Blog Archive: September 2017

Local Celebrity
One of the MANY things that all the "How To Promote Your eBook" articles I have been reading ALL say is that you need to use your "networks" to promote the aforesaid eBook. HENCE I have sent press releases and emails to various organisations I have belonged to (e.g. City University Alumni Society) and my old local newspaper. None of these have so far had ANY effect on sales, but still, it's worth a go!

With that in mind The Facts In My Story suggested that I have a look to see if there's any STAFF NEWS at my current employers. I mean, obviously I KNEW ALREADY that there was because i diligently read it and definitely didn't have to GOOGLE it or anything, so I contacted them and they sent me a QUESTIONNAIRE to fill in so I could be in their weekly STAFF SPOTLIGHT.

I thought this wouldn't be out until this Thursday, so imagine my surprise on Tuesday when one of my colleagues said she'd already seen it. "Your face is on the main staff page!" she said. I had a look and it certainly was, with a link to the actual interview into which I manage to casually SHOEHORN a mention of the book.

Again, it doesn't seem to have had ANY effect on SALES as yet, but then the only thing that DOES seems to do that is making it FREE! The big shock is that nobody else in the office has mentioned it to me. It's almost as if nobody apart from the aforesaid colleague - and ME, obviously - reads the staff newsletter. That can't be right, can it?

posted 29/9/2017 by MJ Hibbett
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Acoustic Futures
As well as the NEW COLLABORATIONS mentioned yesterday I am ALSO Moving Forward with my most VENERABLE group of collaborators, The Validators. For LO! We have been laying plans for our FUTURE ACTION!

The advent of Tim's Giant Wooden Testicle (AKA The CAJON) and Frankie's purchase of an Acoustic Bass has meant that this year we have been able to do several Mostly Totally Acoustic gigs which has been, according to me, BRILLIANT. We have never really PRACTICED this way (I'm sure this has not been obvious from our performances!) and so we have arranged TWO (2) practices in this format, one in October and another in November so that - EXCITINGLY - we can have a go at working up some NEW SONGS this way!

The GRATE thing about this CONFIGURATION is that we DON'T have to book into a Rehearsal Studio to do it. So we're NOT! For the October practice we're hoping to play in a PUB, not for frivolous reasons but for Good Professional Practice - as everybody knows, it is best to do EXAM REVISION in a library or suchlike because it is LIKE an Exam Hall, so your brain recalls FACTS more easily in the actual exam because it learnt them in a similar environment. THUS it must surely be ONLY LOGICAL to learn SONGS in a place/mental state similar to where you will be performing them i.e. in a pub, having had a couple of pints. It's just common sense!

The current plan is to have the SECOND practice round at Frankie's house so we can RECORD it, possibly even recording this year's CHRISTMAS SONG too if we get the chance, all in preparation for a COLOSSAL GIG which we have yet to announce. I don't want to go into too many details about it, but suffice to say it is going to make OTHER Village Christmas Fayres in Leicestershire look PRETTY TAWDRY in comparison!

So that's the plan - we've got a BUNCH of songs to have a go at, so who knows, there might even be some new stuff out next year!!

posted 28/9/2017 by MJ Hibbett
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I Am Marr
Most weeks I have a regular-ish LUNCH appointment with Mr J Dredge where we meet to discuss THORTS, come up with JOKES, and envisage BOLD NEW SCHEMES. The newest of these schemes is an idea John proposed a while ago to CO-WRITE a couple of SONGS. He suggested doing something like Morrissey and Marr, with me sending him some TUNES and then him coming up with some words. This sounded like fun, so we gave it a go.

I have several spare tunes lying around, MOST of which were recorded on my phone on the way to work and go "La la diddly pom la something something-" and then it cuts out. HOWEVER there were a few bits and bobs that had ACTUAL GUITAR on them, so I worked a few up and sent them to John. He then worked out the vocal melody and words for one and used FRIGHTENING levels of futuristic technology to record it i.e. he played it Quite Loud on his computer and sang along with it into a recorder, which he then gave to me to listen to.

