Book Stuff

Lonely Werewolf Girl appears in the nominations for the Fantasy and Science Fiction (Young Adult) category in the Cybil Awards (Children's and YA Bloggers' Literary Awards ) It's a very long list, I don't know when it's distilled into a shortlist. I'm very pleased to be there.

Here's a review of the recently re-issued Suzy, Led Zeppelin and Me in The Guardian.

I spent last week checking the manuscript for Milk, Sulphate and Alby Starvation, for the new edition by Soft Skull. And when I say checking the manuscript, I mean not looking at it at all, and just hoping it was OK. I will just trust the skills of the editors at Soft Skull, who have been doing fine with my books so far.

Hmm. May not be doing a great job of selling my old books here. Will work up more enthusiasm when it comes out. Which is early next year, I think.

When Milk, Sulphate and Alby Starvation was first published, in 1987, I was working as a clerk for the council, filling in forms for their heating engineers. That wasn't such a bad job.

No progress on the naval piercing. Am frustrated by circumstances. Still, nothing bad has happened. However, on the domestic front, my footstool did disintegrate with age, after many years of faithful service. I need a new one, because you cant really slump properly in front of the TV without a footstool, and I need to do that.

Piercing

I just wrote a long and quite tedious blog about my navel piercing. Abandoning that version, and trimming it down to the bare essentials, the story goes as follows -

Navel pierced about 12 years ago
Removed it about 8 years ago
Presumed it had healed
Was surprised last month when the old piercing went gunky.
Apparently it's never healed properly
Seems OK now, but not sure if best thing to do is wait for it to heal, or just put a bar through it again
Fortunately
there is a piercing studio in between me
and the place I go for my agoraphobia therapy
But as it turns out
The studio is closed on that same day every week
so it means making an extra journey
am not sure what to do about this
Get another stud put it
or just leave it to close up
hmm.

* Why do you have your navel pierced anyway?
Who do you think you are, Britney Spears? *

Good question. I got it done on a whim, years ago. I went with a friend to keep her company when she was going to visit a body piercing studio. Well when I say body piercing studio, I mean a man with needles in a squat in Brixton. (To be fair to him, he was good at it.) I was only there to lend moral support. But then I apparently suffered some form of temporary madness, and got my navel pierced.

I was surprised that I'd done it. And quite perturbed when I examined it outside Brixton tube station and discovered that blood was dripping onto my trousers. But it was OK afterwards, and I liked it. I should never have taken it out, really.

Actually, that was all quite a good story. It's a shame my longer version was so tedious.

My agents are negotiating a contract for a German translation of Lonely Werewolf Girl. That's good. Perhaps I could supply the publisher with a stylish author-with-pierced-navel picture for the back cover. Hmm. Am really not sure whether to wait and see if it heals, or put something back through the hole.