10/ 04/11
Sadly I was struck down with labyrithitis for most of last month, so many gigs I was looking forward to were cancelled and not much fun was had - unless feeling wasted, nauseous and being unable to walk, talk or think. (And I know that is some peoples' idea of fun...)
"The Blue Book" will be out on August 4th and meanwhile, I am tinkering with a couple of radio plays. And I entirely missed talking to you about the little sitcom we did with Radio Scotland called "Laverloch Findo Speaks" - it seemed to go well and we hope for a repeat somewhere, while I try to think of more in the same general area.
But beyond having spent a good deal of time under blankets, propped out in my mother's garden in heat which seemed not to be warming me at all I have nothing major to report - other than having very brown hands.
The only news that may be of interest to any German readers, or indeed German readers would invole a change of publisher. After being Wagenbach Verlag for a long while, the new books will now be coming out with Hanser Verlag, which I feel is good news.
All the best and on we go.
22/02/11
This year has been a bit of a blur already: a trip to Berlin, writing and recording "Laverloch Findo Speaks" - a Radio Scotland sitcom - building an essay for Granta, copy editing the new novel, tinkering with a radio play the usual blogging and whatnots, some redecorating and falling asleep involuntarily on public transport taking up most of my time. And then there was the fun of taking part in the Rectorial race for Glasgow University. I don't, at the time of writing, know if your campaign was successful - the aim of the students who nominated me - the very fine Tom Coles among them - was to have a chance to raise the issues around the future of education in Scotland and get a bit more debate about the place on some terrible (in my opinion) changes being pushed through - not only in Glasgow. Debating - or largely agreeing with - Charles Kennedy - was a pleasure and he's a fine man. Shame about the Lib Dems... Which was something of the point, too, sadly...
Now it's on with the run-up to the novel release, some more travel, various types of tinkering, some short stories and generally more work than a team should be able to handle. I'll be needing my sleep. But better to be working than not. Always that.
15/01/11
Happy New Year, folks. Hope you all had a pleasant festive season - I was mainly in my mother's village, trying to avoid various manifestations of 'flu. And, for the first time in five years, I actually managed to stay as healthy as I get. You can imagine my surprise.
This meant I had plenty of time to hammer out the first draft of a sitcom for Radio Scotland - of which you will hear more later - and to go for nourishing strolls across the Warwickshire countryside. You'll notice the front page now has the forst information about The Blue Book and there will be more on that later, too. There's quite a bit of radio work coming up in 2011, quite possibly less travel - but still some travel - and some short fiction. It'll be pleasant to get back to that.
All the best to all of you and on we all go...
1/12/10
Finally into the last month of a very poorly-blogged year. Sorry for the lack of filing - again. I have been strapped to the novel and the multiple rewrites thereof and I promise that next year I will be better at all this, but 2010 has been a blur and there we go - no more to be done about it - head down and get typing.
Before I forget, there's an audio link here http://www.lannan.org/lf/rc/event/a-l-kennedy/ to the recent Santa Fe gig for the Lannan Foundation. A very pleasant night courtesy of some lovely people.
I am currently (perhaps) trapped in snowy Warwickshire - I will be trying to get home quite soon and crossing my fingers for functional trains when I go. And packing snadwiches for the week.
Things to look out for - I'll be in London on 16th December doing WORDS - paerhaps for the last time - at the Amnesty International headquarters 17-25 New Inn Yard. 7pm kick off and all proceeds to Amnesty. Tickets £7.
Other than that, the novel is nearly shipshape and meanwhile you may find I am appearing on your wireless sets as the year closes, here and there. Next year will involve a good deal of radio work - either writing for other people or having to make do with the disappointing casting which is myself. There should be a nother radio play on Radio Four and I'll be battering at som eother kinds of drama which may or may not amount to anything. And there'll be a radio documentary... and some other things.
Plus - 2010 should see the publication of the new book "The Blue Book" - so look out for that. If all goes well.
And all the best for Christmas and if you're or around London, it would be good to see you at WORDS.
ALK
29/09/10
Once again, a shamefully late posting here... I've been a bit busy.
Over to the US by boat to avoid my hideous plane fear and spent a good deal of time asleep in the cabin, or elsewhere, pottering, or hammering at pages. I may have seen a porpoise, but if you stare at the sea for long enough you may think almost anything, I find. I would have filed something for you from there, but internet access is limited from mid-Atlantic. I think that sentence should read - is non-existent, but no - you can get access. It's appalling. People can email you from anywhere, to anywhere.
Arrived much more human-shaped and then spent three weeks in the woods, basically - hammering even more at the pages, talking to animals, shouting at woodpeckers and playing the stereo too loud from time to time. This means that my impossible novel deadline may actually be slightly possible... The pages may not be good, but they are there and thanks very much to Shelby White for letting me borrow her summer house again - it's always a boon and was practically a life saver this time. Plus, it gave me a while to acclimatise to glasses-wearing. Few things nicer than staring at forests and woodland creatures when they're in focus.
Pleasant reading at MacNally Jackson in NY and then a very pleasant performance of WORDS up in Montreal - gosh, the Canadians are warm. And I immensely enjoyed the rail trip there and back. There is no earthly reason why it should take 11 hours - it's not that far, but US passenger trains give way to freight and cars and pedestrians and medium-sized birds.. Great route, though - wetlands and autumnal forests - great blue herons, egrets, red tailed hawks and I think a broad winged hawk... Great stuff, anyway. And all smooth until re-entry into the US when the Border Control people decide the train car smells funny and then take it apart with screwdrivers over the course of two hours... Which gave them time to realise that my passport entry stamp was weird becauae I arrived by boat - so then I was summoned to be inspected properly - always fun to have a man with a gun walk down the passageway yelling , "Scottish novelist ?" All was well, but by the end of it the train was immensely late the suspect car was covered in tiny bits of dog-chewed stuff and smelled strongly of hot alsation. True, an improvement on whatever the odd smell had been in the first place, but even so...
