CORONA DIARY (Mutiny 2000 Publications) (136pp/£7.99)
VOICES IN MY HEAD (Caboodle Books) (80pp/£5.99)
Nick Toczek, has been a full time professional writer and performer for half a century. Since 1972 he’d published more than fifty books - mostly of poetry.
Starting with small press publishers, he’s gone on to have books published by Macmillan, Routledge, Hodder, LDA, Caboodle and more.
Despite the pandemic, 2020 has been a particularly productive year for him.
In January, Caboodle Books published his poetry collection for adults and secondary pupils, Voices In My Head. That same month, Mutiny 2000 Records released Shooting The Messenger, a 17-track CD of him performing his poems set to music by the band Signia Alpha.
In mid-March, days before Britain entered lockdown, Nick began writing daily pandemic-related poems. Every day he’d post one of these on two facebook pages (his own and Janine Booth’s Corona Verses). They proved highly popular.
In late August, the first 108 of these were published by Mutiny 2000 Publications as Corona Diary.
In November, a 12-track, mostly remixed version of Shooting The Messenger will be released as a vinyl album (with lyric inner sleeve) by Mutiny 2000 Records.
Also in November, a second volume of 123 Corona Diary poems will be published by Mutiny 2000 Publications under the title The Year The World Stood Still.
In January 2021, Death & Other Destinations, another album of Nick performing his poems set to music is to be released on vinyl (again with a lyric booklet). This one will feature music by Bavarian multi-instrumentalist Thies Marsen. It’ll be their second collaboration, their first having been the 2019 CD, The Bavariations Album, both released via the label Not-A-Rioty.