New Escapologist & Rub-A-Dub-Dub
The new, the novel, and the now
Hello everyone,
New Escapologist was a small press magazine I ran from 2007 to 2017. Maybe you were a subscriber yourself or perhaps you’re familiar with the newsletter and blog, both of which continued to run after the end of the mag.
Well, the magazine was probably the most popular thing I’ve ever done and I for one miss it. As such, I’m bringing it back in August after six months of writing and collaborating and planning and scheming.
There’s a Kickstarter running right now to help with this. Please back it, my loves. Everything depends on it!
Well, not everything. But you know it would be difficult to run the magazine without the capital to get it started.
My plans are quite ambitious. The first new issue is ready to go to the printer, so you should receive your copy almost as soon as the Kickstarter is over. Three more issues are scheduled for this December, June 2024, and December 2024. That should keep me busy. You know, if by “busy” one means largely recumbent and evasive of day jobs, which one does.
Read more about the project and please back the Kickstarter here. By doing so, you’ll get the first new issue (print or digital) hot off the press — whether you back just the first issue, subscribe for two or four issues, or even plump for one of our special thanks options. Thank you.
Rub-A-Dub-Dub
Joy! My first novel was published at the end of last month. It’s called Rub-A-Dub-Dub and early signs suggest that people actually like it.
I didn’t mean for it to drop right alongside New Escapologist but it was there were long logistical delays with getting it out. I’m quite relieved that it’s actually made it into the world to be honest.
The blurb for the book runs thusly:
Defeated. Balding. Pungent. Mister Bob is troubled and cuts a pitiable figure in his job on long-distance trains.
His road to salvation starts in a most unlikely place: a bathtub.
Ride the rails with Mister Bob in Rub-A-Dub-Dub, through an underworld of private squalor, public shame and sublime bodily landscapes.
I’ll be doing some interviews and whatnot for websites and indie press over the next few months, so look out for that.
The proper way to order the novel (print or digital) is from the P&H Books website, but I also have a handful of copies here, which I’d be happy to personalise and sign for anyone on this list.
If you’d like one, please send £16 (this includes £3 for UK shipping: please add an additional £3 for EU orders or an absurd additional £18 for US/Canada/Australia) directly to my PayPal account along with your correctly-spelled name and any special message you’d like me to include.
Sorry it’s a bit expensive. Especially the American shipping.
Now
I’ve just set up a now page. It’s a bit of a trend among old Web people who want to escape social media or have already done so.
It’s just a webpage (indexed with “/now” at the end of the usual web address) to tell the world what you’re up to. It would be even better than the old status updates of Facebook if Facebook still cared about what people do and didn’t focus entirely on adverts and memes but, as it stands, it’s the neatest way I can think of aside from newsletters to tell people what’s going on in a real person’s tiny empire. The chap who came up with the idea explains further.
So anyway, here’s my now page. I’ll try to remember to update it monthly with headlines and a recent photograph. And also to archive the old version (making a basic blog of sorts, I suppose). Have you got a now page? Tell me about your now page.
All for “now.” With the novel and the New Escapologist comeback, summer 2023 is a big one for me. Please back the Kickstarter if you can afford to and I’ll be your friend and lover forever.
Your friend and lover,