THE PEN IS MORE PORTABLE THAN THE SWORD
Just Sit Here For The Present...
Spent a day in Cardiff this weekend, fixing, sorting, arranging and finishing various day-job type things off. I like Cardiff - it's got a lot of soul about it.
Took a couple of hours out on Saturday afternoon to do a photo-shoot. Just one of those things on the list of things to get done that's haunted me for a year or so but now it is done and am very happy. I'm more than very happy actually but you need to be careful over saying how happy you really are when you're talking about things to do with the self, lest you find yourself looking like an arrogant dirtbag. How can I put it? My buddy Scott did an excellent job on positioning me around the store we hijacked and the results are technically top notch. As for the bloke in the middle of all the shots, you can keep those opinions to yourself - though my opinion of them is that I think I might need to catch up on some sleep.
Not entirely sure that the staff and public were quite as keen on my choice of soundtrack album (Pictures For Pleasure - Charlie Sexton) for the afternoon. People can be so uneducated. Regardless, special thanks to Kellys Records for putting up with us - but I did manage to sell somebody an Everly Brothers album, which is no mean feat...
Anyway, here's an out-take. The remainder will appear over time somewhere - there's one on the front page right now. I think I'm pretending that Scott didn't just tell me there were some Alvin Stardust albums in front of me. I would imagine they will be there for a very, very long time...
During the darkness that was Saturday night, Wayne Simmons dropped by and we swept a table in the hotel of debris and ran up some material for another writing podcast. We were going to talk about noir fiction but talked for so long about other things that we figured the noir side of things might go on for quite some time - so instead, we talked about how we write. What works, what doesn't, how, where, why... those sorts of things. I'll hook it up again when he's done his thing with it but meantime he also found the time to say some nice things about The Eternity Ring. Here's the link so you can look at it over at his place (which is only right) but I'll also paste his review here because nobody ever says nice things about me and it made me feel good:
One of my favourite reads from school was CIDER WITH ROSIE by Laurie Lee, a vivacious memoir of a young boy’s life. I was an incredibly imaginative lad, for better and for worse, and Lee’s magical account of his War era childhood, and the characters that punctuated such, very much resonated with me. Sion Smith’s THE ETERNITY RING has a lot in common with Lee’s memoir both in terms of tone and style.
The story follows its narrator, an average boy who becomes obsessed by crows after witnessing something quite fantastical, involving the birds, down by the lake close to where he lives. We follow the boy through to manhood and eventually old age, the birds never far from view. And just like with CIDER, the seemingly ordinary becomes extraordinary when seen through the narrator’s eyes.
There’s a magical sway to this story, the crows taking on an almost shamanic quality after our protagonist has them tattooed onto his skin. The events that transpire thereafter could be interpreted as supernatural. And yet despite this fact, with an accessible writing style, and working class protagonist, Smith succeeds in keeping the story quite grounded.
I read THE ETERNITY RING in one sitting. It’s an enigmatic and engaging book that you’ll find hard-pushed to put down once you start. There’s a dark fairy tale quality about the novella that I really enjoyed. And just like all good fairy tales, its resolution proves both satisfying and mystifying all at once.
And there you have it - I didn't even pay him! I did buy him a coke, but he bought me one too so that doesn't count. Go read something. It won't take you long. I'm sure he would have pasted me to the wall if it sucked. He's from Belfast don't you know...
In other Eternity Ring news, I think I may have found who I was looking for when it comes to an illustrated edition. Pending - but not for long perhaps.
Finally, Nick Lord (mentioned a few posts ago) has finished up his portrait of Hilary Mantel and as of today, it hangs very nicely in the British Library. It looks like this:
Nice work Sir - you can read about it here. Very intrigued to see what he will make of me. I'm sure there are lots of walls in the British Library just begging to be adorned with that face...
The Picture of Dorian Gray - One Can Hope...
February is getting busy. One of the things that's been on the list of things to do for the longest time is getting a proper photo shoot under the belt. Consider it booked and ready to roll. It's one of those things that you can put off forever but you really shouldn't if you're out to achieve something on your own. Actually, the same can be said even if you've got the weight of Sony or Coca-Cola behind you and are trying to achieve something. Getting your shit together to know what you want however is another thing entirely. Have you ever sat down and asked yourself how you want people to see you? That photo-shoot will be one of your 'business cards' and I've seen some horrendous examples of author photographs ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous.
Even though I've already decided and discussed what we're going to do (so I have a pretty good idea of what I'm going to get), I had a quick look at what some other people had done yesterday. A writer of erotic fiction you may be, but when you're over 60, should you really be pushing out a photo of yourself wearing flares with your legs wide open? It's a genuine question. Judging by the covers of her books, maybe she should. Maybe that's exactly the image she wants to be portraying but I have to say, it made me shudder a little. Ultimately though, it's your decision, your life, your career... do what you want to do but don't ever forget why you're doing it. Am I qualified to make sweeping statements like this? After putting more than 300 magazine covers out into the world that did their job, you get a feel for what works and what doesn't and thankfully the ones that fall into the 'doesn't' category where many years ago.
One final word on this subject - did you ever see an author photograph that didn't change for over twenty years? That's not good practice at all. That's lying through your teeth. A little honesty about being who you really are is good. People will respect you a lot more for it. It's 2014 - you can't hide from the public like you were able to in 1985.
