Blogs

NWR Editor Gwen Davies in conversation with novelist Chris Keil, author of "Flirting at the Funeral," set in Portugal and west Wales.
Aberystwyth University Bookfest, Monday December 10th

AmeriCymru: Hi Isabella and many thanks for agreeing to be interviewed by AmeriCymru. How long has Welsh Gifts & Crafts been trading? How did you come to be in the online Gift Shop business?

Isabella: I had been trading in Cardiff for the past 4 years under the name isabella's welsh gifts and crafts and had a shop called isabella's in Morgan Arcade. Unfortunately due to the economic climate I had to close the shop as rent and rates were becoming too high to manage. I decided to rename my website welsh gifts and crafts in october only as I thought it had a wider appeal for expats.

AmeriCymru: Care to tell us something about the exciting product lines you have on offer this Christmas?
Isabella: For Xmas we have 2 exclusive Xmas baubles hand painted in china but commisioned for my shop and a variety of nadolig llawen items.

AmeriCymru: You are offering a discount for AmeriCymru members and readers of this interview. Can you tell us the details?
Isabella: The discount i offer is on any item and can be exclusive to AmeriCymru members. The amount is 10%.

AmeriCymru: You live in the Bridgend area of South Wales. Can you tell us a little about Bridgend for the benefit of our American readers?
Isabella: Bridgend is a lovely town situated between Cardiff and Swansea and with a lovely beach town nereby called Porthcawl.

AmeriCymru: What's next for Welsh Gifts and Crafts?
Isabella: I hope that Welsh gifts and Crafts will succeed and maybe even reopen a shop when times are more settled. I am also considering taking the items to the Celtic Festival of Lorient next year.

AmeriCymru: Any final message for the readers and members of AmeriCymru?

Isabella: I hope that this information has been suitable and look forward to greeting your members on the website.

VISIT WELSH GIFTS AND CRAFTS TO CLAIM THE 10% AMERICYMRU DISCOUNT ON A WIDE RANGE OF CHRISTMAS GIFTS

( Discount code is 'americymru' )

So Many Nights the debut single released by Little Eris on 14th December 2012 is a mini masterpiece of experimental space-age psychedelic pop which hopes to make a big bang in the universe. The track is produced by Charlie Hoskyns known for his work with Irish folk band The Popes, and has been mastered by Pete Maher at Topfloor Music, whose recent credits include Patti Smith, Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails and U2 to name but a few. The single will be available from the 14th of December via Original Human as a digital download (from Amazon, iTunes and Spotify for 0.89p) www.originalhuman.co.uk To be released physically in January 2013, followed by full length abum from Little Eris.

Little Eris is a collective formed around Eris Kaoss (aka Bronwen Davies, former vocalist and bass player with Freaky Fortnight ) and her inventive catalogue of quirky spaced-out songs have quickly become a firm favourite of Adam Walton s BBC Radio Wales show and his listeners, who have a keen ear for emerging Welsh musical talent from the UK underground music scene. The first official release featuring these cosmic sounds launched from the depths of cyberspace has already been gaining rave reviews from those in the know, catching the attention of the likes of Jona Lewie , who had a number one Christmas single with his hit record Stop the Cavalry.

Little Eris is a solo female artist, this has not stopped collaborations with others, such as comedian Johnny Nigma , who has provided videos, visuals and audience interaction during live events. Past concert appearances have included impromptu performances by audience members suddenly chosen from the crowd to temporarily join the band to sing song lyrics, guest musicians and vocalists performing live.

Performances at various festivals and events around the UK has expanded the bands line-up to include several extra musicians and dancers, and providing main support on the 2010 UK comeback tour for Viv Albertine from the original all-girl punk band The Slits . In 2011, Little Eris toured the UK with The Great Wreck and Roll Cirkus alongside festival veterans Here & Now and Eat Static . Her recent cultural activities include founding The Unemployed Daytime Disco events and webstreaming to a live audience at the Tate Modern oil tanks.

Little Eris has been on the scene since 2008 she previously released a 13 track debut album Molecules R Us comprising a collection of demos available as a free download in the spirit of providing music for the masses and to circumvent the credit crunch, which was also released as limited edition CDs featuring personalised DIY artwork.

"Music with personality....it is people who are complete individuals like Little Eris who make this role so rewarding, and truly exciting" Adam Walton, BBC INTRODUCING WALES

For anyone interested in the arts in Wales this website has some great content already and continues to develop as an exciting and interesting resource - http://www.culturecolony.com

Culture Colony - Y Wladfa Newydd is a new cultural experience celebrating the diversity ofexpression and a space for sharing and developing creative ideas. It has been designed as both a professional tool for individuals and businesses involved in the creative industries and as an alternative to television for anyone to access cultural content. As an independent voice and its membership can respond immediately to the cultural issues and concerns of the day.