It sounded DEAD GOOD - unlike anything I'd ever do myself, which was pretty much the POINT! We decided to do another and so he asked me to send him "the full song" for one of the other ideas I'd sent him. This was slightly tricky as there WASN'T a full song, it was just a RIFF basically, so I went home and tried to work out how a full arrangement might go. This is NOT how I usually write songs - the arrangement of verses, choruses and Middle Bits usually arise as a way of fitting in all the EARTH SHATTERING STATEMENTS I wish to make, so it was a bit of a BRANE STRETCH to do it JUST with the tunes, but also FUN, and the song we got out of it in the end was ALSO dead good.

The next stage will be to record them, and so we have recruited Mr A Harland (aka Andy from the Dredgeland Podcats etc etc) to do DRUMS and we're planning to go to an Actual Studio to LAY THEM DOWN. After THAT the general idea is to do VIDOES and John has various PLANS of ways to promote it. I think it's going to be under the name of DREDGE, possibly with a backing band called The Plinths, but that is all to be worked out. We DID have a PHOTO SESSION the other day with me taking pictures of John in ROCK STAR POSES on my phone though, which was rather jolly. I am investigating options to become a ROCK PHOTOGRAPHER on tour with Thin Lizzy even as we speak!

We're currently trying to work out DATES for the above mentioned recording session, and then it will be HO! for the Studio. I will report back on PROGRESS!

posted 27/9/2017 by MJ Hibbett
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Writing Progress
I reached something of a MILESTONE on Friday, as I completed the second draft of the OUTLINE for "The Utopians", the sequel to Storm House.

The idea of doing an OUTLINE is that you can work out the mechanics of the plot BEFORE you go and do all the exciting dialogue/character/funny bits, as it is a LOT easier to fix any errors that way than it would be when you have already written 10,000 words of HILARIOUS INTERACTIONS that you then have to entirely re-do. It is a methodology what was enforced upon me by Mr A Cartmel when he was my MENTOR on my MA course, and it is a GRATE way of going about it, not least because by the time you finally FINISH all the plotting you are FULL of ideas and GAGGING to get going on the fun bits!

With this story I was very grateful to him all over again, as the ending is QUITE COMPLICATED and thus required a LOT of working out. Hopefully it won't seem too complicated way when people eventually read it, but it has quite a lot of different characters doing different things in different places at the same time, and it's quite difficult to keep track of them all! ALSO I have three seperate Quite Interesting Backstories that all come to a SIMULTANEOUS CLIMAX, and I am very aware that, if I'm not careful, it could all become a lengthy exercise in Characters Explaining Things To Each Other.

I think I've got it all worked out now though - it was RATHER exciting when I was writing the last bit as various LOOSE PLOTS from earlier on in the story put their hands up and said "OOH! PLEASE! Can I be involved in THE FINALE please?" and also I got to DESTROY huge chunks of Peterborough City Centre. The plan is to LEAVE it all for a week or so, then go back and do a THIRD draft of the whole thing, checking for the above mentioned ERRORS and making sure it all makes some kind of vague sense. Then, hopefully sometime before Christmas, I can begin with the Actual Writing!

In the meantime, and as mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I've been working hard on the SHORT STORIES. I've now got THREE (3) pretty much finished, with ideas for another two underway, and it's really rather good fun. I must admit that the shadow of THARG THE MIGHTY does hang over a couple of them but I reckon that, like songs, the best bet is to write SEVERAL and then see which ones actually work. It's also nice to ALTERNATE between the PLANNING of THE NOVEL and the much easier KNOCKING UP of short stories!