•••
I don't know if I should be talking about this yet but that leads me nicely on to something I'm really excited about. I've never considered getting my portrait painted - it's something that wouldn't even cross my mind to think about doing but one conversation led to another and how could I say no to Nick Lord - who is just wrapping up his portrait of Hilary Mantel (winner of the Booker Prize - twice) and has previously painted Amy Winehouse and er... the Queen amongst many others. He is also Portrait Artist of the Year 2013. On those grounds, it would be dumb to say no but more than anything, it goes to prove that good things happen when you say 'yes' more often than 'no'. Besides, I think I shall get on swimmingly with Nick. I'll post more when I know more - it was one of those things that I was having a hard time keeping to myself but now I don't have to.
Insert smiley face.
Bring Up The Bodies... And Some Bears.
What started out as a day with not much ahead of me but compiling interview questions and transcribing things recorded in totally unsuitable environments, by lunchtime, it had actually gotten pretty interesting. I found that I have a reasonable amount of essays about travel to start pushing them out a little - does that make me a travel writer? That has to be one of the coolest job titles in the world. Anyway, I thought I would try a little experiment and if you're observant, you'll see a tab up there that says Travel Writing and it hooks up to a page on the relatively new platform of Medium. It's been there a whole day now and already I'm thinking of walking away, pulling it down and bringing it back home. Not that there is anything wrong with Medium - it's a beautiful platform to work on and when it started out it was full of great ideas and writing that shone. Having come back to it today, I find that it's turning into more or less the same platform as every other on the web. In order to keep people interested and active, readers are now able to comment on the writing on a paragraph by paragraph basis. Typically, this happens a lot, so now, great writing is set upon with minute sleeve notes by people arguing over an otherwise lovely piece of work. People need to understand that just because you don't agree with something, doesn't mean you have to comment on it. The builders at Medium should have known better. It was originally a nice magazine - now it's a magazine with big margins and a pen on a string so that others can deface work or extract a tiny amount of ego for themselves from somebody else's work. People have too much time on their hands - if you don't like something, walk away. If you do, tell somebody else about it.
Everyone's a critic these days. Maybe they always have been. Maybe I'll boot up a separate blog for it but that kind of negates my rule of "find all the things you need in my own house" rule.
File under pending... but only overnight. These things need sharp decisions!
•••
Something else happened today that I can't talk about but it's very exciting - and I don't get excited about much at all. When I heard my name mentioned in the same sentence as Hilary Mantel, it made my day complete. It's probably nothing at all like anything you would ever imagine either - but it is, without question, super cool in the extreme. I shall wait until something happens before revealing anything about it but rest assured, just writing this here even for myself makes me smile.
•••
The guys at WSPA finally got back to me about my Big Bear Rescue project - and I missed the damn call. I re-left messages at all the right places to say I was returning calls but everybody seemed to have gone home by mid-afternoon. Maybe tomorrow. I had almost given up but the flame is still alight. Not quite so bright that you could navigate yourself from one side of the Grimpen Mire to the other without getting sucked in, but it's alight all the same.
Topically, this Doctor Who/ Sherlock fan made video is absolutely ton notch if it really is constructed with no assistance. In fact, amazing would be absolutely fair:
Bring Up The Bodies... And Some Bears.
What started out as a day with not much ahead of me but compiling interview questions and transcribing things recorded in totally unsuitable environments, by lunchtime, it had actually gotten pretty interesting. I found that I have a reasonable amount of essays about travel to start pushing them out a little - does that make me a travel writer? That has to be one of the coolest job titles in the world. Anyway, I thought I would try a little experiment and if you're observant, you'll see a tab up there that says Travel Writing and it hooks up to a page on the relatively new platform of Medium. It's been there a whole day now and already I'm thinking of walking away, pulling it down and bringing it back home. Not that there is anything wrong with Medium - it's a beautiful platform to work on and when it started out it was full of great ideas and writing that shone. Having come back to it today, I find that it's turning into more or less the same platform as every other on the web. In order to keep people interested and active, readers are now able to comment on the writing on a paragraph by paragraph basis. Typically, this happens a lot, so now, great writing is set upon with minute sleeve notes by people arguing over an otherwise lovely piece of work. People need to understand that just because you don't agree with something, doesn't mean you have to comment on it. The builders at Medium should have known better. It was originally a nice magazine - now it's a magazine with big margins and a pen on a string so that others can deface work or extract a tiny amount of ego for themselves from somebody else's work. People have too much time on their hands - if you don't like something, walk away. If you do, tell somebody else about it.
Everyone's a critic these days. Maybe they always have been. Maybe I'll boot up a separate blog for it but that kind of negates my rule of "find all the things you need in my own house" rule.
File under pending... but only overnight. These things need sharp decisions!
•••
Something else happened today that I can't talk about but it's very exciting - and I don't get excited about much at all. When I heard my name mentioned in the same sentence as Hilary Mantel, it made my day complete. It's probably nothing at all like anything you would ever imagine either - but it is, without question, super cool in the extreme. I shall wait until something happens before revealing anything about it but rest assured, just writing this here even for myself makes me smile.
•••
The guys at WSPA finally got back to me about my Big Bear Rescue project - and I missed the damn call. I re-left messages at all the right places to say I was returning calls but everybody seemed to have gone home by mid-afternoon. Maybe tomorrow. I had almost given up but the flame is still alight. Not quite so bright that you could navigate yourself from one side of the Grimpen Mire to the other without getting sucked in, but it's alight all the same.
Topically, this Doctor Who/ Sherlock fan made video is absolutely ton notch if it really is constructed with no assistance. In fact, amazing would be absolutely fair: