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Saturday 26 June 2010

Friday 25 June 2010

One!

Only one day to go until The Grease Monkey's Tale is unleashed
at a book shop near you
or an online bookstore, at least.

Here's a tremendous video
(great photography, great song, great performers
- Mary J. Blige and U2)
to mark the one-ness of today.

Kick back, relax, enjoy.


Thursday 24 June 2010

Two!

Two days until book shops across Britain
throw open their doors
to the shimmer of
dirty chrome spanners
on an oily black background
and the contrast of a single red rose.

Wednesday 23 June 2010

Three!

In free days
the cage'll be opened.

Mystery, romance and friller
out in the wild!



Have listened to a fair bit of Cat Power's album You Are Free
while working on The Grease Monkey's Tale,
so extra appropriate to play this track here.

Tuesday 22 June 2010

Four!


Four days and counting.
And, in need of something a little mellow
to stave off the excitement,
what better way to mark this day than
Four by Miles Davies
played by Peanuts and Kirk Whalum?



Music to listen to
as you
open another tab
on your browser,
select your favourite online bookseller -
Amazon, Fishpond, PaperBooks, Books Etc, etc, etc -
tug out your credit card
and pre-order your copy of...
The Grease Monkey's Tale
(where a lone saxophonist features briefly, I might add).

Monday 21 June 2010

Five Days and Counting...


It's five days until The Grease Monkey's Tale is released.
Makes it sound like a wild animal is about to be let loose on an unsuspecting public.
And maybe it is.
Nonetheless, the countdown has begun.

I know I used this clip with The Snowing and Greening of Thomas Passmore
and that it had little to do with what that novel was about,
as it has little to do with what this one is about,
but nonetheless...

Thursday 17 June 2010

First edition of The Grease Monkey's Tale - hot off the press


Great to see that the first copies of The Grease Monkey's Tale have arrived at the offices of Legend Press and PaperBooks.  Printed and bound and ready to be released in the UK.  Very, very, very exciting!  Have received heaps of positive comments about the cover design - and it is a stunner - so hope that will translate into people picking up the book and reading it... and ENJOYING it (of course) so much they recommend it to all their friends and buy more copies as birthday presents, Christmas presents, Father's day gifts, etc, etc.


Last weekend was a long (public holiday) weekend, so I had extra time to work on Number Three and Four.  Also put a good few hours into trying to resolve Actionscript problems with the new website I'm creating.  (Ten months ago, I thought developing a Flash website was only going to take me two months.  Hmm.) 

It was a cold, wet weekend - it being winter - but good to get out and about, and to spend time at the opening of the Blarney Books & Art 2010 Biblio-Art Competition amongst other things.  A packed and very popular opening with a fantastic exhibition of entries.  If you're likely to be visiting Port Fairy this winter, I strongly recommend dropping in to Blarney Books & Art and having a browse.  Am delighted to be able to give it a plug here.

Thursday 10 June 2010

The Grease Monkey's Tale - book cover revealed

I'm delighted with it.  Here it is:


For Nic the mechanic – grease monkey extraordinaire – life is becoming a journey of stories: good, bad, happy and sad. When Siobhan McConnell – beautiful, dynamic, but shadowed by secrets – hurtles into his world, Nic’s life bounces between tragedy, romance and thriller.

Framed for armed robbery, it seems he’s on the brink of losing everything until he’s offered the 'job‐of‐a‐lifetime' in the remote township of Gimbly, where very little is what it seems to be. From here, life can only get more bizarre.

Thursday 3 June 2010

Recent Read: Precious by Saphhire

Enjoyed reading the novel precious by Sapphire recently.  Apparently it's based on her novel PUSH, which has been turned into a film.  I'm not quite sure how that works - whether it's just the title that's been changed, whether the original novel is significantly different, or what - but I like it all the same.  Particularly liked the eye dialect - am always a sucker for this if it's done well (The Catcher in the Rye, Of Mice and Men) and Sapphire does it superbly.  It reflects the narrator's low literacy and makes the story of her systematic abuse (by her parents) all the more poignant.  A powerful story.