Sharp Pains is back on RTHK with its first episode of 2022 Jan 25! Meanwhile, Post Magazine has spotlighted my 3 terrifying short stories as one of its must-read features of 2021! Thanks to everybody who’s followed my skewed humor columns on RTHK Radio 3, the SCMP and VYP!
Double Trouble, Double Vision and Double Dutch collided today when my 3 short stories about the deranged, sleep-deprived new parents of twins were published in a spectacularly festive edition of the South China Morning Post‘s Post Magazine! It was a deranged way to end a deranged year in which pumping out deranged humor columns for RTHK Radio 3, the SCMP and the odd anthology has been the only thing keeping me SANE. The stories are a complete fabrication! I’ve only hijacked a plane once and I was SLEEPWALKING then so missed the fun part, only waking up for my arrest!
Exciting news from LA: The Depressed Comedian episode of my Mental Ideas Podcasthas been officially selected by the Cinemonic Entertainment Core for their 2021 Cinemonic Podcast Festival! I explore why depression is no laughing matter (or is it?) with American cartoonist and author Larry Feign, best known in Hong Kong as the creator of the Lily Wong cartoon strip. The festival takes place Dec 15, 2021 at 7.30pm, LA time. Mental Ideas returns to RTHK in 2022 as a weekly strand of the 123 Show!
My latest humor column aired TODAY (Dec 2) on RTHK Radio 3‘s 123 Show. Rolling in at an epic 12 mins, it’s my usual puerile humor but with a smidge of Christmas schmaltz thrown in. Sharp Pains will be back on RTHK with a riot of festive frivolity Dec 30!
Thanks to Hong Kong Buzz for their continuous support of Home Kong Kitchen! December is our busiest time of year – and we’d LOVE to have your support! We are collecting gifts for the homeless for our festive deliveries of Christmas Gift Sacks (sewn by crafty kids) for the homeless @ImpactHK and migrants in need @Bethune House Dec 16, a Christmas party with refugee kids @Refugee Union Dec 17 and will be making more door to door deliveries of home baked gingerbread, fruit and other small gifts for the elderly with Amigos HK Dec 18! We are also selling raffle tickets to support the Mission for Migrant Workers at their annual fundraising event Dec 19!
Make friends, support the homeless, sweat and swear like a refuse collector (?!) by joining our festive jamboree: hello@homekongkitchen.com!🎄 🇭🇰
The book is now available to buy as an ebook and in paperback on Amazon, in Bookazine and (from next Friday) in my local indie bookstore, Kidnapped in Sai Kung! Even though I had a slight brain fart moment in the Q&A bit, nobody seemed to notice (Brain Fart is my default setting) and I had an absolute blast reading to a live audience, instead of to myself in a poky little studio, imagining the groans of RTHK listeners! Still not sure how I managed to poke myself in the eye with the mic though… At least that‘s never happened in the studio before.
Thanks to Hong Kong Buzz for their little plug of the event and to the Writers Circle for introducing me to some of the best people in Hong Kong and making it all happen! If you’d like to join our Circle, click here! And if you’d like to support the HK Lit Fest by sponsoring an event or becoming a patron, click here!
When you really don’t trust the people you’re with (or just forget to remove your mask!)
I had a blast attending Proverse Publishing‘s Autumn Reception at the Helena Maylast Thursday, mixing and mingling with the winners and finalists of the 2021 Proverse Poetry Prize! Congrats to all and to Proverse for organizing such a fun event! I’m also excited to be interviewing a couple of them for my next series of Mental Ideas, which will broadcast in 2022. S2 explores the relationship between mental health and imagination in a psychedelic way! First up is the incredible Vishal Nanda, who blew me away with his lively speech and inspired poetry book Please Stand Back From The Platform Door. Vishal is a fellow ‘bipolar bear’ (as he signed his book to me), but I’m certain that’s the least interesting thing about him. He is donating ticket sales from his upcoming book launch on Dec 8 to mental health charity Mind. Don’t miss it!!!
My latest humor column for RTHK Radio 3 aired Oct 28 – 48 hours later than usual, thanks to Noz spacing out (her words, not mine, as I’m in no position to call anyone out for being ‘spacey’). This means Sharp Pains will be back 48 hours sooner in November!
This one’s a scratchy one and called Cats… It’s relatively inoffensive (apart from to Cat People obvs).
Catch me reading an excerpt from my short storyShitstormin theHong Kong Writers Circle‘s 2021 anthologyAfter The Stormat aHong Kong International Literary Festivalevent at theHong Kong Fringe ClubNov 12! Admission is free, but you do have tobookas space is limited. The anthology will be published the same day or shortly after (definitely in time for Christmas!) and available to buy from booksellers, includingBookazineandAmazon. Bring on the festive fun! (Halloween feels more of a trick than a treat now you have to wear two masks!!)
Clearly the person who wrote this had not read Shitstorm. 🤣
Transference keeps on keeping on surpassing mental milestones: the indie feature film I helped co-produce (through Mental Ideas) is fast approaching 3.7M views on YouTube! Thanks to everyone who has watched and supported it! Had we charged a cent a view, we’d have actually broken even! But of course the film’s purpose was to raise awareness of important mental health issues, not to make money (as I continue to console Raff…🤣 🤣 🤣)
Can’t WAIT to see Raff‘s latest ingenious film Little Boxes, shot entirely on Zoom in lockdown! It’s racking up an impressive array of awards nominations, despite still being in post-production! Congrats Raff, producers Lee Boardman (my old flatmate in London billions of light years ago!), his gorgeous wife Jennifer James and the talented group of actors they train and mentor at their Manchester-based acting school/ company Actor Tribe who star in the film!
I’m hoping to catch up with Raff and Lee for a chat (on Zoom – ironically…) about the film on S2 of Mental Ideas on RTHK Radio 3! You can watch Lee playing Arron Banks in Brexit: An Uncivil War on HBO in Hong Kong now!
RTHK's Miss Adventure 香港電台冒險小姐 