Women and faggots will save the planet

2025 continues to be a year of slow progress – which is amazing compared to last year’s horrorshow. My health’s improved somewhat but it’s a continual battle against fatigue, breathing difficulties and some unpleasant but inevitable signs of aging. I’m determined to get out on Cornwall’s coastal path this autumn to do some photography and have a short walk on something other than tarmac or concrete.

Creatively things are going extremely well. I’ve started working on the screenplay, Charcoal, again and I’m probably around two thirds through turning my rough story into the first draft of a script. As far as fiction goes, earlier this year I began a complete rewrite – 5000 words in – of a new story, We Only See Ourselves In Mirrors. It took a long time to ‘tune in’ to this one, but it’s now going nicely. I’ve also dusted off a pile of unsold/unfinished stories with the aim of getting them ready for submission. I worked on The Ladder Acrobat’s Ascendency To Heaven over the weekend and I believe it’s now complete, although at just under 10,000 words it’s too long for most publications. However, I believe it to be possibly the best story I’ve ever written so it might be good for it to see the light of day somewhere/sometime. The other story that’s also finished is Every Moment Is The Beginning Of Forever, a tale set in 1970s and 1980s Stoke Newington, which at nearly 10,500 words is no doubt way too long to submit anywhere! Of the others, And When It’s Twelve O’Clock is probably finished, Eleven Eleven and Yes, No, Goodbye (both around the 5000 word mark) need tweaking and Into An Expanding Sun needs a substantial rewrite. Finding suitable publications to submit to is proving more difficult than ever these days. Apart from my word count, anthologies appear to be extremely specific in their themes so I go through periods where I don’t even look for them. Add to that the fact that I’ve yet to be paid for the last story I had published then it seems almost pointless.

As for Brother Frank, I had the honour of walking into my local record shop the other day to find the owner showing the single to a couple of music fans on holiday from upcountry. They bought the record and had me sign it for them. It was a delightful and strange moment. I recently bought a digital multitrack recorder so am still learning to use it, but it seems like an extremely useful purchase and I’ve laid down the bass and guitar parts to a new track, I Don’t Know Why I’m Here. I’m still learning how to drum on my digital drumpads, but I’m much improved and will be recording the drum part next before adding a second guitar part. The quality of the recordings seem to be very high, although not using an acoustic drumkit will inevitably give the finished tracks a ‘lo-fi’ atmosphere. Should I release another record it’ll likely have the title given to this post. It was something a wise man, now departed, once assured me.

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How the bastards tried to grind us down

2024 is behind us and I’m grateful to see the back of the worst year of my life. I spent most of it seriously ill with what was probably covid. At one point I knocked on a neighbour’s door for help. Her quick action saved me from the heart attack or stroke that was imminent. As it was, covid was just the beginning: it caused massive damage to me physically and brought on a horrific mental health crisis. I’m now beginning to recover, but have some health issues that are likely to be permanent. My original intention was to write in detail about this, but it’s too dismal to face again. What I will say is that I’ve been humbled by the amount of complete strangers who’ve helped or offered to help me when I was too weak to walk unaided. There are many good humans out there; worth remembering in these dark times.

At the end of October I managed to get myself to a local recording studio and, with the help of a hired drummer, recorded three Brother Frank tracks, two of which – Horsemeat Disco and Desolation – have just been pressed on 7” vinyl. Both tracks are instrumentals with a post-punk vibe. Records are very expensive to press these days, but the quality of the artwork and the vinyl itself is very high. DMS, the pressing plant I used, did a really good job, I think and I’m proud of the result. I’m selling copies at cost price – £5.50, plus £2.00 p&p. Postage rates outside of the UK are now outrageously high: £5.00 for the EU and £7.50 North America. PayPal at my email address: travisjulie (at) hotmail (dot) com.