Bombs and Blocks

Well, that bomb was dealt with immediately. The guy with the toothache probably still squezz in his appointment at the dentist's.

I said, weeks ago, that I was about to put up my next Great Book for Teenage Boys. Well, I've been trying. But for some reason I am blocked like crazy. I've written the damn thing three times, and not posted it. 

Whaddya do? Writers are crazy. And the book is a head-wrecker, so no wonder it's somehow still wrecking my head. Great book...

I'll try again tomorrow. Bombs won't stop me. Blocks won't stop me.

Something new will stop me. 

(I took the image from HERE. Not sure if they drew it themselves... 

Comments

[Noel (Null Set) Kenny]

"Writers are crazy".

Julian, You were bonkers before you ever started writing

[njetocka]

Hi. I must admit that I've never read any of your novels and that until yesterday I didn’t even know you existed. But yesterday I’ve came across your text “Divine Comedy” (which I’ve read in Croatian translation) and enjoyed it so much that I am still felling good because of it. I know that’s pathetic, but still… I can’t wait to read your fiction. Which novel should I begin with?

[Julian Gough]

Holy Guacamole, who translated my essay on comedy into Croatian? That piece really gets around... (someone also translated it into Portuguese for the love of it, bless them).

My favourite of the two novels I've published is Jude: Level 1. It's the funniest, but it's also very, very VERY Irish (there are a lot of jokes which make reference to Irish politicians and scandals you'll never have heard of). And the English in it is fierce Irish altogether.

So maybe you should try Juno & Juliet. Much more straightforward, normal book. Not as funny, but not as weird either.

[njetocka]

The novel which you yourself favour and describe as weird , funny and fierce, not too mention very, very Irish is surely a better choice? I guess that I could learn some of that Irish English from your book, too. Truth is, I've already started with it because it was just a link away. I loved it how you close with that scene from „Leda“. So much drama. Beautiful.

[Julian Gough]

Hey! You got the "Leda and the Swan" reference (or theft)! Excellent. Well that puts you way ahead of most of my Irish readers. Go for it, yeah, it's the better book.

[Laylatoot]

Unfortunately, I did not draw the picture - though I wish I had such artistic acumen!

Talking of acumen, you have a pleasingly unique and interesting blog - I'm glad I found it!

[Julian Gough]

Glad you like the blog, and thanks for the loan of the picture anyhow. It looks worryingly like me as a 17-year old.

And quite a bit like my childhood friend Kevin McGee, now that I look again...

[njetocka]

Jude came in this morning, I've just finished reading it, and it's fabulous. It's so fast that you never get a minute's rest and so witty that one would scream with laughter were one not afraid to be called a lunatic by one's own family ("nun's caverns measureless to men", I mean, really..). Few days ago I've started reading a Croatian novel most likely to be awarded a prestigious literary prize, but I had to give up at the page 120. Why? Because the first hundred pages minutely describe an uneventful day of a most boring of characters, who, to make things worse is also the narrator. I call that disrespect for the reader. By analogy, you show great respect for your reader, on which I wish to congratulate you. It is a rare quality.

[Julian Gough]

Ah, my dream reader, at last. Let's just marry, settle down, and raise wild pigs or sea urchins (depends where we settle down).

Yeah, that fourth line of Coleridge's Kubla Khan:

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.

...always seemed to me to have great potential for abuse/reuse.


I'll write 'em, you'll read 'em, life will be perfect.

Actually, I think I'm reading in Croatia soon, at the Festival of the European Short Story this summer. I think it runs from the 1st to the 7th of June, in Zagreb and Dubrovnik.

Might see you there then...

[njetocka]

Let's!

I can easily imagine that simple life of the wild; training squirrels in the morning, reading your prose still wet from the printer at night... (Did you consider raising squirrels? I know what you're thinking: squirrels are ferocious beasts who slaughter little birds in their nests. But Julian, they are so beautiful.)

It's great you're coming to Zagreb and I'll definitely come to your reading.

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