Hey folks,

Thanks for dropping by. You are looking good. With cheekbones like that you could rule the world. And when you do, just remember that I was your friend.

News: the first paperback edition of my novel 'The Stornoway Way' (Penguin Books) comes out in the first week of September. I haven't seen it yet, but I think it looks cool from advance material.

I have a few gigs in Scotland and Germany coming up and you are most welcome to come along if you are in the vicinity/neighbouring country, etc.  unless of course you are a raging psychopath

First off, there is my reading of new material at the Hebridean Book Festival (how new? well, let's just say that I might be asking you to write some of it for me)...

Thursday 31st August 2000-2100 (8-9 in old money) - An Lanntair, Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, followed by Our Small Capital (legendary band on the up-and-up).

 I will also be doing a gig (details tbc) the following week as part of a Suicide Awareness cause. Further details about that and the German gigs to follow.

I hope you are so well it feels exquisite. Surely someone feels that way?

Anyway, 

Peace,

Kevin

PS www.faclan.org

Meanwhile the online but offbeat shop has opened here at

www.KevinMacNeil.com

It doesn't sell books or records. Hey ho. Never knowingly conventional. You can get those - the important things - elsewhere. This shop is just...ah, whatever. I don't believe in the hard sell.

Meanwhile (Part II), tiredness and whatnot won't keep me away from Singing For The Blue Men. Especially not the whatnot.

Aye.

(If none of that make sense, don't worry...

'Aye' is a Scots word that means 'Always' or 'Yes'. Singing For The Blue Men is the novel wot I is writing at the moment. For many reasons, it is - it needs to be - important. I am giving nothing away about it until it is finished except that it will be nothing like my last novel, The Stornoway Way. Good to be different. Always.

Hmmm. Come to think of it, maybe only people who know me or my work should read this blog. Fine and good. I wish all of you well. Otherwise disregard.

I should just finish by passing on the first joke my mum has ever emailed to me...no, wait...it is funny...

A bus of 100 ugly people crashes and they all die........
>> >>>
>> >>>They all arrive in heaven and God says before you go in I will
>> >>>grant you all one wish, the first person says "I wish to be
>> >>>beautiful" the next does the same and the next, God gets to
>> >>>about the 15th person and realises the man at the back is
>> >>>laughing his head off, but he carries granting wishes, all the
>> >>>people are still saying the same thing.......
>> >>>
>> >>>I want to be beautiful, I want to be beautiful, I want to
>>be
>> >>>beautiful,
>> >>>
>> >>>Then God finally gets to the man at the back who was
>> >>>laughing............. ..>..>
>> >>>
>> >>>God says " Before I grant you your wish please tell me what you
>> >>>are laughing at?"
>> >>>
>> >>>"Nothing" says the man
>> >>>
>> >>>"OK" says God  "What is your wish?"
>> >>>
>> >>>The man says........
>> >>>
>> >>>"Make them all ugly again!"
)

Told you it was funny.

Peace,

Kevin

 

A quiet moment's reflection in memory of my old schoolfriend Andy Edwards who passed away at the weekend.

Puts life in perspective.

Requiescat In Pace

...for emails and general show of support. Normal service has been resumed. And here is a smiling face to prove it - .

I have thought about The Green Thumb, as featured in the last post and in this one. It has been bothering me. What exactly does it mean?

Is it envious?

Have 'I' been gardening (but only a little bit)?

No.

I have given this a great deal of thought. And I conclude that a green thumb must be the international symbol for a jealous hitchhiker.

Just why this hitchhiker is jealous is something we might come back to. Meanwhile I can sleep more easily having solved at least one of life's niggling mysteries today.

I thank you.

So a few people have been asking what life is like in the Bavarian Palace and I am too lazy to respond to each and every email so here is a generic one instead.

Well, dammit, life here is pretty good. The view from my (one's) balcony is stupendous and I have never lived in such a fantastic place. I reckon when the year is up I will be barracading myself in here! Some random Mexican guy swung by yesterday and was gobsmacked. 'Aye carumba,' he said, 'My gob is smacked.'

Meanwhile I am trying to be fit and active - not just writing a lot but cycling and walking. I need to work hard - for my conscience and for my deadlines.

Oh hey, and to the people from Lewis - fight those guys trying to demolish the pyramid! It's been there since at least 1989 BC.

Respect and peace and other big words,

Kevin

Hey folks,

Am still quite exhausted by the whole thing...thanks again for being so cool, those of you who came to the opening nights of The Callanish Stoned. Wow, I couldn't have wished for better audiences supposing I'd paid everyone to laugh! (Uh, which I didn't.) The play tours Scotland this month...and Ipswich on April 1st (no joke).

