and

Why Branding Matters Now More Than Ever

As the Covid-19 outbreak wreaks havoc on the retail industry, some are asking a curious question, namely: will companies boost their spending on branding in the aftermath the crisis?

What I find strange about this question is the assumption that branding is something you turn on and off, like a light switch; that it is somehow a conscious decision or undertaking that brands embark on as necessary or when it best serves them. I suspect this is because we’ve long confused the concepts of branding and advertising. They are not the same.

Advertising is what a brand says about itself to consumers. Advertising is a conscious effort on the part of a brand to promote itself, its products and its services. Advertising can be bought and sold. Advertising is transactional.

Branding, on the other hand, is a very different thing. Branding is what others think and say about you. And it’s informed by a wide range of inputs, far beyond what a brand says about itself. More critical is what a brand actually does or doesn’t do. Branding reflects the sum total of every organisational action, set against the backdrop of culture, all of which reveals the true character of a company. Branding cannot be bought or sold. Branding is transformational.




and

The Ins And Outs Of The New Small Business Bankruptcy Option

You might have missed it amid all the goings-on since then, but in August 2019, a new law was passed that gives small businesses (and individuals/married couples) a new and simplified way to go through bankruptcy without needing to sell off their assets.

In other words, you can keep operating your business while going through and emerging from bankruptcy. And you can do it faster and cheaper than before.

The Small Business Reorganization Act added a new section to Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. Subchapter V lets entities with debts below a threshold amount go through a streamlined court process, establishing and approving new repayment plans that creditors are required to accept (creditors get input, too, but this is limited and more streamlined as well). You don't have to sell off your assets as in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, and you can keep operating without needing to meet the strict Chapter 13 requirements or suffering the prohibitive expense of a standard Chapter 11 process.

Your business might be in dire straits, but weathering this rough patch might mean a return to profitability.




and

Apple, Google, Amazon and Facebook Execs Face Congress: 9 Big Takeaways

The CEOs of Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook faced the House Judiciary Committee virtually today, where they fielded questions about whether their respective tech companies take advantage of their dominant positions in the market to enhance their bottom lines.

Spoiler: They all said they do not.

Rep. Cicilline said House Judiciary will publish a report on the Antitrust Subcommittees finding, which will propose solutions. but his hearing has made one fact clear to me: These companies as they exist today have monopoly power. Some need to be broken up. All need to be properly regulated and held accountable, he concluded.




and

5 Deadly Sins That Can Wreck Your Franchise – and How to Avoid Them

The food and beverage industry is a tough game. Sixty percent of restaurants don’t make it past their first year, and 80 percent go out of business within five years. Those are hard odds.

Franchising takes some of the risks out of the equation by giving you a proven model to work with. But being a franchisor with a proven model under your arm does not mean you’re suddenly bulletproof or immune to the laws of economics. If you start making unforced errors, you are going to fail.

Here are the five reasons most people fail as the owner of a franchise. Avoid these deadly sins at all costs:

Sin 1: Financial complacency
Sin 2: Operational obtuseness
Sin 3: Poor hiring choices
Sin 4: Myopic risk management
Sin 5: Mediocre offerings




and

Behind the Wild and Sometimes Wacky Facemask Economy

The face-covering business went from zero to crazy money in five months, with manufacturers pivoting production lines and brands seizing the moment to advertise.




and

The Pandemic is Motivating 96% of New Entrepreneurs in 2020

Ninety-six percent of new entrepreneurs say the pandemic is motivating or giving them the motivation they needed to start their own business. This positive statistic comes from Azlo, a banking platform for small business owners, freelancers, and entrepreneurs.

In mid-March 2020, Azlo witnessed an uptick in new accounts opening. Wanting to understand the reasons behind the boost in business, Azlo conducted a survey. ‘The COVID Economy’ report interviewed 1,000 of Azlos newest customers across the United States.




and

The Office Is Not Dead Yet. And Now is the Time to Get a Sweet Deal

Businesses now can negotiate for perks and concessions that were unheard of in the commercial real estate market just a few months ago.

Asking rent prices have yet to fall, which is typical in a down cycle as landlords try to hold out as long as possible, says CBRE chief economist Richard Barkham. At the same time, Barkham says, landlords are eager to fill space, so they're willing to offer a bevy of concessions to the right tenants, including rent-free periods, build-out expenses, and flexible lease terms.




and

6 Ways to Come Back From the Pandemic With a Stronger Team

Working from home has accelerated innovative team-building trends. How to make traits like agility, collaboration, and candor a permanent part of our management process.

The future of work arrived out of nowhere, on the back of a once-in-a-century pandemic. Team dynamics got challenged as members dealt with illness, trauma, and crisis. We've all been forced to rapidly and radically adapt to new working norms. The Ferrazzi Greenlight Research Institute has spent more than 15 years studying high-performing teams, but I've never seen entrepreneurs rise to the occasion as they have this year. When the crisis subsides, the temptation will be to turn back that progress and retreat into old behaviors.




and

Why small businesses are seizing the moment during the pandemic to sell online

Here is something good that has come out of the pandemic. Because people have had fewer buying opportunities, the countrys personal savings rate is the highest it’s been in 30 years. Retail sales have continued to grow and consumer confidence is at a six-month high.

But the biggest impact on the sales of smaller retailers has been online. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, online sales have increased more than 44% compared with the previous year and, as more shutdowns, quarantines and other disruptions potentially loom, many expect this trend to continue. Small retailers in this area know this, and many have been investing heavily in e-commerce to succeed this holiday season.




and

H&R Block Study Reveals Majority of Small Business Owners Need Personal Advice to Recover from Pandemic

Recovery is slow: In fact, more than half (56%) have experienced a slower recovery than expected after shelter-in-place orders began to expire, with nearly half of small business owners fearing they may need to shutter their business within six months if pandemic restrictions are not lifted or if shelter-in-place orders resume in the near-term.
    
Survival requires adaptability: Yet despite fear of survival, owners are demonstrating resiliency and adaptability, with about a third (30%) creating products/services to meet new needs and half (50%) of those with an online presence increasing their digital footprint to meet the moment. And, they’re looking for help in making those changes – nearly 70 percent of female and 60 percent of male small business owners say they need one-to-one small business advice.

They depend on their community: While small businesses continue to be important facets of communities, many small business owners have noted changes in their customers and worry that people will not be able to afford doing business with them. However, half of small business owners believe that there seems to be a renewed interest in shopping locally in their area.




and

4 tips to help your business survive the coronavirus pandemic from beauty icon Bobbi Brown

1. Focus on the positive
2. Hit the reset button
3. Never give up
4. Network




and

How to Dispose of Old Cell Phones; Protect Your Data and Privacy

Whether your cell phone has a broken screen, is no longer the latest technology, or you are simply itching for the latest cell phone model, it is important that you take appropriate care in disposing of your old cell phone.

Retain and Protect Your Data
Cell phones are a treasure trove of information; think of the panic that strikes each time you mistakenly misplace your cell phone. The information contained in our cell phones is meaningful and it is important that you backup any data on the phone that you wish to retain. The data you backup would include: any music, photos, messages etc...  If you are moving to a new cell phone you can often transfer the data you wish to retain to the new cell device.

Protect Your Personal Information
Cell phones often contain sensitive personal data, including passwords, bank information, payment methods, messages, contacts, videos, account numbers and much more. After transferring the data to a new device, information is still retained on your original cell phone.  Providing this type of sensitive information to strangers could put you at risk for identity theft, other other types of fraud, or simply leave you very uncomfortable.

How to Dispose of Old Cell Phones; Protect Your Data and Privacy




and

7 Ways Inbound Marketing Can Build Relationships and Grow Your Business

For small businesses,traditional marketing can be expensive and difficult to maintain. Inbound marketing can level the playing field and give even the smallest business a chance to stand out and grow.

Why use inbound marketing?

1. It is cost effective
2. It helps build customers trust.
3. It increases brand awareness and boosts your online presence.
4. It can improve your marketing decision making
5. You can craft customer-focused content.
6. Inbound marketing provides two-way communication.
7. It helps bring in organic traffic to your website




and

Google Is Scrapping Cookies This Year, And Other Small Business Tech News

Here are five things in technology that happened this past week and how they affect your business. Did you miss them?

1 — Google plans to scrap third-party cookies by 2022.

Google announced this past week that it plans to stop the use of tracking cookies on Chrome by next year and— instead— will replace cookies with a profiling system

2 —Recruiting startup SeekOut raised $65M to take on LinkedIn and other talent acquisition companies.

3 —Small business owners adopted new software in 2020 and increased tech budgets in 2021.




and

12 Resources and Communities Entrepreneurs Should Follow for Industry Insight and Tips

Staying tuned in to the pulse of your industry is key to becoming a successful entrepreneur. Public groups, online forums and the like are among the most valuable resources for gathering and contributing industry information. But if someone is looking for in-depth insight into their business niche, locating the right groups where this discussion occurs is the first step. T




and

How just a few days cost some small businesses thousands on their PPP forgivable loans

For some of the smallest businesses that applied for forgivable loans through the Paycheck Protection Program, waiting just a few days or weeks would’ve gotten them thousands of dollars more.

But they had no way of knowing what was coming.

The Biden administration in late February announced a slew of changes to the loan program, which offered forgivable loans in return for keeping employees on a company’s payroll, after it reopened in January with $284 billion in funding. Those amendments included an adjusted loan formula that would mean larger amounts for sole proprietors as well as expanded eligibility for small business owners with certain criminal records, were delinquent on student loan debt or were non-citizens.