Off to Philadelphia tomorrow for a reading, then WORDS in Richmond the day after and then back to the woods for a little detox before I head over to Portland Oregon, Santa Fe and then back here and another boat... By which time I hope to have finished the novel. If you have fingers, please feel free to cross them...
16/08/10
And as the Festival begins to wind down, I find that I've done almsot nothing in it so far, beyond running about for The Review Show - which was slightly frazzling: much staring at stuff and getting rained on and running about. Very good to see Josie Long doing so well and to run into other folks who are gigging. And Barry and Stuart have a fine show - as do Beltup with "Metamorphosis" - and "Beautiful Burnout" is worth a look. And no doubt many other things I haven't seen are also splendid...
Meanwhile, I am trying to dive into the novel, while slowly saying goodbye to people as I inch towards the boat and being in the US and Canada for ten weeks, which will be great and fun and inconvenient and tiring and good for the novel and bad for the novel and here we go, doing it anyway... If you're Over There, I look forward to seeing you.
Radio bits and bobs are either being thought of, or treatmented or broadcast and you'll see me on "British Novelists: in their own words" on BBC 4 for a few Sundays now, I am told. And another Radio 4 play has been commissioned, so that's good news for next year. I hope.
Probably I won't have time to write before I embark so all the best to all of you and I hope that when I am back on these shores I'll be much nearer the end of the novel. Meanwhile, I shall be tweeting and blogging a bit as I go. Cheers for now.
26/07/10
And I'm not even going to try to apologise any more... I am just busy and everything is falling through the cracks, including this blog, and on we go, really... as best we can...
You may have noticed my couple of outings on "Quote Unquote" - which were fun and the essay about my grandmother for Radio Three has duly been recorded and we'll put up a link to it as soon as we have one. There are plans afoot to try and do a few more monologue/essay type things, but perhaps with someone performing who's actually a proper performer - always disappointing when you have a dodgy cast - especially when it's yourself... And there are now two different drama pitches rattling sadly around somewhere in the interior workings of Radio 3 and Radio 4 and please cross your fingers for them, should you have the time and the fingers available... before they boil the whole corporation down for glue and cat's meat.
I won't trouble you to cross anything for the more filmy and televisual projects... they'll be exactly as unsuccessful as all the others. But we do keep coming out swining and that must count for something. Or be off-putting for onlookers...
I now have three things to do in August - apart from bits of performing in Edinburgh and some reviewing - one treatment, one essay about creative writing workshops (which are often a very bad thing indeed) and a description of the novel which I haven't finished yet. My publisher needs to slap some kind of summary into the catalogue as if we were all very confident I'll be finished by Christmas... Beyond that I'll be in the US and Canada for a long while and almost entirely writing the novel and travelling from place to place as slowly as possible, without the aid of planes. Trying to be plane-free. Every journey takes forever, but not being overwhelmed by the fear of death at all times for the duration is a great relief, so I'm focussing on that as a positive.
Hello to all the Twitter Followers - where do you all come from ? And perhaps I shall be looking out of your telly for the Review Show on 13th August - apologies in advance. Or dribbling out of your radio at some point also - more apologies. But mainly I will be trying to put one word after another for the novel... if it kills me.
All the best to you all for what's left of the summer.
2/06/10
Many more apologies that usual for the lateness of the blog - although I have to say that technical difficulties meant that I couldn't access my site for a bit... but mainly I have been on trains and on more trains in radio recording studios and doing STUFF - and the novel - which has meant I haven't had a minute to sit down and commune with you.
Many thanks firstly for the kind comments about the From Fact into Fiction piece that went out a few weeks ago on Radio Four - and the episode of "Quote Unquote". There's another "Quote Unquote" coming along soon. Both things very pleasant to do - all of the good side of the BBC - politeness, care about language, courtesy, a bit of thinking - sometimes a lot of thinking - and excellent, professional staff and presenters.
An epsiode of the World Service's show "Forum" should be airing soon and will be available here from Sunday http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p008brsy and then in the Forum archive here http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p004kln9/episodes/player
And I am about to record a 20 minute essay about my grandmother... I'll let you know when that airs and then I record something for The Verb - they're both for Radio Three.
So much busyness and the odd WORDS show and as much battering at the novel as possible in all of the spaces in between. And sorry that I've had to cut some of the Wicked Wenches gigs - when the BBC summons, I kind of have to come running... but I do miss The Stand and the folks there - and very sorry to here about the sad news from One4Review - they lost half their double act and that's a real shame.
Soon things will calm down - not doing the Edinburgh Festival this year - apart from a few one-off gigs - and that'll be a relief and will let the novel get some air about its features.
Otherwise, hope you're all enjoying the summer. Especially now that the footy has almost gone away.
15/05/10
Once again slightly busier than I would like, folks, but at least I managed to get through the election without running up and down screaming in too obvious a manner and didn't have to do too much scribbling in response to it all - not that I don't wish to respond, it's just that it's all a bit too depressing to contemplate. But I did have to spend the night of the count (that's not a typo) in a hotel in Guernsey, having to pay attention and write a column for The Observer. This, when I was actually intending to prod the novel a bit, watch a DVD and then have an early snooze. Such is life. Always good to be working, of course.
Currently on lovely Sark - enjoying the spring flowers (of which there are drifts all over the place) and the nesting birds - also drifting all over the place. Haven't come across the peregrins this time, but I have been able to hang out with the ravens and, in a way, I am slightly more fond of them - if nothing else because of the ridiculous range of noises they make. As usual, I have exhausted myself scrabbling up and down cliff paths, dropping into The Pot bay and generally getting some air - and a red nose - and covered in dust. Not as usual, I have hammered away at the novel every night and managed to rough out a whole new section. This means I am now exhausted inside and out, but much less tense. And thanks to Mary Teer at L'Ecluse for the lovely stay - would recommend it to anyone. I am now lurking in a corner of A.J.'s cafe in slightly better array because I have to catch the ferry back to Guernsey, then stay in Weymouth - yes, well.. and then on to London and some work thereafter.
