one is a publisher...
I have finally got it together to get off my backside and publish my book. The back story is that several years ago I wrote my small detective novel (I don't mean the detective is small, just that it isn't 500 pages long, as seems to be the fashion at the moment), with the feeble hope of generating enough interest/income to buy off the taxman. Sadly my magnum opus was met with a crescendo of indifference from the publishing trade, and feeling discouraged, I stuck it in a metaphorical drawer and sulked. The advent of the kindle and it's various electronic brethren reawakened my interest, and after a bit of research I decided that I would e-publish it myself. This has proved to be an education in many ways, the process is quite straightforward, but untangling all the kinks created both by my ineptitude at using the word processing software, and by microsoft's obsession with embedding auto corrects and other buried functions into the text has taken me nearly two days of fiddling. Along the way I had to create a cover for the book (I got carried away and ended up with four, one of which will be the cover for book two), and no doubt there'll be other things I have yet to do. Currently the book is available only on the smashwords website at the princely price of $2.99, once it has gone through a vetting process it will also be available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble for the same price,and it'll even have an isbn number. It can be found on:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/53805 
This is my cover design for book 2 (I managed not to do books 3, 4, and 5)
Labels: book, dead in the water
If I had a hammer (revisited).
Busking has achieved new heights here in Frankfurt, this gentleman has fitted a grand piano onto a trailer, and is thus able to bring his own unique musical talents to his audience. Would that his ability kept pace with his ingenuity, still, he has lovely teeth.
Frankfurt has many curiosities, among all the Euro stuff, and many galleries, I found a hammer museum, if I had found it before I encountered this gentleman, then I might have called for a No.4 Piano destroyer. Street art, never there when you need it.
Labels: hammers, pianos
Hug a hoody?
Since I moved to Scotland there have been a number of siren voices commenting 'aye, you'll need a cardi now that you're living in the north'. I have never found it hard to resist the call, the cardi, in my mind is associated too closely with a) slippers (nuff said), and b) with starsky and hutch. However, browsing the sale rack in a fashionable boutique here in Sheffield, I came across a heavy, zip up top that I rather liked, and at a bargain price too. It was only after I had bought it that I realised that I might have bought a hoody. Ah well, I thought, small risk that I might be mistaken for a juvenile, although delinquent remains a possibility.
I then thought, what of Mr Camerons' big society, are we not supposed to embrace the hoody and all it represents?
Well blow me down if, the very first time I wore it out, I wasn't pounced upon and hugged, and not just once, but twice! The first time was a charity mugger, who took my refusal in good part, and the second was a rather stoned back street masseuse who promised to make me happy for two pounds, and also didn't take offence at my polite refusal, giving me a boozy hug to see me on my way.
So, maybe there's something in it after all...
