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The prospect of a book coming out that begins the story of the mullet mission – which is now, incidentally, on Sandstone Press and available for pre-order on Amazon – has got me thinking about the quest as a whole. Specifically, the total number of mullets.

Six years ago, when there were only five or six known mullets, finishing the mission seemed achieveable. There are now twenty-eight and it’s scary. So I’ve decided that it’s time to draw a line and say “no more new mullets” and just finish the twenty-eight mullets I know of currently.

This is for two reasons.

Firstly, I’ve always been rather reticent of too much publicity, because it often leads to people getting in touch with new mullets, stretching the finishing line further and further ahead. I refer to this towards the end of “Up The Creek Without a Mullet” as like trying to kill the Hydra – you kill one and two more appear in its place. With a book forthcoming, and publicity likely, the “Hydra effect” is likely to kick in once more and the finishing line could zoom away from me at an irrecoverable warp speed.

Secondly, there’s been a certain authenticity about the mission so far – at least, I like to think so. I’ve not been doing it to write a book, I’ve been doing it because I had an idea, committed myself to it and didn’t want to admit defeat. Sure, I’ve been interested in the idea of it being a book for some time now, but only because enough people have said “that would make a good book” for me to believe that maybe they’re right.

There’s a danger that I could continue with this mission ostensibly just to write a book; rather than for the sake of achievement, to have a laugh, visit unusual places and meet interesting new people. I like those reasons and don’t want the expectation of a book to overshadow them.

Of course, there are still fourteen mullets to go, and so there will inevitably be an assumption underpinning any future travels that there’s a story still to be told, perhaps in later books. But I’d much rather allow the mission to remain as uncontrived as possible, in order to prove to myself that I can do this as far as I can largely on my own initiative, as it was at the beginning.

I often suspected that there would one day be a threat that the mission would either never be completed or become contrived. Also, life has changed significantly since 2003 when I first discovered Mullet in Albania. So for those reasons, I think it’s time to say twenty-eight is the limit and I am not seeking any more.

There’s no particular significance of twenty-eight, mind, other than it being the current total – nobody’s challenged me to visit that precise number, and it doesn’t for represent some personally important number, for instance my age.

I’ve even scoured 28′s own Wikipedia page, which doesn’t suggest anything to me that makes it a good maximum number of mullets. Though it’s fascinating to discover that there are such things as Keith numbers, which sounds like a concept dreamt up by a man in a pub rather than something conceived by a distinguished mathematician.

So other than the two reasons above, there’s no particular logic behind deciding to stop at twenty-eight. Or indeed to carry on until twenty-eight.

However, there’s equally no particular logic behind deciding to visit all the places in the world with the word “mullet” in their name in the first place.

So I’m just going to visit twenty-eight of them because that’s what I’ve decided, and because I can.

I hope…

Just a few days before Sandstone Press go public about “Up the Creek Without a Mullet”, I can exclusively reveal the front cover.

Here it is on the right. I hope you’ll agree it’s pretty cool. When I first saw it I definitely got a tingle of excitement. Somehow it all feels a lot more real now I’ve seen and approved the cover.

It was a very enjoyable process to come up with a cover, but very challenging too. I had to think about what, exactly, the book was all about – not in a few words, but in a picture.

Vague ideas turned into precise pictures and then finally into a refined product as emails and drafts were batted between publisher, designer and author (me, obviously).

I hope you like it! I certainly do.

The book, as I think I have mentioned before, is out in February, but should appear on Amazon and elsewhere for advance purchases before then.

More on all that malarky very soon…

I’ve been a bit quiet on the book front in this ‘ere blog since revealing that I have a book forthcoming via Sandstone Press.

Things, frankly, have been really busy lately. My wedding’s two months away, I have a hectic work schedule this term, and having a book coming out is probably not something I have given sufficient prominence to, either on this blog or in real life.

However, today is one of the first Mondays in ages that I’ve been free to get on with what I took Mondays off for, and I am spending some time catching up on a couple of book-related things. One is my website, which a friend is shortly going to give a bit of a vacuum and dust-down for me. The other is the (hopefully) final text which I have been working on with my editors at Sandstone – it’s a long, meticulous process, but I think we’re just about there.

And in the run-up to Sandstone going properly public about the book, perhaps I can give you an exclusive preview of the title – “Up The Creek Without a Mullet”.

