2020 Plans and updates..

As I hinted at in my previous blog, there is quite a bit of stuff mapped out in my head for this year now already.

Some of it is too sketchy to reveal yet, but some things which are certainly well into development or ready for announcing now are the following…

    1)   Ocean in a Bottle – Carrying on with the space theme, this year’s releases from Ocean in a Bottle will all be space related again, this first one been Examining Phobos and Deimos for life. Phobos and Demios which are the two moons which circle Mars. In February, following straight on already recorded a second EP (with an epic remix from Hicc’s Distance called) 2 Orbits of Pluto will follow. Beyond that, I don’t want to give two much away but other releases I am considering / am in the mixing stage include ‘Falling back to Earth’, ‘On Saturn’s wings II’, ‘On Saturn’s wings III’, ‘Witnessing Saturn from Uranus’, ‘Witnessing Uranus from Saturn’ among others.

I can’t give tons away yet, but a record label I can’t name yet is also interested in a re-release of ‘First Landing on Venus’ which contain several additional tracks / remixes and there is a chance of another album maybe two also with this, one of which will include me doing spoken word vocals over Ocean in a Bottle backing which is something I haven’t tried before.

     2) Spoken Word –  A) as before I am in the planning stages of doing some spoken word work over some Ocean in a Bottle drones. I don’t want to give tons away on this as I am in the early stages of writing. People who have known me for a long time may remember my doing work with D.I.H / DIH (Distorted in Hindsight) which did an almost Fall cut and paste approach to their work, I can reveal this should be more straight forward approach but I suspect will completely different if that makes sense.

B) Currently sadly, I am a bit bogged down with family stuff which I don’t want to reveal too much currently here, but when things calm down, Speak Easy will carry on with me and Amanda and Steve S. Owning to family pressures, it is simply too early to tell whether we will be able to do the 5^th February night but it will be carrying on either way even if me and Amanda can’t make it, so come on down to Stretford’s Sip.

C) Writing wise, just about complete minus a final edit, the second book in my epic poetry fantasy series ‘Barbarians of the Wall’ is complete and will be called ‘Buried alive on the Wall’ and will be out in all been well at the end of February / March 2020.

D) Before that, my fourth full length poetry book ‘The Streets were all we could see’ will be out just before that which will contain somewhere close to 50 mini poems wrote over the past few years. Bit of an accidental book this one but I am really pleased with this as it is heading in a somewhat different direction to the End of Summer and Birth of Autumn. A third seasonal book called The Midst of Winter is currently under development and likely will be ready in a years’ time or so.

E) In 2020, somewhere around the Spring / Summer  period (Not sure exact when yet) me and my good buddy Nick Armbrister will be back in action with Europa 4, our ongoing series of split anti-war poetry books. After the drawn out nature (for me) with Europa 3 which took me ages and ages and ages to go through, Europa 4 with my section called (working title) the Long Night came a lot more quicker after trying to write the pieces in a similar (but very different in content) style to the content that was domineering my work in ‘The streets were all we could see’ which allowed me to tell stories in more, shorter, briefer brush strokes. (The sessions involved in writing both of these books also resulted in a third book too called ‘Dock Leaves’ which for reasons too long winded to go into here I’ll have to release in a few years’ time).

E) Some of you also will have read the Instagram sequence I did with Amanda Steel called ‘Run away with seven words’ which towards the end of last year then became a book. It’s early days yet, but all been well, maybe later on this year or maybe 2021, we are very likely going to be attempting a second sequence perhaps with eight words per piece just to mix it up and maybe (working title again) called it ‘Run away with me again in eight words’.

F) Also since I started dating Amanda, she has encouraged me also to have a go at writing fiction, and when things go busy with other things I had to take a break from things, I am seriously considering returning to a few of these and finishing them off.

The first two were originally ideas I started when I was a lot younger featuring a warlock called The Author who has two princesses from other dimensions, one from Mars and Venus and a 9 foot demon as a Bodyguard.

I first started writing these books when I was very young, and the stories which survive from those days are terrible apart from one called The Return of the Author which was a 10,000 short story. Currently after some work, it is now 46,000 words and close to 208 pages.

A quite different sequel called The Author and the terrible from the hellhole which was originally an incomplete short story from the same period is also two thirds done and is around 162 pages and 36,742 pages as of typing and while family things sort themselves out likely will be getting worked on over the next month or two.

G) What is complete however is my first volume of my adventures within writing and performance, covering the period from when I was about 10 right up to when I got Diabetes at 39. Entitled, Losing the thread (A study of life, writing and adventures through poetry and other half botched and sometimes completely mixed up mediums). Its somewhere around 355 pages and around 82,014 words and will contain as well as loads of old stories, also tons of old poems and unpublished material and after a final edit, I will certainly aim to bring these out towards the end of the year / maybe 2021.

   3) Podcasting…

A) Yeah, Spoken label since it started at the start of 2016 has somehow managed to do over 150, the latest being Sue Proffitt and I have already got 6 more recorded which will ensure release coming out frequently right into February. As some of you will know, I am currently undergoing family issues, so it is unclear how the Podcasts will go beyond these at the moment but I am hopeful we will be able to maintain a steady schedule beyond that be it one that won’t I suspect as busy as I have been. 

B)  Reading in bed, my book review Podcast series with Amanda recently celebrated its second anniversary and certainly will be carrying on into the new year (Little bit later for the first few months of this year owning to family issues) and while I can’t speak for Amanda, I am now onto my second book for this month and looking forward to sharing our latest reviews.   

C) and D) At the end of last year, Amanda also joined me and Michael for Comics Unity, our Comics news Podcast. Unfortunately owning to said family issues, Comics Unity will be operating with specials only until said family issues calm down and sadly the complete cancellation of the Koll, Andy and Amanda show as we are unable to commit to a weekly show as this for the moment.