Next week, I'll swotting up on things for the Review Show on Friday, bouncing up and down the country and still trying to keep up momentum on the novel. There will also, no doubt, be a number of thinsg that I have to scribble additionally which I have forgotten about - so my temporarily unstressed condition will last until around Monday, I'd imagine.
Meanwhile, hope all of you are doing as well as possible and getting by, no matter what our politicians get up to. It's all we can do...
30/ 04/10
And a very late entry here again - too much busyness going on. Very good time had at the Cuirt Festival in Galway and at the Hexham Book Festival - but a lot of travel in between times, while I attempt to keep the novel up to date as I go. Not much fun, sitting in my hotel room while Galway comes to life, battling to crank out enough pages to not feel bad about myself. Then again, I never was a big fan of fun - so it all works out... And it does always make a huge difference when people are welcoming and friendly and audiences are warm and we can have a chat about words and books in a sane and far away from the media manner. I will just mention that my room in Glaway had a jacuzzi and a chandelier and I feel that I should have a rider requesting this as standard. Sadly, I don't even have a rider, never mind any chance of getting a jacuzzi again - I'm sure it was mistake in the first place.
A few bits and bobs of radio stuff lately and hoepfully more to come - I am still waiting, and will continue to wait, to hear about some larger projects which might be nice if they come off - something in the documentary line and something in the drama direction. Should I hear anything you will be among the first to know. If the news is positive, then anyone in Central Scotland will hear my cries of joy and be alarmed.
Otherwise, please feel free to wish me luck as I hammer on at the novel. I am enjoying it, but it is - as always - the most tiring type of writing I do, when I am already not without personal tiredness. Soon, I'll be off to Sark again for something approaching a holiday. If scrambling up and down cliffs all day and researching as I go could be described as a holiday. In my world, it is...
29/03/10
Slightly more timely entry as the weeks blur by and I end up in Preston far more often than is good for me - so difficult to get out of Preston once you're in...
A private performance of WORDS in Warwick University and a bit of chat for Oxfordshire MIND since I last wrote - both of those were fun. Thaks if you came along for being entirely pleasant. And the art documentary on the Glasgow Boys went out on Radio Three and was apparently well-received. I do like a bit of radio. And hopefully plans for more radio will come to something...
Meanwhile I am hammering away at the novel as best I can on and off trains and then it'll be Wicked Wenches next week in Glasgow and Edinburgh and the Cambridge Festival after that - which involves taking part in a quiz, I believe. I am truly not good at quizzes and am preparing myself for the usual humiliations.
But mainly I'm keeping the head down and novelling whenever possible - these things do demand attention, so off I go back to it now. All the best.
12/03/10
Even longer delay in blogging. It's been a very busy month. I would have thought two weeks, but obviously a month...
Hello to the folks who turned up for the Wicked Wenches show and the WORDS perfromance in Bath - you all seemed very lovely and that was all fun - in the midst of much training and running about and much writing and rewriting and seeing the students at Warwick. All of whom are doing well, you will be glad to know.
Very excited that "Confessions of a Medium" is finally being broadcast on Saturday 13 - tomorrow, in fact - and has been picked up by Pick of the Week and has a nice little write-up in the the Radio Times. All of which makes me pleased for all concerned. And part of my mangled weeks and tight schedule has been to do with producing another play and we now have to see if that can be steered through the radio processes. I do hope so.
More travel coming up - a trip to Oxford for MIND and a gig for the Cambridge Festival and a small private showing of WORDS - but mainly trying to get back to battering at the novel which has been shouting at me to get a grip for a while now. We seem to be settling in with each other not badly.
And the latest Guardian blog is up and running - so have a gander if you want. I particularly like the amazingly insane comments this time. Just splendid how completely people can not get things... Not people like you, obviously.
And off I go to the STV Hour show where I will sit on a sofa and say things, I would imagine - that's what they have summoned me for. All the best for now.
17/02/10
Sorry for the long delay in blogging - the flu was lingering. To be honest, it may still be lingering... I do seem to be dropping things, losing things and missing trains more than I would usually hope to. But slightly more back on track than I have been. First little section of the novel is sitting there, half a radio play is lurking - even though I shouldn't be doing it because I don't have time - and we had fun with a reading in Trinity College Cambridge and with a talk to the Bidford-On-Avon Women's Institute - more trifle there than I've ever seen in one place.
I also spent a while recording bits and pieces for a documentary on The Glasgow Boys which will go out on Radio Three at the end of next month and looking at a whole bunch of stuff in order to go on The Review Show and talk about it. Thanks for watching if you did. And it was as stress-free as live telly can be and we have to be as loving as we can to any kind of arts coverage, given how little there is about the place any more.
You can listen to a German radio play I wrote using this link - should you be up to speed on your German. And there's an Australian piece about my study - I know, I know, but people always want to know about writer's studies - which you can listen to using this link. And my radio essays are going out this week - 3.30, Radio Four.
I'm now in the run up to Wicked Wenches and an outing for WORDS at the Bath Literature Festival. And the novel goes on and radio plays don't write themselves... and good lord I am behind. So off I go. And hello to all of you who are also Tweeters.
25/01/10
Dear God, will this flu never end ? And why do all my pals have it so that I can get no sympathy ? But, actually, I do feel as if I'm getting better - although I'm not saying that out loud, in case the flu hears and creeps back...
