Mikron Celebrates 40 Years on the Waterways

Mikron has been floating through the waterways of my life from an early age. My mother met her partner on a narrowboat, and they remain keen boaters. I remember summer days, beer gardens, and salt 'n' vinegar crisps providing the backdrop for a travelling troop of multi-talented performers.

Perhaps the play that stood out most for me was If You Go Down to the Woods... tales from the Newbury by-pass. It epitomised the resourcefulness of Mikron's prop department when one actor managed to represent an entire human wall. Wearing something akin to a milk-maid's shoulder board, he unfurled two life-sized cut outs of workmen on either side and - hey presto! - a security line. Ingenious.

It was a huge honour to be involved in working with Mikron earlier this year in my capacity as a Charity Consultant. Seeing first-hand the hard work and dedication that goes into continuing the fantastic achievements of the last four decades.

Here, I talk to Artistic Director, Marianne McNamara, about the stories that inspire Mikron, and their own hopes for the future.

Artistic Director: Marianne McNamara

Mikron is celebrating its 40th anniversary of touring the waterways this year. That's a long time for a small company. What do you think it is that makes Mikron so special?

We are unique and accessible. No other company tours by narrowboat and not many companies break down as many barriers as we do at Mikron. The actors engage with the audience before the play, during the interval, and afterwards. The people that support and follow us appreciate this. They feel that they are part of our extended family.

Most of our supporters and friends have followed us for years. In fact, lots of them know more about Mikron than I do! We will, can, and do perform practically anywhere. All we need is a plug socket. I think that the relaxed nature of our shows, the lack of pomp and circumstance that surrounds our work, as well as a high standard of professionalism are what make us so special.

What have been the most memorable moments during your time as Artistic Director?

This time last year we were really on our uppers. We had just had all of our formal funding cut, and were even talking about having to sell our beloved narrowboat, Tyseley, in order to fund our 40th year of touring.

Then we launched our Ruby Appeal and slowly the letters and the cheques started to roll in. People of all ages, and from all over the UK, dug deep into their pockets during the hardest financial time that we've faced as a nation in years.

Individuals sent photographs and memories, and told us how Mikron had affected their lives. To date the Ruby Appeal has raised £38,000. This saved the company, and ensured that our 40th year happened. It also reaffirmed the faith and passion that people have for the company. This was such a humbling experience. I am so proud to be a part of a company that evokes such an amazing response.

Has Mikron produced any famous names over the years?

In my first year working with Mikron as an actress, we'd often hear the phrase 'oh it was so funny when Mark Williams was in the shows.' I think he's the most famous person to have worked for us, especially since his appearance in the Harry Potter films. Buffy Davis, who plays Joleen in The Archers, is another. Many other actors have gone on to have very successful careers - Sarah Parks springs to mind.

Who comes to see your shows, and how do they help you on the tour?

That's the million dollar question!

Many boaters come to see our shows, lots of families, people with an interest in history, and people that like a pint!

We have a friends scheme that is probably like no other. Not only do people support us with annual membership fees, but our friends have also been known to move the van, move the boat, cook our meals, wash our clothes and costumes, and deliver us eggs on tour!

How do you choose the type of plays you perform? What is important about the messages Mikron take out there?

Different shows happen for different reasons. Mikron likes to tell the stories of the people behind the big events and movements in history.

We often commemorate anniversaries, but also we choose subjects that are important to us. For example, next year we're producing a play to commemorate the bicentenary of Luddism, alongside a play about allotments.

There have been occasions where different companies or groups have commissioned us to tell their stories. The Trades Union Congress (TUC) commissioned us to write Striking the Balance, which explored and celebrated forty years since the introduction of the Equal Pay Act. The Clarions were also happy for us to tell the story of the Socialist Cyclists in Pedal Power.

Forty years is an amazing achievement. What have you got planned for the future?

Yes, we think it's an amazing achievement too, and we hope that we have another forty years in us!

We were thrilled to secure funding for next year from the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation. Once again testament to the fact that people think our work is worthwhile. This grant is two-thirds of what we need to ensure that next year will happen.

