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Sunday, 25 January 2009

No Sleep Til Brooklyn, the Italian Job and some wisdom from Springsteen


So, apart from nabbing a free tattoo from Preston's Inc, (he is my brother), and managing to save my whole back catalogue from the recycling dump, (another story for another time), most of my January has been subjugated by insomnia. For some reason, early in the New Year, my body clock went into reverse, and I spent a whole three weeks thinking I was probably going to go out like Heath Ledger - 'I don't care if I never wake up, I just need to go to sleep, and I don't care how many Temazi's it takes to get me there.' The predicament wasn't helped by my wholly incompetent GP, who attempted to deal with the problem by prescribing me a course of stimulant-based anti-depressives. (I must be a glutton for punishment: when I visited him four years ago with earache and he asked me what the problem was, I said, 'It feels like there's something sharp in my ear.' So he looked into my ear-canal with a magnifier and said, 'No, there's nothing sharp in your ear.') At the risk of talking too soon, I seem to have forced my body clock back into its natural routine with the aid of a few boring novels, a case of red wine, and one or ten Moscow Mules.


I'm going to be in Italy next month to promote Giostre, puzzle e altre storie, the Italian translation of Fresh Apples. The official dates for presentations are as follows:

February 12th, 5.30pm, Casa della Musica, Via dei Capitelli, 3 Trieste
February 14th, 5.30pm, Libreria Archivi del 9000, Via Montevideo, 9, 20144 Milano

The book is published by Biet, http://beitcasaeditrice.wordpress.com, and here's a really cool cartoon by Marco Petrella. www.marcopetrella.it

In the meantime Ned i akvariet og op igen, the Danish translation of In and Out of The Goldfish Bowl seems to be doing exceptionally well, snatching five star reviews form MetroXpress, Cosmopolitan, Woman, Sirene and KIWI. www.forlagetaronsen.dk/

Since I've promised to 'drink a few' with the fabulous Willy Vlautin at this year's Laugharne Weekender, (I'll be reading with my Dylan Thomas Prize successor, Nam Le on Saturday afternoon, 4th April, Venue TBC), I thought I'd dip into an Observer Music Magazine interview with one of our mutual hero's, the Boss. And as somebody who is constantly hindered by my own past, or at least the continuous effort to let it go, ('Learn to let go. That is the key to happiness,' says Billy Connolly), I was comforted by this gem from Springsteen:

'There is no part of yourself that you leave behind; it can't be done. You can't remove any part of yourself, you can only manage the different parts of yourself. There's a car, it's filled with people. The 12-year-old kid's in the back. So's the 22-year-old. So is the 40-year-old. So is the 50-year-old guy that's done pretty well, so's the 40-year-old guy that likes to screw up. So's the 30-year-old guy that wants to get his hands on his wheel and put the pedal to the metal, and drive you into a tree.'


Anyway, I finished writing the new novel, Sixteen Shades of Crazy, late last year and I'm finally busy editing and polishing the damn thing. If everything goes to plan, and it very rarely does, I'll be delivering it to my new publishers in early spring. Say hello if you see me out and about in Prague next weekend, where I'll be doing a bit of research for a forthcoming project, but don't be weird, like that stalker who tracked me down in Poland. (Joke. Sort of). And finally it seems as though everything is going to be OK because there's a real human being in the White House.

Rx

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Sunday, 11 January 2009

Radio Drama on BBC Wales

For anyone who missed 'Lemon Meringue Pie' on Radio 4 last year, there's another chance to hear it, along with a few other plays by Welsh writers that were originally transmitted on Radio 4. Dates as follows:

Sunday 18th Janyary 2009, 9pm - Pavement Stars by Gillian Clarke & Catrin Clarke

Sunday 25th January 2009, 9pm - Operation Charlie by Rhys Lloyd

Sunday 1st February 2009, 9pm - Away Day by DJ Britton

Sunday 8th February 2009, 9pm - The Confessions by Charlotte Greig

Sunday 15th February 2009, 9pm - Lemon Meringue Pie by Rachel Trezise



BBC Radio Wales:93 - 104 FM 657 & 882 MWDigital

Satellite: Sky - 0117 Freesat - 715 Freeview - 719 Cable - 931

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