I'm going to have a go at sending some of the good ones in for COMPETITIONS and the like, and then hopefully publishing them either on my writing pages or - WHO KNOWS - maybe even as a short story collection. Don't hold your breath though - if the ANALOGY of short stories as songs HOLDS then it will be approx THREE YEARS until the "album" is finished!

posted 26/9/2017 by MJ Hibbett
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Harvest Stomping
We had a flipping LOVELY weekend this weekend just gone, especially on Sunday, and we didn't even have to leave our postcode to do it.

For LO! it was the Birthday of The Days In My Year, and this neatly coincided with a) GORGEOUS weather and b) The Harvest Stomp. This latter is SORT OF like a harvest festival that takes place in the Olympic Park, but more like a village FETE sort of thing. There's a stage with CEILIDH dancing, MORRIS dancing and local bands, various food stalls, and a LOAD of tents for things like food recycling, beekeeping, vegetables, JAM and so forth. There's also lots of STILT WALKERS and CHARACTERS i.e. people in odd costumes wandering round and ENGAGING with people. Sometimes this can be a bit annoying (a couple of weeks ago in the park someone pedalled past in a pretend canoe and was UNKIND about my lunch choices) but these ones were basically THRONGED with children looking at them. There were a LOT of children there this year - as The Day Of My Birth said, WORD seems to have got around about the park!

It was all rather delightful, and was made MORE so by the addition of a BEER TENT, which I don't think they've had at this event before. It was a very small beer tent, staffed by two slightly HARASSED looking chaps from the local Five Points Brewing Company, but they dealt with the EXTENSIVE queue fairly quickly, and the PILS was nice.

We topped off the day by going out for DINNER, recreating our evenings out in Belfast by going to the Premier Inn Bar (which, it turns out, has an AMAZING view of where we live) and then to Pizza Express in Westfield. ALAS they didn't have the Vegan Mozarella for the DELICIOUS Vegan Pizza (it actually tastes like a pizza, it's AMAZING) so we went over to STRADA instead, which was also dead nice. We felt quite SWANKY dining out, especially as it meant it only took us ten minutes to get home again, where we could watch a whole HEAP of telly.

It was a pretty flipping lovely way to end a flipping lovely day. Roll on next STOMP!

posted 25/9/2017 by MJ Hibbett
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Studio Wayne McGregor
I left work slightly earlier than normal on Tuesday to head back to The Olympics Where I Live for a TOUR and a TALK as part of their Neighbourhood Engagement STUFF. I wasn't that interested in being engaged with, to be honest, but I always enjoy a bit of a NOSEY ROUND!

It was all happening at Here East the ENORMOUS building that used to contain the WORLD of Broadcasters covering the Olympics and now contains various technology and ARTS companies. I was quite excited about getting there on the Here East Shuttle Bus which I see buzzing around, but when I got on it I was told that I'd probably be quicker walking, as there was a West Ham game on so lots of roads were closed and there was HORRENDOUS traffic. Curses!

I thus set off stomping at HIGH SPEED, which did mean I was able to meet The Steps Of My Stroll on the way, and together we went into The University Of Loughborough's SUPER SNAZZY reception area, where there were DRINKS and SNACKS! We then got taken round the corner to have a look at Studio Wayne McGregor. It's a DANCE studio and is EXTREMELY impressive. Here East is made up of SUPER GINORMOUS great big HANGERS, and inside this one was AN ENTIRE OTHER BUILDING that they'd put there, containing TWO of the biggest dance studios in EUROPE and various other facilities. As ever I was a bit CYNICAL about it to start with, but was won over by how FAB it looked and how ENTHUSIASTIC the guide was. The only worry, as the aforesaid Voices In My Gallery pointed out, was that you could hear EVERYTHING that people were saying EVERYWHERE and ANYWHERE in the building. Luckily DANCE and the Arts in general are REKNOWNED for their total lack of gossip and bitchiness, so I'm sure that's FINE!

