TTO go to Wales

We're doing a stall at the Book Arts Fayre in Cardiff on Saturday 15th August. We've been looking at photos of the last one and it looks brilliant. Lots of lovely handmade books and badges and cakes! We'll have copies of our chapbooks for sale, and there might even be some new, very limited edition bits and bobs too. Biff will be performing an Emphemetry set, and we'll be reading stories as well. Then it's back to the Midlands for the Summer Sundae on the Sunday. Busy times!

Hello Hubmarine #5

We don't have a poster, we're still waiting on the line-up, but what we DO know is the date - Saturday 27th June. It's going to be the last one for a couple of months, as we're taking a Summer break. We will be back in September, though, maybe with a TTO book, maybe just with words and wine and chocolate pennies. We'll see.

The date might ring a bell to you literary folk, as it's the same as that of Lowdham Book Festival. We'll be making a day of it: listening to great readings, buying books, eating cake, marvelling at the way the whole village gets in on the act. And then we'll be heading back to Derby, to the Big Blue Coffee Co. to finish the day off perfectly.

See you there!

This Side Of Poetry by Michael Frearson

Hot on the heels of Being That Person, the first day of November saw Michael release his second collection of poetry on our little publishing imprint. 100 copies were made, hand-bound stamped and numbered. As is becoming the tradition with Michael there's a top trump for you to use in competition with your fellow poetry diggers, a badge featuring cover star Arthur the Zebra and also a CD:

Whoo! The CD packaging is particularly nice, and was designed and printed by the Searston brothers. On the CD are all the poems from the book, but performed out loud. Why deny your ears a bit of poetry eh? This one is a more varied affair than the acoustic sounds of the Being That Person CD, with each track accompanied differently by different local talented geezers and geezettes. There's Alex Blood taking the poem 'Somebody' into cut-up funk soul territory, Alex Bowen soundtracking 'Coming Home' on piano, and DJ Wax On taking live favourite 'The Day Supergirl Cried' into the bold territory of dramatic vinyl crackling Clayderman and low end hip hop beats. There's also me strumming along to 'Goodbye', probably my favourite of Michael's new poems that takes in all of the sentiment and references of previous pieces from both collections but with a whole new sense of perspective.

Hear some of these pieces here. You should also check out Michael's blog here, where he swears a lot and talks about, among other things, his increasing amount of poetic excursions. Busy as he is, he's also finally got round to writing a chapter for Emma and Jenn's interactive library novel SH.

If you would like to get your hands on this whole bundle, e-mail us and we'll sort out getting one off Michael for you.

A Book About Home

Here it is. The behemoth. The thing that nearly killed us making...but was worth it in the end. The third Time Travel Opportunists collection, a book about HOME.

Back in early 2008, we emerged from a long dark winter thinking about writing and releasing books. We planned to do three. The first would be COFFEE, the second would be TIME. These two would only include our stories, but we'd open up the third for submissions. So, as we move into another winter, we complete the cycle.


The book is in two handbound parts, housed together in a card box tied together with string around a key. In the box you'll also find a print by Tracey Meek, a mini-envelope made out of a map containing a badge, and a booklet about the writers. There are stories by each of the Time Travel Opportunists, and we're chuffed to the rafters to be releasing previously unreleased stories by Drew Gummerson, Chris Killen, Jenn Ashworth, Gareth Draper, and Aimee Wilkinson; poems by Michael Frearson, Joe Coghlan, Richard Barrett, and Rob Hodkinson; plus lovely illustrations courtesy of Tracey Meek and Sarah Crane.

All this for £4.00 from the TTO Bookstore.

P.S. Thankyou to all of the writers for contributing, and for performing their pieces at the launch night...photos of which will follow.

This side of poetry

TTO are pleased to announce the upcoming release of Michael Frearson's second poetry chapbook, entitled "This side of poetry". The launch party is this Saturday, at Big Blue Coffee Co. on Sadlergate (we like it there).

There will be one hundred hand bound copies of the book, stitched by Fierce, Nath and myself over the coming week. I'm hoping that Fierce has been practising his needlepoint. Our shining star of the Mythbusters Sewing Circle, Biff, is away doing busy things, so it's going to be tough. But I'm sure we'll be okay.

For more info on the event, click here.

