Better Late Than Never...

Sunday 14th July 2013

Boiling hot again. Me and Jenni  went to North Shields, checked out Beckett first editions and various poetry books in second hand shop this afternoon then onto South Shields via ferry. Went to the beach. Had ice cream then chips. Threw stones and drew love hearts. Too tired tonight to do much of anything. Burning in my bedroom back in Consett now. Hand hurting again. Fucking sick of the aches and pains. 11.11pm.

Monday 15th July 2013

Ahh, lovely to be able to stay I bed a bit longer this morning. Eggs on toast for breakfast then started in on trimming copies of Sunshine. Within half an hour of doing the vertical edge on about a dozen I could feel the pain in my left hand. Right (knife) hand is okay; it’s keeping the ruler secure that causes the aggravation. Then the right just packs up in sympathy. I ran out of Stanley blades. Tried using some other make but too thin. Knocking off for a walk up to hardware store gave fingers a rest. Trimmed more when I got back. Only another eighteen to go. But thought I’ll leave those till tomorrow. Worked on the display band wraps round the finished book this evening. PDFed to Jenni who thinks the front is mint and just a little alteration to back. Reckon the book could be done quicker than I thought. Need more of the original materials to do the band though – hope I can get some. Another hot day today. Pleased to get some work done. Hope all the books are trimmed by tomorrow lunchtime. OK. 11.17pm.

Tuesday 16th July 2013

Didn’t sleep well. Awake before six again. Spent a considerable chunk of the morning trying to find cheap travel to New Brighton, Wirral. Fish is playing there in September and I’d like to go. Might Megabus it over night to keep price down. Got Edinburgh ticket for Fringe. Fell asleep this afternoon. So tired, couldn’t think straight. Stood in shop unable to remember what I went in for, getting more annoyed by the second. Felt okay after sleep. Finally got all the Sunshine books trimmed. Still need to do the jackets and then the sleeves… Have just prepped a workshop for tomorrow at Waddy. It’s nearly bedtime and the room is like a fucking oven again. Hope I have a good day tomorrow. Played some Fish tracks while I worked this evening. I’m supposed to be rehearsing my gig set for JibbaJabba but my own voice on repeat C90 distracts from the book making it was supposed to compliment. House is a bombsite. Hope I get some sleep tonight. 10.10pm.

Wednesday 17th July 2013

Sick of the heat. Born to complain. Too hot in summer, too cold in winter. On the bus we whinge. Packed in tight, luggage in the aisle, every red light the temperature rises, blood boils, sweat trickles down the leg, the head throbs. And we pray for rain. Until it comes, then we’ll whinge again. So typically British…

Good workshop at Waddy this morning. Poetry Jam promo this afternoon. Bed soon. More liquid first. 10.36pm.

Thursday 18th July 2013

Had a fantastic workshop at Mind in Consett this morning. Lots of work handed in by the group. Only used one handout, rest given as dictation and from memory. The way I like it. So fucking hot again. I know it’s stating the obvious; this freaky heatwave is apparent to everyone with a pulse. But it’s getting beyond a joke. Everywhere I go, bus, workshop, bank, supermarket, people flaking and flagging, pink flesh. We’re not really wired for this sort of broiling. Even in July. I don’t know how people stick it abroad. A different kind of heat, you say? What sort, cool heat? I had to knock off from making up book dust jackets. Kept sweating, gloves splitting. I’ve worked out the procedure for folding and trimming now though, so maybe tomorrow morning I’ll get some done. Emailed my woe to Jenni. Fucking summer. So Much for the Sunshine. Quite! 9.46pm.

Friday 19th July 2013

Another motorized greenhouse to Gateshead. Only been standing waiting for half an hour. X70 didn’t turn up. Moorside bus didn’t turn up either. But never mind, what I saved on bus fare by only getting a single from Consett I spent on a tandoori chicken baguette and a yoghurt oaty bar. It’s Hot Words at the chilli tonight. Brought a couple of pieces from the new book. Hope I can do them justice.

Pleased to get a fifth of Sunshine jacketed today. Put a few more pix online to great response. 14 reserved copies already. Don’t think there’ll be any left over after JibbaJabba at this rate. Will definitely do a reprinted standard version if the deluxe sells quickly.

The 46 bus is bouncing along Chaytor Road. Lesley Pearson’s mam is at the bus stop. They lived on the corner of Backstone Road at the bottom of our street, next to the garages.

