New Daisy Chain audio now at Reverbnation

One day recently a friend's mother phoned me to say she was reading Daisy Chain and had reached the character JASMINE JUPITER. She began to read a part of it which she found particularly lovely. As she read and I heard the natural appreciation in her voice, I thought I would like to record her reading it ... and that idea stretched into getting different women to read an excerpt from whichever character in the novel they liked most.

I've recorded two women reading so far. These mp3 excerpts are available on the Daisy Chain Novel Reverbnation site (http://www.reverbnation.com/daisychainnovel), embedded below. Listen and enjoy  ... and stay tuned for more readers to come.

Click here to purchase Daisy Chain at amazon.com in print or Kindle/e-book format.

Link to online radio interview (archived episode)

This is the link to the online radio episode done yesterday . I was interviewed via Skype by IndiesinMotion/Rick Mizuna, LA, mainly about Daisy Chain.

The show opens with some music, then my interview, followed by an interview with musician, Bob Helfant.

http://gvbradio.com/player2/?file=Indies-073012.mp3&title=Indies+in+Motion+07%2F30%2F12

Tune in: live Daisy Chain online radio interview Monday 30 July 2012

Daisy Chain book signing at Sept 2011 launch at NALIS, Trinidad

This Monday I am scheduled to be on the Indies in Motion Radio Show, being interviewed by Rick Mizuno about my novel Daisy Chain.

TUNE IN TIME: Monday 30 July, Live at 1pm PST on Ch1 of www.GVBRadio.com
(For those in Trinidad, that will be 5 p.m.)

In case you miss it, the show will also be uploaded for 24/7 access at www.GVBRadio.com/indies-in-motion

And on the next day (Tuesday) FREE iTunes downloads of the show will be available ( keyword: Indies in Motion w/Rick Mizuno)

A story so true it sounds like it's not

Some time ago I asked (for those who read Daisy Chain) re pages 14 - 16:

1. Who wrote the letter to Andrea—Mr. or Mrs. Port?
2. What was the relationship between writer and intended recipient?
3. What did the letter say?

A friend in Canada sent an intriguing response:

"Mr. Port wrote the letter. It said that he is madly in love with her and wants to run away with her. It says that he will wait for her every evening on the hill in the swing under the big willow tree. He will wait there for an hour before dark and walk back to the house at dark if she doesn't come."

Her answer made me wonder how Mr. Port met Andrea, what she thinks of him, if she ever comes to meet him at the tree, if she even gives him a second glance or if it's all just in his head. But then again, she never did get the letter because it was behind the chest of drawers. Why didn't he send it?

This actually reminds me of something that happened in real life ... finding a love-like letter that was intended to be sent but, for some reason, never was. It happened when I was studying at Cambridge. Such a bizarre story ... but it's true.

One night my housemates and I had a dinner at home. After everyone left, my friend Laura stayed back and the two of us stayed up talking until early morning. Still not sleepy and feeling restless, we decided to walk down the hill to Parker's Piece (a large, significant green open space/landmark in Cambridge).

Because it was so early (just at dawn), no one was around and the grass was white with frost. We walked through it, dragging our feet, drawing shapes and patterns ... and coming across evidence of nocturnal revelry—condoms, underwear, champagne corks, etc.

In the near distance there was a garbage bin. I don't know what got into me to suggest that we look in it and see what was there. (Maybe because I was studying Criminology at the time). To our surprise, at the top of the garbage was a sealed envelope addressed to Mary Berry, with a stamp on it. Obviously someone had had all intentions of posting it, but for some reason, had decided not to. We wondered ... did the letter writer decide on the way to the post office that they no longer wanted to send the message? Or did he/she accidentally drop the letter on their way to mail it and, upon retracing their steps couldn't find it because someone else had discovered it and tossed it in the bin? 

Not wanting to put the letter back in the garbage in case the latter assumption was true, we agreed to open it and see what it was before deciding what to do.

