2021: a manifesto

2021, are you ready for me?

There’s no ‘new normal’ for me. There’s no ‘going back to how it used to be’. Nope. I’m starting right here, in this moment, with all that is happening, right now. As I promised in my last post, I’m going with a full manifesto.

I’m making some public pledges: To hold myself to account in 2021.

Writing 

After finding myself dabbling more and more with poetry and snippets of creative nonfiction during 2020, I’d like to keep this going. 

I’m going to submit a minimum of one piece of writing to a literary journal every single week during 2021.

I was chuffed as a chuffed thing to find poems of mine in Unpublishable Zine and Neuro Logical. One was even read out on a podcast. Have confidence Kevin, have confidence.

And to achieve the above, I’m going to write one new piece of poetry, flash fiction or other vignette. Every. Single. Week.

Da da daaaaaaa, the novel. Well, what can I say. The idea came to me about 4 years ago. The working title has been there from the start. The two protagonists are very well formed and researched. As is ‘the big thing’ from the past which defines one of them.

Sadly there’s probably only 10,000 words of the first draft written. And, to be honest they’re in danger of being completely rewritten anyway. BUT, the story is always with me, I’m learning more about my characters every day. They talk to me you know!

If I want it badly enough, I’ll write it. My target is 2500 words a week of the first draft. This should comfortably complete the draft by the end of 2021. Do it Kevin, just feckin’ do it.

What about The Blog? This here blog. There are so many ideas I have as I’m driving around delivering. Time to put some of these light bulb moments into action. I feel another pledge coming on:

I’m going to email at least one ‘trail running character’ every 14 days to see if they fancy being featured (more about this later). I’m going to add new content to the blog. Every Single Week. I’m going to review at least one book a month.

I already keep a journal, or note book, with me pretty much all of the time. When inspiration comes, a voice on the radio, a headline, a quip from a colleague, a shade of green, I try and scribble it down. How many flashes of ideas pass us by unnoticed otherwise? My pen and paper act as the keepnet as I fish for the words.

I shall write in my journal. Every. Single. Day. Just thoughts. Observations. Even a note to say nothing of note. Never dismiss a thought – it will end up being used somewhere.

So that’s writing. Why am I going to do all of that? Because I bloomin’ well love writing. I may or may not be any good at it. I’m certainly not going to make any money from it. People either will or won’t read it. But even the odd comment about a piece, telling me that what I’ve written resonates, that really is the chocolate on the log.

Reading

Yup. Going to do lots of this too. I actually have quite a large ‘to read’ pile, but you can never have too many books right? In fact I’ve just placed a sneaky order for a novel with the book token I got given for going the extra mile at work in the build up to Christmas. Nicky and I also have a rather impressively sized book token waiting to be unleashed. This was also a ‘thank you’. Almost like these people know us…..

There’ll be novels, biographies, short stories, AND…..

I’ll read at least one poem every single day. 

I’m going to buy one book a month from an independent publisher, by an author I haven’t read before. And I’m going to read a minimum of 6 books during 2021 which were published at least ten years ago.

It’s would be easy just to lazily follow the new releases and read the most popular books, the best sellers. Nicky and I are already quite proud of the diversity of the tomes we tackle (here’s my list from 2020), but there’s always more out there. It used to be the same with music, listening to John Peel and Tommy Vance back in the day gave me a window into artists beyond Radio One and the top 40. Now, of course there are podcasts (like the excellent A Good Read on Radio 4) and book bloggers (there some brilliant examples, try John Fish’s The Last Word Book Review as a pretty good starter), as well the usual reviews in the mainstream press.

Don’t forget these occasional ramblings about some of the books I’ve read.

I’m going to read rather than ‘phone’. Particularly when I get gaps in my schedule at work, or on breaks. It’s so, so much more rewarding than wasting time scrolling through Facebook. 

There is no target for the amount of books I’m going to read. There are big books, small books, slow burners and page turners. Who knows how many it will be….. Will it be more than in 2020?

Running And Fitness And Health

Here we go then: firstly, I’m making no predictions for any events which I may or may not complete. As I write (New Year’s Eve) the current regulations and guidance would mean no events taking place.

As regular readers will know, I’m writing occasional pieces about some of the characters behind trail running events. Tough times for everybody and particularly hard for these guys and girls to not know when they’ll be hosting again. 

Like most events, the big winter ultra marathon I was hoping to tackle is postponed for a year. This shouldn’t stop me, I bloomin’ love those big trail runs – I am going to continue to prepare for the distance. A route is being planned nearer to home, an attempt to tackle the distance on the day anyway. I am also going to prepare for the 100 mile event I have planned for May. I shall keep training for this assuming it will take place.

There’s very little which will stop Nicky! She is my absolute inspiration.

I’ll never be as organised as Nicky…….. she has every session pencilled in for the next 8 months. Then again, she is attempting something HUGE which involves swimming, cycling and running a very, very long way! She needs to be balancing her training. Whereas I am naturally more chaotic. I will make sure I get my long runs done out there on the trails. Other than that, I’ll run when I feel like it, wherever the the mood takes me. If I’m tired from work, I’ve found there’s no point in forcing myself. I just want to carry on enjoying every step.