Moving down to Pleasant View. No garages by the shop. Onto Hardy’s Corner, where I saw a dog hit by a juggernaut. It survived, remarkably. The Black Path doesn’t look so intimidating now. I wonder if I’d be able to skate all the way down it without getting speed wobble. If I lived near a proper skatepark I might be tempted to get a board, old as I am. Or a longboard for summer days on Newcastle quayside – it’ll never happen.

What can you do in this heat but stew under the canopy outside the pub and sip your poison. I have made no use of the light nights for outdoor activity this year besides a walk through Shields with Jenni last Sunday.

Ahh, the breeze as we shift along through Shotley to East Law. Used to walk here when Grandma lived at Ebchester.

There’s a loud family playing some travel game to occupy the time. Screeching voices can be quite irritating. The older I get the less accepting I am. So much for mellowing out. 5.41pm.

Saturday 20th July 2013

Got more paper to finish off Sunshine book project. Attended an Apples and Snakes workshop about effective online promotion and creative practice for writers by the poet Jacob Sam La Rose. About fifteen people there. Got some good pointers for broadening my online presence. Me and Jenni watched tv this evening but she’s feeling unwell at present. Mel Smith died today. Tributes on BBC News. A cooler day but still very warm in Jenni’s room this evening. 10.15pm.

Sunday 21st July 2013

Had a relaxed morning with Jenni before her rehearsal / workshop at Scratch. I left at ten past twelve, home by two. Checked on emails and bits of paperwork. Made a 56 page 120 gsm paperback notebook Checked out some legal deposit publishing requirements and keyed in some work. 9.15pm.

Monday 22nd July 2013

Never been the best at looking after teeth. Just sat down to write my journal and tasted blood in my mouth. Checked my gums, pressed and prodded and a whole load more blood pissed out. Luckily, the teeth seem pretty secure. Pleased it didn’t happen whilst working on Sunshine. Got another ten copies jacketed. Slowly but surely. Will probably have to work through next weekend to get the job finished before August. Just had a look at the photos for last month’s JibbaJabba spoken word night. Jonathan Parker is a top class photographer. Well worth checking out on faceboook. Spurious Nonsense Photography – mint! Jibba is a lively open mic event with top draw performers guesting each month. Been moving books and papers upstairs – forecast heavy rain this week: four years ago my place was flooded. “Every time it rains…” as Ms Bush said. Busy day today, quite tired. 10.59pm.

Tuesday 23rd July 2013

Running on empty. Can’t believe the hassle I’ve had trying to print out the blurb for the back of the slipcover of Sunshine book. First time I missed a dash out of the ISBN code. Next time I got a bit too clever with my syntax and made nonsense of technical info. Been really frustrated with mistakes this evening. Tried to switch to workshop prep but just couldn’t focus on it. Pleased to now, at quarter to midnight, have the blurb recomposed , scanned with perfect positioning and replicated in a file for printing at Waddy tomorrow. Jenni says she liked the original sleeve design a lot, but likes the new one even better. She has been great with feedback throughout the project. Fingers crossed I can get books finished before next week’s Poetry Jam. Okay, a couple of other things to log elsewhere then bed for me.  Pleased I persevered. 11.45pm.

Wednesday 24th July 2013

Working till well after midnight. Seemed like a blink of sleep and I was up again at six-thirty. Very hot and harassed by the time I got to Waddy. Peter helped me get the temperamental computer to work. Got some book stuff printed. Session went well using images by Hopper, Magritte and Dali. Some stunning writing by the writers today. Great little narratives. Hopefully we’ll get a book of these together. Or at least a wall display with images.

From facebook: Count your blessings, at least the last of four buses didn’t have the heating on full blast.

Home by twenty to two. Did some book work but so tired couldn’t really go for it in case I ruined stock. Council workers cutting brick and building walls, drilling, etc in the street this week. It’s like having your own early eighties Einsturzende Neubauten concert on a daily basis.

Great to listen to Fish and The Mission this evening. Bed soon. 10.20pm.

Thursday 25th July 2013

Woke early, did some prep for session and packed a few things needed for later in the day. Wasn’t until I was at the workshop that I realised I’d forgotten to put student papers I’d worked on back in my bag. Had to get a taxi to pick them up. Session went well. Hopper pix. Some more nice little narratives.

Book is coming along but I’m at that super-stressed stage where simple words strike doubt and terror into me and I wonder if I’ve made a major fuck-up. Keep re-reading and questioning syntax on sleeve notes.

Missed most of Dominic Berry’s show due to bad travel advice. Really fucking annoyed about it. Good to see people there though. Thanks to Sarah Hammersley for swift ride back to city centre.

So hot and slow on the bus from Newcastle to Jen’s place. We got over the Tyne and decided to walk up the hill. Claire Morgan walked with us. She, too, sick of the heat. Personally, I’m looking forward to Autumn.

