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Bay Tales Live 23 – That’s All Folks!

And that was Bay Tales Live 2023! We had an incredible weekend with great Fringe events on Friday night and Sunday morning as well as the big day itself. We’ll post some pictures once we get all the cleaning up done! Thank you to everyone who joined us – Authors, Publishers and all our attendees! We hope to see you all in 2024!

Headline News

We are thrilled to announce tickets are now on sale for our 2023 show – with Ann Cleeves as our official patron. Ann will be kicking off the show in conversation with her special guest Brian McGilloway, before we welcome over 15 of our favourite authors from Simon & Schuster, Penguin Michael Joseph, Pan Macmillan and Harper North. We’ll be joined on the day by the bound bookshop so plenty of opportunity to meet the authors and get your books signed…to see the line up so far and information on how to buy tickets, just click the image

27/10/22

Risen from the grave for one show only we ran our Halloween Virtual Noir at the Bar/ Bay Tales cross over featuring Charlotte Duckworth, Fiona Cummins, Jason Arnopp, Sam Holland, Jonathan Whitelaw, Jónína Leósdóttir, Jo Callaghan and V Castro. Click on the link to watch the show!

13/02/22

We held a special one-off Virtual Noir at the Bar for Wordfest: Crawley Festival of Words last night. Click on the image to see the recording of AA Chaudhuri, Amen Alonge, Trevor Wood, Russ Thomas, SJ Watson, Awais Khan, Neil Lancaster, Abir Mukherjee, Eve Smith, Jack Jordan and Victoria Selman reading from their latest works.

13/02/22

And that was Bay Tales Live 2022! We’re taking a short rest after our first physical event, but will be back with updates, new events and much more very soon.

21/01/22

If you missed our launch of CL Taylor’s Her Last Holiday on behalf of Avon last night, you can see the video recording here. Cally talks about her new book and much more with Simon Bewick, with special guests Mark Edwards and Claire Douglas

25/11/21

Our November Bay Tales show is now available as a recording. We were joined by best-selling authors Simon Beckett and Catherine Steadman for our main interview, with special guest reviewer Dan Stubbings joining Simon and Vic with their three books to read feature. PLUS a very special guest reading from Emily Edwards from her forthcoming novel The Herd. Click here or on the image to the left to view.

27/10/21

Our first Bay Tales/ Virtual Noir at the Bar crossover – recording now available by clicking on the image. See Amen Alonge, Amy McCulloch, Vaseem Khan, Lesley Kara, Gytha Lodge, Nikki May, Trevor Wood, Howard Linskey and Russ Thomas reading from their work – some of it for the very first time in public!

20/09/21

Our next live event sees us supporting Simon and Schuster for the UK launch of David Heska Wanbli Weiden’ s critically acclaimed debut ‘Winter Counts‘ online September 30th. With special guests SA Cosby, James Delargy, Rob Scragg and Rod Reynolds. To register for free just click on the image to the left. We hope to see you there!

01/09/21

We can finally announce it! Our first physical show – at Whitley Bay Playhouse on February 12th 2022. Click on the image to see our amazing line up and then buy a ticket – an all-day pass for just £30 (plus booking fee). We hope to see as many of you as possible at our inaugural ‘real life’ event!

27/05/21

Bay Tales Live #6 recording is now available. Click on the link to see Vic’s interview with the brilliant Martin Edwards, plus readings from Martin Walker and Derek Farrell and extended review from Sharon Bairden. All that, and our usual sneak previews of next month’s novels…

19/05/21

A new piece of free fiction on Bay Tales – we’ve got a short bit of modern noir from Andrew Cotto – Gasoline & Matches. Just click on the link opposite to read, and then check out all the other cool free stuff we have!

29/04/21

Bay Tales Live #5 is now available as a recording. Just click on the link to watch SJ Watson and Anna Bailey in interview, Noelle Holten’s book review of the month, and the first reading by Lia Middleton from her debut novel ‘When They Find Her’ All free!

21/04/21

This week on Bay Tales we have an exclusive short story from Josephine Greenland. Click on the image to read her story ‘Northern Current’, or read more about Josephine on her profile here.

14/04/21

Something new for Friends of the Bay this week! We have our first ever poem on Bay Tales courtesy of Heleen Kist. Read her poem Heaven Sent

07/04/21

Missed our 4th Bay Tales Live Show? Or enjoyed it so much you’d like to see it again? It’s available now!

31/03/21

Long time VNatB and Bay Tales supporter Brian Stewart provides us with this week’s exclusive fiction with a short story that asks do all writers go to heaven? You can read Brian’s short story here, you find out more about him here.

24/03/21

Former Bay Tales Live guest Cath Staincliffe has provided this week’s exclusive fiction. You can see Cath’s appearance on the show with Ann Cleeves here, and read her short story here.

03/03/21

A double helping today! We’ve got Nikki Smith writing about the inspirations behind her first novel All In Her Head here. PLUS in fiction we have an exclusive sneak peak preview of Nikki’s new novel due out in April Look What You Made Me Do.

03/03/21

A new fiction exclusive! This week we’re featuring a new short story from James Burnett. Click on the image to read. And don’t forget to check out all the other fiction and non-fiction available to members.

