New blogs: The calm before the storm edition

First of all: no, I haven't had my baby yet. You'll be the first to know. I promise. Apparently, a due date is not like an appointment that your kid knows about. And no, that is not my belly.

Since blogging could be tough for a while, I'm going to try to clear the decks of all the new blogs I've been saving up for, oh, ages. Too long, I know. Blogging is hard to squeeze in when you've been forbidden to sit too long at the computer (bad positioning for el fetus) and you're much too busy anyway scrubbing that mysteriously gummy corner of the kitchen counter that never bothered you before but now, for some reason, you must obliterate.

So what have we got today? First up is Manhattanchester, a personal blog written by Gregling, a NYC-loving Mancunian that features some graffiti art photos, cautionary stag do tales and thoughts about the rising cost of higher education. Greg also mentioned Overheard in Manchester as a fun place to play - I'd heard of the New York version but didn't realise we had our own one here.

Another personal blog: Middle Man, which is the sometimes irreverent ramblings and observations of a middle-aged, Midlands-born middle manager. Nice.

And another one: Gay/Thinking is the diary of a twentysomething gay student in Manchester.

Et in Ribbletonia Ego is a blog about the adventures of a new mother and pigeon racing hopeful who lives in Preston.

A new writerly blog: Extracts Von is Manchester-based writer Jack Burston's blog "collecting extracts, chapters and episodes from my writing as well as a few photographs etc. etc"

Shoplifters is a new mp3 blog from Manc DJs (Black Country) Grammar and Jon Claude, linked to their Bay Horse clubnight of the same name. It's basically all the latest remixes, for a limited time only.

Still on the music... Ugly Talented is a Manchester-based music blog written by Tom and Haydn. Nice eclectic mix of stuff on there, new and old both. And if you're in the mood for a total mindfuck, watch that Garfield and Odie do the Theme from Taxi clip they linked to. Whaaa?

The PR Media Blog is written by PR dude Mark Hanson, who recently returned to his native NW from the big smoke, and colleagues Toto Ellis and Michael Cooper. Some interesting posts on there concerned with the overlapping ground where PR, politics and media intersect, locally and globally (though Mark has questionable taste in US Presidential candidates. Hee hee.)

And a departure on the old blogroll: The Console, that ambitious and appealingly-designed dual pronged music and visual art blog, pulled the plug a couple of months ago. Sorry to see it go.

Also, as the literary types among ye may know, the blogs-to-books publisher The Friday Project has come a cropper. I'm not going to join the debate about whether their list was any good in the first place, whether blogs naturally make good books or not, or whether the whole idea was half baked/prescient but under-resourced, etc. etc., because other folks have already commented on this much more eloquently than I could hope to in my current state.

But I will say that local author and blogger Caroline Smailes (who spoke/read at last year's Manchester Blog Awards, you may remember) is one of the lucky few TFP authors whose books were picked up by HarperCollins, and so last year's In Search of Adam and her forthcoming Black Boxes are comparatively safe.

Another Manchester blogger lands book deal

And we're back. I went by the ice rink in Piccadilly yesterday afternoon, which wasn't so festive. A few people were skating (and falling) through puddles in the rain, but the big screen made it all look very Blade Runner.

Some exciting news to report: Manchester freelance writer Maria Roberts, who (until now) has been anonymously writing Single Mother on the Verge, has just landed a deal with Penguin for a book based on her wry and funny semi-confessional blog. Maria has published several short stories and is a former City Life hack who has recently been working with Literature North West, and it's nice to see her hard work paying off.

And you may note that Maria is the second of this year's crop of Manchester Blog Award winners to get a book deal.(Not that the award had anything to do with Chris Killen's, but still.) Maria credits the award with raising her blog's profile and boosting her own confidence in her writing, both of which helped her land the publishing deal. And I've heard something about a third blog award winner being commissioned to write a blog-inspired column in one of the nationals... sheesh. Do we know how to pick 'em?

Santa's sack is bulging with new blogs for me to add to the blogroll, so stay tuned.

