We’ve returned from a wonderful sojourn to one of our Zen places… Morecambe. Morecambe has that perfect blend of urban decay, old Victorian seaside glamour and a perfect bay. Not to mention great boozers, cake and The Old Pier Bookshop.

As usual we picked up far too many books, not only from The Old Pier but also via trips to Lancaster and Grange-Over-Sands. Even better we hooked up again with Ian AKA @biomassart and his lovely partner Angie for libations, although no pickled eggs on this occasion sadly.

Probably the most significant pick-ups were from Morecambe. Phil and I decided that we should do an Old Pier Special, the subject of which would be whatever pulp scifi or fantasy we could find two copies of (one for each of us). We ended up with E.C. Tubb’s The Winds of Gath, the first in a 35-odd series of short scifi adventures focusing on the travels and travails of Earl Dumarest of Terra. We got our reading done so will be recording that soon. As it happens, I had about twenty of those books back in the day c/o Pops but I never read any of them and, when I moved over to Bradford, they went to charity shops in the great cull. After reading the first instalment though, I may be headed down the rabbit-hole as, a few shops later and after a bit of internet shopping, I’ve amassed a dozen of them again. Place face-palm gif here.

Over at Grange-Over-Sands, in the fabulous Daisyroots Books, I found a couple of nice and tidy 70s Scifi Book Club editions of John Brunner books. I’ve picked up many Brunners over the years and still have the copy of Stand on Zanzibar that I got from Pops. Therefore it is time methinks to put John on our schedule. One for later in the year perhaps. Or 2033. Who knows.

In other news, listeners will be aware that the last six chapters of the audio version of the Journal of Gerard Arthur Connelly have been marvellously and atmospherically scored by N Λ N D. We’ve also previously discussed the standalone album project that spun out from volume one. That album is now available on Spotify, iTunes/Apple Music and soon to be on Amazon Music too. Even better, Vol. 2 is just around the corner and will follow later in the summer. An early release from that second album, Gallery of the Lost, is available now.

Staying with Moorcockian Music, Imrryr remains as busy as ever and this month released his opus interpretation of The Black Corridor. At current count Imrryr has an incredible 29 releases on his bandcamp page and you can bag them all for an incredibly decent price. They include a range of bleak, experimental electronica inspired by not only Moorcock, but Alastair Reynolds, Frank Herbert, Phillip K Dick and others.

In podcasts, a few days ago I hooked up with Rob AKA Menion to talk Moorcock and genre fiction for his podcast, Confessions of a Wee Tim’rous Bushi. We had a tipple and chewed the fat about all sorts of digressions. We almost got onto gaming but not quite. Maybe next time. That will be out soon and thanks Rob for having me. It was great fun.

Finally, massive thanks to Dave AKA SÖNUS for stepping into the breach and talking about The Mad God’s Amulet Book One last time around. And additional thanks Dave for the official Usurper of the Universe cassette tape-a-ma-tron! These are still available direct or via Forbidden Place Records.

That’s all for this update other than to say TFP Phase Four (The Last Days of Man on Earth) remains delayed until H and I can hook up again following the last postponement.

Have fun out there.

Andy

After lots of flubbing about with rogue commas, proofreading and test prints, vol II of The Journal of Gerard Arthur Connelly is complete. Pdfs are with patrons and print versions for Patron Demons are in the works with Doxdirect. Massive thanks to Simon Perrins as ever for his support getting this together, Ed Scott for illustrations, Phil for her proofreading and of course our patrons for their support and encouragement.

If you’ve listened to the latest episode you’ll have heard the audio version of Chapter 11 at the end. Wayne (AKA N Λ N D) and I have been busying away, in bursts of activity in between real life shenanigans, firming up sound issues and scores. A more polished version will appear relatively soon when we finally get both volumes nailed down and uploaded to Bandcamp. Once we do so, patrons will get download codes.

In addition, Wayne’s second pure electronica album based on GAC’s exploits will hit too. You can hear the first (Journal Vol. I) on his Bandcamp Page as well as a track from Vol. II, Gallery of the Lost. If you dig it, do drop him a couple of quid and purchase them.

I’m now starting to think about when all of this is compiled into one thing (expect there’ll be a vol IV too) and how to package it up. Most importantly though, it will need a proper pulp novel name. eg The Something in/of the Someotherthing (subtitled The Journal of etc).

There really should be a random pulp genre book name generator for these purposes.

As noted previously, this is all just for the fun of it at the moment, although collaborating with Simon, Neil, Ed and Wayne on these has made me try a little bit harder.

Now on to vol III!

We’re a third of the way through spring here in Old Blighty and the weather is trying its best to shape up, with slow progress.

Better progress has been made on the podcast though and Loz and I recorded our first stab at The Fortress of the Pearl, the 1989 Elric novel that we each had mixed feelings about about back in the day. As ever we had some particularly curious beers along the way. We have however agreed to a moratorium for now on imperial stouts and porters. Anyway, that will be out later this week.

Also, and perhaps more momentously, volume two of The Journal of Gerard Arthur Connelly is just about ready to go. I’ve done a couple of test prints, tweaked the text to the point I no longer have the ability to spot any errors or blobs that may remain, and finalised some bits of art. So, that will be available as a pdf for all patrons and the print copies will follow for Patron Demons shortly after. As it happens I’ve already stole a march on volume three so I hope it won’t be a year before that gets out into the wild.

Finally, after having nailed some recording issues, Chapter 11 of the audio version of the Journal has been scored and mixed by N Λ Ṇ D and that will be included on the next episode. Only two more to be recorded and the audio version of Volume Two will also be complete!

So a good week on all fronts. Well, except the weather.

That’s all for today though, so we’ll crack on with our itinerary.

Have fun out there.

Andy