MYMZK

In around February 2010, I started looking into a project to produce a bespoke, curated, not-for-profit music website. It would be written well, in an accessible manner. Ideally I'd be interviewing people who were not making a lot of money from their work, and help promote them along the way.

I commissioned Andy Cole at EnterExit to come up with the design concept, something clean, simple and modern, with Imran Younis then building it in code from scratch. I update and manipulate the HTML with new material in Dreamweaver CS5.5, which helps keep the site as unique as I possibly can. Assuming you've not just left it, you can see the results here.

The site is fully licensed via the Performing Rights Society (PRS). Delphine Seddon at Statham, Gill and Davies has provided legal advice while Ian Kynnersley has built an iPhone app from scratch. This and an email template have been designed along Andy's guidelines, and will follow the content. The app, once operational, will allow the download of new music along with clean, easy-to-read interviews, which ideally communicate a sense of the acts' local venues and interests.

To help with writing, I've enlisted the help of various talented journalism students - whose enthusiasm is gratefully appreciated - studying on the City University journalism courses. We're looking to hear from anyone who wants to get involved, who would be interested in being spoken to, written about, or would like to write themselves. I'm happy to edit students' work, or provide feedback where needed.

Feel free to write to me here if any of that applies. If you're still not bored, some more information about me is on my website, or you can follow me on Twitter here.

So I've re-read a couple of novels from last year, seeing how they work. Read The Ask, Fiesta, The Road, alongside The Turn of the Screw, now working my way through Bleak House, hopefully moving on to the Tomalin biography afterwards, and Scott Fitzgerald's stories. Quite fancy a bit of Peter Ackroyd at some point. I re-wrote a short story about the Pamplona, well in the genre fiction zone, now working on a couple of other pieces of writing. I prepared, and then unprepared, an application for the Columbia MFA, with the feeling that I need to get better.

Trying to work along the lines of this Gary Lutz piece in The Believer on prose style. A feat in itself.

Work-wise, have had commissions from The Guardian, Esquire UK, and am helping The New York Times journalist Graham Bowley research a book. I've been commissioned to write a catalogue for Rivington Street's RED gallery, and am likely to be doing quite a lot of freelance PR for various clients. Am excited about focusing on fiction, and MYMZK (see above).

These are some of my final news stories at The Independent before I went freelance at the beginning of December (since then, I have been commissioned by Esquire, am working on MYMZK and am pursuing new opportunities).

*Story off back of leaked correspondence between Leonardo owner and Dr Nicholas Penny, director of the National Gallery, ahead of the gallery's major show;

*Call of Duty 3 approved by censors (followed by The Daily Mail);

*Shane Meadows lined up for Stone Roses film (followed by The Guardian, The Sun, NME, Metro, among others)

*Did Van Gogh die in unfortunate brush with fate (first journalist in the world to report; story subsequently published by hundreds of international media);

*Child visitors plummet to major museums;

*The Wallingers that were too wacky, even for him.

Recent stories (I am just going to include here those which I wrote about first)

*Turkey demands return of its "Elgin Marble" (followed by CNN)

*Sue Tilley moves out of Soho (followed on page three, The Evening Standard)

*Tate staff complain of bullying (followed by The Evening Standard)
*Ford Madox Brown piece discovered (followed by BBC, Reuters, The LA Times, The Guardian)

*JG Ballard's house for sale (followed by The Guardian, The Evening Standard & BBC)
*Poetry Society slash funding (followed by The Guardian & BBC)
*Michelangelo discovered at Oxford college (followed by Huffington Post, BBC, and then a lot of international media)
*Short story campaign (part of rolling stories followed by The Guardian)
*Venice censorship (followed by The Daily Telegraph)

Have also been invited to become a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Some key stories so far this year (listed here so I don't forget).

*Covering the Brits, Baftas and Oliviers;

*Nationwide Arts Council cuts.

*Story about Dennis Hopper's art being pulled (reported ahead of/followed by LA Times, FT, NY Daily News);

*Quotes calling for Ai Weiwei's release (quotes used by The Guardian, Channel 4, and Der Spiegel);

*Story on new choreography in ballet (followed by The Telegraph);

*Interviews with Sir Nicholas Penny; Lenny Henry and Greg Dyke.

*Story on Yuri Gagarin statue (followed by Mail; later reported by The Guardian, The Mirror, BBC);

*Nice exclusives on CS Lewis, Kew, Pertwee, Anderson & Gold; Luminaire piece from a while ago, later cropping up in The Guardian.

Been a busy first month or two as arts correspondent. I guess highlights would be:

*Jack Thorne's play at the National;

*An interview with Mat Collishaw;

*Nigerian protests forcing cancellation of a Sotheby's auction (followed by The New York Times and the BBC);

*An interview with James Rhodes;

*Coverage of protests at the Turner Prize;

*Patrick Stewart's complaints about Broadway (followed by The Daily Express)

*Behind the scenes on Peter and the Wolf at the ROH, whose director, Tony Hall, I also interviewed;

*The suspension of the Royal Opera House's move North;

*A page three on Bob Marley;

*A splash on Joanna Yeates.

So I spent last week at Arvon centre the Hurst, in Shropshire, on a short story course. I'd really recommend going on something like this if you're interested in writing; the access you get to the tutors is excellent.

You're essentially there for four days. We had four three-hour workshops, two one-on-one tutorials (with Adam Thorpe and Olive Senior) and then readings in the evenings. Di Speirs, one of Radio 4's senior fiction producers, and the person instrumental in founding the BBC's famous short story award, also came down to answer questions.

I've also just been appointed The Independent's arts reporter/correspondent (not sure on the title as yet), so I'm going to be the point of contact for arts news at the newspaper for the forseeable. It's exciting, because we're also launching a new title aimed at young/lapsed newspaper readers imminently.

Here's my review of Geoff Dyer's essays, a book I couldn't recommend highly enough.