From the very carefully and neatly-written letter we discovered that Mary Berry gave opera lessons. The letter writer was thanking her for helping him to open his voice ... and other things which I can't recall now. Maybe at the time we were being a bit Sherlock Holmes-ish, but, reading between the lines, we deduced that the writer had a huge crush on Mary Berry, had gathered up immense courage to write this letter full of lustful feelings thinly veiled in metaphors ... but on the way to the post office had decided against it and tossed the amorous confessions in the bin.

Why, you wonder, would he not have gone through with it?

This is the part of the story that struck us as amazing, if not bizarre. Coincidence of all coincidences, the name signed at the end of the letter (first AND surname, for some reason—maybe shyness , nerves or politeness) was that of a young priest at the priory/monastery near to our college!

This knowledge made us put the letter back in the bin.

What's your take?

To those who have read Daisy Chain, what would your answers be to the following questions (re pages 14 - 16)?

1. Who wrote the letter to Andrea—Mr. or Mrs. Port?
2. What was the relationship between writer and intended recipient?
3. What did the letter say?


To purchase a the ebook or print version of Daisy Chain from amazon.com please click here

Daisy Chain in today's Newsday Newspaper

Laptop streaming the event globally

Multimedia creator Elspeth Duncan treated global and London audiences to a techno-interactive reading from her novel Daisy Chain. Duncan, together with actresses Renée Castle, Catherine Hammond, Silvana Montaya and Doraly Rosa, with technical support by Liam Rezende, magically transformed an upstairs room of the Old China Hand Pub in Clerkenwell, London, into a performance space ... (continued in Newsday)
 
 Please click here to visit the Trinidad Newsday and read the latest on Daisy Chain. 

 

For more insight into the creation of and inspiration behind Daisy Chain, please click here to listen to this UWI podcast in which I was interviewed by award-winning writer, Barbara Jenkins.

Daisy Chain is available at amazon.com in print and e-book formats. Please click here to make your purchase.

"...not girly shit"

I love the latest Daisy Chain review—one of just two from male readers:

"I have not finished the book yet but it reminds me of a time in my life when I had more fun. You definitely can reach a wide audience if I enjoyed it. I normally hate girly shit, but surprisingly your book is not girly shit. I give it a nine and a half out of ten. You lose the half point for using what I assume is fictitious names for what seems to be real stories. If they are not real stories you will get a full ten but I would recommend that you check yourself in to St. Anns. LOL. Thanks for bringing some soothing peace to my aching soul. Your world has re-tuned my eyes to see a universe I used to belong to where beauty lived in simple things. I knew there was a reason I love you. Thanks again."

(J.L.)

Daisy Chain is available in print and ebook formats at:

Amazon http://tinyurl.com/bo4gjze
Barnes & Noble http://tinyurl.com/ce6d2xb
Kobobooks http://tinyurl.com/6o839pf

Like a poem ...

Vahni Capildeo's live reporting (via ipad) of Wednesday's Daisy Chain reading (posting live commentary to Daisy Chain's Facebook page) was a poetic tribute to an evening well spent. Worth laying it out here so you can read all as one stream.

1. Elspeth puts out fire in Renee's hair! Wow was that spontaneous combustion or candles?

2. Doraly Rosa, Silvana Montana, Catherine Hammond and Renee Castle introduced by Elspeth... Full house and we're off... Give thanks

3. Livestreaming NOW Renee voices Clara...giving us butterflies

4. Face half in light half in dark, musings on how easily a daisy is broken...

5. Doraly Rosa speaking Andrea's dreams

6. Silvana Montana is Fiona, enticing us to follow her into old maps and creative truancy...

7. And bubbling into full laughter. All into the story now, self consciousness put aside.

8. Film intro to Catherine Hammond's reading. Thanks to tech support Liam Rezende we take a car journey between wild greenery.

9. Catherine/Mona returns to perch quietly on windowsill as the next woman, next story, comes forward. The movement of the bodies is like fugal music.

