Normal Service is Resumed

Everything was all very exciting there for a moment, what with festival events, short stories being published, readings, seeing Neil Gaiman (three times), late night meals and friends in bars.

But now it's all back to normal.

I've picked up the new novel again, which definitely needs a name change, but ideas are coming in thick and fast. 'DarkFather' is with another publisher and 'The Missing' is still in limbo awaiting art work.

Copies of 'the small print' are still available. Let me know if you want one.

****

Interesting article in the Arcitects Journal on comic book cities.

****

China Mieville is one of my favourite authors. He's hard work but very rewarding with complex narrative, ideas and structure weaving through his varied and genre bending works. 'The City and the City', is probably his most demanding works so far. Written as a thriller and set in two fictional East European cities it deals with a murder that needs investigating. These two cities have history and a partition is in place for they exist in the same geographical space.

The book is a deliberation on the duality of perception, how people see the same things differently and Kafkaesque confusion. A brilliant book.

Batman Black and White is collection of short comic book stories by a who's who of writers and artists. Some of the stories work, like the sombre 'Perpetual Mourning' by Ted McKeever and Gaiman's 'A Black and White World' and others don't, like the rather staid story 'The Hunt' by Joe Kubert. The best thing however is the art work. Monochrome with many different interpretations of the Dark Knight.

'Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, is the second book I've read by Cory Doctorow on my iphone as he gives his work away for free under a creative commons license. Some of his work I buy in print if I like them (such as the brilliant Little Brother) other I don't. Down and Out is one I won't buy. It's good, I found the concept and ideas of a world where no one dies and people live in the thrall of getting online support from friends (think Facebook) and strangers very good. It just didn't work for an entire novel.

Likewise Craphound, which is a free online comic based on one of Doctorow's short stories. It's not bad, but it doesn't really go anywhere and the art I found just a little simplistic with jumps in the flow which didn't make sense.

Read this week:

The City and the City by China Mieville

Batman: Black & White by Various

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow

Craphound by Cory Doctorow

Underword - Edinburgh Fringe 2009

A few photos from last nights event, which went very well. I didn't mess up or make too much of a fool of myself. We had a good turn out of about 200 people which helped to buoy the enthusiasm and applause.

Other writers from 'the small print', included Gareth Lee...

... and Mike Smith.

'The Small Print' is here

Just a quick note to say that 'the small print' is here. It has covers and pages, two short stories and a poem by me, more goodies by other authors and a brilliant introduction by Alan Campbell:

If you want a copy it costs £5.00 plus P&P with at least £3.75 going to The British Heart Foundation. Drop me an email and I'll ensure one gets posted out to you (it's a limited run, so be quick).

One wedding and a Funeral

Life has a nasty habit of sneaking up and punching you in the ear when you least expect it. It’s sneaky, and just when you think you’ve made friends, it decides to get ugly. We had a wedding to go to this weekend in Dunblane and were looking forward to the weekend, but Monday my wife’s Grandfather passed away so we ended up making a long detour across the border into England to Leicestershire for the funeral (which was sombre and respectful).

We’re now back in the very wet capital and need to go catch a train in a few minutes.

Therefore I’ve not done much on the book this week and will pick it with gusto from Monday.

It’s also my Mum’s birthday today - so Happy Birthday. Hope you are enjoying Barga.

A quick reminder that you can see me this week at Underword, where I shall be reading part of ‘Heart of Glass’ which is now available to purchase in a copy of ‘the small print,’ (send me an email if you want a copy).

Details are below:

Wednesday 19th August, 7.50pm–8.40pm

Fingers Piano Bar, Frederick Street

Admission is free so if you’re in Edinburgh come along and give me your support. I’m going to need it.

***

I’m a comic book fan, always have been, but I like a certain type of comic book. I like dark and angst-ey, UK or European settings, where points are made and arguments examined. I’m not too big on the pants over tights superhero comics (apart from Batman, who I don’t think is a superhero - an argument for another day), so I have to say that All Star Superman left me cold.

People told me it was brilliant and that this would change my mind, but it didn’t, not really. I like the art work by the great Frank Quitely, but I found the story lumpen and slow and Superman is just kind of annoying. Sorry - I tried.

Read this week:

All Star Superman vol. 1 by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely

All Star Superman vol. 2 by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely

For one night only

I’ve been away to Bristol for the weekend having a very nice wedding anniversary rest and recuperation holiday that involved much food and wine but also a trip to see the Banksy exhibition 'Banksy vs the Bristol Museum', which was better than I anticipated after queuing for nearly three hours to get inside. His art is cool and funny and clever and poignant, some works only fall under one of these adjectives but others take into account more if not all of them at the same time. I’ll add some photos to my flicker stream which can be seen here.

Last week was busy as I went to see a couple of authors both with new books out. First was John Connolly, who was full of energy and eager to regale stories from his trip to New York talking to men who were cops during the late 70s. Having read the new parker novel you appreciate the amount of work and research that John puts into his books. You can read my review below.

Me and John Connolly

The second author was to meet with Alan Campbell who’s third volume from the Deepgate Codex: God of Clocks is out in hardback. Alan is of course the writer of the introduction in the small print and on the back of our meeting I now have a small performance spot at this years Fringe Festival.

I’m joining other writers as part of Underword on their ‘newbie’ night. Details are below:

Wednesday 19th August, 7.50pm–8.40pm

Fingers Piano Bar, Frederick Street

Admission is free so if you’re in Edinburgh come along and give me your support. I’m going to need it.

***

The Strain is the teaming up of Guillermo Del Toro (director of such films as Pan’s Labyrinth and the Hellboy franchise) and Chuck Hogan. Now Del Toro is one of the most prolific directors in the cinema today and I can't imagine he has much time to sit down and write a best seller, therefore I conclude that the ideas are his and in truth Hogan wrote the book.

It’s not bad, a retelling of the Dracula myth but set in modern day New York. It feels very much like a modern American TV show, a sort of 24 or else Heroes format. The story really picks up near the end but as this is part of a trilogy it doesn’t end very satisfactorily. The vampires are interesting, giving a new twist to the idea and staying far away from cool Goth types with tonnes of sex appeal.

The new Charlie Parker novel is brilliant. Stop reading this review and go and buy it. Go on, get it now! Oh all right - The Lovers sees Parker trying to get to the bottom of his family life. Why did his father kill two innocent teenagers and then take his own life? What happened on that fateful night? Why will no one talk about it? Parker travels back to New York to visit his father’s old friends and something is waiting for him, something old and nasty.

The books are getting darker and moving ever closer to a natural conclusion. I feel that Connolly is taking the reader somewhere and that somewhere is going to be a very dark, very bad place. The supernatural elements are also increasing as Parker delves deeper into the honeycomb world that exists around us. The writing as ever is fluid and fast paced, the characters are well rounded and mature and the ideas are frightening. A great book from a continually improving author. Thanks for this book John.

Read this week:

The Strain by Guillermo Del Torro and Chuck Hogan

The Lovers by John Connolly