Very odd few days since I last wrote, although pleasant. Perfectly reasonable go on "Start The Week" - which takes place for earlier than I wish it would, but treats the arts sensibly and kindly. Then helping to launch the Cheltenham Festivals in London - I was representing Team Literature, which was quite scary. Then a day-long conference at Windsor Castle about the arts and if they have purpose, which sounds dire, but was frankly very pleasant - Karen Armstrong is as wise and sorted as you'd think and Susie Orbach likewise and Siobhan Davies likewise and Henry Marsh is fascinating (and prevents you from ever accidentally saying "It's not brain surgery."... because he's a brain surgeon - even does it on his holidays, apparently...) and Armando Ianucci is self-effacing and sensible and so forth. did we acheiev anything ? Nor sure, but dealing with art as something not to be ashamed of and as something we love and are sustained by and getting a bit of media tolerance is all to the good, I'd say. And not bad to sit all day in the place where "The Merry Wives of Windsor" was probably first performed. Not my favourite play - but a bit of Shakespeare is better than none. And evensong in St Georges Chapel is a melodius, if vaguely absurd, thing. "God bless the Queen, God bless all posh people - and the ordinary people - mainly the ones who are soldiers - we like them - but basically posh people, for we know that thou art most interested in the classier type of lady and gentleman... but especially the Queen. Ahhhh- men."
I now have to do my homework for Newsnight Review, or whatever they're calling it now - that's on Friday. And swatting up on The Glasgow Boys for a radio thing - and catching up on all the work that I am behind with. Without overdoing it and ending up back in bed... All the best to all of yourselves.
12/01/10
Well, here I am in the palatial luxury of the Euston Virgin First Class Lounge. It's dismal, actually, and only made worse by the unattractive chap opposite eating a banana. Pleasant gig at The Stand in Edinburgh last week - slightly more bumpy the following night in Glasgow when my flu had battered its way back in again - and haven't been well since, frankly. Nevertheless, dandy reading in London in RADA's Foyer last night - propped up with pills and caffeine. The constant poorliness is extremely irritating for all the usual reasons, but also because of the amount of work I have to do. Do I crawl about working a little bit and therefore get a little bit done, but possibly make myself iller, or do I do nothing and therefore get nothing done, while staying ill, anyway ? Such are the dilemmas of a self-employed person.
Slightly more of the novel exists, anyway. Although I suspect it needs heavy reworking - as does the author. Quite a lot of new stuff and gigs and radio whatnots coming up which will be posted here once I have the power to gather all the info together and fling it across to the Department. And some new audio should be appearing soon. And there's an up and coming conference on the Purpose of the Arts in Windsor - that's the Purpose of the Arts generally, it's just the conference that's in Windsor. I suspect this may be a sad occasion, under the current circumstances. Obviously, the arts are nothing but purpose, but nobody seems to believe in us any more and we may simply disappear like Tinkerbell, if we're all not very careful. So maybe everyone reading this should set some time aside to sit in a big circle with chums and chant - "We do believe in the inherent merit of quality arts and arts activity and its essentially humanising and enlightening possibilities ! Huzzah!"
On we go, in any case - I shall try to finish a play on the train this afternoon and look forward to my brain being free from micro organisms as soon as poss...
2/01/10
Hope you've all decided by now whether to say "TwentyTen" or "Two Thousand and Ten". I remain in a position of not minding much, either way.
Belated Happy Christmas to one and all. And Happy New - hope it's good to us - and that the less amusing use of exploding underpants on aeroplanes doesn't come to pass.
I spent Christmas being violently and boringly ill, so I'm afraid the tinkering and improving in all manner of areas has not taken place - but the novel is progressing as quickly as I can now manage. Which isn't that quickly at all. It's always like pulling a piano up a hill for the first while, I find. The first gigs of 2010 at the Stand this week, then some juants to London and by then I'll be battering away at the keyboard in a more focused manner. And it's always good to write on trains.
Department 5 will be swinging into rennovatory action about the website soon and on we will go - off into what I hope will become a satisfying year. Or at least one in which I don't have to throw up any more while having a headache which starts in my feet - done than enough of that already.
And hello to all the new Twitterers and to all the new dippers into the Writers' Section. All the best to you.
22/12/09
Well, that's the year slithering to its close. A few more bits and bobs of work to tidy up and then, no doubt, hours of sitting on a train in a snowy field and not quite getting to a traditional village Christmas. Hope that all of your Festivities have been and will be enjoyable.
The novel is hooking in and starting to put one word after another, which is something of a relief and - of course - a monumental worry. But at least we're underway now. And I getting used to the exhaustion and extreme cold in motionless extremities that long-term typing produces.
Next year - if we're spared - will mean more novel-wrestling, more dates for WORDS, more comedy gigs, more readings, a few more things on the radio and hopefully something moving in the drama/screenplay line. It's a hard time for productions, you never know... Mainly, it looks as if I'll be doing what everyone else is doing - working more for less money. But I get to do things that I love, so that's prety much all right by me.
All the best to regular readers and/or Twitterers - thanks for takingpart in the website - we'll be tinkering and adding in the New Year. And let's all meet up on the other side.
16/12/09
This is a small note to point out that those of you who read this might like to get on to the Avaaz website http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_copenhagen and give the Copenhagen process a bit of a shove.
And sympathy to the folks on the lovely but crumbly island of Sark - they've had quite a large landslip which has blocked off a very lovely beach. No casualties, but it won't help the tourist business, if they can't clear and stabilise it by spring, I would imagine.
I'll also give you a heads up about the "Confessions of a Medium" broadcast - for which you must all be waiting with excitement. I am, anyway. The broadcast date and time for that are now Saturday 20th February, 2010 at 14.30 I'm just hoping that my CD's turn up before long... Do tune in - I hope you like it.
I hope that, before I write another one of these I will at least have nibbled the edge of the start of the novel - in preparation for New Year and the traditional official midnight turn on, as it were.
