Green Cats and Eastercon: my weirdly busy life
Last month, my brother, James, his wife, Annie and my littlest nephew Basher took a city break to Lille, had a lovely time, and thoughtfully picked up some waffle biscuits for me (I like these very much). As I live in the same town, it should have been a simple matter of me popping round one night for a cuppa and picking these up.
I looked at my schedule, however, and couldn’t find room to squeeze a visit in: I had meetings, gigs, planned nights out, museum stuff. I’ve not even had time to catch up with TV I’ve planned to watch on iPlayer. No - I haven’t even seen Dirk Gently!
Eventually I got to see James and Annie - they had to come to one of my gigs to catch me.
Now, whilst that was no hardship, I’m sure (it was an excellent We are Most Amused night, with an amazingly good line-up of Jay Handley, Colin Hinchley, Paul Broad, Paul Mutageija, Celia Wilding, Susie Amato, Nick Clarke, Matt Diggle Davies as Johnny Dazzle and magic Al Rudge, performing to a packed out room) I did feel guilt pangs a-plenty. My own brother, who lives, what, twenty minutes’ walk away, and I couldn’t find time for him?
Granted, I’ve deliberately made myself very busy since Christmas, just to chase the bad clouds out of my head. But I should be making time for family.
But Spring is here and it’s time for a post-Winter, post grief-coping strategy declutter. And because I need method for my metaphor, this weekend I had a chuck out of my beloved but worn out shoes (goodbye tartan DMs, ruined whilst fishing for mackerel), some makeup I’d been clinging on to since university and a load of other hoarded junk. Office - you’re next! *shudder*
N has urged me to look at my ever-growing to do list and sort out my priorities. I need to keep the stuff that will help my literary endeavours and with the pursuit of my dream career, drop the fun stuff that hurts my pocket but doesn’t help my CV. Oh, yes, and probably do more of something - write.
I’ve dropped a couple of open-mic poetry gigs I’d fancied going to in the past couple of weeks - I wouldn’t necessarily have performed, but they would have been fun to be at in any case. Now if I, or anyone else, wants me to do something, I have to be able to complete the phrase “This will be good for me because…” with a really good, non-idiotic ending. “There will be cider,” for example, is not good enough.
Instead, I’m forging ahead with editorial work and am now embarking on a new post-slush reading role, which makes me happy. I’ve got edits coming back to me on a short story that should be out later in the year and I’m also researching the 1612 Northamptonshire witch trials for an exhibition at the museum this summer. So far, my imagining brain has led my feet to the supposed gallows site in Abington Park (where afterwards I sat eating muffins in the café, bewildered by the owner’s numerous photos of himself with James Blunt), and my researching brain to the basement at the library, and back to the museum where, by chance, I bumped into the chairwoman of Heritage Hunters a (local history group) and chatted to her about the gallows site.
I’ve also been speaking with local folklore history expert, Peter Hill, who has been telling me about the mysterious imagery that abounds in Northamptonshire churches. Did you know, for example, that Northamptonshire is teeming with Green Cats? Green Cats Think not of Mooncat or genetically moggified jellyfish creatures - these Green Cats are akin to Green Men, Pagan imagery that has found its way into churches all over the place. There is apparently one in St Peters on Black Lion Hill, and Peter is giving a talk on the Green Man in the Black Lion pub next door to the church on Saturday 19th May at 2pm. I’m particularly keen to hear Peter’s theory on why there are carvings in the church of men holding sweetcorn, dating from before the supposed discovery of the Americas.
All of this is also feeding the fuel for Waking the Witch - a shortish solo poetical performance that I will be doing on 22nd July with some musical and spoken word guest artists.
I’ve also been given my panels for Eastercon, which are as follows:
Friday 6th April - 6pm Commonwealth - Just a Minute I seek to emulate Sue Perkins in this regard, and if I can win this, I claim the right to go eat things with Giles Coren at some point in the very near future. Thanks.
Saturday 7th April - 3pm - 41 (Winchester) - Running an Award “How do you run an award? Who are awards run for - is it the industry, or the readers? How do you engage with your audience? How do older awards stay fresh and relevant to the field, and how do newer awards find a place for themselves?” These are questions the audience wants answered, right? Okay - just checking.
Sunday 8th April - 6pm Commonwealth - the BSFA Awards. Acclaimed writer John Meaney is MCing and presenting the awards will be Cory “Little Brother” Doctorow, Paul “Demon Knights” Cornell, Tricia “Lightborn” Sullivan and George R “Game of Thrones” R Martin. Squee! I will be running round like a mad bird in a dress.