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Big Business Practices for Small Business Brands

Every business was considered small at some point in its history. Some go big, but some stay small and do quite well. The size of a business in common measurements (revenue, employees, locations) is less relevant than the size of your customer base and the corresponding loyalty of customers.




and

Intestinal Gas and Gas Pain

Title: Intestinal Gas and Gas Pain
Category: Diseases and Conditions
Created: 12/31/1997 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/12/2022 12:00:00 AM




and

Symptoms of 12 Serious Diseases and Health Problems

Title: Symptoms of 12 Serious Diseases and Health Problems
Category: Diseases and Conditions
Created: 8/14/2006 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/16/2022 12:00:00 AM




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Cancer-Fighting Foods: Resveratrol, Green Tea, and More

Title: Cancer-Fighting Foods: Resveratrol, Green Tea, and More
Category: Slideshows
Created: 5/19/2010 3:06:00 PM
Last Editorial Review: 8/26/2022 12:00:00 AM




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Anxiety, Stress, Worry, and Your Body

Title: Anxiety, Stress, Worry, and Your Body
Category: Slideshows
Created: 8/22/2018 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 1/12/2022 12:00:00 AM




and

Random Heresy II

While I like the Harry Potter series of books, I haven't liked the movies. Most of the characters irritate, and...




and

Stand-ups

I've been saying this for a while, now I'm just gonna write it down:

Stand-ups suck. Treat them as a last-resort.

The classic stand-up: each day a group of people stand huddled in a circle chanting: "His Name is Robert Paulson... His Name is Robert Paulson... His Name..." - no wait that's not it...

They stand in a circle bored out of their skulls while each in turn says what they did yesterday and what they are going to do today. A couple of people sorta care what everyone says (usually project managers, or customer reps) everyone else is interested in what maybe one or two people say. No one can go into enough detail to really educate anyone. Everyone's glad when its over.

Sometimes people attend many of these per day (cross-team stand-ups anyone?). A few might even make it a significant chunk of their day & job descriptions; I think of these people as "Meeting Moths" - attracted to meetings like moths to the flame.

STOP. DOING. THIS.

Instead:

  1. Figure out who needs status and how often; GO AND GIVE IT TO THEM. It's a good bet they don't need to hear the minutiae of what code was written anyway & you're probably addressing that in existing stand-ups by making sure the programmers don't get too detailed killing any value they might've gotten from talking about what they are doing - dysfunctions beget dysfunctions...
  2. Those who are doing actual tasks should be free to talk about them when they need to. In my experience this part of the stand-up gets short shrift when its scheduled and attended by those not doing the work. GET THEM OUT OF THERE. If you do, you might just see spontaneous, short discussions start happening daily among task completors (that's a real stand-up btw, just don't call it that or you'll ruin it by attracting meeting moths)
  3. Move people next to each other who need to talk a lot. Conversely, if you already are around each other all day, you probably already know who did what and whose doing what (if not WORK ON COLLABORATING MORE)

If after you are doing all of these things, you still feel like you need a periodic daily meeting, then think for a while! Be creative! Don't just do what some book or consultant said to do, use your brain and solve the problem to everyone's benefit as best you can. Only then, if you still feel you need a stand-up, then fine; go ahead and schedule one for the things you still didn't address (but don't cover things already addressed!). The result is much more likely to be useful for everyone involved.

All periodic meetings including stand-ups evolve into wasteful time-sucks; They develop an inertia that supersedes whatever utility they initially might have had. Aggressively question their very existence; make the burden of proof be on keeping them, not ending them. Simpler still, kill em all and see what's not being done and then be creative on how to fix it.

Who knows you might just get away with one less meeting in your day.




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Design goals and Complexity

Programmers solve problems. How they solve each problem is a function of their skill, talent, knowledge & time. The resultant solution will resolve the problem with greater or lesser complexity in the design. Thus, I find thinking about how (and more importantly where) complexity is handled, a useful way to evaluate a design. For this I use the time-honored technique of having three levels:

Level Zero

(Below this level, the problem is not solved)

The programmer has provided a solution. However, the interface is a mine-field; click things in the wrong order, the program crashes. Or it works great, but you need to reread the documentation Every. Single. Time. Or the resultant surrounding workflow is a Rube Goldberg device. However it surfaces, the programmer has placed the complexity on the user.