Looking forward to JibbaJabba this evening. 6.41pm.

Friday 25th July 2013

The buses have the heating on again! Went in newsagents to check out Kerrang! Why, I don’t know; the last metal band I saw was Satyricon in 2006. Anyway, despite wishing to avoid mainstream news this week my eye happened to fall upon this little gem: “GPs want to charge up to one-hundred-and-fifty quid for an appointment”. Apparently to cut down on timewasters. Basically: don’t get sick. Stay healthy. Don’t engage in harmful activity. Don’t use toxins. Don’t take physical risks. Don’t get hereditary illnesses. Don’t fucking live. It’s like Jen says: until we get rid of money and find some other system then greed is good and the fat cats will keep on plumping up. Fuck it! Don’t want to waste my breath. It’s hot enough as it is without expending unnecessary energy.

I’m in Durham bus station. Off to Middlesbrough to read at The Black Light Engine Room. Have my fifteen minute set sorted and I should be okay to stay till the end, get the last bus home from Durham. Be back in the house by half midnight. I left at twenty to four. Approximately nine hour round trip.

I got no books jacketed today. Am aiming to get at least twenty done tomorrow and the remainder on Sunday morning then onto the little sleeves for the covers. 5.23pm.

Saturday 27th July 2013

Unbelievably hot at BLER last night. Much hotter than Jibba. First 'half' was long. A writers group were in with their tutor Tamar Yoseloff. Some nice pieces but lots of literary quotations and explanations before the poems. It was good, but hard for me to keep up with due to fatigue.

Will Smith was on after the group and read very slow stuff. Julie Edgell did an absolutely brilliant set from memory. Including the Alice poems done at other events. Informative, engaging intros, well paced. I videoed it.

After the break Tamar read some pieces from her latest book and showed the accompanying photographs. Some of her work a lot more direct than that of her group. She kind of paved the way for my set by ending on a bed piece.

I went on at half nine. Started well with Dark House but managed to switch the mic off just before the final part of the poem. So I ditched amplification and started the piece again. Much better, but it threw me and I had to look at the page a lot more than on the first run. Even needed to glance at notes for Bin Truck.

Felt Freakboy maybe a bit too long to read - okay if nailed and paced better, but it got a good response. There were only a few people there who know Jenni – but no barrier to laughter during Lazy Sunday. Then four people from the writers group in the front row got up and excused themselves for the evening. It's not the first time I've cleared a room, I said. Got more laughs. Usually it's offensive stuff that does it though, I said to the audience – which tied in nicely with the intro of Dirty Dishwater Horizon about art mirroring life. So I was kind of chuffed with how it worked. Went straight into Shut Up! – very conscious of the amount of expletives towards the end of the set coz I read Sally's Second Warning straight after it but another good response. Talked a bit about Sunday activity and hogging the computer before doing the Surfing the Wave of Oblivion piece that was road-tested to good response at Scratch earlier in the year – then finished with the skateboard piece. Julie videoed it for me, said she enjoyed the range and pace of material. Said I focus on stuff others overlook and liked the childhood aspect to the set (which makes me think the book cover is highly apt) but she agreed it would be a tall order to memorize in time for Jibba.

Claudia and Mandy liked it. AJ was there. There was supposed to be an open mic after my set but only time for Mandy to do her anti-royal poem which closed the night off nicely at ten to ten. She'd finished writing Baby Parasite in time to get a last minute inclusion in the new issue BLER which I got a free copy of.

Unless I can get a few days full rest and then total focus on the set for a fortnight, I might have to retract my 'no reading from notes at the Cumberland' rule – at least for Sunshine set. Besides replacing Dishwater with Hell Express and maybe doing something shorter than Freakboy I think I'll pretty much stick to BLER set for Jibba. Which means there'll be great pieces that I've been working on that won't be performed until a later date. I'll keep them for open mic in the autumn where I can focus on getting a couple memorized per month.

Had it been a cooler night I would have enjoyed it better. There was a good atmosphere throughout the evening.

X1 was five minutes late leaving Middlesbrough. Got to Durham just as 15 was pulling out, sprinted across the station and lucky for me, the driver didn't stick to the 'once pulled away, no stopping for latecomers policy' or I wouldn’t be home yet.

Gonna have a little bit longer lie down and then spend the whole day on dust jackets. It's going to be a tall order to get books ready for Thursday.

Jaene Davies has just messaged with a newsflash. Good news about Lamplight not closing. 8.13am.

