esoterique-esoteric

My wife and her friend have created a blog which forms part of an art project they’re collaborating on. (I won’t name them, as they haven’t named themselves on the blog.)

The blog’s very interesting.

Here’s the link:

http://www.esoterique-esoteric.blogspot.com/

The Train Man

A man sat next to me on the train and started talking. His voice was soft, with a faint Liverpudlian accent. He lisped – he pronounced ‘ess’ as ‘esh’ – and his words ran together. He was difficult to understand. He was in his forties, maybe, with younger eyes. His teeth were bad; brown and unbrushed. His coat cuffs were greasy and his blue trousers were flecked with white.

‘How long does it take to get to Chester?’ he asked.

‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘I get off at Warrington.’

‘I’ve just got myself a new girlfriend for Christmas,’ he said. ‘That’s good, innit?’

‘That is good,’ I said.

‘Just in time for Christmas,’ he said. ‘That’s good, innit? Presents an’ that.’

‘That is good,’ I said. I nodded and smiled.

‘Only been together a few days,’ he said. ‘Took her out last night and then we stayed up having a few beers. She got a taxi home at about three o’ clock. That’s good, innit?’

I nodded and smiled.

‘I’ve said I’m going to go and pick her shopping up. That’ll make her happy, won’t it? One good turn an’ that.’

‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘That’s nice’.

‘I had another girlfriend for four and a half years. She had a lovely personality an’ that an’ she was hilarious. Y’know, a good sense of humour. But she didn’t give me any love and affection. She wouldn’t put her hands round me and kiss me an’ that. But this new one, she puts her hands round me and kisses me an’ that. She gives me love and affection.’

‘Good,’ I said.

‘Because that’s the most important thing, innit? To be wanted.’

‘It is,’ I said.

‘Surroundings and that don’t matter. It’s who you live with that matters. Some people in slums are happier than them in mansion houses or hotels or semi-detached houses. It’s who you live with.’

‘Yes,’ I said.

‘What time does the train go back to Earlestown?’ he asked.

‘I don’t know, I’m afraid,’ I said.

‘I’m just having a ride out on the train and back to pass the time, like. It’ll get me back just in time to go and pick her shopping up. Eleven bags. That’ll be some weight, won’t it?’

‘It will,’ I said.

‘She’ll still be in bed. Won’t be up until eleven after being up until three drinking beers.’

I laughed.

‘She lives in a nice house up by the hospital. Much nicer than mine. Hey – once I move in with her I’ll be sorted, eh?’

I laughed. He meant it though. He was smiling the most genuine smile. He had grey stubble. The train pulled into Warrington Bank Quay station.

‘Excuse me please,’ I said. ‘I’m getting off here.’

The man got up too. He stood at the door that divided the body of the carriage from the exit compartment. ‘How do you do this?’ he asked, gesturing at the door. ‘Press the button?’

‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Press the button. Just that button there.’

‘That’s good, innit?’ he said, as he pushed the button. ‘I’ve always used me hands. Didn’t realise they were automatic.’

He got off the train with me and stayed on the platform as I descended the steps to leave the station. I thought about the eleven bags of shopping. Something about that shopping didn’t make sense.

Just A Quick Link…

A nice review of the Nightjar Press books here:

http://artoffiction.blogspot.com/2009/12/interlude-reading.html

Something to Say? (No).

What is blogging for? Is it for anything? I don’t know. I guess if I felt with some real certainty that this blog mattered, then I would update it more frequently. As it is, I tend to de-prioritise my blogging. This makes me feel guilty, because it kind of implies that I don’t value anybody reading it (which is not the case), but then as soon as I feel guilty I feel conceited for having thought – even just momentarily – that anybody out there really cares about reading this. Then I feel bad about being conceited. Then I wonder, well, why do I do it?

(Some people say that they blog for themselves, but I’m not one of those people. Other people use it to showcase their work; I am paranoid about copyright issues, and so I’m not really one of those people either. Some people use blogs to disseminate their opinions on particular subjects, which I do do sometimes, but try not to).

The answer, as you may have spotted, is that I DON’T do it. I blog so infrequently that I don’t think I really have the right to call it ‘blogging’ at all.