I'm thrilled to reveal that we are commissioning two new shows and two new writers. Maeve Larkin will be writing Can You Keep A Secret? - the rise and fall of the Yorkshire Luddites. Deborah McAndrew will be writing our allotment show Losing The Plot - earthy passions and pitchforks at dawn! We'll be touring these shows nationally as we do every year.

Who knows what will happen after 2012, but I assure you we'll do our best to secure funding and ensure our future. 

If anyone would like to commission a Mikron show, or has an interesting story that they think we ought to tell, then please get in touch.

I'd Go Back Tomorrow
The history of Mikron Theatre
Available through Mikron's Shop.

See Also:

Mikron's Official Website

Tour Dates

100 Thousand Poets for Change

The 24th September marks a global initiative uniting poets across the planet with a voice of social and political conscience. With 500 events in 400 cities across 95 countries already scheduled, this is one of the most ambitious artistic outcries of the millennium to date.

Here, I talk to one of the founding organisers, Michael Rothenberg, poet and editor of Big Bridge Press and zine, to find out what 100 Thousand Poets for Change is all about.

Organisers: Michael Rothenberg    &        Terri Carrión

I take it this is the first time that 100 Thousand Poets for Change has been held? Where did the idea come from?

Yes, this is the first time for this global event. So far there are already 500 events in 95 countries being scheduled!

I came up with the idea through a conversation with a friend. I was saying how bad things are going around the world: wars, poverty, violence, genocide - and it occurred to me that there ought to be 100 Thousand Poets for Change. My friend said: "That's a great idea". So I created a Facebook event page and invited my Facebook friends. Immediately people started to write to me. 

The date was selected through discussions with friends on the event page. It just seemed like a convenient time for all of us.

You talk about using poetry to effect 'serious social, environmental, and political change'. What sort of changes are you talking about, and how can poetry help to attain them?

You can check out my discussion of this on the 'About' section of the 100 Thousand Poets for Change website.

Here's an excerpt:

It appears that transformation towards a more sustainable world is a major concern and could be a global guiding principle for this event. Peace also seems to be a common cause. War is not sustainable. There is an increasing sense that we need to move forward and stop moving backwards. But I am trying not to be dogmatic. I am hoping that together we can develop our ideas of the “change/transformation” we are looking for as a group, and that each community group will decide their own specific area of focus for change for their particular event.

Who's involved so far - anyone we might know?

There are tons of famous poets and infamous poets involved in this event. We are looking at over 500 individual organizers from around the world. You can go to the website and look at the Event Location List to check out who is doing what. We have been very fortunate to reach a broad community of poets, slam poets, spoken word poets, experimental poets, surrealist poets, hip hop poets, MFA poets - it's global and inclusive and decentralized.

What will happen to all of the material generated from this event - will it go into something more long-term?

All the material from this event that is posted on the website and blog will be archived by Stanford University. This archive will provide a great history and refection of this event. It will help us to know ourselves and each other better. This is how I think we can create a global community, and encourage the empowerment of a global poetry community. We can hear each other's poetic voices and become better poets.

How do you see this movement developing in the future?

I hope that September 24th is the kick-off for 100 Thousand Poets for Change, and not the endgame. We have a lot of work to do to spread the word that we can do better!

I know there will be another event next year on the same day. 100 Thousand Poets for Change 2012. And I hope organizers and participants will talk about what they have learned from this event, and know more about what they want to do to make change. I have asked that organizers put together a manifesto of their group for compilation in a grand 100TPC manifesto. From what I hear from participants, things have already begun to change.

See Also:

100TPC Website

100TPC on Facebook

Doctor Slang

I saw this article on the BBC a while back and it made me chuckle: Doctor slang is a dying art.

Medicine is a profession already overflowing with acronyms and technical terms, and doctors over the years have invented plenty of their own.

However, Dr Adam Fox, who works at St Mary's Hospital in London as a specialist registrar in its child allergy unit, says that far fewer doctors now annotate notes with abbreviations designed to spell out the unsayable truth about their patients.