In fact, I will pledge to NOT attempt to follow a training plan.

I’ve got my first triathlon, a couple of cycling events and a few running events planned. I shall prepare for them all as if they are going ahead.

My goal for ALL of these events is to do as much as I can to give myself the best chance of completing them. I will not train if I’m over tired from the combination of working, training and any other aspect of life, I will rest if rest is what’s required.

BUT, I will pledge this: I will, every single day, do either some conditioning work, strength exercises, stretches or other body maintenance.

This will hopefully give me the best chance of keeping healthy as my aging body builds towards these challenges.

And so to the aspect of my fitness and health which I neglect rather, my food! I tend to eat healthy breakfasts, lunches and dinners and spoil it all by scoffing random bags of donuts or fighting Nicky for the last liquorice allsort. My commitment needs to be one I’m buying into. I need to tell myself every time I shovel a pile of chocolate fingers into my gob that I’m undoing the good work of all the other commitments I’ve made up to now. 

So, I am going to not snack at work. I’m going to only snack during evenings after big (as in 2 hours plus) training days. Puddings will still be the law after roast dinners of course. 

Sleep. Ahhh, the dreaded sleep (or dreaded lack of it!). There was a great piece about sleep recently on the excellent Over The Fells blog. They spoke to ultra-marathon coach and nutritionist, Joe Wenman as well as marathoner Tish Jones and trail running legend, John Kelly. It was reassuring that Kelly’s life is as chaotic as most of the rest of us! Like him, my life will in no way suit me making any pledges for hours of sleep I’m going to get. I’ll just say that I’m going to keep turning in early, hoping for plenty of zzzzz’s!

And Finally

Everybody is living this day. Right here. Right now. There is no right, no wrong and no perfect way to negotiate through this life. I want to continue to respect the fact that, in the best way they can, everybody is (to quote AL Kennedy) “attempting to survive our time”. Hopefully, this respect will be reciprocated and we can all just get on together. Being kind. If not, I have discovered the ‘mute’ function this year, in real life and online, it’s bloody brilliant!

If anyone has got to the end of this, I’ll be mightily impressed. With that sort of grit and resolve, you should definitely be the type of character who will stick to their New Years resolutions.

2021. Bring. It. On.

In Praise Of 2020 #4 My Favourite Reads Of The Year

The more I read, the more I enjoy reading

My clumsy attempt to explain how I feel about books.

With my beautiful lady wife Nicky being such a book fanatic (and her having rejuvenated my own love of both reading and writing) it is hardly surprising that the conversation regularly turns to books.

I’m currently deep into the 750 ish pages of Barak Obama’s A Promised Land. This is my 41st book of the year and I’m quite proud of the diverse range of titles I’ve challenged myself to tackle. Nicky has gone further and currently has the ‘do not disturb’ sign up as she laps up Emma Donoghue’s The Pull Of The Stars, her 52nd book of 2020.

See here for a list of the 40 I’ve read.

BEST FICTION BOOKS I’VE READ THIS YEAR

When it comes to fiction, I’m struggling to look beyond Douglas Stuart’s Booker Prize winning Shuggie Bain when choosing my favourite read of the year. Nicky read it earlier in the year and was periodically overwhelmed the power, the lyricism and brutal truth of Shuggie’s upbringing at the hand’s of his damaged mother in an alcohol soaked 80’s Glasgow. I also found myself having to lower the book and take a breather from the emotions the book recalls. Loved it.

There’s some hot competition here, of the fiction I’ve read, there’s probably only one which makes me ‘meh’ as I scan the whole list.

But, I can’t get past how much I enjoyed and was moved by Benjamin Myers’ The Gallows Pole (which I reviewed here). And this would narrowly beat the most beautiful dementia novel I’ve had the heart-breaking pleasure to read, We Are Not Ourselves by Matthew Thomas.

BEST NON FICTION BOOKS I’VE READ THIS YEAR

Lemn Sissay’s My Name Is Why is a book that will probably never leave me. A memoir of his growing up in an ever more brutal and cruel care system. Having been born in Wigan to an Ethiopian mother, Sissay went into foster care. The slow deterioration of his placement there, and the subsequent placements, make reading almost unbearably painful at times. Shocking, honest and a labour of love for Sissay – it took him 34 years to get the records of his care from the authorities. What he discovered hidden in these documents was as damaging (and damning) as any of his memories which were already haunting him. Stunning .

I’ve delved more into creative non fiction and memoir this year. Choosing just two more as runners up is tough. The great combination of being characters whose work entertains me, who I greatly admire and who then turn out to be great writers too has led me to Coal Black Mornings by Brett Anderson (reviewed here) and 26.2 Miles To Happiness by Paul Tonkinson.

It is none of my business where you buy your books from but consider using HIVE which runs a scheme to support a local independent book shop (you get to choose who you support with your purchase). Lots of book shops are doing mail order or click and collect schemes. I used one to get a surprise book package to Nicky during the first lockdown.

