SIMPLY BECAUSE...

WHILE THE CITY SLEEPS

Decided that we needed a break from the grind for a little while, so we took off for Copenhagen for a few days. That's one fine city - the sort of place a man could live and write for days on end without feeling like there's something else he should be doing. We checked in to the Admiral which is a great place for anybody to hang out. Easy walking distance into the city that's for sure - but I will say one important thing for anybody thinking of drifting over there anytime before April: take a coat. A really thick coat, gloves, scarf and hat because it's damn freezing. Beautiful but freezing. I realised this when the taxi we took from the airport passed by the canal (pictured here) on which bricks of ice were showing no signs of going anywhere.

If there's ever a reason to wish you were totally self-sufficient and successful, it's this: to wander the world at your leisure whilst still being able to put in a days work and continue in this manner until your days are over. Having twisted myself past the 40 mark, I'm not so interested in raising hell in a rock n roll band anymore (if I say this to myself often enough, I may start to believe it one day), but to write while rolling from city to city, that sounds like a fine way to live your life.

Let the game begin.

CARNAGE

Sometime yesterday while I was trying to get some of my fiction finished up, I came to the realisation that I could do much better than I had been. This led to me making a 'sweeping statement' as my friend Rowan likes to put it and I collected all reference to them and filed them away in the trash. So if you're maybe wondering what happened to those items, they have gone to a much better place. The stories however remain, they're getting revamped that's all - better characters, better stories but all wrapped up in one single direction with a far superior premise. Does it take everybody a really long time to get their thoughts in order? I don't know when it will be ready to roll again but the same rules will apply - a complete novel delivered as a serial. Right now, that's about all I know but behind the scenes, the work continues - and you know what? I'm much happier with the whole affair like this. It kind of makes a lot more sense and has taken a ton of pressure off.

Meantime, my new vinyl habit has spiralled right out of control in a very short space of time. I haven't bought this much music in what must be twenty years. In the short few days since I've had this Amstrad deck (or Ugly Betty as she has come to be known), I've made good start on a decent collection (or at least what I would term a decent collection anyway). Right now, it looks like this:

The Waterboys first three albums: The Waterboys: A Pagan Place and This Is The Sea, Mick Ronson's Slaughter on 10th Avenue, and Ian Hunter's debut along with his Short Back And Sides, Overnight Angels and All The Good Ones Are Taken. Sometime in the mail today, a cool copy of the Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction e.p. High Priest of Love should arrive. I'm going to stop there and kick back for a few weeks and actually enjoy the spoils of war. I will say this though - listening to vinyl is a massively different experience to both CD and any digital format.

Mr Smith has been vaccinated with a phonograph needle for the second time in his life - and all this vinyl has had a massive impact on me.

I have come to realise that I don't much like digital books either. I don't hate them but I adore reading and I love books. The e-reading experience is not doing it for me. I have tried and it is - frankly - an empty experience. This isn't my last word on the subject because it's quite complex. I think there is much value in e-books. At the moment, my main thoughts are that e-books are great for trying out a new author at low to no cost (if that sort of thing bothers you), firing out samples, when you want to take a huge stack of books on holiday or even to load up on textbooks that would otherwise soak up ... the list is endless really.

But it's not a book is it. Statement not question.

It's a novelty and it wears off.

Over the last few days and notably before this decision hit me, I have bought at least half a dozen books. A copy of Stephen Davis' LZ-'75 (The Lost Chronicles of Led Zeppelin's 1975 American Tour), Denise Mina's The Dead Hour, The Book of English Magic and some others that I forget now and can't remember where I've put them either, but the point is these were all chance pick-ups, not from regular bookstores either. Of the three named, I've finished two and am about to start on The Dead Hour. These are not the reading habits of somebody with a kindle.

These are the reading habits of somebody that loves to read books. But like I said, it's complicated because comics are turning out to be tailor made for the ipad. Apart from work, I have also moved all of my magazine reading to the ipad as well.

Who knows how this will all pan out. Maybe it's all too hard-wired into my psyche. It's all pretty inconsequential really but on the record right here, right now. I love listening to great old vinyl albums and I love well put together books.

