Phew,
So here we are. I hope we’ve all grown and shown a different cheek this week. Right to get this out of the way the books not getting published. Well not just yet.
I’m suffering from writers block at the moment, this is the first thing to leave my tips in a fair bit. I am however trying to get back to it. There are several things I’m hoping to achieve this time round, and several things I’m hoping to avoid.
Firstly I will be trying to avoid my favourite subject, this said, I will also be trying to share my favourite subjects. I will still aim to confuse and of course amuse whilst always trying to avoid the blues and major news.
For now just say no to bad plans.
Tra a bit
First off good news, i can publish ‘which way out’ on here so expect that soon.
Had a real lack of snippets, bits and bobs and general blogs recently due to publishing and all that, I’m currently having a drink with Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, I am Jacks complete lack of surprise. Now the situation, it leaves me to ask, Am i ready to jump in?
Now whats happening in my day dreams these days may not be the be all and end all, it might be a stepping stone to the throne of home, the signals telling me how long the corner is and its screaming at me like a Renault Clio on its last legs. After ‘A Boy in the Bookcase’ whats the world going to be like. The books closed, it’s on the shelf, its finished glossed and growing moss. I’ve spent so long wrapped up in my words I’ve forgotten how to speak. You never forget how to ride a bike, but what if you have never been taught? Is this what I’ve been waiting for? To be picked out of the apple like a wriggly worm?
It’s all a bit mad, hopefully it’ll continue, this boy out of the bookcase has lost his fleet but is finding his feet.
Just a quick update..
10 books have been printed today and distributed. Now we play the waiting game.
And in other news massive well done to the UAF with recent results, really chuffed with it. And massive well done to everyone who’s been through the results process. Try and avoid the real world.
Working on a short story should be finished end of next week. It stands a chance of getting printed, currently looking into seeing if i can publish on here. Its entitled ‘which ways out’ keep your ears to the ground.
Despedida.
So the day had arrived, my final draft was done and I was a nervous wreck. Four years had led to this moment, sitting there trying to explain why there’s a book on the table.
It’s a strange feeling to let this project go now, having spent the majority of 2010 looking back on the last decade. We’re halfway through the year and for me it’s passed me by. New years resolutions still going well but it’s about time i threw it into third gear.
Sorry for the lack of imagination to this post, I’m shaking and a bit lost. A closed book, maybe a new look, learn to cook and get unstuck.
Just a really big thanks to everyone who’s cross paths with me over the past few years, I hope you all buy the book whenever it gets out because im sure there will be some sort of mention. No doubt I’ll miss a few people out in the thanks which is why you wont see one in the book.
Family and friends and the odd enemy too. Thank you.
I’ll be having a break from the seven-day dreams for a while as there’s a lot of legal stuff and boring paperwork that i need to be doing but as soon as i get chance or have anything of interest to say you’ll be the first to know. But in the mean time you can always follow me on twitter at: www.twitter.com/harrypenn
Recently I’ve been looking at the reasons things are done and more importantly the reasons we don’t get things done. I mean we all have deadlines, we all have targets, be it at work, socially or academically. I know a bloke who will put off any work that he needs to do right until the last minute. This guy lives his life whichever way the wind blows, this blokes one of the easy going graduates of life. He never feels pressure, or if he does he is very good at not showing it. He will restrict himself, tell himself that the work will get done, he’ll preach to the world about how he is going to go about getting this work done. ‘There’s thinking about things, and not actually doing those things’.
Now its all well and good putting things off and in my case I put a lot of things off such as cleaning my car, filling it with petrol and making sure my insurance is up to date (it is by the way just in case you’re the DVLA). But what separates me and the rest of the world from this bloke is that we say we will do them put them off and do a very scrappy job at the lastminute.com (shit website don’t use it) whereas he will save it till the night before, not sleep and come out smelling of roses. And to this I salute him.
The point I’m very poorly making is that It’s pretty good to be passionate, it’s energising to be enthused, its brilliant to be bold and fantastic to be fulfilled. All we need is a coffee and some pro plus. I’ll change I’ll get this done as soon as, I’ll get it done so I can relax, I might even be able to colour code it and make it a bit more fancy.
This is a lie, we all do it, we lie to ourselves, we excuse ourselves from the table of grin and bear it, and we say ‘just one more pint before I go home’.
Here’s an idea, lets stop the lying, lets stop the self-persuasion. Lets stand up on our stools and denounce the royal throne with a full hearty English mentality and say ‘I’LL DO IT TOMORROW’
This blog was written at 15:25 on Wednesday 1st June but I’ll publish it later.
Just a quick post about the art of Hello, not the magazine.
Hello it’ll break down barriers. Theres nothing wrong with a hello, how are you? whats occurring? It’ll bring new friends or friends from the past, it’ll create new problems and solve a few too. Junes resolution, to say hello to June.
News on ‘A Boy in the Bookcase’ it’s finally looking complete, bibliography is done too which was probably the biggest challenge Ive had for a good few years. As you can see from the previous post the synopsis is done, it reads completely different to the one Ive posted here on the seven day dreams blog however, this is pretty much the reason for this blog, to get my ideas down in some sort of format as a rough basis and out to the general public. Just like to say thanks for the feedback I’ve received so far had some really interesting stuff to ponder and read.
