Numbers - lots of them in this post

A little Lovecraftian headstone to start the day I think - marvel at the mysterious Cthulu goings on or read a good article about it here.

Woke up this morning to almost 10 inches of snow. I measured it with a ruler to check. I don't think I'll be going anywhere in the car for a few days but I'm going to have to do something that I haven't done since I passed my driving test some 25 years ago and that's walk to the supermarket which I reckon is about five miles away. I'm sure we could make it for a few days but I've run out of cigarettes, so we're in deep trouble!

Whenever it snows, it always reminds me of two things. The first one is being in Syracuse about 20 years ago in the middle of a bitching winter of -37 degrees. The other one is exactly how long it used to take me to do my 75-house paper delivery job on foot through some of the harshest Welsh winters. When it wasn't snowing, it used to take me about 2 hours on my bike, but in the snow on foot, probably more like 5 hours. Good times...

I mention this simply because I'm snowed in with the kids today. They went out for half an hour and then wanted to come back in because it's "cold". I said they had to stay outside. Is that mean or character building? Last thing any parent wants is little Jessies who can't handle the real world… isn't it?

This Jessie type behaviour came as a bit of a shock, as only 24 hours earlier in similar conditions, Ellie made the 80 mile trip to the O2 arena to check out her first rock show (30 Seconds to Mars) and didn't moan once - or so I hear anyway. She's pretty stoked with her gig t-shirt as well and I found myself wishing that I could get that excited about going to see a band again - in any kind of weather! I've bought a fair amount of merchandise over the years but at my first gig - UFO at the Royal Court in Liverpool - I didn't buy any band merch at all and instead came home with a copy of MAD magazine summer special from the train station. Maybe I've always been this way and just never really paid it much attention before.

Currently listening to out for: the sound of the snow plough and gritting truck to rescue me
Currently reading: far too much into why there are so many numbers in the post.

The Gates of Hell

Yesterday morning I was woken up to a call from the Jazz office saying that London Radio wanted me to get in touch to see if I would like to go on air and discuss an article that was published in the Daily Mail about how disgusting it was that more and more otherwise 'respectable' sports personalities seemed to be getting tattoos.

A few things to know up front here:
1. I am not at my best at 9 in the morning
2. I have only ever bought the Daily Mail once in my life and that was when they gave the Prince album away with it. I don't recall reading it.
3. I don't know anything about sport other than MMA and wrestling - and for my money, tattoos come with the territory.
4. What the hell is London Radio? Have Capital rebranded?

So I called up and was given the briefest of briefs - including "please don't swear" - put on hold and before I had even pulled the blind up to see if the snow had arrived in this corner of the world, discovered I has an audience of 4 million people...

Gulp.

Imagine, waking up and being asked a lot of questions really fast by somebody who didn't really give a flying fuck about what you had to say anyway. I think I fought the corner well - the guys at the office all tuned in online and James even mailed me helpful comments like "Can you get Alvin Stardust played for me?"

It must be quite hard to do a radio show absolutely live when you don't know if the people you called up five minutes ago will participate and your whole show is based on whatever happens to be in the newspapers that day, but somehow I expected more in depth questions than "How many tattoos have you got and how much did they cost" but my favourite was something like, "Why is this happening to our sports people". I don't freaking know do I! Maybe they wanted to get one! Much like what clothes they decided to put on and whether they would have tea or coffee with their breakfast, they probably decided for themselves much like the rest of us!

I did however refrain from saying what was on the tip of my tongue - "Perhaps a better question to ask would be why our professional sports people can't play sports anymore. I doubt it's because they got a tattoo and is probably more to do with the fact that when you get paid seventy gazillion pounds a minute for being average at best, what's the point in being hungry? When you've got that much money to play with, what else are you going to spend it on except tattoos, prostitutes, drink and cocaine?

Or was nobody in the sports world paying attention to what happened in rock n roll over the last fifty years?

Maybe if he'd kept me on the air a little longer I would have slipped it in...

Currently listening to: My Chemical Romance - Danger Days
Currently reading: New issue of SFX

LOCKDOWN!