Thanks to the cast for being so dedicated. Crikey, they worked hard...way above and beyond the call of duty.

Tour dates are somewhere on my website. Come along if you want a laugh. Be quick, though, many dates are selling fast. I don't know what audiences outwith these hallowed shores will make of lines like "Ya wee maw-faced clibean!" or "How can someone so pretty smell like a fish", but hey-ho. It's all in the name of art and makes sense in the context of the play. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive (for the play, I mean, not those lines).

What else? I'm still planning to move to Bavaria in April. That'll be a change! Just when I feel my home audience are tuning in to what I'm doing...co-dhiu...

Our (William Campbell and Kevin MacNeil) new song sounds pretty fine to my ears. Best thing we've done, I reckon. Willie - my mate and songwriting partner - has a band called Our Small Capital and they are off to Texas for the SxSW festival - good luck to them! They have an EP out more or less now and new T-shirts that are so cool they will be more common than Ramones T-shirts!

Dammit, it feels exciting to be alive these days in this part of the world.

But I am tired. Very, very tired.

Let me sleep.

But keep those bad dreams away.

Good!

Kevin MacNeil

A very big THANK YOU to everyone who came to the opening shows of The Callanish Stoned. Both nights were sold out and I really couldn't have been more pleased with the feedback from the audience. Moran taing!

Too tired to write any more for the moment. Exhausted, but delighted. Off it goes on tour now - round Scotland and Ipswich!

See you soon,

Kevin

PS I have started a myspace site for those of you who are interested in that kind of thing:

http://www.myspace.com/loveandzen

 

Hey there,

Phew! It's hectic but exhilarating. Rehearsals of The Calanish Stoned are ongoing. It's exciting to see the play coming to life. I will post the tour dates soon, but it opens with 3 shows at An Lanntair (Stornoway) before going on the road. I think those tickets are already available, though all the posters and flyers aren't quite ready yet.

What else? I finally finished my short story Edinburgh Man for an anthology of short stories inspired by songs by cult musical nutcases The Fall. I can't remember offhand when that book comes out - summer, I think. But summer this year or next? Can't recall. Also sent off a flash fiction micro-narrative to same people for a book of Flash Fiction with all proceeds going to charity. That's a genre (and a cause) I like!

And I wrote a feature today for The Herald Saturday Arts section about Iain Crichton Smith and his 'new' book and CD.

This last fortnight has been one of my busiest in a long time.

I head off to Edinburgh on friday for the Festival of Middle Eastern Spirituality and Peace Writing Residency I'm doing. Details of some events in previous web journal entry below. Even just travelling down to Edinburgh (ferry, bus, train) will be nice and relaxing for me, a calm between two creative storms.

Oh, and the mad wee online shop WILL be opening soon.

Later,

Kevin

 

 

Hi folks,

Just thought I'd update you on some forthcoming events. When I've the honour of being Writer in Residence at the International Festival of Middle Eastern Spirituality and Peace in Edinburgh later this month, as part of my remit I shall be doing some readings, etc.

2.00 p.m. Sat 25th Feb: Creative Writing Workshop, Traverse Theatre, Cambridge Street, Edinburgh. Tickets £4/£2. To book call 0131 228 1404 or email boxoffice@traverse.co.uk

7.30 p.m. Tue 28th Feb: Poetry Reading, Scottish Poetry Library, 5 Crichton's Close, Canongate, Edinburgh. Tickets £3/£2. To book call 0131 557 2876 or email reception@spl.org.uk

I will also be attending as many events as I can for the time I'm in Edinburgh. I am looking forward immensely to experiencing as much of the art, storytelling, music, drama, food, film and poetry that the festival has to offer. I shall then be writing a new piece of work based on my perceptions of the festival. It's going to be a fun, edifying experience, I reckon. Hopefully I can meet up with some of my Edinburgh-based friends while I'm in town, too. I have a soft spot for Edinburgh, of course, since I studied there. I think it'll be nicely hectic.

What else? My play The Callanish Stoned goes into reahearsal in less than a fortnight's time. I'm looking forward to that! Meanwhile we're getting posters, set designs and all the rest of those things underway.

The wee online shop I mentioned a while ago will be opening soon. The stuff (T-shirts, tops, etc) I've seen so far...what can I say? Very cool!

I'm sure I had more to say, but I can't remember.

See you soon,

Kevin