The Long Good Friday, Saturday, Sunday...

From yesterday.. which is about Sunday... which I forgot to post:

Well that was a long hard weekend of 2 x 18 hour days amongst a few thousand people. I met up with Fiumix who tattooed me back in November in Florence, got interviewed by some nice people for Alexandra Palace TV which I'll try and find later in the week when it goes live and post a link, talked myself into writing a pilot for a TV comedy idea (long story), made arrangements for half a dozen good interviews including one with Noon which makes me more than happy, met a whole bunch of friends I haven't seen since Christmas, lost my Uber virginity and somehow, made it through the whole of today without one scrap of food passing my lips.

I am, officially, starving and right now, am heading home. When I get there, after I have scruffed the dog and been a normal person for ten minutes, I shall stuff biscuits into my face in front of Doctor Who in the scruffiest clothes I can find.

I also found this from Plazma Lab which I love. Whenever I think of Tel Aviv - which is where they're based - I don't think of work like this coming out of there, but here it is:

There's stacks of great original work for sale there - go see.

(Fade to grey...)

(Back in the present:)

And while I was gone, Denis Johnson died. The New York Times pegged him like this:

Denis Johnson, a National Book Award winner whose novels and short stories about the fallen — junkies, down-and-out travelers, drifters and violent men in the United States and abroad — emerged in ecstatic, hallucinatory and sometimes minimalist prose, died on Wednesday at his home in Gualala, Calif. He was 67.

...which sounds about right to me. I fell in love with his work when I picked up Train Dreams at an airport one day. A slim looking novel on the surface - something you would probably call a novella if you were in marketing - Train Dreams confirmed to me what I had always believed but had never actually seen. A novel is as long as it needs to be. If you jettison all of the words you don't need, a slim book can work just as hard as a thick one, sometimes more so.

Thick books for the sake of being thick are more about commerce than the story. I like a book you can batter an intruder to death with as much as the next person but the times all of those words are necessary are few and far between.

Denis Johnson was a class act. He will be missed here if not amongst anybody else I know who reads a lot... then again, everybody loves you when you're dead, right?

Meanwhile, back at my own desk - day job aside - tonight is earmarked for sifting through a mighty batch of short stories I've accumulated and a list of literary mags they're going to be pitched at over the next week or so. There's some fine specimens out there and the great ones are always in print rather than online which pleases me no end.

Talking of which, my buddy Wayne Simmons has a story in the latest edition of Interzone (270) which you can find right here.

Sion Smith 12/09/2013 Sion Smith 12/09/2013

Time To Wrap A Few Things Up

Busy days - off to Colorado tomorrow and very much looking forward to it. Meanwhile, the morning after I leave, Eleanor is off to Dubai. I've never experienced anything like this before. It's a bit hectic but mostly because we're trying to move house at the same time. We've kind of half moved out, so there's no stuff here that we want but likewise, the other house doesn't have all the things in it that we need. It's a bit weird but I guess in 10 days time, it will all be over. All of it. I also have a book to finish. Finish or do not finish. There is no try...

Anyway - the Dog Day Afternoon is looming. As soon as everything up there is figured out, time to put the dog back on the radar. If you've been keeping up over the last few months, there was a dog called Kevin (we didn't move house fast enough to get him) and he's back on skid row for bad behaviour. There was also Badger, who has apparently got even worse issues. God only knows what people do to their animals to make them like that, but - in all honesty - I haven't got the heart to take on another human's issues in the shape of a dog. Time for a change of plan and look at some puppies.

This chap - Hector - turned up the other day:

He's an Old English Sheepdog crossed with something else, though without seeing him in the flesh yet, I can't tell what the cross is. Still, he looks like he knows a good time when he sees it. Even more likely though, I found out yesterday that the kennels up the road have some white German Shepherd pups that will be ready around the end of September - which is perfect timing... stay tuned.

White German Shepherd? How very Neil Gaiman of me. I can live with that. In other dog news, we've decided to get two - a dog each. Eleanor is veering towards a Husky right now but I think the short-list only something like 243 dogs on it...

Talking of Neil Gaiman, take a look at this. This is wonderful:

That's one fine. fine piece of art from J H Williams. Roll on the full experience - and if you're struggling to find something good to read in the meantime, I can recommend this with all of my heart:

I'll try and post while I'm away but mostly, I am looking forward to the solitude. 11,640 feet above sea level and a population of something like 17 people? All books should be finished like this - and maybe they will be.