About Me

[Singing & Skipping - Aja Gap]

Hello, I'm Angie Phillip and I write novels, play music, sing songs and paint pictures.  I go up. I go down. Then I go up again.

Writing
Nowadays I'm a full time writer of stories with as much music and painting as I can fit in round the edges. It ought to be enough just to do it, but I want readers so I'm trying to get published. In my old life I was an academic. It was a good life, but it's time for a change.

I have one completed novel ready for publication - 'Girl in the Lion's Den'. Two in the pipeline in the same series - 'The Man from Another Country' & 'Tropical Heat'. If I can't find an agent, I'll self publish on Amazon.

In Hastings there are lots of writing groups. The one I go to is run by Aruna at The Literary Shed. I'm learning all the time from Aruna and from the writers who go to the sessions. It's supportive and fun as well as a learning process.

Music
I play the piano, accordion, fiddle, harmonica and guitar. A bit of a beginner at most of them but this is what Hastings has given me - opportunities, loads of opportunities. The place is full of marvellous people. In the last couple of years I've started singing, too, and I love it. I'm in a duo with Paul Way-Rider. We're called Blue Rumour. (Next gig Sunday Feb 17th 2019 5 - 7 pm at the Stag Inn.)

Pictures
I used to paint much more than I do now, especially when I moved back to the UK from Papua New Guinea. I took part in a Hidden Woman project where we married paintings and poetry, and there was another big project run by Wilko in Berlin - The Seven Deadly Sins. Some of my pictures are on the blog Aja Gap. Aja Gap is my painting signature.

I live in Hastings - a glorious town, full of happiness, strife and a lot of laughter. We like to party so there's a lot of dressing up and plenty of festivals. Most people here write, paint or make music in addition to their day job. Sometimes it IS their day job - we've got some brilliant creatives down here. In fact there are so many of us that there's a special directory called Hastings Creatives - bursting with people, email lists full of events, invitations, workshops and so much more.

If you want to get in touch with me about writing (wouldn't that be marvellous) or offering Blue Rumour a gig (yes, please) or just to say hello, you can leave a comment or you can find me on Twitter or Facebook.