We went back to the University of Loughborough reception to snaffle some coffee and cake, and then got led into a Lecture Theatre for a Panel Discussion about The Area. We went to one of these back in the Spring (mostly so we could go on the West Ham TOUR) and it had been a similar mix to this one of Fair Enough Questions and Generalised Moaning. The main difference this time was that one of the panelists looked EXACTLY like Phoebe From Friends. It was MOST distracting and I was HIGHLY tempted to ask her to sing "Smelly Cat".

I did NOT do this thing though, which was probably for the best. Apart from that distraction the whole event was HUGE fun, and we were able to walk home through the PARK. I don't know if I've ever mentioned it, but I really REALLY like living where we do!

posted 22/9/2017 by MJ Hibbett
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Being Supportive
I had SUCH a lovely time at Gav's gig on Sunday night that it has left me wanting MORE. As regular visitors to this blog may have noticed, my GIG-RATE has declined HUGELY over the past few years. Back in 2011 I did a MASSIVE 79 gigs, but since then that number has (mercifully) shrunk until it looks like this year I'll be doing a much more gentle 25 or so.

In many MANY ways it's much nicer doing fewer gigs. There's a lot less travelling around, a lot MORE being at home on the sofa watching TELLY, a lot less being HUNGOVER, and MUCH less chance of ending up doing one of those occasional gigs where I'd travel for HOURS mid-week to play to approx 3 people who didn't really want to watch me.

However, lots of gigs were LOTS of fun, and I must admit I do miss them a bit, especially the ones that, like Gav's gig, went REALLY WELL. It may surprise you to know that there is a small (very small) part of me that LIKES the applause and getting to show off - no, really, there is - and it made me think that maybe I could do a bit more of it again.

I spoke to The Dates On My Itinerary about these THORTS and she suggested that maybe I should see about getting some SUPPORT SLOTS. As she said, the stressful gigs are usually the ones where I'm HEADLINING and I have to hope that enough people are bothered about ME to turn up. Doing a support gig is a LOT less pressure and, now that I think about it, it's precisely the sort of environment that my ACT, such as it is, was originally HONED for. I used to RELISH the CHALLENGE of having to WIN OVER audiences who had come to see somebody else!

With that in mind I thought I might give it ago, and immediately realised that I no longer have any idea how to go about it. Back in THE DAY I knew all sorts of acts/bands/promoters who were regularly booking gigs, but now pretty much everyone I've ever known who DID it has stopped! Also I used to know what was going on because I used to go TO SEE gigs, but I haven't done that for ages either!

SO, I thought I'd ask you, gentle reader, if you have ANY idea of bands/acts/promoters that I might approach with such a thing in mind? Is there ANYBODY who might appreciate a support act in their late thirties (ALL RIGHT EXTREMELY LATE THIRTIES) who could come and bellow at their audience for 20 minutes or so? I am VERY well behaved and almost certainly wouldn't get drunk and be rude to anybody important, and even if I did, which I probably wouldn't, I would definitely be CHARMING about it and people would find it amusing eventually.

Any ideas are very welcome in the COMMENTS below!

posted 21/9/2017 by MJ Hibbett
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The Osborn Tour
We got back from Belfast around 4pm on Sunday, at which point I had a quick shower and unpack before heading out again for ISLINGTON where I was supporting Mr G Osborn on his TOUR.

It's a right proper tour he's doing - he's out for a couple of weeks going ALL round the country in a way that I have never really managed. I must admit to feeling a bit jealous of him, but when he told me that he was KNACKERED because he's been sleeping on floors (and the nice people he's staying with keep wanting to stay up after the show to celebrate) I remembered why I stopped doing it so often! It is EXHAUSTING!

The Hewitts were in attendance, which was lovely as I'd not seen them for AGES, and there was a large HAUL of familiar faces, including a delightful clutch of Totally Acoustic regulars. The gig was at The Bill Murray, which is run much like an Edinburgh venue so that shows HAVE to start and end on time, so that's what we did.

