Birmingham moments - ups and downs, and the FG future

We have been quiet in Floodgate Towers of late, but we're not being bashful, just busy!

And melting - we don't cope well with the heat and the office* isn't blessed with air conditioning.

So what's been going on? And what's next?

First up, recent events.

Brum played host to some of the world's best metal acts for the send off for local musical heroes BLACK SABBATH. We couldn't get tickets here (not for lack of trying) but by all accounts it was a fitting farewell show. If you want to see the Sabbath gig in full, it's here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8e9HorPz4wM

As nice as it is to have such local titans back in the city from their pads in LA, Utah, The Cote, and more exotic locations like Solihull, it comes at a time that the city is suffering. HS2 limps on, seemingly determined to suck the nation's purse completely dry like some kind of locomotive vampire, and pubs in the centre are closing at a rate of knots: the Anchor, Tilt, The Gunmakers to name but three. Sorry to see them go (although I hear there might be news about the Anchor soon...)

What else? The graffiti exhibition at New Street was a hit. Bill Murray visited the Mockingbird. Joe Lycett staged another great Queens Heath (with added beer).

That's just the stuff I can remember right now.

OH WAIT

I almost forgot. We have a SALE on right now. All of our stock is discounted and you can grab even better bargains with one of our BUNDLES of multiple books. Check out our webstore here: https://www.floodgatepress.co.uk/store

What of the future?

Well, we have a book coming out in November.

AFTERNOON DRINKING by Alan Beard! You will love it, I promise you.

It's a collection of several dozen short fiction pieces that Alan, local author supremo and figurehead of Tindal Street writers' group, has had published since his last collection You Don't Have To Say in 2010.

If you know Alan's work, you'll know it is brave, gritty, fierce, sometimes surreal, always heartfelt. No-one does yearning like Alan. We cant wait to bring it to you.

Also, we'll be releasing our first ebook soon. Progress has been slow on this as we skill-up with ePub tools and so on. Just need to finalise the cover and we'll be selling it via the website for less than cost of a coffee (that's the modern standard of price comparison these days, right?).

It will feature six pieces of flash writing about Brum from some of our favourite writers and some people who are new to us, and comes after we opened submissions to being published on the website earlier this year.

So, keep an eye out for the event notification for the launch of Alan Beard's AFTERNOON DRINKING and join us in sending the collection out into the world.

Oh, and there might be another call for submissions for a new anthology later in the year. This depends on if we get funding... wheels are in motion. Slow wheels, but they're spinning.

All the best.

FG.

* there is no office, there is no A/C, there is no spoon.