Angels can Fly 2005 Launch Tour

"A powerfully creative work, with prose that sings like poetry. Beautifully told and evocatively rendered, Alan's third novel comes very highly recommended." Amazon Top 50 Reviewer

This week saw the first steps in the promotional campaign for Angels can Fly, with a mailout to literary and book festivals in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the USA and England.

I am including the text of this invite below, and am open to all suggestions for launch events which may be suitable to promote the book, so please contact me: readings@artmedia.com.au at any time through until the end of 2005, to see if we can fit your event into my tour schedual.

From early responses, it looks like I will be in New Zealand and Australia in May and June 2005, then in England in July, back in Australia in August and early September, and then in Canada and America for the rest of September and October 2005.

Stay tuned to this blog for the full schedual of launch events as these are confirmed.

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Angels can Fly

Alan Clay's new book, Angels can Fly , will be launched in New Zealand in May 2005, and Alan will then embark on a tour to promote the book.

Readings

Suitable for any spoken word event, Angels can Fly is a book which charts the big changes that have occurred in the clown art form in recent years, and to promote that process by providing a context for thinking on the subject, and also to provoke discussion, so a lively experience is guaranteed at readings. e-mail readings@artmedia.com.au to suggest a possible reading from the book.

7 Clown Commandments Show

In October 2003 Alan presented a new 20 minute clown piece at the Ottawa Writers Festival, in conjunction with a reading from his third novel, Believers in Love. The 7 Clown Commandments show plays with balloons, marshmallows, microphones, and with the 'Ethics of Clown', as decreed by the World Clown Association. This performance, in conjunction with a reading from Angels can Fly, provides added insight on clown, and a unique experience for the audience.

Alan Clay

Born in 1954, Alan Clay grew up in Auckland, New Zealand. He studied clown in Sweden in 1977 and has taught and performed extensively in Europe, Australia and New Zealand. For the past ten years Alan has lived in Sydney, where he has run Playspace Studio, Sydney's Physical Theatre Studio.

Alan's first novel, Moontan, is the story of a couple of clowns, set against the occupation of a theatre by a collective of artists in Auckland. It was well received at its launch at the Wellington Fringe Festival in New Zealand, and in Australia at the Warrana Writers Festival in Brisbane, in 1994.

His second book, Dance Sisters , is set in Sydney, and tells the story of a female song and dance trio which threatens to self-destruct on the brink of fame, when its leader becomes involved with a manipulative cult, touting sex, astrology and virtual dreaming. Dance Sisters was launched at the Melbourne Writers Festival in 1997. It gained particular attention when it was released in May 2000 as an eBook in a format which was packaged to enhance the reading experience on a computer with sound and visuals.

The State Library of NSW purchased the manuscripts and associated papers to both Dance Sisters and Moontan in 2002, to be held in the Mitchell Reference Library, together with a set of 12 archive videos from Alan's clown teaching work at Playspace Studio.

Published in 2001, Believers in Love , Alan's third novel, was acclaimed by both Australian and American reviewers, leading to North American sales of the book, together with claims of the pirating of the book in Print on Demand, and Alan's subsequent tour of Canadian and US Literary and Book Festivals in 2003.

"In the best clown tradition, Alan held up a window-mirror for us to step through and reflect on the patterns, habits and rituals of our days. It was funny, moving and excellent theatre."

Reviews of Believers in Love

"A book about love, laughter and life. Not just a story, this is an exploration of emotion and philosophy. A novel of journey and self-discovery." Aussiereviews

"Light and yet profound, this novel is a most unusual find which all will enjoy and savor, long after the last page is turned. Art and living may be treasured repeatedly, but must yield to the next magical moment!" RightLifestyle

Sign up to receive a free eBook copy of Angels can Fly, in the MS Reader format.

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