1 December
Malware Bytes is working well I think. Since I downloaded it, it’s
stopping a lot of strange sites that are trying to sneak in. Most mornings a
site with the name finholme keeps on trying to get in, but so far Malware has
stopped it. I won’t be complaining about that!
A copper was deliberately run down after chasing a lorry which was being
driven dangerously. However, he wasn’t run down by the lorry, oh no, that had
stopped and the driver was running off, the copper chasing him on foot. At that
point a car drove at the cop and left him with serious injuries that might be
life-changing. The lorry driver made a car stop, dragged out the driver and
drove off in it, abandoning the car several miles away. The lorry was stolen of
course. Neither driver has been found.
In another chase somewhere locally, a stolen car was being chased by
cops, but this time the thief managed to role the car with the cop not far
behind when he did so. Most traffic cop cars these days are recording what they
is going on around them, and that car was doing just that so we saw the actual
roll. Nothing was said about the condition of the driver though, but I’m not
overly bothered by that. As far as I’m concerned the thieves deserve everything
they get when they do finally crash. I mean, why should Joe Public give toss when
the criminals get caught or get hurt. If they were behaving themselves then
they wouldn’t get chased and wouldn’t hurt. Nope, I’m more concerned about the
owner of the car and their bill for increased insurance premiums and any excess
they may have to pay too.
Our police forces throughout the country are far from perfect, we all
know that, far too many of them being taken to task when things get out of
hand. But you know what, I wouldn’t want their job. I wouldn’t put up with the
way drunks behave or kids either for that matter. At some time we all have a
moan about the cops and what they’re doing or not doing, but who is the first
people we call on when our homes get burgled or we have a smash while driving
which wasn’t our fault. We might not like them, but sadly we do need them
simply because it’s in our nature to misbehave. Most of us are able to control
that side of our nature, some sadly can’t, or won’t; and that is why we need
cops and always will.
I have diabetic clinic at 2.50 this afternoon and I’m not looking forward
to it. I feel as though I have put some weight on over the last couple of
months, and I know that I have not done as well so normal on sugar control.
That means that the major indicator in the blood test, the HbA1c will be higher
than normal. It measurers the average sugar level over a three month period
(don’t ask, I have no idea how that works!) and that is the main level that is
used to measure your control. After that we shall be heading off to Asda in
town seeing as Jan is feeling a lot better today.
Today’s photo then …
A type of ox I think, shot at West Midlands Safari
park.
Today’s funny …
William Shakespeare walks into a
bar and asks for a beer but the barman says sorry I can't serve you, you're
bard.
30 November
We have another hard frost out there today, just like the rest of the
country from what the weather man was saying last night. Jan isn’t much better
than yesterday but even so, we do have to go out today. Not only do we have to
do some shopping, we still haven’t got that driving licence form in the post
yet. Tomorrow won’t do because I have diabetic clinic at 2.50pm; but there
again, we are supposed to be having a parcel delivered today from Amazon. Oh,
the complicate lives we retired folks lead …
No writing done yesterday, I really didn’t feel up to it, even if there’s
not much else to do to it – or is there I wonder? On Monday I was surprised to
find that one of characters has managed to get himself a police tail. Now here’s
the thing; I’ve already written out one guy from the action that’s left to
unfold, that’s why I was thinking there wasn’t much more to go now. And yet
this one is now being followed by cops. That surprised me, it really did,
simply because it adds a whole new story thread to the novel, one I hadn’t anticipated,
and here’s why …
One of my favourite writers is Peter James and just lately he has begun a
YouTube channel … https://www.facebook.com/peterjames.roygrace/?fref=ts Peter invites various other writers to appear
on there with him and explain about their work and how they go about writer it.
The last one I watched was Jeffery Deaver, a writer I haven’t read yet, even I
do have some of his books in my TBR plie. During the video Jeffery explains
that he sits and plots all his stories from start to end. That way he knows
where he’s going with things. His latest books took eight months to plot out
before he began writing. Interesting eh? But surely he was writing while plotting.
All he had to do was to flesh it out, maybe add a lot more flesh I suppose.
