As all enterprising writers would, I did include my email address in the book's acknowledgements. But I'm trying to change that from an email to a new website URL and so I've asked that we add a line that goes this away:
Read more about The Beiderbecke Affair on my site beiderbecke.williamgallagher.com. That's b-e-i... wait... jazz.williamgallagher.com will get you there too.
It really does. You won't find much there today but it works and by publication there'll be some extras like unused extracts from interviews with Barbara Flynn and more. Not a great deal, to be honest, because I managed to pack a huge amount of that in. But everyone I talked to for the book was so interesting and Barbara gave me an utterly golden trove of photographs and cuttings. I scanned everything and handed this giant parcel back with all the scans on the teeniest of USB sticks. I'm sure she'll be fine with me showing you some of the material.
But the reason there's not much of it on there today is that I only just got the idea this week while producing a new website for myself. That was partly prompted by the book, partly by people asking where they could get it, partly by my finding out that it's even going on sale in Japan and so mostly and consequently because my ego is currently overwhelming.
Plus Apple kicked me out.
I've been a MobileMe user since before it was MobileMe and that Apple service hosted my website but they're taking it down and they were gonna take me with it if I didn't do something. It's all because MobileMe has been replaced by iCloud and that's fine because iCloud is rather spectacularly great – when it works.
Nonetheless, this 'ere iCloud don't take kindly to strangers, you hear, so my site and everyone else's sites on there had to move.
I'm still on www.williamgallagher.com but that tent is now pitched on A Small Orange. I'd never heard of this hosting site before but I can't stop talking about them now: a real human being from their support team replied with a solution to a problem less than 90 seconds after I sent it. Love 'em.
With a need to move comes a desire to spring clean. Besides, my mother has never understood what I do for a living and now I can just point here to the site. Once I convince her to get online.
When she does, you can bet the first thing she'll say to me is that oi, those scoundrels at 123-reg sell you subdomains like scandal.williamgallagher.com for a tenner but you can get them for free. And do you know, she's right? Over the years I have paid for subdomains to stand up particular projects. Most of them I can't tell you because they're still in play but, for instance, I did once have a radio.williamgallagher.com. I liked that. Radio William Gallagher.
What was I saying about my ego?
As part of the process of pulling up sticks and headin' on outta town to A Small Orange, I learned this about free subdomains and that's when the penny dropped about having beiderbecke.williamgallagher.com.
I am sure that by 28 September that and its easier-to-spell counterpart jazz.williamgallagher.com are going to be well worth you having a look.
But for today, I'm rather pleased with how my own main site has turned out. Do please have a look at www.williamgallagher.com when you can. Right now I think it is just the way I want it, I think it has just the things I need.
Except I'll tell you the truth: I had a problem with an image on the front page. It's supposed to change randomly between me looking serious, me looking sexy* (*delete as wishful thinking) and my very most embarrassing photo ever.
Other pages have these rotating images but I'm plainly getting something wrong so you only get the serious one. There is no sexy one. You knew that. But fortunately the embarrassing one will never accidentally make it onto this blog.
William
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