Recently reviewed at The Void: The Woman In Black and Van Halen's A Different Kind of Truth

ZIP GUN BOOGIE... AND TIME WASTING IN THE WINGS...

Now we're rolling! I now see what all the fuss is about when people buy an old car and strip it down and rebuild it again. This old Amstrad was in really good condition when it arrived, but I still felt the need to take it apart and give it an MOT. Door off, wheels off, lid off, turntable off, stylus in the trash. WD40 everywhere. Tape head's attacked with cotton buds - the list is probably longer but the rest isn't very interesting. So this morning, the new stylus arrived. Just the one for now, but it is the right one so I'll likely order more. If anybody else is in the stylus market, the guys at Get The Needle have just about everything you could want, and it came as fast as you like too.

All I'm missing now is some vinyl and hopefully the copy of The Waterboys' This Is The Sea will be here in the morning. (Not quite The Waterboys album I had in mind to kick start the show with, but a fantastic work of art all the same. The album got a little overshadowed by the success of Whole of the Moon, but there are far, far better songs than that on board. In fact, in the list of perfect albums, it probably sits just behind Sign of the Times).

All that remains then is to figure out if the deck needs any kind of turntable mat and we'll be spitting thunder.

A few have wondered why I didn't buy a decent/new record deck, but that would hardly recreate the experience of the first tentative steps into what it's like to fall in love again. It's not a midlife crisis... I've had that already. I just wanted to see if music and me could still get along like we used to. I have to say, it doesn't look as totally out of place as I thought it might in the corner either... kind of like it's always been there.

Which was the point.

It was nearly a great end to the day when one of Universal's outsourced PR companies sent out a press release offering review opportunities for the celebratory T.Rex vinyl box set that's coming in April. I jumped on them - only to find that I would have to review said special release vinyl box set by - get  this - downloading the tracks.

Sorry? I thought I had misheard, but apparently not. So er... you can have your review by imagining what it might look like if you wish guys. See how you like not finding the end product quite as you thought.

If on the other hand, you might see your way to shipping out the product to a (we can all agree on this) deserving reviewer who knows what he's talking about when it comes to Bolan, who has been in the T.Rex corner longer than the PR guy who tried to pimp it to me has been on the planet, I'll be only too pleased to run a review online and on paper to over 100,000 readers in my mag.

Marc would have punched you in the mouth.

Do you really wonder why the music industry is screwed and none of you will have any jobs in five years?

KEROUAC. ENOUGH SAID...

This is all I have to say today. This is perhaps all you need to know today.

TIME. WAITING IN THE WINGS (II)

I tracked down the exact same Amstrad TS-30 tower system that I used to have when I was a kid in school - though obviously not the exact same one. I guess it could have once been mine but that would go beyond freaking weird. I had to sell mine one day when I needed to make the rent. I worked my ass off for this washing cars and floors at my Dad's garage and then in an auto-spares store on a Saturday.

This one I picked up at a great price on ebay this morning, but the original, I bought from Boots back when they used to have kick-ass electrical departments. I think we're talking about 1982 here. Maybe 1983.

I went straight there after work (I think my boss Alan might have let me off a little bit early I was so excited), handed over my cash and because nobody was around to give me a lift back with it, I carried the beast home, which was maybe a mile or so...

I was so excited when I got it into my bedroom... only to find that they hadn't given me the speakers to go with it. I'm not sure I could really have carried anymore than the tower itself, but it was disappointing all the same as back in the eighties the only shops open on a Sunday were newsagents and garden centres. Thus, it was a long old wait until the Monday to hook it all up.

My record collection was pretty extensive by the time this made it into my life, so the little storage space (lovingly illustrated here by a copy of  ABBA: The Album I do believe) would have gotten full pretty quick, though it will probably suit my needs right now down to the ground. The rest of my discs were stored in big heavy album cases. I had dozens of them. I think you could get about 50 albums in each one - and a few years later, they were also a pretty handy place to hide 'magazines' and cigarettes.

Anyway, it was great fun and I'm hoping to recreate at least some of the experience - I've even found a guy that sells belts and styluses online (does 'stylus' have a plural?), of which I might buy a few. Then... we begin the collection...

