Two Colson Whitehead books

 If you'd asked me to read a 600-plus page novel about a Harlem furniture salesman trying to walk a line between the crooked and straight worlds, I might not have felt I had the stamina. But I blasted through these two recent books back to back, and I think they've cemented Colson Whitehead as my favorite contemporary American writer.

They're not exactly novels. Each book takes a decade as its broad theme and traces the story of Ray Carney through three novella-sized capers that are equal parts crime story and equal parts social history. Carney is a good guy who's basically just trying to run a furniture store and look after his family, but he's been a fence in the past and he can't quite escape the ties to his old life. I read Crook Manifesto first, which is set in the early-mid seventies, then backtracked to Harlem Shuffle, which begins around the turn of the sixties. You'd read them in publication order, ideally, but I didn't feel that my enjoyment was in any way tempered by taking them out of sequence. If you've encountered Whitehead before (I've read The Intuitionist, Zone One and Underground Railroad, so still have a way to go) you'll expect to be dazzled on an almost line-by-line basis, and these books don't disappoint. I presume there's going to be another set of Carney stories and I'm already looking forward to it.

House of Suns awarded the Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire

 La Maison des Soleils, the French edition of my 2008 novel HOUSE OF SUNS, was recently awarded the Grand Prix de L'Imaginaire at La Comédie du Livre in Montpellier. I'm delighted with this award, not just because my friends at Belial have been doing a grand job bringing my work back into the French market, but because (as far as I can remember) it's the first award of any kind picked up by HOS. Not that books have an automatic entitlement to awards, but it's one of my personal favorites and the recognition is therefore particularly appreciated.

I wasn't able to attend the festival - I did go last year, and was wowed by Montpellier -  but I had other commitments this May. I was able, though, to record a short message of thanks for the award and to the editors, translator and art team at Belial.

Cheers, Al

Run 100 completed

 That's that done, then. I completed my 100th consecutive run.

For those good at maths who are thinking, hang on, it's only day 99 of 2025, my RED January running challenge did indeed start on Jan 1, but my running streak started a day earlier, when I ran Nos Galan on New Year's Eve. I've logged 499.5 kms of running across these 100 days, but that's a slight underestimate as I forgot to start (or restart) my Garmin properly on a few of the runs, meaning I can be comfortable in saying the total is over 500km.

What's all this got to do with writing, anyway? Good question. Everything, in my view. In order to function properly as a writer, the mind-body machine has to be maintained. While there's a viable publishing model for SF, and I still have the motivation to write it, I want to be able to do so. If I'm lucky enough to be still be doing that in my seventies and eighties, so be it! Writing is inevitably a sedentary occupation so the more that can be done to offset the hours seated at the computer, the better. I don't find that I get any particularly brilliant creative breakthroughs during my running (I don't have enough spare mental capacity for that; walking's a bit different) but I do find that my ability to function holistically as a writer is generally better when I'm in a period of active exercise and general good health.

As to the streak itself, I'm now happily calling quits on it. I'll still be running, but not 7/7. Maybe 6/7 for now. I started to feel that the fitness benefits were not measurably improving after the first few weeks, and while I've certainly been sleeping well and feeling good, my running pace hasn't improved much over the last month. I've dodged any major injuries, avoided coughs and sniffles, but I'm sure a little recovery time will now be beneficial.

Tonight we're starting our four-night run of "Guys and Dolls". I didn't plan for my 100-day streak to conclude today, but it's not a bad stopping point as the time available between writing work and theatre stuff is now very squeezed. Yes, I am still writing! Thanks again for all who supported me and the "Mind over Mountains" charity through RED January.

Newty McNewtface

 My newts are thriving after the winter:

They're beautiful creatures, but I can't help missing the frogs that the newts appear to have displaced. Perhaps the frogs will make a return, though.

In other vertebrate news (vastly preferable to the actual news) we've been enjoying some spectacular bat activity these last few nights, with five or six pipistrelles above us at any one time. I'm still a newbie when it comes to bat identification, but we appear to have a mixture of common and soprano pipistrelles. You can read a bit more about our journey into bats here:

https://approachingpavonis.blogspot.com/2020/05/bat-tales.html

A banger by Billy Nomates

 So good! I played this four times back to back the first time I heard it.

Day 75 of RED January

 Thanks to the support of those who contributed to my RED January running challenge, we managed to raise 180 pounds for the Mind Over Mountains mental health charity. I was feeling pretty good about my running at the end of January, so I decided to push on with the streak. Yesterday was Day 75, but it was actually my 76th day of consecutive running as I ran Nos Galan on December 31st. With the daffodils out, and occasional outbreaks of sunshine, that's starting to feel like a fair while ago.

My total distance over these 75 days is now more than 380km, which places me well into France as the crow flies. I'm not feeling any ill effects, so I'm intending to push on to day 100 and then see how I feel. By then I should be close to exceeding my total running distance in 2024, although at this point in the year I wasn't to know that I was heading for quite a difficult few months with an injury.

Guys & Dolls!

 My friends from Showcase Performing Arts will be staging "Guys & Dolls" over four nights from April 9 to April 12 at the Coliseum Theatre in Aberdare. We've been working very hard on this timeless musical and are looking forward to show week, in just under a month. If you're in the South Wales area, why not come along and see our production? The Coliseum is a beautiful period venue, so much so that the BBC recently used it as a Stratford-on-Avon stand-in for the forthcoming feature film "Mr Burton", where (as mentioned back in July) we provided some extras for a day of shooting.

Inspired by the short stories of Damon Runyan, Guys and Dolls is rollicking tale of sin and virtue on the grubby streets of gangster-era New York. It's got great songs, great characters, and plenty of laughs. Nathan Detroit is a small-time hustler who needs to arrange a venue for a "permanent floating crap game" each night, and needs to keep moving that venue to avoid being busted. Nathan's been stringing along his fiance, Adelaide, for fourteen years:

If only he could get a break! Needing a thousand bucks fast, he enters into a rash bet with the high-rolling gambler Sky Masterson, but needless to say things don't quite go to plan. The last thing Nathan needs is the attention of the lousy Lieutenant Brannigan of the New York police department, which is where I come in:

And here's me getting up close and personal with poor old Nathan:

But fear not, all comes well in the end and there's a suitably upbeat conclusion. Even the lieutenant turns out to have a heart. Brannigan is a relatively small part in the production although the fact of him trying to break up Nathan's fun is a big part of the plot driver, even when he's not on stage. The main players, as well as the gangsters, have got some great songs under their belts and even if you're not familiar with the musical, as I wasn't, you'll probably recognise "Luck be a Lady" and "Sit Down, You're Rocking the Boat", two big numbers with a lot of choreography! I've fallen in love with this musical over the last few months and know you'll have a good night out if you come along and see us.

Tickets cost 16 pounds, with concessions and family tickets available:

https://www.rct-theatres.co.uk/event/guys-dolls