This project was successfully funded on Friday the 12th of December, 2014
£2,062 was raised by 74 supporters — that's teamwork!
Want to raise money for your own business or project? Start your own project now
North by Southwest is an anthology of 15 stories by 10 North Bristol Writers:
The stories are original, never before published, inventive, mostly genre and have a great variety which is a strength of the book, showcasing as it does the work of the writers after a year or so of collaboration. Bristol is such a creative city and the stories are certainly infused with that energy. Bristol has had such a great effect on transport through the ages - it's an airplane city, a railway city and a port city so such themes recur, as does the theme of 'North', The stories are beautifully illustrated by artist Claire M Hutt with art to appear in B&W in the physical book.
Join The Noon Train (by Roz Clarke), or a Tragedy on Concorde (by Margaret Carruthers), walk from Portishead to Bristol in Latitude (by Pete Sutton), join John Cabot as he sails from Bristol in search of new lands in Fisher of Men (by Justin Newland) or just sit back and let Desiree Fischer’s Taxi Driver take you where you need to go. If those forms of travel are too dull then strap in to John Hawkes-Reed’s war elephants in Miss Butler and the Industrial Automation Group or journey Like Giants with Kevlin Henney.
Explore new visions of Bristol in House Blood and Lye Close (by Ian Millsted), Bristol Pound (by Jemma Milburn) or Christmas Steps (by Pete Sutton).
Or indulge in a bit of darkness in Gardening Leave, Uncle Lucas and The Top of the Hill (by Clare Dornan) and Hater (by Pete Sutton).
We have the stories, we have the art, and now we need the money to pay for the typesetter and printer in order to create our book. We need you to help get this off the ground by using this Fundsurfer to pre-order your copies & also grab a bunch of other great rewards including signed artwork & personalised stories.
If we get over £2,000 we have a few stretch goals that we'll share.
Please pledge what you can & share with your friends and family!
Margaret Carruthers has lived in Filton, Bristol for 40 years with her husband. They share their home with a cat and a chicken. They have a son who has moved out of the family home. After retiring, she spends her free time reading all kinds of fiction from fantasy to crime. She joined NBWG last year and enjoys writing tales from fantasy, horror and crime. Her one novel is for sale on Kindle, and she is in the process of sending the novel into an online monthly magazine one chapter each issue.
Roz Clarke is a recent addition to the North Bristol group, having previously been a member of the long-standing Monday Night Group in Manchester, and having spent the last few years pinging across the country between Bristol and That London. She's a graduate of the MMU Creative Writing MA and of Clarion West. She's had short stories published in various magazines and anthologies, most notably Black Static and Dark Spires. She is also co-editor of the anthologies Colinthology and Airship Shape & Bristol Fashion, alongside Joanne Hall. She's been a member of the BristolCon committee since its inception in 2009, and is delighted to have come to rest in this peculiar, inspiring city. Roz blogs atwww.firefew.com.
Clare Dornan now lives in Montpelier having spent the last 20 years in Bristol.
Her day job is making documentaries for television about science, wildlife and madcap expeditions in far flung places. She studied zoology at Cambridge but quickly realised she was too much of a day dreamer to be a serious scientist. She discovered that making telly is a great way to explore new topics, venture into other people’s lives and try and explain them through storytelling.
She loved writing stories as a kid and in an effort to stop procrastinating and start writing fiction again she joined the North Bristol Writing Group. Despite making documentaries for a living she spends her spare time obsessively watching dramas and particularly crime series. These are the inspiration for her story in the anthology, her first detective mystery.
Desiree Fischer is a writer who lives in Bristol with her partner. She is originally from a small town in south-west Germany, but she knew from approximately the age of five that she wanted to live in England.She enjoys the challenge of writing in a language that's not her mother tongue and while her writing focuses mostly on Science Fiction & Fantasy, she isn't averse to trying her hand at other genres. She is a new addition to the BristolCon Committee and is very passionate about promoting local authors as well as new voices like herself.
John Hawkes-Reed is a Unix hacker by day. By night, too, if it's been one of those sorts of weeks. His origin story involves finding the big yellow Gollancz hardbacks in Winchcome public library, the 'Making a transistor radio' Ladybird book and the John Peel programme. The 2006 Viable Paradise writer's workshop was something of a life-changing experience, and he has been quietly emitting stories of varying length since then. Some of those stories can be found in the anthologies 'Airship shape and Bristol fashion', 'Colinthology','Dark Spires' and 'Future Bristol'. He is fascinated by cold-war architecture, islands and stationary engines. John owns too many books, not enough tractors and is trivially Googleable.
Kevlin Henney writes shorts and flashes and drabbles of fiction and books and articles on software development. His fiction has appeared online and on tree (Litro, New Scientist, Physics World, LabLit, The Pygmy Giant, The Fabulist, Word Gumbo, Kazka Press, Dr. Hurley's Snake-oil Cure and others) and has been included in a number of anthologies (The Salt Anthology of New Writing 2013, Eating My Words, Scraps, Jawbreakers, Flash Me! The Sinthology, Fifity Flashes of Fiction, The Kraken Rises! and Kissing Frankenstein & Other Stories).
