29 June 2010

The organisational structures which underlie the publishing industry are fickle, profit-seeking institutions. Persuading one of them to accept a manuscript is extremely difficult. Three quarters of books don’t make back their production costs, let alone turn a meaningful profit. Last year in the USA (the world’s most important market for English-language books), over 150,000 were published.

How many have you heard of? 0.1% of them? Read more »

7 June 2010

The process of turning two years of public correspondence (and four battered notebooks worth of scribblings, numbers, quotes, tables and poetry) into a product to encourage a more realistic comprehension of this ‘human civilisation’ gig wasn’t just a one-man show.
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27 May 2010

I’m going off-theme for this update. Last Wednesday, I had an experience which shook me. I have to share.

I’ve been going on dates with a woman called Charlotte Eaton. Last week, Charlotte took me to Udderbelly, the venue on the South Bank run by Channel 4. The gig, ‘No Offence… But’, involved a panel of comedians exploring the limits of acceptability in comedy. Read more »

10 May 2010

In the day job, nothing stays the same for long. The two Claires left me. ‘The Hutch’ to do something less stressful and ‘Lady Claire’ to create a new human being from scratch.
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26 April 2010

From 7 February, with the book done, life began opening up.

The arm tied behind my back swung out – flexing away the pins and needles – and long-stagnant to-do lists were assessed, prioritised then stripped down. Starting with the basics: visit the doctor, the dentist and the hospital (it’s official: I’m healthy). Next, life logistics: fill forms, make calls, write letters, divert an income stream into a pension, set up an investment account, attack the massive unsecured loan I took out to spend a year living in a shed.
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