First up was Ms J Lockyer who, as ever, was GRATE. The gig had SOLD OUT so she was playing to a PACKED room who were WELL up for it, and she went down so well that I got a bit worried. There was lots of JOKES and SINGALONGS and I was AFEARED that I would be rubbish after all that. My mighty mind RACED through possible sets, and this is what I ended up going onstage and doing:

The Peterborough All-Saints Wide Game Team (group B)

20 Things To Do Before You're 30

(You Make Me Feel) Soft Rock

It Only Works Because You're here

The Lesson Of The Smiths

Boom Shake The Room

I had a BLOOODY FANTASTIC time! Everybody remained UP for it, and my gambit of doing without the microphone meant I was free to DANCE AROUND, which I did! It was one of those gigs where ALL the HILARIOUS GAGS got LARFS and I even managed to say some NEW things without it going horribly wrong. It was really REALLY hard not to play extra songs - I said at the start that I was going to do six songs partly because I think it's GOOD to give that information, but also to make sure I didn't go on too long and eat into Gav's set.

We had a small break and then there was nearly an hour or Gav, accompanied by Mr J Hare, and they were AMAAAAAZING. They played loads of songs off the wonderful Echo Bridge Album which I would STRONGLY SUGGEST you buy a copy of, then a bunch of old FAVOURITES. They also did a GRATE new song called something like "The World Needs Much More Music And Art And Much Less Arseholes Talking About It" which had a GINORMOUS chorus. I forsee a great future for it!

With that all done, all in good time, it was time to finish our drinks and head home. I had a LOVELY time i must say, gigs are GRATE!

posted 20/9/2017 by MJ Hibbett
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Midi-Break To Belfast
Myself and The Wheels On My Bus went for a flipping BRILLIANT few days away in BELFAST last week. SPOILERS: It was GRATE!

The original idea to go there came when when Theresa May made her DEAL with the DUP, and the aforesaid Members In My Party wanted to find out what this place was all about. We set off after work from City Airport which, as on previous occasions, was a LOVELY place to fly from. You just get off the DLR (which leaves from OUR HOUSE), wander through into the reception, and within approx 15 minutes you're sitting waiting in the Departure Lounge. It feels so SOPHISTICATED!

We ZIPPED over the Irish Sea and landed at George Best airport which is another diddy airport where you just wander through in MINUTES. We hopped on a BUS, walked to The Premier Inn, and it was a mere matter of a few minutes before we were sat in THE BAR. I wish all air travel was this quick and easy!

As anyone who had ever spoken to me about TRAVEL will know, I feel very strongly that the first priority in a new place is to get on the Open Top Bus Tour, so that is what we did the very next morning. It was here that we heard for the first (though definitely not last) time the Two Jokes Everyone Tells In Belfast. Here they are:

• (on passing the Titanic Experience) "That Boat was fine when it left here!"
• (on seeing flags hanging attached halfway up lampposts) "They're not at half mast, that's just how high the ladders go!"

People in Belfast, we discovered, are PROPERLY friendly i.e. they're dead nice and up for a chat but don't push it on you. Also, they like telling jokes!

We hopped off the Open Topped Bus at Stormont and had a look round - we do like visiting Regional Parliaments - and were MOVED by the story of how The Peace came about. It felt like something that had all been gotten over, so it was a bit of a shock when we hopped back on the bus and drove past LOADS and LOADS of TERRIFYING murals. "Look at this next one" said our new guide. "If you look down the muzzle of his gun you'll see it follows you along the street!"

Next day we were booked on a TRIP to Giants Causeway, which was the OTHER big reason for going to Belfast. We were driven to a meeting point where we got on a BIG BUS and were told our guide would be called Troy. "He's a madman" we heard one of the other staff say to another. He seemed quite STABLE but CRUMBS he could talk, and did so for most of the next TEN HOURS!! It was brilliant though, we learnt LOADS about a) The Troubles and b) the shooting locations for 'Game Of Thrones'. Also CRIKEY but The Giants' Causeway is an IMPRESSIVE also KRAZY thing. It felt like a Brutalist Playground from the 1960s, it was REALLY difficult to get it through to my BRANE that it wasn't man-made!