Im feeling very at one with myself having took four years to write this book. I’ll no doubt have a bit of a moan/rant before saturday but I’ll be posting a final draft excerpt from ‘A Boy in the Bookcase’ after my meeting with the publishers.
Apart from this Ive already started work on my follow-up novel. Entitled ‘The Seven Day Dream’ so keep coming back to the blog to see this one develop.
Cheers.
Working synopsis..
We’ve all lost ourselves in a book. Ed lost himself. A boy in the bookcase is a story of growing, learning, earning and dreaming. Is there a difference between being lost in a book and finding yourself in a bookcase. The book hasn’t been written yet. The cover maybe blank but we all have to start somewhere, we write our own paths, we write our own dreams. Sometimes life doesn’t have a delete key, we cant cut and paste what we say in haste, unless of course its been written before.
‘Fully fictionalised real life, in the reality TV culture we live in its sometimes hard to vote yourself off.’
I’m writing this latest instalment of the seven-day dreams from a train bound for Wolverhampton. Now I’m in state of limbo, having enjoyed my time away from the Black Country I cannot wait to arrive back to the grim dim sunny side of the midlands. There are things I’ve missed and things that drive me up the wall, no ball game signs, no men drinking wine, no trains on time and no sun to shine. But for every cloud there is a muggy grey lining. I can go to my local watering hole and sit whilst sipping a pint of carlings finest safe in the knowledge that it hasn’t cost me a small kitten to buy it. I can openly discuss the news with a bloke I’ve never met before (excluding cockney Charlie who’d had a bit of jip the night before, dropping his phone on the floor more than thrice.) and I can appreciate the prettiness off the female species that grace the gornal land.
OK, the last point was a lie.
More to follow…
Times been going by a bit quicker than usual, which is surprising when the days have been longer. I’ve re-found my hunger to write all things down, I’ve found writing on the ground, on walls and through corridors. I’m currently on Brick Lane, drainpipe denim and fem fatale. It’s a nice change from the Black Country back slang.
After proof reading BIB and eventually, nearly, almost completing it I’ve been in a very retrospective mood. Looking back sometimes is the first step forward.
When do the weak become heroes?
When do we become adult? What defines adult? What defines me? Now I’m starting to sound very fight club (ish) but with answered questions all I’ve seemed to find are more questions to be asked. ‘Ask me why and I’ll spit in your eye’. From a very early age we learn by firstly burning our fingers playing with fire. We don’t ask questions as to why that bloody hurt so much, we just accept that the next time you try to pick a cup of tea up without a drinking implement its going to bloody hurt again, maybe next time your Mothers finest cutlery might be a better tool than your pink plastered thumbs. But why have fine teapots? Why not have a brown mug, a beige rug and velvet curtains?
It’s all about hair-don’ts and long coats in this café I’m sitting in. We’re all thin, trim and not one of us dim, with our laptops on tables telling fables of that bloke back home, or if you’re here on your own with your dog and bone and a creamed scone its cool to be alone. It’s interesting to see the difference in places, does a man make the legend or does the legend come after?
All I know its 13:56 on a Thursday afternoon. Time for a beer.
sitting here, a cheese and pickle cob..
‘It doesn’t matter cause my eyes are lying
and they don’t have emotion
don’t wanna be social, can’t take it when they hate me
but i know there’s nothing i can do’
I want to talk about opinions but when I can’t accept other peoples it very very VERY difficult to talk about these. I accept that it’s an entitlement and we all have them, but i really struggle sometimes to accept others. Favourite football team, biscuit, colour and band I can except, but what really takes the biscuit (and mines a digestive by the way) is when a person’s opinion is not their own but that of a red top tabloid designed to make the average man paranoid. I hate to write about them because its only since the media hysteria of the EDL has being a dudlian been so difficult. Ask someone what EDL means and I’d say about 70% wouldn’t be able to answer, I don’t need to ask the audience or phone a friend. THE ENGLISH DEFENCE LEAGUE, the only defence i need is protection against the way they make me feel. Selling burka’s when they are trying to ban them sums them up.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ENGLISH-DEFENCE-LEAGUE-HOODIE-EDL-BURKA-FACE-MASK-/170478417424?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item27b14e3610#ht_1443wt_1167
No valid argument, no text-book contradiction if anything an affliction to the distinction of a working class man. No REAL opinion.
‘it’s a destruction of a mystery
the more i listen to what they say
so does that mean that there’s no more doin’
and there’s no more thinkin’
and there’s no more feeling
cause there’s no right opinion
so can you tell me what I’m supposed to do’
Now i cant help the way I feel about things such as this, I’m on my ‘soap box’ trying to explain to the plain. Theres a whole world out there and its all down to predicament and I guarantee if the shoe were on the other foot they’d give a fuck, lets just hope they can duck and dodge the media, they’ll feed ya with whatever sells, be it global anarchy or the best selling epiphany from Brad and Jen, the mother hen or the top story on news at ten.
‘For I’d rather be a pebble than an ocean vast and drowned, alone and make no sound’
