The first new opus to be added to the Marching Band Emporium since the shop was refitted has just been published. To read the ten brand-new entries, simply go to Current Opus. If you missed the previous Opus, go here. Or if you want to browse the rest of the Archive, go here.

Happy reading...

Oh yes. Change is afoot, and there is nothing any of us can do to stop it. Not now. The MBE will never be the same again.

Everything has been gone over with a fine-tooth comb by a crack team. People have been brought in. Opinions have been consulted (and, yes, the dog was remunerated fairly for his work). Things have been examined, prodded, investigated, assessed and analysed. Lights have been shone into dark corners and cobwebs blown away. Shutters have been thrown back and brooms (naturally shiny new, with the finest of bristles) have been applied to tired old boards. Work tops have been sanded down and revarnished. Draws have been emptied, inventories have been checked. Uniforms have been cleaned and starched. Even the old sign above the front door has been taken down, cleaned and repainted.

But what will this mean to you, the treasured visitor to the MBE? The street address of the Emporium will remain the same. That much is guaranteed, but nothing inside the shop will be in its original place. All the shelves will be rearranged. Redundant stock will be removed. And some old, yet valuable, pieces from the store room will be give pride of place in the front. What’s more, the Emporium will look different. All the old décor will be removed, to be replaced with something bright, optimistic, yet hand-tooled and bespoke, all done in a way that will, hopefully, make the place more comfortable than ever.

So when will this, this… transformation, happen? Not quite sure I can rightly say, guv. Suffice to say that it will be in the next two to three weeks. Behind the scenes, there is much work going on. Some of it frantic, but all of it careful, all heading towards one, final, inexorable conclusion. One day, the MBE will be different. So, please make sure you have changed any bookmarks you have squirrelled away to http://marchingbandemporium.com and, in the meantime, I hope you enjoy the occasional piece that makes it’s way to the front of the current shop during the refit.

Yes, that’s right! A book based on this very blog! After months of choosing, honing, polishing and head-scratching, I have gathered together a personal selection of the best 50 pieces from the first year of The Marching Band Emporium.
Containing drawings, short stories, mini sagas, poetry and a healthy dose of twisted logic, alongside examples of the brand-new genre Excerpts from Lost Novels, the book is both a collector’s item and primer for the world of The Marching Band Emporium.
The book is published via Lulu.com and is available for shipment across the world. To find out more, and order your copy, go here.

Those lovely people at Mind Sprocket magazine (for the individual interested in life, perspectives, and a good story) have just published their first book, Documenting the Unseen. Even better, I am rather pleased to say that they have been kind enough to include a piece of mine in the book: What does it mean to be an intellectual?

The book “was written for the exploring reader, for the real, living, breathing person,” say Mind Sprocket on their website. “Documenting the Unseen will challenge you with each page full of ideas, questions, stories, art, and honest reality, all with the purpose of telling the truth.”

The book, which was a year in the making and is available via print-on-demand from Lulu.com, contains work by fourteen authors, including me, and illustrations by Anatole Upart and Lacey Anderson, who have provided some of the fantastic illustrations that accompany pieces in the regular publication.

To find out more about the book, visit Mind Sprocket.

To order your copy, go here.

I am delighted to announce that the lovely people at Mind Sprocket magazine, a magazine for the individual interested in life, perspectives, and a good story, have published a short story from this blog.

The piece is called Drink, Drink Up, My Friends, and can be found here.