Damn thing had better work.

BEWARE THE KRAKEN

Alongside of great books and music, the other thing I adore is great art. Particularly when it's used in the right fashion. This week, as part of the 'other job' (that's like the 'other mother' only you don't get your dinner at the end of the day), I got to working with the great guys at Kraken Rum. Not only is their bottle the nicest piece of branding I have ever seen in this department, their website is just brilliant. Not content with giving us a great drink, they have loaded the peripherals with real content. Not just stuff that the marketing department threw on there, but really well thought out material that just makes you want to be a part of it. Here's a pic of their awesome Kraken, which I simply love - and yes, loved it so much that I was inspired - for this month at least - to rebrand myself. February is indeed, cephalopod month. Bring it on.

No apologies at all for posting it here in its almost full size glory - but it's a Kraken. Not a squid - a Kraken. Sometimes you have to drive these messages home. Anyway - regardless of whether you drink or not, go check them out at the link above. For no other reason that they deserve to be known about. That and they're a nice bunch of people who work really hard at doing something properly.

I think posting about a Kraken releases me from having to write anything else today. Which is a good job because I have to make some edits to a script here just in case somebody comes knocking on the door for it.

TIME. WAITING IN THE WINGS?

The problem with great ideas is that they needed to be followed up, otherwise that's all they end up being. Yesterday, I had a great idea for a book that could be ready for the summer, only to make it happen I need to create time that I haven't got. In an attempt to get around this minor detail, I've decided to try and 'organise'. I believe this is a tool used by many the whole world over to get on in life, but it has never been for me. My lack of organisation is mostly based on the fact that all the things I ever thought were great, were all done on the spur of the moment and didn't take very long to get off the ground. I work with people who keep huge notebooks of phone calls and conversations, spreadsheets... my thinking has always been that if you can't hold the information in your head, it couldn't have been very interesting in the first place. While some may scoff, I would like to add that I've never missed a deadline yet. Watching people cocking about with cells, rows and columns and colouring things in seems like the biggest waste of time of all. Rather like all the apps on your iphone, you only click on them because they're there most of the time. I recently purged about twenty off my iphone and now can't even remember what any of them were. That's how valuable they must have been. In the time it takes to format your spreadsheet to a standard you like, you can easily write three pages of material for something.

So I guess, looking at this predicament logically, the secret of organisation lies not actually in being organised but more in not taking part in anything that isn't constructive to the job in hand. Yeah... I think that's what I'm trying to say...

I find myself making a lot of decisions lately. I'm seriously considering buying a record deck and putting some soul back into the music that I like. There's some decent systems around if you look hard enough and it would be pretty cool to buy all of the stuff I grew up on all over again. There must have been some reason I had hundreds upon hundreds ofback in 'the day'. There's an easy 'top ten' that could be rustled up when doing this - I'll nail it down here:

10. Lords of the New Church: Is Nothing Sacred?

9. Prince: Purple Rain

8. Kate Bush: Hounds of Love

7. Alice Cooper: Love It To Death

6. Journey: Frontiers

5. The Waterboys: A Pagan Place

4. Kiss: Alive!

3. Rick Springfield: Living in Oz

2. Prince: Sign of the Times

1. David Bowie: Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars

That's pretty much my entire adolescence summed up in ten lines. Not my all time top ten albums, but certainly all very memorable for different reasons. They had better all sound as good now as they did back then on an Amstrad tower system. Talking of which, a few days ago, I was writing some other stuff and found these two items regarding Stiv Bators (Lords of the New Church) that pretty much sum up the unpredictability of checking out bands at a club level in the 80s:

"The Lords became notorious for their live shows. A devotee of Iggy Pop, Bators had developed a fearless reputation in his Dead Boys days and continued such antics with The Lords, the most famous being the time he reportedly hanged himself during a show. Bator's stunt went awry and he was pronounced clinically dead for several minutes. Nonetheless, Bators survived and The Lords recorded two more successful albums."

and

"The Lords of the New Church broke up in 1989, when Bators injured his back and guitarist Brian James secretly began advertising for a replacement singer. When Bators found out he played the encore of the band's final show donning a T-shirt with James' newspaper ad printed across the front, he then proceeded to fire the remaining members on-stage."

