No, he’s not been incarcerated, but he is giving away some of his writing for free. To celebrate the 7th birthday of his blog the big plan is to release one of his books online gratis, for one month to start with. Interestingly which book is being left up to his readers who are encouraged to pick what they believe is the best book for new readers to be introduced to his work. Clear frontrunners are currently American Gods and Neverwhere. American Gods is undoubtedly an incredible piece of work, though arguably too heavy for an initial introduction. My personal vote goes to Smoke & Mirrors, a less well read collection of short stories, in part because they are just magical and in part because shorter chunks seems better suited than a full length novel for electronic distribution, unless one is lucky enough to own a Kindle.

This brings to mind that the fifth birthday of this very blog occurs later this year, 4th September for those paying particularly close attention. I aim to transfer over more of the old posts, having stopped a few months after the site redesign in 2005. However I’m also looking for something big to celebrate five years, but since my writing is basically made available for free I cannot really follow suit. Ideas on a postcard. Or possibly the comments if you don’t want to pay for postage.

Market sellers in Camden are in trouble after a serious fire raged through over the weekend. It is now known where it started but not exactly how. Most of Camden is still open for business but this will undoubtedly affect business and the high street will remain closed for several days. I have recently been visiting Camden a lot more regularly and on my last visit was dismayed to see that the Black Rose, from where most of my youthful “accessories” came, has closed down. This is what happens when I stop paying attention…