It’s a snappy title, and I like it a lot, but I cannot take credit for it. It’s actually the headline from an article in Australian newspaper the Illawarra Mercury, upon my visit to Mullet Creek, Dapto.

I think it nicely sums up the somewhat disorganised approach I took in the early days of mullet-hunting, not least in Australia, where much of the story in “Up The Creek Without a Mullet” takes place.

In a wee while, I’ll share the book cover with you – which I also think is excellent. Then, in a few weeks, Sandstone themselves will be going public, meaning it’ll all be totally official.

Quite where I’ll get the time to deal with any resultant publicity, I have absolutely no idea…

Among the books I am packing for my trip to Edinburgh this week is Shadow Behind the Sun by a Kosovan Albanian woman, Remzija Sherifi. It charts her and her family’s life as they flee violence in the war in Kosovo in the late 1990s and settle into a new life in Glasgow.

I have a huge interest in Kosovo and Albania, but other than a few highly recommendable Ismael Kadare novels (fascinating and imaginative fiction influenced by Albanian culture, history and legends), I’ve read very little from that part of the world so I am looking forward to getting stuck into it.

I was actually given it by my publisher, and feel it’s probably a good thing to check out a writer I suppose I have that tenuous connection with. Indeed, it’s another writer from the same publisher – Sandstone Press in Dingwall – that led to my recent announcement of my forthcoming book.

Back in January of this year, I’d written a blog entry praising the excellent Between Weathers by Ron McMillan, and as you can see I received comments on it from both the author himself and the publisher. Sandstone picked up on the mullet idea on my website, asked me to make a formal submission about it, and (to cut a long story short) there then followed a few months of writing, editing and discussions.

Of course, you’re probably interested in what the title is and what the cover is like, but I’ll save those for later posts.

It’s just a good thing I enjoyed Between Weathers so much…

I’ve been a little cryptic once or twice lately about all things mullet. Today, however, I can now reveal all: there is going to be a book!

It will tell the story of the early days of the mission – the first three adventures in Albania, Ireland and Australia. And it’s rather sad to consider that this has been going long enough for there to be “early days”…

Publication will be some time in early 2010. There is a lot more to tell and reflect upon regarding how this has come about and what lies ahead – but more to come on all of that over the coming weeks.

Suffice to say it is very exciting times…

Alright, own up – who sent me a copy of “Fishing – The Mythical Mullet With Mike Ladle And Steve Pitts“?

It arrived in the post while I was away, with no note in the envelope and nothing on the outside other than a London postmark and handwriting I don’t recognise. Whoever it is, though, knows my full address.

It’s not the first time I’ve been sent unsolicited mullet paraphernalia. In the past, I’ve been the recipient of a mullet t-shirt and no less than three sets of “Mullet Power” top trumps.

More than being an irritation, it’s more fundamentally a waste as it all ends up getting chucked out anyway – and I don’t think that’s ungrateful, because there’s nothing wrong with not wanting something you never asked for in the first place.

I don’t know why people send such stuff to me. My mission is, after all, to visit every place in the world with the word “mullet” in its name. Not collect every form of mullet tat available.

That would be just silly now, wouldn’t it?

In other news, I uploaded another batch of photos from Shetland today – these ones from around Lerwick.

One of my favourite towns at the best of times, Lerwick was on sparkling form when we were there. It basked in gorgeous, cloudless sunshine, Shetland flags flying from poles and buildings across town and beyond, and locals and tourists alike making the most of the fun laid on by the Flavour of Shetland festival on the Victoria Pier.

Forming part of the midsummer Johnsmas Foy, the festival brought the centre of town to life throughout the day and into the evening (I’d say night, but that far north, night barely arrives in midsummer).

The highlight of the festival for me was sampling some of the wonderful beers from the Valhalla Brewery, the northerly brewery in Britain. It’s based in Unst, Shetland’s (and Scotland’s, and Britain’s) most northerly inhabited island

More on Unst later, though, when I get round to those photos.

I know have two more mullets to add to the list.

An American named Jonathan emailed me a few weeks ago saying he lives on Mullet Creek, in the Indian River Lagoon in east central Florida. In trying to track it down on Google Maps, I inadvertently discovered another Mullet Creek in Florida, this time on the site of what seems to be a massive military airbase in Okaloosa County in far north-western Florida.

