Episode 19: The Fox That Likes Jamiroquai.

Episode 19 should be up on time tomorrow. I say should, but you can't be too sure with all the bumpers and whatnots that have to be stuck on to the main recording. Anyway, the main recording is done, I finished it tonight. It's 40-odd minutes long, which is long for O.A.t.S, and when you add the bumpers and stuff it'll be 45 minutes. I actually considered splitting the chapter into two episodes, but I felt it would lose something - namely pace - if I did. So, barring sickness, death or Irish broadband going all weird on me, Episode 19 should be up tomorrow evening (UK / Ireland time).

Episode 18: First Complete Version Done.

The first, but no doubt not the last. There's a lot of mood, tension, fear and desire to get into this little package. Getting this right is going to take innumerable re-takes and endless editing. It might be late, so if it's not there on Tuesday, be patient. It's coming (no pun intended).

Episode 18: it's only a podcast episode.
So I should be sitting down and getting on with Episode 18, but instead I'm sitting here and checking sites and getting up and walking around and doing chores and going out and coming back and looking at the mic and playing the same Raveonettes song (Black Wave)over and over again like a mental patient and doing anything and everything but starting Episode 18. Why? I don't know.

Episode 18: I should just start it right now. Just stop writing this and get on with it. I should, but hey, it's nearly time for my wife to get in. Maybe I'll surprise her with a nice hot meal. Yes, I'll cook something really nice, really different: something that takes a long time to cook and involves a lot of time-consuming fuss. And then tomorrow, yes, I'll start #18 tomorrow. And just keep repeating, Episode 18: it's only a podcast episode, it's only a podcast episode, it's only a podcast episode...

Episode 17
Episode 17 goes live tonight, chock-full of geezer mysticism and really great pro-hash arguments for the UK legalise cannabis movement.
Hash prices were realistic at the time of the novel’s publication, although they probably seem laughably cheap by today’s high street standards – well, perhaps not ‘high street’, but almost. Not that I’d know of course: I’ve never touched the stuff myself, just like David Cameron, Brian Harvey and oodles of other pillars of the establishment.

Promo News
Here's some news from the exciting world of promos. Last night, Scott Sigler ran my promo on Episode 18 of The Rookie. Then I got an email from Larry Winfield, who told me that he'd run my promo on The Sundown Lounge, his podcast show from L.A.
So many thanks to both Scott and Larry.
My new promo, which alludes to the coming fate of Wayne, is available now by clicking this One Among the Sleepless Promo 2

Episode 16: Mr Benn
In one of those British TV references that sometimes happen in One Among the Sleepless, Lucy mentions the possibility of a visit from Mr Benn were he a reality. Mr Benn was the eponymous character of a 1970s BBC childrens' TV show. He used to go to a costume shop where, every week, he'd try on a different outfit. Once in the outfit, he'd pass through a door that led, not back to the shop, but to an adventure in keeping with the outfit he was wearing on that particular week.
It's probably the best children's show ever made (in my humble opinion).
Episode 16 also sees Mick and Sally on a lunch date, and Wayne go to far when it comes to making neighbourly housecalls. Damn, but he's horrible.

The Old Trout on MySpace

I used to work in a music venue in the Nineties called The Old Trout. It was by the River Thames in Windsor and used to be a very popular stop on what was called (and doubtless still is called) the U.K. 'toilet circuit'. Meaning small venues with basic facilities that bands on the way up all play in as part of their rites of passage to megadom. Among the bands that played there were Oasis, Blur, Supergrass, Suede and hundreds more.

After a lot of bother with the brewery that owned it, the Trout shut in 1995. About six or seven years ago, I built a fairly basic website that chronicled the history of the Old Trout from 1988 to its closure in 1995. The site always lacked a key ingredient, and that was a place where visitors (especially bands and former punters) could sign in, leave messages, updates on their lives etc. I forgot all about the site until recently, when (while adding phoney friends to my MySpace site like 'cheddar cheese' and 'Marmite')it occoured to me that MySpace could provide just that facility for the Old Trout. So I added a new MySpace for The Old Trout. You can check it out here: http://www.myspace.com/old_trout_windsor
My original Trout site can be viewed here: The Old Trout, Windsor

Episode 15: Men Behaving Badly

This week's episode features a whole load of men behaving badly. Firstly, one of Adam's old friends, Gordon, is extremely rude. Then Gaz and Glen are quite odious in the way they speak about Sally. Finally Wayne, well, he's always unpleasant and this week is no exception. If you find all this a bit distasteful, forgive me, but that's the way these guys are. If they went around being something that they aren't, then they wouldn't be true to themselves and so the story would lose its essential truth: namely - the authenticity of its characters. Love 'em or hate 'em, these charmers are authentic.

The conversation between the tramps took hours to record and edit together. Of course, it only takes about three minutes to listen to. I got a touch of laryngitis after all the shouting and throaty huffing, which you can hear in the intro and outro (is that a word?)

Promo this week is Scott Sigler's The Rookie.