Poor Gerald Ford eh? Thanks to Saddam, even in death he’s just a footnote.
So, guess what I did today..? That’s right! I signed the papers to complete the first round of funding for the new company. We now have money in the bank and shareholders to suck up to.
So now I can safely say just [...]

Well, I made it home and managed to finish my Christmas shopping at exactly 3:55pm. Early this year. I’ve bought books for almost everyone. A gift you can open again and again, said the sign in the shop. They are so right.
Christmas is always a bit odd for our family. My parents run a hotel, [...]

So here it is Merry Christmas eve eve. I’m supposed to be going home to my parents’ place in Newark later this morning to enjoy four - count ‘em - days of home cooking and merriment. I plan to do absolutely no work at all for those four days but, given that everyone I’ve told [...]

I’m absolutely freezing. For some reason - no matter how often I turn the heating on, or how high I set it - it remains absolutely freezing. Icy even. No, more than icy. Arctic.
I’m too cold to type anything more.

So, Lembit’s doing a Cheeky Girl. Brilliant.
He’s a funny fish, Opik. He wrote a great thing for LNR/TFT a few years ago about The War Against Liberalism. And now he’s doing a Cheeky Girl.
And I’ve just remembered I wrote this about him for the Guardian in 2003...
WHY I LOVE LEMBIT OPIK
I’m terribly worried about Charles [...]

Actually is twat masculine or feminine?
Right, so, what a weekend, eh? Decided, given that the first of the advance from the book is in that, having paid my rent and various bills that were nagging, I’d have a bit of a night out. To celebrate, like. Actually, that’s not true. It was more of a [...]

So, I just sent out the big launch announcement. They say every time someone writes their own press release, a PR person dies.
So, that’s something.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
14th December 2006
Carr announces launch of new digital publishing house specialising in bringing together traditional media and user generated content.
Paul Carr, co-founder of leading web-to-print book publisher, The Friday [...]

That last post was terribly boring.
I’m listening to the Fratellis and writing a press release now. Can I use the phrase “unfuck the media”, do you think? I’ve lost all sense of perspective.

Last week it was words, this week it’s numbers. I’m buried in spreadsheets. Cashflows, P&Ls. All that good stuff.
We’re meeting investors next week, you see. Having just bought a big thing, while setting up an even bigger thing, based on the first thing, my bank manager is looking a little nervous. It is Christmas [...]

Ok, a couple of days of post-book winding down and meetings to get everything clear and straight. But now it’s Wednesday and it’s time to get things started. I’m going to be blogging all the way, you’ll be pleased to here. So it’s likely that you’ll hear things here first. Worth a bookmark, for sure. [...]

Book in a week. They said it couldn’t be done.
They were very nearly right.
But we showed ‘em.
Ok, what’s next?

Almost there. I can smell the finish line. First edit done, dusted and nestling in Pond’s inbox. He’s getting up early to do his edit and then we’re done.
I’m going to miss the little fella.

Here we go again. The final countdown.
I’m back at my computer, merging together the words of both Pond and me. 40,000 of the little buggers in total, although God only knows how many there’ll be after the edit. I’m making the first stab at an edit as I go, hopefully to safe the copy [...]

Thank you for the emails. No, I am not dead. Almost, but not quite.
I didn’t have much chance to blog yesterday. It was my birthday, you see, and the day I officially resigned from TFP to do this buy-out malarkey.
I absolutely detest birthdays. They embarrass me. I’m a terrible attention-seeking egotist - this much we [...]

Dreams of 4000 words lie, exhausted, in the mud.
Shortly after midnight I found myself in a research quagmire. I was certain I knew what I wanted to say in the weapons bit of the book. I’d done my research. It was sound intelligence. But when I arrived... nothing, just a few research programmes [...]

“Okay, campers, rise and shine, and don’t forget your booties ’cause it’s cooooold out there today.”“It’s coooold out there every day. What is this, Miami Beach?”
I’ve been here before. 10pm. 6000 words to go to complete the book. If I can do 4000 of them tonight, I’ll be a happy man. Obviously if I can [...]

Almost forgot to update before bed.
1. Last night’s word target smashed by 21 words - 5521. 6000ish to go.2. Bank visited the very moment it opened to pay an important cheque.3. Press release sent.4. Couple of hours sleep before starting the whole thing again.
If anyone phones me in the next 120 minutes - regardless of [...]