It's been suggested that the drop in use is due to doctors becoming more respectful of their patients:

Dr Fox is keen to point out that neither he, nor the other authors of the paper, published in the journal Ethics and Behavior, actually advocate using any of the terms.

He said: "It's a form of communication, and it needs to be recorded.

"It may not be around forever."

He said: "I do think that doctors are genuinely more respectful of their patients these days."

I think they might also be a little afraid of being sued ;)

It has certainly leant something to English. 'Coffin dodger' has definitely made it into general usage.

Here's some other acronyms the article threw up:

CTD - Circling the Drain (A patient expected to die soon)

GLM - Good looking Mum

GPO - Good for Parts Only

TEETH - Tried Everything Else, Try Homeopathy

UBI - Unexplained Beer Injury

NFN - Normal for Norfolk

FLK - Funny Looking Kid

GROLIES - Guardian Reader Of Low Intelligence in Ethnic Skirt

TTFO - roughly translates as "Told To Go Away"

LOBNH - Lights On But Nobody Home

CNS-QNS - Central Nervous System - Quantity Not Sufficient

DBI - "Dirt Bag Index" - multiplies the number of tattoos with the number of missing teeth to give an estimate of the number of days since the patient last bathed

And some euphemisms:

Digging for Worms: varicose vein surgery

Departure Lounge: geriatric ward

Handbag Positive: confused patient (usually elderly lady) lying on hospital bed clutching handbag

Woolworth's Test: anaesthetic term (if you can imagine a patient shopping in Woolies, it's safe to give a general anaesthetic)

Pumpkin Positive: if a penlight were to be shone into the patient's mouth it would encounter a brain so small that the whole head would light up

Book Trailers Part II

After debating the merits of book trailers in Book Trailers Part I, and coming up a little short on enthusiasm - I decided to try my hand at one anyway.

I was curious to know just how difficult it is to make a book trailer on a budget. Accepting the fact that top-listers will have the full financial clout of their marketing department behind them - what, then, is available for struggling shoestring authors?

Before I start this, I should mention that I'm not a complete novice when it comes to sound production and editing programmes. It would be unfair to give the impression that I started from absolute scratch. Keeping it simple, I used the following two tools to make this trailer:

Windows Movie Maker: I prefer Adobe Premier Pro, but Movie Maker used to come free with most Windows office suites and, as far as editors go, it is fairly easy to get the hang of. AVS Video Editor is also cheap and fairly easy to use. They're both simple point-and-click non-linear editors. All of the photo manipulation shots at the beginning (where the photos look like they're moving) were added at the click of a button. You can cross-fade and insert film clips very easily.

Audacity: This is a free audio editing programme which you can download online. I had to edit the sound track separately before adding it to the film reel. Audacity does everything you need it to do, but personally I don't find it to be that intuitive. Actually, at times I find it frustrating for its lack of guidance. But it's free, and it works. If you get stuck, search for a YouTube tutorial on what you're trying to achieve. Nine times out of ten, someone will have done one.

Accepting that I know my way around the software, from beginning to end this project probably took me in the region of five hours to compile. The main frustrations were:

1. Recording a usable voice-over with a stinking cold (yes, I am swallowing my own snot towards the end there - seriously, who says 'human nate-ur'?)
   
2. Lining up the music tracks so that they fitted the timing of the visual track, then dipping it at appropriate intervals for the voice-over. Very laborious work unless you have Premier Pro which has an auto-duck feature.

If you haven't got a cold, you can rule out having to deal with one of those two problems.

If you are a complete newcomer to editing software, or just interested in the subject, author Morgen Bailey has created an easy walk-through: How to create your free 30-second book trailer video using Animoto.

Here's some observations and considerations from my own attempt. You can judge for yourself from the quality of the video whether it's worth reading them.

GENRE

I realised very quickly that I was blessed for having written a work of historical fiction. Of all the genres, it's possibly the easiest to create a basic trailer for.

Firstly, you have a wealth of previous material available: documentaries, music, photographs, archive footage. Secondly, you're more likely to get those for free than with contemporary work (see below on Copyright).

