Pip pip
This is not a roll of the dice
Cheerio, mates!
As you may or may not have heard, I am across the pond for the week! (If you follow my Facebook.com/mmdevoe page you are seeing nothing but photos like these—dozens and dozens of quirky London photo spreads)
I will give you a quick summary: I came to get started on editing my novel and have gotten all of fifty pages in (tragically pathetic) because I have instead gone to the launch of Brooklyn Brewery’s Stonewall IPA, to a fabulous underground nightclub where Maria introduced me to about a dozen patrons including a lovely Polish actress who was in Star Wars and Fantastical Beasts, to a hard-to-get seat at a new restaurant called Bocca di Lupo, the Sherlock Holmes Museum, a long personal walking tour of Westminster, Tate Gallery, the Globe and the South Bank, the debtor’s prisons of Dickensian fame (now fabulous apartments intertwined with ruins and cobblestones), a chef’s dinner at Arlington (thank you, lovely Will), drinks at Joe Allen (yes! they have one in SoHo (thanks for the drinks, lovely Bobby!), two trips to the local wine bar Aperivino (which was SO local that the same people were there two nights in a row - including me! I was so grateful that Kentucky-born-Richard fired up the grill to feed me an apres theatre burger!) and of course there were even more fabulously fancy drinks at The Bank of England
Also there was quite a long sojourn (and cream tea!) at the Charles Dickens Museum (his former home, where he was briefly wealthy and happy) — I also enjoyed multiple trips on the Tube, an afternoon at Camden Market, the original Twinings Tea shop (which has been in the same location longer than any other family-founded business in London) and a rave. Because you might as well.
What can I say, when I’m not writing, I do try to keep busy. Click here to browse photos!
Some impressions - since I haven’t been in London for 15 years or so -
everyone is terribly used to people not being from London. It was, in fact, hard to find anyone who was even British.
Someone had to also paint “look left” and “look right” on every single street crossing in the whole city. That was an impressive feat!
There are no more pigeons on Trafalgar Square
British people are brilliant chefs now, but still cannot make risotto
British people like tiny things and are great at crafting them
the Tube is easier to navigate than the Subway because the Underground has signage that it bigger than humans, easy to read, and not buried in glamorous design done by art students
all of the ads in the underground are targeted at intelligent humans who love to read. It makes our subway ads look idiotic and embarrassing (literally all the ads were for theater, books, political magazines, music venues, and more theater. None were for mattresses, sandwiches, reality TV shows, or bug spray.)
The local library knocked my socks off - America take note - their library had a baby grand which anyone can play (a kid was working on his Schumann when I wandered in to get a coffee at the library’s cozy cafe…) but the entire building was bright and sunny and clean, there was an adjacent huge gym and swimming pool in the community center.
This gargantuan local complex was just across the huge playground and public lawns where the Hempstead theater stood on a hill. I also went to a show at this theater (of course I did) it was a drama about an historical figure called The Divine Mrs. S. — a play that was wonderful once you had read the liner notes.
It is unfortunate that most art that is being created today is either so didactic that you feel shouted-at when just passing by, or so obscure that you are required to read the liner notes to understand the first thing about it. There really must be a happy medium.
Writing News:
In bizarre news, the date I was given by After Dinner Conversation for the release of the issue that features the interview with me has been rescinded. Not the interview, which the email insisted was definitely going to be printed, merely the date. It is now “unknown” when that issue will release - but as I appear to be the third author who will be interviewed, it may (or may not) release on (or around) May 5th, which was approximately the date that they previously suggested they might release the interview.
Save the date to join me in person at next month's reading: May 21 - Randee Dawn hosts me in Industry City alongside Nicholas Kaufmann, Christina Cooke and Matthew Kressel! This series, Brooklyn Books & Booze @ Barrow's Intense Ginger is my favorite place to read. It might be just the frozen mules speaking but the audience is always so nice and I love the vibe surrounded by all that copper. I’m reading from A Flash of Darkness so if you haven’t had your copy signed yet, come out and play! no RSVP needed - just show up! It’s a 7pm start - and Randee Dawn starts on time!
Also: I really did work on a novel this week. It looks great - lots of edits still to make, but I am very excited by it.
Random Final Word:
I’m back to my usual tricks in NYC next week. Carry on!
Thank you. Enjoyed the post.