Author Archives: Jamie Cook

In which the author talks to zombies…

Many thanks to all those who turned up on January 30th at the Arches in Glasgow for the Stage to Page workshop of scenes from the play what I wrote.

 

Seeing the script from ‘I Walked With A Zombie’ change from hesitant read-through to actual performance in less than 60 minutes was something of a head-churning experience, not to say a humbling one (rewrite, rewrite…). My thanks to the actors – Lucy, Lindsey, Elle, Mikhail, John and the tall chap whose name I’ve rudely forgotten – for embodying the parts so well, and to director Marcus Roche for making my words work in real time.

 

Further tips of the titfer to Mark MacNicol and the Playwrights’ Studio for setting up the event, and writer Chris Dolan for being an inspiring guest facilitator. It was also splendid to meet the two other writers having scripts workshopped on the night, Stewart Ennis and Cicely Gill. Their plays did have a distressing lack of zombies, I thought, but then you can’t have everything.

 

To view images from the evening, visit the ‘I Walked with a Zombie’ gallery page.

 
 

In which the author adds more details about zombies and theatre…

 

A few more details have been added to the schedule for the workshopiing on Monday January 30th).

 

As well as ‘I Walked With a Zombie’ there will be two parallel workshops on new writing by Stewart Ennis and Cicely Gill. The three directors working on the workshops will be Kenny Miller, Jennifer Hainey and Marcus Roche. The scenes for the workshops were chosen by Chris Dolan, who will be facilitating the creative outputs on the night.

 

Zombies, of course, are shuffling brain-dead quasi-humans driven solely by appetite.

 

But less of my working day…

 
 

In which the author has a play at the Playwrights’ Studio ‘Stage to Page’ workshop…

On Monday 30 January one of my plays, ‘I Walked With A Zombie,’ will be workshopped at the ‘Stage to Page’ event in premier Glasgow venue The Arches.

 

‘I Walked With A Zombie’ centres around a group of art students making a short film in homage to classic zombie movies such as Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead. But during the filming, all the participants are visited by their own personal zombies…

 

‘Stage to Page’ describes itself as “A chance for writers, actors and directors to collaborate by workshopping scenes from a new work together.” Each month, a guest director chooses scenes from an unperformed play, and actors turn up, are randomly allocated roles, and then collaborate in workshopping the scenes before performing them to everyone present.

 

The event is at The Arches, 253 Argyle Street, Glasgow G2 8DL (under Central Station). It starts at 7pm on Monday 30th and entrance for all is £3, which includes a drink (you can just turn up to observe the proceedings without participating, and many people do just that, to watch the creative process in action).

 

More info at www.thearches.co.uk/events/arts/stage-to-page. Stage to Page is an initiative of the Playwrights’ Studio, www.playwrightsstudio.co.uk/stagetopage.htm.

 

If you come along, I’ll be the zombie-like individual wearing the idiot grin.

In which the author launches Haunted Dundee with a signing at Waterstones…

 

My next book, Haunted Dundee, is published on 26th January. So, manic grin in place, I’ll be signing copies that day in the Dundee Waterstones branch.

 

The book explores several centuries of Dundonian hauntings. There are stories of poltergeists, malevolent entities, apparitions, strange sounds, doppelgangers, visionary experiences and much more. The incidents range from 1706 to the present day, and include the tales of the White Ladies of Coffin Mill and Balgay Bridge, the hauntings of the historic ships Discovery and Unicorn, and a host of personal ghost sightings told to me by contemporary eye-witnesses.

 

Other cases include some truly bizarre episodes of apparent hallucinations of ghostly individuals investigated by a distinguished psychiatrist who was also a member of the Society of Psychical Research.

 

To celebrate, I’ll be signing copies on Thursday 26th January at the Waterstones branch at 35 Commercial Street, Dundee. Map here!

 

 

I’ll be in store between 1 and 2.30 p.m. Ish. If you can’t make it at the time, you could always call the shop on 0843 290 8287 and ask them to reserve a copy, which I’ll sign for you to pick up later. (They’ll probably have copies of Paranormal Dundee for sale as well.)

 

Watch the trailer for Haunted Dundee now!

 

In which the author writes a column for the Glasgow Evening Times…

 

On Monday (16th January) the Evening Times ran an article on your humble author, headlined Meet the new Mr Glasgow the History Man. Reporter Russell Leadbetter chatted to me about The Little Book of Glasgow, including the story of the city in the Second World War, and the tendency of Glaswegians, historically, to prefer riots over battles.

 

The feature functioned as a trailer for a weekly column in the newspaper. From 23rd January I’ll have a column in the Evening Times every Monday. Entitled ‘Historical Times’, it consists of extracts from The Little Book of Glasgow – everything from sport to film, from architecture to pop stars, and from astronomical druids to zoological oddities.

In which the author is featured in Scottish Memories magazine…

 

The January 2012 edition of Scottish Memories magazine has a two-page spread on The Little Book of Glasgow, with a number of extracts from the miscellany covering pubs, transport, sport and urban myths. Scottish Memories is, in the publication’s own words, “Scotland’s premier history/nostalgia monthly”.

 

More Little Book of Glasgow news to follow very shortly, including a column in a well-known evening newspaper (which is why a nice man loaded with seriously professional cameras spent 30 minutes contorting me into various poses today…).