10. Film maker Karen Martinez in front row making good use of her camera. Another recorder of dreams. Wonder what is happening in the heads of all these listeners...each hearing a subtly inflected version of the stories, conjuring personal images.

11. Renee is the librarian finding the love that is fed by kindness...and select baked goods!

12. A rusty red lawnmower mows a juicy green lawn...

13. Story of teenage girl who mows lawn to earn money to go away...resonates with the other purpose of the evening, the collection to help a girl in India realize her goals of training in dance therapy...

14. Elspeth writes of women's appreciation of other women's beauty with refreshing lucidity...if you are reading this switch into watching the livestreaming...

15. Slow blue of late spring London evening outside. Paint and pain blue and red on the filmed clowns face. Doraly is Philippine...

16. Candle reflections a little Christmas in the red laptop case. Elspeth thrones beneath the dartboard flowers.

17. Audience hands crimps and lips part or clench at the story of the wife who lives her marriage in clown makeup...

18. Catherine perched on the windowsill was preparing Isadora from fluttering A4 sheets. Now she has made the text dance forth. And the daisy chain closes.

19. Drawing for doorprize! Excitement

20. Lucky winner gets a Daisy Chain book autographed by cast and author.

21. And we get coloured cards with fragments of text to fill in our own stories.

22. Putul Fund collection continues to help Putul fulfil her dreams in India.

23. People filter downstairs to the pub. Many stay upstairs, abuzz with new conversations.

24. The actresses pick a closing quote to post: 'All in the name of love'. Thanks for being here.

25. Thank you to Vahni for her live reporting of the event! Xo Elspeth

Last night was lovely

Renée brought daisies for each of us (readers) to wear.

(More photos below)

Last night's magical Daisy Chain reading at Old China Hand was enjoyed by all. If you missed the live stream of the event, you can click here to view the archived recording. It's about 57 minutes long. 

First time live streaming an event. There are a few ways in which it can be improved for next time. Main thing would be to get the external camera to work (not sure why it didn't this time) ... as the laptop camera isn't optimum choice. But, it got the job done well enough to enable you to see and hear the reading.

Thank you to the actresses who did a great job of reading:

Renée Castle

Catherine Hammond

Silvana Montaya

Doraly Rosa

And thank you to Rowena, owner of Old China Hand, for the intimate venue.

Looking forward to what & where the next Daisy Chain event will be ...

Daisy Chain is available in print and ebook formats at:

Amazon http://tinyurl.com/bo4gjze
Barnes & Noble http://tinyurl.com/ce6d2xb
Kobobooks http://tinyurl.com/6o839pf

 Reading an excerpt from MRS. C.: Doraly (l) - Narrator, Catherine (mid) - Mrs. C, Elspeth (r): Mr. C.

 Bullseye Bouquet -- flowers from Liam, idea of pinning it onto the dart board, Renée

 Doraly (l) and Catherine (r) ... and my laptop, used for recording & streaming the event

 Excerpt from BRENDA: Silvana (l) as Brenda, Elspeth (r) as Interviewer.

Renée reads an excerpt from CLARA. This is how it looked to me as the livestream moderator

Daisy Chain Live from London: Tune in Wed 11, 2012

Dear All,

http:

Watch live streaming video from daisychain at livestream.com

Tune in via this embedded channel tomorrow—Wed 11 April—for the live stream of four London actresses (Renée Castle, Catherine Hammond, Silvana Montana, Doraly Rosa) reading excerpts from my novel Daisy Chain @ 6:30 p.m. UK time = 1:30 p.m. TT time. (Not sure about other time zones, but you can work it out with a Time Zone Converter http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html). Even if you miss the live reading, you will be able to catch it as a recorded event in the archives under the screen at the link above.

Once we come online tomorrow, you will see the video instead of the coloured bars which show when the channel is offline. 

First time streaming a reading as a live event. Stay tuned!

