Night Shift

Have now watched every episode of Claymore anime, and read every episode of Claymore manga. Afterwards, found myself suffering from Claymore withdrawal symptoms. I'd really like more adventures of these silver haired warriors.

Disconsolate, and still wanting more Claymore, I wander into the kitchen to make a cup of tea. I put on the radio. Unexpectedly, Led Zeppelin are playing. Am immediately cheered. I find myself playing air guitar, not something I do that often. Continue listening, and play more air guitar. Finish off with a final flourish of air-drums, something I don't think I've ever done before.

Find myself cheered. OK, I might have finished Claymore, but there will be other manga and anime. I can survive the crisis.

Am generally cheered up by Led Zeppelin. Apart from in 1985 when they played at Live Aid. They played in Philadelphia, and that was broadcast live in Britain about 1 A.M. Unfortunately, at one o'clock in the morning in 1985, I was working in a warehouse just south of Waterloo bridge, doing night shifts, carrying heavy mail bags, in a really, unpleasant job. Urgh. That was such a bad job. Long, long night shifts, in that warehouse. I'd be exhausted, and sleep all day, and work through the night. It doesn't take long doing that till you become quite confused about what day of the week it is.

At that time I'd written Milk, Sulphate and Alby Starvation. I'd found a literary agent for it, who was enthusiastic. I thought that she'd find a publisher for it soon enough, but it took her three and a half years. (That's not a criticism of the agent. She proved to be very dedicated, and didn't give up on it, fortunately for me.) So while I was struggling around in that warehouse at night, loading heavy sacks into trucks - dimly aware that there was some big music concert going being broadcast on the radio - I had a nagging feeling that really I ought to have been published by then. Probably because of that, I've never been able to remember Live Aid / Band Aid very fondly. (By all accounts, including their own, Led Zeppelin didn't perform very well at Live Aid, being plagued by sound problems.)

I gave up that job with great relief, and found work as a clerk for the council, which was better, though it didn't pay so well. I think I was there for two years before my agent finally found a publisher for Alby Starvation.

I can see two solutions to the 'no more Claymore' problem. One, hunt for more Anime to make up for it. Two, throw myself into my work. Hmmm. I can see which way this is going.

Pictures of Me

My friend Kate is visiting London, from San Francisco. It was great to see her. I met her in a pub at Clapham Common. She pointed her iPhone at us, and took this picture.



Later I sat at my new computer and became confused about the iPhoto application.



Finally I worked out how to use it. Aha!



Then Buffy arrived to protect me. (And she brought me a hat!)



(Buffy figurine from www.buffycollection.com)

Note the bare wall behind me. It looks like I'm sitting in a prison cell.

Something just thumped through the letterbox. Ah. Three copies of the Italian contract for Queen Vex. And a new Buffy comic. Both good.

New Computer

I have a nice new MacBook. You'd be surprised how old my other Mac was. It was very out of date. Internet videos struggled, froze and jammed. But now I'm equipped to fully appreciate the modern world. Am doing this mainly by watching old glam and punk rock videos from the 70s on YouTube. Yes, it's a big step forward.

My other Macs have generally worked when I plugged them in, which was helpful. So, naturally, this one didn't. It failed to connect to the internet properly. I responded by looking disappointed, and saying "Why aren't you working? Start working properly." Then I sat and looked hopeless for a while, mumbling sadly to myself about how difficult everything is.

When this failed to produce results I phoned the Mac helpline, and to their credit, they sorted it out for me quickly. But it was a tense moment.

My old Mac, while very slow by today's standards, remains quite precious to me. I wrote a lot of Thraxas on it, and Lonely Werewolf Girl, and Suzy, Led Zeppelin and Me. I also wrote Queen Vex on it, the sequel to Lonely Werewolf Girl. This is more or less finished now. But don't get too excited, it will be around a year till it comes out. Which I find frustrating, but that's standard practice in publishing. However, the good news is that's it's already contracted to be published in Britain, the USA, and Germany, and the Italian contract should be sorted out soon.

Till I transfer over various files and software, I'm writing this blog on google documents. So it's not really even on my computer. Is that cloud computing? Hmm. Also alarmingly modern. I consider taking a little picture of myself with the camera in the computer, and putting it here. But when I check the picture, I think it makes me look old. Must be something wrong with the camera. Possibly I should phone the Mac helpline again. "The camera on my MacBook is making me look old. How can I fix this?"

Good Neighbour

I just received a box of books from my Greek publisher - Κάλιξ: Η γυναίκα λυκάνθρωπος. I'll give one of these away to the first person from Greece who wants one. Leave a message here, and email me your address, and I'll sign the book and send it to you.