03/03/21

It’s Wednesday, so it’s time for a new exclusive! This week we’ve got a creepy short story from Virtual Noir at the Bar favourite Suzy Aspley. Just click on the image to read Suzy’s chiller (and for those who still have memories of Suzy’s Halloween performance, we promise there isn’t a crab in sight!)

24/02/21

This week in our exclusive update we have Tony Hutchinson – retired Detective Superintendent and author of the Dark Tides series who reveals via 3 short videos some common mistakes fiction writers and TV series make in police procedures. Fascinating for writers and readers alike! Watch the videos here.

21/02/21

We’ve now transferred and updated all recordings we have of Bay Tales Live and our back catalogue of Virtual Noir at the Bar events. Over 50 hours of crime fiction streaming video. That’s more than 200 authors – ranging from up-and-coming to the biggest writing names in the publishing world. Click on the image opposite or go to Recordings to find out what we’ve done.

17/02/21

We’re thrilled to have an exclusive fiction piece from Helen Fields today. You can read The Ghost of the Girl on the Train here. It’s a quiet, disturbing piece that’ll make you think and perhaps reflect a little bit…We’ve also got, available for everyone, the launch video of Helen’s new book The Shadow Man, where she answers questions from fellow authors and audience members about how she created her chilling new book. You can find that here.

11/02/21

What a show we had last night! You can view the whole show by clicking on the link opposite.

10/02/21

It’s that time of the week! This week we have a piece of non-fiction from Paul Waters, author of Blackwatertown, that considers who really ‘owns’ a story. Read the article here.

03/02/21

It’s Wednesday, which means we’ve got another exclusive piece up. The Heart of Maisie-Ray, by award winning short story writer Gavin Dimmock. You can read Gavin’s chiller now.

28/01/21

Have you checked out our new Reviews section? You can submit your own review to us via our contact page. We’ll feature as many as we can, and all reviewers will go into our lucky hat to win a mystery book prize each month!

27/01/21

We are thrilled to feature an exclusive essay written for us by Martin Edwards – published in the week he has been nominated for an Edgar for Howdunnit: A Masterclass in Crime Writing by Members of the Detection Club. Read Martin’s personal perspective on the short story here.

24/01/21

Yesterday saw our first Bay Tales Live show – and what a high bar we’ve set ourselves for future efforts thanks to Peter James and his in-depth interview. Thanks also to Roxie Key for her book review and Eve Smith for her reading. You can see the full show recording by clicking on the link

20/01/21

It’s Wednesday so that means it’s new publication day! This week we’ve got a short story from Dave Sivers – ‘One Last Job‘ – a tale of contract killer who has lost everything.

13/01/21

It’s new fiction day here at Bay Tales – you can read ‘Resistance‘ from Eve Smith – a piece of flash fiction that might ring some bells for those who have read her debut novel of 2020 The Waiting Rooms.

06/01/21

Our first Bay Tales Live event is open for registration. Join us on 23rd January for an in-depth interview with Peter James and a full show of readings, reviews, competitions and much more. Click on the link to register

06/01/21

Today, we’re bringing you a new tales from Virtual Noir at the Bar favourite Ian Skewis: read The Uninvited Guest now.

30/12/20

And that was 2020… We asked some of the authors who spoke this year at our partner project Virtual Noir at the Bar what their favourite reads of the year were.You can find out what they chose here

22/12/20

We had some great entries to our first Bay Tales Christmas Short Story Competition. So, in the festive spirit and with thanks to the authors for their permission to share, here you can find the entries from DC Smith, Angi Plant, Jon Park and Rose Cullen….Just click here for four festive shorts.

21/12/20

And…the winner of our first Bay Tales Christmas Short Story Competition is…Louise Mangos. If you were at our Virtual Noir at the Bar Christmas Special last week, you’ll know how good the story is. If you weren’t, you can read it right here…

09/12 20

Happy Hump Day! Today we have an exclusive short story from the lovely Chris McDonald for your delight and delectation. Visit our Hall of Fame for some more information on Chris.

02/12/20

Hooray! It’s Wednesday! Margaret Kirk has kindly taken the time to read and review Craig Russell’s “Hyde” for us. Visit our Hall of Fame for more information on Margaret. Read her review as well as more non-fiction and fiction from some of the best in the biz.

18/11/20

It’s Wednesday and that means it’s time for a new piece of exclusive fiction! This week it’s the turn of Olga Wojtas, author of the Miss Blaine’s Prefect series. Learn more about Olga via our Hall of Fame where you’ll find a link to her author profile.

11/11/20

Learn more about Neil Broadfoot via our Hall of Fame where you’ll find a link to his author profile. Read his article, Getting the Facts Right in our non-fiction section.

10/11/20

And we’re live! Thanks to all of you who have visited the site so far. We hope you like what you see and keep coming back – there’ll be a new piece of fiction or non-fiction every Wednesday…so make sure you don’t miss out.

03/11/20

We’re thrilled to say the Bay Tales team, Simon and Vic, have been announced as finalists in Futurebook’s 2020 Publishing Awards for ‘Best Event’ for Virtual Noir at the Bar. We’ll let you know how we get on!

01/11/20

Noir from the Bar still available, still raising money for NHS Charities! Available for just £3.99 on Kindle, and £10 in Paperback. Featuring short stories from 30 authors who have appeared at Virtual Noir at the Bar, all profits go to NHS Charities.