My next books are in process: having sent Outside the Empire: The Lost History of Toronto Free Jazz to an interested publisher, I’m back working on The Creeping Unknown: Quatermass and the End of Empire for DieDieBooks. In short, neither book is close to publication! Watch this space, or Friend me on Instagram or Facebook. I’m doing a stint at the authors’ table at this year’s Supercrawl in Hamilton, September 12, and the next day will be at DreadCon in Burlington.
It’s been in many ways a productive year art-wise. Musically, I was able to do several gigs at the Rathskeller, in the basement of Hamilton’s Germania Club, with our band Ghost Variables: in this photo left to right: Gary Barwin, Mike Hansen, Chris Palmer, me, and Connor Bennett.
In June, I was able to be part of a booklaunch in Guelph for Eric Fillion’s Soundtrack to the Revolution : Free Jazz and Leftist Nationalism in Quebec, 1967-1975. A great opportunity to talk about the politics of improvised music.
Last summer, Maureen Cochrane and I went down to NecronomiCon in Providence where I met members of the UK-based “Friends of Arthur Machen.” The Friends publish a twice-yearly newsletter as a genteel little hardbound book like the issue below. I wrote an essay for them that appears in their summer issue alongside heavy company – the guy who wrote V For Vendetta and Watchmen! The Friends write:
“We are thrilled to announce that fellow Friend Alan Moore has written an article for the latest edition of Faunus (No.51) … Alan candidly reveals the origins of his *Long London* series, and why an often overlooked Arthur Machen story sits at the heart of its first book, The Great When (reviewed by R.B Russell in this edition).
“The latest Faunus also finds Arfan Iqbal discussing themes of good and evil in Machen and Huysmans, Nick Wagstaff examines Machen’s detective tales, and David Neil Lee takes a fascinating look into Machen’s influence on Nigel Kneale’s Quatermass.”