And if you are a regular here - have a go at my Twitter and get more of the same, should you wish such a thing.
12/06/09
My fingers have just thawed out after pruning my mother's apple tree. I do hate pruning things, but have to feel that they'll appreciate it and flourish in the end. Much like rewriting. The thing will, of course, sulk next year and give no apples. Then again, the starlings eat all the apples anyway. I mention my mother, having just learned that she once won a gold medal for ballroom dancing, something she had hitherto kept secret from one and all. Although it is good to have a sane explanation for her attentive viewing of "Strictly Nonentities Dancing" it is strange to think that she has kept this from us for so many years. The depths of people - the sequins...
Just finished the session with the new intake of Warwick students and it's going to be a good year I feel - lots of energy and participation and ideas. And another opportunity to remember how many bewildering steps there are along the way to being a bit more experienced and differently bewildered as a writer. Back again in February, by which time they will have made leaps and bounds, I feel.
And there's only a little rewriting and tidying to do before it's Christmas, Dr. Who gets murdered and I have to start the novel. Still perservering with the Tweets and perhaps they serve a purpose, who can say. Also persevering with the, by now appalling, anxiety dreams. Dr. Who has been murdered horribly several times, I have been pursued by vampires, werewolves and some other things they don't have a name for and my neck is very keen to twitch on even the slightest provocation - so roll on the novel, we cry. It may begin to banish some of the worst symptoms. Then again, it may really kick them off - only time will tell.
06/12/09
Oh, we loved the Cromarty Film Festival - you even get a free hat. Lovely village - suprisingly interesting architecturally - great people and basically a weekend of extremely lazy chatting, free and excellent food and watching movies with audiences full of people who like movies. So well done them. I've never seen "Funny Bones" or "The Apartment" on the big screen and they were a particular treat. If you haven't seen "Funny Bones" do try to. I know it has Lee Evans in it and he is the comedy equivalent of Marmite to many - but he's great in it and so is everyone else. And what a joy to laugh along at a screening of "Twilight" - just a comedy hit. Why is it that all male vampires end up being fabulously gay and all female vampires go up several bra sizes as soon as their teeth come in ? No wonder they get frustrated and bitey.
On a train now - of course - and off to see the students at Warwick, which is always interesting. And now that I am no longer penned up over night in the most cabbage-and-BO-smelling weirdplace I have ever suffered, all is good. Lord, that final night with the window open and drenched in Oust - no fun at all...
And the pre-novel fretting is kicking in properly and I'm starting to have convoluted and convincing anxiety dreams. So that's about where I'd expect to be at this point.
Heading for Preston now. And hello to all the Twitter people/followers. Not quite sure about the whole Tweeting thing, but we'll see how it goes.
02/12/09
Life continues to be more mobile that it should be if sanity is to be preserved. First a jaunt to Manchester for the recording of "Confessions of a Medium" and lordy the actoring people did better than I had hoped. I'm very much looking forward to hearing the finished article - which goes out on Radio 4 on January the 9th. Just two days full of hearing very fine, intelligent and sometimes unexpected readings - while watching radio professionals do their stuff with, among other things, chains, echoes, metal screens, singing and gravel. And lovely to catch up with Mr. Nighy again. A real gent.
Then on to Berlin, via the Chunnel and Belgium. I did slightly wonder if I was going to be murdered in or on the way to my Brussels B&B - there is something indelibly horrible about areas around rilway stations and the pool of gloom and Travaux around Brussels Midi is no exception. But I can state for the record that Wellim's Way is an excellent little oasis and of many pleasant things I don't always manage to find in a hotel. Berlin and Wansee were friendly and ridiculously warm for November - two readings to the attentive and pleasant and giggly audiences we have come to expect. A fine time and slightly too much food - and a tower to run up into whenever my room became too unelevated. The Wansee Conference villa on othe rother side of the lake gave the area a generally baleful tone, but I made sure to enjoy Max Lieberman's villa as a kind of mild antidote.
Then home to Wicked Wenches - hello to the ladies and gents who turned up for that. Now it's off to Cromarty for the Film Festival. No idea what that'll be like, but looking forward to it as the clock runs down towards the New Year bells and the start of the next novel. How scary is that ?
22/11/09
Well, Best Beloveds - that was a bit of a full fortnight, frankly. A bit too full and stretchy, I would have to say. We started well - had a lovely time, as usual, up in Orkney. It's a gorgeous place and you're always welcomed and looked after ridiculously nicely, I find. Plus, I was there and back on the ferry - a great thing in itself, because it isn't a plane and a fabulous opportunity to visit the 1970's without a TARDIS. So hello to everyone there and to Kirkwall Grammar School.
Then Warwick for the kick-off of student-seeing. Also lovely. Sure they'll all do well.
And then we had the floods and being trapped in Preston - more worrying than you'd think - and having, eventually to give up and find a willing cab-driver and just bite the bullet and get driven from Preston to Glasgow through gales and driving rain and my what fun that was. Near-death experiences are always so bracing. Although, actually I was fine and I don't envy anyone who was really stuck, or genuinely inconvenienced, or damaged by too much weather. We keep being told that no one believes in Climate Change any more... wonder if that's true. Although I hate to think that anything in the press isn't true, of course.
Then another train through subsiding floods to Birnam and what lovely people they were. It was entirely a pleasure to do WORDS at them and get free soup and be paid and a very fine B&B to boot. Now I'm off to Manchester to sit in on the recording of "Confessions of a Medium" with, among other people, Mr. Bill Nighy who is an excellent gentleman and Robert Glenister who is likewise splendid. The thought of this makes me happy. Then Berlin. And hopefully, weather will permit.
