The Spoons That Are My Ears!

The trees are in blossom. Those arboreal rascals don't give us much time to appreciate the colours and delicacy before the blossom all falls down. Blossom evokes a minor urge to write haiku, supposedly. Authentic haiku must have a seasonal reference. This rule invalidates the first (and only) haiku I ever wrote, twenty years ago. I've never really understood the appeal of haiku. Maybe I should write a haiku about my lack of understanding. Maybe not. I stopped writing poetry of any kind a few years ago. I do have enough poems for a solitary collection, and I've actually put one together that bears the title The Knight of Whatever, but I don't imagine it's likely to get published. There is absolutely no market whatsoever for poetry. Somewhat perversely, this stark fact comes as a relief...

The monsters I recently created to promote my Twisthorn Bellow novel have now been disposed of. I took a certain small amount of pleasure in doing so. Snagtooth Toasta lasted the longest. Here we see him in an outdoor setting. His enormous size can be accurately gauged by comparing him to the inverted kangaroo that also appears in the picture. More photos of Snagtooth's pointless adventures among the trees can be found on my Flickr page. I'm toying with the idea of making one more monster, probably the giant radioactive Belgian ant known as Billy Them. It could be argued that I need to get out more. But I went out to take these photos...