March is Medway Women’s History Month and I’ve organised some stuff. You’re welcome :)

January 14, 2025February 7, 2025Leave a comment

Saturdays in March 2025 are going to be busy, so block out your diaries now. Under the guise of the Rochester Literature Festival (resurrected!) I, together with a new steering group for MWHM, am working in partnership Medway Adult Education, Salvation Army, Strood and the Net Community Hub to celebrate Medway Women’s History Month.

Here’s our programme for the month:

March 1st: Launch Event at Rochester Adult Education Centre, Room 11.

A chance to meet the team behind the Medway Women’s History Month and get the low down, a Keynote Speech from former Medway Mayor, Nina Gurung, and empowerment courtesy of Adelle Martin and Fiona Shoults, co-founders of Stronger Together Through Cancer.

We end with a performance from the Brompton and Invicta Military Wives Choir.

Find out more here.

March 8th: Challenging Stereotypes, at Rochester Adult Education Centre, Room 11.

10.30am: A ‘Jobs for the Girls’ panel will feature women who work in traditionally male environments in the morning, including boat builder Poppy Lavers, Sapper Izzy Crooks and Rochester Bridge Trust Civil Engineer Helen Rowe, hosted by former detective (and RLF Patron) Lisa Cutts.

1.30pm: ‘A Sporting Chance’ in the afternoon will feature Tracy Bullock, first female chair of Medway Rugby Club and female players from Chatham Town FC, hosted by Steph Brivio OBE, Chair of Medway Netball.

There will be market places in both panels for girls to ask questions.

Find out more here.

March 15th: Author Talks at The Salvation Army Hall, Strood

We have two amazing female authors for you to enjoy on Saturday 15th March, at the Salvation Army Hall in Strood, hosted by author and publisher, Julia Williams.

2pm: In Conversation with Victoria Smith

The author of ‘Hags: The demonization of middle-aged women’, and new book, (Un)Kind, this will be a thoughtful and insightful conversation around the issues that affect so many women in their day to day lives.

4pm: In Conversation with SJ Bennett – a Mini Murderous Medway

SJ Bennett is the author of the bestselling mystery series featuring Queen Elizabeth II as a secret sleuth, Her Majesty The Queen Investigates. She has written fifteen novels for children and adults, winning the Romantic Novel of the Year award for Love Song and the Times/Chicken House prize for Threads.

Find out more and book tickets here.

March 22nd at The Net Community Hub, Walderslade

11am: From Suffragettes to the Political Now

Hosted by Jennifer Godfrey, the author of many awesome books about the first women to break through the glass ceiling, in conversation with former Chatham MP, Tracey Crouch and current Gillingham MP, Naushabah Khan.

Find out more here.

1pm: Overcoming the Obstacles – Medway’s female community doers

Going into the afternoon, we’re delighted to host three awesome women, who, in spite of their disabilities, make a massive difference to their local communities: Kate Belmonte (Mutual Aid Road Reps) Sue Bulpin (Brainstormz!) and Sam Rapp, the Dyslexic Poet.

Find out more here.

March 29th: Finale Day at The Net Community Hub

An eclectic mix to wrap up our celebration.

12 Noon: Creative Medway Women – Dr. Carol Stewart, Chair of Creative Medway, talks to Lynne Parker, founder of Funny Women CIC, and Sue Davis, a freelance web content trainer.

At 2pm, the Medway Women’s History Month team, led by Georgia Read-Cutting will host an interactive session to celebrate incredible women that no-one has heard of.

4pm – it’s the finale of the finale!

With music from talented Medway songstress, Didi Bergman, poetry from the lovely Tender Eye, among others, with comedy* and much more.

Find out more here.

‘Subscribe’ to the Substack and bring all the updates direct to your inbox!

*There’s even a rumour I might make my comedy debut, but don’t hold me to it *eek*

Mini-Wins!

April 22, 2021Leave a comment

Two to share. First up, I was a quarterfinalist in the SWN Goldman Awards with my comedy feature, Snitch.

They sent me a laurel, which was lovely of them. I’m particularly pleased, as the judges in this include Ed Solomon, screenwriter of the Men in Black, Bill and Ted and the Now You See Me franchises (there’s a third one of NYSM being developed now), and Fleur Costello, former BBC comedy producer with over 20 years in the industry.

Next up – and this only happened this week – the BBC called out for submissions to their Upload Festival (May Day weekend) and I thought I’d give it a go (bear in mind I’m a writer not a performer) so dug out an old poem (a short old poem) with a twist ending. Off it went, and made it onto Radio Kent, so yay me!

You can listen to it here, from 27.23 in to the broadcast.

Finally – not so much a mini-win for me personally (but fundraising for my charity) – I’m taking part in my third Firewalk next Friday. As you know, I manage a small community space and we’re looking to begin opening up again in the next two months – slowly at first, as our people are elderly and/or vulnerable and the priority is to keep them all safe.

But we’ve almost all had our second jabs now, so confidence is growing that we can get back to some semblance of normality. If you’d like to help us get our programme underway again, this is the link to share (or you can sponsor me, that’d be fab!) Thank you!

