It’s the second Monday of the month, which is always interview day. Except, this month, it isn’t. There are five Monday in July, which doesn’t fit too well with a four-week programme of article types. So one post in July needs to be an ‘extra’. Usually, I would put it at the end of the month, but this time, it’s coming early, at the start of a very busy week.
Pause for Thought
For the past few years, I have been heading down to the BBC Radio Devon studios in Plymouth a couple of times a year to present Pause for Thought on the early morning show with Gordon Sparks and Laura James. My themes are reflective rather than religious; and I repurpose the scripts later, here on the blog. In fact, the current series of Movie Moments began life on the radio last year.
This morning, the alarm went off at 4.45am, and I headed down the A38 for my latest series of thoughts. But this time, I reversed the process. I took a series of blog posts from some time ago and repurposed them as scripts. And anyone who was listening to the radio at 6.20am would have heard me present the first of my Snapshots of Russia, featuring the capital, Moscow. If you would like to listen to the piece, you can find it here (starting at 21 min 48 secs in). During the rest of the week, I will be talking about Kostroma, Kursk, St Petersburg, Chelyabinsk, Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok.
Chudleigh Literary Festival
We’re all geared up for this week’s event, the ninth one run by Chudleigh Writers’ Circle, and the last one with me at the helm. We’ve got a great workshop with Professor Todd Gray, which is sold out; a free networking session which includes the second appearance of the Chudleigh Dragons, as six authors pitch their latest novels to a panel of industry experts in the hope of winning a manuscript appraisal; and talks by prolific historical novelist, Michael Jecks; and Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones, founder of The Black Farmer range of food products.
It’s going to be a busy few days, so if I’m a bit quiet, you’ll understand why. Normal service will be resumed next week.
