Is this how ghosts feel?

[zotz]

Won the pub quiz last night, partly due to our excellent knowledge of the futuristic music of Joe Meek and the early novelty hits of Dave Bowie. I've now finished reading Exit Music (very good, and with a suitably downbeat ending - it wouldn't do for Rebus to go out without a big dose of disappointment, would it?) and rereading The Good Fairies of New York (two Scottish thistle fairies get thrown out of the enchanted glen for playing Ramones songs too loud on their fiddles, and end up causing trouble in New York. Includes race riots between the Chinese, Italian and Ghanan fairies of the city, the ghost of Johnny Thunders searching for his lost '58 Gibson, and more mentions of Swans and CopShootCop than any other fairy book ever written - if you've not read any Martin Millar, this wouldn't be a bad place to start). This means I can get on with Ulrich Haarbürste's Novel of Roy Orbison in Clingfilm, which is shaping up to be the oddest book I've read since the one about the dwarf.

Comments

[pigeonhed.livejournal.com]

There was a short 'Good Fairies'-set story in graphic form in one issue of Millar's comic Lux & Alby as well.

the comic strip

[casilda.livejournal.com]

And you can still buy it here:
http://www.factorfictionpress.co.uk/shop.html
Issue 2

Re: the comic strip

[zotz]

Excellent - thank you, both. I see there's a jinty connection, too.

[stoogoff.livejournal.com]

Weird synchrocity: I picked up The Good Fairies of New York the other day on a whim, having never read any Martin Millar before. I devoured it in a couple of days and was incredibly impressed.

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

I think he lives near me - he's regularly at our local independent bookshop doing signings, launches etc.

[zotz]

Excellent. Have they a webshite it would be worth me checking if I'm Doon Sooth ever?

[zotz]

Excellent. It's been quite hard to find his stuff for a while. Hopefully this is changing. I've had the same experience Neil Gaiman talks of in the introduction, of course - everything I've had from before Melody Paradise has been lent to someone and never seen again - so I've been (unsuccessfully) been looking for a while.

[casilda.livejournal.com]

I saw Martin Millar reading extracts from The Good Fairies of New York in a hovel of a club in Reading. He was the support rather bizarrely to a Lydia Lunch gig and I was hooked. I bought the book the next day. Lux the poet is also very good however I lost interest in his writing after reading Love and Peace with Melody paradise which I found somewhat boring. I should maybe try his new writings!

[zotz]

Excellent. I haven't read Lux, actually, nor Ruby. I didn't finish LPMP, but I did buy what looks like a new one - Lonely Werewolf Girl. It's in my to-read bookcase.

[casilda.livejournal.com]

Oo thanks for that, and it seems to be self published so I'll certainly give it a try!

[lovingboth]

What is there apart from the Laughing Gnome (strangely missing from the official 'Best of' albums) and Space Oddity?

[zotz]

strangely missing from the official 'Best of' albums

Funny that, isn't it? Especially as it's a little gem in its own right.

No, there are only those two that I'm aware of. The name-the-song-from-the-intro round included The Laughing Gnome this week, and there was also a question on Telstar - you can suggest a topic the week before, and as we'd read a couple of articles on Joe Meek recently, we suggested him. We're also trying to get a question on Trebitsch-Lincoln, as we're sure nobody else has heard of him.

[luckylove.livejournal.com]

Now I want to read The Good Fairies Of New York.

[micheinnz.livejournal.com]

You're not the only one.