This post is probably not what it first appears to be about...

During my mini book spree a couple of days ago, I'd forgotten that I also picked up a copy of Countdown to Lockdown by Mick Foley. I've been getting pretty jaded with the amount of wrestling autobiographies that have come out in the last few years. The initial run was pretty impressive, then came the "sequels" and then came the nonsense. Did anybody read Batista's effort? Now there was an example of a man totally reluctant to get involved and it showed - badly.

A few weeks back I found a copy of Hulk Hogan's My Life Outside The Ring for 50 pence in a book sale. That's a harsh price to pay for a book brother, but it's actually pretty good as the focus really is on his life outside the ring - namely multiple court cases, a divorce, being alienated as a parent and generally having to deal with the fact that even legends can hit a brick wall and find themselves quite literally looking down the barrel of a .45. I guess Hogan's version of broke and our version of it might differ slightly but you get the picture and it's all relative.

Anyway, Mick Foley is an exception to the writing rule. His writing style is easy and always interesting to read whether you like wrestling or not. Basically, Mick manages to capture the essence of what it's like simply being a man and trying to make your own way in the world whilst trying to keep any morals you might have left intact.

Although Countdown to Lockdown is mostly about the period leading up to his match with Sting in the summer of last year, there's an awful lot of peripherals too - and some of those peripherals are about his work with charities in the third world. Mick doesn't do it in a "look at me, I'm giving to charity" kind of way either… there's a chain of events and a train of thought behind it that's totally valid...

…and there was me thinking only a few days ago that I had never read a book that made me cry. Doctor Who, yes, but a book - never.

Foley writes a fair amount in the book about RAINN - a charity set-up - at least in part - by Tori Amos for some really bad shit that happens in the world, but the chair-shot for me came with his stories of the kids that he sponsored through www.childfund.org - anybody with kids can't help but be touched in some way by his story.

So, this morning I found myself at www.childfund.org and filling in a membership form. This needs to be done. Not so much for my soul - which sometimes wonders what the hell is going on in the world - but for the kid that I'll end up sponsoring. To sponsor a child comes in at about £18 a month. That's less than three packets of cigarettes - or a couple of coffee's and a sandwich at Starbucks - or a DVD… we're talking stupid money that will actually make a difference to a 6 year old kid who only wants to be a doctor and help save other people when she grows up but right now is too busy simply trying to survive to do much about the bigger dream.

Think about it - £18 to do the right thing. £18. Fuck, life is cheap.

Now stop thinking about it and do something about it. www.childfund.org

To re-quote Mick quoting somebody else: "If one person listened, it would be worth it."

Foxy Foxy...

Like I said before, not quite the book I was expecting to be on the shelves first, but it's a book and it's my first all the same. Hard work? Damn fucking right it was hard work! You try juggling 2000 plus pictures of tattooed girls in a three week window and come out of the other side with your mind intact.

In all seriousness though, it's been a lot of fun as well and with its mega-distribution, it should do well - at least I hope it does well... there's some talk of rustling up another volume next year but I think I need a week off before I open the box on that.

Whilst playing with Vixens, I seem to have fallen behind with everything else that I was supposed to be writing about. Not just some things but everything. I think it's a test of how to deal with deadlines.

Now I must eat. Now I must begin watching last weeks Supernatural. Now I must cut back down to 20 cigarettes a day at most.

Currently listening to: Warrior Soul, Joan Jett and Lifehouse. Go figure.
Currently reading: Found some money in my bank account today - so went on a mini spree. Sandman Slim (Richard Kadrey), Amulet (Roberto Bolano) and Roseanna (Jowall & Wahloo)

Hang On St Christopher...

I think nearly all of my blog post titles over the years have been songs on my podlist and today’s deserves a special mention simply because it’s great and far too long since I’ve heard it. Even longer since I saw the video clip - which you can join in or right here.

Man, things ain’t like they used to be.

