Sword and Fiddle Productions Limited

Got to spend a couple of days assisting with the filming of two lovely cars for a documentary about a chap building his own take on the two.
2/2

Incredibly tiring but rewarding two days just gone. As part of the biggest crew we've worked with so far (Director/Producer, Camera Operator, Sound Recordist, Drone Operator, Camera Assistant (me), Camera-Car driver, 2x "Hero" drivers and a Location Manager)
1/2

It's always nail-biting when you send something new out into the world, especially a 'first'. #Players1715 is my 1st book for adults & 1st #historicalfiction. Grateful for encouraging words from early readers.
www.amazon.co.uk/Players-Act-...

#Shakespeare #BookReview #BookSky
Cover: Sarah Christie

🎼Listen to the Players Playlist and find out more about the book here: adults.amysparkes.co.uk

📚You can order from your local bookshop
Or Amazon: www.amazon.co.uk/Players-Act-...
Or Kobo: www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/...

Thank you from me and the players. Here's a health to the company! 🍷

🎭🥁🎻🎲⚔️💀❤️‍🩹

Huge thanks to cover designer Sarah Christie, editor @catcamacho1.bsky.social proof-reader Ally Wilkes @unheimlichmanvr.bsky.social, sensitivity reader @pridereads.bsky.social, and everyone else who has given feedback or encouraged me with this book along the way.
#Players1715

Today the curtain rises on my adult #histfict debut: THE PLAYERS ACT 1: ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE.
These broken but beautiful players have been with me a long time. I've walked beside them, listened to their pain, chuckled at their antics and despaired at their decisions for many years now.
#BookSky

Things We Do For Love A loving couple meet with a counsellor to resolve a seemingly insurmountable problem in their relationship.

A year ago today we filmed "Things We Do For Love" with @sarahlidstone.bsky.social, Josh Alexander, & Molly Jackson. It was a lot of fun, shot in half-a-day at @liznojanbooks.bsky.social and brings a little fun to a debate that still rages to this day.
vimeo.com/965527235
#shortfilm #indiefilmmaking

This was an intriguing video to make. How do you communicate the feel and tone of a novel in a teaser video?

"Totems" representing some of the characters seemed the easiest way but getting that stopwatch to spin at the right speed and face forward as it landed was a small exercise in frustration!

The Players Act 1 ebook by Amy Sparkes - Rakuten Kobo Read "The Players Act 1 All The World's A Stage" by Amy Sparkes available from Rakuten Kobo. How far would you go to save what you truly love? Devon, 1715. When society doesn’t understand you, and you...

It'd be lovely for more people to know about it, maybe sign up to the newsletter and perhaps even pre-order the DRM-free ebook.
www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/...
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DY8CM3LX

#booksky

Amy Sparkes Readers The Bookshop at the Back Of Beyond; illus - Ben Mantle An irregular newsletter for readers and fans of Amy Sparkes. Initially a writer of children’s fiction, Amy is now beginning to release books for ...

My wife @amysparkes.bsky.social is releasing a new book at the end of July and is premiering the first chapter in her newsletter this weekend.
buttondown.com/AmySparkesAu...

#booksky

Can you support Film Stories, and our independent work? We're clickbait-free, AI--free, and trying to do things the right way. We don't always get it right, but we give it a damn good try. Any help and amplification is hugely appreciated...

buff.ly/E2VVrhQ

If you'd like a sneak-peek at my debut adult novel, "THE PLAYERS ACT 1: ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE", my next newsletter for readers is coming out in a few days and I'm sharing the opening chapter: buttondown.com/AmySparkesAu...
Just over two months until the book is published! Yeek!
#BookSky 🎭⚔️🥁🎻❤️‍🩹

Image of a book called "The Players - Act 1 : All the world's a stage" by Amy Sparkes showing the front cover and spine. The cover has a background resembling old paper. The author’s name is at the very top. A white ribbon with a sage green reverse loops back and forth down the cover, bearing the words of the title and subtitle. Four Commedia dell'Arte characters dressed in purple are set along the ribbon at different points. A hammer, a skull, a pocket watch, the Comedy/Tragedy theatre masks, a fiddle and peacock feather are also dotted around the ribbon. At the bottom reads a tagline: How far would you go to save what you truly love? On the spine is the author's name at the top again, and a ribbon runs down with the title and subtitle on, separated by the pocketwatch graphic. At the very base is the Sword and Fiddle logo (a fiddle with a sword making the neck and headstock) in blue on a white circle. The background of the spine resembles a loose-bound bundle of papers like a poorly organised script.