Every so often I read bits n bobs from other writers who claim that if
there are now surprises in a story, then the reader may be left feeling rather
low and flat with it. The theory then goes, if the writer is surprised by what
happens in his story, then the reader will be too. Without realising it I have
been following that since I began writing five years ago. And that my friends
is why I am surprised about my characters do next. In reality of course, what
is actually happening is that I’m getting so wrapped up in the story that I’m
moving it on and taking it off so as to expand it. What I need to think about
now though, is do I let this one continue on along the same line, or do I bring
it to a close as planned but come back to it later and write a third title to
the series. After all, there are three Fred Copper stories with a fourth
started. Arathusia is likely to grow
into a series as well as at some time.
In between all of that Shipshape
is ready to go up on Amazon, and that means another battle with their CreateSpace
self-publishing software, not an easy task my friends, not at all. There are a
lot of writers who use it successfully and make money from it, how they do it
is something I would love to learn. Writing
Magazine interviewed a writer, Adam Croft by name, who is a £1m-a-year
writer. That’s another article I need to re-read soon.
My biggest problem when it comes to writing the first draft is the actual
writing of it! Yesterday is a prime example. Above I said I said I didn’t feel
up to it; in reality I didn’t feel like doing it. All writers have times like
that I think. But another issue they have to deal with is being interrupted during
their writing times. That is where having a proper writing space comes in
useful; a place where you can sit and think and write to your hearts content. J
K Rowling says that we need to be ruthless when it comes to our writing times. She’s
right you know.
Going back to Jeffery Deaver, another question he was asked was where did
he write? His reply was that writes everywhere, while waiting for and
travelling on a train or bus; sitting in the doctor or dentist waiting room, in
fact anywhere he has time to sit and do little else. I can live with that I
suppose, that’s why I have so many notebooks on the go. It should be easier in
today’s digital world too where writing can be done on the move pretty much
24/7. What you produce can be saved to the Cloud and drawn on to work some more
on it. The possibilities are pretty endless these days. All I really need to do
is to rise to the challenge.
Today’s photo …
A Writer's tools.
Today’s funny …
Knock, knock.
Who's there?
A Fred.
A Fred who?
Who's a Fred of the Big Bad Wolf?
29 November
There’s quite a hard frost out the back this morning, lucky we have no
plans for going out today, a wee bit too cold methinks. Tomorrow we are hoping
to go to Sheffield for a look around the Meadow Hall shopping centre. That will
depend on how Jan feels later today. She’s running a high temp right now, has a
sore throat and is coughing and barking badly. Add in her runny nose and she’s
not feeling, or looking all that good right now, certainly not up to driving up
the M1! I suppose I’ll be down with it too before long – oh the joys of winter!
I did get a decent amount of
writing done yesterday afternoon, around 1500-2000 words I think. With Jan off
her feet right now I shall take the opportunity to get more done today, maybe
even get the first draft done, that would be good. What I really need to do
though, is to get Shipshape up on
Amazon. My others are there, I’m not just doing any marketing. That is a whole
new area I need to learn, and I’m not looking forward to it really. Even if I am
lucky enough to get signed to one of the big six publishing houses, marketing
is usually left to the writer, with the publisher letting them get on a deal
with it themselves after the initial push. Oh yes, I’d like to be the next
Stephen King and if you meet a writer who says they are not interested in being
a big name writer, they are telling porkies my friend; we all do. For now
though, I am just rather pleased the my work is ‘out there’, but I still dream
the dream …
The other week Jan and I went to Brum and had a look at the new Grand Central
shopping area that’s not part of New Street Station. I said the next day I was
disappointed with it. I need to go back though because I didn’t see a new
branch of Foyles bookshop in there. That means the city centre now has three
major books shops with a few minutes’ walk of each other. There’s two Waterstones
along with Foyles. As far as I can see from my searches on-line, there are now
indi book shops though, apart from the small stall on the Rag Market, but that
sell second hand books, not new ones. I said ‘a small stall’, and that is what
I mean. It’s located in a corner stall and get three or four people in there
and the place is packed. I do look in there occasionally, but it’s not a fun
place to be in really.
For second hand books I rather trawl the charity shops really, of which
Dorktown has a whole heap of them, fifteen on my last count I think. Brum city
centre doesn’t have as far as I know. Coventry has just one that I know of.
