Just a quick post to draw mwembers attention to the new 'related posts' feature on blogs and forum topics. Not quite sure what criteria are used to make the "you might also like" judgements BUT it should be an aid to random discovery and perhaps assist to re-surface a few lost gems

Welsh writers were out in force at the recent Hay Literature Festival beating off TV cooks and broken down politicians for the attention of enthusiastic audiences. The highlight was the announcement of the Wales Book of the Year shortlists. Poet Damian Walford Davies from Aberystwyth University chaired an evening in which the three English language and three Welsh language authors were invited to read from and discuss their work.

The English language shortlist consisted of Gee Williams (Blood etc), Deborah Kay Davies (Grace, Tamar and Lazlo the Beautiful) and Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch (Not In These Shoes) pictured above from left to right. The Welsh language authors were Hefyn Wyn (Pentigily), William Owen Roberts (Petrograd) and Geraint V Jones (Teulu Lord Bach).

Later, Damian Walford Davies teamed up with Richard Marggraf Turley and presented a son-et-lumiere evening of poetry and imagery and another Welsh success: during the course of the festival Flur Dafydd was presented with the Oxfam Emerging Writer of the Year prize.

Pictured below with shortlisted authors is Dominic Williams representing Parthian who can claim two thirds of the Wales Book of the Year list. WTG Parthian!

Vote Now!...in the Wales Book of The Year Award 2009 Poll.

Ever mindful of our duty to entertain our loyal readers and members, tonight we bring you the amazing iOS6 Maps!!! Yes folks the worst digital cartography of all time has been unveiled by the wizards of Cupertino. Many hilarious samples have already been posted to this blog:-

http://theamazingios6maps.tumblr.com/page/3

Please take a look and once you've picked yourself up off the floor let us know which cartographic masterpiece is your personal favourite Here are some of mine:-

1. 

   Downtown Houstons newest filling stations on the skyline rooftops! (Those are corporate headquarters, not gas stations).

if all of downtown indianapolis is flat, then whats casting all those shadows?

Plenty more where those came from

We have recently added a feed in the right hand column for our new Forum feature. For the technically minded I should point out that this is not an RSS feed but rather a php module in a resizeable iframe. That said, the whole thing is very easy to use and the new display means that you can observe at a glance all the latest activity in the Forum. We will still use the old Ning Forums but we would like to encourage people to try out the new Forum as well. Just click on any of the links in the display in the right hand column to be taken to the appropriate thread.

Please feel free to start a new thread ( we are a little threadbare at the moment ) or reply to existing posts. Threads in the Forum can be saved to your hard drive as .pdf files and there are a host of other sophisticated features . Enjoy!

New feed here ===================================================================>

Reproduced with kind permission from David Western's Portland Lovespoon Blog

I've got a confession to make. For the last month Laura and I have been having a private heart attack as our West Coast Eisteddfod lovespoon negotiated its way through the border/customs process of international mailing. Owing to poor old Laura getting some completely duff information from US Postal, the spoon wound up being tremendously overinsured and then triggered a customs charge of nearly 200 dollars at the border!! Since neither she or I could pony up that kind of dough and since the whole idea of the lovespoon is to raise funds rather than spend them, the only option left was to send it back to customs and appeal the charge. Needless to say, it was a long, nerve-wracking ride for the pair of us and we were getting fairly certain the project would not be happening this year after all.

BUT, Canada Customs came through with an expedited processing and we are now back in business!

I'm really excited to get going with some carving of my own, but before I do, I have to quickly blog and let everyone know how BEAUTIFUL this thing is so far!! Laura has done a lovely job and the 4 balls rolling in their organic cage look fabulous. It's got the trademark Jenkins Lovespoons delicacy and elegance and is wonderfully 'touchable'. Whoever wins this thing is going to be over the moon... it is easily our best spoon so far and its not even done yet!!!

So, to keep on track for the Eisteddfod, I will be getting my head down and my backside up for the next few days. I'm hoping I can make good headway and keep the project on track for the big day in October......not so very far away now!!

If you're wondering what all the tape and plywood 'crutch' is all about, there's no breaks or anything, I just want to protect Laura's delicate work while I am bashing away on the scroll saw. I think I would have an aneurism if I managed to break it after all we have been through...so for the next little while it will be behind scaffolding!!ven if you could give a tinker's damn about Eisteddfods or anything Welsh, Laura and I both hope you'll fall in love with our lovespoon and want to have it (or even better, you'll want it to give to your sweetie)

Please consider donating a couple of bucks to the West Coast Eisteddfod and you could win this lovely, lovely spoon!!

