Books, postcards and the Creativity Conference

Animals, stories, tree people and books

Autumn blows in with storm winds and rain - at least here in the hills of Britain’s peak District

A special welcome to the blog to participants at the Creativity Conference:

….we delve into the fundamental principles and methodologies behind creative thinking. Our approach empowers attendees to nurture and expand their creative endeavors, whatever they may be.

I am there among a treasure hoard of speakers. If you follow the link above, you can still register and join in on some of this year’s sessions - and you can access the library of this year’s discussions that you might have missed!

Baba Yaga (here by Bilibin)
flies in for a visit

I join the Conference as a storyteller talking about finding stories and relaxing into the inspiration the world around us offer…I’m also (hopefully) having fun talking about conversations with fairytale characters, stepping past the hype and the stereotypes and reaching for the story of the character themself

Out of those sessions, I hope people might be interested in my current publications

I have several books in print just now

Sacred Animals: reconnecting with the natural world

Gordon MacLellan

ISBN 978-1-915580-07-8

Green Magic Publishing, https://greenmagicpublishing.com/

For more details of Sacred Animals, visit this post

Old Stone and Ancient Bones: new poems from the hollow hills

Gordon MacLellan

ISBN 978-1-291-46593-8

I am also included in Homecoming 1: new animist writing published by Aurochs Underground Press (order from Aurochs)

And then there are our lovely Tree People postcards! see pics at end of post!



TO ORDER:
UK ORDERS BELOW
REST OF WORLD: try your local bookshops or an online bookseller (avoids the international postage!) but come back to me if there are problems!
creepingtoad@btinternet.com




Sacred Animals: 1 copy, £15:00 includes postage

Sacred Animals + 2 Creeping Toad postcards: £16:00, includes postage

Old Stones: £5.00 a copy(includes postage)

Postcards: £0.50 each when included with other orders or 8 postcards for £5.00 (includes postage)




PAYMENT

Email: creepingtoad@btinternet.com

FACEBOOK: Gordon MacLellan or Creeping Toad

DETAIL: your name, address, email and how many copies

PAYMENT:

PAYPAL: creepingtoad@btinternet.com

BACS: I can email details

CHEQUES: to Creeping Toad, 51-d West, Rd, Buxton, SK17 6HQ



BULK ORDERS through your own book distributors

INTERNATIONAL ORDERS: contact me directly or go a local bookseller

PUBLISHER: Green Magic Publishing website

Hawthorn Man (L) and Tall Tree (R)

Old stones and ancient bones

Planning for Wintry presents?

not all stones and bones

Looking for something a little bit different for a present – Christmas soon, and Yule and Mother’s Night and Saturnalia if you’re of a Classical inclination…why not indulge yourself and a friend with a copy of my book Old stones and ancient bones: poems from the hollow hills?

Don’t like poetry? Why not try again? With poems from the dark, peopled gloom of Neolithic tombs on Orkney to the windswept moors of Derbyshire, an excitement of skulls and the beauty of stillness before winter arrives….

£5.00 a copy (includes UK P&P) and while stocks last, with Old Stones, get a free copy of “River and Sea” a little book featuring two of my stories.

To order direct:

Email me Creeping Toad

Payment: by cheque, Bacs or Paypal (to creepingtoad@btinternet.com)

or from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stones-Ancient-Bones-Gordon-Maclellan/dp/1291465936/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1447511315&sr=8-2&keywords=old+stones+and+ancient

an appetiser

The Satyr’s stories:

Beginning

“I was born out of the need of old stone and tree roots for a voice.

I began as an idea, shaped by water running through stone in deep caves, gathering a body for myself out of long lost bones, out of stranded horns and hooves and left-over memories. My flesh is earth, my skin grass and bark, my blood the mineral rich, crystal-growing streams of limestone darkness

Now I am here, playing the music of the wind, listening to bluebells ring, and the slow singing of carp in the cold pools. I am the watcher in the woods, the touch of the breeze, the rustle in the undergrowth. I am the shadow that slips away.

Always here. Never seen.”

 

Blackwater at Calke Abbey, source of the Satyr stories

A few more bones

A few more bones

without apology, I enjoy bones. I have a pile of skulls, shells and bones in the living room complete with festive toadstools and twinkly lights (is it any wonder I live alone with axolotls and fish?)

