Running Away To Berlin With Brian Eno
I have had a lot of comments on my intention to not write a book like Secrets & Lies/Conspiracy Theories/Global Gangland again. An awful lot. Please do not be too annoyed if I did not allow your comment to go up. It is just that I am not too keen on anonymous comments and after the umpteenth ‘I love your books’, I was beginning to feel distinctly uncomfortable with the praise.
Given the level of interest, I probably should try to clarify some aspects of the last entry to this blog. Firstly, I am unfortunately not running away to Berlin with Brian Eno. If Brian cared to ask me to flee the country with him, I would of course consider it. However, Mr. Strategies of Randomness has not been that random.
I am also not doing Bowie levels of cocaine. I do not think anyone is doing Bowie levels of cocaine anymore. Those who know me well, know how I feel about cocaine. Aside from one specific circumstance, in my mind there is never a good reason for taking the most pointless and damaging drug around. I am not being puritanical. My belief that long-term, overuse of coke tends to make even the best people toxic-fuckwits does not get in the way of my libertarian approach to drug policy. I am not even playing the ethical coke card (because if you are going to use coke, it should at least be Fair Trade coke). I am just saying none of how I feel about anything is ever cocaine related.
Some of why I may not write a book like Secrets & Lies/Conspiracy Theories/Global Gangland again is drug related. However, the drug is ibogaine, not cocaine. One of the upshots of my chat with Mr. C the other night was that if I am ever going to write The Wonder Drug, it has to be soon. (Another upshot was that I really do have to sort out the agent situation, but that is a rant for another day). If I could find a publisher for the book, it would be different to anything I have done before. Whilst it would feature Nazi scientists, African religions, CIA skulduggery, Philip K. Dick and many other regulars from my usual patrols of the underground, nothing I have ever written has culminated with me having to travel to Africa to undertake a 36-hour psychedelic trip.
Other projects I am considering at the moment also feature usual Southwell leif-motives and are aligned to my work in parapolitics. If you have read my books, can you imagine me doing a Bill Hicks script without conspiracy theories? A Sapphire & Steel pitch without some variant of VALIS? I am not disavowing my research and lifelong interests, I am merely seriously minded to stop producing books along the direct lines of Secrets & Lies/Conspiracy Theories/Global Gangland. I love Bowie, but even I would have become sick of him if he had made a career out of repeating the Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders From Mars sound every album. I may even have got bored if he had stayed forever in Berlin with Mr. Eno and every record sounded like Low.
I am not giving up writing. I made that mistake once before. I take responsibility for that choice, but never again. Not writing diminishes me. Words are an important part of my life. Death threats from gangsters will not stop me writing. Warnings from the CIA will not stop me writing. Scotland Yard threatening me with prosecution for perverting the course of justice will not stop me writing. Whatever else I may do in the future, I will write. Probably just not Secrets & Lies 2.
Given the level of interest, I probably should try to clarify some aspects of the last entry to this blog. Firstly, I am unfortunately not running away to Berlin with Brian Eno. If Brian cared to ask me to flee the country with him, I would of course consider it. However, Mr. Strategies of Randomness has not been that random.
I am also not doing Bowie levels of cocaine. I do not think anyone is doing Bowie levels of cocaine anymore. Those who know me well, know how I feel about cocaine. Aside from one specific circumstance, in my mind there is never a good reason for taking the most pointless and damaging drug around. I am not being puritanical. My belief that long-term, overuse of coke tends to make even the best people toxic-fuckwits does not get in the way of my libertarian approach to drug policy. I am not even playing the ethical coke card (because if you are going to use coke, it should at least be Fair Trade coke). I am just saying none of how I feel about anything is ever cocaine related.
Some of why I may not write a book like Secrets & Lies/Conspiracy Theories/Global Gangland again is drug related. However, the drug is ibogaine, not cocaine. One of the upshots of my chat with Mr. C the other night was that if I am ever going to write The Wonder Drug, it has to be soon. (Another upshot was that I really do have to sort out the agent situation, but that is a rant for another day). If I could find a publisher for the book, it would be different to anything I have done before. Whilst it would feature Nazi scientists, African religions, CIA skulduggery, Philip K. Dick and many other regulars from my usual patrols of the underground, nothing I have ever written has culminated with me having to travel to Africa to undertake a 36-hour psychedelic trip.
Other projects I am considering at the moment also feature usual Southwell leif-motives and are aligned to my work in parapolitics. If you have read my books, can you imagine me doing a Bill Hicks script without conspiracy theories? A Sapphire & Steel pitch without some variant of VALIS? I am not disavowing my research and lifelong interests, I am merely seriously minded to stop producing books along the direct lines of Secrets & Lies/Conspiracy Theories/Global Gangland. I love Bowie, but even I would have become sick of him if he had made a career out of repeating the Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders From Mars sound every album. I may even have got bored if he had stayed forever in Berlin with Mr. Eno and every record sounded like Low.
I am not giving up writing. I made that mistake once before. I take responsibility for that choice, but never again. Not writing diminishes me. Words are an important part of my life. Death threats from gangsters will not stop me writing. Warnings from the CIA will not stop me writing. Scotland Yard threatening me with prosecution for perverting the course of justice will not stop me writing. Whatever else I may do in the future, I will write. Probably just not Secrets & Lies 2.
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