LATER: Five hours to make six dust jackets. Then two hours to make eight. And a further three hours to get the final ten finished.  Just the slip covers to do and hopefully ready for Thursday’s Poetry Jam. Really tired now. 11.25pm.

Sunday 28th July 2013

Sitting on the living room floor amidst the chaos that is a Talking Pen book production. Too late to be playing music. Fish, Emilie Autumn and The Mission have been my work soundtrack today. Progress on slipcovers for Sunshine is so. But at least I’m able to work in artificial light tonight. If I’m going to be done by Poetry Jam I’ll need to put in some heavy hours. 11.30pm.

Monday 29th July 2013

Nothing to report besides book work. Was finishing off some sleeve bands at half eight this morning. Then two hours doing a rework of the back plate. Then nearly three hours to cut heavy duty boards. By teatime my hands were aching. They’re worse now. I’m anticipating some sort of repetitive strain injury situation tomorrow. Which would be a bit of a pain as I aim to have books available for people coming to Poetry Jam. Event wall is looking good. Had two inquiries about it today. Also another couple of orders for the book. If everyone who has asked for a copy gets one there’ll only be sixteen left. And three of those I’m keeping for a rainy day. Emailed Jenni a couple of times this evening. Looking forward to seeing her on Thursday. Really tired now. Will have to get a blog post up soon. Need to prep for workshops as well. Done. 11.50pm.

Tuesday 30th July 2013

Hands aching a lot this morning. Mainly the left one. Was hard to get the ink flowing on my little Kraft stubs. I’m sick of talking about the book. It’s taking so long to get finished. Didn’t seem like much when I started it but so much work to get fifty books made. Late to bed this evening, considering I have to be up sharp for a Waddy session. Hope it goes okay. Preoccupied with Sunshine. 11.05pm.

Wednesday 31st July 2013

Statement on facebook: "SO MUCH FOR THE SUNSHINE" UPDATE: Having worked an average of fifteen hours a day since since Saturday in an attempt to complete my book project I have made the decision that in order to maintain the high standard promised by photographs posted on Facebook, I will be slowing down over the next few days. I was hoping to have books ready this week, but unfortunately the gluing process required to avoid warping of final materials will take longer than anticipated, which means copies will not now be available at Poetry Jam on Thursday evening. Apologies to the people who were looking forward to obtaining copies at the event. Further updates in due course.”

PVA glue warped some stock last night. Going to use spray adhesive instead. More time-consuming in terms of handling stock but less in terms of leaving sleeves to dry.

Waddy workshop this morning: Poetry set to music and some surreal writing then little monograph booklets. Went to Gala Theatre afterwards for a Fish ticket but they aren’t on sale yet. No book work today. Wrists playing up again. More interest in books. Lots of nice feedback. More reserved copies. Deluxe edition will be almost sold out before it’s available. Will see where things go from there. Tidied kitchen tonight, wrists aching, can hardly push the pen. Hoping to be in bed soon. 10.15pm.

Thursday 1st August 2013

Good session at MIND today. Objects and Lies. Flash Fiction. David Gaffney. Fifty-five fiction. Enjoyed not having to be anywhere this afternoon. Tried out Photo Mount adhesive on book panels. Works really well. Reckon the batch of fifty will be done by lunchtime Monday. Great Poetry Jam tonight. Aother capacity crowd. Great guests and a huge roster of jammers. Good to hear some newbies. Some great page poems and performance pieces. Gave John Baker a copy of Metropacity by James Oates. Thanks to Sheila for a lift to Gateshead. 11.45pm.

Friday 2nd August 2013

Lazy morning with Jenni save the two trips into town to get keys cut. Jenni then had prep for her Edinburgh trip so I went into town to buy photo mount adhesive to finish books. Checked out Kraft books and journals in Paperchase. Coptic binding, stapled square spines as well. Checked out second hand cds and vinyl in Beatdown Records. Andy McCoy and Mike Monroe pieces in magazines at WH Smiths. A young woman with long blonde hair and a white dress played show tunes on her transparent violin outside. Her case filling with cash and good applause between numbers. Fell asleep on the bus back to Consett. Pleased for the rest after lugging my new bag around – still had the booklet stapler in that I used to do Chris Hill’s second print run at Waddy yesterday. Walked to Moorside and was impressed with the new tarmac on the cycle path just down from the college. Wish I had a longboard. Be great to skate. The warm wind was really soothing. I caught up with emails and did some typing this evening whilst listening to Fish. Should really play the new Cruxshadows album over the weekend. Hoping to get along to Legends on Monday night in Newcastle to see them play live. But lots of work before then… 10.34pm.