Cite them right and don't fret!

Hi there! Well, as my publisher friend suggested I'm currently taking a little sabbatical from the main body of the book. In a few weeks time I'll hopefully feel I have enough distance from my draft to be able to go back and make any little improvements that are required...I was certainly too close to it by the time I'd finished work several weeks ago.

I say I'm taking a sabbatical but I've actually been working on a references section for the back of the book. This reminds me of being at Northumbria University over 10 years ago. There was a great little publication in the library called Cite them Right, which really helped me to make sure all of my citation information was spot on. This time around I'm using a little pamphlet to help me with the job (see above).

Unfortunately it hasn't been possible to accurately cite every single quotation that appears in the book. In some cases these were provided by Tangerine Dream mega fan Andy King and as they are from vintage newspaper or magazine cuttings they do not include a precise date. Now seems as good a time to thank Andy for his priceless contributions, as without his generous assistance I may never have come across some of the great interview quotes and extracts of articles that form part of my work.

On a different note summer has finally arrived in the UK and not before time, I might add. Just a couple of weeks ago it was really rather cold, cloudy and rainy for the time of year but this has been a fine weekend weatherwise, allowing plenty of opportunity to sit in the backyard soaking up the sun.   

When I popped down to Whitley Bay late this afternoon I was rather surprised to find a thick sea fret shrouding the beach and I could barely see the sun.

My trip to the coast reminded me that when I've finished the book I plan to buy a better camera and take up photography properly as a hobby. I also want to start up another blog about a variety of music that interests me and my thoughts on it, adding some photos here and there - just for a bit of fun.

As I travelled back from Whitley Bay the sea fret lifted and after taking a few more snaps I was home in time to catch the last of the evening sun in the backyard.   

 

As of this forthcoming Friday I'll be taking a week off work and, after catching up with my Mum and Dad, I'll be heading to Berlin to see Ashra live in concert on 8th June at the UFA Fabrik - something I'm really looking forward to in a big way. It will be great to see MG, Harald, Steve and all of their friends and family and although I've seen MG play live on a couple of occasions I've never had the opportunity to see Ashra before. It promises to be amazing! Will you be there? If so please drop me a message. I'd love to hear from you.

And what then? Well, on my return it is time to pick up the book, assess the content and then head for the finish line...

Museum Piece VI

An Ash Ra Tempel poster from Bravo magazine. The images were taken from the band's Paris concert in February of 1973.

Manuel Göttsching & AshRa In Concert

More information available in English here and German here.

My work is done here......?

Hi there readers. Firstly I want to apologise for a lengthy absence from the blog. Not through choice, I must add. This has been down to the fact that Blogger have changed their interface and frankly almost everything about it has been driving me around the bend! I find the new layout much harder to navigate and the new set up wasn't allowing me to post photographs either. Finally this morning it seemed to work, for some reason.

It's a shame about the delay with this blog post because last weekend I had big news to share. After an extended round of tweaking, which was really a sixth draft, I suppose, I think I finished the book. Have I finished the book....? I ask that question in a slightly confused way because I'm now so close to it that  I can't tell. To me it feels and looks done. A friend of mine who is in publishing suggested that when I had finished I should leave the draft for six weeks and go back to it. A break should hopefully give me better perspective. In the meantime I need to be thinking about a thanks list (there are a lot of good folk to thank for their help with this), the referencing (starting to feel like an academic piece of work!) and a skeleton index - I say skeleton index because obviously when my Microsoft Word document goes to a publisher all of the page numbers are going to shift. All I can do for now is produce an alphabetical list of the key topics.

So, is that it, I wonder? Four years of toil and I think I might be there. Can't quite believe it.....