A million things all at once going on here. When I took over driving Skin Deep, I also took over the writing of a book that’s due to be released on December 1st called Tattoo Vixens. It dawned on me today that this date isn’t very far away and there’s still “some” work to do to lick it into shape - so it’s going to be another long night just to bring the admin side of things up to date. Anyway, it’s not quite the way I pictured it happening but I guess this will be my first officially authored book available off the shelf in all good book stores and newsagents - a bloody good start all the same. I think that’s going to be available internationally too. You can pre-order it here. Drops hint.

Also on the work front, I put the latest issue of the mag to bed today, freeing me up to do the aforementioned Vixens material, liaise with a dozen very excited winners over a photo shoot for the Calendar Girls Competition photo shoot in a couple of weeks and start on the next two issues at the same time. You honestly have to laugh in the face of Christmas deadlines sometimes or you’d just stay in bed all day and hide.

Circumstances these days mean that once a month when I’m on my road trips to the office, I have something that looks like “free-time” after hours. So I’ve turned what would otherwise be a) an evening with my Ma eating pot roast (nothing wrong with that) or b) an evening drinking non-alcoholic drinks with JJ (nothing wrong with that either) into something constructive. It’s still in its fledgling stages right now but I’ve decided to resurrect my Black Dye White Noise radio show. I have no idea what form it will take at the moment but I guarantee it will be a lot of fun and take in as many aspects of pop culture as it possibly can. I’ll be posting heavily when I have a show ready to roll and a home for it. Occasional special guests? Damn right.

Meanwhile, back on the writing front, I’ve started my commitment to write a first draft novel during November (see previous post - or maybe the one before) and this morning (as I had to get up at fucked-up o’clock to take the kids to school), when I got back and found Eleanor had already gone to work, I nailed down the first 2,000 words or so of The Monster Magnet. Sounds a lot? That’s what I thought when I’d finished but I had been working on it in my head all weekend so pretty much knew what I was going to write before I started - and no, that’s not normally how it works! What normally happens is I sit down to write and then get easily distracted. Maybe the morning is a good time to get on with this, but the likelihood of this ever happening again is er... zero. File under pending.

- and on that very subject, I never thought it possible but The Fire Sermon is just a couple of thousand clicks off being read 50,000 times. The others up there are doing pretty well too, with Too Hot For Dogs having just tipped over the 30,000 threshold and the baby of the family, Gelert, having just clipped 5,500. Knew I should have put a price tag on them!

Anyway - all of this and anything else that looks like it might involve turning the Mac on can go fuck itself shortly. Everything stops for Spooks. Talking of TV - is anybody out there following the new season of Supernatural? Man, they’ve ratcheted up the gore quotient! This week, a guy got it in the face with a dentist drill. Have to say, it was thoroughly deserved though.

Currently listening to: Coheed & Cambria - No World For Tomorrow
Currently reading: Still battering away at David Peace’s 1978 with a massive distraction provided by Mick Wall’s latest release Appetite for Destruction (a collection of his rock interviews from around ’88 to the end of the 90s - there’s some long forgotten gems in here - Blind Melon, Dan Reed... like I said - things ain’t like they used to be).

Play That Funky Music White Boy...

Ever been challenged to do something that you know you'll find really hard to do but have said yes anyway? Said yes because it was a friend that challenged you and to say no would mean defeat before you had even started?

This very morning, Mike mailed me over a link to the guys over at National Novel Writing Month where they're running a "challenge" to write a 50,000 word first draft novel during November. The deal is that you announce it to the world, commit to it and deliver. Sounds easy enough... if your days normally consist of sitting on your arse eating cookies and looking out of the window. To make it even more of a challenge, we've piled on some extra pressure by not wanting to look like a dumbass in front of each other in our own personal challenge.

I believe the words that came out of my mouth were "bring it on". Gulp.

With a little thought, I've decided that I'm going to use this opportunity to write my intended pulp debut The Monster Magnet from scratch. This will not be hard being as how I've already lost all my work. On the plus side, at least I know what it's about, have a cover image to help me along and all the back-room stuff is already taken care of - so in theory, I could have it ready to sell before the end of the year.

Other writer cohorts - watch out! I shall be offering the same invitation to you too. No reason for me to look stupid all be myself...

