Big fat catch up

Where have you been? I’ve been looking everywhere! I checked all your favourite places: the butcher’s shop, the tin foil factory, the urinal cake stalls. Well, I’m glad you’re back.

A lot’s happened since we last spoke, and I'm about to disappear into delicious Asia for a month, so pull up a broom handle, take a seat - let's recap our asses off.

Book launch: The Green Dress Whose Girl isSleeping (Freight Books)

I didn’t see you at my book launch in October. Busy, were you? Yeh, too busy for cake! You fool. Well, it all went swimmingly. Cake was eaten, (too much) beer was guzzled, books were bought, and poetry was talked about. If you STILL don’t have a copy of The GreenDress Whose Girl is Sleeping, there’s plenty of time to buy multiple copies and stuff them inside stockings before we all tear into the national religious-cum-corporate holiday known as X-mas. 

Reviews

So far the new book’s received 5 stars all round on Amazon and Goodreads. Thanks mum! I'm still hovering over that elusive first soul destroying review in the New York times or something, so here are some choice comments from online-land:

“work of accomplished subtlety. A virtuoso performer of his work, Jones is clearly a writer and poet worth watching. His poetry and prose seems likely to blaze brightly over the coming years.” – Blythe K Robertson, Amazon

“A stunning first collection” – Zaphod Peeplepod, Amazon

“engaging, relatable, memorable, lapidary” – Daniel Young, Goodreads

“the language used here is beautiful but never at the expense of storytelling, the emotion and the immediacy of the subject matter. “ – Marrissey, Amazon

“vibrant and relevant beneath Russell Jones' pen. Jones is a master story teller whose inspiring medley of scenes justifies his place among the ones to watch.” – Amazon ‘customer’

“Russell Jones' poetry is beautiful. Perceptive, attention to minute detail, it strikes a chord with one's own reality. “ – Joanne Morris, Amazon

Chapbook due

Much to my surprise, Spacecraft Press have decided to publish my sci-fi poem, “Birds 1.0” (which is about robotic birds laying an egg) as a chapbook!

They do all sorts of weird and wonderful things with prose and poems, including turning them into dice-like cut-outs, transparent portfolios and circuit-board designs. I’m intrigued to see what they do with this poem. Due out early 2016.

Prose

No big news on the prose front, although my second novel, The Happy Land has been redrafted (8 times) and is now in the hands of the powers that be. I’d love to see it published; it’s a young adult novel about a girl who’s tracking down a time-bending kidnapper with glass teeth. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll soil yourself. 

I’ve also entered a short story, “The Worm” to Glasgow University’s new science fiction medical humanities’ writing competition, which you can do too (the deadline is the end of January). My story is about a teacher who must administer pills (“worms”) to students, which, as they’re absorbed, release new knowledge into the pupil. It’s based on real research called 

The Cannibalism Experiments by James McConnell in the 1950's. He fed trained flatworms to untrained brethren, claiming the untrained worms performed behaviours the trained worms had learned previously. So, trained flatworm memories found a new home when eaten.

Editing

Two big projects here: Shoreline ofInfinity (Issue 2) is ready for pre-order. I’d not previously mentioned this on my blog (for some reason!) but I’m the poetry editor and deputy of Shoreline of Infinity¸ a new sci-fi magazine from Scotland. Issue 2 took the team many beers and discussions to get it in place, and there’s a great array of prose, interviews, book reviews and more. Plus, poetry from Ken MacLeod and Iain M Banks!

Second big project is a contemporary anthology of poetry. I’m co-editing it with wonder-human Claire Askew. We’re in the early stages but it’s already beginning to look like a really fun and exciting collection (with as little mention of dead white men as possible!)

Events

I’ve been organizing a monthly sci-fi night in Edinburgh, called Event Horizon. It’s a cooperative between Shoreline of Infinity (that magazine I just mentioned – pay attention now!) and Deadhead Comics (a comics store in Edinburgh).

So far the audiences have been giggling (and heckling me) with delight. Acts have included prose readings from Ken MacLeod, Pippa Goldschmidt, SJ McGeachy and Sue Gyford; poetry from Bram E Gieben and Andrew J Wilson; music from Painted Ocean and Lynsey Hutchinson; cosplayers, live artwork, a comic adaptation of one of my sci-fi poems from Edward Ross and a movie adaptation of Edwin Morgan’s sci-fi “In Sobieski’s Shield” by Dan Warren.

Event Horizon runs on the last Thursday of every month (except December, I’m in Thailand eating rice and playing with elephants). January promises to be a banger!

I’ve also done a few readings around and about, but keep your eyes on this space if you fancy coming to future events and readings.

That’s about all – go away! (I love you, don’t leave me)

Russell Jones

Book launch!

My first full-length poetry collection is about to swim into the world.

"The Green Dress Whose Girl is Sleeping" (from Freight Books) is about love, loss and space travel, among other things. It includes beach-time haiku, interstellar concrete and terraced sonnets.

Everyone's welcome to the launch. We have poetry, booze and cake! What more could you want?!

Launch details...
15th October 2015, 7:30pm
Wash Bar, Edinburgh

You can join the Facebook events page here. 

If you can't make the event but would like a copy of the book, you can buy it here.