There will be more in the out-laying shopping centres I suppose. I can’t see
the city bunglers … err … leaders wanting to dumb down their centres, can you? One
area of Coventry that does have a number of charity shops is Ball Hill, which
we used to look around fairly often but haven’t for a few years now. They are
still there though, we see them every so often when we drive through. It might
be time to do a trawl there again.
Somewhere else we haven’t been to in a long time is Rugby, perhaps it’s
time to go there again. But when I wonder? On Thursday it’s 1 December and
Dorktown will start to be crowded all day every day. I’d be surprised if
Dorktown was the only place like that though. It’s all down to Christmas isn’t
it, and the mad rush to buy more food than is needed, food that will either be
wasted or eaten before the holiday anyway. Then Christmas Eve the supermarkets
will be chocka-block again, and Boxing Day, and then we do it all again on New
Year’s Eve. And don’t forget all that booze either; grief, I get hung over
thinking about how much some folk buy.
Today’s photo …
A street lamp in the Royal Meuse.
Today’s funny …
How many trainspotters does it
take to change a light bulb?
Three. One to change it, one to write its serial number down, and one to bring
the anoraks and the flask of soup.
28 November
Have you ever heard of bloke named Franz Kafka? No, nor me, until yesterday
when I came across a quote from him which I liked. He said, ‘Books are a
narcotic.’ I liked that one so I made a note of it from the list of them on the
published by ForReadingAddicts. We writers are told to, ‘Edit, edit, edit and
edit again,’ which I find hard to do at the best of times, not because I
consider my work doesn’t need it, it does, but because most times I miss
something as I go through it. Then I found another Kafka quote that I liked; ‘Don’t
bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it local; don’t edit your own soul
according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.’
So much for ‘kill your darlings' then!
As I’ve said above, my work does need editing at some point, mainly for
the typos that I regularly make. You may have come across more than a few when
you’ve read this blog at all often. Yes, I do read through each one and correct
most of them, but as I said, I always manage to miss a few. To have my work professionally
edited would cost a fortune, which I don’t have, so I do have to make with just
mesen doing it. Longer work I can print out and use a red pen for corrections.
For this blog though, the cost of paper and inks would make it a costly affair
to produce this on a daily basis. So I have to make do with my faulty Mk1
eyeball and brain.
And while I’m on the subject of writing … Yesterday Jan took Kile to a
church in Bed’th yesterday and he seemed to like it there, so I took the chance
to get some more writing done, for the first time since 6 November. I shall
never get anything finished if I don’t get on with it. It’s not the old
favourite of ‘writers block’, which cause some debate as to whether it’s real
or not, but simply because there are far too many distractions for me sitting
here in the living room. I really am missing my study area, but there’s no room
to reinstate it now after a move round. So later today I will be getting on
with it again today. …Bristol Fashion is
not far off finished in its draft form. Once it is, I can get on with Arathusia. Then I want to get on with
new Fred Cooper, a much larger job because at 30K+ words, it need a complete
rewrite, something I’m not looking forward to, even if I do know it needs it.
You know what; this writing malarkey is a funny thing to engage in
really. The obvious doesn’t strike writers as the best way to do something.
Even big names like Stephen King falls victim at times. Yesterday on his
Facebook page he mention someone who had written a children’s book which he
liked and ended the piece by saying, ‘I just wish I had written it.’ Oh, right,
so why not write one then. And that is exactly what I said in a reply. It would
sell well anyway simple because it would have King’s name on the cover, but I
have a feeling that is not so much what King was speaking of; no, I think he
just liked the book as a whole. It does show us that at times even the great writers
of our time don’t see the wood for the trees.
It’s something that I have come across many times, usually when I’m sat
in a pub by myself, note book and pencil in hand and someone asks me what I’m
doing. I explain what I’m doing and then I hear the dreaming words, ‘I wish I
could write a book,’ usually with a sigh and a shake of the head. My reply is
easy; ‘Get yourself an A4 pad, a few pencils, sit at table and write then, that’s
how they all get done.’ ‘Oh but I have the time.’ ‘Really? How much time did
you spend watching telly last night? How much time did you spend on social
media last night or out on the booze?’ At the point the would-be writer retreats
to where they came from.
For me the problem is lack of motivation, not too much telly or Facebook, and that is bad enough.
