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It had to happen. Jeanette Winterson gets a good review for her new book. Completely undeserved.

Thunder after a horrid dry spell is nice. (it’ll have passed by the time you see this…

It’s not a porn site, it’s beautifulchristianteen.com!

Thank you notsosoft!

Boy, I’ve been neglecting my web site of late! Sorry about that. The evenings haven’t been so free and last weekend was spent at Father and Step-Mother’s house (hi Dad & April!) while pops was in the country. Enjoyable weekend, apart from trying to get April’s Mac to work with Microsoft Exchange in a useful manner, and trying to explain to April exactly why it wouldn’t do what she wanted it to do in English. I hasten to add this was in no way a deficiency on April’s part.

We’re now on holiday for a week, so it’s off to Brum on Sunday for Jez and Nat’s meet the baby party (see pics of wee Daniel here) before pottering on to Kate’s parents until Wednesday, so unless they get me to fix their computer as well, expect radio silence until around Thursday when I’ll be doing some work on the site. There’s a job going a Serpents Tail publishers and I’m thinking of going for it, so a decent looking BP.C will be needed.

Cool site Brett passed on which deserves a mention: disturbingauctions.com collects all the weird rubbish people have tried to sell on online auction sites. I like the Clark Gable candle

Now, I’m a fairly good cook but only when it comes to a select number of dishes. Tonight I decided to expand my range with the oven and having bought a load of stewing lamb from the proper butcher (there should be a manual - how to use a butcher for the under 30s) I set about doing a casserole. So I chopped up an onion and some garlic and put it in the dish with the lamb and two tins of chopped tomatoes. The end result? After an hour and a half I had created boiled onions with boiled lamb and boiled tomatoes in a litre of boiled water. It was the most vile meal I have ever made.

After two forkfulls I decided enough was enough. I was not going to eat this shit and Kate, darling, did not have to either. Kate says this is traditional English food, in which case bring on the imigrants! Next time I’ll check out the books before experimenting with the oven. Or just use a frying pan or wok and make something edible.

We phoned for a pizza. It was okay.

Gloria, the lady next door, was just shouting out of her window at some guy who had parked his car in her space behind the flats. This was a fairly big deal because it’s so quiet around here normally. Then she came to the door to check we didn’t know him. She was good about it, pointing out that there were more important things to worry about really. It’s been her space since 1981 meaning she’s lived here for nearly 20 years. I think she feels quite protective about these flats, making sure everything works all the time (I think it’s her who brings our bins in when we’re at work) and sometimes she gets things out of proportion. She seems to acknowledge this though, and at least we can be certain there’s someone watching over the flats when we’re not here.

Kate said we should have invited her in for tea. I pointed out the flat is a mess, but point taken. We have been here over 6 months now…

It’s the end of an era. Foyles has a sale! I’m tempted to go but suspect those pounds will add up. Still, winter is closing in and these books are cheaper than insulation…

Amusing things seen on the way to the Tube this evening:

Two city-types pointing directions to a blind man.

Someone with their nose right against the wrong door in the lift.

The Big Issue seller hiding in a corner and startling people when they saw him (self included).

London is not part of the UK moment:

I had one Scottish five pound note in the till and more than ten people refused to take it as change. I eventually gave it to a tourist.

Back from Caption tonight and once again I steadfastly refuse to carry so much stock on public transport ever again. I did have a lot less to carry back though, which was a very nice thing.

The weekend was more subdued than previous years but that was to be expected. However, apart from the usual drinking and chatting, I did get invited to Italy!

Darl Lorgante (sorry if that’s wrong, I can’t read your handwriting!) from the Kerosene underground comics collective/distribution over there, reckons that m’self and Pete Pavement of Slab-O-Concrete could sell rather a lot of books to the 15,000 people who pass through the alternative comics pavilion at Expocartoon, a 35,000 attendance festival in Rome. The best part is they will put us up at someone’s house and take us out every night in Rome. And anything we don’t sell they’ll buy off us at cost.

Nice one!

I’m going to have a few days off from comics and then we’re away next weekend, but after that expect lots of post-Caption stuff on the site, plus news about the Thursday meeting (see below), especially once I go 4 days a week at work from September.

It’s late, as you can see, and tomorrow I’m up at 6.30am and off to Caption. I was hoping for an early pre-convention night for once but due to unforeseen circumstances beyond my control I had to go to the pub. Honestly.

Quick news: Tonight was the first meeting of the people-who-want-to-help-get-comics-into-bookshops society (we need a name…) consisting of Pete Pavement (Slab-O-Concrete publishing), Richard Davies (RedRoute distribution), Paul Gravett (Cartoon Art Trust), Andy Roberts (bookseller), Dave Shelton (bookseller) and myself (bookseller). and Andy Konky Kru, of course. ;).

It was a VERY good few hours of chaotic brainstorming and the general feeling was that this is the start of something very interesting. The ideas are long term - years rather than weeks - and one day perhaps people will look back on August 10th 2000 as a very important day.

I think I’m having one of those “moment in history” days…

Anyone who has worked with or known the bookseller by the name of Stuart Evers really needs to see this site.

Jez takes the piss out of my Potter thing and Matthew takes the piss out of Jez. I remain, as ever…

It seems JK Rowling was not only ‘influenced’ by Neil Gaiman’s Books of Magic but took her inspiration from other comics sources, as this comparison hopefully shows.

On the left is Potter and on the right we have Seth appearing in his excellent book It’s A Good Life If You Don’t Weaken. Hmm.

I was in Brum today and realised I’d never visited the URL that’s been on the side of the Rotunda for the last year. Glad I finally did! The opening movie/presentation is farcical but there’s actually some way cool stuff behind it. There’s a whole area dedicated to demolition! So, go to www.bullring.co.uk!

The boy Lawrenson has published the first part of his fandom memoirs: Comics Fandom And My Part In It’s Downfall. If you have ever had any contact with his mortal soul this will prove rather intriguing.