Currently listening to: Backyard Babies
Currently reading: myself the riot act

Monkey Wrench

That most sacred of pagan festivals, Samhain is almost upon us. Like a good and proper pagan, I shall be celebrating in the most time honoured of traditions - and dressing up as Alice Cooper to go to Rhiannon's primary school Hallowe'en disco - in the local church hall. There will no doubt be stuff to do with apples and other sweetie type goodies. I was thinking I might spice it up a bit and take a small box of spiders with me and release them at the snack stand - there are certainly enough of them in the house.

I had best bone up on my Alice Cooper is a Christian facts to prove my authenticity at said bash. There are still a few tickets left so I shall also be looking for willing (or non) volunteers to make up the entire cast of the original Nightmare tour - giant spider, cyclops, Ethyl etc.

Somehow, I don't think this is what they had in mind when they decided to relocate it to the church instead of the school.

Excellent.

Topically - here's a little treat that might have slipped through your net.

Currently listening to: Fall Out Boy
Currently reading: New issue of SFX - but have also finally found a copy of David Peace's 1977 which I'm very much looking forward to getting into bed with.

One Big Crunch

Ouch. Big ouch. Found myself some time yesterday to do some more work on Almost Human - and found that in the process of moving files from old Mac to new Mac, I appear to have deleted all of my stories and books in progress. Not some, but ALL of them. Rummaged through three other machines, four memory sticks and an external hard drive to make sure but they are gone, gone, gone. So I did what anybody would do and had a Hulk Sulk for a while and then simply started again from scraps of text files, various proof copies and my large stack of notebooks.

Bugger. This might take a while.

This is proof if ever there was that Instant Karma is not simply a song title but a living entity - it was only 24 hours earlier that I poured scorn on my friend Tracey's stupidity at loosing her entire iTunes library (and paid the price as does everybody who crosses her!)

So, to rewind, last weekend, I volunteered to lay down some laminate floor for Eleanor's folks - just about the only DIY job that I'm any good at - only I forgot how long it actually takes. Many hours later, it looked pretty damn good which is more than I can say for my knees. I don't think I'm going to escape into future years without them becoming something of an issue but I'll take that - of all the things I've done to myself, a couple of busted knees is a small price to pay compared to the hand some get dealt.

Talking of which, Eleanor left to go to Amsterdam for a two day conference today which meant an afternoon trip out to Gatwick - did the return journey in the record time of one hour. I'll be in so much trouble when she reads this...

Currently reading: Kurt Vonnegut - Look At The Birdie
Currently listening to: Jizzy Pearl - Vegas Must Die

Back On The Juice

Got really bored of my itunes library today - which is pretty bad news as there's quite a few thousand tracks on there - like 12,000 plus. So I went shopping tonight for the out of the obvious and found some great albums kicking about that I meant to get at the time and forgot all about - such is life these days without record stores to plunder through:

Earlier this year, Finger Eleven released Life Turns Electric. I like Finger Eleven an awful lot - they're so under-rated it's untrue and without a major push here in the UK, they're likely to remain one of the best kept secrets around. There was almost a four year gap (seven if you take into account the UK release date) between their second album and Them Vs You Vs Me and apart from a couple of tracks, they had really twisted their focus and gone for a more commercial sound. Life Turns Electric sits well though - I thought they might have gone the whole shooting match but no. A little press on the rewind button and this has turned out pretty damn good all round. They have their own youtube channel here where you catch some decent previews of the album and find a link to the album on itunes - while you're there, if you're in virgin territory, you should probably check out the video to Paralyzer from Them Vs...

Ed Kowalczyk meanwhile has gotten himself caught in a war with his old bandmates from LIVE. Dumb all round really and the band are looking for a new singer… or maybe not. Ed's solo album Alive will do me just fine in the meantime. Truth be told, it's not that far removed from the last LIVE album (Black Mountain) and if you were into the band because of his lyrics and direction, you won't miss the rest of the guys much at all. I'm not holding my breath over it because I found something much better all round…

The Gracious Few self titled debut. Debut might be a bit of a misnomer though. It's not as though any of the guys in the band are short on experience. Chad, Chad and Patrick from LIVE are joined by lead vocalist Kevin Martin and Sean Hennesy from Candlebox - and the end result is the best album I've maybe heard all year long. Go find it - no disappointment to be had anywhere. Seriously grade A prime chops… both LIVE and Candlebox can stay buried based on this output.