If you've written a work of science-fiction, fantasy or contemporary fiction, the likelihood is that you're going to need the assistance of some funky CGI, possibly actors, and probably a talented artist who can bring your vision to life.

TOP TIP:  So you've written a novel set in outer space in 4022, or a contemporary thriller in the wilds of Afghanistan from your comfortable bedsit in Peckham. Pulling off a convincing trailer is going to be tough. Instead of trying to compete with the big budget production companies - keep it simple. I knew that I couldn't find a group of actors, fly to Aus, or pay to use documentary footage, so I went for a simple interview style voice-over. If you try too hard to tell the story in your trailer, you may spoil it for the reader. After all, it's their imagination that completes the novel. But an interview adds to the reading experience by letting them get to know the author. That was my reasoning, anyway.

Here's a good example of that in practice:

COPYRIGHT

That cringesome word.

My trailer cost me a grand total of nothing to produce. The reason being? Well, once again - historical fiction.

The photos were either mine, or taken from the Library of South Australia's archived footage - which they're happy to give permission for so long as you fill out a form. The music is taken from original recordings which are now all out of copyright (though not the lyrics! - be careful there. If I'd subtitled them, I might have had to pay!). Even the film clips are now in public domain. There's a useful Public Domain Calculator to help you work out what you can legally use.

The massive money saver was that I was able to do my own tech. That's what you're paying other companies silly amounts of money for: editing time. It's well worth getting to grips with Movie Maker/AVS and Audacity. But, if you can't get your head around it, you could always make an appeal to friends on Facebook, tech  or arts forums.

Just remember - you always need copyright permission for any images, music, recordings and clips you use unless you take them yourself or they're out of copyright. Make sure you have written permission from anyone who says 'yes'. Also - just because something appears in the public domain, doesn't mean that everyone can use it or alter it. Run a Google search for creative commons image sites. Creative Commons license (CC) is material that is in the public domain for anyone to use. But you then need to check whether that material has a commercial CC license. A lot of stuff is free for non-commercial use, but for commercial use (meaning advertising - of your book) it might not be.

If you need backing music, check out Jamendo. This is CC music. Again, mostly free for non-commercial use, but it's easy to contact the artists to ask about terms for commercial use.

TOP TIP: Don't be afraid to brows through other people's Flikr and YouTube accounts. If you see something you would like to use, contact them. A lot of people are happy just to get a mention in exchange for letting you incorporate their work. But get something in writing, even if it's just an e-mail response. This avoids argument later down the line.

TIMESCALE

The earlier you start to think about your trailer, the better. I put aside a full day to cobble mine together. But that was after I'd spent three weeks waiting for permission to use the archived photos, scouring YouTube for footage, obtaining permission for that and - above all - managing to formulate the approach in my own mind.

You want your book trailer ready to roll the moment your book is available, if not a couple of months before. The longer your pre-release lead-in, the greater the chance of pre-orders and publicity hype which will boost sales on the day.

Another aspect of timing is how long to make the book trailer. In Book Trailers Part I you can see that the first book trailer ever produced was four minutes long. Most would agree that's too long. The shining example from Penguin Books: What the Nanny Saw, only ran for forty-eight seconds!

TOP TIP: Really, the shorter the better. People usually understand quicker than they're given credit for, and switch off faster than we'd like. Two-and-a-half minutes should be ample. Not forgetting that one minute of footage is likely to take you a couple of hours to compile.

So, that's my little foray into the world of book trailers. It has certainly been useful to have something to direct people towards when they ask 'So, what's your book about?' and to drop a living flyer into online forums. It's received a couple of likes on YouTube and a few thumbs-up on Facebook. Whether it's sold any books - I remain sceptical.

Please feel free to leave a link to your own book trailer as a comment, and explain a little about how you chose to approach it.

Book Trailers Part I

(Image courtesy of Reinis Traidas)

Shortly before my debut novel came out, I was intrigued by a post in a writers' forum by a person asking whether book trailers were a good idea or not.

In all honesty, I hadn't heard the term. But it didn't take long to catch on.

A book trailer is just like a movie trailer. But for books.

