Goings On
14 December 2010
I haven’t blogged in a long while so I thought I should post something. I’ve been writing a lot lately, working on my new novel (it’s about climate change). I have also come up with an idea that may possibly be a future novel (it’s a Christmas story).
I’ve had a pretty great few months. As well as working on the book I’ve moved in with my girlfriend so am now a resident of Cardiff . It’s good living in Cardiff ; it’s a great city with lots of things going on in it. You should visit. We live in a little close with the river on one side and a nature reserve on the other. There are several cats in the neighbourhood and we have befriended them. One of them, who we have named Henry VIII, is the strangest cat I have ever seen. I have posted a picture of him because it’s hard to explain just how odd he is.
One of the highlights of the last few months was attending the launch of Bright Young Things, a new collection of books written by upcoming young writers and published by Parthian. After the event I bought The Art of Contraception by Susie Wild, and Amy bought Hereditation by JP Smythe. We both enjoyed them thoroughly. Then I read House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski. It’s a haunted house story at heart, written in the style of a text book, kind of a literary Blair Witch Project (as many people have described it). It’s a really fun read; you have to tilt the book to read it at points, sometimes turn it upside down, sometimes get a notepad and pen to decode messages. Very po-mo. But past the stylistic trickery lies a real story with a fantastic conclusion. I’m now reading Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom and, on the bus, John Updike’s Tears of My Father, which includes Updike’s contribution to the 9/11 canon.
In September I attended Transworld’s 60th birthday party in Mayfair . The great and the good of publishing were in attendance and I got to meet several authors, including Lee Child, Ivo Stourton and Marius Brill. I have a ton of books on my shelf I need to read but I’m definitely going to get myself a copy of The Night Climbers by Ivo next year. I also met John Boyne and that was a real treat, not only because he said nice things about my book, but because I am a big admirer of his own novels (his latest, Noah Barleywater Runs Away is awesome). It was also great spending time with my publishers and agent, something I don’t get to do nearly enough.
I got my first writing commission this year and my piece (which is about the book I’m working on now) will appear in New Welsh Review next year. This Thursday I’m doing an interview at the BBC for the radio show, Phil The Shelf.
I think that’s about it for now. Christmas preparations beckon – I haven’t eaten advent calendar chocolates since the 7th. Have a merry Christmas everyone!
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