell and Charlie Richards

Chris’s novels and short story collections are published in the UK by Corvus Books which is an imprint of Atlantic Books. We’d like to thank Kate Straker from Corvus / Atlantic for her help in the making of this podcast and for allowing us to use these excerpts.

You can purchase Chris Beckett’s novels via Hive here https://tinyurl.com/3kk8f6w4

And via Amazon here https://tinyurl.com/4ebs6whj

Visit Chris’ website here http://www.chris-beckett.com/

You can visit Corvus’ Website here https://atlantic-books.co.uk/corvus/

Follow Chris on twitter here https://twitter.com/chriszbeckett

And Corvus here https://twitter.com/CorvusBooks

Chris’s reading recommendations in the podcast were

Sunken Land Begins To Rise Again by M John Harrison
https://www.gollancz.co.uk/titles/m-john-harrison/the-sunken-land-begins-to-rise-again/9780575096370/

Mr Loverman by Bernardine Evaristo
https://tinyurl.com/yzyhrwhw

Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake
https://tinyurl.com/b6wjehs

Next week on the podcast, in the second part of our short series in which we talk to science fiction authors we’ll feature Emily Inkpen. Listeners may recall Emily’s audio drama The Bomb which we published last summer. Coming soon we’ll have Emily’s latest drama The Hunt and in the interview Emily talks about the process of writing drama, how The Hunt fits into her wider literary universe and how the process of writing her novel series The Dex Legacy is going.

Follow us on twitter for more details and follow Emily Inkpen on twitter to find out more about her writing.

Alternative Stories on twitter https://twitter.com/StoriesAlt
Emily Inkpen https://twitter.com/emilyinkpen

If you are interested in writing audio drama you can join our forthcoming introductory workshop in which we’ll work with extracts from Alt Stories dramas via the link below

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/148761496641

As a historian in the bleak, climate-ravaged twenty-third century, it's Zoe's job to record and archive the past, not to recreate it. But when she comes across the diaries of Harry and Michelle, who lived two hundred years ago, she becomes fascinated by the minutiae of their lives and decides to write a novel about them, filling in the gaps with her own imaginings. Listeners are warned that this episode contains explicit language.

In Two Tribes by Chris Beckett you heard

Verity Blyth as Zoe
Rosa Samuels as Cally
Charlie Richards as Harry
Sadie Pepperrell as Michelle
And Marie Claire Wood as Letty

The presenter is Tiffany Clare
The main theme for Two Tribes is by Scott Ander
Sound design, soundscapes and direction are by Chris Gregory
Casting was by Chris Gregory and Chris Beckett
The script was adapted from Chris Beckett’s original novel by Chris Gregory and Chris Beckett
Sound effects are from freesound.org

This audio drama is an adaptation of part of the novel Two Tribes. If you would like to read the full novel it is out in paperback in the UK now and details on how to buy it are posted below

Chris Beckett has been involved throughout the process of making this drama and we would like to take this opportunity to thank him for his time and expertise and for allowing us to work with his brilliant story.

We would also like to thank Kate Straker of Corvus / Atlantic Books for her help and cooperation in the making of this audio drama.

You can find out more about Chris Beckett by visiting his website here
http://www.chris-beckett.com/
Follow Chris on twitter here https://twitter.com/chriszbeckett
And purchase Two Tribes here
On Hive https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Chris-Author-Beckett/Two-Tribes/25602398
And on Amazon https://www.amazon.co.uk/Two-Tribes-Chris-Beckett/dp/1786499339/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1615034100&sr=8-1

You can visit Corvus via their website here https://atlantic-books.co.uk/corvus/
Follow Corvus on twitter here https://twitter.com/CorvusBooks

The theme tune for this edition is is called “The Hunt” by Scott Ander, from his EP “The Holocene” which you can listen to here
https://soundcloud.com/user-498615231/sets/the-holocene
You can follow Scott on Instagram here https://www.instagram.com/scottandermusic/