Level One

The interface is well thought out and reasonably intuitive. Controls work as expected and the solution is robust - even bulletproof. The solution not only fits the larger context, it improves it. The code itself however, is hard to change (or even understand). It is not well-organized; Or is, but full of tricky, interleaved logic. Or over-engineered, over-patterned etc. Here, the programmer has placed the complexity on the maintainer.[1]

Level Two

The burden of managing complexity is on the current programmer. The person writing the code takes the time and employs the talent and skill necessary to find an elegant solution that reduces the code to the minimum complexity needed to solve the problem and does so in such a way that is understandable (and changeable) later: The user gains the benefits of a level 1 design, while maintainers are left with clean code to change.[2]

Implications

Level zero code is common; it's the default for new programmers and an uncomfortable amount of commercial software. The thing of it is: Too often this sort of code is derided (including by me) when there is both a de facto and a cost-benefit rationale for managing complexity this way. Short-term projects are one example; software written for one's own use is another.

Level 1 software can be very valuable and enduring. I tend to equate this type of code with the Hacker ethic in all senses of that term. And I don't mean that pejoratively - we all use hacked together solutions every day and much of the world's technology infrastructure is built on it. It is a practical and stable design level.

Having the skill (and the time) to write level 2 code is a rare and wonderful thing. Amidst the hyperbole, aspiring to be such a programmer is at the heart of the "Software as Craft" movement and is a worthwhile goal for anyone who aspires to be a professional programmer.

I don't believe level 2 is inherently better than a level 1 (or level zero!) - it's about context - however, I think that for regularly edited and changed code (i.e. much IT software), this level of skill is what's implicitly expected (if not gotten) by the customer. Ironically, the time needed is often the first thing that goes as a non-technical customer can only assess code quality based on level 1 considerations and so pushes for faster results because everything "looks" OK. Only later - when their investment can't be changed without major overhaul - do they realize there is something wrong. And so the cycle continues...

Summary

This model is handy in several situations including: Judging the quality of an actual solution; choosing among different solutions to a given problem; estimating - and even when to stop refactoring. And while I don't believe that all code should be worked until it exhibits level 2 quality, it is what I want others to think of the code I leave behind. And it is what I hope to encounter in theirs. That said, being a successful professional programmer requires (among many other things) the ability to write all three levels of code, and the judgment to know when each is appropriate to use.


[1] This may well be the same person who wrote the code. The essential characteristic of a level 1 design is that complexity is put off to future efforts, not the current one. Thus level 1 designs tend to be high in technical debt.

[2]How the programmer achieves this is a matter of personal preference and technique. I do not subscribe to the notion that any particular set of programming practices provides this - or inhibit it by their absence. It has always been the people, not their practices that is the essential determinant of quality. Anyone who says different, is selling something.




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Immutability and Safety

Work in clojure for any length of time, and you must get used to the idea that data structures are immutable. For programmers coming from imperative languages this can be jarring, (no loop counters? recursion? wtf?) but after a while, you start to get it, then you start to like it, then you start to rely on it - or at least I have.

To such an extent that it's jarring not to have them. After a recent javascript coding session, I tweeted: "clojure's immutability has forever spoiled me - destructive operations in other langs feel like bugs now."

This prompted Joshua Kerevsky to ask me via email to elaborate, as he has been talking about safety in programming lately. This is a revision of my answer...

Clojure1 is safer (in this sense) because there are never any side-effects when working with data. Languages with side-effects on data (i.e. pretty much every other language I've used) require the programmer to keep a mental model of application state and/or adopt defensive programming styles to avoid bugs caused by them.

The idea is illustrated by these two examples (I used chrome console and the leiningen repl to run them):

javascript:

clojure:

Javascript arrays are mostly (but not always) manipulated via destructive operations such as sort(), while in clojure, the js array's closest analogue (a vector) is never changed by functions that consume it. It's this "mostly" vs "never" distinction that gives rise to a paranoid feeling that I might be breaking things if I forget something in javascript. I also need to learn more "tricks" to get things to work as I expect. To get the javascript version to behave like the clojure one, we must explicitly copy the array e.g. like this:

(bonus: try leaving the var off in front of the concat expression and see how "safe" this version is)

One could argue that it is simply bad form to write javascript and expect it to behave like clojure, but entire books have been written to explain to programmers how to avoid side-effect pitfalls in javascript - and the language is almost unusable without them.

In clojure, there's much less need2 for this kind of "meta language documentation" - and none for protecting data. It's guaranteed not to change. In the example above, the most likely thing to trip up a programmer new to clojure is the need for doall (leave it out and nothing prints since map is lazy - in the repl you'll need to assign the output to see the difference - e.g. (def foo (listFruits fruits)). This is still a bug, but it's one limited to the function in question, not the entire code base.

So my conclusion is that clojure is safer because it has fewer (and much less dangerous) gotchas, the impact of mistakes is limited to the scope of the offending line of code (which will likely be a function or even a let block) and you never3 have to keep a mental model of how state is changing as the instruction pointer advances. It's all right there in front of you.