What you may not know (thank you Wiki), is that:

The term "book trailer" is currently a trademarked term owned by Sheila Clover of Circle of Seven Productions. The first book trailer to be played publicly was at a book convention in Shreveport, LA. in 2003. The trailer was for a book entitled Dark Symphony by author Christine Feehan.

And here is that first ever trailer, at an extensive four minutes in length:

The word seems to have seeped happily into common usage. Everybody appears to be taking a bash at creating their own multi-media hook with which to reel in undecided readers.

It's natural to be suspicious of new ideas. Especially when those ideas seem to be at odds with their aim. For instance, BellaOnline's Women's Literary Editor, Jeanette Stingley, begins her article on book trailers by explaining that:

Book trailers are quickly gaining popularity among publishers and authors to help promote books and get people reading again.

Then immediately follows up with:

A book trailer is very similar to a movie trailer. Some have live actors playing out parts of the book to catch your interest.

You, like me, may be stroking your imaginary beard (or real one, if you're a bloke), and thinking - 'So, the way to get people back into reading (if, indeed, they ever left) is to make a movie?'

Although no longer available online, as far back as December 2010 someone posted to TheBookSeller.com: Book Trailers More Like Movie Trailers All The Time.

If we're to continue in this mildly cynical vein, then, after reading Rye Barcott's article: Why Book Trailers Are Now Essential to the Publishing Industry, you may indeed get a solid sense of what makes them so attractive to business:

Eventually, I found a few companies that produced short promotional videos. Unfortunately, these companies charged $5,000 – $10,000, and none of them appeared to have any particular expertise in how to differentiate a book trailer from an ordinary advertisement.

Circle of Seven Productions who, you may remember, coined the very phrase, also offer a range of creative trailer packages ranging from $350 for flashing the cover art, through to $2,000 for sitting you down in front of a camera and talking to you about your book.

Certainly not a problem if you're a top-lister with a large marketing department behind you. Some of the big names have produced some quite artistic material:

The problem seems to creep in when people try to do Hollywood on a budget:

Or when the genre of the trailer doesn't seem to match the genre of the book. Such as the introduction of something faintly manga to adult horror:

Actually, I really like that last one. But I think the point here is that the book probably stands alone as a great work of crime fiction, and the trailer probably stands alone as a trailer. Whether the trailer truly captures the theme of the book... possibly not. But then, does it need to? In Rye Barcott's article she states:

Most of the authors I know detest the very idea of [book trailers]. We pour our souls into creating a book, a piece of work that can take people deep into places, problems, and things that matter. The experience of reading a book unfolds over hours, and sometimes days. It takes time and commitment to draw knowledge and meaning from narrative...

You know what? I've heard similar complaints about back blurb. One prolific review blogger said something to the effect of: 'I'm sick and tired of book blurb never reflecting the actual story.'

But then blurb, trailers and - at its core - marketing, have never been about sincere representation of the product. You're aiming for sales. In this case, anyone who isn't persuaded to buy the book simply because of the genre or the author. The 'stragglers'. So why not try something a little different?

Well, it is a big gamble. According to different research (from Wiki, the Association for Psychological Science and Cornell University) you could loosely say that you have one-tenth of a second to make a good impression, eight seconds to keep a person's focused attention, and not a lot of hope of hitting an audience's 'sweet spot'. So, as much as a book trailer may be reaching out to new audiences, that's no guarantee that they're going to like what they see. With our movie tastes getting ever more sophisticated by the day, we may well find ourselves turned off by something as minor as a melodramatic voice over or crude static zoom. How long before we start handing out Razzies for worst book trailer?

And who even says that book trailers translate into sales? I think this is the big question. Whether you're spending hours of your own time creating a book trailer, or whether you're paying someone else substantial amounts of money to make one for you - where's the hard evidence for their market value?

As with any form of marketing, the amount of money and effort someone invests is usually contingent on how effective it is. If book trailers first burst onto the scene in 2003, that gives us eight years of evidence we should be able to point to. But, sadly, one of the few articles I've seen on the matter is this one in the Wall Street Journal from 2008: Watch This Book

Which states:

There is scant evidence, however, that the average book trailer actually has much impact on book sales.