8/11/09
Bit of an odd week here and hereabouts - huge amount of fiddly, catching up work to do and two nights of comedy while still feeling as if my head is being prised off by badelves. Still, managed to get through it all. Extremely pleasant to be back and doing Wicked Wenches again - great to see the folks and to celebrate Susan Calman's almostbirthday. I have to say I probably enjoyed Wednesday more than Tuesday - being poorly, I was saving a small rasher of energy in reserve on the first gig which made it a little flat - then I was able to throw everything at the wall on Wednesday, secure in the knowledge that I would get a lie-in and only a small interview with Ozzie radio to deal with the following day... Anyway, hello to any of you who turned up and had fun. The next one will be the Christmas edition and I'm already trying to think of something festive to talk about that we haven't covered in previous years. Nice to think that we've been running for years.
Other than that, a small telly interview about Muriel Spark on Friday and much tinkering with the script of the radio play. "Confessions of A Medium" - based on the book of the same name will record at the end of this month and go out at some point later than that. Looking forward to it - it's the first time I've been able to sit in on a recording and haven't been somewhere ridiculous instead.
And it should be possible now to follow me on Twitter - in as far as that will prove interesting. We'll get a slightly better link than this up and running soon - but the tweets should commence, anyway. It's currently 6.52am, which means my sleep pattern still hasn't reset after Canada, but on we go in any case
1/11/09
Good Lord you're all very pleasant over there in Canadia, aren't you ? Every time I go over there I am surprised by the massive rise in your levels of sheer niceness. (Although you do now have shouty men on telly, going on about criminals getting away with too much and bringing back shooting for first offences - you'd want to watch that.) Thanks for a lovely week. It was especially appreciated, given that I was flattened with jetlag and had a massive sinus infection. So both my events were done with the assistance of Mr. Red Bull and Mr. Sudafed. One day I hope to do that show when I'm actually in good health. And thanks to Alan - the very very excellent and attractive lighting man - couldn't have asked for finer assistance.
Meanwhile, I am back in the UK and looking at a schedule invented by someone who didn't think they were going to survive both flights. Impossible amounts of work to do and impossible amounts of travel. Orkney and Ullapool - I am coming your way. As it were.
Had a great time in Ely and Cheltenham, Colchester melted away in a complete travel screw-up. Not my fault at all, but many apologies and we are arranging something new for next year. Birnam is just around the corner, too and then Berlin and Wansee. Who knew I'd live to see Wansee ? Then again, will I ?
And congratulations to the Canadian who entered the sortofcompetition for saying what A. L. stands for - Absurdly Likeable definitely wins it this week. One day, we'll have enough money for a prize of some kind. Department 5's "Frogs By Mail" sideline has been hit badly by the postal strike, so we're living off whatever we can find down the back of the chaise longue.
All the best.
14/10/09
Off I go again, then - packing the little bag - well, actually it's a huge bag - and making ready to hit the road. I use the verb "hit" quite gingerly as part of the road involves a plane taking me to Toronto and so my phobia, ticks and general, sweaty premonitions of doom are kicking in.
Cheltenham at the weekend and then Colchester and Ely and Brum - and then the big sky bird with the counter-intuitive ability to stay in the air while smelling of sick and other people's tights.
Still snuffly and slightly - although only very slightly - happy that the Roundhouse gig was pulled. Some kind of technical troubles... so I get an extra day at home and an extra lie-in and an extra run-through for Chelters, or 'Nam - depending on which nickname you prefer.
Meanwhile, dear reader, may all go well with you and feel free to think happy thoughts and offer up prayers and goats for the successful take offs, landings and staying alofts to get me to Kanuckland and back.
08/10/09
A lovely time was had in Beverley and Ilkley - thanks very much to everyone who came along for the readings, or chats, or workshops, or show. The audience for WORDS in Ilkley seemed to be entirely filled with highly pleasant ladies and gentlemen, some of them a bit tearful at the end, which is sort of what we aim for - so thanks to them and thanks for selling out the venue. And thanks to Chris for the technical assistance and to the festival teams in both places - it's always good to be looked after and offered cake.
Final reminder for the Roundhouse gig - it should be fun, now we're up and running again with a few new tweaks after Edinburgh. Tickets can be arranged through this link.
I am, of course, now languishing at home with a bit of the pinky and perky 'flu. That's touring for you - eventually, there always will be one microbe too many on a doorknob, or a tap, or a weirdly sticky bit of a train and down you'll go - all snuffling and sweaty for a while. It's like a holiday, but rather more restful, if your holidays are as ridiculously strenuous as mine seem to be. And there was I, being all complacent because I'd managed not to get post-Festival Flu...
This potentially life-threatening hiatus does mean that I can try and generate some more content for the Writer's Section which I've been meaning to do for ages but haven't had time - and then there are a pile of rewrites for this and that - I really need to get round to them and yet want mainly very much to lie on the sofa, taking the small red pills and the big fizzy white pills, drinking lots of liquids and watching DVD's. I feel this does not make me a bad person. I am not bad, I am just sick. But I will get down to the Writer's stuff soon.
Meanwhile, Department 5 is receiving a higher than average number of emails and letters and whatnots - we especially like the whatnots - and now they've been boiled and passed to me I will also be geting round to replying to your kindnesses and oddnesses. That's all for now - off to have another nourishing beverage and coughing fit.
30/09/09
A very fine time was had in the barn and other premises over at the Charleston Small Wonder Festival. Just imagine - a whole festival devoted to the short story - as we all should be. Many thanks to the folks at Charleston and at Tilton House for food and cats and dog provision, a splendid audience and the opportunity to sit in a deck chair or wander off and talk to cows.
Tonight the Warwick University students launch their anthology in Foyles in London - which is highly enterprising of them - and let's hope that goes well. After that, it's Beverley, Ilkley and the rest of the tour.
I would point out - as has been pointed out elsewhere - that our only London gig for WORDS is coming up at The Roundhouse on 14th October. And it would be lovely to see all you Metropolitan sophisticates coming out for that. Tickets may be booked through this link.
