Poets and authors gather for Stourbridge open event

Express & Star

The latest Open Mic spoken word event took place at Katie Fitzgerald's performance venue in Wollaston, Stourbridge

Transcript

00:00Standing here beside me, all alone. I walk with him till morning. Without him, I feel his arms around me.

00:20And when I lose my way, I close my eyes and he has found me.

00:27We're here at Katie Fitzgerald's The Open Mic Night in the break with a multi-talented Laura Liptrott, who's just released a book.

00:37We'll talk about that in just a moment, and publisher Stephen C. Davis.

00:42So Laura, last time we spoke you'd released your poetry book. Now it's part one of a series called Dreamcatchers, just so you can see that there.

00:56Tell us a little bit about how that came about.

00:58Oh, well I've been working on this for 20 years at least. It started off, it was inspired by Doctor Who when that very first came back.

01:07And it's just grown and grown since then, and much more of me has gone into the character. It's had other influences.

01:16Even today as writing I'm influenced by things like Bridgerton and the romance of that.

01:21So everything I see has changed it slightly from what it originally was.

01:26And when I met my publisher, Steve, I just thought, let's bite the bullet and let's just finally share it with someone.

01:34And he said, yeah, it's great. So here we are.

01:38Yeah, and how many books are going to be in the series?

01:41At least 11.

01:42Wow.

01:43But as I'm editing it's growing.

01:45Yeah. And Stephen, you've obviously got high hopes for the book. You wouldn't have published it otherwise.

01:51It's a story I want to know more about.

01:54It's like, if it's interesting, if it's not something I've seen or read before, it's like, well I'm not writing it but I want to read it.

02:02I think it's got potential.

02:05It's got potential as a good story. It's got merchandising and spin-off potential.

02:10It could be a television series, a YouTube series, a film.

02:14Stuff can happen with it.

02:17It's got a lot there that you can pick out separate strands of it and do something different with it.

02:24And do you yourself work with a lot of new authors, young authors such as Laura?

02:31A fair few young authors, yes. I have a stable.

02:37Do you have a horse?

02:40I've got a stable of about 20 authors scattered around the world but mostly in the West Midlands.

02:47Wide range of topics they write about and also personalities for themselves.

02:54And it's just about supporting people who've got an idea, who've got a tale, who've got some talent, who want to do something with it.

03:02And the aim is never to make money. It's to get something out there, to explore ideas, to express creativity.

03:10And Laura, you're certainly one for creativity, poetry, author.

03:15I believe I heard on social media you've got your Equity card now as well.

03:21Is that an ambition for you, obviously, to go into the acting field?

03:25Yeah, well, writing has always been something I've done as a hobby and only recently focused on it as a career.

03:32It had always been, until recently, an actor.

03:36When people had asked me what I do, I'd always say actor.

03:38And it's only recently that writing's more took over, but yeah, I'm an actor as well.

03:45Yeah, and how do you see your future? Obviously, you're writing the rest of the series of the books at the moment.

03:52How do you see 2025 panning out, or is it too early to say?

03:58I don't know, really, just doing more and more.

04:02Well, yeah, I'm having three more of these books out.

04:06You know, I would absolutely adore to have this as a film or a TV series.

04:11My ultimate ambition is to have a comedy series on TV and to have this on TV, because that's another platform that I can tell the story through.

04:20Honestly, I will embarrass my illustrator now, Kavanagh Phillip.

04:25When they first sent me the pictures, the very first sketch that became this beautiful front cover, I literally cried.

04:32Because to see somebody else bring my vision to life was just absolutely beautiful.

04:40And then what they've actually done as the finished product is unspeakably amazing.

04:47I'm so grateful to them. Just wow. Thank you.

04:51OK, well, let's go and hear some more poetry the second half of the evening at Katie's.

04:55And just a final word, where can people get the book?

04:59So, if you go on my Facebook, you can contact me directly.

05:04You can find it on Amazon. It's available in Dudley Library at the moment.

05:09You can contact me by text. It's in Waterstones.

05:13And all good bookshops.

05:16Are you doing a reading at Dudley Library, I believe? Is that in the pipeline?

05:20So, I did have as the launch, so that has happened.

05:24But we have more plans for Dudley Library and libraries.

05:29OK, well, thanks for talking to us both.

05:34He left his car and winced as Will Hughes' Passat pulled up across the gates

05:38and the cretin waved goodbye to his missus before strolling over.

05:42Ah, Will. Fit and well, I see. Foster could not hide his sarcasm.

05:48Well, you know, Hughes was kicking the gravel

05:51as he tried to match Foster's large strides towards the front door.

05:57...written instead. For the time being, here are the numbers of dead.

06:01Quack, the man reading Gibbon on the Midland Reds.

06:06Clairvoyant Cosy, Clairvoyant Cosy's chimping along.

06:10Training course small fry will fry up a bomb.

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