Recently I have been pretty busy. And on those occasional evenings where I’ve been sat at my laptop and thought about blogging, I’ve stopped myself, because I haven’t really had anything worthwhile to say. So that’s why this place has started to feel a little empty lately. A little shellish. A little cold and dull. And, if you’re reading, and if you care, I apologise.

(FYI – That’s as about insightful as this post gets. And I know it’s not that insightful).

So yes! We went to Iceland. We had an amazing time. I’ve written on this blog in the past about coincidences. Some (well, two) pretty startling coincidences reared their strange little heads on the last night of our visit.

I will elaborate.

Beth (Beth is my wife) completed a Fine Art MA in October 2008. Shortly before we went to Iceland - so, sometime in October 2009 – she was talking to one of her ex-tutors who gave her the contact details of another graduate (of the same course) who actually lives in Reykjavik. We met her – Anna-Julia – and her partner, Paul, on the Thursday of our week in Iceland, and then went round to theirs for tea on the Friday.

As I say – two coincidences.

1) Beth and I both really set our hearts on going to Iceland a few years ago, after falling in love with the music of the Icelandic band Múm. We are both still huge fans. Our first ‘holiday’ together was to London, to see them play. Anna-Julia is the cousin of the-then Múm lead singer, Kristin. This in itself would have been a lovely way to close the circle.

2) Anna-Julia and Paul used to live on Clyde Road, in Manchester, which is the first road Beth and I lived on after moving to Manchester. We have all seen the same fox on Clyde Road, distinguishable by its bald back end.

All in all, it felt like there was a pleasing kind of symmetry to that last night in Reykjavik.

Another point I should make about Iceland; apparently not all Icelanders believe in elves, so my last post is a little misleading. Only about twenty percent believe in actual elves or, as they call them, the ‘hidden people’. These are Tolkien-esque elves, by the way; not pixies or fairies. Tolkien’s elves appear to be inspired by Icelandic folkore, as does an awful lot of The Lord of the Rings.

In other news…

I experienced my first Word Soup a couple of weeks ago. It was Word Soup #7, and I read, and I had a really good nighbt and got very drunk and, consequently, Beth and I missed our train back to Manchester. Find out more about Word Soup here, and have a look at the writer Jenn Ashworth’s blog here. (Jenn organises the Word Soup events, and does a very good job of it too.)

The Safe Children, a chapbook written by myself and published by Nightjar Press (alongside the fantastic What Happens When You Wake Up in the Night, by none other than Michael Marshall Smith) , is selling well. There were only two-hundred signed and numbered copies printed. We’ve had confirmation that the books are available on Amazon, although it’s (about two and a half weeks) quicker to get them direct from the source, here. We’ve also had some very nice reviews:

Bookmunch – http://bookmunch.wordpress.com/2009/09/18/nightjar-is-going-to-become-an-essential-imprint-what-happens-when-you-wake-up-at-night-by-michael-marshall-smith-the-safe-children-by-tom-fletcher/

Paraphilia Magazine - http://antiquechildren.com/ 

David Hebblethwaite – http://davidhblog.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/two-stories-nightjar-press/

And Nightjar Press also got a mention on the Manchizzle blog, which is great.

The Leaping – that is, my first novel – is actually now completely finished. One of the things I’ve been busy with is the proofreading. I am both surprised and touched at how much work the editors and proofreaders and typesetters have put into checking everything and then double-checking everything, and I’m gladdened too, because it is astounding how you can miss errors on the first ten read-throughs. (Quercus have been great in every respect, really). So yes – The Leaping, as far as I know, is all ready to go to print. Naturally, I am very very excited about this. And, for those of you that don’t know, we’re launching it at the World Horror Convention at Brighton in March. Can’t wait.

Thrillingly, The Leaping has made Bookmunch’s list of ‘Fifty Books You’ll Want to Read Next Year’. See the others on the list, and read the angry comments, here. I’ve linked to the list, but dig around on the site a little to get the reasons for why those particular books were chosen.

I’ve just re-read the beginning of this post and I’m disappointed with myself. I’ve always insisted (in my own head, primarily) that we place too much importance on the function of things. That is, if something doesn’t have an apparent function, it’s generally scorned as ‘pointless’ or ‘modern art’. So when I ask the question ‘What’s blogging for?’, I don’t mean to insinuate that blogging has no value. I’m just curious.

