So here we are again

Well I thought it was probably time to get this show back on the road. I've taken a long break for a number of reasons, some of them traumatic and some of them pretty brilliant. Either way I have some exciting projects back under way, and a blog that needs stoking. I spent some hard-gifted Christmas money on books this week including Bears of England and Ten Sorry Tales both by Mick Jackson, and The Bird King and Tales from Outer Suburbia both by Shaun Tan. The Shaun Tan ones I ordered from my local Didsbury bookshop too, as per my New Year's resolution. I am half way through and chuffed to bits with both. I've also updated the fiction section here so you can read the entire version of my children's poem The Bookworm. Give it a read and let me know what you think.

More news will appear once something happens.
Toodle-oo.

The Thirteen Deaths of Cooey the Pigeon

Just seen this from Planet Whodunnknit - The Thirteen Deaths of Cooey the Pigeon, each one a gory knitted crime scene. Love it! You can follow @cooeythepigeon on twitter

John Kenn is a genius

I posted some illustrations by Post-it note monster creator recluse John/Don Kenn amongst my last batch, before seeing his website. And finding out how many people had already been posting about him for years. And before realising that he keeps himself very much to himself, on the internet, despite a vast back catalogue of terrific work. I found one interview with John, in which he talks about Stephen King and HP Lovecraft as influences, and though I'm slow to join the crowd of people who've already applauded him digitally, I think every one of his pieces is absolutely awesome. And he should be given the nobel peace prize and a knighthood. And a lifetime achievement award. And a lifetime supply of black pens and post-it notes. And some other stuff. Plus he has twins and makes kids TV in Denmark. Awesome.

All his work can be found here:
http://johnkenn.blogspot.com/

Some great illustrations

Working on my new book with the legendary Louis Roskosch has  made me all excited about illustration. Here are some of my favourite recent finds, predominantly from ffffound.com but do check out the work of David Roberts who I’ve been a fan of without knowing who he is for a long while. Just finishing The Boy Who Kicked Pigs by Tom Baker and David’s work on that really holds it together and stabilizes quite a fragmented world.

The Painful Agitations of Dunby F Lee: Part 1

Dunby was not a child in the traditional sense of the word.

For a start he never had a mother, in the traditional sense of the word. The woman who gave birth to him was a chain-smoking teenager named Heather Hoover. She was the youngest daughter in a wealthy Scottish family of free-thinkers who were famous locally for doing little that was not stylish, reckless or extraordinary, and usually all three at once.  When Dunby was just 3 months old it was decided unanimously that her sister Elouise was a far more suitable mother, and certainly looked better doing it, more elegant and maternal than the awkward and bad-tempered Heather. After two days of transitional breast-feeding to see that Dunby took to the new arrangement, they switched. And that was that.

Dunby’s father, Maxime, the household’s 23 year old Haitian gardener, was not consulted and kept a silent distance. He was understandably horrified and confused, but his financial dependence on the Hoovers was absolute, and he had evolved a somewhat laissez faire attitude to most things they did, however strange or distressing. Heather had only spoken to him once, on the night of Dunby’s conception. Between his poor grasp of English, and her thick accent, delivered through shallow whiskey-scented breaths that butted at his face like angered moths, he understood virtually nothing. Before Dunby could walk his would-be mother travelled to China to teach English, where she died of cholera within the month.

In this way Dunby began.

Excuses excuses

I've not blogged here for a really long time and both of you that read stuff I put here have emailed me to say you're none too impressed. Which is fair enough.

I know it's a lame excuse, but my special secret project with Louis Roskosch is still taking ages, and also I was reading Infinite Jest which is awfully long, plus I got a new bike which needed some attention and had to book a hotel for this wedding we're going to and it all got on top of me.

Plus, I nearly forgot, we've finally chosen the submissions shortlist for Structo 6, so watch out for news on that here. That took ages too.

Here's a tiny little taste of the secret project, still too secret to talk about in any detail...

I'm working on some more flash fiction and stuff to blog about soon. I'm reading Don't Smell the Floss by Matty Byloos very slowly too and will write something about it sometime in 2013 probably.

Some people say Etch-a-Sketch is a dead medium

They're wrong.

This serial documentary of a man's life is by friend and artist Molly Cockcroft, and each piece is created live while the model poses for her each day at work. Steve: A Life in Etches will be tragically cut short when she leaves later this month and I for one will be deeply saddened on all counts.

Kubrick discusses purpose in life

Louis Roskosch is a talented guy

I'm just saying...

See more of Louis' work here. Find out about our exciting secret project together by tweeting me with the secret code #specialsecretlouisproject.

New flash fiction by me at Small Doggies Magazine

Big thanks to Matty Byloos / Small Doggies who have just published my flash piece Sex Goddess online. It's a thrill to be attached to Small Doggies, and coincides with an upcoming review of Matty's book Don't Smell The Floss some time soon so it's like one big happy family. It appears that only Dog themed publishers like my work, which is good to find out early on. Knowing and becoming comfortable with your limitations can save a lot of wasted energy on fruitless ambition.

Here's an excerpt if you're too lazy or afraid to click on the link:

"to flatter his potato torso"

Look out for my new Short Story 'Labrador! Labrador?' out next month in Horse and Hound.

In other news, Structo Magazine has begun to accept submissions for issue 6 through submishmash and I will be on the editorial staff once again, which is exciting.  

At the risk of sounding like another gassy monologuist...

I love the Paris Review Art of Fiction interviews, almost as much as I love the New Yorker podcast, and the John Updike interview (#43) is no less fascinating. According to the introduction, John Updike resisted the early attempts to interview him, struggling to find a format for the process that would stop him becoming, even for a moment, that which he greatly feared - "one more gassy monologuist". This was in 1967, and he could not possibly have dreamed how many monologuists would be pumping gas into the digital void by 2011.

I think the fact that a writer who produced so much (20+ novels, 12+ short story collections, poetry, art and literary criticism, children's books) was so resistant to waffle and the sound of their own voice, even when well established, says a great deal.

Here's a snippet:

"I think it good for an author, baffled by obtuse reviews of himself, to discover what a recalcitrant art reviewing is, how hard it is to keep the plot straight in summary, let alone to sort out one's honest responses. But reviewing should not become a habit. It encourages a writer to think of himself as a pundit, of fiction as a collective enterprise and species of expertise, and of the imagination as a cerebral and social activity—all pernicious illusions."

Check out the full interview here

They said I was lazy

They said I was stupid. They said I was boring. They said I was a hypocrite. They said I should be euthanised and banned from the internet and have my blogging privileges revoked.

I told them I'm not lazy. Nor am I stupid. I had bad flu over Christmas and not much to say, that's why I didn't blog anything. Plus, actually, I'm reading Infinite Jest and it's really long. Plus, also, I had a flash fiction story accepted by an online journal which will be out this week. So shove off.

They said Oh.