So that should last me a couple of weeks or so. Roll on MCR's Dangerous Days… that Rob Zombie revamp album is calling my name as well.

As usual, couldn't resist a dig in the bookstore as well just in case I'd missed something - which I haven't - but I did pick up a copy of 1974, the David Peace book that became the first instalment of Red Riding. I missed the TV show completely which I'm kind of pleased about now as, even only a few chapters in, 1974 is turning out to be rather excellent and very different from the pages that normally pass through my hands.

Now, back to work...

Time for an overhaul

Been neglecting Zodiac Lung for a little too long - will be giving it a bit of a tidy-up over the next few days. That's all... get back to work slackers.

Crank it up

Came by some good music this week - the new Goo Goo Dolls album Something For The Rest Of Us is pretty good. Not classic Dolls but good enough - you could stitch it to the end of Let Love In and not really notice the seams although as a whole, it is a lot stronger. I don’t think classic Dolls exists anymore. Much like Bon Jovi, they’ve gone past the point of no return and this is now what you get when you buy in. Not a bad thing, a little sad that there’s no experimentation anymore but like BJ it’s hard to argue with success.

From the backend of nowhere I also found a re-release of an album none of us should own on CD! Back when you all still had hair, there was a band out of Philadelphia called Teeze who were totally on a par with Motley Crue in the early days. Sadly, it didn’t happen for them and some years later, they changed their name to RoughHouse and the world promptly forgot about them. Anyway, the original Teeze album holds up pretty well considering all the years under the bridge. Whether I’ll listen to it much remains to be seen but sometimes bumping into an old friend is all you need to brighten a day.

On the book front, I’ve been struggling to find anything worth a damn this week but Bill Willingham’s Peter & Max is holding the fort just fine. A full length novel based on the characters in his FABLES graphic novels, you could do worse than spend some time with it. Probably not wise to share it with really young kids, but if you’ve got older ones and are into that sort of thing... well, it’s working well for me. I did try Barker’s Thief of Always a few months back with Rhiannon but his style doesn’t really move fast enough to keep a nine year old hooked at the end of a hard day at school - apparently.

Going to try and catch up with the Devil movie this week - that’s after I’ve taken aforementioned offspring to the British Museum for a Mummy-Fest, gone swimming at least four times and taken a trip to the beach to see if it’s any good for a picnic and a quick surf. Maybe the movies is a bit ambitious... anyway, Devil looks like it might work out OK. I think it will be a big hit or a big miss but either way has to be better than the pile of average I’ve sat through lately.

Work wise, I’ve found myself working with some great people who also do a lot of other things apart from tattoo all day long. With my first issue proper hitting the shelves in about a week, some of these people will be making a retrospective appearance here - it will all be relevant, I promise! 

While we’re on the subject of work, I find myself authoring two books that are pitched at hitting the shelves before Christmas. Both are highly pictorial but also have a lot of commentary and interviews from me - I’m really excited about them both. I think I have about three weeks left on the deadlines so more information on these coming probably a lot sooner than I would have liked! 

To finish up nicely, going through my phone pictures, I found this one of my friend Volko from Buena Vista Tattoo Club hard at work at the Tattoo Convention in London. I didn’t use it anywhere in the magazine so thought I'd post it here with a nice link to their site so you can see what all the fuss is about.

A different book store...

Well, OK, not that different. I'm not sure why I always end up in Waterstones on a Saturday morning - seems to have become a bit habitual. Since they eased up on HQ telling them what to display and where (at least a little bit) I've found a fair few things that have been impressive. This weekend, I picked up a copy of The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. Yep - it sounds as lame as they come but is parked right next to, if not directly on top of Catcher in the Rye - only for the Nirvana generation. Go find it - it's a one sitting read... and if it's any help, Chbosky is the guy that co-created the Jericho TV series. Not that this is anything like that but at least his credentials are good.

