Chart / February

Welcome to February, the truncated month nobody likes, not even those unfortunates who have a birthday in its 28-29-day lifespan. It’s also the one I find difficult to say in German. FebRUar. Each year for the past three years I’ve escaped Berlin to exotic climes in search of inspiration for writing. Last year was Oman, the year before Laos and Cambodia, the year before that China and Vietnam. Exotic. But now that I’m restricting myself to one long-haul flight per year, I’m staying right here to enjoy these cold-but-not-really-as-cold-as-they-should-be days in front of my computer, type type typing in the desperate hope that the literary stars will align and I’ll churn out something worthwhile.

Speaking of which, I finished Mekong Lights. Done. Digitally dusted. Nothing more to dot or cross or delete with a raised eyebrow like “how did you ever think that was even a little bit appropriate?”. You know what the very worst aspect of writing is? That’s right, the query letter. No? You try condensing 134,000 words down to 90 and hoping those 90 are magical enough to attract the attention of an overworked literary agent. It’s the most miserable of pots at the end of the rainbow, let me tell you. No way around it though (except yes there is: I submitted By the Feet of Men directly to a publisher. Still, not especially keen on going through that process again). Fingers crossed that third time’s the charm. If I do somehow manage to crawl my way out of the slush pile with my QL, I’ll write an article with a title like “7 ways to write the most baller query letter ever! (number 5 will surprise you)”.

And now to music, for it cures what ails thee:

1. Hot Sugar - 10 Racks Under the Mattress

2. Bernard Fevre - That Is to Be

3. Kaytranada - 10%

4. Hew Time - Bell Window

5. Dan Deacon - Arp II: Float Away

6. Recondite - Mirror Games

7. Seefeel - Industrious

Girl with a Life Aquatic Tattoo, Johannes Vermeer (1665)

Chart / January

I came to the realisation yesterday that in this miserable world of ours, I am no longer writing with the aim of becoming a (semi-)respected/bestselling author who has a built-in audience, who gets the chance to write op-eds in the Guardian and the New Yorker, who speaks at glitzy events and so on. Nope, I’m doing it mostly so I don’t despair at how messed up the world is. We’re only nine days into January and already I’ve consumed enough misery through the media and conversations with other people to last the entire year. I wonder how things must feel for people who don’t have a healthy outlet like art or sport. I wonder how things must look for people much younger than me. I also wonder how all the people I know who are currently having children are not freaking out about the future.

There’s a book that I’m reading right now which isn’t exactly doing much to alleviate my Stygian mood, but is nevertheless entertaining in how absurd we human beings are: Bullshit Jobs: A Theory by David Graeber. While it isn’t anywhere near as comprehensive or fact-based as Debt: The First 5,000 Years, it’s more accessible, and I’d say it’s an essential read for anybody sitting in an office right now asking themselves exactly what the fuck it is they’re doing with their lives. I wish it had been written eight years ago - I could’ve avoided a bit of destructive soul-searching at the time.

One little bit from the end of last year: Bluntly.com was kind enough to publish a piece I wrote suggesting that the Western as a genre is the perfect framework through which to critique modern society, and that modern Western films and TV shows are - whether consciously or subconsciously - currently serving as a reflection of our deep-rooted fears and often nihilistic outlooks with regard to the climate crisis. The article is available to read here.

Music for a world on fire….

1. Jane’s Addiction - Three Days

2. Sweet Trip - Conservation of Two

3. Boards of Canada - An Eagle In Your Mind

4. Kelly Lee Owens - Evolution

5. Octo Octo - I Need You

6. Skee Mask - 50 Euro to Break Boost

7. SASAMI - Callous

8. EOB - Brasil

the only light is red.

Chart / November

Didn’t write anything on here for a month, did I? Well, I just didn’t have time. I had it in my head and I kept thinking ‘tomorrow I’ll write something mildly interesting, tomorrow I’ll come up with “the four most disappointing novels I’ve ever read” or “what I talk about when I talk about playing epic guitar solos”, but the truth is I was deep into the revision process for Mekong Lights (cut….cut….keep….oh god, cut) and I didn’t want to break the flow, so I simply ignored this little blog. Imma set things right in December though! You betcha.

Not much news in the old roundup section: I did a Q&A over on Bidwell Hollow with Nick Barron about - you know it - By the Feet of Men, which I enjoyed because the questions were well chosen. And I had an essay accepted in Bluntly magazine about climate change, but it won’t be out until the end of December, so there’s not much point highlighting it now. Other than that? Nichts. Nada. Nanimonai. Revisions took up every free moment, I submitted no short stories and I received no interesting news except from my publisher except to say “Your novel has been published for 3 months now!”, which is one more than it was last month and one less than it will be next month.

And now……tunes:

1. BROCKHAMPTON - GOLD

2. Iglooghost - Purity Shards

3. Lim Kim - YELLOW

4. Jai Paul - He

5. JPEGMAFIA - Beta Male Strategies

6. Kai Whiston - Hell For Ourselves!

7. Andy Stott - Promises

my friend drew this for me and it rocks.

Chart / September

So my little-known existentialist dystopian post-apocalyptic climate fiction road novel By the Feet of Men has been out in the world for all to buy and read and review for a month now. Sales have been above expectations according to the publisher, which is fine, but how does Grant Price feel, is more the burning question. ‘Twas a difficult couple of weeks after it came out. You work for three years on a project and you complete it and the anticlimactic abyss stares back at you. I had virtually no desire to write, and I was a little demotivated by how quickly the novel had its week in the sun and then disappeared from all charts forevermore. But such is life. I managed to get over the dip just as autumn turned its piercing gaze onto Berlin. I’ve also started working on a fourth novel. Eco-fiction. My bread and butter. We’ll see how that goes over the coming months.

Roundup: As stated at the beginning of September, I wrote a piece about flashbacks for Mary Robinette Kowal, which kept popping up on strange websites all over the Internet. Over at The Qwillery, I answered some questions about why I bother writing, how I bother writing and who I bother while writing. What about reviews? Well, Mr Joseph D’Lacey, author of MEAT who counts Stephen King among his fans, decided that my book was worth a read, which is great. Another author, Terry Tyler, said it was “inventive and well-researched”, which vindicates my hours of watching YouTube videos about trucks, while YET ANOTHER AUTHOR, Dennis Stephan (who just had Und in mir ein Ozean published), made me laugh by describing the story as “a futuristic Western where post-apocalyptic cowboys ride their vehicles searching for a reason to live on”. In non-novel news, Allegory Ridge published an essay I wrote about Oman called, fittingly, The Solitude of Oman, on its lovely Marie Kondo-esque website. Happy about that.

Fill my autummy:

1. Four Tet - Anna Painting

2. Rival Consoles - Memory Arc

3. Tonnovelle - Four Force

4. Susumu Yokota - Kodomotachi

5. Biosphere - Chukhung

6. Windy & Carl - Undercurrent

7. Trentemøller - Foggy Figures

8. Thurston Moore - 8 Spring Street

hit the lights