BristolCon Fringe – The April Open Mic Evening

~ Cheryl

I have just uploaded the podcasts for the April BristolCon Fringe (yes, yes, I know it is late May). This was an open mic session, so we have lots of different people for you. I MC’d the event, and also contributed a story.

Part I featured the following:

  • Pete Sutton – who managed 5 stories in his 5 minutes (“Overdue Book”, “Werewolves are Hairy”, “Rumbled”, “Zoophilia” and “The Memory of Light”)
  • Dan Pawley – extract from “Worlds Together” (published in Jupiter #41)
  • Joanne Hall – extract from “Arrested Development” (unpublished)
  • Philip Purser-Hallard – trailer for The Locksley Exploit

Nothing untoward happened, except for Jo destroying the microphone stand, which I have edited out.

Part II featured these people:

  • Thomas David Parker – “The Shell” (which he didn’t quite get to finish)
  • Richard Bendall – not sure what this one was called
  • Wgl – Is that the correct spelling? People do have some strange pen-names.
  • Jack Anderson – an extract from Meet me by the Gallows (more about it here)

Just before Richard was due to go on Cord asked us if it was OK to stream the rest of the evening to Poland live over Skype. Naturally we said yes. Sadly the Internet let us down after a while, but we are delighted to have an international audience and hope that our Polish friends will now get to hear the whole thing.

Part III comprised the following:

  • Justin Newland – “The Fool of Abbots Leigh” (longer version available here)
  • Cheryl Morgan – extract from “Gunpowder, Treason & Plot”
  • Thomas David Parker – the rest of “The Shell”
  • Cord Frazer – “Tutti Fruiti the Nightmare”

Justin managed to kill off the entire population of Clifton in his story, which is impressive even by Fringe standards.

My own story was the first couple of pages of something I had tried to write for Long Hidden, but had to give up on because the characters really needed more space than I had space for in the submission guidelines. It is told from the point of view of a young trans woman in Elizabethan England. Sorry about the awful accents.

Cord’s story was, I think, the star piece of the night, and not just because he spent most of the evening translating it into English, having originally written it in Polish.

My thanks to Heather for the Ticking Strawberry of Doom. Even if it wasn’t very good at keeping time it was an awesome thing to have on hand.

Now I need to edit the May readings, right?