I also dropped by the comic store on the way back to the car and picked up a book called The Bronx Kill (Peter Milligan) which is one of those Vertigo crime/graphic/novel affairs (like the Rankin/Hellblazer Dark Entries). Not started it yet because I'd forgotten that I bought it and found it about 20 minutes ago in a bag with Saturday's paper and a box of tea bags in it... shall report in due course.

Now that new day job is starting to settle down and I am master of at least three different time zones, the fog's starting to clear and I should be able to start picking up the pieces of where I was a month ago.

First port of call - Dennis and Charlotte! (That counts as fair warning in my book).

Things accomplished in fiction: A lot of reading (does that count?) - did have an idea about writing a story about a guy who can't stay out of bookstores though.

Things accomplished in real life: Looked at an awful lot of skin...

Other: Found out that there is a fencing club not 10 miles from home on a Wednesday evening. Major cause for excitement - odds on forgetting this by tomorrow? High.

The Book Thief

This past Thursday, I actually left the kitchen table to go out for something to eat and found myself in the local Waterstones plus latte plus laptop. I figured I’d write up an interview while I sat there only to find that the Nero they have doesn’t have free WiFi.

This is shit.

Next door is Costa Coffee and next door to them is the 3 store with a wide open field of WiFi. How dumb can a company get? Not only that but there’s HMV on the other side with an Orange store operating and across the road, the O2 store. Surely it must have occurred to them that this might be a bad idea?

Anyway - on my way out I spotted the new Lincoln Barclay thriller so went back on Saturday to pick it up. I’m quite often served by this guy who must weigh about 7 stone when he’s wet. Eleanor thinks his name is Ryan. I say he looks more like a Dominic. I’m not sure why this has become important but it has. I know we could probably just ask him but where’s the fun in that? There’s something clandestine about trying to figure it out - he has no name badge and his name doesn’t appear on the till receipt either. There’s a part of me that never wants to know though - I don’t much like things that have had their mystique shattered...

Crimson and Clover

With a couple of full-on days in the office putting Skin Deep 190 to bed (more on that in a week or so) and what seemed like a lifetime sitting on the M54, M1, M25 and A2 wondering just what the hell they’re doing out there, it’s back to normal. I use the term loosely.

This evening, I went to check out the Runaways movie – imaginatively titled The Runaways. Does it do justice to a band that kept me company for a fraction of my teenage years? I think so. The characterisation is excellent, the story is solid and accurate enough. If you liked the way Almost Famous and Stone’s version of The Doors shaped up, this is for you… only with more girls.

My only criticism is that it doesn’t drill deep enough but then, unless you love the band and mourn them daily, to go that deep would make it about seven hours long and miss the point. Thus my criticism is rendered null and void but there's still a great back-story going on about how the movie has pretended that Jackie Fox was never even in the band. More interestingly, these days Fox is a lawyer - you can do the math for yourself on that one. Still, take it as it comes and everything will be alright. There’s also a fantastic and timely book on the shelves called Joan Jett which is a nice piece of work. But again, unless you like passing your evenings looking at lots of pictures of rock stars (which I do – particularly of Joan Jett) – you might be better off with a book with words in it.

At which point I would suggest I Am Number Four (which is more or less Twilight cross-bred with Superman) and only took me a couple of days to whip through. The movie is going to go globally ballistic when it’s released and will more than likely be shit but the book is good enough…

Things accomplished in real life: Started flatplanning issue 191 of Skin Deep which I’m really looking forward to. It hasn't taken long to fall back into the zone.

Things accomplished in fiction: Or not achieved as the case may be. The script that I threw into the ring at Red Planet got knocked back, but that’s OK. As the deadline creeped up on me, I knew I was never going to finish Fox On The Run in time so I mailed in the first part of Too Hot For Dogs. It’s still a good script but I would have been surprised if it had gotten anywhere – I think the script version is a bit edgy – and not in the right way - for UK television.