We all make mistakes, but in clojure, mistakes are limited to the context of the function and never due to implicitly mucking about with application state. This adds confidence when making changes, that is simply not there in languages that cannot make such guarantees.


[1]Clojure is not the only language that features immutability of course - it just happens to be one I use a lot, and like programming in; nor is js alone in having side-effects; i.e. this isn't about championing clojure (or bashing js) it's about immutability, so feel free to substitute your [least] favorite languages as you see fit.

[2] So far at least. Clojure is still young yet, but I don't expect it'll gain this kind of cruft, if for no other reason than because it won't share javascript's experience of being in the front-line of the browser wars.

[3] Wanton use of clojure constructs such as ref, atoms & agents can of course lead to such an environment; however even so, clojure provides well-defined protocols for managing change. If the programmer still creates a state-management hell, that's on the coder - as are most problems in coding; no language can enforce safety, only make it easier or harder.




and

Sandman Audio Adaptation





In 9 days, on the 15th of July, Audible will release the first of the SANDMAN audio adaptations. These are, well, full cast audiobooks of the first three SANDMAN graphic novels: Dirk Maggs gave me the role of the narrator, and I gave him the original scripts, so often what I'm saying as narrator is what I asked the artists to draw, over thirty years ago.

These are very straightforward adaptations. For the upcoming Netflix TV series, we're starting from now, and doing it as if it was being written, for the first time, in 2020. The audio adaptations are much closer to the original graphic novels, each episode being a comic in the original. Eleven hours of drama. The cast is amazing. The production and the music are glorious. I'm not sure about the narrator, but everything else is sparkling and exciting. I hope you all enjoy it...

For people who need it in a more tangible form, it will also be for sale as CDs.

Click on this, and you will hear James McAvoy as Morpheus...






and

Sandman Audio Day




Today is the day that the first adaptation of Sandman is released. 

It's the first three graphic novels, PRELUDES AND NOCTURNES, THE DOLL'S HOUSE and DREAM COUNTRY, released, as  full-cast audio drama, on Audible. The adaptation was written and directed by audio genius Dirk Maggs, and only it's taken 28 years to happen -- since Dirk first pitched Sandman to BBC Radio 4 in 1992. (They said no.)


For years, blind and partially sighted people, or people who for whatever reason couldn't read comics but wanted to still get access to the stories, have asked me if there would ever be an audiobook of the Sandman books. It took a long time, but this is the closest we could come to giving the world the original graphic novels, bumps and all. You don't have the art, alas, but I hope that the performances and the music give you something that translates it to another place.

It should be out now on all the English-language versions of Audible. There should be versions in other languages coming relatively soon.

(It will be out in a few months on CD -- https://www.brilliancepublishing.com/title/50614/alt  -- and I like that they begin their entry: This content is not for kids. It is for mature audiences only. Just like the original graphic novels, this audio adaptation contains explicit language and graphic violence, as well as strong sexual content and themes. Discretion is advised.

Sandman was always "For Mature Readers" and this is no different.

Here's an interview with me (and an extract from "The Sound of Her Wings") at the EW site: https://ew.com/books/neil-gaiman-sandman-audible-adaptation-netflix-show/

So many talented actors and voices are involved. 

I'm the narrator -- often reading descriptions of places or characters I wrote in the original scripts long ago for artists to draw, which Dirk has cunningly snuck into the script.

There are hundreds of characters in these eleven hours, brought to you by 68 actors (well, 67 actors and me):









and

Susan Ellison - RIP and love

I met Harlan Ellison the day before his wife, Susan, met him, in 1985, in Glasgow. I interviewed him.  I didn't get to meet Susan until 1989, when I went to see Harlan in LA. She and I became friends incredibly fast. She was the most direct person I knew. Our first actual conversation, while Harlan was answering a phone, began with her saying, "So. I know you're a writer. I don't know anything else about you. Gay or straight? Married or unmarried? Children or no children? Who are you?" and so I told her everything I could think of, and I kept answering her questions for the next 31 years.

We were the same age. We did the thing of being two English People In America together. She would Big Sister me whenever I would go over there, and was one of the few people I'd allow to boss me around for my own good, mostly because I had no other choice.

And now Susan's dead. 

I'm not processing that properly. I'm writing this blog to try and get my head around it, because I don't believe it. I just opened my email, and read her email from a week ago.  It's variations on a theme: how are you? How can I help? Anything you need, I will help.

In 2016 I went to see Harlan and Susan. He was at his lowest ebb after the stroke. I gave him a photo of my new son Ash, and he just stared at it for half an hour. Patton Oswalt came by to see how Harlan was doing. Harlan began an anecdote about the Marx Brothers but got confused and couldn't finish it.  I'd never seen him like that.