Follow Alternative Stories on twitter for a chance to win one of 3 free copies of Two Tribes signed by Chris Beckett in our competition starting on Friday 2nd April
https://twitter.com/StoriesAlt

You can book to join one of our upcoming audio drama writing workshops via this link
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/148761496641

Join us next week for a special edition featuring Two Tribes author Chris Beckett. We'll have an interview with Chris, clips and excerpts from his recent and upcoming books and reflections on his writing practices. As part of this short season on science fiction writers we'll also have an interview with Emily Inkpen. We'll look forward to her new audio drama The Hunt, reflect on last year's drama The Bomb and learn more about her approach to writing and her upcoming series of

Since Alternative Stories started almost two years ago we have produced a number of audio dramas based on episodes from folklore. This discussion edition looks at the ways in which folklore continues to inspire writers , academics, musicians and podcasters.

This edition is presented by Marie-Claire Wood
Production and music are by Chris Gregory

Our guests in this edition are

Dee Dee Chainey https://twitter.com/DeeDeeChainey
Folklore Thursday https://twitter.com/FolkloreThurs
The Folklore Thursday website http://www.folklorethursday.com/

Terri Windling https://twitter.com/terriwindling
Terri’s website https://www.terriwindling.com/info/

Mark Norman https://twitter.com/folklorepod
The Folklore Podcast http://www.thefolklorepodcast.com/

Bella Hardy : Folk Musician https://twitter.com/bellahardy
You can buy Bella's music via her website https://www.bellahardy.com/

Professor Carolyne Larrington https://twitter.com/profcarolyne
Carolyne’s website includes links to her books https://carolynelarrington.wordpress.com/

Signe Maene https://twitter.com/MaeneSigne
And visit her website https://signemaene.com/

Dr Kevan Manwaring https://twitter.com/bardicacademic
Visit his website here https://thebardicacademic.wordpress.com/

Lyndsey Croal https://twitter.com/writerlynds
Visit her website here https://lyndseycroal.wordpress.com/

Kaitlin Felix https://twitter.com/katigirl90
And visit her website here https://katifelix.com/

Amy Boucher https://twitter.com/Nearlyknowledg1
And visit her blog here https://nearlyknowledgeablehistory.blogspot.com/

We have prepared a full set of show notes with more information and links for each of our guests and our recommended podcasts here
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AkNqhywad3YvSYQxHhWP2Yf8IcCIRRFM/view?usp=sharing

Drama excerpts in this edition were from Hare Spell , The Seeing Trees, Selkie
and Daughter of Fire and Water You can listen to all our folklore related content here
https://www.podchaser.com/lists/folklore-and-fairytale-on-alternative-stories-107a9Gdi9h

In two weeks time we’ll be bringing you an audio drama based on the latest novel by British SciFi author Chris Beckett. Listen to “Two Tribes” on 2nd April. Please subscribe to alternative stories in your favourite podcast app to have this and all future editions delivered to you the moment they are released.

In this edition we speak to poet Katrina Naomi about her life and writing. We feature six poems from Katrina's collection Wild Persistence (Seren Books 2020) and hear Katrina's recommendations for other poets we should read.

The presenter of the podcast is Tiffany Clare
Poems are read by Katrina Naomi, Laura Dunnion and Nadia Wyn Abouayen
The interviewer is Chris Gregory
We would like to thank Seren Books for their support and for allowing us to work with poems from Wild Persistence
Production, sound design and music are by Chris Gregory

You can visit Katrina’s website here www.katrinanaomi.co.uk

And follow her on twitter here https://twitter.com/KatrinaNaomi

Wild Persistence is available from Seren Books Wild Persistence | Seren Books

as is Katrina’s second collection The Way the Crocodile Taught Me The Way the Crocodile Taught Me | Seren Books

