Places I'd Like To Sit And Write One Day:

This looks like a great place to squirrel myself away for a week (at least). Known to the world as to Eltz Castle (with Eltz Forest shrouded in mist in the background). It's something like 800 years old and has been owned and maintained by the same family since day one. It doesn't appear to take overnight reservations so maybe this is as close as I'm likely to get to writing here. Still - the sentiment is there.

This photo was taken by one of my favourite landscape photographers, Hannes Becker. Go see what he does.

Anyway, I had all kinds of things lined up for posting here this week and then somehow, I got to today, Thursday, without posting a damn thing mostly because I've been writing - a lot - and got caught up in a world that isn't this one. Well, it is this one, but it's looked at through different eyes...

I picked The Sick Bag Song (Nick Cave) up at some point along the way this week and it's a beautiful beast...

If you're a fan of Mr Cave, you'll already have dug into this, but if not, there's more than enough here to fall in love with. Here's a video sampler from the man himself:

The book even has a website of its own that you can find right here and order yourself one of the clamshell versions. Why you wan't the paperback when you could have that, I have no idea. If you like that video, there's another four posted on that site.

And that ladies and gentlemen, is how to work a book release properly.

Note to self: remember you said that.

There was a time not so long ago when I decided not to contribute any further pieces to any purely online 'magazines', Sometimes you have to take a stand and if your stand was wrong, then at least you stood. All of which meant I needed to start scouting out great hard copy magazines to see if they would like to play. I'm building quite a stash here as the weeks go by - some of them are great and if lit mags are your kind of thing, you should get your hands dirty with them.

Popshot Magazine is one of the great ones. They have a great ethos and their production values are up near the roof. Editorially, they're bang on the nose too. There's not an issue that's dropped through the box (I'm a subscriber) that I've been disappointed with or not found a writer that could be a contender out in the real world. They also use illustrators to give it extra props and in 2016, the outlets for great illustrators to work within a context are few and far between. Bonus.

They don't pay for your work - which is something that would set them apart nicely if they could figure it out. Even £10 by way of some kind of thanks would be fine. A packet of cigarettes to assist with the creation of your next story would be more than welcome to most - and if it breaks the bank to do that, then make the issue £7 instead of £6 to cover it. I wouldn't throw all my toys out of the window over that.

I'll try and keep up with the good ones here. There are a couple more on the shelf behind me that are worth mentioning but I won't fire all of the guns at once. There's a whole world out there happening under your nose if you choose to look - and even after all these years, it still makes a difference on paper as opposed to a screen.

Fact. Whether you like it or not.

More tomorrow... back to the pen. I have important shit to take care of.