This is the photo of me and Susan taken immediately after that. She is indomitably holding it together, and I'm so sad.


We last spoke a month ago. She was worried about me, and I told her I would make it through it all just fine and promised her that when the world was less crazy, and travel was a thing again, I'd come to Sherman Oaks and we'd finally have the dinner we had promised each other that we would have ever since Harlan died, and we'd talk about Harlan and life and we'd set the world to rights.

I'm still in shock. 

This is the announcement from the Harlan Ellison Books website, with the story Harlan wrote for her. It's a beautiful story. Go and read it.


I didn't reply to her very last email, which wasn't the  "The message is ANYTHING YOU NEED I WILL HELP. " one.  I replied to that.  But her last email of all.

It said,
Fair sized earthquake (I thought) this morning.  4.2., but everyone breezed about it.  I'm in the middle of Coy Drive shouting ARMAGEDDON.  30 seconds later...perhaps not.  It was an 8 toy event.  This is how I measure, the relationship of the shaking to how many toys fall over.  Everyone else on the block slept through it.  

Yours in cowardly fear.--Susan  
Which made me smile when I got it, and makes me smile now, because Susan was braver than lions.  She made it through so much.

...

(Cat Mihos took the photo above, and also told me that Susan was gone. Cat runs my film and TV world, the Blank Corporation, but for the last four or five years she also had an extra job, which was to go and see Susan, and take her out for food if she'd go, because I wasn't there. It was an actual job only because it was something she would have done anyway, and that way I hoped they were letting me pay for the lunches. Thank you, Cat.)




and

Two New Books and a tawny owl in a pear tree

 It's a beautiful day in mid-Autumn on Skye and I'm not sure where the year went. This house came with an enormous walled meadow, which my neighbours use to keep their sheep in, and an ancient orchard. About seven years ago the orchard was flooded, and we lost all the redcurrants and gooseberries and rhubarb and such, but most of the trees survived, and there are apples and plums and pears still growing on them.

I'm very aware that on Skye, beautiful weather can be replaced by weeks of rain and gale-force winds, so I went down to the orchard and clambered up a ladder, and picked all the pears I could reach, disturbing a tawny owl, who flapped off somewhere it wouldn't bothered by people randomly climbing its trees.

And now I'm sitting and writing this outside. It's too chilly really to write outside, but it's possible, and it won't be possible soon, and that means a lot.

There are two new books out -- one came out last week, one comes out this week.

PIRATE STEW was published first, illustrated by the genius Chris Riddell. Here's me reading the opening and talking about how the book came into existence...


It's only published in the UK and UK-related territories (like Australia and New Zealand) right now. (It comes out in the US in December. This is, oddly enough, because of Covid.)




This is Amanda with Pirate Ash (she read Pirate Stew to his school for today's Dress Like a Pirate Day). After many months of trying to be able to return, it's looking like I'm going to be able to get back to New Zealand to be with them. If it happens, it's still many weeks away. Fingers and everything crossed.

And the other book (to published on Tuesday) is:




This. 
And this

The UK edition is the blue one, the US is the grey one. Both are beautiful books, and otherwise the same.


The nights are getting longer, here on Skye, and the sun sets noticeably earlier, week to week. I've been here since April, and things are finally looking hopeful for getting back to my family (Amanda and Ash are still in New Zealand. I wasn't able to get back to them, as only New Zealanders are allowed in. That's loosening up, and the New Zealand Immigration authorities are starting to permit families to reunite.)

It was a friend's birthday the other day, and I asked what they wanted, and was told, a voice message about "Something that makes you feel better when you're down".

And after I sent it I thought, well, there are a lot of us who need cheering up right now, so, with their permission, I'm putting it up here too. 

This may work, although I'm still blogging with Blogger, which these days is a lot like blogging with a charred stick and a hank of bearskin, for all the functionality it gives one, so it may not.

(Lots of behind the scenes jiggery-pokery happens that only sort-of works. Eventually I give up and go over to Soundcloud files, and attempt to embed them.)

(These are audio files.  Play them both, one after the other, and perhaps they'll cheer you up too...)

   This was the first that I recorded...




And when I'd recorded that, I went outside and recorded this:












and

A New Year's Thoughts, and the old ones gathered.

It's 2021 in some places already, creeping around the planet. Pretty soon it will have reached Hawaii, and it'll be 2021 everywhere, and 2020 will be done.

Well, that was a year. Kind of a year, anyway.

When my Cousin Helen and her two sisters reached a displaced persons camp at the end of WW2, having survived the Holocaust by luck and bravery and the skin of their teeth, they had no documents, and the people who gave them their papers suggested to them that they put down their ages as five years younger than they were, because the Nazis had stolen five years from them, and this was their only chance to take it back. They didn't count the war years as part of their life.