The Love Reaction Revolution

It's my first proper day driving the Skin Deep tank today. Shoot - if I thought I was busy before, I didn't know what I was talking about but that's maybe because I need to squeeze three weeks into one. Anyway, so far so good and all going according to plan.

What can I tell you without blowing the whole shooting match? Earlier today, I had cause to make a phone call to Mark Manning - yeah, that Mark Manning... the Zodiac Mindwarp Mark Manning. I'm working on a new short feature called "The Back Piece" which is some irreverent questions either about tattooing or people with tattoos who are pretty well known for having them. How could I resist calling on the original tattooed beat messiah for some wise words? Actually his words were a lot wiser than mine at the end of the day, but who else could I have a conversation with about Loki, Odin, Latin and whether or not rock stars should ride horses? For those thoroughly not paying attention, there's a new album out soon - We Are Volsung - and it's good. Real good.

I finally got a hold of Chuck Klosterman's Eating The Dinosaur yesterday - well, Eleanor got it for me as a leaving present from "other job". They probably all thought she'd lost it a bit, but there's no point in having a leaving present that you hate and bitch about. Not only that, there was also a replacement for the Kiss mug I smashed the handle off one morning and a copy of that very sexy Doctor Who notebook... the one that River carries around with her - very cool it is too, complete with text and drawings. There's a lesson in here somewhere for everybody. If you're on the move, make sure somebody that likes you is in charge of getting your leaving present...

Finally, for now, I picked the old Saab up from the first service it's had in years yesterday - only to find that there's nothing wrong with it all that a bit of a rub down didn't cure, but the garage guys had also put new number plates on it for no reason at all. Is this normal behaviour for car servicing? I've never known that before. I thought they might have smashed one by accident but they're new on front and back. Curious but a nice thing to do... it didn't go unnoticed.

Smoke and Mirrors get in your eyes

I took the girls to see The Last Airbender yesterday - a snap decision as we were originally going for The Sorcerer's Apprecntice but I don't think any of us could take yet another Nicholas Cage paint by nuumbers project. The initial reviews were bad - but then, the initial reviews of Lady in the Water, The Village and The Knowing have all been dreadful but I've really rated all of them.

Seems to be that the aforementioned critics have a really blunt axe to grind. Maybe they got fooled by Sixth Sense. Maybe they simply didn't get Unbreakable. Was Signs too much to bear? Like Hitchcock, Shyamalan is a genius storyteller. Fact. Critics appear to be waiting for his movies to come out only to slate them now for not having diabolical twists when the man is only trying to tell a great story. Tell me, what's not totally fantastic about The Village?

Anyway, nice job on translating an awkward sprawling animated series into something coherent. It's not too sfx heavy and I have to say, this is maybe the only 3D movie I've ever been to see where the 3D didn't annoy the hell out of me. If I have a gripe it's that my options to see a movie in good old 2D are becoming extremely limited these days. 3D as a general rule of thumb, sucks. Stop it now. 

For more televisual treats, forget Granma's House that (the same?) critics are dribbling about. Instead, check out Pete Vs The World and VEXED which are both far superior.

Things accomplished in fiction:

I'm a hair's breadth away from finishing up The Ballad of the Goat Faced Boy. Is it good? Yeah - it slays. Really looking forward to seeing what Dennis makes of it. We're behind schedule but hey, I guess nobody is expecting it yet. As Morrisson once said, "How can you be late for your own show?" BROKEN continues to shape up despite both of us being incredibly busy. Check out the sketch.

Things accomplished in real life:

Lots of tattoo magazine related items - no surprise there. More than pleasantly surprised to find most professionals are wise to the fact that submitting images in a high resolution format greatly increases your chances of being worked with. You'd think that this was common knowledge these days but apparently not. Other industries: get your shit together. 

Also going to book the car in for a service later today. Maybe, just maybe, I'll hand it over to some trained professionals to clean it inside and out as well. It is, quite frankly, a dirty beast of a thing right now.

One stormy night...