Another article titled Are Book Trailers Effective? uses that statement to conclude that it is just too difficult to track the influence of advertising on direct book sales. So, perhaps it works, but who knows?

I suppose, like any form of publicity, if you can afford it it's better to have one than not. It may only garner one or two extra sales but it may also increase traffic to your website, and it will get your name out there to people who haven't heard of you before. A modern-age calling card for social media sites and e-mail distribution.

Book trailers, in short, are a minefield. In the hands of a great and mighty marketing department, you may stand a decent shot. But what of us poor waifs who have to battle through on a meagre budget?

Well, sod it. I gave it a go. Everyone else was at it - I didn't want to feel left out. My next post (Book Trailers Part II) is all about how I put mine together, with some useful tips for the shoestring author.

Grammatical Gripe

Image by Horia Varlan

Grammar, like the picture above, is a bloody jigsaw puzzle. Despite having a higher than average reading ability when I started high school, I was rather a late bloomer with regards to spelling. Even now I class myself as homonymically challenged (I find it hard too know witch ones two use) with a propensity for whiz-deletion and comma splicing. 

I owe much of my hard-earned ability with grammar to learning to type in the days when spell-checkers simply beeped at you when you got it wrong. I spent hours going back and trying again.

Contrary to many people's opinion, you don't have to be brilliant at spelling and grammar to be an engaging writer or a great storyteller. After all, the very art of storytelling has its beginnings in the spoken, not the written, word.

Bill Bryson's brilliant examination of Shakespeare throws up the case in point:

Spelling was luxuriantly variable...You could write 'St Paul's' or 'St Powles', and no one seemed to notice or care....People could be extrordinarily casual even with their own names...Philip Henslowe, the empresario, indifferently wrote 'Henslowe' or 'Hensley' when signing his own name, and others made it Hinshley, Hinchlow, Hensclow, Hynchlowes, Inclow, Hinchloe and half a dozen more. More than eighty spellings of Shakespeare's name have been recorded...the Oxford English Dictionary...prefers Shakspere. Perhaps nothing speaks more eloquently of the variability of spelling in the age than the fact that a dictionary published in 1604, A Table Alphabeticall of Hard Words, spelled 'words' two ways on the title page.

Even today, there are two schools of thought. I shall defer to those more articulate than myself. In the corner for strict spelling regulations, we have David Mitchell:

In the other corner stands his comedy partner, Robert Webb, pushing the argument that it's all about communication, rather than rules:

This entire argument has me in turmoil. If you believe that language is an art, then the chances are that you will put in the time and effort to learn it well. But, as Mitchell points out, it's usually those of us who consider ourselves proficient who suddenly make the worst mistakes - usually after writing an officious piece pointing out where someone else has gone wrong.

I admit it. It drives me up the wall when I see were instead of we're, its instead of it's and there instead of their. The basics. But however harshly I judge others, I judge myself far harder - I'm a repeat perpetrator of a number of grammatical and homonymical offenses. My heart leaps to hear Webb's rebuke, and delights in the Shakespearean freedom of it all.

But I doubt that I could honestly live like that.

However much we don't want it to be true - we are judged on our proficiency of the written word. Nothing spells it out clearer than this article by Sean Coughlan of the BBC, published in July:

Spelling mistakes 'cost millions' in lost online sales

...an analysis of website figures shows a single spelling mistake can cut online sales in half... Sales figures suggest misspellings put off consumers who could have concerns about a website's credibility...

Now, I did say that it's not necessary to be a great speller or grammarian in order to write engaging stories. That's true - to an extent. It's true in other fields, too. For instance, I made a living out of number crunching statistical data having completely flunked mathematics at GCSE.

The point is - I understood statistics. I got the relationship between patterns of numbers. I don't understand how to divide two numbers, or how to find their square root in my head.

But then, to be fair, I really don't need to. Because some clever soul invented calculators. I can't even draw a pie chart - but that's okay, Excel can.

Similarly, you may not understand the rules of grammar and spelling, but you may understand perfectly well what makes a really good story or a fascinating character.