Thank you to Rowena (owner of the venue) for so kindly hosting the event at Old China Hand, 8 Tysoe Street, Clerkenwell, London, EC1R 4RQ

Daisy Chain is available in print and ebook formats
*** Your Kindle would love to have Daisy Chain on it *** (amazon.com)
***Your Kobo will love Daisy Chain*** (Kobobooks.com)
***Your Nook will love Daisy Chain*** (Barnes & Noble)

Spaces Between Words

Some time ago I was interviewed at UWI about Daisy Chain, as part of a podcast series on Caribbean writers. Many of the podcasts have been featured and shared via the internet ... and there are more to come, mine included.

Now the Spaces Between Words project has its own website: http://www.spaceswords.com/
 (From the website): "The Spaces between Words: Conversations with Writers is a podcast series featuring interviews with writers, many of whom have Caribbean connections. Most of the interviews were done at the Bocas Lit Fest, Trinidad and Tobago’s first literary festival. The series is also affiliated with the Literatures in English section at The University of the West Indies, St Augustine Campus and The Caribbean Review of Books."

Soon: Daisy Chain reading with London actresses

Click to enlarge image and see details

On Wednesday 11 April from 6:30 p.m. there will be another Daisy Chain reading ... this time at Old China Hand, 8 Typsoe Street, Clerkenwell, London. 4 actresses will be reading with me and we will be streaming the event via livestream, so those of you who are not there in person can tune in live (via this link www.livestream.com/daisychain). I'm excited to see how the actresses interpret the excerpts.

See here for Daisy Chain blurb, reader reviews and to purchase the novel in print or Kindle format.

The recent Daisy Chain reading

The recent Daisy Chain reading at the Bookstock event in London went well. I was one of four authors who read from novels or (as one author did) works in progress. As always, I like to have the audience participate in some way, so I used the interactive approach I had used at my last reading in Tobago (Nov 2011).

Names of different characters were on coloured pieces of paper in these little bags. Prior to reading I passed them around and members of the audience chose at random. For each name chosen, I would read an excerpt from that character's chapter (20 minutes worth of reading in total).

On coloured pieces of paper, I wrote selected quotes from the book. I chose sentences/phrases that were either provocative or had a predictive type quality to them, so the person reading would relate to it on a personal level. On the back of each was the link to the e-book.

Other readings coming up in London. Stay tuned.

Daisy Chain reading tonight in London & Kindle version now out

Tonight at 7 p.m. (UK time) I will be reading Daisy Chain at the Bookstock event, College Arms, London. If you are located in London, see details at the link and come for an entertaining night out. Four authors will be reading from their books.

Also ... for those who prefer downloading their books and doing e-reading, the Kindle version of Daisy Chain is now out at amazon.com. Spread the word.

Daisy Chain in London

The next reading of Daisy Chain will take place in London on 24 March 2012, as  apart of Bookstock. If you are in London or will be at the time, come and be a part of the experience.

Read more here.

40 copies of Daisy Chain

Yesterday I went to deliver the 40 copies of Daisy Chain which NALIS purchased. 4 will go to the Heritage Library and the rest will be distributed through other NALIS branches in T & T.

I sat at the desk of the person I was dealing with and personalized each copy with a word or short message and my signature. The young lady told me that most authors just drop off their books and go, and that it was a nice touch to sign them. She had a copy of her own on the desk and got me to sign that as well.

I love signing Daisy Chain. I love the the thought of some unknown person picking it up, seeing the signature and the message and feeling as though they are being personally invited through a little door in the paper. . . "Come in. I've been waiting for you . . ." or in the case of Daisy Chain:  "we've been waiting for you."

The weekend was wonderful

The Daisy Chain reading at Kariwak was fantastic. I couldn't have asked for more. The ajoupa was neatly set up with intimate rows of chairs and a few padded yoga mats for those who wanted to sit on the floor. To the front was a chair for me, a small table with a reading lamp and a microphone. The simplicity and peaceful energy of the space, along with the trickle of the nearby fountain and the bird song, gave the feel of a late afternoon meditation as I sat waiting for audience members to arrive.