I just posted the following on my other blog. But I wanted to post it here too. I’m right smack-bang in the middle of writing a book at the moment so forgive brevity, but don’t worry, I’ll still be around.
Although, yes, this will probably be my last Vox post. Unless I pop back as a [...]

Yippee-ki-ay. I’ve just sprinted past the halfway point - 10,000 words - spurred on by vegetables and lots and lots of caffeine. I feel newly new.
Which is exactly the appropriate time - 2:07am - to break some pretty big news. Big for me at least. And for Pond.
Below is a press release I’m about [...]

Been here for a couple of hours already. Dealt with emails; finalised a very important press release (you’ll see!) and fired up Second Life. Doesn’t seem to be quite so laggy today, but I’m sure it’ll get back to its usually treacly self as I get writing. Tonight’s target is a mammoth 5500 words - [...]

The hardest 4000 words I’ve written in my life.

7169 words.
I’ve gone through madness and out the other side. The Second Life grid is pretty much fucked today (as it was yesterday) with place search broken, ridiculous lag times and constant forced logouts. Seriously, Linden, if this is the future you might have to keep it.
I said seriously Lin...
...are you there...?
....hello?
Hang on, I’ll [...]

6000 words. Ten cups of coffee (five decaff). I’m writing about a female hyena who has built a racetrack for Pontiac.
Rover was killed by a Pontiac. And it was done with such grace and artistry that the witnesses awarded the driver both ears and the tail.
But I digress.
Jesus, I’m going crazy.

To make up for my McMeal yesterday - God, today - I just wandered to Sainsbury’s to buy some deli things. Ham, tortilla wraps, a little soft cheese, some lettuce. And do you know what? It’s made me feel sick. Sicker than my play-doh egg and skin-stone sausage.
Things are not going well with the writing. [...]

I’m reading about Barry Diller as book distraction material today. I’ve really got into the whole American media mogul thing dieses wochenende.
They fascinate me. No fucker likes them. I mean noone. They inspire nothing but hate from journalists who profile them. Wenner; Diller; Jobs; Murdoch. It’s bizarre, especially as their entire business is based [...]

You know it.

Yipee-ki-ay. That’s me for the night. 4488 words - two big chunks of the books committed to Microsoft Word, and a very hungry me off to McDonalds for some play-doh egg and a sausage that you could skim across a lake.
A few hours sleep and I’ll be back here, hacking away. As will Pond. Do [...]

5:10am and 3000 words - a whole chapter - in the bag as Golden Brown plays on the radio. Just got to edit the sucker now; make sure I haven’t missed anything enormous and it’s breakfast time. After that I reckon I’m good for another could of thousand words before bed. I’m on [...]

I’m going to risk a bit more caffeine. The palpitations have slowed to only one or two every ten minutes. Well within acceptable levels.
2552 words in the bag and an hour and a half to go until breakfast. At this rate I may be bold and push for 4000 before sleep. We’ll see how it [...]

They’ve just crashed Damien Rice now. Forgivable.
2,000 words. Home straight. Three hours til McBreakfast. I could murder an Irn Bru. Or just anything without caffeine in it. A caffeine-free Diet Coke at a push.
Did I mention I’m doing all this on the dregs of a hangover? Pond and I went to Rob Manuel’s birthday party [...]

My laptop has slowed to a crawl. I’m about halfway to my word count goal and Virgin Radio’s advert for some Christmas bullshit just nearly crashed the lyric of My Name Is Luka. I’d go back to Pandora, but it keeps playing James Blunt at me and further slowing my fucking Mac.
It’s 2:40am.
Just don’t [...]

As if preparations for the formal launch of the new project weren’t enough, I’m trying an experiment. Writing half a book in a week. And it’s an experiment borne of the adventures of the last few weeks leaving me no time to get on with outside commitments.
The Second Life book is due on Friday, [...]

Whoops, here we go then.
It seems that - and I’m in no way ungrateful for this - I have comments. I’m not sure how I feel about that. But ask anyone, as long as they’re not Jewish, or Muslim, or black, or a woman, or gay, and they’ll tell you I’m as [...]