Weightless Fireworks
By Scott Pack
A collection of haiku
Publication date: Winter 2018
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A Haiku on the Tiles
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A collection of haiku, written over the past twenty-five years. Some are very traditional in style and content, others are a bit more contemporary. Some are serious, a few are mildly amusing, and one or two might be quite funny. All follow the strict haiku style of three lines, and a 5/7/5 syllable structure.
The book will be designed by Vaughan Oliver, the man behind iconic album covers for Pixies, Throwing Muses, Breeders, Lush and a host of other artists on the 4AD record label.
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Scott Pack
Scott Pack is a writer, editor and publisher. He spent the first half of the noughties as Head of Buying for the Waterstones book chain before leaving to become a publisher, working at publishing houses both big and small. Most recently he joined Unbound as Associate Editor. Writers he has published include Dan Rhodes, Natsume Soseki, Charles Lambert, Kristin Hersh, Julie Schumacher, Nikesh Shukla, Niven Govinden, Andrew Kaufman and Brian Aldiss.
He has written a number of humour and trivia books under the pseudonym Steve Stack and has also written, mostly under his own name, for The Times, Guardian, Observer and Private Eye. He was once interviewed for BBC's Newsround.
His first paid work as a writer came in 1991 when he was commissioned to write a poetry collection, entitled aardvark. Weightless Fireworks is Scott's first book of poetry since then and is launched 25 years after its predecessor.
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end of the affair
her packed bags by the front door
ctrl/alt/delete
80 m.p.h.
butterflies hit the windscreen
with weightless fireworks
she’s been eating crisps
I can taste them on her lips
ready salted love
pausing in the snow
a robin, fresh from murder,
looks me in the eye
the six grades of sting:
nettle, pinprick, wasp, hornet,
papercut, and love Scott Pack has written 11 private updates. You can pledge to get access to them all.
13th May 2018 Weightless in the WildIt has finally happened. After more than two years, Weightless Fireworks is arriving through letterboxes, appearing in pigeonholes and, in one case, handed through an open window on a sunny morning.
Here are just a few of the many photographs that have been sent to me, or shared on social media, showing the book in the wild.
Someone even managed to unearth my very first poetry collection…
1st May 2018 One of TenI wanted to show you the beautiful art prints that have been created based on Vaughan Oliver's designs for the book. We opted for a landscape print showing the full cover - front, back and flaps - so that the eventual owners would have every bit of Vaughan's work on the page.
I now need to nip round Vaughan's place and get him to sign them. Then they can be sent to the people who pledged for them…
26th April 2018 Writer's CrampYesterday I popped into the Unbound offices to sign copies of Weightless Fireworks. There were just over eighty of you who had pledged for levels that included the need for me to scribble on copies of the book, so scribble I did.
I had a bit of a pile to get through.
I know authors usually sign the title page of a book but just before the title page we have this rather splendid illustration…
10th April 2018 The Weightless Wait is Nearly OverAs some of you may have seen on social media, Weightless Fireworks actually exists. I was sent a couple of advance copies last week and it is a fine-looking volume.
Here, take a look...
I tried to get away without a barcode seeing as the book won't be in any shops, but sadly that was not to be. I think it is only there so that the printer and warehouse can scan it in and out. Modern technology…
23rd March 2018 Brace YourselvesSeveral years ago, when you were all a lot younger and far more naive, you pledged some money to help take a random bunch of haiku and turn them into a book.
It is entirely possible that you have forgotten about this, what with so much time having passed. In which case, consider this a reminder. I hope not an entirely unpleasant one.
You see, copies of the book are due from the printer any day…
17th December 2017 Another Year GoneThis is just a short update to wish you all a Merry Christmas or Happy Winterval or whatever it is you may be celebrating/ignoring this festive season.
I am about to go offline till the New Year but when I return I hope to have some firm, or firmer, news about when you will be receiving your finished books. Vaughan has completed all of his work. The pages have been proof read. The production team…
14th November 2017 A Look InsideFollowing on from last week's post about the book cover, I can now share with you some of the typography from inside.
Once again, Vaughan Oliver has created the design for these pages and we have gone proper minimal. One haiku per page.
Here are a few double-page spreads as a little taster of what is to come. If you click on any of the poems you'll see them in their full resolution.
…
13th November 2017 The Vaughan Oliver ArchiveJust a quick update to let you know about a very special project.
Vaughan Oliver, the designer of so many classic album covers over the past four decades, as well as the cover and typography for Weightless Fireworks (surely a highlight of his career?), is crowdfunding at Kickstarter for his own book. It is going to be a lavish two-volume celebration of his work, and there are lots of bonus extras…
10th November 2017 An Absence of WordsOne of the advantages of making Weightless Fireworks exclusive to Unbound subscribers is that it has given us the freedom to create a cover without the need for many of the bits and bobs that are essential if you intend to sell your book in bookshops. Such as, for example, words.
This book doesn't need a blurb as we are not trying to sell it to anyone. A short, pithy biography of the author…
23rd June 2017 Unavailable in All Good BookshopsEvery author who successfully gets their book funded at Unbound is given the option of having a separate edition produced for bookshops. So there is a beautiful hardback exclusively for supporters and a slightly less fancy, although still very handsome, version that will appear in bookshops and online a couple of months later.
I have asked Unbound not to create a second edition of Weightless Fireworks…
9th June 2017 So, some things are happening...No, really, they are.
