BBC Upload wants your words

Pressed leaf1 by Judy DarleyIf you have a short story you’ve written that you’d like to hear on the radio and you’re based in the Bristol area, there’s an opportunity you shouldn’t miss.

DJ Adam Crowther invites writers, poets and spoken word performers from Bristol, Bath, North Somerset and South Gloucestershireto get in touch.

All you need to do is record yourself reading your piece, save it as an MP3 file, and upload it at BBC Upload.

If Adam selects your piece to share, he’ll give you a call to find out a few details, and you’ll be able to hear your poem or story on his evening show Upload with Adam Crowther.

Adam aired my short story ‘Pressed Leaves’ on 11th December 2018. ‘Pressed Leaves’ captures a moment in time in which a young girl, Anna, helps her mother clear out the artist’s studio of the grandfather she’s never met.

Listen to me read ‘Pressed Leaves’ here. It’s at about 1 hr 13 min in. #fictionontheair

A literary radio recording

Judy Darley performing for Speech Bubble cr BBCA couple of weeks ago I was invited to perform one of my short stories for a BBC Radio Bristol show called Speech Bubble. The event was designed by lovely Mark Olver to showcase local writing talent, but then the BBC, deciding we need more humour in our lives, asked him to focus on burgeoning comedy writers.

This is a bit of a weird one for me because, um, I’m not that funny. A lot of life amuses me, and I’m drawn to the absurd, but much of my short fiction dwells in the darker side of the human psyche. While it’s often uplifting, it’s probably as likely to make you shed a tear as crack a grin.

However, I did my best, wrote a whimsical short tale (just a couple of minutes reading time) called The Notes, and you know what? They liked it! On a Wednesday evening in March we recorded the episode at Smoke and Mirrors (apparently the UK’s only ‘magic bar’) and I became the “and now a change of pace” provider – a key role, I’m sure you’ll agree, in any ensemble show.

For the next 20-something days, you can listen to the show here: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02mx80z.

The monthly six-part series has three more episodes to air and is hoping to return soon, so if you fancy your chances of making the ex-housemate of Russell Howard and Jon Richardson (what must that have been like?) chuckle, send your comedic ramblings to bbcspeechbubble@bbc.co.uk – you could end up performing your work!

Selfcontained

Self-Contained Man by Moira Purver

Self-Contained Man by Moira Purver

My story ‘Selfcontained‘ has been published by the marvellous Café Irreal. Hurrah! I’ve been sending them my less conventional tales for a while now, so am very happy this one has been chosen to be invited to pull up a seat, order a hot drink and join in the conversation 🙂

The Café Irreal specialise in publishing literary fiction that accepts (and welcomes) the possibility of the impossible and makes it common place. They define the genre here.

My particular story drew inspiration from a wonderful piece of art by Moira Purver, titled Self-Contained Man, which featured in the RWA’s open exhibition. I spent an afternoon there in late 2014, gleaning inspiration and taking notes. I rather fell in love with Moira’s beautiful sculpture. An idea about Self-Contained Man took root, and developed into a story told from the point of view of a sculpture grappling with the question of whether or not he has a sole. You can read it here.

I also had the pleasure of being invited to be a guest on the Steve Yabsley lunchtime show for Radio Bristol last week. The show was billed as being “Author Judy Darley, blossom poems and dormice” so I was in great company, though sadly didn’t get to meet any actual dormice. Steve talked to me about my book Remember Me To The Bees and asked lots of questions about SkyLightRain.com and writing in general, some of which I was able to answer intelligently, others less so. I read out snippets of some tales in the collection too – you can still listen to it here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02gwq1y