Hello there! It’s another quick round up of news from myself and friends this time.

After Hangmen was an enormous success for Bolton Little Theatre and myself personally getting some of the best notices I’ve ever had for playing Syd Ambleside, I have gone back into the control box for the next play of the season – Player’s Angels by Amanda Whittington.

In 1950’s Nottingham, John Player’s girls have the best jobs, the best wage and the best hairdos in town. And now, there’s a new face on the Navy Cut machine as 15-year-old Mae comes fresh from the country for her first job at the tobacco factory. Mae lodges with her Aunt Glad who sits alongside her on the production line but keeps her assignations with the young factory foreman to herself. Led by workmates Cyn and Vee, Mae takes her first steps into the world of the Player’s Angels: where a young girl can lose her halo and find her wings.

Running 22nd – 27th April, it’s a warm-hearted play about a group of friends supporting each other and facing a changing Britain, as the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II ushers in a new age. You can book tickets now from Ticketsource.

Rik Hoskin and Chatri Art have been busy with a project of their own, a graphic novel called The Vampire Invasion. Set in 1969, their wild story imagines an alternative history where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s landing on the Moon triggers a retaliation from a colony of Nosferatu-like vampires who have been living on the dark side for centuries. It’s a very entertaining romp that recalls the best of Warren’s 70’s Creepy and Eerie horror comics. Renaissance man Chatri Art composed the theme for my podcast and his dazzling artwork has been featured in games and album art. He came up with the initial concept for this book when he was a teenager.

Available from Viking Press in both hardback and paperback.

Rik also has a short story out this month in HyphenPunk magazine. The President’s Been Shot is a satirical cyber-punk with his trademark ingenuity. You can order it from Amazon Kindle or a PDF version from Ko-Fi.

Finally, my cousin Terrance McAdams has the second volume of his YA science fiction series out now. Biocode: Resolution finds Ciara and her friends discovering new twists to the mystery of a race of telepathic aliens who want to take over the Earth. Ciara has been seeing visions of her ancestor William on Captain Cook’s second voyage, but now she must travel into the past to save him and the future. Available now from all good bookshops.