And a few words on the book, from two very fine poets:


'Russell Jones has been one of the most inventive and talented poets around for a few years now, but this first book displays the full range of his poetic gift and sweep of his vision. Few poets can combine, as he does, conceptual intelligence with emotional intimacy.

The poems are alternately witty, laugh-out-loud funny, tender, enriching, emboldening, mind-bending, devastating. From inside the Hadron Collider to outside the chip shop, he offers us shape-shifting collisions of life and poetry.  This is verse that meets our contemporary world, with all its multitudinous potential, fragility and loss, head-on. The reader is in for a thrilling ride. As one of the poems puts it: "Lie back, jack in. This dream is electric …"' Alan Gillis



'Russell Jones's collection moves from the micro to the macro and back with an alert alacrity that marks him out as a younger writer of real promise. This quality of attention demonstrates itself in both his language and his level of engagement: syllable meets chromosome, minute particular collides with particle, sonnet sequence essays a society. There is a Morganic faith in form, in information, and in format's capacity to frame the universe in a verse, evidenced by an abecedarian sequence of one word poems that recalls Hamilton Finlay at his wittiest. In all this, the deities are in the details, as it were, be they a telling snippet of recorded dialect, the 'origami feet' of a kingfisher, or the way a statue is painted darker by the rain. The tenderness with which they are recorded, the equal compassion for individuals caught in catastrophe or lost in introspection, makes this collection as impressive as it is engaging.' WN Herbert

Emma Press Anthology of Age

Emma's been busy. Very busy. Take a look at this pretty website, with its tufts of grass and hotheaded bulls and sloths having picnics. This website is pretty much like an afternoon inside my noggin, but online.

Anyway enough of that. Emma's brought out a new anthology of poems about age, edited by all-round ace, Sarah Hesketh. An important topic, as we all spiral towards it unwillingly. What has poetry to say on the matter? Well, you'll have to buy a copy to find out, won't you?! Otherwise, you're heading to your pension on autopilot, blind to the truth of your fragility on this mortal rollercoaster.

The anthology includes work from some very awesome poets including Aileen Ballantyne, Clare Best, Robert Hamberger, Holly Hopkins and many more (33, all told - that's your favourite number, isn't it?)

It also includes two poems by Russell Jones, some hairy rapscallion from Edinburgh. One is about dementia, and is a response to the picture pasted (by Edinburgh-based artist, Daniel Young) at the top of this blogpost. The other is about an old guy during Hurricane Bawbag (which translates, for the non-Scottish folk among you, as 'ball bag' - cute.)

So, if you know someone old, or someone who is getting old, I'd recommend checking this out. It could be a matter which makes the difference between life and death...! (PS: it probably won't be)

Russell Jones

Over the Line: Poetry Comics

You, yeh you there! YOU! You've done it now haven't you? You've really gone and done it. What a first class plonker you really are. You've totally gone Over the Line...

Feast your corneas on this beauty! An anthology of poetry comics, edited by the immovable Tom Humberstone and the unstoppable Chrissy Williams.

It's all about poetry comics (not to be confused with comic poetry - ho ho ho) and features work from some mighty fine artists and writers, including Bill Herbert, Amy Key, Chris McCabe, Anna Saunders and many more. Here's a little sample, suck it in!

The anthology also includes a comic of my sci-fi poem "Whatever Happened to the Blue Whale in 2302AD?" which is about folks living in a future ruined by our waste and pollution. It's illustrated by the super talented one-man comic cyborg Edward Ross who has done a top notch job with my meager morsels of words. Looky!

So, in brief, if you like comics or poetry, or both, buy this book. Buy it now. It's beautiful and sexy, much like your mum. Christmas is coming, you know what to do... BUY IT HERE

Russell Jones

Human Journal

What does it mean to be human? I've almost zero idea. However, the good folks of Human Journal have released their fifth issue on Crime, which includes one of my poems: "Heading to the Corner Shop on a Winter's Day."

The poem is based, quite horribly, on a real event. I won't ruin it for you as part of the purpose of the poem is to tell the story.

The poetry section is edited by Susan Rich, and you can read my poem (and the various interesting articles and creative pieces) for FREE, here!


Russell Jones

Want me to read?

The dark clouds are drawing in. I've been gargling with milk and bleach and fish sauce to prepare for my biggest book event to date...

Yes, in September, my full poetry collection, "The Green Dress Whose Girl is Sleeping" will be launched by Freight Books!

As such, I'm on the hunt for a few opportunities to read from the book. If you run a poetry/spoken word event, or know of one which you think I should read at, please get in touch! (details on my contact tab)

You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll soil yourself...



Russell Jones

Launching Infinity!

To celebrate the launch of issue 1 of Shoreline of Infinity (a new science fiction magazine from Scotland), we're having a party!

2nd July, from 7:30
Paradise Palms, Edinburgh


We've got sci-fi music from Painted Ocean 
SF poetry from Ryan Van Winkle and Claire Askew
A short story performance by Debbie Cannon

Hosted by my grumpy self, but I'll be on good form because we're having sci-fi cocktails, book sales, art work on display and much more!

Everyone is welcome, and if you fancy dressing up as your favourite sci-fi character nobody is going to stop you!



Russell Jones