I’ve called this blog ‘Shaking out the music’ for two reasons. The first is literal. I sang in a band for around three years; a little local band on a local scene, no big deal. Only it was, to me. It was such a big deal that I used to have to shake the voice out of me and I’d hear myself, a petrified child, suddenly exposed, in every trembling note. The second reason is that music, for me, has taken many forms; the music of friendship and love, the music of reading and writing, the  music of those little happiness’ that jump out and surprise you when you most seem to need them.

I have to get used to the idea of speaking about my debut novel, something raw and brutal and based on my own childhood experiences.  I love get-togethers and good company, belly laughs and acting the goat and swapping stories. I love community and collectives and people coming together. Writing the Wacky Man means that I’m fortunate enough to be even more a part of such wonderful events and long may this continue. But slipping out of the shade into the full light is, for me, exhausting  I am at once elated, alive, sociable, chatty, over-vigilant, hyper alert, nervy. My soul sings but it shakes.

I’m on the brink of something that is exciting and slightly terrifying. I’m going to be shaking out a lot more music in the months to come. I like to think of myself as a human maraca.