Earlier this year Culture Colony began a project called New Frontiers -

The project will build on the core ideals of Culture Colony, namely to explore the potential offered by new communications technologies and to create high quality content to share via the new communications technologies.

The research, while providing a basis for exploration by the creative industries will also create a structure for the New Frontiers training programme.

Based on current and evolving practice, with regard to documentary film making in the broadcast industry and the emerging arena of the internet, combined with ideas generated through the research placement, the training programme will be designed to give the trainees a broad practical film making experience.

A strand of the New Frontiers research phase led to a series of videos and recordings with artists working in Wales. The training phase is now well underway and includes filmed talks by artists Ivan Morison and Steve Messam , as well work for the groundbreaking blinc digital arts festival 2012 , held in Conwy in October.

After thecountryhas suffered some of the heaviest rains and storms, and flooding warnings reaching the highest level-life threatening storms, it was perhaps understandable that as I lay in bed yesterday morning, I got the distinct impression of dampness...... Now, before the mind goes wandering off intoinappropriatedirections, and to be fair my mind wandered a little in the immediate aftermath, after all I had not been imbibing of noxious alcoholic beverages the night before, and have no history of any lack of responsibility in the nether regions, but it was clearly wet in the bed. Looking to the ceiling, there was no sign of any drops of water cascading down onto the coverlets, which was also not surprising as there are no water pipes above the bedroom, and there is another bedroom between the roof and the ceiling...

Worse still, it seemed to be wet only where I was sleeping... Now this may seem to have taken a few minutes, but the reality was that all these thoughts went through my mind in that brief moment that you have where you transform from a heavy sleep into total awake - and also levitate from the bed and stand looking at the silhouette outlined upon the bed - like a chalk print at a murder scene.

I suppose it is best to mention at this stage that I sleep upon a water bed - and have done so for countless years. No, not one of those bright sixties water filled li-lo's that used to appear in tame B scene romps, but rather a state of the art ( well 25 years ago) frame contained, floatation chambered, heated water bed. And it seemed it had sprung a leak!!!

Of course, one of the finest things about a water bed is that it contours automatically, and if there is more than one person in the bed, it equalises nicely to fit the individual weights of the sleepers. Thus,being the heavier of the sleepers, the mattress sinks just that small amount lower around my torso, allowing a slow trickle to form in the impression.

Well I can't complain really, spending the next few hours looking through the house for the repair kit, one always arrives with a waterbed, we worked out that the last replacement mattress had been bought back in 2005, giving us 8 years undisturbed rest, but no sign of the repair kit.... Also no sign of the leak!! It had to be a small leak, as it required two people to be on the bed to push a drop of water out, and it took 8 hours of steady drip to dampen only one indentation in the bed... A needle in a haystack if you wish to mix your metaphors...

So, where do you find a good repairer for water beds in Wales??? We originally bought the bed from Leeks at Crosshands, when they decided to specialise in such things, and the sales pitch of "Your normal mattress starts failing the day you put it on the bed - and needs replacing after only a couple of years as the supports inside start to breakdown - but your water bed mattress will go on for ever (less leaks of course)...
Your normal mattress gets filled with all thedetritusof the sleepers, whereas the water bed is impervious....."
So we went for the Leek Special, and bought .Strangelyfor all those years we have never had a leak!

Of course in 2005, the flotation chambers were beginning to rot inside, and the bed was losing its firmness, and when we moved the bed into another bedroom, it did notreallymake the journey well, so we splashed out ( no pun intended) on the 2005 replacement ... I have the bill, it was 179 plus carriage...

So not being able to find the leak we decided to research a replacement mattress - and interestingly found that the cost was the same - but with free carriage!!! A sign of the times that this one area of lifestyle has not increased in price over the years.... So with a credit card payment we can look forward to a replacement without Leaks ... and then we found the hole in the mattress!!!

But still no repair kit... A good excuse to turn over the bedroom, and in the drawers I found my medals from the Police, some cufflinks I forgot I had, and 2.27p in loose change.. but no repair outfit....
But in the living room, in amongst all the accumulated "Stuff" that finds its way into various drawers and shelves, there was a pristine, unopened, universal bicycle repair outfit!!!! Well, it was not a water bed repair kit, but there are some similarities in the form of rubber tube/lining, both require a little roughening around the are of repair, apply some of the solvent glue, add a rubber match and grate the chalk over the top to take away all extra glue...... Yup - seemed to be the same process......

So, I did not write the blog yesterday, we spent most of the time running around searching the house.. and then with some trepidation, attempted another night of sleep......
I am pleased to report that the bed stayed dry... I know I sound like a proud parent of a child who has managed to go the night without pampers - but if the repair holds then when the new mattress arrives we can store it for our move to the next house - we know from the past that moving a water bed is not easy!!!