On our last day we had a WALKING TOUR run by Dead Centre Tours which was about the history of terror in the city centre. It was MIND-BLOWING, going round and seeing where all the horrible things had happened, and also a bit weird when our guide, who'd been a Mediator during and after the peace process, had to keep pausing to say hello to various old blokes waving to him. Several of them turned out to have been prisoners from both sides who had been INVOLVED!

It was RAINING quite a lot that day too, so when it was over we DASHED to get some warm drinks inside us. We ate and drank HANDSOMELY while we were there I must say - one of the very nice aspects of having an AWAY BREAK inside the UK is that you know how the restaurants and pubs work!

Our departure day began with me in a bit of a WORRY, as there was a half-marathon going through town which meant CHANGES to bus times. We'd asked a few different people about this but nobody seemed to know what was going on, so we ended up getting to the bus station SUPER early, having to cross the road there in a GAP between runners. It all went fine, and we ended up with over an hour to spare in the departure lounge. We ate chips!

In conclusion then, it was a RUDDY MARVELLOUS few days away - I would HEARTILY recommend a visit!

posted 19/9/2017 by MJ Hibbett
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Plotting Plotting
Things have been fairly quiet round here just lately. I went to the pictures on Friday to see "War For The Planet Of The Apes" (REVIEW: it was BLOODY GRATE) and on Saturday I went to Peterborough for FOOTBALL (REVIEW: Incident Rich) and CURRY (REVIEW: Very nice) with Mr P Myland, but there's not been a HUGE amount going on, ROCK or LITERATURE-wise.

THUS I have been taking advantage of the quiet by PLOTTING, specifically plotting the SEQUEL to my BESTSELLING (honest) NOVEL Storm House. Technically this is the second draft of the plot, and technically it's an OUTLINE now, but Outlining The Outline doesn't sound quite so GROOVY. It's actually turning into quite a BIG outline - 15,000 words so far - as I'm having so much fun doing it. This very lunchtime, for instance, I was writing about gigantic games of British Bulldog, an enormous radioactive mushroom, and the destruction of an East Anglian landmark, and it was THOROUGHLY enjoyable.

The PLAN is to get the outline finished in the next couple of weeks, then go straight back to the start and rewrite the whole thing to make sure it makes some kind of sense. Having fun blowing things up is all well and good, but it does mean I get a bit distracted and end up having characters in two places at once, so I will probably end up doing what I did for the first book and have to draw a big DIAGRAM showing where everyone is as the story goes on. I've also got to make sure I don't contradict anything I said in the FIRST book - I'm beginning to understand why George RR Martin is taking such a long time getting HIS next book finished. It's a flipping minefield!!

Still, it's a minefield full of things like The Archbishop Of Bodmin, The Ur-Saloon, SPACE CAPSULES and... um... being mildly rude about Peterborough, none of which, as far as I'm aware, George RR Martin has had in "Game Of Thrones" as yet. I guess I'd better hurry up and get this finished before he NICKS them!

posted 12/9/2017 by MJ Hibbett
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Trailer Time
As mentioned the other day, my continuing endeavours to PROMOTE my NOVEL Storm House have involved me reading a LOT of websites called things like "17 Ways To Promote Your EBook". One of the main thing they all suggest is doing a BOOK TRAILER, so that is what I have done, THUS:

TREMBLE before my multimedia SKILLSET! I have no idea whether this will do any actual GOOD or not, but as ever any retweets/mentions/re-posts about it would be very much appreciated. I reckon the book is QUITE GOOD, and I'd like to get people to read it!

posted 8/9/2017 by MJ Hibbett
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Analogies In Action
The ongoing promotion of Storm House has reached a bit of a LULL for now. The frenzied rush of EXCITEMENT for the RELEASE has faded (as has the sales!) and new THRILLS like my trip to the Off The Shelf Festival are a way off into the future. THUS my mind has turned to devising new ways of persuading people to buy it, and especially NEW people.