If you'd like a peek at my wife's @StoryGodmother debut adult novel, "THE PLAYERS ACT 1: ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE", her next newsletter for readers is coming out in a few days and she's sharing the opening chapter.
You can sign up (free) to receive it here […]

[Original post on wandering.shop]

An actor and cameraman in the process of setting up an outdoor shot on short, rough grass. We can only see the actor from the waist down and they're wearing brown walking boots with red laces and black cargo trousers. The cameraman (Me) is facing away from the shot and we're looking over his shoulder at the camera on a thick neckstrap with a shotgun mic mounted above it. The camera is pointed at the walking boots.

An actor lacing up walking boots viewed from above with the actor sitting and facing towards the camera. We can only see the boots, trousers, hands, and forearms of the actor. The boots are brown with red laces that have little flecks of black in them, the trousers are black cargo-style and the arms are bare - one thumb has the remains of some black nail polish on.

OK, realising I've done a few of these "this time last year posts," but I still find them educative to put together.
So a year ago, we were filming some parts of our short film "Booted." Still in post-prod while we sort some sound and VO (we know who we want, but availability is the thing).

That Sinners soundtrack's a bit good, isn't it? But then we've been fans of Rocky Road to Dublin (amongst others) for some time..
youtu.be/cQ5ZRRxO3O8
You can hear our version on C-Sides!

#TheLongestJohns #RockyRoadToDublin #SinnersMovie #FolkMusic

Write Club Podcast | Podcast on RSS.com Welcome to Write Club, the ultimate podcast for anyone passionate about the written word. Brought to you by Writers Online, in each episode we'll give you an insight into the world of writing, creativ...

A big thank you to Mary Ward and Bethany Malcolmson at Writers Online for inviting me onto the podcast today, talking about writing life, emotion, and what happens when you go digging up your Grandad's garden...
Episode coming soon. Catch up with previous episodes here:
rss.com/podcasts/wri...

On the tow-path of a canal. In the background, a decorated canal barge is pulled up under a short, steel fabricated bridge with stone abutments. In the foreground (and slightly unfocussed) is a pushbike handlebar with an orange plastic case open in front of it. Visible inside the case is a small camera with a extended zoom lens, and a nylon carrying bag - presumably full of other equipment (I think it was my sound gear).

This time two years ago I was doing pre-production information gathering on our first paid commission - a documentary short film celebrating 50 years of a horse-drawn canal barge offering passenger trips in Mid-Devon.
While there were challenges […]

[Original post on social.swordandfiddle.co.uk]

A 3D rendering of the book "The Players Act 1 - All The World's A Stage" by Amy Sparkes. Around the book are some key features of the text with curved and swirling arrows pointing towards the book. The features are: Found family Grey villain Uplifting Strong Females Vengeance Marginalised Characters

A wide image of a wooden stage with a green curtain. A copy of the book "The Players Act 1 - All The World's A Stage" by Amy Sparkes appears stood on the boards on the right-hand. Also shown are four "totems" - drawn depictions of aspects of the book. A pocket watch, peacock feather, skull, and comedy/tragedy masks. Aligned left, text reads: England, 1715. A theatre company about to collapse... An ex-member seeking revenge... How far would you go to save what you truly love?

#bookstodon #booksky #IndiePublishing #Players1715
Well, it's taken a little time, but we've got pre-orders for Players Act 1 (out July 29th) working on Kobo now as well as Amazon.

Both versions will be **DRM-FREE** for your convenience, and […]

[Original post on social.swordandfiddle.co.uk]

A straight, tree-lined single-track metaled road. The trees are newly in leaf, so are very bright green. The verge either side of the road is covered in ground ivy.

An unmetaled track leading around to a yard gateway in an extremely old wall, covered in ivy. Just over the wall, the roof apexes and chimneys of a large, old house can be seen.

A village street, concentrating on a public house. It has a hanging sign on it with a red lion passent depicted facing left, while above that, mounted on the same bar, is a cutout of a red lion passent, facing right. The pub (and all the visible buildings) is thatched, painted a creamy yellow and clearly very old. The windows nearest the camera on the ground floor are a set of four, shallow arched & mullioned - the others a multi-paned using small glass squares of about 10cm. An arched entry porch is under the sign, about half-way down the building with two benches for seating on either side.

And old bare stone building with a tiled roof (although with a thatched apex). It has a cobbled path just in front of it which used to be part of a yard that has been tarmaced over to make the road. The main house is rectangular with small windows and a doorway about half-way along the ground floor. On the gable-end nearest the camera, a stone-built lean-to with thatched roof is a low doorway into the end of it. Small bushes grow against the walls, and a larger rose climbs over the main doorway, although nothing is in serious leaf yet.

