"FINALE"

Tuesday 22nd December 2015

Absolutely pissing down and blowing a gale this morning with more of the same forecast so I put off doing the food shopping until tomorrow. Keyed in some fiction and read some online news articles. Listened to Toyah Willcox and The Mission. Made a list of 130 books I want to read next year. Watched some ace natural biketrial video clips on Facebook this morning. Going to try reading in bed but will probably just fall asleep. Jenni will be here Thursday. 10.54 pm.

Wednesday 23rd December 2015

My intention was to get the veg for Xmas dinner and a few things to last until just after Boxing Day. “I’m not buying a lot,” I told Jenni a while ago. But three trips to the shops later and I’ve probably got enough to last us a fortnight. College was in touch asking for paperwork I sent three months ago. I keyed in 1700 words but it’s getting tough. Read a short story by Charles Bukowski but it didn’t do much for me. Earlier I read shorts by Neil Campbell from his book Pictures from Hopper. Very visual, very descriptive, as you’d expect being inspired by paintings. Listened to Blondie and Queen this evening. Going to have an early night so I can be up and out first thing to buy roast chicken and stuffing. 10.10 pm.

Thursday 24th December 2015

Awake just after five so I did more words for my fiction challenge then had a walk up to Morrisons. Rain started as soon as I left the house. Went back to bed when I got home. Keyed in a bunch of words, watched The Mission on video – chuffed to find out they will be announcing a world tour next year. Did some Xmas cards at long last. Forgot to get one for Jenni. She arrived at half seven, ate a pork pie then when to wrap up presents while I read ‘Penny For Your Thoughts’ – a short story by Hubert Selby Jnr from his 1986 collection ‘Song of the Silent Snow’. Enjoyed a fascinating documentary about stand up/comedy actor Peter Kay. Included his ‘biscuit in the tea’ bit. Me and Jenni had some chilli and tortilla chips. Soon be Xmas. 11.10 pm.

Friday 25th December 2015

Jenni was up at half six. Lots of cool presents today. Bigly Thanks to Jenni for Breaking Bad Series 3 on dvd, The Theory of Everything and the new Kurt Cobain documentary Soaked in Bleach; Adele’s new cd, a trilogy of Samuel Beckett novels, Spiderman notebook, a weekly organiser wall pad, Batman socks, new hi-tech bag, some jog-pants, honey-roast peanuts, jellies, a bottle of Rochesters non-alcoholic rum and raison. Thanks to Diane and Kyle for the hat, gloves and Firetrap socks. Thanks to Mam and Ernie who gave me money, toiletries; and a slanket – which is a massive fleece blanket with sleeves and pockets for hands and feet. Jenni got one too. And a hairdryer, an mp3 player, Breaking Bad Series 4, bottle of wine, chocolates, Larkin poems and other things. Enjoyed making the mega dinner today. We have got it down to a fine operation. Managed to eat all mine with a half-time reheat. Jenni had a second sitting after a little sleepy. Watched soaps and Scrooged, spoke to Mam, Ernie and brother Mark on the phone. Ate the rest of the chicken with boiled potatoes and pigs in blankets for supper. A nice quiet high-calorie day at home. Good. 11.40 pm.

Saturday 26th December 2016

The decadence of red wine from a beer tankard. A hot pork pie with chilli sauce served on a plastic coffee lid. All the sweets and all the crisps and all the pies – all the time. Cleared up the Xmas dinner aftermath first thing. Lots of laughs with Jenni. Caught up on my word count towards 50,000 for the month. Wished Mam a happy birthday. Watched ‘Dickensian’ on TV. Lost track of time and day of the week till I opened my journal. Okay. 10.34 pm.

Sunday 27th December 2015

Eating, drinking, watching television. Got more words down this afternoon. Not very good through. No Plot? No Problem – unless you’re a creative writing tutor. At least the weather was dry and bright and the house is in decent shape. Ate big fried ham sandwiches and ice cream. Read a sizable chunk of ‘The Hellbound Heart’ by Clive Barker, watched Jekyll and Hyde then Agatha Christie’s ‘And Then There Were None’. 10.24 pm.

Monday 28th December 2015

Fictional morning pages till half-nine then read all but the first thirty-four pages of Clive Barker’s The Hellbound Heart till half-eleven. Packed up a book for dispatch but the Post Office is closed until tomorrow. Good to have a walk out today anyway. Me and Jenni had a conversation about plotting fiction. She knows a lot more about it than I do and can come up with a murder mystery in about five minutes. I keyed in another 1700 words and before tea. Spent the first part of the evening comparing reviews on goodreads.com for some of my favourite so-called transgressive books – Lydia Lunch’s ‘Paradoxia – A Predator’s Diary’, Charles Bukowski’s ‘Post Office’, Michael R Gira’s ‘The Consumer and Other Stories’ and Henry Rollins’ ‘Solipsist’, deliberately focusing on one-star reviews instead of five – hilarious to hear how bad some people think these books are. Started re-reading Post Office then watched the Agatha Christie. It’s been a canny day. Will be out in town for a while tomorrow. 11.07 pm.