Oh - and my Supermarket challenge continues. If you want to know more about that, you need to be on my friends list.
I looked at my schedule, however, and couldn’t find room to squeeze a visit in: I had meetings, gigs, planned nights out, museum stuff. I’ve not even had time to catch up with TV I’ve planned to watch on iPlayer. No - I haven’t even seen Dirk Gently!
Eventually I got to see James and Annie - they had to come to one of my gigs to catch me.
Now, whilst that was no hardship, I’m sure (it was an excellent We are Most Amused night, with an amazingly good line-up of Jay Handley, Colin Hinchley, Paul Broad, Paul Mutageija, Celia Wilding, Susie Amato, Nick Clarke, Matt Diggle Davies as Johnny Dazzle and magic Al Rudge, performing to a packed out room) I did feel guilt pangs a-plenty. My own brother, who lives, what, twenty minutes’ walk away, and I couldn’t find time for him?
Granted, I’ve deliberately made myself very busy since Christmas, just to chase the bad clouds out of my head. But I should be making time for family.
But Spring is here and it’s time for a post-Winter, post grief-coping strategy declutter. And because I need method for my metaphor, this weekend I had a chuck out of my beloved but worn out shoes (goodbye tartan DMs, ruined whilst fishing for mackerel), some makeup I’d been clinging on to since university and a load of other hoarded junk. Office - you’re next! *shudder*
N has urged me to look at my ever-growing to do list and sort out my priorities. I need to keep the stuff that will help my literary endeavours and with the pursuit of my dream career, drop the fun stuff that hurts my pocket but doesn’t help my CV. Oh, yes, and probably do more of something - write.
I’ve dropped a couple of open-mic poetry gigs I’d fancied going to in the past couple of weeks - I wouldn’t necessarily have performed, but they would have been fun to be at in any case. Now if I, or anyone else, wants me to do something, I have to be able to complete the phrase “This will be good for me because…” with a really good, non-idiotic ending. “There will be cider,” for example, is not good enough.
Instead, I’m forging ahead with editorial work and am now embarking on a new post-slush reading role, which makes me happy. I’ve got edits coming back to me on a short story that should be out later in the year and I’m also researching the 1612 Northamptonshire witch trials for an exhibition at the museum this summer. So far, my imagining brain has led my feet to the supposed gallows site in Abington Park (where afterwards I sat eating muffins in the café, bewildered by the owner’s numerous photos of himself with James Blunt), and my researching brain to the basement at the library, and back to the museum where, by chance, I bumped into the chairwoman of Heritage Hunters a (local history group) and chatted to her about the gallows site.
I’ve also been speaking with local folklore history expert, Peter Hill, who has been telling me about the mysterious imagery that abounds in Northamptonshire churches. Did you know, for example, that Northamptonshire is teeming with Green Cats? Green Cats Think not of Mooncat or genetically moggified jellyfish creatures - these Green Cats are akin to Green Men, Pagan imagery that has found its way into churches all over the place. There is apparently one in St Peters on Black Lion Hill, and Peter is giving a talk on the Green Man in the Black Lion pub next door to the church on Saturday 19th May at 2pm. I’m particularly keen to hear Peter’s theory on why there are carvings in the church of men holding sweetcorn, dating from before the supposed discovery of the Americas.
All of this is also feeding the fuel for Waking the Witch - a shortish solo poetical performance that I will be doing on 22nd July with some musical and spoken word guest artists.
I’ve also been given my panels for Eastercon, which are as follows:
Friday 6th April - 6pm Commonwealth - Just a Minute I seek to emulate Sue Perkins in this regard, and if I can win this, I claim the right to go eat things with Giles Coren at some point in the very near future. Thanks.
Saturday 7th April - 3pm - 41 (Winchester) - Running an Award “How do you run an award? Who are awards run for - is it the industry, or the readers? How do you engage with your audience? How do older awards stay fresh and relevant to the field, and how do newer awards find a place for themselves?” These are questions the audience wants answered, right? Okay - just checking.
Sunday 8th April - 6pm Commonwealth - the BSFA Awards. Acclaimed writer John Meaney is MCing and presenting the awards will be Cory “Little Brother” Doctorow, Paul “Demon Knights” Cornell, Tricia “Lightborn” Sullivan and George R “Game of Thrones” R Martin. Squee! I will be running round like a mad bird in a dress.
Oh - and my Supermarket challenge continues. If you want to know more about that, you need to be on my friends list.