So while the weather remains poor across Wales, at last in one part of Llanelli it is dry....
Also - if your waterbed has problems.... I know of a good repair service - we also do bikes!!

From the Barkeep's Blog

This is an important post not because it marks a new policy for this site but more of a new departure. We have had the capacity for some time to incorporate blogs via RSS feeds and Twitter streams into the AmeriCymru Activity Feed.

In the past we have held back from using Twitter feeds because Twitter is a vast site and any topic that is trending on there ( or even if it is not in many cases ) will quickly overrun the front page on AC. We have not incorporated blog RSS feeds because we did not wish to appear to be favoring one online author over another.

In future we propose that:-

1. We WILL feature Twitter feeds from time to time, probably with advance warning, particularly during major rugby matches ( Six Nations etc ) or if , as in the case of the reaction to the recent Daily Mail article by Roger Lewis, a lively and amusing Welsh themed discussion is occurring.

2. We WILL feature three Welsh blogs. I will start the ball rolling tomorrow BUT we will be looking for nominations from you, dear reader, for subsequent weeks. We will need 3 or more nominations per week. What will happen is that any new posts in the featured blogs will appear automatically in the AC Activity Feed. Since most bloggers only update once a day ( if that ) there is little chance that the feed will be overwhelmed as a consequence.

SO please get your nominations in AND please remember we will not be accepting comments on the R. Lewis 'article' linked above. The Forum is probably the best place for that.

PLEASE NOTE WE ARE LOOKING FOR BLOGS THAT HAVE AN RSS FEED AND UPDATE AT LEAST TWICE A WEEK. YOU ARE WELCOME TO NOMINATE YOUR OWN BLOG IF YOU WISH.

Christmas is traditionally a time for sitting around a log fire and telling ghost stories. These days central heating has mostlyreplaced the log fire but what about theseasonal ghost story? Is that also going the same way? From my list of 3,763 Mutual Twitter Followers I could only find a handful prepared to tag their work as 'ghost stories'. Is this because the ghost story is seen as old hat or has this particular sub-genre been immersed in the ever growing Paranormal and Fantasy genre? I'd be interested to know what you think.
Ibelieve a well written ghost story can send shivers down the spine like nothing else. The imagination is probably the brain'smost powerful attribute.The images that can be conjured in our mind by a creaking door or a flickering candle far surpass the most graphic description that can flow from a writers pen. That's why I find it so sad that when we think of great ghosts stories we invariable have to delve into the past.
M.R.James is one who immediately springs to mind as a master of the craft. As evidence of my claim you may wish to view Robert Powell's reading of 'The Mezzotint' .

