21 February
2013
I have had a
bit of self doubt over two of my
published books, House of Pain and Web of Hate. The reason is that although both the story
lines tend to move about the country a good deal, they are both centred on
Cambridge with Fred Cooper as the lead character. At the moment I have several other novels on
the go and they all seem to be at a standstill part from just one, another Fred
Cooper tale. My doubt over this was
simple; I didn't want anyone trying to say that I am trying to copy Colin
Dexter and his Inspector Morse novels, based in Oxford.
Simon Whaley
is a writer, a blogger I follow and creative writing tutor. He is a more than clever man all round. So, I sent Simon an email asking for his
advice over this doubt. His very
positive reaction has put my mind at ease of it. Once I have finished the proof reading and
correcting of Web of Hate, I shall be
picking up the new Fred Cooper and getting on with it. Another piece of advice from Simon is to try
writing the end of the novel first; that gives you something to aim at. What I have now actually would make a good
ending of the new one and also gives a promise of more to come. Thank you Simon; I really do appreciate your
comments and advice. Mean while, back in
Dorktown ...
It seems
that the town is short of grave yard space.
A plot of land beside the new crematorium has been identified as being suitable
- or at least it was. Now the Environment
Agency has said that because of its intended use more tests need to be done. All land has a water table underneath it and
this site is no different. Because of
the wet weather over the last 12 months the EA is worried about how high the
water table is and say they need to monitor it for another 12 months before they
give the go ahead. I'm pleased I'm
getting burnt up ;-)))
The street
lighting fuss and bother continues. I
was surprised that all our street lights were actually still on. That was part of the upset by some other
residents in the town; the poorer areas are all blacked out while the more affluent
areas are still well lit. I have since
found out that all the lighting in our immediate area are still lit simple because
there is a large number of sheltered, semi-sheltered and supported
accommodation in the area. Indeed, our
flat is part of a supported complex. At
least the council has got right then!
No, not the lighting, the building of sheltered housing in less affluent
areas. They also tend to be rather rough
and ready areas too with a lot of anti social behaviour and so on. But I've been thinking ...
A lot of consumer
advise sources recommend that we should all be switching our energy suppliers
so as to get the best deal possible. So
why don't the County Councils do the same?
Or is there a clause in their contracts that prevent them doing so. I would have thought that being such high
energy users they should be able to get a really good deal from someone. Talking of Which ...
My copy of Which?
magazine arrived this morning. I shall
enjoy reading that later today.
Today's
photo is an easy one to look ...
a golden eagle I snapped in London. My A350 was, actually still is a good
camera. One of its short comings however
was that there was lot of fringing in shots where a straight edge was against a
light background. My new A77 doesn't
have it, or at least is isn't showing so far.
Not only that but taking the above image up to a 200% magnification
there was no fringing in sight and very little noise too. At 300% the noise was clear though. I won't be printing any of them to anything like
those sorts of sizes anyway, so I have no worries about it.
And now for
a funny ...
"Dave
drowned. So at the funeral we got him a wreath in the shape of a lifebelt.
Well, it's what he would have wanted."
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