Meanwhile, it's adjusting to hotel life again, living out of the Big Black Bag and trying to remember where I am/what day it is/who I am. Any of which is usually useful.
25/09/09
Yours truly was dragged, limp and tearful (well driven, slightly glum, in a horse-drawn Victoria) down to the harbour and away from Sark. I am now back in a less gorgeous section of reality, but consoling myself with the holiday snaps, as you can see below...
The island is a splendid place and the Sarkese are amazingly pleasant and functional, particularly given that in the winter months there are just a tad over 600 of them on the island, having to amuse themselves, paint things and not get blown away... and they must surely know all about everything about everyone by now. I should imagine tolerance and understanding come in handy, here and there. No wonder they are so patient with tourists like myself. (To say nothing of being patient with writers like myself - always a dodgy guest to have, a writer - will they put you in a book and make you appear foolish, or will they ignore you completely, preserve your privacy and make you feel uninteresting...? Anyway, all the best to them and I hope to be back soon.
I am now just dangling on the brink of 2 months' travel in and around the UK including - when I swore I'd never get on another one - a plane trip, there and back to Canada. I love Canada, but strapping myself into a vile-smelling, eco-unfriendly cracass of doom and being flung there far too quickly is not my idea of fun. Plus, the trubulence in October is revolting. But such is the life of a typist who wishes to sell books... Before then I have all manner of trains to all manner of places, many of which I have never seen before - so that will hopefully be nice and interesting in a massively exhausting way. I perk up for the evening and whatever is required - it's the days of bad sandwiches, Complan and signal failures at Crewe that tend to make me tetchy.
Still, on we go...
10/08/09
And here I am in the internet cafe in Sark. The island is entirely splendid and I would recommend it it anyone. Very refreshing to the tired writing brain to sit on clifftops and watch peregrine falcons doing their thing - which is a very good thing indeed. I have another week or so of trotting up and down cliffs before I have to get back the typing, so you'll excuse me if I am brief. I extend my sympathies to those of you who currently happen to be somewhere else.
2/08/09
Well, that's the festival over and it was grand. Thanks to everyone who left notes, or sent emails, or Pringles - you were by far the finest roughly 2,000 people I have seen in an audience. (Not all at once, of course.)
And I have to recommend Matt Harvey and Gabriel Quigley and Alisa Anderson and Billy Mack and Michelle Gallagher and the guys from New Art Club as the best dressing Room mates that a person could have. You will see to the left the glories of my dressing room corner... And thanks to the excellent David and George, the technical men, made all things well and the mentioned-below Thomas Velluet-Draper is always a good thing.
I am now off to Sark for two weeks to enjoy its far away from everythingness, its lack of cars and large amounts of coastline. Then it's on with the touring for "What Beomes" - including a trip to Toronto, which will be lovely - apart from the sections involving Heathrow and air transport. I had promised myself I wouldn't be doing either of those things again. But it will be the first time for WORDS over the Big Water, so that'll be nice - if I don't end up in a pile of twisted hot metal and meat scraps, obviously. Meanwhile, if you feel like asking me for comments on Meghrahi or Kelman, please don't. I am on holiday.
Feel free to Listen Again (while it's still up) to the monologue performed by Peter Capaldi on Radio Four by using this link.
And another heads-up for The Cheltenham Festival gig coming up in October. If you didn't/can't catch WORDS in Edinburgh Cheltenham is one place where we'll be running it all out all over again. The others include Toppings in Ely and the Bath Festival.
24/08/09
Apologies for the long gap in blogging. Thomas Velluet-Draper (my doughty and excellent lighting man and stage manager) have been sailing out into the splendid waters of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and the very fine Assembly Rooms with the very fine techy persons George and David attached. Plus, I've been launching "What Becomes" and - now that I think about it - giving a small, helping push to three different anthologies in which I have stories. And yesterday I was perched on a stool in the middle of the street being interviewed for German telly. So quite busy, then.
The reviews for "What Becomes" I am told are good and I promise to go through them and put up gobbets when I have the chance. We have also managed to gather two four star reviews and one five star for "WORDS with ALK" and we're playing to full or nearly-full every day and to some of the loveliest people I have ever bellowed at for an hour. And thanks to those of you who have emailed in after the show - you are very kind. And thanks to those of you who sent good luck cards - you are very kind also.
Other than the huge number of bananas I have to eat to keep body and soul together and the massive quantities of water I have to jam into myself, all is remarkably well and your author is entirely happy and glossy. Which, as you know, only really happens in August while gigging and having to self-maintain.
Next time I shall attach pitcures and meanwhile, we have the last week to enjoy.
30/07/09
End of July, then - which means tomorrow is August and I will be officially falling into the, lovely big pit that is the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. I've been doing nothing but rehearsing and eating bananas since my last post and I have to say that life should be like this more often. Preferably without having to run home, stoke up the research engine, deal with enquiries about the new book, finish up bits of writing I've promised people, do interviews and generally have more jobs than one person should. But all this is good and necessary and I am not at all complaining. I am just a bit sleepy.
The show is now open for visitors - we are running a little pretend gig tomorrow and then it's off to the Assembly Rooms on Monday for a tech and a check that our posters have arrived and having a look in all the corners. My director Iain Heggie and I have now been joined by Thomas Velluet-Draper who will be working lights and sound and stage managing and he is already a gift and an ornament in every way. I look forward to asking him for that all important lighting cue during the last 15 minutes.
Other than that, I hear "What Becomes" is getting good reviews, which is nice, but slightly frustrating because it's technically not available yet. We can only hope that people who read the reviews remember them and act upon them at a later date.
Meanwhile, please come and see the show, should you be physically and geographically able so to do. You will be very welcome. And if you bring books they will be signed.