That takes the number of Floridan mullets to five, and if you check my mullet map you’ll see I’ve added the two new ones here and here. It also brings back an equillibrium – fourteen down and fourteen to go, so once more I am precisely halfway through.

Although I could have done without the new additions, and Jonathan has yet to get back to me with more information about the Indian River Lagoon mullet, I’m glad the two I have uncovered are not too far from other ones and therefore don’t seem to present any major new logistical difficulties or trips to entirely different corners of the world.

Of course, I am no further to figuring out where, how and when the next leg of the mission might manifest itself. There has, however, has been an interesting development recently regarding the mission, but I’ll keep that under my hat for another few weeks and will blog all about it as soon as I can.

Finally, while I’ve been able to update my map, I’ve very frustratingly failed to update the mullet page of my website. My problems with iWeb and ClassicFTP that I blogged about some time back are continuing to dog me, and to be honest I don’t think I will stick with them for long. I’m trying to find out about website hosting with WordPress (on which this blog resides) but am struggling to make sense of their hosting and design instruction pages.

Anyone who knows how my website would work on WordPress is more than welcome to offer some wise words of wisdom.

Enough of the mullets for now – I have an early start tomorrow as I’m working in Edinburgh, and then on Wednesday I’m off to Shetland for work, and Nicole is coming with me to make a nice long weekend of it.

I’ll take some photos, no doubt…

Grayza has pointed me towards this rather alarming post by Tall Skinny Kiwi – an examination of whether or not the Three Wise Men had mullets or not.

Deep stuff. I’d suggest TSK needs to get out more, but I can hardly talk when it comes to mullets and study thereof.

Others have been sending mullets my way too – in recent weeks I’ve become the somewhat bemused owner of two sets of these, thanks to various friends. I’ve been too busy and/or scared to open them.

I’ll stick with busy, actually – even though I have now come back down to earth after what seems like weeks of non-stop travels, the task of finishing off work and getting sorted for Christmas now awaits.

Joy.

I’m back!

I write this in Aberdeen, where I am crashing at Justin‘s for the night, and am fresh out of the shower and into new clothes. That doesn’t wash away the fact I’ve barely slept in the last thirty or so hours and four flights.

Seattle to Los Angeles to Chicago to London to Aberdeen, with what seemed like the pace of the roadtrip itself, and there’s still the last leg to go – a train some tomorrow morning back to Inverness. The taxi driver at Aberdeen was surprised at this mammoth journey and said I was like Scotland’s Michael Palin.

A nice thought, although the idea of travelling with a crew of a dozen or so who plan everything for me in advance sounds like it would be wonderful to start with, and then exceptionally uninspiring and constricting after a couple of days.

Anyway, I have a few days before I go back to work, so can take some time to go through photos, and will let you know as I upload them to Flickr – which will mean I can blog a bit more about the trip.

Suffice to say, though, I am knackered, and not a little disheartened on the mullet front…

Work finished, rucksack full, and camera battery getting a last minute charge.

I am just about ready to go, I think. I may have forgotten something, but I’ve got my PMT (passport, money, tickets) and that’s all that really matters.

Even with just a few hours until tomorrow morning’s flight from Aberdeen, I am still unexcited my trip to the west coast of the USA. Crucial facts about Mullet Island remain elusive, and I am worried we’ll never make it out there; I hear southern California is roasting hot right now; I am utterly unprepared for the experience of driving on the wrong side of the road (and with the wheel on the other side); and I’ve been told of the poor experience that is American Airlines, with whom I’ll be flying.

Meanwhile the very worst American cliches – the ignorance of Joe Public, warped fundamentalist religion, and rampant commercialism – will all be out in force as a result of the Presidential election campaign.

But I should be excited. I know it will be fun. I really need a holiday. There are lots of friends I am really looking forward to seeing. The USA really is, love it or loathe it, an incredible country. And Justin, ever the thorough organiser, has researched all sorts of fun for us to partake of – Yosemite National Park, Alcatraz, and the humungous Six Flags (believe it or not, I’ve never been on a rollercoaster!). And we are even going to meet a film director. More on that soon.

Perhaps when I get on the train to Aberdeen in an hour, I’ll sigh a huge sigh of post-work relief, and Relax.

But for now… frankly I’d love a couple of weeks at home with my feet up and a good book.