5-4-3-2-1 Talent Campers are GO!

June 2, 2019March 15, 2020Leave a comment

Like most writers, I’ve done my fair share of courses – short and long, online and offline – to help improve my writing. I’ve attended events and seminars to glean nuggets of info from those who’ve been there and done it, and signed up to numerous writing websites’ newsletters .

And now, I’ve finally taken myself by the scruff of the neck and gone for the Big One: Talent Campus, the London Screenwriters’ Festival’s rocket-fuelled 7 day, 4 week intensive workout.

I’ll openly admit, I thought it was too soon for me to take full advantage of it. But then I thought, what the hell? I’ve either got talent or I haven’t and it’s probably best to find out sooner rather than later, right?

I was still unconvinced though, and my application contained 10 pages of an incomplete script which was pretty much a raw first draft, where I teed up ideas to explore further along. I figured, if they accept that, I know I’m on the right track.

So here I am. The intense activity away at Ealing Studios starts on June 26, but we’re in the Pre-Ignition phase and they’ve already set a first homework assignment, a 2 page script for their Impact 50 project.

It’s something I looked at briefly before, but couldn’t come up with a good idea, mainly I think, because I was concentrating on my TV pilot for a competition. So I let it go – and then slightly panicked when the assignment came through.

Don’t settle on your first idea, it said, and eventually the snippets I’d been jotting down previously formed themselves into a workable plot: An elderly lady decides to protect her canine best friend from suffering the impact.

I decided to give her a cantankerous husband to play off, then decided to give him dementia – we lost my dad to the condition, and I’m involved in the local dementia action alliance, so I’m confident including it in my stories.

But then a funny thing happened. Having only two pages to play with, I ran out of room for the dog. So the story became: A woman whose husband lives with dementia shields him from the present by recreating a date from their past. Which hadn’t been in my notes at all!

#RLF2016: Written Worlds, Inspiring Places

September 29, 2016September 29, 2016Leave a comment

writtenworlds-02

For some strange reason 5 years ago, I decided to start a literature festival. Possibly I had too much time on my hands (I didn’t) possibly I just felt we were lacking a festival in Medway dedicated to writing, and somebody had to do it. I must’ve been mad, and I’m also stubborn, so here we are: the fourth Rochester Literature Festival 2016 kicks off this weekend.

Amidst the usual creative writing workshops, Cafe Crawl and author talks this year, the RLF has a wonderful day of craft activities planned for all ages.

‘The Turtle Moves‘, inspired by Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, sees a Juvenile Crafters’ Guild appear, as if by magic, in Rochester’s Community Hub, where you can design your own Luggage or bring to life a Golem, among other activities. Out and about in the high street you’ll bump into numerous characters – and even see a re-enactment of the Battle of Koom Valley! And shhhhh – it’s rumoured that the Librarian will be appearing in L-Space (Baggins!)

RLF Patron Lisa Cutts is appearing at Strood Library on Oct 4, alongside fellow crime author Simon Booker, while author of The Outlaw Chronicles, Angus Donald, is at Rochester Library on Oct 6. There is also a Local Author Day at Rochester Library between 10am-2pm on Oct 1.

The popular Cafe Crawl takes place on Sunday, Oct 2 and features the Canterbury Yarners, Fiona Sinclair, Nancy Charley, Johanna Coulson and Maggie Butt alternating at Bruno’s Bakes, The Quills and Cafe @172 between 12-3pm.

The festival opens with three creative writing workshops on Saturday, Oct 1: An Introduction to Screenwriting, A Guide to Self Publishing, and Building Your Make Believe World. It ends with a Writers’ Retreat on Sunday, Oct 9.

All the events apart from the workshops are free, and more detail and tickets for the workshops can be booked here.

If you pop down, be sure to say ‘hi’ 🙂

Wordless Wednesday

November 18, 2015November 15, 2015Leave a comment

Campaign_We_Love_WOW_heart Jaye Nolan Writer Kent Medway

Please support our local arts and culture magazine! Just click the pic to pledge 🙂

Silent Sunday

September 27, 2015September 27, 20152 Comments

Sunday Slackers

September 13, 2015March 17, 20162 Comments

Art: The Burning Man Festival

Genes: Family lookalikes through the ages

Environment: Children’s playgrounds to make you wish you were 10 again.

Learning: How to grow smarter

Continue reading →

My Mind is Free

September 8, 2015March 17, 2016Leave a comment

I remove the scrunched up hair band from its hiding place. In all this time they’d never found it and it is now my only link back to my family.

I’d been taken, ripped away from Shona as I was plaiting her hair. My six year old sister’s screams keep me awake at night but her hairband keeps me grounded. Reminds me who I am and that Shona is waiting for me.

I decide that this is the day I begin my journey home. They will come soon but just one will be left. I’d loosened a bar in the bedstead and the lengths of rags I’ve been saving are tied together. I know their pattern. They will wait out back, dragging on those repulsive cigarettes. But the passage will be empty.

I slip the band around my wrist.

The lock clicks.

Continue reading →