My new Brighton novel will be launched at Brighton's Have A Word in March

My new novel, Blue Notes, Still Frames is now officially published and generally available from online sites as well as bookstores and it's now time to announce the book's Brighton launch which will take place on Thursday, 2nd March at the splendid Have A Word event, brain child of the enthusiastic and energetic host, Ellis Collins. As Blue Notes, Still Frames is the second in my series of Brighton-themed novels, it's seems right to give it a grand Brighton send off so i'm delighted to be reading in my home town with my good friends and fellow novelists, VG Lee and Allie Rogers. Music is an important theme in the novel so it is doubly appropriate that Brighton band Octopuses will be there too, playing music from their current album, Yes Please,  and, I'm told, songs from their projected new album too. As Octopuses is my son Adam Bell's band this will make the show a family affair.

Tickets go on sale today at www.wegottickets.com 

Family too is VG Lee, or so it seems, as her work is published by Ward Wood Publishing,  http://www.wardwoodpublishing.co.uk/ as are both my novels.  My good friend VG Lee, is also a Sussex writer, and her novels are both wonderfully funny and powerfully poignant. Her latest, Mr Oliver's Object of Desire came off the Ward Wood production line just ahead of mine. It's a great and entertaining work and VG Lee is a terrific performer, so her reading will be terrific, I know.

I'm really happy too that the other reader on the night will be another of my friends, fellow Brighton novelist, the highly talented Allie Rogers who will be reading from her debut novel, Little Gold, due to be published by Legend Press in May this year. http://www.legendtimesgroup.co.uk/legend-press/books/1446-little-gold

To put you into the mood, take a listen to Octopuses' latest single, Not The Bees, now officially endorsed by Caroline Lucas and the Green Party. They are great, believe me, hear it for yourself:

Stephen Dearsley goes to London along with some of my poetry on an inspiring and truly literary weekend.

I was in London last Friday to read from my book, Stephen Dearsley's Summer Of Love (published by Ward Wood) at the Polari Literary Salon at the Southbank Centre.

As I was walking to Lewes station to catch my train,  a double rainbow formed in the sky above me. I know it has a scientific explanation but, for a moment or two, I allowed myself to see it as a symbol. Traditionally double rainbows are meant to represent a time of transformation where the spiritual and the worldly combine. I don't know about that but it was a wonderful sign of encouragement as I headed off to one of the largest, and most receptive, audiences I have ever had to face.

It certainly felt like a moment of transformation standing there in front of an audience of nearly 300 attentive listeners at the sold out event.

They laughed in all the right places with an ear for any nuanced humour that might appear in my work.

I was reading a chapter from my novel and also some of my poetry which also seemed to hold their attention.

It was a perfect audience and a superbly organised event. My thanks and admiration then to  the inspiring Paul Burston who invited me to perform there with fellow writers Jonathan Broughton,  Musa Okwonga, my friend, the ebullient but hard-hitting Rose Collis and another friend, fellow Ward Wood novelist, the mordantly witty, Vg Lee. It was a terrific night so thanks to everyone who made it so special. Thanks to that double rainbow too.

It turned into a very literary weekend as I was also scheduled to read my poetry at Lewes' Hop Gallery where my friends Dawn and David Stacey have a new exhibition (1 - 13 March) which includes a framed copy of a poem I wrote for Dawn incorporating my impressions of her paintings, one of which I own.

I'll write more about this tomorrow but, if you can get there, do try to see their work.

More of my poetry reached another audience too on Sunday when two of my new Fibonacci poems were published in the seventeenth issue of the Fib Review. If you want to read my new Fibs, here's the link:

http://www.musepiepress.com/fibreview/index.html

I shall come back to The Fib Review in a blog later this week but I'm thrilled that my Fibonacci poems continue to be published by this splendid American journal.

That double rainbow wasn't joking - it really was a truly transformational weekend.

My novel is launched in London at the Phoenix with friends, colleagues and the spirits of Noel Coward and Laurence Olivier.

I was up in London on Tuesday evening for a bit of performing at the Phoenix Theatre in Charing Cross Road - well, anyone who knows me thinks I'm a bit of a show-off so I'm sure you're not surprised to read this.

This theatre opened in 1930 with the premier of Noel Coward's play Private Lives starring Noel himself along with Gertrude Lawrence and the young Laurence Olivier but today it's showing Once - The Musical, billed as 'the musical of the decade'.

Adequate as my song and dance routines are, I wasn't actually appearing in Once. No, I was downstairs.

I was underneath the theatre in the splendidly atmospheric Phoenix Artist Club that many years ago had once been used as the theatre's original dressing rooms and rehearsal studios  - so the space retains some of the spirit of dear Larry, Noel and Gertie. They linger on here especially after a few or even a few more drinks.

I was here for the launch party for my novel Stephen Dearsley's Summer Of Love held by my publishers Ward Wood Publishing who had booked a private space next to the club's excellent bar.

When I arrived, early, with a pile of new copies of the book, the place was deserted but it soon filled up with a great mix including friends from the various stages of my life,  family and Ward Wood colleagues, Adele Ward herself a writer and, the writers Vg Lee, Joe Stein, Sue Guiney, Peter Philips and Patricia Averbach - all friends now and, inspiringly, all surprisingly like-minded citizens of the literary world.  I consider myself doubly lucky to be published by a company that has so many great people on its books. Four of us are planning to appear together for readings - like a rather unconventional rock band on the road. Watch this space for details.

The event soon turned into a party and, against all expectations, I actually enjoyed myself.

My thanks to poet Peter Daniels for taking these photographs of me doing my party-mingling which, that night, was refreshingly free from small-talk.

I also got the chance to meet a number of people who have known for some time but who now, like James Grant,  became virtual friends turned to flesh.

Peter Daniels also took some photographs of me on stage where I read a short section of my novel to a generously receptive audience.

Afterwards I was kept busy signing copies of the book - here with the award-winning American poet  Patricia Averbach....

..and here with my son Adam who also wanted an inscribed copy. At this little corner table I could not only sign books but do a bit of palm-reading too even if no one actually believed my predictions.

Adele Ward filmed part of the reading for which I'm most grateful as I don't sound nearly as bad as I thought I did. The next-door bar joviality much noisier on the video than it was in reality - the atmosphere was informal and intimate considering we were right in the centre of London. Thanks to everyone who came along that night - it was terrific to see you all.



After such a truly enjoyable and memorable evening, I couldn't just go off afterwards to my hotel bed. Luckily London's Chinatown is genuinely a 24 hour experience and the Red Dragon Restaurant in Gerrard Street served a leisurely and very good meal a long time after midnight -  bed was considerably later.

After all the socialising, enjoyable though it was, it was also great, the next morning, taking an almost empty train home from London to Lewes. Trains make great decompression chambers. It's now back to work on the new novel.