Sword and Fiddle Productions

14/09/2025

Great to see a review like this! 🔥

"Sparkes excels at balancing farce and comedic elements with genuine pathos. Her prose moves with an actor’s timing, knowing exactly when to linger, when to cut, and when to deliver a punchline."

Thank you to Adam Rowan at Bookshelfie for the fantastic review of and the 5-star gold rosette! You can read the review here: https://book-shelfie.com/review/the-players-act-1-by-amy-sparkes-book-review/

🎭🥁🎻🎲💀⚔️❤️‍🩹

And if this whets your appetite, you can buy the e-book/paperback here:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Players-Act-All-Worlds-Stage-ebook/dp/B0DY8CM3LX/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Players-Act-All-Worlds-Stage/dp/106832791X/

https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/the-players-act-1

https://www.amazon.com/product-reviews/B0DY8CM3LX/

https://www.amazon.com.au/Players-Act-All-Worlds-Stage-ebook/dp/B0DY8CM3LX/

Cover design: Sarah Christie

10/09/2025

10/09/2025

29/06/2025

Had good fun putting this video together, and really pleased to be involved with the promotion for the book.

11/06/2025

The short video on this news post explains perfectly what we've found on algorithm-driven Social Media run by large American corporations, and offers what appears a viable alternative. We've certainly found that our own presence on "the fediverse" attracts more interest than anything we post here, and we're able to run it ourselves.

A 4 minute video that aims to introduce the Fediverse to people not familiar with it

10/06/2025

A year ago today we filmed "Things We Do For Love" with Sarah Lidstone, Josh Alexander and Molly Jackson. It was a lot of fun, shot in half-a-day at Liznojan and brings a little fun to a debate that still rages to this day.

03/06/2025

This was an intriguing video to make. How do you communicate the feel and tone (let alone the story) of a novel in a short teaser video?

We made two attempts - this is the first one. If you've seen the posts Amy Sparkes Author has been making about the book, you will hopefully recognise certain articles being placed as some of the objects on the cover. Without giving too much away, they are "totems" representing some of the characters in the book.

Locking off the camera and shooting each object being placed over the previous seemed the easiest way of doing this rather than shooting individually and compositing everything, but getting that stopwatch to spin at the right speed and face forward as it landed was a small exercise in frustration!

25/04/2025

You'll crack it!

12/03/2025

Having signed an agreement with these fantastic ladies to use one of their tracks in our upcoming short film Booted, we're really excited to see them performing in the Cathedral!

📣 JUST ANNOUNCED 📣

Join Sound of the Sirens for a very special homecoming gig at Exeter Cathedral this Christmas!

The Exeter-based singer-songwriting duo have spent the last decade cementing themselves as on the UK’s finest folk acts, an opinion that is shared nationally, and internationally too.

Without being pigeonholed into any stereotypical genre, the instrumentation of the band is vast, and their unique vocal dexterity beautifully dovetails their co-written songs - from emotive ballads, to up-beat, foot stomping, hands in the air, sing-along anthems.

Fri 05 Dec | 6.45pm | £22 Nave / £17 Side Aisles | All Ages | Seated

🎟️ Tickets on sale now at exeterphoenix.org.uk/events/sound-of-the-sirens

24/02/2025

So I think we now have a publishing wing...!

Very excited to share this mood board for my debut novel for adults, THE PLAYERS, coming out this summer.

How far would you go to save what you truly love?

Devon, 1715.

Ambitious lead actor Thomas is determined to reach Drury Lane and prove to his father that he is not a failure.

Fierce Caroline has a traumatic past and is determined to protect the company which saved her.

Kind-hearted Annie just wants to look after her found family.

So, when their heartbroken manager, Robert, is injured and decides to fold the struggling company, the players are resolved to change his mind, whatever the cost. Unfortunately for them, the odds are stacked against them. They’ve lost their stage, they still haven’t got a skull for Hamlet, and flamboyant ex-member Piero is hunting them down, with a spot of revenge on his mind...
Is it time for the final bow?

It was so much fun putting these images together to reflect the mood, tone and setting of the book. I'm a very visual person and this is a very colourful world to play in!

18/02/2025

Another fundraising event for Alzheimer's Research UK. An opportunity to put questions about picture books to staff actually working at the coal-face in publishing houses.

Join industry experts to find out more about publishing picture books. Fundraising for Alzheimer's Research UK.