14/07/09
Well, that was 12 days on trains and in different hotels and other sleeping body storage facilities - some of them quite rude and/or grisly. So, although I wouldn't normally do this, I will pick out Croft Mill, Hebden Bridge for unreserved praise. I arrived there having had a less than reasonable amount of sleep, food and sanity for waytoolong and they coaxed me back to life - run by a lovely couple - organic soap and excellent bedding. All the good stuff.
The Hebden Bridge gig was fun. Probably the brightest audience and very involved in the material, which was a big help, given that I was still a bit tired, snuffly and had put my neck out. And they were very kind afterwards.
A small panel discussion at the Purcell Rooms in London meant that Chloe and Tim could introduce themselves. They are using two extracts from a short story of mine as part of their wedding ceremony. I hate to think what this will mean for the long-term health and survival of the relationship, but it made me very happy. They promise to send photos of the event and if they do, they'll be posted here or hereabouts.
And if you wanted to know what I was doing on the evening of 3rd July, then you can go to this link and somewhere in that wibbly sea of 2000 blobfaces (stalls section - I always like a good view) you will know that I am sitting next to my mother and singing "Happy Birthday" to Mr. Cooper who is Mr. Derren Brown's PA and who was celebrating his 30th. And if that doesn't make sense you can scroll down through this page and get more of an explanation. Not that I would normally recommend the years between 30 and 40 to anyone - many people seem to find them unusually bumpy - but the alternative to reaching them is unpleasant, too. Excellent show - seen it before, knew the Ma would love it and she did, indeed, sit like a very excited seven year old with big and occasionally teary eyes throughout. While I, no doubt, grinned like a muppet. An island of niceness amidst the trains and research.
Rehearsals now and more rehearsals and making the show fit its timeslot. Edinburgh next.
2/07/09
Hot, isn't it ? Just makes travelling all over everywhere so much more convenient and good-tempered.
Next - and last before Edinburgh - outing for WORDS will be in Hebden Bridge Little Theatre on 11th July, so looking forward to that. Then it's serious rehearsals and on to the Assembly Rooms - feel free to book using this link.
But meanwhile, more thanks to the Milngavie Bookshop for a very pleasant evening's reading on 19th June with champagne and strawberries, no less. (Tea and cake for me.) Good to see an indy bookshop doing so well.
And we also had fun down at the Warwick Arts Centre Studio, rolling out WORDS for the SPLAT Festival - good to be in a theatre space, rather than a big room, and a very fine audience you all were.
Before that I was helping to judge the Warwick Shootout film competition - at some point soon they'll be posting the winners so you can have a look. Some great stuff. Again. And, frankly, it's quite revolting that students these days get up to so much. In my day, all this was fields and we spent most of our time lying down and discussing hitching to France...
London this weekend for research - and, no doubt, the friendliness and patience we all associate with the capital and all people who are over-heated and short of oxygen.
14/06/09
A big thanks to everyone who came to the performance of WORDS at the CCA - it was quite hot, wasn't it ? I'm guessing 190 degrees, or so. But still you arrived and perhaps becme slightly sticky, but were altogether very fine and excellent - as anyone could tell by clicking on this link to a very generous, perhaps even slightly disturbing blog.
The next (and last before Edinburgh) performance of WORDS will be in the Warwick Arts Centre Studio on Warwick University Campus at 8pm on Monday the 22nd June. So it would be grand to see some of you there.
ALK is working with the PM Programme this week - they're running a kind of mock election/response to the recent revalations of parliamentary skullduggery. There's a link to PM here and they should be putting up some materials the week progresses and runs up to a debate on Friday 19th.
And farewell to this year's Creative Writing MA students (Except the ones who are part time.) It was great working with you and I hope your writing lives are as pleasnat as a writing life can be.
26/05/09
Watch out for a preview performance of WORDS at the CCA on Monday at 7pm in the CCA - it's in aid of the Glasgiw Writer's Centre. Which doesn't exist yet - so that's why it'll need the aid... Kind words about the last preview can be found here.
You can follow this link to listen to a recent appearance on the BBC World Service programme FORUM, although these things aren't archived for long. And the 60 Second Idea can be located at this link.
And thanks for all the gannet-related items. Especially the one where the gannet dives into a boat, makes a hole in it and then acts as a "feathery bung" for the rest of the voyage.
Thanks also for the latest submissions to the A.L. competition. Angry Lemon and Addictive Longings from Terry - although Aspiring Lighthousekeeper is probably cheating. Attila Lolcats from Elizabeth also has merits.
14/05/09
Much fun had at Wicked Wenches - the next of those gigs now on the 2nd and 3rd of June. "Boil the Queen !" - as we all so often say. (Meaning no actual harm to her royal person.)
And the Calvin filming has been finished - very nice people working on that, we'll let you know when the broadcast dates are available. Another small amount of TV stuff for BBC Alba which we'll let you know about.
Even more enormous fun than we would have thought possible at Ullapool. What a great festival - wonderful folks running it and the most listening audiences I've ever encountered. It's also a very beautiful place, so I was out with my camera and snapping... The whole occasion only marred by a failed attempt at gannet rescuing. If you've never had a gannet die in your arms, then you've really not experienced life to the full. Or something.
The BBC Club essay recordings in Bristol seemd to go well - another grand audience and a delightful setting, slightly reminiscent of a cross channel ferry of the 1980's.
Dates have now been released for ALK events at the Edinburgh International Book Festival - these will be a launch for the "Crime Spotting" anthology on 17th August and a reading from "What Becomes", the new short story collection - which should just be out by then - on the 21st.
We are also moving ahead with rehearsals and previews of WORD - the new show which you'll see shamelessly advertised round about the rest of the website.
The Aberdeen Word Festival this weekend, then a small piece of something for the very fine BBC world service and on we go.
