Book Launch - Writhing: An Anthology

This Saturday (22/11/25), if you’re anywhere near Caldas da Rainha, central Portugal - why not come to a book launch at the Palco Café, Centro Cultural e Congressos? Starts at 6 pm.

A little bit of background: for a year now, I’ve been attending the monthly Wordplay Writers Club in Tomar, a town about an hour to the south of us. The club is organised and run by Jim and Jazz, two lovely and charismatic people, who happen to be great writers, too. The other writers in the group are wonderful - an eclectic mix of ages and nationalities, and we all seem to fit together like a haphazard jigsaw. It’s great fun, and always inspiring.

Jazz and Jim started Wordplay in Caldas da Rainha two years ago, then branched out to Tomar a year later. That’s when I joined. Every month, a word or a phrase comes up in the course of the meeting that chimes, resonates, and someone will say ‘That’s the prompt for next month!’ And the book is the product of those random monthly prompts. There are forty individual pieces: short stories, poems, testimonials- some in Portuguese, some in English. All fascinating.

So, if you’re in the vicinity, why not come and join us for an evening of live readings from Writhing: An Anthology, plus an open mic spot if you fancy getting up and sharing your work, and there’ll be drinking and carousing, and there’s food available, and there’ll be dancing until late!

If you can’t make it, but you’d like a copy of the book, message me on my website and I’ll pass on your request to Jim and Jazz.

Finally, there are three of my pieces in the book for your delectation and delight - two poems: The Kraken’s Apprentice and Dr Candytoes - and a short story called Parenthesis.

You can find more information on Wordplay’s Instagram page - if you’re not too far away from Caldas or Tomar, maybe you’d like to to join in one time…