As well as having his work rejected and make no impression whatsoever on writing competitions, Kevlin's stories have been longlisted, shortlisted and placed, and he won the CrimeFest 2014 Flashbang contest. He reads at spoken word events, winning the National Flash-Fiction Day Oxford flash slam in 2012, and has performed his work on local radio (BBC Radio Bristol and Ujima). Kevlin organises the BristolFlash events for National Flash-Fiction Day.
He lives in Bristol and online. He can be read on his blog at http://asemantic.net/ and stalked on Twitter as @KevlinHenney.
C M Hutt is a mature student studying Drawing and Print at the University of the West of England. She is also a member of the BristolCon committee and organiser of their monthly Fringe readings. She co-edited a zine called Full Frontal Lobe where she published her first illustration, 'Inner Workings of a Ray Gun', and her short story 'Verne's Rise'. She has also had an illustration in an anthology called 'Felinity' for the short story 'No Tears'.
Her work can be found at www.cmhutt.com, on facebook at C M Hutt Art or on Twitter @clairedreams99.
Jemma co-founded NBCW, after almost one wonderful year of steadily trying to keep it on the rails however, it was time to move to Cambridge for work. She is now settled down in The Fens and has taken very much a back seat now that the group has gained momentum. Jemma has always enjoyed frantically scribbling down words to create some kind of artistic outpouring in between her science work. It was only recently with the birth of NBCW that she decided it might be a good idea to give these ‘pieces’ some kind of direction, with the help of a group to attend. She also enjoys drama and collaborative theatre, which explains her approach to writing using tools such as characterization and an organic approach to story building.
Ian Millsted is a writer and teacher who lives in Bristol with his wife and daughter. His fiction has appeared in the likes of Airship Shape and Bristol Fashion and Colinthology. He has been short listed for the Bristol Short Story Prize. His non fiction has appeared in Back Issue and the Times Educational Supplement. He's scripted comic strips for Comics International. Despite having migrated to Bristol some years ago he still supports Essex in cricket and West Ham in football.
Justin Newland was born a stubborn Capricorn too long ago to remember.
He lives in Somerset with his girlfriend and writes historical, fantasy and speculative fiction with a supernatural bent.
Excerpts of his work have entertained listeners at readings over the last few years at various events in the Bristol area. He was delighted to appear as a panellist at Bristol Con 2013 and has published a short story in an anthology entitled 'Hidden Bristol.'
He has been a member of writers' groups in Bath and Bristol.
Currently, he is writing the first novel of his magnum opus, a pre-apocalyptic trilogy entitled 'The Genes of Isis.'
Find more information, go to his author web sitewww.justinnewland.com or the trilogy web sitewww.thegenesofisis.com.
Pete Sutton has a not so secret lair in the wilds of Fishponds, Bristol and dreams up stories, many of which are about magpies. He's had stuff published, online and in book form, and currently has a pile of words that one day may possibly be a novel. He wrote all about Fishponds for the Naked Guide to Bristol and has made more money from non-fiction than he has from fiction and wonders if that means the gods of publishing are trying to tell him something.
You can find him all over social media or worrying about events he’s helped organise at the Bristol Festival of Literature. On Twitter he’s @suttope and his Bristol Book Blog is here: http://brsbkblog.blogspot.co.uk/ He's contributing editor of Far Horizons e-magazine which can be found here: http://info-far-horizons.wix.com/far-horizons-emag
And now a word from local writer, author of the Johannes Cabal series and Russalka Chronicles - Johnathan L Howard -
To whom it may concern,
This prepatent publication features the work of several persons it is my great misfortune to know. Indeed, I have already been acquainted with some of the stories. I must warn you, if you help fund this anthology, you will be instrumental in unleashing a collection of splendid fiction upon an unsuspecting public. Is that what you want? Do you really wish to be forever associated with a “good read”? An “enjoyable collection of eclectic tales”? When you dangle your grandchildren on your knee in some distant time, do you really want the trusting poppets to ask of you, “Grandparental unit, what did you do during the North by Southwest fundraiser?” and for you to have to turn your face to the wall and sob, “Gods forgive me, offspring-of-one-remove, but I donated!”
Think on, that is all I ask. Think on.
Jonathan L. Howard
pledged of £2,000 goal (GBP)
backers
This project ended on 12 December 2014
This is an all or nothing project. The funding target must be met by the time limit otherwise the pledges will be cancelled.
Our lifelong thanks and appreciation - minimum of £1 but you can make it more if you like. We really will be thankful!
"It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems with just potatoes" - Douglas Adams
8 people want this
Your name will appear in a list of backers in both the e-book and the physical book. You will also gain a copy of the e-book and our lifelong thanks.
34 people want this
A signed copy of the physical book posted to an address of your choice (For P&P outside of the UK add £5) Plus all the benefits of previous reward levels
8 people want this
3 signed prints (of your choice) from the art from the book & all previous reward levels
"No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist." - Oscar Wilde
5 people want this
Two tickets to BristolCon 2015 to meet the authors plus a copy of the ebook, a signed copy of the physical book and 1 signed print from the book
"If you never did, you should. These things are fun and fun is good!" - Dr. Seuss
2 people want this
All the prints from the book signed by the artist plus all previous rewards (apart from the artist's reward)
"Every production of an artist should be the expression of an adventure of his soul". - W. Somerset Maugham
2 people want this
A choice of either a personalised story from one of the writers (of your choice) OR a piece of personalised art from the artist plus a copy of the ebook, a signed copy of the physical book and 1 signed print from the book
