Good cause first, obviously. Would you like one of these?
More importantly, would you like to contribute some dollars to an undiluted good cause, to wit, the protection of children from exploitation and abuse. The guys at Ten Angry Pitbulls have come up with a cool way to raise funds for this advocacy group, and they’ve managed to sign up a number of authors to the gig, among them such luminaries as Andrew Vachss, Dennis Lehane and Nick Hornby – and me. Quite how I end up in such august and best-selling company, I’m not entirely sure, but if it’s good enough for Vachss, it’s sure as shit good enough for me. They don’t make moral integrity meters high enough to measure that guy.
Plus – it’s a cool shirt, right? Big fuck-off sword, splattered gore and all.
Anyway, check out the site, check the links, make sure you’re cool with it all. Gonna be the indispensable fashion statement of 2010!
Plus – I’m sticking my nose out of the winter snow early this year. February 5th to 7th, I’ll be a guest of honour at this gig in the Kingdom of Daan Saaf. And said gig is the occasion of the long drive I mentioned above. Turns out plane and train connections from Glasgow down to Camber Sands are a bit complicated, so I’m cutting that particular Gordian Knot by piling in the car and driving down, all 490 miles. Should be fun, in a Mad Max, white-line nightmare sort of way…..
Okay, so for all you North Americans 490 miles doesn’t sound like a lot – I was once humbled at a book signing in Cincinnati (or was it Madison?) to find that two fans had driven about that far for the day just to meet me and get my scrawl – but take it from me, for a Brit, that’s a long drive, not least because it involves trying to find a decent detour around the sprawl of our beloved capital. Which reminds me – if anyone down in that part of the world knows a route that doesn’t involve parking on the M25 for two or three hours, and would like to share it, you will have my undying gratitude for that charitable act.
Maybe see you down there.
In seriousness.. the least amount of M25, for maximum gain.
http://tinyurl.com/y8lj56z
The A1(M) + M11 section is an essential part of this route.
Heheheheh – outstanding!
Well, I guess it answers the question anyway: can it be (sensibly) done?
Not in this life.
Death and Taxes and the M25.
Google Maps has outshone itself with this route avoiding the M25.
http://tinyurl.com/ykc6y6x
I’ll buy a shirt if you’ll write the follow-up to The Steele Remains already! <3 =)
SFX Weekender tickets are still out there – if all else fails, people are swapping/flogging them on the site’s forums. Plus, lots of giveaways!
Really looking forward to it. Morgan, Mieville, Abercrombie? Crikey.
Update:
Tee Shirts ordered.
Next time, please consider black.
The gig in question is apparently sold out – no matter, I can’t make it anyway. Any plans to pop over the pond anytime in the foreseeable future? Say, somewhere within driving distance of southern Illinois, perhaps?
The T-Shirt might be something I’m interested in buying, but I sure wish it were available in black. Pretty much, the only color I wear. Okay, that’s not entirely true, but I really don’t like white Tee Shirts. Maybe I’ll get one for my Tattooist. He’s a big fan as well.
Hell, maybe I’ll get two and hold onto the one.. see can’t I get the author to sign it…
I used to go with train, then taxi to get to Camber Sands, but I wasn’t starting from quite so far away.
Coldest, wettest place in England
a route around London which doesnt involve the M25…
hmm..
I could do you a route through London, but it very much depends what time of day you are intending on travelling.
t-shirts look good, btw. i might have to procure one!
Camber Sands…oh wow, excellent. Brings back some good memories for me.
The good: the excellent All Tomorrows Parties festival at the Pontin’s (I think it’s moved to Minehead now though. Great days *reminisces*).
The bad: the carnage getting there. We flew from Glasgow to “London Luton” (Luton isn’t in London >poke, >poke, >poke) took the train from the airport to actual London then got on the clapped out trains that they still, inexplicably, seem to run on those lines (they were ancient and clapped out when I lived in Kent 20 years ago – still; the smells stimulated some pleasant childhood memories) for a journey of at least two fucking hours.
I suggest, if at all possible, you leave a couple of days early so that you aren’t frazzled and irritable. By the time we got there we did the dishourable thing of watching The Breeders (who were headlining the Friday) and waiting ’til they played Cannonball and fucking off to bed.
Excellent T and excellent cause…although I do worry that wearing it may destroy my cool (look – there really isn’t a lot to start with…I have to cling on to what precious shreds I have).
Ah what the hell. *ordered*
Yeeesh! How pretentious I read with nary an exclamation mark! Apologies to regular posters and the author himself -my first comment on a blog – forgive!
Cheers still,
YH
The Vachss comment – a pure truth.
“Black Man” – a cyberpunk hermaphrodite (on Gaiman’s book-gender specification) punk’d.
“The Steel Remains” – gay so un-gay (or a-gay).
The “Kovacs” trilogy – the soul of no-soul.
Waiting for your work translated unremiss in Bahasa Indonesia so my girlfriend can meet Sevgi. (And hats off anyway.)
Kudos for Carl Marsalis; he is jazz – ephemeral, irreverent, subdued with pride, and venerable. He’s “one of the good guys, son. ‘Cause there’s way too many of the bad.” I await the worlds which you proffer to wander/wonder.
Cheers,
YH
“Deserters never prosper” may have been more appropriate.