I love the chaos a tube strike can ignite in London. The anger and frustration on people’s faces this morning. I got stuck on a bus in Hackney. I was sitting on the bus for two whole hours, but I didn’t realise the time as I was reading. Two hours of uninterrupted reading. Bliss.
If you’re around Old Street tube station at 1.00 PM on Tuesday 16th then pop into Camden Lock Books to meet Iain Sinclair; he’ll be signing his books there. Camden Lock Books is one of my favourite bookshops in London. If you’re not a fan of Sinclair have a gander at the well-stocked fiction shelves under ‘R’ and you’ll find copies of ‘Everyday’. I’ll probably be in the shop at some point between 1-2 PM so I’m available for an ‘unofficial’ signing myself.**
I have been writing furiously for the last two weeks so have had no time to blog. I finished a review for the Guardian and The Independent and have nailed the first chapter of my next novel. I have about three other chapters in longhand that need typing up. I am happy with its progress. I should have the 1st draft ready for the end of September 2009 to show my publisher. The novel is written in two narratives: one second person present tense and the other first person past tense. It begins with first person past tense and ends with second person present tense. Each narrative strand appears alternately. When people ask me what the novel is about, I reply: electricity.
I also seem to have two poetry collections – still editing these on a daily basis and should be finished at the end of this year.
The book ‘On Boredom’ is taking shape and I have nearly completed another short story collection ‘I like to be stationary’.
I think that 2009 could be my most productive year so far in terms of writing output (not just everyday writing, but actual projects that are near completion). Hopefully these will see the light of day in 2010-11.
Oh, I’m on Twitter by the way. I think I like twitter. I feel a la mode when I log in. Okay, I’m just a slave like the rest of the online community, but I refuse to allow these modes of communication to leave me behind. For anyone who cares: http://twitter.com/LeeRourke
Apart from paid reviews and 3AM Magazine work (and a Josipovici project I’m working on) I will be reading no more fiction for the next two/three months as I have to solidly read up on the Large Hadron Collider for the novel I’m currently writing. Plus, I try not to read fiction when I’m working on a novel.
**Obviously I’m trying to be humorous here, but, you never know.
*
""A story assembled from everyday objects, unassumingly and quietly, that stuns and horrifies by increments...The Canal may look, at first glance, like a love story, but it harnesses the power of parable." John Wray, author of Lowboy.
