The Spoons That Are My Ears!

Having completed The Postmodern Mariner more quickly than anticipated -- in one month instead of a year -- I have been lately pondering my writing schedule for the remainder of 2007. The Clown of the New Eternities is my main priority, followed by a novella called The Once and Future Peasant, but I also want to start work on another novel, Wuthering Depths, even if it only means constructing an outline... And there are a few more short stories to finish before getting my teeth into any of these bigger projects!

As always new ideas keep jumping into my head. The latest one is Suppers Around the Periodic Table, a book of stories in which all the chemical elements are personified, with endless possibilties for symmetrical and tricksy structure. The number of protons in the nucleus of each respective atom, for instance, might determine the number of characters in that particular story, or the number of situations or sub-plots, etc. 'Hydrogen' and 'Helium' would be very short and simple stories, whereas 'Ununhexium' and 'Ununoctium' would be extremely complex and highly artificial. ('Ununseptium' could be represented by a blank page).

I also think it's time I considered producing a non-fiction book. The title I have in mind is Dinners With Strange Ladies ('strange' as in not-well-known-to-me, rather than odd!)... The plan is that I travel Europe meeting ladies in different countries and going out for dinner with them... I might use my forthcoming Portugal/Spain trip to kickstart this project. To make my task easier I am currently using MySpace to make contact with many strange ladies along my route in those two countries. I have mixed feelings about MySpace, but it has allowed me to listen to a lot of great music, both from established and unsigned bands, and I have already met a few ladies from there for real.