She Still Glows...

My short story, My Wife Glows in the Dark is the inaugural piece of fiction for the new ezine, NorthPoint. If you like, you can leave a comment, which is a nice touch.

So Good They Named It Twice...

We popped off to New York last week to see what all the fuss is about. It's a place I have long wanted to visit.

I'm sure it really goes without saying, but what a vibrant and varied city. We stayed on Eighth Avenue, literally four minutes walk (yeah, I counted) from Broadway and Times Square, and I swear not eight seconds went by without someone honking their horn. Drivers don't always do it for any genuine reason either. It's crazy, but in a good way.

We whizzed up to the 86th floor of the Empire State Building during the day, the 69th floor of the Rockefeller Center at night, had a walk through Central Park, did the Sex & The City tour (her idea), checked out Ground Zero, watched The Lion King on Broadway, had lunch on Wall Street, dinner in Times Square, went to the American Natural History Museum, took a helicopter flight, rode the subway, and hopped on a ferry to the Statue of Liberty (the security for which was tighter than actually getting into the United States!)

Manhattan is extremely simple to get around. Well, certainly Midtown is. Numbered avenues crossed by numbered streets - how easy is that? As long as you have a fair idea where you are going you don't even need a map, which always helps if you don't want to fall into the tourist trap. It's very intuitive.

Does the city ever sleep? Probably not. I certainly didn't see any evidence of it.

And I wasn't mugged once.

And One More Makes Four...

The fourth issue of the quirky online Aussie magazine, Eclecticism, hit the virtual shelves a couple of days ago. It includes my flash sci-fi piece, Footprints, and is available to everyone free of charge for the rather simple download of only a few megabytes.

Get on it.

K.T Tunstall...

...rocks.

I saw her last night in concert for the second time, and she could really teach some of the bigger boys a thing or two about how to own a stage.

If you don't know who she is, check her out here, and if you do, where the hell were you last night?

More Reading By Dawn...

FerretBrain has got a pretty detailed review of both volumes of Read By Dawn. Better late than never. My contribution for the first anthology is mentioned, which is always good to see. Any exposure is good exposure, right?

Ok, not all...

...Anyway, while I'm on the subject, go ahead and pre-order Read By Dawn 3. It comes out next month and will only set you back less than the price of three pints. It'll also save you a trip to the bathroom. Go on, you know you want to.

Jaws...

I was on the bus last night, reading Riddle of the Sands and trying to look cultured in doing so, but all I could concentrate on was the conversation between a couple behind me.

They started off by talking about Quentin Tarantino, so I zoned out as best I could - not a fan. When I fell back into the conversation they were discussing how a critic had said dear old Quentin had 'jumped the shark'. As neither of them knew what that meant they went back and forth trying to figure it out. It was all I could do to keep from laughing.

I really wanted to stick my oar in and tell them what it means:

"Excuse me, but jumping the shark is a term used to describe a moment when somethin that was once great has reached a point where it will from that point onwards decline in quality and popularity. The phrase originated from a Happy Days episode where the Fonz jumped over a shark on waterskis. This was seen as the lowest point of the show."

...but, of course, I didn't.

Hell, the term has its own website!

On Three Wheels Again...

It's an oldie, and it's been published before, but if you have not done so already you can check out The Beat for my surreal flash, Tricycle.

Oh yeah, pinch of salt required...