European Stitch-Up
Last week we had a pretty unanimous conclusion from within the government about the impact of the meetings on Thursday night. The use of the British veto was necessary, because, as he said last Friday: “The demands Britain made for safeguards, on which the Coalition Government was united, were modest and reasonable. They were safeguards … Continue reading
Smoking Rears its Head Again
It seems as though all my time just now is spend blogging about various legal or illegal substances. Last week it was illegal drugs – this week it’s been announced that the UK doctors are asking that smoking in private cars should also become illegal. There are good reasons why British doctors should feel that … Continue reading
Working – written with the active non-cooperation of HTC.
So, after a short interlude, I’m back. No, I didn’t have a holiday. Just too many things on, particularly school holidays, for me to be able to sit down and type sensibly! I said two weeks ago, I think, that I would write something about writing with the new tablet. So here it is. There … Continue reading
Ebooks and Stuff!
Good news potentially, from the Frankfurt Book Fair. Apparently agents are warning of a reckoning to come, because of the low royalties paid to authors. If you want to read more, go and look at The Bookseller for the full article here: http://www.thebookseller.com/news/agents-warn-e-book-reckoning.html Many people have asked me in the last few months why so … Continue reading
RIP Steve Jobs
OK. Steve Jobs. Now, I have never met the man, and yes, I admire him. He took a pretty screwy idea, and set up a small company in his parents’ home. He created the Apple computers. I had some experience of them. The old Apple IIe used to grace a table in my parent’s home, … Continue reading
This really is the death knell for publishers
My apologies. This is a blog from an astonishingly angry author. Why? Today the Bookseller announced that Amazon is having a great new sales campaign. In an October Kindle promotion, they will be aiming to sell vast numbers of books. This is brilliant news, isn’t it? Amazon will do what they do best, push huge … Continue reading
Writing – Tools and materials.
Time was, you’d write a book by buying a pencil and a lot of paper. Not everyone, of course, would do it that way. Some folks went to steel nibbed pens and ink with their paper. That was a little new-fangled, of course. Then you got the modern habit of buying gizmos. People learned of … Continue reading
Language
Ach, it’s a tough one, but I got three comments about anachronisms in my language this week, so got to make a comment, I guess. This is a hard one to comment on, because no matter what I say, I will be wrong in the eyes of some. Some years ago, I was contacted by … Continue reading
Naughty Nuns and Provocative Priests
I confess, there are few topic that are more likely to upset a certain group, than allegations of misbehaviour in Holy Orders. OK, I know it’s a cliche nowadays. I accept that. Since it appears that scarcely a month goes past without a story about another bad boy in the vicarage in Ireland, or America, … Continue reading
Ten Deadly Sins of Entering Competitions
This week, the competition run by Simon & Schuster for a Michael Jecks Detection Collection pen from Conway Stewart as been won, by Michael Chidley. Congratulations to Michael, and sorry to all those who didn’t win the pen. You’ll just have to save your pennies! Thinking of competitions, I was reminded of the old CWA … Continue reading
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