This is why music was exciting. You never knew what was going to happen from one week to the next - it also took ages to find out about stuff. This meant you could dine out on an event like this if you were lucky enough to have been there without some dick reading it online and telling the world before you even got home.

Re: Yesterday's post about BlackBerry phone. After no small amount of research, I eventually opted to hitch my wagon to the Nokia C3-01. Wi-fi, email and just about everything else set up in less than twenty minutes. Nice phone with some very cool features. Does what a phone should. Within two years, the little BlackBerry will be an obsolete piece of kit unless they change their game plan. I won't dwell on it, but seriously, what a piece of dirt.

Stiv Bators would never own a BlackBerry either.

BLACKBERRY DELIGHT

I'm one of those people that has two phones. I don't like it but it's a bit of a necessity to keep me sane. Having an iphone is pretty neat, but it's saturated with day-job stuff and you simply can't escape doing more work every time you press the damn button. My other phone is (was) a Sony Ericsson Cyber-Shot. Great phone but the key for a space has died a death and it's pretty annoying. So yesterday, I went to find a new phone and at six o'clock came out of Tesco armed with a BlackBerry. There was good thinking behind it. I needed a decent phone, some messaging services and the ability to keep on top of my personal email. Picture my face. Three hours to try and hook it up to wi-fi (never successfully achieved despite it being as simple as entering a password), total complexity when it comes to setting up email accounts, a lousy app store with an even worse interface. The only thing the damn thing had going for it was that it was black. By midnight, it was back at the store and the money back in my account. Compared to how unbelievably easy the iPhone is when you want to do, well, anything at all, it's shockingly awful that they think they can get away with this shit and hold their heads high as a market leader. Honestly... a worse piece of tech I have never layed my hands on.

The search continues - annoyingly, a couple of years ago, there were some great looking phones on the market but now, they're like cars. They all look the same and they all do the same thing. Functionality over design is really fucking dull believe me and not all it's cracked up to be.

I finished a crackerjack of a book yesterday too. It took me well into the early hours of this morning but it was worth it. Nattily titled She's Never Coming Back, it's a real Harlan Coben affair but Swedish (by Hans Koppel - real name Karl Petter Lidbeck, hidden presumably because he normally writes for kids). If you can handle the darkness of a Swedish kidnapping in the most bizarre of circumstances and have got enough time to chew it up in a day, grab yourself a copy. That leaves me free to make a start on Clive Barker's Absolute Midnight this evening.

Which won't be finished in one sitting. Guaranteed.

I have also decided that I am going to start wearing a lot of suits (not all at the same time). This may be a passing phase, but seems to me if you can find the right suit, it can speak volumes about you. Especially when you've got a ton of hair to go with it. (Note to self: be careful! This road has potential potholes every ten feet.)

Anyway - back to work. Lots to do...

Currently listening to: a great Stevie Wonder mash-up.

Currently reading: see above.

Not currently: speaking much on the phone

Liking: how Alcatraz might shape up over the next few weeks and seeing the potential in Once Upon A Time

Not that impressed with: a really slow kick-in for the second half of the Supernatural season. Sloooow.

A MATTER OF TASTE

I watched Green Lantern this evening. It's probably the best DC movie ever attempted. I can hear you - 'that's not hard'. Much like Iron Man in the way that expectation was originally pretty low, I expected nothing from it and was rewarded with a couple of hours of decent story, sfx only when necessary and a great cast. Stupidly, I had a look at the reviews for it this afternoon to see what others made of it. Hmmm.

In an era where everybody thinks they can be a critic, being a critic has become null and void. For every positive/negative comment you make about anything at all, somebody will come along and pose the opposite. And if they can't do it at the place they read it originally, they will post it somewhere else and reference it. The end result: no escape.

