Can't blog now, more heroes to meet...

I've not been a good blogger of late, I know that and I'm sorry. The thing is, I'm just not spending much time at all online at the moment. I'm reading loads, and writing plenty, but none of that writing has turned out to happen online (until today). My third novel is coming along and I'm also working on a script for The Killing Jar, which looks like it's found a producer, so all that's keeping me busy, busy, busy, as well as quite shiny and excited.

I've also had some fun this summer meeting my heroes. They are all heroes I've met before, but that doesn't take the shine off for me, they're still heroes. Chuck Palahnuik (one of said heroes) says in something I read once that you shouldn't meet your heroes, that they're bound to let you down by farting or belching. Well, I haven't heard any evidence of the above and, as I don't have much of a sense of smell, I wouldn't notice otherwise. So far, I've lucked out.

Of course, one of the biggest events of the year has been the 80th birthday of Alan Sillitoe, which has been celebrated in style. For the latest tribute, catch the next issue of Left Lion. They done 'im proud.

Most recently, I interviewed Irvine Welsh at the Broadway Cinema, where I used to work. I was quite nervous; I heard somewhere that he could be quite prickly in the wrong hands. Nothing could have been further from the truth. He was friendly, chatty and asked me about my books on more than one occasion! (Not during the actual interview - that would have been just wrong lol). I'd say you couldn't meet a nicer man. An editor at Random House once suggested to me that they felt the nastiness of someone's fiction had almost an inverse relationship with the personality of the writer. ie Nice guys write grim. So far I'm finding this adds up.

If you want proof of this, I'm interviewing Chuck Palahniuk soon. He's about the nicest guy who writes the grimmest stories. He comes so close to defining cult fiction, that's what his fans call themselves. If you fancy checking this out for yourself, it's 6pm, at the Broadway, Broad Street in Nottingham on Thursday 14th August. See you there. Don't fart!

N