Interview: Steve Stack

I always like to do my bit to support Friday Project authors, their book sales help pay my wages after all, so it is a pleasure to host a leg in the Everything's Not Shit World Tour.

Steve Stack is enjoying considerable success with his book It Is Just You, Everything's Not Shit which graces the shelves of all the major bookshops in the land and even managed to find its way into Asda.  Well done that lad.  He has also been asked to be one of the special guests on Radio Five Live's Christmas Eve phone-in.

Steve has appeared all over the place on his tour so far, writing guest posts, doing interviews and suchlike and I was keen to really push the boat out for his appearance here so what follows is a comprehensive multimedia entertainment for your delectation and pleasure.

SP:  Steve, welcome to Me & My Big Mouth.
SS:  Thanks Scott, it is great to be here.  You are much nicer than Tim Adams makes you out to be.

SP:  Yeah well, Tim Adams is a wanker.  Now, before we start we should tackle the burning issue.  A number of people have suggested that you may actually be me.  By that, I mean that there are rumours that Steve Stack is a pseudonym for Scott Pack.  What do you say to that?
SS:  I must confess that Steve Stack is not my real name but I think if I was you I would have come up with a better name than I did to put people off the scent.  And I should point out that I have more hair than you.

SP:  Thanks for that mate.  I could go off you.  So tell me about this virtual book tour of yours, how has it been going?
SS:  It has been really fun, I cannot believe how many people have wanted to host it.  I am really flattered.  I mean, I had kind of expected other TFP authors to help out, and they have, but also loads of complete strangers, other bloggers who like my site, have offered to post up Q&As or guest articles by me to help promote the book.  It is amazing.  Bloggers in America, New Zealand and all over the UK have helped out.

SP:  So, if you had a tour t-shirt printed up what venues would appear on it?
SS:  Here goes, and I trust you to get the formatting right:

Blooking Central
Caroline Smailes
Damian McNicholl
Girl Friday
I Beati
May December Home
Mother At Large
Phat Beats & Shiny Paper
Sarah Salway
Shedworking
Three Beautiful Things
Thriving
Writing In A Vacuum

Fine upstanding bloggers one and all.

SP:  So when does the tour end?
SS:  I have been enjoying it so much I don't want to stop.  I am going to keep going till the offers dry up.  If anyone reading this wants to host a leg then drop me an email.

SP:  Your blog gets lots of praise for its picture content, something that is missing from the book.  Where do you find them all?
SS:  I just nick them from the internet.

SP:  Can you share some of your favourites with us?
SS:  Here goes, three popular ones from my blog, but I won't say what entries they relate to.

SP:  So your blog and your book celebrate all that is nice.  Isn't that kind of twee?
SS:  I do hope not.  It could have been but I tried very hard to avoid that, although it was quite difficult to be funny about things that aren't shit as opposed to things that are.

SP:  And the book's title, how long did it take to come up with that witty one-liner?
SS:  Er, about three seconds.  It's not big, and it's not clever, but it seems to have done the job.

SP:  Readers of Me & My Big Mouth can, if they so desire, checkout the soundtrack to my blog by scrolling down the sidebars.  It is usually some Scandinavian lass, to be honest.  What would be the soundtrack to your blog?
SS:  It would be this song which had a whole blog post dedicated to it.  It more or less sums up where I am coming from.  And it rocks, which is a bonus.

SP:  You also have a vote going at the blog for the grumpiest celebrity in the country.  How is that coming along?
SS:  Well, it still has some time to go but we are well into three figures in terms of voters.  At the moment Simon Cowell, Victoria Beckham, Gordon Ramsay and John Humphrys are battling it out for the top spot, everyone else is quite a way behind.  Although for some reason Wendy Richard has picked up a few votes of late.  There are 30 people to choose from and the top ten will be sent a copy of the book to cheer them up.  Miserable sods.

SP:  And here (if I've got the code right) is a copy of the poll so that people can vote from this site if they want.  If it doesn't work it is because I am shit.

more at twiigs.com...

SS:  See, it is just you.

SP:  OK, let's round things up now.  I ask all my guests to pick a book they would like to recommend to anyone who reads this.  Apart from your own book (although we did have an author do that once) what would you suggest to us?
SS:  I think I would go for About Grace by Anthony Doerr.  It just has that special something about it, warms the cockles of your heart.

SP:  Thanks Steve.
SS:  The pleasure is all mine.

Steve Stack's book It Is Just You, Everything's Not Shit is out now.  Buy lots for all your friends.

Comments

[Helen]

Congratulations to 'Steve' on the success of his book!!! Delighted to hear how well it's doing - great news. As you know, I'm a big fan. Let's hope my dad (confirmed grumpy old so-and-so, though as his daughter I can say that) likes it too - the signed copy I bought is for his Christmas.

[JonM]

The man's a gent! My personal fave pic is the one accompanying bubblewrap but that may just be me...

[poppy]

Just had a good stroll in Steve's blog and i fell in love. A warm and beautiful sense i cannot exactly describe..like a soft warm light smoothing slowly down to your chest. I fell in love with the way it opens the little ordinary moment to reveal the magic behind. Because that's where all of the miracle lies, for me. Also to choose to reveal the light lurking behind our grey pupils, it's the ultimate innocense, even more because it doesn't pretend any greatness, it just gives it as simply as a child shares a piece of chocolate.
Probably it is just me.. but behind that too up-to-fashion title i see a picture of some flowers in a ditch.

[John Self]

This Steve Stack chap sounds so nice that even Tim Adams would have trouble doing a hatchet job on him.

However he has clearly missed a trick in that neither his blog nor his book features the Sweep Second Hand, surely one of the great things in life and all the more delightful for its rarity in a world of jumpy staccato quartz second hands. I have to go to my gym swimming pool to see one. And I can't even swim. They all think I'm a bit odd there.

[Tessy Britton]

We love you Steve XXXX