Independents Day

I'm going to be taking part in a discussion about alternative publishing at the MLF's Independents' Day event, a one-day conference for non-mainstream publishers, editors, writers, readers and their ilk at the Lowry on Saturday 6th October, 11am – 7pm. So I'd be remiss if I didn't tell you that MLF has just announced a special two-for-one deal on advance tickets (full prices are £8/6).

Here's all the wondrous details from festival HQ:

Independents Day is a great networking event for all budding writers, publishers and
fans of cutting-edge contemporary literature, with opportunities to:

MEET the editors of some of the UK's most innovative small presses and magazines,
including representatives of Comma, Route, Templar and Suitcase.

DISCOVER hot-off-the-press talent with performances by Elizabeth Baines, Ian Clayton,
Shamshad Khan, Janet McDermott, Chloe Poems, Jane Weir, Chris Woods
and contributors to Rain Dog (Pat Winslow), Match Box (James Davies & Alex
Middleton) and Libertine magazines.

CREATE your own publication in our DIY Workshop facilitated by 'zine queen Michelle
Green, yes SHE IS AWESOME - sorry, that was me interrupting the press release. I'll stop. (Please note there is a limited capacity for this workshop so please reserve a space at the time of booking).

GEN UP on imaginative and viable ways to publish and disseminate work in our
Alternative Publishing Seminar chaired by Ra Page. Speakers include Ian Daley
(Route), Kate Feld (Manchizzle and Manchester Blog Awards) and Paul Williams
(Lightning Source).

JOIN the Inpress Debate about the future of independent publishing, chaired by the
writer and critic, DJ Taylor. Speakers include Simon Thirsk (Bloodaxe) and Jeremy
Page (Frogmore Papers).

DISCUSS the role of MA writing courses in the nurturing of new writers and editors in our Out of School presentation featuring representatives of Transmission, Matter and
Textyle magazines.

BROWSE our Indie book market and sample the best in independent literature
production from around the region and beyond.

For further information please visit: www.manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk
To book tickets please tel: 0870 4280785 and quote 'Indie Day 241'.

(Provocative illustration courtesy of Being lady lucy.)

Manchester Blogstory chapter three

The third riveting chapter of our interactive Manchester blogstory, What Would You Do?, has just been posted. I have to say, I didn't see the story going this way at all, so it's a neat surprise. I also enjoyed Elizabeth's descriptions of stuff we see all the time around Manchester - the goths in Cathedral Gardens, the dancers performing in front of M&S, the crowds of drinkers outside Sinclair's Oyster bar. It's both unnerving and cool to see these familiar scenes become part of a fictional work. And I'm dying to know more about the mystery man! Go read it and vote already.

There was a major problem with the blog poll last week (and incidentally, why do blog poll tools suck so much?)Aaaanyway, we're back with the one that worked best, Blog Flux Polls, which has a very neat map function which shows where all the votes are coming from on a map of the world.

By the way, I added about a hundred new blogs to the Great Manc Blogroll late last week - okay, er, maybe it was only 12 or so. But I'm not going to have time to introduce them politely here, so y'all will just have to introduce yourselves.

Manchester blogstory chapter two

...has just been posted here. Please read this week's chapter and vote on what you think should happen next.

Now off to look at blogs, blogs and more blogs. The shortlist for the blog awards should be up in the next couple of days.

Act now!

Just a quick reminder that tomorrow is the deadline for submitting your picks for the 2007 Manchester Blog Awards. We've had more than 80 separate nominations, which is a scorching hot response! But if you haven't sent yours in yet, email 'em to mancblogawards AT googlemail.com by midnight tomorrow.

Also, while we're on the subject of deadlines, reader voting on what happens next in What Would You Do, our Manchester Blogstory, closes at 8pm tonight. Eeek! Tune in on Tuesday morning for the next installment.

What would you do?

Check it out... The first chapter of Manchester Blogstories went live this morning. The story is called "What Would You Do?" and starts out in a Chorlton apartment building. I'm really excited about the way its coming together.

