Well, hello!
It's been a while. I almost feel like I could say Happy New Year twice and not be far out. I am truly dire at this update thing, but don't let that make you think I don't love you and appreciate you, that I'm not astounded that so many of you have put your support behind The City Will Love You. We are getting there. At the end of last year, I was incredibly moved when Nathalie Teitler pledged the City Living Room option and had me read to a wonderful audience at her flat in West London. (There are a couple of pictures at the end of this update from the evening) There is nothing like seeing stories come to life in the faces of listeners to convince you that they have what it takes to live in the world. That experience has made me even more determined to share this collection with you at its best - with all your names in it, of course.
Also exciting, the book got supported by one of the founders of Unbound - John Mitchinson - which means I must be doing something very wrong or very right and the first line of the final story for The City Will Love You came to me one morning - just like that. It reads like this: "Friday nights when the neighbourhood flowed towards clubs and people made black holes of their waists, the man climbed towards the stars with pliers in his left hand..."
Other cool stuff; there are a couple of translations of individual stories in the pipeline that I will be able to tell you about soon, and I just finished programming literature events for Brighton Festival, which you should definitely check out - especially because it means I'll be hanging around Brighton for pretty much the whole month of May and it would be lovely to see some of you!!
And, all that's left is for me to wish you Happy Valentine's Day :) - until the next episode!
Thank you again!
Nii
P.S. We're at 38%!! That's virtually a UK uni pass mark!
