Tomorrow I Will Be in Congleton

It’s World Book Day tomorrow and I’ll be appearing, as part of a panel, at Congleton library at 7pm. Do pop along and say hello if you’re in the area.

This from their website:

‘On Thursday 1st March at 7.00-9.00pm, we will be holding a readers and writers forum. Local authors including Nik Perring, Elizabeth Lister, Daniel Wood and Rod Hughes will be discussing their experiences of reading and writing. Tickets cost £2.00 from the library.’

Hope to see you there. And if I don’t, have a happy World Book Day anyway.

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And if you have yourselves a little click here, you’ll see a sneak preview of some of the illustrations from Freaks!. Just saying…

Dust. And Sarah Salway

Sarah Salway, long time friend to the blog and top writer, has a new poetry collection out. It’s called YOU DO NOT NEED ANOTHER SELF-HELP BOOK and it’s out now.

Philip Gross says of it: ‘Subtly angled glimpses of love, sex, marriage, which reveal them as they really are: matters of life and death. There’s a quiet sizzling underneath the surface of these poems, which can make you smile and wince at the same time.’

And Will Hermes says ‘Sexy and tragic – my favourite combination.’ 

Which is good, isn’t it?

And to celebrate, I’m thrilled to host Sarah reading ‘Dust’ from the collection. Here it is. Enjoy!

Sarah’s next stop will be here tomorrow. Do have a look.

The Lazarus Curse, Released!

Today sees the release of Freaks’ illustrator, Darren Craske’s third novel in his Cornelius Quaint series. And I’m thrilled to have the man of many talents here, today, to talk a little about it, and to announce something a little exciting, AND to launch a competition. So, without further ado –  happy publication day, and enjoy!

 

 

To mark the release of The Lazarus Curse’, the 3rd book in the Cornelius Quaint Chronicles published exclusively on ebook today, I have organised something a little special, and Nik has kindly allowed me to hijack his blog for the day to explain…

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     For the initiated, the Cornelius Quaint series began way back in 2008 and follows the adventures of Victorian conjuror and his troupe of circus performers. Getting himself into trouble is a by-product of Quaint’s inability to leave matters alone, even when his clairvoyant confidante Madame Destine warns him against it. Thankfully, getting himself back out of trouble is a talent that Quaint excels at.

In the first book in the series, ‘The Equivoque Principle’, Cornelius Quaint faces deceit and discord at every turn as he attempts to clear the name of his circus strongman, wrongfully imprisoned for murder, and accidently stumbles into a plot by the villainous Hades Consortium. In the sequel, The Eleventh Plague’, Quaint heads to Egypt where he faces a vicious band of desert thieves, deceit and betrayal, and phantoms of the past rise from the grave. We barely pause for breath before ‘The Lazarus Curse’, the penultimate chapter in the first series arc, before the final part of the story ‘The Romulus Equation’ is released next year.

To celebrate the release of The Lazarus Curse, a new and exclusive Cornelius Quaint short story begins on February 20th on the conjuror’s brand new blog  – and to coincide with the release there will also be weekly competitions to win free ebooks by deciphering a simple code.

To learn more about how to join in and help spread the word, please visit Quaint’s Facebook page.

How Many Reasons Do You Need!

Utterly thrilled to be able to point you in the direction of THIS PIECE in The Independent today, on my good friend, co-author of Freaks!, and tremendous writer Caroline Smailes’ new book. It’s SUCH a cool idea. It’s been written for eReaders only and gives the reader the chance to pick what sort of ending they’d like (or not, if you’d rather be traditional).

It’s called ‘99 Reasons Why‘, but, really, you only need one!

And that’s not all. She’ll be on the telly tomorrow – BBC Breakfast, at 7:40, and then 8:40, AND BBC Radio Scotland tonight at 5:45, AND BBC 5Live today at 4:50.

Huzzah!

Kafka Never Had an iPhone

A little while ago I was asked if I’d contribute to the brilliant Thresholds International Short Story Forum (based at the University of Chichester), so I did.

I wrote a piece on how short stories and flash fiction and the like should not be easy to write. And they shouldn’t be. Short fiction isn’t some sort of game, it isn’t something that can be plonked onto the page in a matter of minutes. It isn’t something that should be played at. It’s something that demands time and care and craft. Like all forms of art.

So, if you’d like to see what I had to say about short fiction, about the writing of it, about my own process, and why Kafka didn’t have an iPhone, you should click here.

Belated

I wish I’d seen this video, on the ever brilliant, Sam Sattler’s blog, yesterday. Then I would have popped it on here to mark the celebration of a rather special man’s 200th birthday.

But I didn’t. So here it is now. Better late than never.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unKuZ2wlNdw]

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And, while I’m always a little reserved about linking to a paper like The Daily Mail, I’m going to have to today. Because reading this, about how Russel Brand is allegedly being lined up to play Worzel Gummidge, made me truly sad. Everything about it seems wrong. And that’s with no disrespect to Brand as an actor. I’m sure he’s very good. Just, well. Like I said. It just feels wrong.

So here’s a video of how I think Worzel should be remembered. Before anyone cocks it up, royally and forever.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOTNAe3j7Bs]

Couple Of Links

Had my internet not been dodgy this past few days, I would have posted another video of me reading a story from Not So Perfect. I actually recorded some of the stories last week (Shark Boy, In My Head I’m Venus, and The Mechanical Woman) with the intention of popping them here for National Storytelling Week, but alas it was not to be. Best laid plans and all that. Maybe they’ll feature in the future. If you’d like to see them, let me know.

 

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And a couple of links. I had a nice mention by the fab Carys Bray here, and my name’s on Vanessa Gebbie’s list of “great writers of flash, some well known, others not, or not yet…”  – I’m not sure quite which category I fit into, but then again, fitting in’s never been something I’ve particularly excelled at.

 

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In other news, last weekend the very lovely Caroline and I finished off what should be the final proofs of Freaks! – which means that our work (at this stage) on it is almost done and it’ll be ready, very soon, to go to the printers and become a proper grown-up book. Which is exciting. Exciting times ahead!