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I HAVE A WEBSITE

I have entered the 1990s.

I have a website.

www.benmyers.com

'A Doe, A Deer'

25 January 2012

by Ben Myers

Summer in Yorkshire arrived for four days last Easter and then disappeared behind a curtain of rain. All my plans for being outdoors were jettisoned in favour of staying at my desk writing a new book, punctuated only by daily trudges through mud and mulch. I treat these walks as one-man marches conducted to an internal military beat. Sometimes they last for three miles, sometimes six. But I walk everyday. It is the best preparation for writing. It staves off anxiety. Keeps you trim. Makes you engage with the non-digital world. Once a week or so I fall over and in the last twelve months I’ve torn through two pairs of (over-priced / over-rated, brand name) wellies and a new pair of Dr Martens.

But come last June when the evenings were long and even the clouds had wandered elsewhere I accidentally stumbled across a new pursuit: deer spotting. There is no doubt an art to deer-stalking, in which the hunter pursues his quarry over entire days and many miles. But I prefer to deer spot, which is far easier. All you need to know is approximately where deer dwell and once in their vicinity, how to stay downwind. And how to move quietly. The rest is down to luck...

Read on here.

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Stella Vine and the Bronte sisters

Adelle and I have been helping out with this project. Words taken from Adelle's Dark Satanic Mills blog:

Stella Vine is helping out the Haworth church campaign by creating this new painting of Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte.

Signed, limited edition prints are available to buy from Stella’s website (www.stellavine.com) and she will be giving all profits to the fund. She is planning to donate the painting to a local gallery.

The church’s roof has been the victim of two metal thefts in the past 18 months and is in a huge state of disrepair. The Bronte chapel is inside the church. The last time I visited they had made a paper prayer tree near the vestry. It had messages on it from people all around the world. Some of the messages said things like ‘I really miss my husband, please look after him up there’ or ‘take care of the poor racehorses who died running’. It was really touching and I had a little cry when I read them. Sometimes poetry appears in the places you least expect.

Overdue Update

Apologies for the silence.

I'm on the very final edit of my new novel Pig Iron.

It is out May 2012. Details to follow.

I spent 2011 writing another novel. A first draft is finished. 52,000 words.

I've been trying to write a short play.

Soon I will enter the 1990s when I launch the world's most basic website.

'Watch this space' etc.

I am walking 3-5 miles per day.

I have not watched television for 4 months. Only box-sets.

I am listening to lots of old anarcho punk, early 1990s jungle, Krautrock, Nick Drake.

All the usual stuff.

I find 95% of current guitar bands banal and boring.

Two bands who I did / do like, At The Drive-In and Refused, have reformed.

That's good, even though I generally don't care much for reformations.

At least they're still young / not fat / bald / bitter.

I'm watching lots of films from the BFI Flispide collection. Overlooked British cult classics from the 1960s and 70s.

The music business is a racket.

But then so is the publishing business.

And the film business too, I suspect.

Anything that involves money is a racket.

So long as we know this we'll be OK.

Art outlives money.

My dog doesn't care about money.

Or art.

Only bones.

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