And with Bone Detectives brewing, I've dug out a couple of ol' bone poems. Enjoy, dismiss or ignore, it's your choice

SOCKET

The sweep of the sky,
The rain's bow,
The curl of a wave,
The sand's dune,
All contained in
The scoop of an eye's socket,
And the bowl of a skull.
A world cradled in
My electric palms

first published in Old stones and ancient bones: poems from the hollow hills, by Gordon Maclellan (me!)


and here is The Bone Pit, written as part of a narrative poem for Buxton Museum's Wonders of the Peak audio trail

THE BONE PIT

A drumming thunder of running hooves, a racing sweep over the hilltops.

Steaming breath, rolling eyes, the wind flare of mane.

The heart beats quicker, hooves before paws, before claws, before teeth.

         Remember those who have gone.

         Bone upon bone,

         Rattle and fall,

         Tooth and horn,

         Fang and jaw,

         Warm flesh, fur and feather all grow cold

         Together in the bone-pit darkness

And wait.

Wait for a pick, for a shovel and a gentle touch

To lift the darkness of 10,000 years.

10,000 years is not so long.

We can look up and out, beyond these Buxton walls

And see the hills the old animals saw.

The folded dales may remember them yet and

All those we have lost may

Still walk in the dreams the land is dreaming.

         Aurochs, giant deer, bear, lion, and mastodon,

         Remember those who have gone.

         Bone upon bone,

         Rattle and fall,

         Tooth and horn,

         Fang and jaw,

         Warm flesh, fur and feather all grow cold

         Together in the bone-pit darkness

A present of old stones?

Planning for Wintry presents?

Old stones and ancient bones

Gordon MacLellan

ISBN 978-1-291-46593

Looking for something a little bit different for a present? Christmas soon, and Yule and Mother’s Night and Saturnalia, if you’re of a Classical inclination…Why not indulge yourself and a friend with a copy of my book Old stones and ancient bones: poems from the hollow hills ?

Don’t like poetry? Try again! With poems from the dark, peopled gloom of Neolithic tombs on orkney to the windswept moors of Derbyshire, an excitement of skulls and the beauty of stillness before winter arrives, Old stones might just offer you something different.. And if you really don't like it, why not give the book to someone you dislike as much as the poetry?

You can order from Amazon or direct from me at £5.00 a copy (includes UK P&P) and while stocks last, with Old Stones, get a free copy of “River and Sea” a little book featuring two of my stories (you only get the latter if you order from me)

To order:

Email me Creeping Toad

Payment: by cheque, BACS or Paypal (to creepingtoad@btinternet.com)

and to whet your appetite, here is a poem from Old stones.

Anticipation, 2
Autumn waits,
Falling into gold, and yellow, and russet,
As mist gathers,
Wool unraveled through the trees.
In the hollow dales,
The lake anticipates winter,
And the rune-cracked ice.
But for now,
Its dark, cold reflective depth
Is divination enough

autumn rosehip

The Hills Are Waiting

The Hills Are Waiting

This poem from Old stone and ancient bones is featured in an exhibition at Buxton Museum and Art Gallery from December 14th through to February 22nd

Celebrating the inspiration that the dark gritstones and softer limestone landscapes have offered  artists over the centuries, the  “White Peak, Dark Peak”   exhibition features prints, paintings, finds and poems from the Museum collection. It includes several new pieces added to the collection during the Enlightenment! initiative. Take a look at the Collections in the Landscape blog

Stone and Water’s Ancient Landscape also puts in its own imitable weedy, reefy, trilobite-y appearance as another artwork inspired by the landscapes of the Peak

Old stone and ancient bones: poems from the hollow hills

is my small book of new poems...

From the cold silence of chambered tombs to the beauty and blessing of the Ring of Brodgar and the strange, dangerous excitement of faerie hills and the Kelpie's streams, Old stones and ancient bones presents a collection of poems that invite you to enter a vibrant world of memory, dream and enchantment….

Getting a copy: it seems strange to say it but you are probably better (quicker response and I actually make more money!) if you buy direct from LuLu: http://www.lulu.com/shop/ 

I do have copies to sell, coming in at £8.50 inc P&P

Cheques: to Creeping Toad address: 51-d West Rd, Buxton, Sk17 6HQ, UK 

Paypal possible: get in touch

ISBN: 978-1-291-46593-8

Amazon: Old stones should be available through Amazon soon as well....