Walking Thru' Fire

In this episode I am reading sonnets 29 thru 35 from my collection "not the Sonnets".I hope you like them.

This short episode is a reading of a post form my Substack site. It talks a little about my background and my motivation for writing.I hope you like it.To see the original article and more of my work please head over to my substack site Writing until the light goes out.

In this episode I am reading sonnets 22 thru 28 from my collection, not the Sonnets.The sonnets themselves are gradually being posted on my Substack site.

In this episode I read sonnets 15 thru 21 from my collection, "not the Sonnets"Fearing DementiaThe Claims You MadeConversations With My MuseFrost & FogConstructive CriticismCompulsionThe Shakespearean Lead

In this episode I am reading sonnets 8 thru 14 from my collection, Not the Sonnets:In the HospiceIn MourningOn Being Asked To Prove LoveUnrequited LoveDefenceless Against TimeOrienteeringOn Not Accepting Your Faith In The Stars

I am in the process of working on Bound - a new poetic monologue in the manner of Crash - and have made a recording of a draft version of the piece.As it is intended to be staged, I need you to imagine an almost bare stage apart from a desk and chair facing the audience. On the desk is a notebook and pen, and a laptop computer. The whole is not particularly well-lit.Assume the speaker is sitting at the desk at the opening of the piece (though he is likely to move around during it).I would be interested to know what you think…Thanks for listening.

In this episode I am reading sonnets 1 - 7 from my collection "Not the sonnets"- On Being Thrown Over- January Chill- Obituary of a Would-be Poet- The Generous and the Selfish- Abandoned- In Search of Tabloid Headlines- Pilgrimage

In this episode I read my as yet unpublished story, "The Piano Player".I hope you like it.

In this episode I read my new short story "Closing his account".And before you ask, I don't have any tattoos...

This is a reading of my long poem, Crash.The piece was performed as a dramatic monologue on the 10th June at the Ripon Theatre Festival in North Yorkshire.The performance opens with a man rousing himself from sleep. He stretches, puts on his dressing gown and glasses. Then he notices various items on a table near his bed - a mug, a knitted poppy, a restaurant menu, a clock - before looking up to realise he has an audience before him.He scans the audience, then begins speaking…

This episode contains the majority of the first chapter from my 2018 novel The Infinity of Mirrors.I hope you like it.

"What he knew' is a short story taken from my collection, Degrees of Separation. I hope you like it.

This is an untitled piece I wrote when at the 2022 Swanwick Summer School. It emerged from two workshops, one on the short story and one on general fantasy. The amalgam is - I have always assumed - the beginning of something rather than a story in its own right.It is set in a dystopian future and therefore has something of the sci-fi about it. Not one of my favourite genres, I hope I have handled the idea subtly enough to be in keeping with my usual style.See what you think.

"Out of the Woods" is a short story taken from my collection, An Irregular Piece of Sky, published on 21st May, 2023. I hope you like it.

A short story about how a dream can distort your view of the world and loosen your grip on reality - especially in Hollywood.

"The Big Red Button" is a short story taken from my 2023 collection An Irregular Piece of Sky (published 21st May). I hope you like it.

Ever since he wrote his first story aged five - an illustrated tale about a boy’s adventures in space - Ian Gouge wanted to do nothing other than write. This was an ambition fulfilled merely in fits and starts over the years, and even then only in a minor way.This changed at the turn of the twenty-first century when Ian - having by that time spent nearly thirty years working in Information Technology - landed contracts to write three non-fiction books focussing on IT strategy and management. It was an opportunity which proved he could string a few sentences together in a reasonably effective way, and so he began to take his writing a little more seriously.Discovering the potential of Indie Publishing in 2012 (initially via Amazon Direct and then subsequently through Ingram Spark) proved the trigger which allowed the flood gates to open, and over the next few years Ian not only edited and published some historical work, but also embarked on something of a writing frenzy.This frenzy unabated, by June 2023 Ian will have written and published eight novels, three novellas, three collections of short stories, nine volumes of poetry, and one further work of non-fiction - one based upon his ‘writing life’. These books have been published under his own ‘Coverstory books’ imprint, a vehicle he has used to help many others get into print too; the twenty volumes ‘Coverstory books’ has published in the last five years include collections of poetry and international anthologies of both poetry and prose. There have been around one hundred contributors.The inspiration for Crash came from watching Ralph Fiennes’ stage performance of reading T.S.Eliot’s The Four Quartets. What began almost as word doodles and something vaguely nebulous soon gained form and shape, to finally coalesce to the dramatic poem Ian will read at the Ripon Theatre Festival in June. The end product is something entirely new and original for him. Over time, he hopes to add two more ‘acts’ to Crash, and then turn the trio into a single multi-voice stage play.Ian now writes full-time, his ambition finally achieved!~Ian runs two on-line poetry groups - Contextual and the Derby Stanza - is chair of Ripon Writers’ Group, a member of ‘Write-on Ripon’, Promoting Yorkshire Authors, and the North Yorkshire Stanza. He is also a creative writing mentor at retreats run by Writing Retreats UK.His May 2023 publications are two novels, Once Significant Others and Tilt, a collection of sonnets called not the Sonnets (and based on Shakespeare’s Sonnets), and a short story collection - An Irregular Piece of Sky - which contains the 2022 Swanwick Summer School prize-winning ‘Park’n’Ride’. Crash will be published as a pamphlet in June 2023 to coincide with the Ripon Theatre Festival performance.

A selection of six Haiku, that almost throwaway short form 17-syllable Japanese poem which seems so fitting for our Instagram age.

In this podcast I am going to read the beginning from a work-in-progress which may end up as a novella or a novel. Or, indeed, a series of short stories. In any event, it’s fiction.This opening piece is entitled 17 Alma Road. I hope you like it.

In this podcast I am going to read an article entitled ‘What is Poetry for?’ Its a mediation on the meaning and value of poetry - which, if you wanted to, you could extend not only to all written forms but perhaps any creative endeavour.I hope you like it.