I could almost do that with 2020. Just not count it as one of the years of my life. But I'd hate to throw the magic out with the bathwater: there were good things, some of them amazing, in with the awful.

The hardest moments, in retrospect, were the deaths, of friends or of family, because they simply happened. I'd hear about them, by text or by phone, and then they'd be in the past. Funerals I would have flown a long way to be at didn't happen and nobody went anywhere: the goodbyes and the mutual support,  the hugs and the tears and the trading stories about the deceased, none of that occurred.

The hardest moments personally were walking further into the darkness than I'd ever walked before, and knowing that I was alone, and that I had no option but to get through it all, a day at a time, or an hour at a time, or a minute at a time.

The best moments were moments of friendship, most of them from very far away, and a slow appreciation of land and sky and space and time. In February 2020 I'd been regretting that I knew where I would be and what I would be doing every day for the next three years. Now I'd been forced to embrace chaos and unpredictability, while at the same time, learning to appreciate the slow day to day transition that happens when you stay in the same place as the seasons change. I was seeing a different sunset every night.  I hadn't managed to be in the same place, or even the same country, for nine months since... well, probably when I was writing American Gods in 2000. And now I was, most definitely, in one place.

I had conversations with people I treasure. Some of them were over Zoom and were recorded. Here are the two conversations that I felt I learned the most from, and I put them up here because they may also teach you something or give you comfort. The first is a conversation with Nuclear Physicist and author Carlo Rovelli, moderated by Erica Wagner, about art and science, literature and life and death:




The second was organised by the University of Kent. It's called Contemporary Portraiture and the Medieval Imagination: An Artist in Conversation with Her Sitters, and it's about art, I think, but it's a conversation between former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and artist Lorna May Wadsworth and me, moderated by Dr Emily Guerry, that goes to so many places. I think it's a conversation about portraits, but it feels like it addresses so much along the way.


Each of the conversations is about an hour long, and, as I say, I learned so much from both of them.

At the end of April, on Skye, I had ordered a telescope, and then discovered that "astronomical twilight" -- when it's dark enough to see stars -- wasn't due until the end of July. The sun didn't set until ten or ten thirty.  And even once the sun had set, it didn't get dark. It would be late August before I saw a sky filled with stars.

My daughter Maddy came to stay with me for November, and was amused by my reaction to the things that now fascinated me: stones, especially ones that people had moved hundred or thousands of years ago, skies and clouds, and, finally in the long, cold Skye Winter nights, I had the stars I had missed in the summer. There's no streetlights where I live, no lights for many miles. It can get as dark in the winter as it was light all night in the summer. But then you look up...





(All these photos were taken on a Pixel 5 phone in Astrophotography mode. It knew what it was doing.)


I wouldn't want to give back the stars, or the sunsets, or the stones, in order not to count 2020 as a real year. I wouldn't give back the deaths, either: each life was precious, and every friend or family member lost diminishes us all. But each of the deaths made me realise how much I cared for someone, how interconnected our lives are. Each of the deaths made me grieve, and I knew that I was joined in my grieving by so many other humans, people I knew and people I didn't, who had lost someone they cared about. 

I'd swap out the walk into the dark, but then, there's nobody in 2020 who hasn't been hurt by something in it. Our stories may be unique to us, but none of us is unique in our misery or our pain. 

If there was a lesson that I took from 2020, it's that this whole thing -- civilisation, people, the world -- is even more fragile than I had dreamed. And that each of us is going to get through it by being part of something bigger than we are. We're part of humanity. We've been around for a few million years -- our particular species has been here for at least two hundred thousand years. We're really smart, and capable of getting ourselves out of trouble. And we're really thoughtless and able to get ourselves into trouble that we may not be able to get ourselves out of. We can tease out patterns from huge complicated pictures, and we can imagine patterns where there is only randomness and accident.

And here, let's gather together all the New Year's Messages I've ever written on this site:

This is from 2014:


May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.


...I hope you will have a wonderful year, that you'll dream dangerously and outrageously, that you'll make something that didn't exist before you made it, that you will be loved and that you will be liked, and that you will have people to love and to like in return. And, most importantly (because I think there should be more kindness and more wisdom in the world right now), that you will, when you need to be, be wise, and that you will always be kind.


And for this year, my wish for each of us is small and very simple.

And it's this.

I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.

Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're Doing Something.

So that's my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made before. Don't freeze, don't stop, don't worry that it isn't good enough, or it isn't perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.

Whatever it is you're scared of doing, Do it.

Make your mistakes, next year and forever.

And here, from 2012 the last wish I posted, terrified but trying to be brave, from backstage at a concert:

It's a New Year and with it comes a fresh opportunity to shape our world. 


