It'll all be okay. Calm down, Richards

That's what I tell myself before going to sleep every night, before beginning a fictional television interview with myself. Sounds deluded? Not at all, if anything it's modest because I bore myself so much, so quickly, I sleep really well.

But I think it will be, this whole 'turning professional thing'. I'm in my final couple of weeks of working out my notice in the day job but they've already replaced me (charming!) so I've got very little to do apart from make something of myself. Which is cool because I really need the time at the moment, tour dates from management hasn't quite worked out so I'm doing it myself. I've sent out 182 emails in 2 days; got 4 show offers already. These are on top of existing bookings - Leeds, Kingsbridge, Taunton, Bury, London, Essex.

The last few weeks have been super busy, with recording for the new Fred's House album continuing (sounding beautiful) and gigging with them (AlexFest in particular was superb), Andy Brown and Flaming June. I hosted a charity gig for Macmillan Cancer, confirmed my panto (FUNKY PANTO) and the house band to go with it. I've finished editing the Emily & Michael Christmas film, only for Izzy to (rightly) spot a couple things, which I'll now tweak - we should still (just) be on schedule for an early December release with that.

A couple weeks back I recorded a lovely spoken word/harmonica album simply titled, 'Paul Richards Reading Some Short Stories Whilst a Man Called Matt Plays Harmonica Gently in the Background.' It was recorded with my very close mate, Matt Corrall, who is a genius (as both a designer - he does all my artwork, and as harmonica player). 7 short stories of me sounding a little flustered at times, but his playing is brilliant and somehow compliments it. Anyway, it's available in the usual places as a pre-order and is out on November 24th.

On Sunday the new-look Dowsing band got together with the choir for the first session of the season and it was so much fun - remarkably smooth, the Christmas gig is going to be amazing. Christmas is very much the buzz word at the moment...

Tonight I performed the solo show for the first time since Edinburgh; it was a warm-up performance before the Leeds show at the weekend. Literally haven't touched it for two months, not looked at the script or anything. It was a gentle warm-up; a lounge show around my mate Phill's house. I've performed a lot of shit around his house over the last couple of years but both he and his many housemates always respond well so it felt like the perfect time to return. It was okay tonight - by the end it was great, I felt, when I got angry and shouty it was like I was back on form. The start was as shaky as anything though, but that's to be expected. Anyway, I know the words, well - most of them, enough for it to look like a show anyway...it'll all be okay. Calm down, Richards.