Once upon a time - and not so long ago either - if you wanted to find out what an album, book or a movie was like, you'd reference somebody who had a similar taste to your own, or at least respected. As much as I dig YouTube et al, it's hardly helpful as a resource when positive comment 'A' is swiftly followed by such delights as 'you're a nazi worshipper, go to hell if you think Bruce Springsteen's new single sucks.' I did make that one up although if you look hard enough, there are worse on there. For the record, Springsteen's single is OK, but that's all. I wouldn't miss it if hadn't happened. I probably won't go out of my way to hunt it down either now, but it will be OK on the radio.

If anybody picks it up.

Fact of the matter is, get online and all manner of reviews are at your fingertips. A little while back as some of you may have noticed, I dropped August Moon: The Monster Magnet up on smashwords to get some feedback. Duly, it was left. It wasn't great but I can take that - I wouldn't be in the game if I couldn't, but when I checked who it was written by, it was from a lovely lady who wrote 'erotic' novels whose keywords involved some spurious delights that made even me cringe. When I read the extract of her book - and if there's one thing I know, it's a good story when I see it - it was the most up your own arse drivel I've ever seen. Which was when I realised that the whole site and its concept is nothing more than a fanzine jumble sale. Smashwords is not about good writing or even selling books, it's about calling yourself a writer and being read indiscriminately just because it's there. But it doesn't mean your good. Apologies to all the real workers on there who are great and got sucked in, but my advice to you is get your material off there and do whatever it is you're doing from your own site or blog. It's the writers equivalent of facebook - only not so slick.

That's not sour grapes. It's a fact. It's all nothing but an illusion that will keep you down in the pit.

Which prompted me to consider amazon and the kindle. I like amazon. I spend a lot of money there. I currently have a few products up too and the model is good, but I don't think it's what I want. It's not why I started out. Sure, I might tempt some chance purchasers out of it but will they become loyal readers who are actually listening to me? Probably not. This is not dissing the beast in any way, I just don't think I'm ready for it yet. Thus, over this coming weekend, I shall be withdrawing all the things I wanted to give away for free (because it won't let me do that) and will be replanting them here. At this tage of the game, I would rather fewer people came here because they wanted to than a million people walked past simply because they were there. Isn't that the point of the web? To empower what it is you're doing in any way you see fit, but with thoughtful control?

Life on the internet gets more interesting everyday. Making it work how you want it to can be hard, but it is worth it. Take some chances, try some things out. If you don't like it, you can change your mind and move on the very next day if you so wish. Whatever get's you through the night and all that but don't be attracted by shiny things simply because they're shiny.

Generally speaking, all people want online is either your attention or your money. Make sure you devote both to the right kinds of places.

FOXY, FOXY.

Busy day. Wrapped up what I needed to of Fox On The Run for its deadline and feeling pretty damn pleased with myself over it. But now I need to pack my stuff together for tomorrow. No big deal but if I don't do it now, I know I won't get up in time and then it will be a big deal. Should be a good weekend - looking forward to getting some ink in the skin and hanging out for a while. With a bit of luck, I'll find some downtime to wrap up the rest of Fox, and - as chance would have it - I had what appears to be a killer idea for a new TV show. It needs some fleshing out, but I think it has long enough legs to make it all the way. Should be able to create some downtime next week to get my head around it and maybe thrash out a pilot and the skeleton of a series.

Meantime, I saw this poster for the first time today. "They" are certainly pumping out some great movie posters at the moment (whoever they are). It's just a shame that most of the movies attached to them don't have quite the same values. Still, I'm holding a candle for this one...

THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE

So there I am looking at an absolute ton of files uploading for next month's magazine and I think to myself, while that's busy choking up all my bandwidth, I'll type up the last few handwritten pages of my script, Fox On The Run, for (secret project with a deadline so close that I can smell it). Knock on the door. Postman with package from amazon. Waking the Dead season three. That's fair.

Back to the script.

Phone rings.

Ellie. She has had her phone confiscated at school and can I go and pick it up at the end of the day because those are the rules.

Call school. See what the score is. Yes - I have to sign for it. Crap. That drives a stake in the afternoon. Organise to do it at the end of the school day.

Back to the script.

