New Poem: Another Spring Morning

J.S.Watts has published a brand new poem, Another Spring Morning. 

You can read the poem for FREE over on Random Acts of Would-Be Photography, under The March of Spring post.

Summer Events 2014

It's Spring and that time of year when event organisers start booking writers for festivals and other summery events.

Over on J.S.Watts' Events Page, dates for summer readings and events are beginning to appear (including the inaugural StonyLive! Alternative Fringe Festival) and more will follow in due course. Please check back regularly to find out where and when you can hear J.S. reading her work in 2014.

Inspiring Change - Saturday, 8th March

It’s March! Spring is in the air (possibly) and it’s International Women’s Day on March 8th.

On Saturday 8th March 2014 between 12pm-4pm Peterborough Rape Crisis Care Group will be hosting a community event at St John's Square, Peterborough City Centre to commemorate International Women's Day and its theme of Inspiring Change.

There will be a host of activities to both inform and entertain and to truly celebrate the talents and achievement of women, including poetry readings by J.S.Watts and Leanne Moden.

J.S will be reading at 3pm in St. John's Square and Leanne will be reading at 1pm - you don't want to miss them!

There will also be dancers and musicians:

Jelly Belly Dancing
Zumba with Sophie
Wiz & Bex
Fyzz Wallis

And speeches by:

Peterborough Rape Crisis Care Group
SHINE - Spina Bifida Hydrocephalus Information Networking Equality
Lisa Forbes

As well as a demonstration of self protection techniques.

Please tell your friends so we can raise awareness of the fantastic charities that support women in Peterborough and the surrounding areas as well as celebrating the many talents of women locally.

Tales of the Ethereal

Once upon a time there was a magazine called "Ethereal Tales" that published all sorts of fantastical tales. It was a good little magazine and very popular with its readers, but all good things must come to an end and so "Ethereal Tales" published its last edition.

Then along came another magazine, "Morpheus Tales", a purveyor of dark fiction which had been very supportive of "Ethereal Tales" in the past. It shared the breath of life with "Ethereal Tales" and for one, brief, shining moment "Ethereal Tales" was reborn, or rather, an Ethereal Tales Special Issue was released into the world.

Edited by Teresa Ford, this magnificent new edition featured: WILLOW BY AMY J. BENESCH, RECESS BY DAN DEVINE, UNDERGROUND BY J.S.WATTS, OBADIAH’S FARTHING BY PETER SIMON, A GRIMM DAY BY M.B. MANTEUFEL, HIGH LONESOME ROAD BY STEVEN LEE CLIMER, MORNING FLIGHT BY PAUL MICHAEL MOREAU, RED DUST BY MICHAEL A. KECHULA, TORCH SONGS IN PURGATORY BY CHRISTINE MORGAN, OAR-STEED BY JOSIE GOWLER, I’M SCARED OF THE DARK BY ASHBY MCGOWAN, STRANGE ENCOUNTERS, CHAPTER 7 - THE HAUNTING OF HAYWARD BY JASON FISCHER, THIS TOWN AIN’T BIG ENOUGH BY JAMES AUSTIN MCCORMICK, BLACK BEAR BY VONNIE WINSLOW CRIST, IN THE FATHER’S IMAGE BY ALAN LOEWEN. At 76 pages it was the largest special issue ever produced by Morpheus Tales Publishing and you, yes YOU, can have a sneak preview of this magnificent edition here:

Ethereal Tales Special Issue preview

Poetry (and Folk) Reviewed

Following on from the inaugural Bury Folk Collective Unplugged on Friday 31st January, for which J.S.Watts was the evening's poet, there is a rather fine review of the evening, complete with equally fine photographs, over at Bury Folk Collective's website

Poetry Unplugged

J.S.Watts is delighted to be returning to the Bury St Edmunds Constitutional Club in Guildhall Street at the end of this month. She will be providing the words between the musical notes at Bury Folk Collective's unplugged night on Friday, 31st January, starting at 8.00pm.

Bury Folk Collective runs the unplugged evenings, previously organised by the Milk Maid Folk Club, at the Constitutional Club in Bury St Edmunds under the ‘Folk in Bury’ banner.

The Constitutional Club holds about 100 people and has a bar that features interesting guest ales as well as the usual range of drinks.Unplugged nights feature artists performing without PA in a supportive acoustic environment. There is often a poet present to provide some unaccompanied words and J.S. will be doing the honours on Friday 31st.

Poetry Photograph Albums 2013

During the twelve months of 2013, I created a series of twelve online photographic poetry albums on Facebook. Each album was a collection of photographs that evoked or resonated with one of my poems, sometimes illustrating it and sometimes just reminding me of the poem in some, possibly rather random, way. Many, though not all, of the photographs were taken in and around South Cambridgeshire, where I live.

If you are interested in the photographic reimagining of  these twelve poems, or just in the photographs themselves (and have not already seen them via my writer’s Facebook page), you can find links to them below:

January                                     Winter Solstice

February                                   Frozen Water, Kneesworth House

March                                       Vase of Daffodils

April                                          Almond Blossoming

May                                          This Garden

June                                          Star Flowers

July                                           Pond in Deep Summer

August                                      Cats and Other Mythical Creatures

September                                Stubble Burning

October                                    Autumn at Kneesworth

November                                 Full Moon on Firework Night

December                                 Litany

J.S.Watts  January 2014