Despite it being a fairly overcast Saturday evening, there was a good turn out. It felt cozy, reading in the muted lighting of the ajoupa which, as I learned over breakfast on Sunday, was first ever used by the Dalia Lama when he visited Tobago some years ago.

I had put the names of 14 of my favourite characters from the novel into miniscule zip-lock bags with hearts on them (purchased once on a visit to Toronto). The white paper bag they were in was passed around and different members of the audience chose one name at a time. I would then read an excerpt from that character's chapter. I didn't count, but I probably read about 7 or 8 in all—ending with a full reading of the PHILIPPINE chapter.


We ended with questions, comments, book sales and signing and cups of Kariwak's delicious spice tea! I would recommend going to Kariwak if even just to drink that. The taste lingers in my throat even now . . .

Quite like the women in the book, every Daisy Chain reading event so far has had its own personality. I have loved them all and I look forward to more. In fact, offers to do more readings in different geographical locations came up this weekend. I am definitely following up on those. It would be great to do readings all over the world.

It is a heartwarming feeling to look up and see recognition and enjoyment in people's eyes as a character resonates with something in them . . . and to have people eager to buy novels after a reading—for themselves and as gifts for others. It is lovely to hear someone say "My friend________ would love this." It makes me think that they think specially of that person. It's also lovely to think that people not only in TT, but in different parts of the world will be receiving Daisy Chain as gifts, sitting and reading it on airplanes, subways, in bed, while waiting, in parks, reading alone or reading together as friends or as a couple, etc.

Teaching yoga the next morning in the ajoupa was also intimate and meaningful. This was followed by a delicious Kariwak breakfast. Also worth experiencing!

I took my camera but unfortunately didn't think about it. It remained in my knapsack. Hence no photos.

To sum up: really glad I went and did this. It was perfect timing and everything fell into place exactly as it was meant to. The Universe was at work.

Many thanks to Kariwak, in particular Tanya Clovis, who organized and set up everything for me so beautifully, so that it was all smooth sailing. Thanks to everyone who attended the reading, bought books and gave encouraging feedback . . . and also to those who came to yoga and shared conversations and breakfast after.

Flying out

Today I leave for Tobago—less than half an hour away by plane, but I feel as though I'm going much further.  Somewhat of a world tour feeling, since it's the first time I'll be getting on a plane to go anywhere and read from my novel and teach yoga. My suitcase is small but heavy, containing white clothes (for yoga) and white books (Daisy Chain). 

Come and join us if you will be in Tobago this weekend. It so happens, as I was told yesterday, that there's a literary festival currently going on in Tobago. Well-timed choice of taking Daisy Chain across the waters.

This evening, the Daisy Chain reading will begin at 5:00 p.m. at Kariwak Hotel. Normally I have different women reading the parts of select women from the novel. This time I'll be reading everything on my own. I've come up with a simple way of making the experience interactive, since I like the audience to feel more involved than simply being "listeners".

Sunday morning from 7:00 a.m. I'll be teaching a Kundalini Yoga class, also at Kariwak. Looking forward to that as well. All are welcome, including beginners. (Click on the "Come and join us" link in the second paragraph for details).

Readings with Tea and Music

This afternoon I will be one of a few authors reading from our novels, at Paper Based Bookstore's event:"Readings with Tea and Music"($100 per ticket) at Hotel Normandie. It starts at 5 p.m. 

An afternoon with Five Authors and a Poet - Lisa Allen-Agostini; Rhoda Bharath; Elspeth Duncan; Barbara Jenkins; Sharon Millar; Vladimir Lucien. Music by Ruth Osman. 


Paper Based Bookstore, Hotel Normandie, 10 Nook Avenue, St. Anns.



 

Daisy Chain & Kundalini Yoga in Tobago

Thinking of taking a break and doing something a little different? How about a December weekend of Daisy Chain readings and signings and a special Kundalini Yoga class in Tobago? Click to enlarge fliers below and see details. And please share the link with your Tobago contacts.