(6 images on original post)
You know you get those notifications from some mobile apps "On this day..." and it shows you some photos you took? Well, it turns out that today, three years ago I was on a location scout for the (at the time) TV […]

[Original post on social.swordandfiddle.co.uk]

A 3D rendering of a book on a wooden stage in front of a green curtain. The book is "The Players - Act 1" by Amy Sparkes and we're looking at the spine. The wooden planks of the stage are created from a photograph of scaffold planks and in this image the stage is created simply by making the photograph into a floor. There is also text on the image which is not important, but reads: The Players Act 1 All The World's A Stage England, 1715. When society doesn't understand you, and your family is out of the picture, a strolling theatre company could be your perfect home...

A 3D rendering of a book on a wooden stage in front of a green curtain. The book is "The Players - Act 1" by Amy Sparkes and we're looking at the spine. The wooden planks of the stage are created from a photograph of scaffold planks and in this image the stage has been given texture and looks much more like rough wood than the other image. There is also text on the image which is not important, but reads: The Players Act 1 All The World's A Stage England, 1715. When society doesn't understand you, and your family is out of the picture, a strolling theatre company could be your perfect home...

Although I'm relatively adept at editing footage with #DavinciResolve I'm quite a neophyte when it comes to 3D compositing in #Fusion. I've been putting together some promo films for my wife's new book (available for pre-order now DRM-free on Kobo […]

[Original post on social.swordandfiddle.co.uk]

Image of a book called "The Players - Act 1 : All the world's a stage" by Amy Sparkes showing the front cover and spine. The front cover has the author's name at the top, then a wide looped ribbon with the title and subtitle written on it. Along the ribbon at different points are characters from the Commedia Del-arte tradition dressed in purple costumes. Also around the ribbon are various items related to the story or characters - a hammer, skull, pocketwatch, comedy/tragedy masks, fiddle, and peacock feather. At the bottom a key line reads "How far would you go to save what you truly love?" On the spine is the author's name at the top again, and a ribbon runs down with the title and subtitle on, separated by the pocketwatch graphic. At the very base is the Sword and Fiddle logo in blue on a white circle. The background of the spine resembles a loose-bound bundle of papers like a poorly organised script. In the background of the image, a man beats an archaic drum (to drum-up interest), a bright peacock feather shows behind the book and a green curtain hangs behind all. A small amount of smokey texture is starting to obscure things.

A "what to expect" image. The book cover and spine for "The Players - Act 1 : All the world's a stage" by Amy Sparkes is shown with a series of short texts surrounding it describing aspects of the book with arrows pointing from the words to the book. Some curve gently, others do a loop. The words around the outside are: Found family Grey villain Uplifting Strong females Vengeance Marginalised characters.

#bookstodon #booksky #IndiePublishing

We've been quiet for a while now, because while we're working on stuff, it's not really public, and indeed may never happen.
However, one thing that's definitely happening is that we've made the decision to […]

[Original post on social.swordandfiddle.co.uk]

I used to be so ill with ME that I needed a wheelchair to get around and missed years of school. It had a profound effect on my life. Thinking of everyone affected by #MEcfs.

Green curtain as background. The book cover of THE PLAYERS ACT 1 ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE by Amy Sparkes is in the middle. Squirly arrows point to the cover, highlighting key features of the book: Found family, grey villain, uplifting, strong females, vengeance, marginalised characters.

Really excited to share some key features of my new PLAYERS book, coming out in July.

These are some of my favourite elements in storytelling.
If it sounds up your street, you can pre-order PLAYERS here:

www.amazon.co.uk/Players-Act-...

Thank you!
#BookSky

Newsletter #1 - Cover Reveal & New York Times Best seller! Amy Sparkes Readers. April 6, 2025

My first newsletter for readers (adults & kids!) is going out tomorrow, and includes a cover reveal and a special giveaway! If you'd like to sign up and haven't yet, there's still time to do so: buttondown.com/AmySparkesAu...
Thanks very much!
#booksky

Over the moon to see The House At The Edge of Magic on the New York Times bestsellers list, debuting at number 10! Thanks to everyone who has cheered this book on, and to Ben Mantle & Chloe Tartinville for the cover, Simon & Schuster, Walker Books, and my agent Julia Churchill :) TEAM EFFORT ♥️

So proud of my wife @amysparkes.bsky.social ! Book comes out half-way through the month (finally, in the USA), and still gets number 10 on the relevant NYT best sellers list.
She's had over 30 books published in the UK, so this has taken some work!
www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-house-...

Apple’s new sci-fi series “Murderbot” to make global debut May 16, 2025 Today, Apple TV+ unveiled a first look at “Murderbot,” created by Chris and Paul Weitz and starring Alexander Skarsgård

I have been so excited since I found out this would be announced today! RIP any ability for me to concentrate: www.apple.com/tv-pr/news/2...

Nice to see the news of the move to Ghost today. Hope everything goes smoothly and we get to read all about it on Tuesday!