Pre-Edinburgh final prep.

There is one final WIP for Twist at the Jokes on Us Minifringe in Leicester (https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/jokes-on-us/t-krppmnl) on 29 July and then I’ll be catching a train up this strange land towards the wonderful chaos of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

If you’re in London and wanted to come see the show, but missed the previous previews, Leicester is a little less than two hours out of Paddington, which is either a lot or not a lot depending on your lifestyle, commitments, phone data plan and perspective on time.

Bye for now, London!

Getting out of London and up to Edinburgh is going to be complicated with my little family in tow but it’ll be good to get out of this AirBnB. It‘a been a truly convenient location that has provided significantly more drama than one hopes for in a rental. For people who haven’t been collating the last month or so, the bullet points look like this:

• On arrival, unexpectedly much more of the flat and surrounding building was under construction than a dwelling should be, specially when one comes bearing a toddler.
• Locked out with surprise security door. (“Oh, nobody ever closes that!”)
• Door kicked in and robbed, including of all my podcasting and filming rig. (Maybe ye olde security door ought to have been closed sometimes? And the tenants equipped with keys to the door?)

(Also occasionally the alarm goes off in the whole building for no reason and we have to hope that someone with a key to the upstairs is in, and will go to the fuse box and reset it. But that feels like something that you can’t really blame the Airbnb hosts for. Except if it happens at nap time, when I take it extreeemely personally and begin inventing new multilingual curses from my grandmother’s half remembered trove of horrible Hungarian ones.)

A heartfelt thanks go to those that have been so generous with time and thought in helping me get replacement equipment so that I can continue to work - the pod boat was delightful and Ped & Chris were great organising it as a last minute stopgap, but apparently I’m not allowed to travel with a whole boat. Some people have also been super kindly donating at my website shop, which has helped so much on the buying new stuff front. You are all wonderful.

Donations were not something I expected or felt entitled to and the kindness has given me a real boost to the heart. Other than making my life significantly logistically easier (at a time when I’m neck deep in pre and post edinburgh logistics), it’s been an antidote to the slight mistrust and generalised misanthropy that was the worst bit of getting broken in on. (Who’d do this? Why? The lady at the shop? The construction guys? That person lurking in their car watching mukbang YouTube on an iPhone at 9pm?).

So, thanks!

D’Ancey Book

Is coming along! I’ve hit the minimum word count and we’re past 210% funded so it’s definitely happening. Quality TBD. My submission date is end of September, so you can still buy yourself or your friends or work crush a copy HERE.

If you know anyone who runs a podcast or convention in the romance or genre writing community I’d also love to nerd out about joyous and silly books of all kinds - see if I can pitch the absolutely deranged reality of D’Ancey to people who aren’t already all-in via BugleVerse brainwashing.

Book Club

Unfortunately there isn’t a Book Club this week. The nature of time and logistics have made it impossible. (I have a doctor’s appointment, and would feel weird running a book club in the waiting room.

For those not signed up to the calendar (https://linktr.ee/alicefraser), here is what is happening in the upcoming.

Writers Meeting and Workshop

Sunday, 30 July⋅2:30 – 4:30pm (GMT +1)

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85230597426?pwd=dnBmTGp2S1U3dmNaMzhKSk9qbE1tdz09

Weekly Salon

Monday, 31 July⋅4:00 – 5:00pm (GMT +1)

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82192186420?pwd=bnVZb2gycVp0azhmWHN2OGsyN0Q0dz09

Book Club

Friday, 4 August⋅2:30 – 3:30pm

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87320004420?pwd=MzJBVlVjRUE0VjJrbDNVSjF0d3VmZz09

Live in August

For those that will be in Edinburgh for the Fringe, I look forward to seeing you. Maybe at Twist (https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/alice-fraser-twist), one of The Gargle Live shows (https://www.thestand.co.uk/fringe/1667/the-gargle-live) or even the in-person salons that I will run each Thursday from 12pm-1pm. (Let me know if that doesn’t align with your dates and I’ll shift one or two to suit people)