Hopefully, we'll see you on the night. Free Party Rings for all!

This Saturday...

Clickety click the picture to make it BIGGER.

Being That Person by Michael Frearson

We Time Travel Opportunists are proud to present our third book release, a collection of poetry from Derby's finest spoken word performer Michael Frearson.

This first edition is limited to 100 hand-bound, hand-numbered copies. They're three pounds, and come with a free 'Work For Cheese' badge in a stamped envelope, along with a Being That Person ID Card with one of six fictional identities.

Inside are five poems that make up the tale, and a CD of them being performed at Baby J Studios in Derby with TTO's Biff accompanying the poetry on acoustic guitar. The CD was produced by Alex Blood.

We only have a couple of handfuls of these left after the roaring success of the launch night last month (photos of which will follow as soon as we get them). Order a copy of the book while you can from the TTO Bookshop.

Turrah,

TTO
x

TTO Bookshop

COFFEE
5 short stories and 1 song by Time Travel Opportunists
First edition of 100 published April 2008. 28-pages, hand-bound on recycled paper housed in brown card with hand-stamped flower paper. CD housed in coffee filter inside. Numbered back cover. Comes with free chocolate covered coffee bean and 1" pin badge of the espresso maker.
Catalogue number: TTO*3
SOLD OUT

TIME
7 short stories by Time Travel Opportunists
First edition of 200 published June 2008. 32 pages, hand-bound on recycled paper housed in blue card with hand-stamped flower paper. Numbered back cover.
Comes with free minute and 1" pin badge of the clock.

Catalogue number: TTO*4
Price: £4 Postage paid (worldwide)

BEING THAT PERSON
5 poems (plus CD) by Michael Frearson
First edition of 100 published July 2008. 12 pages, hand-bound. Housed in cream hammered card with detachable Little Fierce cutout. CD features TTO's Biff on acoustic guitar.
Numbered back cover. Comes with free Being That Person ID card and 1" 'Work For Cheese' pin badge.

Catalogue number: TTO*5
SOLD OUT


HOME
Stories and poems by Time Travel Opportunists and guests
100 copies published September 2008. Handbound and housed in green card box bound with string and key. Numbered back cover. Comes with free badge and postcard-sized Tracey Meek print.


Catalogue number: TTO*6
Price: £5.50 postage paid (worldwide)

Please send funds with a note via Paypal to biff@timetravelopps.co.uk

A Collection Of Stories About TIME

Here it is. Our second book. We hope you like it.

It's called 'TIME' and that's the theme. There are seven short stories over 32 pages.
There are also three letters written by the three of us in the moment before the clocks went forward an hour in March 2008.

It's printed on recycled paper and there are 200 copies. Each one is hand-bound, hand-stamped, and comes with an envelope containing a badge and a free minute. You can see all this in the picture. We should point out that the Westminster Movement is not included...

It costs three pounds from us in person, or four pounds in the post. You can get one by contacting us at books@timetravelopps.co.uk

Ta
TTO x

P.S. This is what it looks like in colour:

Something To Write Home About

We like making books. We like writing them as well. We wrote one and made that, and we're writing another. Before we start making that though we want YOU to start writing the third one.

The book will be called 'home' and that will also be the theme.

We're looking for stories.
We're looking for poetry.

Here's a few guidelines:

* All entries must be submitted to home@timetravelopps.co.uk
* Stories and poetry must be under 2000 words.
* The deadline for submissions will be announced shortly.

We're already excited about the packaging ideas. It will, without a doubt, look lovely. What will be most lovely though is it will be by us with other people.

I think that's about it.

GET WRITING!

Coffee

Behold! Our first book. We're very chuffed to have written a book and published it. A lot of people have said it is good. It's a book of short stories, and it's called Coffee.

There are five stories, and one song (that comes on a CD inside the book).

We did it with the help of Literature Development at Derby City Council. In the picture above you can see what it looks like. It is A5, it's handmade, and this first edition is limited to 100 hand-bound copies. Each one comes with a small stamped envelope containing a chocolate covered coffee bean (vegan) and a coffee pin badge.

They are three pounds.

If you would like one, you can e-mail us at:
books [at] timetravelopps.co.uk
We'd like that very much!

Update: Click here for some reviews of COFFEE.