As Mitchell pointed out, with an online dictionary - or even one in tree format - you can always look up what you don't know. Google's full of wonderful little tools such as 'define <word>', which instantly gives you the definition for anything you're uncertain about.

It doesn't really matter if you're not grammatically gifted. What matters is that you recognise your weakness and find the right tools for the job.

As one of the greatest minds that ever lived put it:

Never memorize what you can look up in books. - Albert Einstein

The thinking there being that the brain is more than a receptacle for facts. It's the tool used for taking two pieces of information and making something greater out of them.

With that in mind, don't let a fear of grammar and spelling deter you from writing. But do invest in making use of tools that can compensate for that lack of knowledge. There are plenty of them: dictionaries, spell-checkers, thesauruses, proofreaders etc. That's not lazy, that's ingenuity in problem solving.

Dreamflesh

In light of the recent apocalyptic scenes on the streets of Britain, I thought I'd pull out an interview from 2008 with Gyrus, the self-publishing whirlwind behind Towards 2012.

The interview centres around his latest release at the time: Dreamflesh. Another good reason for posting this is that there's rumours of another project in the pipeline, due out next year. Look forward to bringing you more about that.

Dreamflesh, in its own words, is:

... a florid and protean collection of ideas, investigations and experiments weaving together altered states, ecology, healing, mythology, magic and prehistory.

With an introduction like that, who could resist?

It has also sold enormously well due, in no small part, to the impressive line-up of contributors. From Chaos Magician Dave Lee, to the apocalyptic Michael Ortiz Hill, and the truly talented ayahuascarian artist Pablo Amaringo.

In short, a treasure trove for the expanding consciousness, brought into being by a self-publisher who was also responsible for bringing you Towards 2012. 

We journey down into the luminescent dark of his mind to find out... well, what on earth were goin' on there, then?

Without further ado...

Gyrus.

***

What inspired Dreamflesh, why compile it?

I just wanted to get back to creating something tangible. After publishing Towards 2012 and other things in the late '90s, I moved to London and started working, building websites. I had a lot of enthusiasm for the web, but after a while it was clear that the act of reading was qualitatively different in front of a screen. The presence of so many other things to read, do, or interact with via the same interface, the textureless sheen of the reading surface, the hum and buzz of machine components, the restriction to a specific physical posture (laptops notwithstanding)... All these things seemed to make the web fine for receiving and creating information (and, of course, non-textual media); but it seemed to lack something vital when it came to the sustained digestion of knowledge.

Even though historically, the written word is associated with a withering away of some of the very things I'm interested in (animism, magical consciousness, decentred spirituality), it's unavoidably important for absorbing knowledge and nurturing imagination in this slice of history we've landed in. Books may be relics one day, but not in my lifetime I feel.

The other impetus was awareness of our ecological crisis. This is a slow-motion catastrophe that we've been unconsciously gestating in our connections to (and disconnections from) the biosphere for the last few millennia at least. It's not a bunch of guys running at you with guns and bombs (though these things are happening as a consequence), so it's harder to conceptualize and react to. Ecology is complex enough, and mass media simplistic enough, that it's always going to be an uphill struggle to foster effective action until truly large-scale disasters strike.

What can I do? Well, there's a lot of obvious personal choices (some easier than others). Past that, what I've been able to do well in the past is create inspiring small-scale publications. A drop in the ocean next to the work of some activists or developers of green tech; but you have to do what you can. Certainly, I couldn't devote this much time to creating something that didn't address this issue in some way.

It's a little off mainstream, what sort of readership did you envision?

I've never been much for assessing the market and so on. I generally create things that I want to exist, in the faith that no man is an island, and someone else will want them to exist too. But I've realized in doing Dreamflesh Journal that the kind of ideas I was pushing in the 90s have spread out since then. Maybe the enthusiasm is spread a little thin, but the interest is still there. There's a less clear sense of this stuff being hip as it was fifteen years ago; but as Bruce Sterling observed, going for "hip" is an admission that you're not in it for the long haul. We need sustainability, and fashion is the antithesis of sustainability.