...the wind from hell swept in from the Channel and totally wiped out my WiFi connection - which in turn meant I couldn't post the Holmes story. So apologies to anybody that was following it and even further apologies as I'm going to kill the project as of today. Reason? Well, I got to the end of the story and found I actually had rather a lot to say. Enough to make it into a decent short story - a decent long short story even. This is a good thing.
More later today...

The Big Bang

Sheesh. Where to start? At the beginning is always a good place. As of this past weekend, I find myself the editor of Skin Deep, not only the biggest selling tattoo magazine in the UK, but also the best. Make of that what you will but I'm really stoked about it. It's good to be back on the shelf (now there's a bad turn of phrase) after such a long time and I hope I can bring something new to the table that everybody will get into.

In the coming weeks, that will have its own blog, so I probably won't touch on it too much here unless there's a nice big juicy cross-over... like the news that the Tattooed Beat Messiah himself - Zodiac Mindwarp - has just signed a new deal with an album in the pipeline. That big enough for you? Anyway, I'll let you know where that blog will be and also the facebook, twitter and other assorted paraphernalia that goes along with it.

Meantime, Mr Bevan is making some great headway with Broken. This is coming along just fine. I can't wait to get this one out and about. I'll be posting some of the initial sketches tomorrow.

And talking of getting things out and about, yesterday I finally got around to publishing Gelert: The Faithful Hound. For those of you who don't immediately know what it's about, it's a retelling of an old Welsh myth/legend and so happens to be the first story I was ever told. It's still sad now. You can read that in the digital bookstore here. See what you think. Artwork of course by the inimitable Charlotte Rose.

Things accomplished in real life: Started looking at the editorial and design direction for Skin Deep and noting down some ideas. Man, they just keep on coming. Seriously looked at the Great Dane Rescue website and am pondering the logisitcs of taking on a monster dog. Note to self: get car serviced. Soon. Really soon. You're gonna be on the road somewhat...

Things accomplished in fiction: Nothing whatsoever today - I've kind of got my mind inside re-engineering a magazine. Wait! That's not true. I filled a few notebook pages with the beginnings of a new Kang story by murdering somebody from a great height quite nastily. That counts, right?

When Lightning Strikes...

Things accomplished in real life: Mr Smith has a new job and is very excited about it. Official announcement soon - if the grapevine doesn't get to you first!

Road Trip!

For your amusement, please allow me to share my venn diagram with you. This is what happens when you help your kids with their homework.

I love a good road trip. This weekend it's up to North Wales - if you're following this on lame-ass facebook that doesn't feed it through for 24 hours, I'm already there. In fact, I leave in about 3 hours. Whether or not there will be time for posting while I'm gone is another matter.

I've even managed to clear the desk of everything outstanding apart from the last few "chapters" of the Sherlock Holmes story. Technically speaking, I could do that when I get back as those parts aren't due until August 27 but more importantly than that, I must remember to take it with me as August 1 is Sunday. Again, technically speaking I could do it when I get back but if I don't do it first thing in the morning, I'll probably forget.

Talking of twitter accounts, I had a look at some of my settings today and worked out that by the end of the weekend, taking into account my PR efforts for The Case of the Dead Messenger, I should be scoring well over 200 following the story. I kind of thought that wasn't bad until I got curious and flipped over to Neil Gaiman's feed and saw that he has over a million and a half hanging on his every word. Given that he's got a few more years in the field than I and um, that he's very good maybe I should give myself some time with this.

I'm not actually that big a fan of twitter but it serves a purpose and I have no doubt whatsoever that if you were sitting around a table with HarperCollins and were able to say "Yes, I have a quarter of a million people on my mailing list" - which is effectively all it is - you'd be in a far better position than if you were starting from scratch. On the other hand, if I go down the self publishing route, a quarter of a million people is music to my ears as well.

Shit, 200 people is more than I had on the list two months ago, but I'd still rather all of those people signed up to my RSS feed so I had some modicum of control over it. If twitter went bust (it happens), you basically lose one of your mailing lists.

Anyway... back to StrutterRadio...