Here are some of those things.
Words. All of the words for the book have been written. They are with the production team at Unbound who will press some buttons and tweak some files and suck the end of pencils and make some calls and shout across desks until the words get printed onto pages and are turned into lots of books.
Pictures. According to his recent Facebook…
24th March 2017 TracklistingDo you remember The Christians?
Not the God-fearing ones that the Romans fed to lions. I mean the soulful pop combo from Liverpool. Big in the 80s and all that. Some of you are probably too young.
I was never a fan myself, I was too busy listening to Love & Rockets and The Cure at the time, but I was reminded of them recently when I was putting the finishing touches to Weightless Fireworks.…
13th October 2016 Did You Miss Me?So I am back in Windsor following a wonderful trip to New Zealand.
I met lots of amazing people, many splendid writers among them. I was taken out to lunch by a Dame, who is also a recipient of a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour from the French government, so I mingled with the finest that New Zealand has to offer.
I ate lots of amazing food. The ice-creams at Giapo in Auckland are the finest…
29th August 2016 A Postcard from New ZealandGreetings from Aotearoa!
I am currently in New Zealand for a series of literary festival events and talks. I have just arrived in Auckland after a wonderful few days in Christchurch for the WORD Festival during which time I received conclusive proof that I am, indeed, a writer.
Christchurch is a remarkable and unusual city, and not only because it is still recovering from the earthquakes…
16th August 2016 Tea and Cake with Vaughan OliverOn Monday I pootled down to Epsom to meet up with Vaughan Oliver. Vaughan is, frankly, a legend to many people, including me. His cover art and design work with 4AD in the 1980s and 90s is about as iconic as iconic can get. Shit, he was the man who created this classic album cover.
And this one.
This one also.
Anyway, my record collection is full of his work. Yours may well be…
16th July 2016 Patience is a VirtueA few people, or as I like to call them, impatient bastards, have been asking me when they'll be taking delivery of their hauki.
The sort answer is: when I've finished writing them.
The slightly longer answer goes like this.
I wasn't expecting the book to be funded within a month, I thought it would take 3 or 4 at least, so I had always penciled in this autumn for completing the book. I have…
30th June 2016 Haiku. In a Toilet. In Brazil.There is an independent bookshop in Brazil that I had not heard of till last weekend. It is called Boto-cor-de-rosa (it translates as 'Pink Dolphin', apparently) and they are currently running a crowdfunding campaign in order to stay afloat. One of the rewards on offer was to have a poem of your choice on the chalkboard in what they call their 'bathroom', but which I assume is their toilet.
I coughed…
23rd June 2016 Composed on a Train19th June 2016 What a Difference a Word MakesOr two letters, to be more precise.
A couple of weeks ago, struck by a rare moment of inspiration, I composed the following haiku:
blossoms have fallen
these brief days of early spring
are crushed underfootI was in the garden, our cherry tree had shed its petals, the words came to me, they scanned without much effort. It was an easy poem to write.
But then I started pondering that…
5th June 2016 Editing the RewardsThis is just a quick post to say that as of the end of this week I will be closing down some of the editorial rewards that are on offer with Weightless Fireworks. As some of you know, seeing as you paid for them, I have been offering bargain deals on my editorial services with offers ranging from a review of your submissions package, making sure it is ship-shape before it goes off to agents, for …
21st May 2016 Lost in Translation?In the same way that it is generally accepted that Shakespeare is the greatest playwright to have ever picked up a quill — he may not be your favourite playwright, and others may have written better individual plays, but his work has endured better, is studied more intensely and is performed more widely than any other — the finest haiku poet to ever pick up an inkbrush is Bashō.
Matsuo Bashō…
17th May 2016 So, What Now?Now that Weightless Fireworks has hit 100% funding I am no longer shouting about it every couple of hours on Twitter and Facebook. No, I am much more restrained now, only mentioning it once a week or so.
But last time I did mention it, someone asked me why I was still plugging the book seeing as "you're funded now, aren't you?"
It is a fair question, so I thought it might be worth explaining…
4th May 2016 100%!!!Isn't crowdfunding wonderful?
Let's face it, there is no way a collection of haiku from an unknown poet would get published as a beautiful hardback by a traditional publisher in this day and age. They'd be mad to try it. It just wouldn't work for them.
Crowdfunding, on the other hand, has helped make this book a reality. We hit 100% last night and that means Weightless Fireworks will go into…
These people are helping to fund Weightless Fireworks.
Inni Hal
Zoe Greaves
Ted Sherman
Rebecca Nolan
Trixie Flory
Patrick Morgan
Rachel McAteer
Martin Sanville
Douglas Board
Ged Welch
Gail Finlayson
Katy Balagopal
David Neal
An anonymous donor
Susan Mains
Scott Pack
M-L Patton
Sophie Yuill
Kimm Kovac
Beth Cameron
Nichola Deadman
thierry ollivier
- Please sign in to ask a question.
Dear Scott, I hope you are happy to have dinner with somebody who wants absolutely nothing from you! Anyway, good luck with the rest of the funding and best wishes from Bel Mooney
Hi Bel, I am happy to have dinner with anyone. I love some good food and a chinwag. I am particularly happy to have dinner with someone who has been so generous in supporting this odd little book. Thank you. So far it just looks like it will be you and me as no one else has pledged for that reward yet. I am very much looking forward to it. Best, Scott