I was worried by recent 'good neighbour day' or something like that, in which people were encouraged to meet their neighbours. Maybe even share a meal with them, I think. Am appalled by the thought. If I wanted to meet my neighbours, I wouldn't live in London. I rely on Londoners' mutual suspicion and hostility to prevent me from having to talk to any of these people.

Nervous in case some neighbour might knock on my door, asking me to share a meal, I lie on the couch, listening to the New York Dolls.

A new bad girl
Moved in on my block
I gave her my keys
Said 'Don't bother to knock.'

Risk a quick glance out the window, hoping some bad girls might be moving into my block. No sign of any. I suppose it's not very likely really. Life is rarely like a New York Dolls song. Probably when I get carried off to hospital with swine flu, there won't be a rock'n'roll nurse there either.

French Book

The French edition of The Good Fairies of New York - Les Petites Fées de New York - was published recently, and I have some copies from the publisher, Éditions Intervalle. Again, I'll sign one of these French copies and give it away free to the first person from France to say they want it. Just leave a reply here, and then email me your address.

I have many foreign editions of my books lurking on my shelves, I should give away more of them. Or actually organise myself to sell them from my website. I also have some spare sets of the Lux and Alby comic, which I've been meaning to put on sale for years. However I haven't got round to it. I'm hopeless at getting round to doing things. Though I am skillful at sitting on the couch watching TV. There is nothing at all wrong with my TV watching technique. I can also handle a whole stack of Buffy the Vampire Slayer comics with enormous skill.

Brighten up your reading experience! Who would not enjoy one of these knitted cat bookmarks? There's no point denying it, you know you'd like one. From knitted toys.blogspot

ΚΑΛΙΞ - Werewolf in Greece

Lonely Werewolf Girl has now been published in Greece, by Kedros, as ΚΑΛΙΞ  Η  ΓΥΝΑΙΚΑ  ΛΥΚΑΝΘΡΩΠΟΣ. Which would translate as Kalix the Werewolf Woman. Or, Kalix, Female Werewolf, I suppose. So I'm pleased to have Kalix venturing into new territory.

London is pleasantly warm and sunny and I've been wandering around in shorts and a Led Zeppelin t-shirt, probably looking ridiculous. Last summer I got a slight tan on my legs, and was quite excited by this rare occurrence. I'm always quite pale.

I'm still enjoying Dollhouse, now up to episode six here. Last night there were new revelations in the plot, and Eliza Dushku had this great fight with the FBI agent. But, as I predicted, no one else I know is watching this programme here, it being rather hidden away on the SciFi channel.

I bought the fantasy stamps, as mentioned in my last blog. They're good stamps. (but what will I ever do with them?)

Stamps / Germany

I don't think I've ever bought any special stamps before. My personal history is entirely stamp-collecting-free. But I did just notice these, advertised for release today. Mythical stamps from the Royal Mail. Featuring fairies, dragons, and other things. I would quite like to have these stamps.



Hmm. How high up the geekiness scale would it be to buy a sheet of stamps because they feature fairies and pixies? Quite high up, I imagine. Well, I'd still like them. Examination of the Royal Mail website reveals that there's a presentation pack with writing in it, by Neil Gaiman. I will investigate in the local post office, and see if they have them.

Lonely Werewolf Girl has now been published in Germany, by Fischer, under the title of Kalix. Werwölfin von London. Here it is at the publisher's website and at amazon.de.

I have a few copies of this book. I'll sign one of these and give it away free to the first person from Germany to say they want it. Just leave a reply here, and then email me your address.

Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na

Am shuffling round in kitchen, making pot of tea. Put on sport radio channel. Distressed to find them talking about 'Britain's Got Talent.' I don't want to hear about this, I want to hear about football. Change to Radio 5. But they are also talking about 'Britain's Got Talent.' There seems to be no escape. I have no interest in this topic. Why is it everywhere? What's wrong with these people? Argh. Even the most assiduous efforts to ignore it seem doomed to fail, you just can't click on a news website or turn on the radio but someone's talking about it. Argh... kill, smash. There, you've made me mention your damned programme. Are you happy now?

Now in bad mood with modern world, retreat to Cozy Powell in 1974. 'Na na na na (na na na na na) which contains the lyrics -

I know you get your kicks playing Hendrix licks
You're the wizard of Wembley Central
You're the J.S. Bach of Belsize Park
But me I'm just plain mental.

Who wrote this lyric? I mean, it's genius.

I've now seen three episodes of Dollhouse, and am still reasonably enthusiastic. I do like Eliza Dushku. Also, a new season of House just started here. It's a relief to find some TV programmes I want to watch, because I need excuses not to got on with writing, and I don't seem to have any new Playstation games at the moment. Maybe I should play through Tomb Raider Underworld again. I enjoyed that.

And now, I have my polling card, so I'm off to vote in the European Election.