Clattering in garden. Rabbit escape! Mexican stand-off between rabbit A and rabbit B. That could have been nasty. Note to self: put a couple of nails in the panel in the gate that came loose in the storm last week.

Back to the script.

Lost the thread of it now. Maybe I'll come back to it later today...

Sigh.

And yeah, the Rocky poster is slightly relevant - but you'd have to see the script first I guess. Good film though - not seen it for years. Maybe I'll dig it out.

UNPLUGGED

Before I begin I guess I had better own up that the Evil Dead poster I've used here, has nothing to do with the content of the post - but, I'm sure we can all agree, it's a great poster and therefore, valid on all fronts. I must admit, I'm totally enjoying romping through the complete series of The Invaders - there's tons of it and even though the kids thought it looked "old fashioned" and therefore presumably dull, it's brilliant.

I've fallen behind with my self imposed deadlines this week. I am due to publish past two of August Moon on the 14th - Saturday if memory serves - but I'm slap in the middle of a proper book deadline and have a show to host at the weekend. I was thinking that maybe it wasn't such a good idea to have these self imposed deadlines, but they are good for me. Maybe a better approach would be not to crucify myself when I miss them but instead, gently move them to a more convenient place - otherwise there's no point in trying to do something for yourself on the grounds of 'enjoyment'.

As the more observant will have noticed, I'm still playing around with the site on a 'live' basis. Not always the best of ideas but it works for me. This week, I have retracted all of my material from smashwords (based solely on the fact that it looked like trying to sell your brand new stuff at a freaking online jumble sale) and shall never return. Instead, I have done what I planned to do from the start - it just took me a bit longer to figure it out - and that was to drop everything on the kindle store at amazon. I can't give it away as I would like, but I have made it as cheap as possible and they have given me five days in the next three months during which I can give it away. I've not decided when those days will be yet and I should probably figure it out so that it works properly for people. File under pending until after the weekend...

Anyway, after the weekend, it will be time to start the PR for Black Dye, White Noise. I've kind of just let it sit there at the moment, which is fine by me, but with a week or so clear ahead of me, it will be time to get off my ass and into some friendly radio stations to maybe talk about it.

FINISHED READING: THE END OF THE WASP SEASON - DENISE MINA

NOW READING: THE TINY WIFE - ANDREW KAUFMAN and Denise Mina's HELLBLAZER graphic novel THE RED RIGHT HAND

CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: THE PIERCES and ADDICTED TO RADIO/CLUB FM HAIR via this very sexy ROBERTS RADIO

LATER, I MIGHT: Go fencing. Not sure. My knees are more knackered than I thought. Also thinking I might proffer some thoughts on the new ETERNAL LAW show over at The Void.

THE WICKER TREE

I'm not sure what I think of this. I'm reasonably excited by its arrival but you know how these things go. Those are incredibly big shoes to fill. The Wicker Man is my favourite ever movie - it hit me quite hard as a kid (when I don't think I was supposed to be watching it) and it only got better with time as I began to really understand it and had the time to truly appreciate how original it was.

The Wicker Tree however could go either way. I'll research the background on it later but if it's a movie constructed from Robin Hardy's Cowboys For Christ novel (which I suspect it is), I shall reserve as much judgement as I am able because quite honestly, it wasn't the greatest thing I have ever read. Not by a long shot - and I really did want to love it simply because of its heritage.

That was a few years back though and British Lion aren't ones to squander their cash on any old junk. See what you think. You can check out everything you need to here. There appear to be some similar set pieces lurking in there and surely everybody is smart enough to know that you can't hit us twice with the same type of ending as the original.

Aren't they?

One of the things that set The Wicker Man apart was its lack of anything substantial to play with. All the props used were quite authentically of the time - and even though these may be of this time, it might not work quite so well. I realise it's only a clip but that fluffy donkey head in the trailer is no substitute for a home-made bit of wooden calamity. The true joy of The Wicker Man is in just how beautifully weird and home-made it is, but like I said, let the dog see the rabbit first.

If anybody is reading and is holding some tickets for a press screening, hit me up... I'd love to be involved from the ground up - one way or another. On the plus side, that's a fucking great movie poster.

