New Digs

Looking over my well-worn and semi-retired Blogger blog, it’s painfully easy to notice that I haven’t posted in almost one year. And before that, the posting was pretty damned infrequent.

I could blame work, moving house, travelling overseas, not writing, not making music, spending too much time playing computer games, drinking too much absinthe … but only one of these would be true.

Yeah, you got me. It was the absinthe.



Rather than trying to force discipline onto my inconsistent personality, I thought it might be easier to start a new blog at some new digs.

Same name as the old one, same guy writing. Here’s hoping he writes more.

From now on, you can find me over at www.danielhatadi.com.

You Call That A Book Launch? THIS Is A Book Launch.

Big Daddy's doing a Booze And Bands Book Launch for SEX, THUGS AND ROCK & ROLL, the latest Thuglit anthology (which includes a story by the bald headed guy all over this page). Jason Starr, Justin Porter, Sarah Weinman, Patrick Lambe and Big Daddy Thug himself are all going to do readings from the book before they stage dive into the mosh pit.

I'd be there, but I'm half way across the globe and I've gotta see a man about a dog.

Details in the flyer above.

If you're scared of bricks and mortar, you can grab a copy of the book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Powells, Indiebound or Kensington.

SEX, THUGS AND ROCK & ROLL is now available

Smack bang in the middle of a fine collection of thuggery related literature is my story, BUDDHA BEHIND BARS. It's my first publishing credit so I'm celebrating by dehydrating a bottle of Johnnie Walker and snorting it off the belly of ... okay, I'm just having a glass of Coke. But still, I'm hoping this will kick my arse on to a chair and force me to write some more.

With an intro penned by Sarah Weinman, followed by a love letter from Big Daddy Thug, the collection includes stories from the broken keyboards of Patricia Abbott, Jonas Knutsson, Jedidiah Ayres, Justin Porter, Albert Tucher, Joe R. Landsdale, Scott Wolven, D.T. Kelly, Marcus Sakey, Steven M. Messner, Hugh Lessig, Lyman Feero, Gary Carson, Matthew Baldwin and Jason Starr.

The faint of heart and the high of morals need not apply.

I'm Back

And I've been back for a number of weeks.

Something that happens when you're away from constant internet access for a decent length of time is that you have a lessened desire to get back to the internet. So since I came back to Sydney I've been slowly ramping up my internet usage. It feels like it will never again reach the heady heights of my initial excursions into blogging and social networking.

And I have plenty of guitar to play, so don't expect me around so much. It's a little more than hibernation.

Of course, every time I say something like this I tend to indulge in a short burst of posts, so there's every chance you can look forward to some of my travel notes from New York and Los Angeles.

Anyway, I'm back.

A Half-Life Long Dream Achieved!

Remember when I talked about my desires for a National Steel guitar? The kind of guitar that costs whole yearly salaries to ship to the sunburnt shores of Australia?

Well, in the last couple of days, I discovered to my absolute and goose-pimple-inducing delight that I could purchase one of these beautiful beasts for about half the price I would expect in my home country.

So, I did it.



I'm sorry, Mary, but there's a new love in my life.

Arrggghhh, grrrlll, drooooool ....

Gone Fishin'

It's pretty easy for three weeks to pass without my posting here, but I just thought I'd let you all know ... I'm going overseas for three weeks. New York and Los Angeles to be exact. I'll definitely be meeting some of the people that have read this blog for the very first time and I hope to meet a few others too. Like these guys.

Have fun, all. Don't break the place while I'm gone.

Around The Traps

Sure, I've been in hibernation, I've been having all of my creative juices sucked out of me by a ludicrous amount of over-engineering and lack of communication at my workplace, but I've still kept my nose to the screen.

Time for some bullets.

• Stephen Blackmoore has himself an agent in the shape of one Allan Guthrie. I'd like to think it was because of my amazing work in critiquing Stephen's novel, but I know it's all on his own back.
  
• Patrick Shawn Bagley's gone and done it too, with some firm that's based in some city called "New York".
• Murdaland is dead. I'd like to know who shot them, but I have a feeling it just was what it was.
• Jason Starr and Ken Bruen are launching their new collaboration, THE MAX, in New York. I'm going to be there, even if I'll have to rush off to catch Tricky on the same night.
• Christa M. Miller has a new short story up over at Mouth Full Of Bullets. Go read it before you get some yourself.

That'll do for now. Back to the hard slog.