You'll find the url below and links to more details about the authors and their works. Personally, I'm voting for Gee Williams. www.walesonline.co.uk/bookoftheyear More details here:- http://www.walesonline.co.uk/showbiz-and-lifestyle/books-in-wales/book-of-the-year/

"A new band we love. Bloody lush!" -Lauren Laverne, BBC 6music

Amid wildly enthusiastic early reviews, Anglo-Welsh-American psych-pop-rockers Howl Griff mark the release of their new album with a free-entry launch party in London this Thursday (20th Sept) and an exclusive offer of a free download from the new set.

The title track to the 'Fragile Diamond' album was immediately made BBC Radio Wales' Single of the Week, and early online album reviews have been uniformly positive. Louder Than War's Adrian Bloxham says "They give us utterly catchy rock, they give us beautiful harmony-drenched pop Trust me on this, you should hear this band," while Echoes and Dust's Martyn Coppack lauds "a cornucopia of different styles that straddles boundaries - it's a crime that songs like this don't top the charts any more".

Album reviews: http://howlgriff.com/press.html

The album will be launched on Thu 20th Sept with a free-entry gig at The Albany, Gt Portland St W1W. Supported by 6music-approved Emily C Smith, the band will play two sets one at 6.30pm for the post-work crowd, and a fuller set at 9.15pm.

The band will also play in Cardiff on Sunday 23rd Sept, with gigs in Wrexham and Manchester to follow in October.

Gigs: http://www.howlgriff.com/gigs.html

Howl Griff give fans a free-download song every month, and as a special launch-fever bonus they're allowing the first 50 requests to download the Fragile Diamond album's epic closing track, Everything, free of charge. See the link for details.

Freebies: http://www.howlgriff.com/freemp3s.html

If you're not quick enough to download it free, not all is lost: you can listen on the link below, and industry types can tap up the band's PR Ffion Davies ( ffion@altpr.co.uk ) or TV/radio plugger Ron McCreight ( ronmccreight@btinternet.com

.

Listen to the album: http://www.howlgriff.com/music/howl-griff-fragile.html

That's it - thanks for listening, and enjoy!

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HOWL GRIFF
Website: http://www.HowlGriff.com
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/HowlGriff
Twitter: http://twitter.com/HowlGriff
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/HowlGriffBand
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/HowlGriff
Bandcamp (downloads): http://howlgriff.bandcamp.com/
Merchandise: http://howlgriffshop.spreadshirt.net

We are: Hywel Griffiths, Nick Moore,
Gary Parkinson, Steve Kennedy and you

A new novel based on Welsh history has been reprinted within two months of its release as a result of a great response in the USA. Tongue Tied by Peter Griffiths, a Welsh author whos lived in America for many years, is set in the Tryweryn Valley, the Rhondda, and around Llanelli. It has proved to be a hit with American readers and in particular with book club enthusiasts who have praised the author as a wonderful storyteller and the novel as a wonderful story about friendship and the ties that bind.

Dewi Roberts who has reviewed the book for Gwales says: This is a powerful story which explores relationships, religion, language and identity. On the subject of national identity, Griffiths states, One is Welsh if one feels Welsh. The novel recognises the tension that arises at times between the majority of Welsh people who cant speak Welsh and the minority who can; and the divisiveness of the language in these instances is compared, with sadness, to its crucial unifying role over the millennia.

The author was inspired to write Tongue Tied twenty-five years after leaving his homeland. He says, In 2000, while driving from Heathrow to Bala, climbing the Berwyn from Llangynog, I distinctly remember being moved by the grandeur, and feeling ludicrously patriotic. How could I not write a novel glorifying Wales, its people, and its language? It would be aimed partly at my circle of acquaintances in the States, who go weak at the knees over Scotland and Ireland, but rarely over Wales.

A book signing event has been arranged for 6.30pm on 10 June at Awen Meirion, Bala, close to where the novel is set.

Peter Griffiths, who is a Welsh speaker, was born in Cynheidre near Llanelli in Carmarthenshire. He now divides his time between Swansea and Denver. This is his first novel.