I think I've posted about it before, but the idea behind this project was to set up an interactive fiction blog, set in real time Manchester. Every Tuesday for the next six weeks the writer Elizabeth Baines will be posting a new mini-chapter, and readers will have two days to vote on what should happen next. The final chapter will be performed live at the Manchester Blog Awards on Wednesday 10th October.

So please go read and vote! It is VERY short, and won't take long. The link is here:

http://manchesterblogstories.blogspot.com/

And check back next Tuesday...

Under construction

Here are some pictures from the New Islington Festival on Saturday:

Versifier Martin Stannage getting things started in the literature tent.


This is Seb Clarke bring the horns, while the security guy looks bored.


There were these two crazy performance artists dressed like medics, clowning and dancing all over the place.


I love how this one looks like an L.S. Lowry painting. You can see that the festival was basically a party on a muddy building site.


Before and after?

I had a good time, though I took a stupid route to the site and was menaced by a marauding band of scallies haunting the canal. Spent most of my time in the literature tent, where I heard David Barnett read his great short story "What Would Nite Owl Do?". It had been published in the sadly departed All Saints No Sinners but I missed it somehow. Anyway, I'm reading the amazing Watchmen for the first time right now, so it was weirdly serendipitous to hear a story that referenced those characters. I also admired the insanely cool cover for the Pulp Fiction-themed editon of Transmission which should be out soon.

Later I saw 2 Days in Paris at Cornerhouse, which really is funny despite often being a huge Woody Allen rip-off (or should I say tribute?) It has this great scene with a cat... I was actually howling with laughter.

Weekend: New Islington, Mayflies

Remember last year's New Islington festival? Uh... I remember that there was one... something about a spurting man and a barge? This year its being billed as The Urban Folk Festival for Urban Folk. Urban as in Urban Splash, developers of that rebranded bit of Ancoats, geddit? Anyway, it's 2-8 pm around Old Mill Street, and it's free.

And the music is by (drumroll please) D.percussion, making a "secret return" after saying this year's fest was the last. Not sure this is a real selling point in Manc these days. The list of performers, spread over three stages, doesn't ring a lot of bells for me. Psychedelic outfit the Beep Seals, Magic Arm and a bunch of other local bands and DJs. Contrary to what the "urban folk festival" tagline leads you to expect, there are only a tiny handful of folk performers including Mancunian folkstress Kathryn Edwards. Would've been nice if they actually had given us an urban folk festival, instead of the usual teeth-grinding mix of Manc djs spinning the usual thumpy whatever. Basically, it's going to be D.Percussion with fairy cakes.

Fortunately, there's the indie-tastic Manchester Book Market, where you can meet some of those hardworking literary magazine editors and small press folks. There's readings from Anthony Joseph, Lemn Sissay (though he was a no-show last year) the brilliant flash-fiction writer David Gaffney, Tony Walsh, John Siddique, and a mess of poets and writers you may not necessarily have heard of before but you never know one or two of them might be pretty decent, all compered by Chloe Poems. There's also a series of specially commissioned shorts from local filmmakers.

There's also some twee activities involving vintage cakes, wellies and eek, pedalos on the canal. Yeah, that canal in the picture above. A lot of it sounds harmlessly annoying along the lines of Mr. Scruff's sodding tea tent. But then there's the nu rave sheep pen. "Graffiti artists will spray designs on live sheep while listening in the best in nu-rave club sounds." Oh sweet Jesus, that's wrong in eleven different ways at once.

At the same time, across town in Cornerhouse, Mayflies flits into town to bring us a day of arty hijinks. Between 11 and 5:30, artist BBB Johannes Deimling will perform Don't Hurt Me in the public spaces of the Cornerhouse building. His works often "provoke unconscious fears using an undercurrent of bizarre humour." Scary and funny? Sounds good. Up in the gallery they'll be screening Kleinodtotsod, a video work by John Bock that hints at the malevolent nature of domestic space. Then at 6 there's a screening of the Mayflies film programme, with works by George Barber, Deborah Bower, Wojciech Bruszewski, Michelle Handelman and Ben Rivers. (entry to the films is £3 and includes a drink, booking reccomended.)

Oh, and you can't get in if you've been within ten feet of the nu-rave sheep pen. They'll be checking.