possible halloween costumes:

* Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
* a cup of coffee next to a laptop (gone cold)
* the sound of the bus station
* something from Ikea
* a sore throat
* www.blogspot.com
* needing the toilet
* the man from the Ronseal Woodstain advert
* the man from the Cillit Bang! advert
* just a man, walking around, looking in shop windows, etc.
* someone from the Insane Clown Posse (or related band)
* a person at a Q&A session (following a reading) who asks a long question which is not really a question
* some craft tweezers
* 'the state of modern music' (dwindling CD sales, etc.)
* etc.

interview

i was interviewed for the Nottingham online magazine LeftLion a month or so ago. it's just gone online.

interview here.

*** spoiler alert: just read it back. feels like i say pretty much all the same things i've said in other online interviews.***

dog on wheels, etc.

i have a short thing on the Wunderkammer magazine site:

DOG ON WHEELS

it is a 'response' to a photo Kathryn Regina sent me of another writer - Megan Martin - as a child. i sent Kathryn one of me as a scarecrow.

it is part of a 'writers as kids' thing that Kathryn is guest editing. i think she is posting two a day. looking forward to what someone did with my scarecrow one.

***

just read this interview with Brandon Scott Gorrell on bookslut. really liked it; felt like he 'pushed things' in it; like in his novella; that it has acheived a 'new level of irony' or something.

***

the cat mentioned in post below was a stray cat, btw.

***

there is a weird 'burnt green tea' smell in my living room at the moment. don't know where it is coming from. feels like i have never smelled anything like it before. feel 10% curious/90% worried by the smell

readings, etc.

i have some readings coming up this month:

Saturday, 10th Oct -- Cheltenham Literature Festival, in a special free Canongate/Highland Park 'Keynotes' tent, 3:30 and 7:30pm (think you get a free glass of whisky at this one)
Monday, 12th Oct -- Bolton Octagon, w/ Annie Clarkson, 8pm
Thurdsday, 22nd Oct -- Edge Hill, Liverpool, 7:30pm
Friday, 23rd Oct -- Lancaster Litfest, w/ Jenn Ashworth and Richard Milward, 9:30pm
???, ??? Oct -- Keele University

we're also organising the next NO POINT night for 19th of October at Matt & Phred's in Manchester. Matt Welton, Jacob Polley and Adelle Stripe booked to read. should be good fun.

***

i went on holiday somewhere for a week and had a nice time and then got scratched on the face by a cat.

***

read SHOPLIFTING FROM AMERICAN APPAREL recently. really liked it. feel somehow completely unable to write a review of it, even a subjective one, further than 'really liked it'.

also really liked the "JESUS CHRIST." (the indie band) track here.

***

reading A GATE AT THE STAIRS. about halfway through. don't want it to end. my favourite sentence so far has been about lawn furniature.

***

my girlfriend looked up 'Cat Scratch Fever' on wikipedia after i got scratched on the face by the cat on holiday. apparently it takes up to three weeks to materialise.

***

Peter Wild from Bookmuch asked me if i would like to interview Lorrie Moore by email. said yes. feel very excited and terrified at the idea of this. want to somehow simultaneously become 'BFF-s' with Lorrie Moore and also send the kind of icy-cold questions that will impress her with my 'professionalism'.

***

my mobile broadband dongle is broken.

www.crispinbest.com

thank you to people who linked/twittered/facebooked/etc. my 'choose your own adventure' game (see previous post). i feel like i should have spent more time on it now, made it a lot longer and more detailed and things. i don't know. i might still do this at some point.

Socrates told me about this other similar and better and more funny game.

***

turns out you can now see the new cover of The Bird Room (B-Format paperback, Jan 2010, £7.99) on the Canongate site. it looks very different to the trade paperback one. i imagine the 'marketing brief' was something like 'young and fresh and sexy and not just about a man looking at the internet and wanking'.

***

i am looking forward to SHOPLIFTING FROM AMERICAN APPAREL. i keep thinking about it.

***

i am writing a new long thing. so far it has someone playing World of Warcraft in it.

***

i feel like there was some other reason why i started writing this post, that there was something else i was going to link to.

***

oh, that's right, it's more self-promotion:

there is now a page for the Harper Perrenial US 2010 edition of The Bird Room, too. not sure if there will be a new cover design. at the moment it is just a picture of the UK trade one. they have used the advert Crispin Best made in the 'videos' section. the listed print run makes me feel simultaneously excited and terrified.

choose your own adventure game

i have made a choose your own adventure game using blogger.

it is called I AM HAVING A NICE TIME

it probably takes about five minutes to play.

does anyone still read this?

big congratulations to Shane Jones about his recently announced deal with Penguin + Light Boxes movie rights thing.

i blurbed Light Boxes at the start of last year.

***

i read this thing too by Sam Pink, yesterday. really liked it. Sam Pink makes me think of Nietzsche's maxims a bit, kind of. but a lot more fun to read.

***

Brandon Scottt Gorrell wrote 'small reflections' about lots of internet people, including me.

***

Crispin Best's blog is always really good. i haven't clicked on it, but i'm sure there is something good there. [i just clicked on it. it's good, as always.]

***

i am unemployed. i finished as Writing Fellow at the end of last month. i am just hanging around and typing things like 'job in manchester' into google and doing the quick crossword now. i feel scared about money. not sure where money is going to come from.

***

does anyone still read this? i think it has 'died'. i feel like i'm typing to myself right now, or to a 'pretend audience' or something. i feel like i am making a pretend radio show with my friend Mark. i feel scared to look at statcounter. i just looked at statcounter. okay, a few people still look at my blog (or accidentally click on it or follow a link and then immediately click away). i am averaging maybe 40 hits per day.

***

i don't know what happened. do i sound like a whiny little bitch if i say 'having a novel published was not fun'? (yes i do. i would think 'fuck you' if i read that two years ago while working at Waterstone's.) i guess i just mean: i have been freaking out for the last six months -- pretty much exactly since the publication date -- and have lost all confidence in my writing. i just about feel better, now that i've sort of 'disappeared' from the internet for a bit. it feels good that when i type 'the bird room+chris killen+review' into google, nothing new appears. i think if i write something again and it gets published, i won't read reviews.

i should clarify: the 'publication process' was really good: i liked talking to an editor and looking at the proofs and making changes and emailing about the cover and things. i have 'fond memories' of that period. i felt 'indestructible' or something.

i guess what i mean is 'writing a novel and then getting bad reviews was not fun'.

***

[update: i feel like a whining idiot.]