Still, I'm lucky enough to pay my way with other things and have time left for this. I consider it both a duty and a pleasure to make good use of this opportunity: creating something that's highly valued by some people, which might not have seen the light of day if it was subjected to market forces as they function today. I hope my readership is as eclectic as the journal's contents: curious (in both senses), smart, sensual and compassionate.

What's been the response to DF1. Has it surprised you?

The response has been warm, though I didn't feel I quite achieved my vision with the first one. It's sometimes hard when you don't pay for contributions to pin people down, of course. And I've been out of the self-publishing loop for a while, so even though I wasn't back to square one, I have had to rekindle certain fires. The only thing that's surprised me is how long it's taken me to get back to all this again.

When is DF2 coming out and what's in it?

It's due before the end of 2008, but the usual self-publishing caveats apply! There's a great selection of interviews (one of my favourite forms): media theorist Douglas Rushkoff, ecopsychologist David Kidner, and Patrick Harpur (the elusive author of the wonderful Daimonic Reality and The Philosopher's Secret Fire). Animals figure largely: Mark Pilkington (editor of sibling journal, Strange Attractor) is writing about animal intelligence, and hopefully Bitsy Broughton will be discussing animals & ancestors in dreamwork. There's a piece by a Louisiana psychotherapist on Hurricane Katrina, and more delectable art & miscellanea. It's even possible that my current writing project might make it in there, looking at the heart as an imaginal reality, panic attacks & the divine...

Tell us a bit about yourself, who is Gyrus? What's your main interest at the moment?

Well, Gyrus is a writing name that's also become my day-to-day name for most people I know. More than a nickname, but a little less than a changed name. It probably makes me seem weirder or more grandiosely esoteric than I actually am; I've learned to live with that.

As I just mentioned, the psychological aspect of the heart is a strong current interest, heavily inspired by James Hillman and Robert Romanyshyn's writings. I'm currently delving into Corbin's work on Sufi mysticism, which seems to be a crucial source for conceptions of the heart that are neither the literal fleshy pump nor the sentimental symbol of love. It's pretty dense stuff; I'm hoping I can distill some of it into tasty but nutritious "starters" to give to people, to help nurture our appetite for this marginalized vision.

Jung once said that "the gods have become diseases", meaning that in banishing the polytheist world of the soul (first through monotheism, then through scientism), we have forced this reality to manifest as strange symptoms, bodily dysfunctions - maybe even ecosystemic imbalance, too. Naturally we stumble when rediscovering this lost world, "like invalids who have forgotten how to walk", as Jim Morrison said. So we have drug wars and psychosis as well as entheogenic rapture, quack cures as well as unorthodox healing, overpriced "lifestyle spirituality" as well as friends helping each other explore themselves. The stumbling is used to further argue against the idea of walking, because we've lost our patience. But I think we all know from experience where patience comes from. Occasionally, we slow ourselves down and try to accept the things we're rushing to avoid; usually, something hits us in the face and we're forced to stop. I'm interested in fostering the former and learning to deal with the latter.

Have any of the articles you've collected profoundly changed the way you look at things - without picking favourites, are there any that you're particularly proud of?

Well, I "test-drove" most of the material in the first volume; many of the contributors are friends. I was "embalmed" by Orryelle and Giselle from Australia, in the process they describe in their article, which was intense. This catalyzed a very potent dream which, via Rebirthing breathwork (a variant of which I'd studied a while ago with Dave Lee, who contributed a piece on breathwork), led me to try ayahuasca, which my friend Donal Ruane discusses in an interview. Michael Ortiz Hill, when I met him in California, performed a dream ceremony and read the I Ching for me; and I've been getting into Santeria practices with Stephen Grasso. All of these things contributed directly to a slow-burning but hugely important transformation I've been going through over the past few years. I'm a very "hands-on" editor!

If you could meet anyone alive or dead, who would it be and what would you ask them?

I would have loved to meet Alan Watts, the great popularizer of Eastern spirituality (a description which belies his tremendous intellectual rigour). I would have asked him for a cup of tea.

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Dreamflesh is currently out of stock, but keep an eye on the order page for more info.