Just for Fun - 'collaborations' over the next month.

Here (once I scan them in) are a couple of things I'm contributing:

(1) A (rather maudlin and literal) Gentleman Ghost for Jack Fallows' killed-off character.

(2) Introducing the Newcastle Literary & Theosophical Society, which I've just drawn tonight sat in bed. Ideally I would have carefully planned it out and provided decent clues, but instead I just did it cos otherwise I ... er ... wouldn't do it. For the Paper Jam 'Kids' Anthology, hopefully not as controversial as the Oz 'Kids' Issue - should I white-out the blown-off head?

(3) Done my wor diary week, need to chase and give others theirs. www.wordiary.org

(4) And (drum-roll) a profitless day at the Star & Shadow. (Probably) the 17th October, all welcome, free (of course) and open and creative and nothing to do with the arts council or newcastlegateshead or any other such bullshit (word to the cartographers: newcastlegateshead doesn't exist, there is a space between the two places, and a fine river is running through it).

But anyway - what is this free and open and creative thing? Why a story-writing day!
I hate writing stories, or I would if I had ever attempted to write any, but I thought it would be a nice way for me and my housemate Anna to (ahem) 'collaborate' by joining two of our interests together. She writing me zines.

STEP 1: Turn up for breakfast at the star and shadow, no expertise necessary.
STEP 2: Chat and leaf through the paperbacks I'll have got from the Grainger Market stall (where you pay a deposit and get it back when you return them): westerns, doctor romances, horror, hardboiled detective, maybe some soft porn.
STEP 3: Go to a location in the cinema - roof, toilet, bar, darkroom, your choice.
STEP 4: Write a mini short story in your chosen genre, and try to combine the fixtures and features of that space with the story-elements of, for example, a zombie attack on the bar; an erotic fantasy in the cinema; a crime thriller on the roof...
STEP 5: Get back together and write, type or whatever our efforts up into a printable booklet, and print them the same day to leave as a free zine in the star & shadow. Unfinished pieces and fragments perfectly welcome.

If you're interested, drop me a line.
Or send me a zine if you want to swap some.

Photos You Can't Use On Your Passport, from 5th Sept 09 at the Star & Shadow

Here's some of the photos we took in the Star & Shadow Cinema.


Hair across eyes, outline of eyes, nose & mouth obscured, poor definition between face and background.


Something covering face, wearing a hat for non-religious reasons, too light, mouth open.

Frames covering eyes, face covered, eyes closed, mouth open.


Dark tinted glasses, shadows, eyes closed, non-neutral expression.


Blurry and unclear, partial head, eyes closed.


Facing sideways, shadows, mouth open, non-neutral expression.

Bothy zine goes to print!

The Roman philosophers zine (bit of a niche market, that one), is appearing in free spaces around the city this weekend - bus seat, shelf, star & shadow...


And I'm finishing the Bothy Zine off tonight, including the action-packed disastrous adventure that was our attempt, this week, to find Mosedale Cottage. Police! Rainstorms! 10-storey high waterfalls and being stranded in the pitch black night!

To get a copy, send an SAE to my address.

Having decided not to colourprint the cover, I won't now be using these photos that accompanied the bothy walks.

Seathwaite; and a Herdwick ram.

On the bus to Kielder; lichen; & a bum print in Skyspace:

Kielder infrastructure: cycle paths & rival forest signs (Newcastleton vs Kershope vs Kielder)


Kershopehead, upstairs room.

This page didn't make it into the zine, I forget why exactly.