Foyles and Waterstones are much more highly regarded in the world of writers and readers than Amazon and so maybe consider them and only use Amazon if you really can’t find the books you want elsewhere. Similarly, the supermarkets are naughtily undercutting the more traditional book retailers by displaying popular titles at a massive discount. Again, none of my business and we’re all in need of a bargain, but this punishes the publisher and the author who are on a small enough percentage of royalties at full price. A bit like with music streaming, any sale is better than no sale I guess. The independent sector is in a fragile state, despite an increase in popularity of reading, small shops and independent publishers are clinging on at the moment.

Anyway, here’s to a 2021 full of good news and great reads.

BOOKS OF THE YEAR

OOO, we do love a good book – not all of these books were published in 2018, they’re my favourites that I’ve read during the year.

My top 3 Non-Fiction reads of the year were…..

THE SALT PATH by Raynor Winn, THE PRISON LETTERS OF NELSON MANDELA & RUNNING FOR MY LIFE BY Rachel Ann Cullen

My top 3 Fiction reads of the year were…..

WHITE TEARS by Hari Kunzru, THE TATTOOIST OF AUSCHWITZ by Heather Morris and THE CHALK MAN by C. J. Tudor

In no particular order, the 32 books I’ve read this year are:-

NON-FICTION

Adults In The Room by Yanis Varoufakis

Running For My Life by Rachel Ann Cullen

Corbyn by Richard Seymore

On Writing by Stephen King

Chavs by Owen Jones

The People by Selina Todd

Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People (About Race) by Renni Eddo-Lodge

The Salt Path by Raynor Winn

The Wrong Way Home by Peter Moore

The Prison Letters of Nelson Mandela

FICTION

Conclave by Robert Harris

Fool Me Once by Harlen Coben

White Tears by Hari Kunzru

Magpie Murders by Anthony Harowitz

Two Sketches Of Disjointed Happiness by Simon Kinch

Don’t Let Go by Michel Bussi

Man And Boy by Tony Parsons

A Natural by Ross Raisin

Waterline by Ross Raisin

The Reader by Bernhard Schlink

Serious Sweet by A.L. Kennedy

White Crocodile by K.T. Medina

Exit West by Mosin Hamid

Tin Man by Sarah Winman

The Tattooist Of Auschwitz by Heather Morris

The Librarian by Sally Vickers

Never Coming Back by Tim Weaver

God’s Own Country by Ross Raisin

The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor

No Safe House by Linwood Barclay

The Loney by Andrew Michael Hurley

Anatomy Of A Scandal by Sarah Vaughan

12 little things in 2018

It’s no secret it’s been a sh!te year for us, so I couldn’t face a ‘review of the year’ type blog – just a peek at each of the last 12 months……

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January – bbbbrrrr – Nicky and I ran a few early morning Dartmoor runs, getting in some hilly road work as we aimed for the 2 Oceans marathon. Nicky’s calf injury scuppered those plans but we enjoyed our breakfasts on Dartmoor nonetheless.

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February – It snowed. Quite dramatically! Whilst the trusty Micra couldn’t cope, we managed to get out for some crunchy, wet footed running action.

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March – It snowed. Quite dramatically! Again! I was back up to 6′ standing on it though. The contrast when we got to South Africa later in the month was quite a shock.

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April – We had the opportunity to go to Cape Town for 10 days and whilst the 2 Oceans marathon was amazing, the rest of the trip was just packed with jaw dropping, WOW moments – Table Mountain is a remarkable, humbling place.

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 May – I feel so blessed to have my beautiful wife, amazing step daughters and, of course, the three grandchildren. It’s been a tough, tough year for our family, but there’s always little Ollie to brighten up the day.

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June – Nicky conquered her Cotswold 113 half iron distance triathlon in June. She has put so much work into her open water swimming – I put quite a lot of work into sitting on the sea wall watching her clothes as she trained, scribbling a few musings whilst I was there.

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July – As we battled through the year it was so lovely to get these mornings out – the Otter Rail and River 10k is a cracking trail race. We took a deep breath in the sun…..

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August – Regular blog followers will already know that Nicky and I both love a good book. This was a particularly good find. Ross Raisin’s portrayal of a promising young footballer and his battle with his sexuality is a gripping piece of literature. Sometimes pacy, sometimes awkward, always intriguing, we both rattled through it.

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September – As I try and convince myself that I AM A WRITER, I found this piece of advice from Writers HQ to be the kick up the arse I needed!

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October – There’s no dressing it up, October was shit. Coming home from work and sharing a cup of tea with Ollie outside his garden house always seems to help!

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November – Coming home from work to this amazing present from my completely amazing (and gorgeous) lady wife Nicky was a delight. I’ve devoured the Mandela book – er, WOW (a review to follow so I won’t say too much) and I’m half way through the absorbing Obama book.

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December – The year was exhausting, we were so grateful to get to Jamaica and compete in the Reggae 10k – We sunned ourselves, read 14 books between us and prepared ourselves for the life ahead.