Tuesday 29th December 2015

Just under 49,000 words written so far this month. Was aiming to blitz the 50,000-mark a day early, but stalled when I turned on the computer to find that one of the godfathers of hard rock’n’roll, Mr Ian Fraser Lemmy Kilmister, sadly passed away yesterday. Been meaning to catch Motorhead live the last few times they’ve played Newcastle, but the gigs always clashed with one of my own events or were the day before and my ears would be shot. I listened to the Rock’n’Roll album this morning: first saw Motorhead play in 1987 at Spennymoor Leisure Centre, of all places, then at City Hall in 1989. Lemmy was a mint lyricist and totally embodied the hard-playing, hard touring rocker. Always struck me as beyond bullshit. People take the piss out of metal music all the time but not out of Lemmy. You don’t have to like the music to respect the man who made it. Generations of fans will be gutted today. Legend. 10.29 pm.

Wednesday 30th December 2015

Pleased to get my 50,000 completed this morning and the first draft printed out. Obviously it’s absolutely terrible in its current form. It’ll take months and months to make something of it. Was good to see Sunshine on Leith this afternoon, based around The Proclaimers’ songs. Maybe using songs or poems in sequence would be a good way to generate a story… I’m taking it easy to evaluate my 2015 tomorrow and then I’ll have a look at some poetry in the new year. Was good to see the Lemmy documentary this evening. Enjoyed taking time out earlier to make cowboy hash with chilli. Me and Jenni have been a bit indulgent food-wise. Will have to cut back on everything in the coming weeks. There’s a terrible adaptation of a Stephen King story on C5. I won’t be watching much television in 2016. Want to start biking again and get lots of editing done.

11.28 pm.

Thursday 31st December 2015

Good day. Nice to read people’s end of the year round-ups on Facebook. Me and Jenni went into Consett this afternoon. It rained and we had to take shelter in the charity shops then ended up going round every supermarket in town. Jenni was on a bargain hunt. We got lots of stuff in the reduced aisle. Pasta and sandwiches and corned beef. We bought STOLLEN CAKE! Felt a bit wrecked this evening. Pins and needles in my face and a bit of blurred vision. Have been getting nagging little headaches over the last few days. Watched Mrs Brown’s Boys The Movie this evening but prefer the live studio recording. Me and Jenni will be staying up to see in the New Year watching Jools Holland’s Hootenanny. 10.55 pm.

And so ends another very busy one. Forty-two gigs – including appearances at King Ink, The Stanza, Writers’ Café Birthday Bash, The Literary Salon, Radikal Words Northern Stage Slam, Speak Easi Spoken Word Festival, Black Light Engine Room, Alphabetti Soup, The Jazz Café, Telling Tales, Owl Writers at Little Theatre, The Soundroom, The Banshee Labyrinth, Never Mind the Ramones 2, Stanley Fringe, Derwentside Mind and various JibbaJabba events in Newcastle, Sunderland, Whitley Bay and Edinburgh. It was great to perform on a bill at the Fringe with Kevin Cadwallender and Rosie Garland; to guest at one of James McKay’s shows and take part in the Hammer and Tongue Slam. Massive THANK YOU to everyone who came to Poetry Jam in Durham – we had some outstanding nights at Waddington Street Centre this year. I delivered over 160 writing workshops for Cambian Appletree, Centre for Change, Derwentside Mind, New College Durham, Waddington Street Centre and Wishing Tree Writers. I published anthologies via Talking Pen for groups in Consett, Durham and Newton Aycliffe; and solo pamphlets for Chris Harland, Jane Burn and Chris Hill. Many Thanks to PA Morbid of Black Light Engine Room for publishing a set of my prose poems alongside work by the wonderful Catherine Ayres in the double-header pamphlet DARK MATTER 5. Throughout 2015 I continued to inflict my diary on Facebook friends via the ‘Scribbles from the Brink of Inertia’ blog, produced over a thousand morning pages plus essays, poems and rants; and managed to come up with a 50,000 word ‘anti-novel’ first draft in thirty days. On the music front I saw Jarboe (ex-Swans), albeit briefly, in London; saw The Mission play as Blood Brothers in Manchester; met Toyah Willcox – again – after her show in Stockton; and finally got round to seeing John Lydon onstage when Public Image Limited played Newcastle. Having eaten far too much this year, I’ve put on a stone in weight; and exhibited further signs of prolonged mid-life crisis by continuing to ride my long board (skateboard) in Consett and Blackhill Park when weather and work schedule allowed. I have a new poetry collection ‘Laughter to Split Glass’ out from Red Squirrel Press next Spring - so big thanks to Sheila Wakefield - and a book of ‘Anomalies 1989-2014’ nearing completion. BIGLY THANKS to everyone – writers, performers, promoters, venues, audiences; employers, workshop participants; family and friends – for yet another great year. All the best for 2016...