possible halloween costumes:

* Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
* a cup of coffee next to a laptop (gone cold)
* the sound of the bus station
* something from Ikea
* a sore throat
* www.blogspot.com
* needing the toilet
* the man from the Ronseal Woodstain advert
* the man from the Cillit Bang! advert
* just a man, walking around, looking in shop windows, etc.
* someone from the Insane Clown Posse (or related band)
* a person at a Q&A session (following a reading) who asks a long question which is not really a question
* some craft tweezers
* 'the state of modern music' (dwindling CD sales, etc.)
* etc.

interview

i was interviewed for the Nottingham online magazine LeftLion a month or so ago. it's just gone online.

interview here.

*** spoiler alert: just read it back. feels like i say pretty much all the same things i've said in other online interviews.***

dog on wheels, etc.

i have a short thing on the Wunderkammer magazine site:

DOG ON WHEELS

it is a 'response' to a photo Kathryn Regina sent me of another writer - Megan Martin - as a child. i sent Kathryn one of me as a scarecrow.

it is part of a 'writers as kids' thing that Kathryn is guest editing. i think she is posting two a day. looking forward to what someone did with my scarecrow one.

***

just read this interview with Brandon Scott Gorrell on bookslut. really liked it; felt like he 'pushed things' in it; like in his novella; that it has acheived a 'new level of irony' or something.

***

the cat mentioned in post below was a stray cat, btw.

***

there is a weird 'burnt green tea' smell in my living room at the moment. don't know where it is coming from. feels like i have never smelled anything like it before. feel 10% curious/90% worried by the smell

readings, etc.

i have some readings coming up this month:

Saturday, 10th Oct -- Cheltenham Literature Festival, in a special free Canongate/Highland Park 'Keynotes' tent, 3:30 and 7:30pm (think you get a free glass of whisky at this one)
Monday, 12th Oct -- Bolton Octagon, w/ Annie Clarkson, 8pm
Thurdsday, 22nd Oct -- Edge Hill, Liverpool, 7:30pm
Friday, 23rd Oct -- Lancaster Litfest, w/ Jenn Ashworth and Richard Milward, 9:30pm
???, ??? Oct -- Keele University

we're also organising the next NO POINT night for 19th of October at Matt & Phred's in Manchester. Matt Welton, Jacob Polley and Adelle Stripe booked to read. should be good fun.

***

i went on holiday somewhere for a week and had a nice time and then got scratched on the face by a cat.

***

read SHOPLIFTING FROM AMERICAN APPAREL recently. really liked it. feel somehow completely unable to write a review of it, even a subjective one, further than 'really liked it'.

also really liked the "JESUS CHRIST." (the indie band) track here.

***

reading A GATE AT THE STAIRS. about halfway through. don't want it to end. my favourite sentence so far has been about lawn furniature.

***

my girlfriend looked up 'Cat Scratch Fever' on wikipedia after i got scratched on the face by the cat on holiday. apparently it takes up to three weeks to materialise.

***

Peter Wild from Bookmuch asked me if i would like to interview Lorrie Moore by email. said yes. feel very excited and terrified at the idea of this. want to somehow simultaneously become 'BFF-s' with Lorrie Moore and also send the kind of icy-cold questions that will impress her with my 'professionalism'.

***

my mobile broadband dongle is broken.