For LO! I am EXTREMELY aware that most of the lovely people who already know of my WORKS and who are likely to EVER get a copy will have already done so - it's a situation much like this year's Indietracks MERCH tent, where we'd already SOLD our wares to most people there who would ever WANT it - so I need to work out how on earth to tell OTHER people about it.

The only way I can really think about this is if I try to do so in terms of ROCK, as that is all I really know about with regards to this sort of thing. BOOKS, I thought, are the equivalent of ALBUMS, and how do we tell people about THOSE? And LO! my BRANE did answer: "GIGS! And, if you can get them, FESTIVALS!" This is very senisble, and there ARE gigs and festivals for books, but 1) the gigs tend to be SIGNINGS in bookshops, and my book is only available online and 2) the FESTIVALS tend to be for people who are KNOWN (which I'm not) and are run by PUBLISHERS (which I don't have). Neither of these problems are insurmountable, OBVS, and I can always plug the book at Actual Gigs, but they're not the answer for now.

So it was that I returned to my BRANE and said "How ELSE does one do it, OH BRANE of mine?" and my BRANE did answer: "THE INTERWEB!" You may not know this about me, gentle reader, as I hardly ever mention it, but I did have one of the first ever viral hits with a song called Hey Hey 16K a while ago and since then have done LOADS of videos and wotnots on the futuristic World Wide Web. With this in mind I've being doing stuff like last week's >video interview, chasing interviews and reviews, and have made a TRAILER ready to UNLEASH in the very near future. These are jolly good fun to DO but, as above, with no HISTORY or CONTACTS it's difficult for me to get anyone to PROPOGATE them outside my usual Delightful Circles.

And so I went back a THIRD time to ask my BRANE if it had any further ideas and LO! it did say unto me, a bit peevishly I thought "For heaven's sake! What about SINGLES and RADIO then? What's the equivalent to that? Also: leave me alone, I'm trying to remember the words for 'To All The Girls I've Ever Loved Before' for some reason."

Getting played on the radio is of course a BLOODY GRATE thing - not only do you get to show off (A LOT) but it also FORCES new people to hear you AND gig promoters and festival organisers hear it too. It's basically the SEED from which all else may flower. I don't know why my BRANE didn't just tell me that in the first place!

As for the equivalents in the BOOK world... well, I guess the equivalent of the SINGLE is probably the SHORT STORY, which also comes in STANDALONE and EXCERPT formats. And if that's the case then maybe Short Story Magazines are the RADIO? I would say anthologies, but I guess they're COMPILATIONS. Anyway, the more I thought about this, the more sense it made. If I had some short stories I could send them to magazines, which people (including festival organisers maybe?) READ! I could also send them to COMPETITIONS which, if I got anywhere in them, I could SHOW OFF about! And I could even put them on this here BLOG or similar, to tantalise and THRILL passers-by!

It seemed like a good plan to me, and so this week I have been trying to write some short stories, and it has been a LOT of fun. Short Stories don't need you to spend MONTHS working out the flipping structure, nor do they require lengthy diagrams so you can make sure you don't have the same character in two places at once. You can just sit and GET TYPING and then worry about errors, idiocy or spelling later!

So that's what I'm doing - I'm going to wait until I've got a PILE of them before I start showing them to anybody, but in the meantime there'll be the aforementioned trailer soon and, who knows, maybe even an INTERVIEW!

posted 6/9/2017 by MJ Hibbett
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An In-Depth Literary Interview
As mentioned previously, I recently met with Mr J Dredge to undertake a rigorous, in-depth examination of my literary opus Storm House in the form of an INTERVIEW, which you can now view BELOW:.



I hope you find the discussion illuminating - and if London Weekend Television are reading this then yes, we ARE available if you want somebody to revitalise The South Bank Show - send us a fax!

posted 1/9/2017 by MJ Hibbett
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