Read A Ghost Story This Christmas
Mardi Orlandi A Secret Society An Abandoned Church And a Shadow Brought together by their mysterious gifts, seven teenagers have been stranded in no-time by their Secret Society. In an abandoned church they find a gathering of ghosted orphans, trapped for over one hundred years. To free these ghosts they will need to discover each of their identities, and to do that, this group of misfits will need to face the secrets that have haunted their own lives. It is the only way they will survive. And time is running out. A haunting fantasy, Secrets of Ghosts will intrigue those of us who like to seek amongst the shadows.
Peter Shapiro Peter David Shapiro was born in Montreal, Canada, and emigrated to the US after completing graduate school at Stanford. Before writing his debut suspense novel, Ghosts on the Red Line, he toiled as a management consultant serving clients around the world. Harry West, his protagonist in Ghosts on the Red Line is by amazing coincidence also a consultant. Harry West also plays the leading role in The Trail of Money, the prequel to Ghosts on the Red Line, a suspense novel about money laundering and murder in Hong Kong that was released in October 2012.
Suzy Turner Adopted sisters Lana Beth and Emma Jane are polar opposites, but when the same strange 'tattoo' suddenly appears and winds its way up their bodies within days of each other, they soon realize there's more to their relationship than they could ever have imagined.Sent off to London for two weeks of 'work experience', the Morgan Sisters soon find themselves being initiated into the ancient Praxos Foundation, one that protects the innocent while fighting evil, both human and supernatural. At the same time, Lana Beth and Emma Jane must also investigate why the sweet but sometimes pesky ghost of Josiah Grimshaw just won't leave them alone.
Douglas R Cobb Join the world's best-known and most beloved terrier/pterodactyl, Lily, her fourteen-year-old "owner," Celeste Quince, and the rest of PAWS (Private Army of Warrior Sleuths), Fuzzy Wally MacGee (a Chinese Crested/rhino), Lucy armoset Higgins (a Great Dane/orangutan), and Prince Alphonse Saed (a miniature dachsund/Mountain Lion) as they attempt to foil the latest plans of the scarlet Macaw Frankie Sinister and the Scarlet SNURFLES. The claim they want to develop an alternative energy source, but when the ghosts of Arkansas start disappearing from their favorite haunts, it looks like it's a case for Lily, Celeste, and PAWS. How can they say "No," when the request comes from the "Bandit Queen," the ghost of Belle Starr? Read about their exciting and often humorous sleuthing adventures as they travel throughout Arkansas encountering ghosts (both good and diabolically evil) ! Also, be sure to read the first book in the exciting new series, Lily, Unleashed!
William Meikle Between 1878 and 1879 the small town of Amherst in Nova Scotia sees of one of the strangest cases of poltergeist activity in history.A local girl, Esther Cox becomes the focus of night terrors, rappings, unexplained fires and more. What is the cause of this outbreak of psychic disturbances? No one knows. But Esther has a secret. And that secret might just destroy her.
Dr Ann Nyland Am y Stuart is a journalist and blogger for a paranormal magazine.She doesn't wear black leather; she can't kick butt; she doesn't have supernatural powers.But she does have one skill: while wearing shapewear and with her reading glasses perched on her nose, she can out-research the best of them, especially when her caffeine levels are high.When sent to England to write articles on Sir Francis Dashwood's Hellfire Club, Amy uncovers a link between the alchemist Nicholas Flamel, the nineteenth century occultists and the Hellfire Caves which endangers her own life. Can her research skills save the world from at least one dastardly killer? The Dashwood Haunting is the first book in the Amy Stuart Occult Mystery series.
Ann Swann What do you do when a phantom needs your help?A small plane crashes into Jase's backyard, and before long, he realizes the ghost of the pilot is haunting him. Jase needs help to rid himself of this supernatural visitor. When he sees his friend, Stevie, entering the town's legendary haunted house, he's certain she's the one who will have the answer to his problem. But will she help him? Would you?
Phil Rowlands For media mogul Clinton Ebenezer Scrooge III this Christmas Eve will be unlike any other. He is about to embark on the most terrifying journey of his life. It is a journey in which he must confront a painful past before he can begin to right terrible wrongs, before he can know redemption. A journey that leads to a place he left long ago, a place where hope abandoned a lost child forever. Tonight Scrooge will discover that the past cannot be erased by power but is he prepared to pay the price demanded for his salvation?
Manhattan Plays Host to Contemporary Urban Adaption of Dickenss A Christmas Carol. Adapted and published by Welsh writer, Philip Rowlands, A Christmas Carol: Revisited is set to make its debut concert reading in New York this December. Thrusting Ebenezer Scrooge into modern day Manhattan, could Rowlands adaption open a new chapter for this timeless classic? Tonypandy, Wales Like all good things in life, the passage of times bring a need for change. Nobody believes this more than Welsh author Philip Rowlands, whose contemporary adaption of Charles Dickenss A Christmas Carol is taking the literary world by storm. In fact, the story has been so popular that it is about to make its debut concert reading in New York City. A Christmas Carol Revisited takes Dickenss original story and drops it into to modern-day Manhattan. Ironically, the storys concert reading will take place in the same city, being performed at The House of the Bar on December 19 th However, before making its impressive trip across the Atlantic, Rowlands adaptation enjoyed an abundance of home-grown success. The book was featured on BBC Radio Wales last November, being awarded a positive critique by radio host Roy Noble. As Rowlands explains, the positive feedback generated an urge to spread the word Earlier this year I decided to email the secretaries of Charles Dickens Societies around the world. The most exciting of all the responses was the one received from The Entertainment Committee of the New York City Bar Association. They requested permission to sponsor a Concert Reading of my book, which has now been planned for this December, he says. The performance is taking place on a one-off, non-commercial basis, with attendees being asked to voluntarily contribute something in a '5' denomination for a children's charity. Rowlands is delighted that his book is getting the attention and acclaim many feel it deserves, something he hopes Dickens himself would approve of. I tried to consider what issues Dickens would have written about today, hence my decision to set the story in New York and not London. America has long since assumed the mantle once worn by the British Empire and has been at the heart of most of the major global events of the 21st Century, he adds. Attention has even been garnered by noted figures in the literary world, including writer Nigel Crowle. He commented, I thought it was very, very, good indeed. Phil put a new twist to it. It was great. .He's got some great imagery. . .fantastic. . . I loved it. The Concert Reading of A Christmas Carol: Revisited will take place at The House of the Bar on December 19 th , Manhattan, New York City, between 18:00 20:00. To mark the event and in support of the children's charities involved FREE copies of A Christmas CarolRevisited will be availableon AMAZON this December. PRESS RELEASE

I now have some of my work for sale online at The Bevere Gallery, Worcester . Thanks to everyone who has welcomed me to Americymru and commented on my work. Still raining here in Ceredigion!