I’ve also joined Twitter. I think you can see my latest tweet up in the top-right corner of this blog. I like it a lot actually. If you’ve joined Twitter too, please go ahead and follow me @fellhouse.

Now, I probably won’t update again for a while because I need to get on with my second novel - The Thing on the Shore. I hope that’s OK.

Well.

That took longer than expected.

Leave a comment, why don’t you? Maybe even start a debate. Go on. Get angry.

Iceland

I was planning blog from Iceland, but upon arriving I decided against it because, really, there’s so much to do and enjoy here that sitting and blogging would have been a really sad way to spend my time. So here’s a few summary bullet points. I’m keeping it brief, because I’m still here.

• Some Icelanders consider the hotdog to be their national dish. The hotdogs are really very good.
• Iceland does not easily allow new words into their country; the Icelandic for ‘telephone’, for example, translates as ‘voice-stick’.
• The landscape surrounding Reykjavik is mostly black rock and moss that appears vividly green in contrast.
• The Icelandic government employs a woman who can talk to the ‘hidden people’, or elves. Any builders or construction workers must notify the government of their plans, and the government sends the elf-speaking woman to the  (to obtain permission from the hidden people) before construction work can start.
• Although Icelanders do believe in the hidden people, they do not actually believe in trolls. These are mythical creatures.
• Ravens here are really big and glossy and quite unafraid of humans.
• Icelandic horses have five gaits, as opposed to horses elsewhere in the world, which only have three. (The fourth gate is called ‘the tölt’ and is somewhere between walking and trotting, and the fifth is ‘the pace’).
• Two hundred thousand people live in Reykjavik. That is two thirds of the population of Iceland.
• Reykjavik has an amazing number of art galleries and cafes.
• The only international chain I’ve seen represented is Subway.

There’s a lot more to tell (more interesting stuff, as opposed to just a list of facts) but as I say it would take more time that I’m currently willing to spend at my laptop. Suffice to say that it’s really amazing.

 

 

 

 

Fright Night

Thanks to everybody who attended Fright Night last night. It was a really good night. (Nick and I enjoyed it, anyway.) And thanks to anybody who bought a copy of The Safe Childen – hope you like it!

Hand

I saw this a while ago, but was reminded of it recently. I think it’s pretty incredible. And not a little scary.

Floating Bull

The eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed that the link to Barking at the Rain has vanished, but a link to Floating Bull has appeared. (It’s over there, somewhere on the right.)

I’m not saying you should all go and look at it or anything. Don’t get me wrong. I’m just letting you know.

Post-Launch

THE SAFE CHILDREN is now launched! And there’s a review of it here: http://bookmunch.wordpress.com/2009/09/18/nightjar-is-going-to-become-an-essential-imprint-what-happens-when-you-wake-up-at-night-by-michael-marshall-smith-the-safe-children-by-tom-fletcher/. It’s my first ever solo review and, thankfully, it’s a good one.

If you’d like a copy, order it here: http://nightjarpress.wordpress.com. Don’t feel obliged though.

Just got back from FantasyCon today. I really enjoyed it – will update more fully in the near future. Possibly with some photos of the terrifying carpets.

Beth in the Wasteland

I have dreams in which I, or somebody else, is watching a film or playing a videogame. There is never any sense of a screen though, or any kind of division between the fiction and the viewer/player.

I had a dream that Beth was playing a game and I was watching. She was alone – completely alone – on the outskirts of a wasteland. She was lost. And then she was no longer playing a game; Beth herself was lost, and alone, amidst some brown and blasted landscape with no edges. I was still an observer only; I could not communicate with her. She had no weapons but we both knew that the place was habitat to vicious creatures and wild, sadistic people. Beth was afraid. I was afraid for her.

She starts moving forwards, and this action prompts a message to appear in the air. It is a warning. It warns her that out here, in this particularly remote vicinity, there are legends of some strange and massive entity that preys on wanderers who are lost and alone. It doesn’t quite kill them. Nobody knows what it does. The entity is known only as ‘The Home’.

I didn’t want this. I am terrified for my wife.