Nov 9th/October 20th/October the 25th and all sorts of all sorts...

Categories: uncategorized

Date: 12 October 2008 16:08:07

Hey all,

busy bee, me, as ever as always, and thought I'd put the invites out:

October the 25th is the fourth Guildford Big Book Draw in association with the Guildford Book Festival and the Big Draw.

In years gone by we've created the Big Book, a huge collection of artwork from loads of attendees. That's all changed, primarily because last year it was so heavy I did my back in trying to carry it from one venue to the other so this year it's all about mini-books! Everyone coming will get the chance to create a small book to take away with them in a number of styles. Should be a lot of fun. October 25/10 am - 4 pm/Guildford YMCA. As ever I'll be ably assisted by wifey, youth group kids, a couple of college students (I think) and a couple of artists from Templar Books (I hope). Everyone welcome, all ages, free and no artistic experience necessary.

Just before that on October 20th Messenger is released into the wild. The more I think about it the more nervous I feel because I really don't think that some readers will get it. And by that I don't mean the code it's written in, but... Hmmm.. don't know. It's not your traditional story, let's just say. I'm looking forward to seeing what people say very much, that said, because it's a project I believe in, but... Well, hmm... It's tricky. It's certainly not a book about answers, it's a book about questions.

Then on November the 9th (Remembrance Sunday) we've booked the Boileroom in Guildford for a gig to celebrate the launch of the book. TBH I'm very lucky to get it, it's a tremendously in demand venue, one of the NME's top venue's of the south of England I think is correct, and a wonderful place for a gig/book launch. Four bands'll be playing acoustic sets and the noodle's the Boileroom cooks are utterly delish. We've got a couple of surprises in store and a couple more still trying to be worked out in the days prior. Very exciting, although the knowledge that, for the most part, it'll be friends in attendance isn't 100% comforting for a bizarre reason I can't put my finger on. I'm not very good at the author promotion thing and end up talking about youth work or computer games or similar (hopefully DLT aren't reading this or, if they are, well, it's too late anyhow :) )

After that we're trying to get a big Christmas exhibition sorted for Dec 22 and a couple of other meets and stuff in between but these are the biggies I'm trying to sort at the moment. There's a big Springy meeting I'm supposed to be preparing for soon as well... Better get cracking on.

Apart from that things have calmed down for a few days - not work wise but hey ho, one day I'll get to sleep :) and had a cool night on friday catching bands playing at the Woking Ypod which was cool as I knew more than half of the performers and half of the audience :) Interesting evening.

Still trying to work out if the poppy is right or not. Will try and make up poppy badges prior to gig, sell them for 30p each or so and then donate that to the legion but may take the m out of the design before I do...

Currently listening to: 100hours.... Currently playing: Wipeout HD oh yeah. Currently working on: Messenger launch party stuff/Guildford Book Fest stuff...