News

For Foxake! Stop talking and give us that deal.

I've done a few minor things - like very short stage plays - that we don't need to bother about here and been working on a couple of bigger projects, a biography and full-length stage job, that I can't discuss until they get full-blown deals. All of which means I'm busy, but the rest of this page doesn't represent where most of the hours are going.

The best season since the early eighties, in a book!

Blueseason 2007/2008 is out and doing business. I did some press and media work behind the book, including getting the Amazon page linked in a message to all the members of Carlisle United's most active Facebook page. All of which seems to have generated e-mails and site traffic. Thanks for the support, and thanks to those of you who've bought the book, especially those who wanted the signed copies in Waterstones, Carlisle.

There will probably be another Blueseason book next season although this might be a collaboration with someone else. We're at the early stages of negotiation on that project so I'll keep you posted on this page as things develop. You can buy the book online if you go to the books page on this site.

Some of us like football, some of us suffer from it.

The next football related project is a book on the Blue Army. It's likely that some of you checking out pages on this site have come here because of the Blue Army project so I'll keep the news write up very brief. Basically; I'm editing a book made up of accounts of Carlisle United supporters and the experiences they have had whilst following the club. Your input would be very welcome. The book will - eventually - raise money for United's Football in the Community scheme. All the other details you might need are at the top of the books page on this site.

Workington Dynamo front cover, cover picture taken in Maidstone.

There isn't that much new to report on the novel Workington Dynamo although it continues to sell and it seems to have shifted copies in the USA since I found a few internet sites where West Cumbrians meet and added details of the book. I've had mainly positive reactions, but I think the offer to buy the film rights for £250 was a wind up. Either way, I politely declined the money, not something you'll hear a West Cumbrian saying everyday.

If you're wondering what this is all about here's the cover blurb, in full: Full-on fist, football and - occasional - f***ing action in seventies West Cumbria. Young Dougie Grimton dreams of being in with the right crowd, inside his buxom cousin Kerry and proving himself where it really counts....in a fight! Greyhounds are kidnapped, tramps totalled in car accidents, cigarettes are smoked, a herd of pigs get used as an opposing team in football training and all the time, the nearby nuclear power station leaks a grim poison that grabs the local lads, by the balls.

Not for the easily offended. Available in Cumbrian bookstores or online from your favourite places, like Amazon.(Opens new window)

I must cut down on Little Chef meals when I'm doing gigs……

I decided this year to do more live gigs and workshops, mainly because they're fun and getting easier to do as I get more experienced in the writing business. For the most part these are dates I book with an organisation - which could be anyone from a university to the local Women's Institute - sometimes I chase the gigs, sometimes they chase me. I'm also doing the odd bookshop gig, the most recent before this news page went live being Waterstones, Carlisle in July. I may well be doing a date in Cumbria, this time in Penrith, before Christmas. It's also possible I'll try and get a few bookshop gigs in the South East around that time since my Creative Writing book is reprinting and that was the title that first started me on doing bookshop appearances dealing with how anyone, yourself included, can become a published writer.
 

Lennon, he's an accepted classic, not sure about my movie script.

This isn't exactly news, this is the copy I'll keep on this page until they make the movie, or the option agreement expires in July 2012. Other than the Carlisle United stuff Mr Lennon still generates more traffic through this site than anything else. Not that anything of significance has moved in the last three months. All of which means I could just be three months nearer the next payment for allowing them to hang onto the option, or maybe just a day away from the phone call saying; 'We've got the money, let's cast it.'

Such is the way in a strange business where - sometimes - you can earn more writing stuff nobody gets to see than you do putting books on shelves in bookshops. Keep sending the e-mails and I'll update this item once we have any real news.

Honest, I'm at work in these pictures.

The new Pennies web site - with scrolling news - should be live a few days after this news page. All of which means I'm retiring my work with the day nursery company from my news page in the interests of streamlining this page and avoiding any confusion on Pennies' news. But - as you'll see - I'm still enjoying myself whilst 'working' for Pennies.

Stunning insights into the development of the metonym around the time of Jesus, 607 pages, 3 indexes and not one picture!

By popular request I will endeavour to keep illustrating this ongoing item with book covers of titles so unspeakably obscure and/or dense that only the truly committed would venture into the pages beyond. So far progress on the proposed Ph.D has involved three applications, one rejection, one interview and one still in negotiation. Since the two projects mentioned at the top of the news page will take time to resolve themselves it is likely that any Ph.D studying Creative Nonfiction would start in early 2009. Having said that, I have had some useful negotiations with one university to the point of agreeing the boundaries of the subject so I know I could start with them. As and when the Ph.D gets going I'll add a specific page to the site, so the rest of you can give my studies, and the pictures of books you'd hate, a wide berth.