BOOKS UNLEASHED...

Don't you just love the holiday period? All festive items aside, over the last few days I've had the extremely large post-it notes out in an attempt to make the site slicker and by the time you read this, I hope I'll have ironed out all the things that were bugging me. Somewhere along the line, I had bagged up a set of images for the August Moon series on shutterstock only to find that the guy I was working with has removed all his images from the site. So that will teach me not to download the whole series that I needed. Thus, I spent Saturday morning redesigning the whole package. Apologies to those who were liking the originals - I liked them too but I hope these new ones will hit the mark just the same. They're certainly a world apart and possibly give the reader a bit more of an idea as to where the series is headed.

And on that same subject, while I was knee deep in Photoshop layers, I totally destroyed the cover for Black Dye, White Noise and revamped it for the much sexier one you see here and then also made the final changes to the Inspector Kang covers bringing them all into line as a series. Much happier with these too. Now that the majority of the core designs are done for the final time, I'll leave it at that and can finally get on with some more writing.

If you want to grab yourself a copy of Black Dye, White Noise, you can find the links here. Today also saw part two of the Inspector Kang series go out to the world. You can download Roll Away The Stone for whatever e-reader device you have right here. I'm going to continue to use smashwords for the time being simply because they make it so damn easy, but there's soem interesting things going on at amazon at the moment that I need to check out.

ME AGAINST THE WORLD

It's always nice to get a namecheck outside of your circle of regular influence. Over at The Mark - the gargantuan Canadian online news site - Victor Barac took note of my somewhat heartfelt Nickelback album review at The Void. It would have passed me by if half a dozen people hadn't sent me the link, so thanks everybody - that got the day off to a good start. More than it simply being cool, the article itself says an awful lot about the state of music these days - and that is that there are too many people working in influential places that haven't a clue what music really means to people. I haven't looked but I'm guessing that most of the reviews haven't been favourable but that's OK. Music fans are not dumb beasts and - as one myself - you can usually tell within the first few words when a piece is little less than a hatchet job because the writer doesn't like a band. I think I shall scrabble around in the grey matter further and build an article around it in the next few days. Yeah... why not. Work continues on Roll Away The Stone and Monster Magnet 2 for a post-Christmas release. Both are going well and I'm getting a much better handle on where the stories are going. I even had half an idea that the characters could maybe randomly appear in each others books, but right now that's a little complex for me with a head full of creatures and odd plot lines. Right now though, I am going to put the finishing touches to Black Dye, White Noise (the audio promo material should be back soon) and write something for Almost Human that was in my head when I woke up.

THEY'RE HERE...

Wow, how fast did 2011 go? Over the next couple of weeks, I'll probably be a little premature with my 'end of the year' comments but I've finished up with the day-job for the year (and I should think so too after a year of working non-stop with only five days off this year) which leaves me the time and head-space to attend to the ever growing stack of junk inside my head.

The kids had no idea what to get me for my birthday this year (which was last week) so I directed them to the first season box set of The Invaders. I always liked this show when I was a kid but when my Ma told me this is what she watching when she went into labour with me, that kind of sealed its fate in my heart. I've gotten through the first four episodes so far and it's fantastic throwaway TV. If you ever needed some tips on how to spot an alien in your own backyard, this is all the info you'll ever need...

Also worthy of noting here is the book Rivers of London. I bought it as an audio book months ago but never got around to listening to it. I don't know why I waited so long to get it on - it's really good. Like really good. A proper book and kind of like something I wish I had written. Nice work Sir. As luck would have it, lame as I have been, there are a few more already available in the series. That will give me something to do over the hols... Ben Aaronovitch is the word on the street.

Right - I still have last minutes scraps to buy for the monkeys and some other special things. Watch out for those body snatchers...

TOP 10 ALBUMS OF 2011

As is traditional at this time of the year - here's my pick of the music released in 2011. A couple of them even surprised me... 1. SIXX AM - THIS IS GONNA HURT   

Even though this came out in the summer, it's been a solid part of the year, getting multiple plays a week in the car. A fine, fine example of how to make a rock album that means something to people. Genius.

