A very short post showing you some covers I am working on. I have a recording studio lined up for this, but with website stuff, driving lessons, and other things, it might be a while before I get it done.
Which is fine because I’ve not finished writing these books.
This one will be serious Sci-Fi inspired poems.
(I have actually finished this one, sort of)
This one will be a more personal thing.
And this final one will be the comedy poetry.
What do you think?
Anyway, here’s a poem I wrote after a big gig yesterday. I have no idea if it makes sense, but I think it has potential.
Read widely 30.06.2026
Read widely
and your shelves will approach the universe
a book from here, a book from there
a tale from her, an epic from him
something dense will form
read wild, like an explorer
and swing between disciplines
like a monkey on a vine
stand out, dip your feet in a rock pool
and your arms in another
feel the wind of new stories through your hair
and the warmth of alien suns on your face
read one book with another’s imprint as a lens in your mind
and unlock new avenues and ideas never before connected
then add another, why not? Read five science books at once
and a fiction one, in sporadic bursts
like a pulsar illuminating an alien world
read widely, and you will upset the lower vibrational types
who only read to confirm their beliefs
and only travel on well-worn paths
but it is not their fault
they are new here
read widely, and you will transcend the tribalism
and become the New Human
you will loop back and see yourself
and see yourself seeing yourself
and see the universe within you
and your coordinates within the universe
read wide and wild, and your brain sends forth tendrils of thought
into the deepest recesses of reality, which speaks back
and like mycelial networks, connects you
you can be a bead, isolated
or you can be a bead aware of the vibrations
through the dreamcatcher
as it catches the wind
and the percussion of your own voice
as you read to nobody in particular
Notes on being multifaceted
It’s weird balancing being a poet, author, comedian, and streamer. At first I was worried nobody would ‘get’ it, but then I found my audience (hi) and it turns out many people who like one thing I make, like most of everything else. My audience (that’s you) are clever people1 with varied interests, so as an entertainer I can show up in one person’s bookshelf as a poet, author, and comedy writer.
It’s some agents, publishers, bookers, and my fellow artists who seem not to understand this. In some cases they seem deliberately hostile to the idea that a comedian might need to take a break for a while to get their story in a book (like The Midnight Vault II), or that an author might pause the writing of a serious time travel adventure to tell rude jokes in cocktail bars, or that Sci-Fi characters can tell jokes and write poems. These people have even sometimes suggested I may not be a ‘proper’ comedian, or poet, or author, because I am not committing 100% of myself to that one art.
Which I think is ridiculous.
So I often don’t feel I fit in with the serious people or the silly people.
Here’s to putting your tentacles in multiple artistic rock pools.
Yet, I’ve found a home here on Substack, and I am glad you are all a part of this. Thanks again.
There are bigger things coming here. I’ve just finished a large part of THE STEPHANIE GLITCH which you may remember.
My photographers / Makeup
Cover 1 - Craige Barker
Covers 2 and 3 - WhenSheTakesPhotographs,
Covers 2 and 3 - Makeup by Eleanordoescosplay
I think short posts are better. That said, I have a few writings about the real world which are long and winding. If anyone has an idea of what I should do with those, please do comment.
One of the first fans of WHO BUILT THE HUMANS? was a scientist with a wicked sense of humour. She read the book four or five times, and she is one of the people I think of when I consider -who- I am writing these stories for.