Katrina’s pamphlet Typhoon Etiquette is available via this link Katrina Naomi – Typhoon Etiquette (vervepoetrypress.com)

For signed copies of all of Katrina’s books please visit the bookshop on her website here Books – Katrina Naomi

And you can read and subscribe to Katrina’s newsletter here Katrina Naomi's poetry newsletter - 'short & sweet' (mailchi.mp)

The poets Katrina recommended in our discussion and their collections are
· Caroline Bird - The Air Year
· Natalie Diaz - Postcolonial Love Poem
· Caleb Femi - Poor
· Peter Redgrove - Collected Poems

To find out more about Pen To Print please visit their website here
https://pentoprint.org/

enrol on our audio drama writing course here
https://pentoprint.org/eventbrite-event/pen-to-print-an-introduction-to-writing-for-audio-drama-with-chris-gregory/

and enter our audio drama competition here (closing date is 2nd April 2021)
https://pentoprint.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Pen-to-Print_Audio_Play_Comp_How-to_Enter_Rules_TCs_2021.pdf

And you can read Write On! Magazine here
https://pentoprint.org/product-category/magazines/

Please subscribe to Alternative Stories in your favourite podcast app to have all future editions of the podcast delivered to you the moment they are released.

If you have a moment please leave us a rating and review in your podcast app

Join us next week for a discussion about folklore, folk stories and folk songs with some amazing guests from the world of writing, academia and folk music.

In a small alpine village Stella contemplates her strange life and origins as a number of mysterious events unfold around her. Stella's Constellation is a magical realist story by Swiss American author TAK Erzinger.

In Stella’s Constellation by TAK Erzinger you heard
Sadie Pepperrell as Stella,
Simone Low as the Narrator
Marie Claire Wood as Lagrimas
Rhys Anderson as Jurgen

Music, sound design, direction and soundscapes were by Chris Gregory
Nana De Falla was sung by Marie-Claire Wood
Sound effects were from freesound.org
The presenter in this edition is Kelli Winkler

TAK Erzinger is an American/Swiss poet and artist with a Colombian background. Her poetry has been featured in Bien Acompañada from Cornell University, The Muse from McMaster University, The Galway Review, River South from Wilkes University and more. Her debut poetry collection entitled, “Found: Between the Trees” was published by Grey Border Books, in Canada in 2019 and her forthcoming poetry book “At the Foot of the Mountain” is being published by Floricanto Press. The audio drama you just heard, “Stella’s Constellation” is an excerpt from a book she is currently writing under the same title, inspired by magical realism and the folklore of South America and central Europe. She lives in a Swiss valley with her husband and cats.

You can find out more about TAK by visiting her website and following her on social media
https://takerzinger.wixsite.com/poet

And follow her on twitter https://twitter.com/ErzTak

And Instagram https://www.instagram.com/takerzinger/

You can follow Alternative Stories on twitter here https://twitter.com/StoriesAlt

And on Instagram here https://www.instagram.com/stories.alt/

And contact us by email on [email protected]

To book a place on our Writing for Audio Drama Course with Pen To Print please follow this linkhttps://pentoprint.org/eventbrite-event/pen-to-print-an-introduction-to-writing-for-audio-drama-with-chris-gregory/

And to enter the Pen To Print competition to write an audio drama click herehttps://pentoprint.org/get-involved/competitions/

In the coming weeks on alternative stories we have poetry, conversation and more audio drama for you. Our poetry content for season 4 will begin with a podcast featuring Katrina Naomi and also include poems from Gregory Leadbetter and Geraldine Clarkson in the coming weeks. We have a discussion on folklore and its relevance to modern audiences coming soon as well as new audio drama from Chris Beckett, Emily Inkpen, Fiona Mountain and Anna Chorlton. Subscribe to Alternative Stories and Fake Realities in your favourite podcast app to have all new editions delivered directly to your feed and to gain access to our growing library of drama, poetry and fiction podcasts.