So this is my wish, a wish for me as much as it is a wish for you: in the world to come, let us be brave – let us walk into the dark without fear, and step into the unknown with smiles on our faces, even if we're faking them. 

And whatever happens to us, whatever we make, whatever we learn, let us take joy in it. We can find joy in the world if it's joy we're looking for, we can take joy in the act of creation. 

So that is my wish for you, and for me. Bravery and joy.

...


Be kind to yourself in the year ahead. 

Remember to forgive yourself, and to forgive others. It's too easy to be outraged these days, so much harder to change things, to reach out, to understand.

Try to make your time matter: minutes and hours and days and weeks can blow away like dead leaves, with nothing to show but time you spent not quite ever doing things, or time you spent waiting to begin.

Meet new people and talk to them. Make new things and show them to people who might enjoy them. 

Hug too much. Smile too much. And, when you can, love.

Last year, sick and alone on a New Year's Eve in Melbourne, I wrote:

I hope in the year to come you won't burn. And I hope you won't freeze. I hope you and your family will be safe, and walk freely in the world and that the place you live, if you have one, will  be there when you get back. I hope that, for all of us, in the year ahead, kindness will prevail and that gentleness and humanity and forgiveness will be there for us if and when we need them.

And may your New Year be happy, and may you be happy in it.

I hope you make something in the year to come you've always dreamed of making, and didn't know if you could or not. But I bet you can. And I'm sure you will.

...


For this year... I hope we all get to walk freely in the world once more. To see our loved ones, and hold them once again.

I hope the year ahead is kind to us, and that we will be kind to each other, even if the year isn't. 

Small acts of generosity, of speech, of reaching out, can mean more to those receiving them than the people doing them can ever know. Do what you can. Receive the kindnesses of others with grace.

Hold on. Hang on, by the skin of your teeth if you have to. Make art -- or whatever you make -- if you can make it. But if all you can manage is to get out of bed in the morning, then do that and be proud of what you've managed, not frustrated by what you haven't.

Remember, you aren't alone, no matter how much it feels like it some times.

And never forget that, sometimes, it's only when it gets really dark that we can see the stars.

  






and

Reunited (and it feels so good)

 


It took a lot of work, but I'm happy to say that, after 9 months of missing each other, Ash and I are reunited. Lots of happy tears. I'm humbled and grateful to be here.  Photo by Amanda Palmer




and

Art and Climate

I really ought to blog about making Good Omens (we're in week 4 of shooting) and making Anansi Boys (starts shooting next week), and about the astonishing Ocean at the End of the Lane play at the Duke of York's Theatre in London (and now that I've said this, I know I will) but yesterday I spoke (via Zoom, because of Covid Protocols) at COP26, the Conference of the Parties on Climate Action, and I thought I ought to just put what I said up here. So it doesn't get lost.






Art is how we communicate. Art began when we left marks to say we were here. 

The oldest art we have is the 200,000 year old handprints of Neanderthal or Denisovan children, on the Tibetan Plateau, making marks with their hands because it was fun, because they could, and because it told the world they had been there.

The human family tree has been around for millions of years, Homo Sapiens for a much shorter time. We are not a successful branch of the tree, because, unless we use our mighty brains to think our way out of this one, we don't have a very long time left.

We need to use everything at our disposal to change the world, and show that we can compete with the ones who were here before us. And by compete I mean, not make the world uninhabitable by humans. The world will be fine, in the long run. There have been extinction events before us, and there will be extinction events after we’ve gone.

When I was young I wrote a short comics story about the use of the planet Earth as a decorative ornament. It was about our tendency to destroy ourselves. Back then, I worried about nuclear war: one huge event that would end everything. Now I'm worried that we are messing things up a little at a time, until everything tips.

We who explore futures need to build fictional futures that inspire and make us carry on. When I was a kid, it was going to the stars that was the dream. Now it has to be fixing the mess that we've left behind, and not just walking away, leaving the Earth a midden.

We need to change the world back again. And that will take science, but it will also take art. To convince to inspire and to build a future.

We need to reach people's hearts, not just their minds. Reach the part of their hearts that believes it's good to plant trees for our grandchildren to sit beneath. Reach hearts to make people want to change, and to react to people and organisations despoiling the planet and the climate in the same way you would react to someone trying to burn down your house, while you are living in it.

So that 200,000 years from now, children can leave handprints in clay, to show us that they were here, and because making handprints and footprints is fun.





and

A joint statement from Amanda and me

Hullo,

(Amanda is posting this on her blog as well.)

After many years of marriage, we have made the difficult decision to divorce. While we will no longer be partners in marriage, we will remain in one another’s lives as co-parents committed to raising our wonderful son in a loving and compassionate environment. We deeply appreciate everyone respecting our family’s privacy so we can focus on our son as we enter this new chapter in our lives.

Thank you.






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