's what twitter is all about! Creative brevity, they call it, I think.

Hello folks,

Sorry for the silence around these parts recently – I’ve been stupidly busy over the last few months and things are only getting more, not less, crazy. Good crazy though. Always good crazy.


Here’s what I’ve been doing:

Hula Hoop

Book 2 takes up most of my time, it’s a monster. A huge, wonderful, crazy, bizarre and brain-twisting monster. I’m pushing myself on this one. It’s a much broader canvas than Raw Shark, and every bit as complicated and full of hidden tunnels for active and super-active readers to discover and explore. It uses the geography of the book in a different way to Raw Shark, it’s, it’s.... well, you’ll see. I am very proud of what I have so far. A chunk went to my editor at Canongate last month and he was very excited about it too, which is good, because it is an odd and impossible beast, this Hula Hoop of mine.

Granta

A few months ago John Freeman, editor of Granta magazine, emailed to ask ‘would I like to write about robots for them?’ Of course, I said yes. Granta! It’s such an honour to be asked. And robots! Who doesn’t love robots? So I packed a bag and flew to The Robotics Institute Carnegie Mellon University to meet some of the most advanced robots on the planet, including the amazing HERB , and these fellas too...







I’ll keep you posted on when my piece will run.



Secretproject1, Secretproject2 (and maybe secretproject3?)

These things are running under, around, and in any spare inch of space left to me by the Godzilla-sized Hula Hoop. One of them is potentially a Very Big Deal and is simmering away nicely at the moment. One is more urgent, smaller and a real joy to do in what little spare time I have. The third has just come up. It will need further investigation. Hopefully by Christmas I will be able to tell you about some, or all, of these things. At least, I hope so - I really can’t wait to talk about these things!


I think that’ll have to do for now. More, and in more detail soon!


S

Thanks Ben, more news when I can!

S

Hey Cp,

No, Powerball is being held back for the time being. I imagine I'll pick it up properly once the Hula Hoop manuscript has gone to Canongate.

S

It's a very fair question, but I'm afraid I can't really answer. If I did compare to Raw Shark it'd be misleading, trust me!

S

those tortoises are so cool looking! so is that your pet, or are you planning to buy one? it will cost you a pretty penny.

Jessica Pressman’s piece "The Aesthetic of Bookishness in the Twenty-first Century" discusses the way in which The Raw Shark Texts responds as a paper novel to new media and ‘the death of the book’.

The article appears in the fall issue of the Michigan Quarterly Review, which is titled - “Bookishness: The New Fate of Reading in the Digital Age”.

I’ve been lucky enough to read the article already – it’s very good indeed. Do check it out.

S

Wow Ben,

If you ever get bored of your current profession, I reckon you could make a fortune as PA to the super-rich. A man who can find a 2-headed turtle for sale, can surely find anything!

Cheers for the link. Amazing.

S

For the reference of those across the pond, that's 3 PM EST, 3 PM central, and so on.

Do you know what sort of stuff you're going to be talking about? Or is it pretty much going to be question and answer?

Here's a link right to the thread: http://forums.readitswapit.co.uk/forums/t/66791.aspx

Not that I don't trust Steven to post it, but the discussion seems pretty happening and fast paced so far. Maybe name drop this place somewheres towards the end of the discussion. New faces around here are always nice.