2. NICKELBACK - HERE & NOW

I don't need to say anything. Stick it in the slot, rock out with your fist in the air, smile… you know the drill by now.

3. CHRIS CORNELL - SONGBOOK

As I have said elsewhere, I knew this was going to be pretty special. In fact, the only reason it's not occupying the top slot is that it's not so great for driving to. In reality, probably the best album of the year… just not the favourite.

4, KELLY CLARKSON - STRONGER

I expected great things and got them. Knock her if you wish, but this is one solid slab of great songs from beginning to end.

5. BEGGARS & THIEVES - WE ARE THE BROKENHEARTED

A surprise, totally under the radar entry. This is one that you'll have to hunt for and if you didn't know it was coming, you stood little chance of ever hearing it. That said, if you remember the glory days or are in the mood for some intelligent rock that doesn't suck, hunt it down.

6. BLACKSTONE CHERRY - BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA

Blackstone Cherry just get better and better with each release - to the point that if they continue with this pattern of bettering their previous album, the songwriting coming out of this camp over the next few years will be looked back on with quite some reverence.

7. JANE'S ADDICTION - THE GREAT ESCAPE ARTIST

The chickens come home to roost in an album that would be just at home and relevant in their early days. Nice to see the old dogs can cut it. Even better to see that Jane's Addiction still have the ability to hold it together when it really counts and in this climate, that means right about now.

8. ELECTRIC BOYS - AND THEM BOYS DONE SWANG

Sure. I'm more than a little pleased to see Conny Bloom back in the saddle with this. He could have kicked back and released some junk, but regardless of the year, this is a full-on authentic Electric Boys album that can hold its own in today's market… if it only had half a chance.

9. TOMMY STINSON - ONE MAN MUTINY

Authentic, one man army, close to the bone rock n roll. The only real rock n roll album to be released this year. Write some songs, record them quickly and get back out on the road. Brilliant.

10. LENNY KRAVITZ - BLACK AND WHITE AMERICA

Lenny does his thing a little more comprehensively than usual here - the last couple of albums have faded out a little around the halfway mark but Black & White America has got a great set of legs on it.

AN AMERICAN HORROR STORY - SHEER UNADULTERATED GENIUS

 I thought for a moment that with the wrapping up of so many TV shows over the last few weeks, we were in for a long, cold and lonely winter. Not so apparently.

Today, I watched the first five episodes of An American Horror Story back to back (it's who you know, not what...) and I'm sitting on the next five, so I figure it's going to be a pretty long night. Thus far, it's proved itself to be the most original, ingenious piece of TV writing craft and the best cast serial that I've watched in years - certainly since LOST crashed into our lives - and only goes to hammer the final nail in the coffin of what I've been saying for years. The movie industry is losing out to TV every single week. Maybe not financially but certainly when it comes to the craft.

Anyway, what the hell is An American Horror Story all about? That would be a very good question my friends. What this very smart writing crew have done is thrown everything in the freaking book at this show - everything that is except the 'everything' you would expect an American horror show. There's no blood to speak of, no big sweeping gestures of cliche and is potentially just as full of no answers as LOST.

We've got a damaged neighbour with Down's Syndrome, Jessica Lange being fabulous and a guy with half a face who won't go away. We've got a whole bunch of people that won't stay dead, some clueless coppers, a housemaid who might be old but half of the time isn't and best of all, a mysterious S&M latex bound figure lurking in the background.

It's not a show that could ever come out of the UK - it's very, very American and all the better for it. It just wouldn't work coming from here. To be honest, I'm hooked, intrigued and extremely jealous. An American Horror Story - if I may be so bold - is sheer fucking unadulterated genius.

And to cap it all off, they even have knockout posters to go with it.

FINAL DESTINATION POSTER BANNED?

Apparently, this poster got banned today - for scaring children. I've seen much worse over the years. Go into any HMV/Blockbuster/WHSmiths and you'll find a ton of nasty covers easily within reach of little ones. Or is it more a case of a particular child that it scared? I'd love to get a heads up on the circumstances behind this - besides which, hasn't it been out for months and months already? More later if I can find out...