We all have time to do what we would like to do, it’s just that we don’t make
the effort, and that is the road to failure. There’s an old saying about there
being a book in all of us. That may be true, but there isn’t a writer in all of
us. It’s fine to have book inside you, but unless you can write it, it will
remain forever unseen by the public eyes.
Today’s photo then …
One of my two book cases.
Today’s funny …
Said the FBI agent to the bank
teller after the bank was robbed for the third time by the same bandit,
"Did you notice anything special about the man?"
"Yes, he seemed better dressed each time."
27 November
Electric cars are coming to a dealership near you, if they haven’t
already arrived already that is. Even Jaguar are going to produce one. Battery
technology has improved so much that they becoming a real possibility for day
to day motoring, so it shouldn’t be too long for that same technology to
trickle down to smaller batteries like the AAA batteries that just about all of
us use on a daily basis. But how good is the range of these cars, and how long
do they batteries take to recharge?
I remember hearing on the news one time that the range of one car is
around 200 miles on a full charge. That sounds good on the face of it; however,
these car tests are not true pictures of day to day motoring. They normally
take place on a rolling road at a set speed and without any other drain on
those cells. Real driving isn’t like that. There are hills and bends in the
way; slow moving traffic that needs overtaking; stopping and starting in heavy
traffic and at red traffic lights; and of course, don’t forget the use of
lights at night time and some people’s inability to sit quietly in their car
without some sort of music blaring out of the speakers. I don’t know how much
that will reduce the range, but it would be a goodly amount methinks. For local
use only at the moment I think.
How much do you fancy being driven in a driverless car? I don’t fancy it
at all, even if some manufactures are pushing ahead in developing them. And I
certainly don’t want to own one. All computers are only as good as their
programming and the people using them. How long do you think it will be before
some nutty hacker manages to break into the programming and cock up the whole
system? Can you imagine all those drivers less cars motoring around and
suddenly stopping or performing some sort of silly games with each other? Of
dear; the future of our lives in such hands is worrying.
I’m no Luddite either; after all, I am sat at a lappy writing this. I’m
all in favour of advancing our use of technology, as long as it’s safe to use,
and of course, reliable. Can you imagine a battery car running out of charge or
having a major battery failure as it’s being driven through London in the rush?
And what of a driverless car having a major fault in the same position? The
biggest problems are not the failed car, but the other drivers on the road at
the same time. Oh yes, what is likely insurance for such cars likely to be? Can
you see the insurance industry missing a trick like that to make money? No, nor
me!
Today’s photo …
A real car!
Today’s funny …
One fine afternoon an elderly
gentleman tries to get into his local betting office. Much to his surprise, the
door is locked. After a few more futile attempts at opening the door a man
sticks his head out of a window. It turns out to be the bookmaker himself :
- Sorry, but we're closed today!
The elderly gentleman promptly replies: - But there's a sign on the door saying
: Open : 9 - 4, and it's only half past eleven!
to which the bookmaker says: - But those are not the opening hours they are the
odds that we're open today.
26 November
That quote from Sartre I used yesterday was one I lifted from
ForReadingAddicts, one of the Facebook groups I use daily. I thought it might
be useful, that’s why I stole it, but I didn’t think I would be able to use
only 24 hours later. Well, I did, so that means that not everything on there is
worthless crap.
It looks as though the London cops have a lot of questions to answer over
the deaths of a number of gay men. From what was said on the news last night three
of them might have not died if the cops had acted sooner. Police across the world
are yet another group who are damned if they do and damned if they don’t.
Children’s services is another one. What is really needed is some consistency across
the board from both organisations.
Something else that is causing a lot of fuss and bother is in local
recycling collections. Again there is no consistency with it. Birmingham is
having major problems with the issue by the council unable to decide how they
are going to deal with collect of it. A few months ago they had a nine bin
system; now they just have six bins. Sounds a tad easier but in some areas,
waste food wasn’t collected for a number of months.
Before we moved into here we had the main black bin, a brown recycling bin,
a green garden waste bin, a red box for cans and glass, a yellow bag for
paper/carboard, and then another bag for plastics. Not much went into the brown
bin, as I remember. Here we just have one large industrial-type bin into which
you place everything. So if that bin can be sorted at some point, why is there
a need for all the other bins that are in use? Hinckley, Coventry and North
Warwickshire have different systems again. It’s no wonder that so many folk get
confused as to what is happening. The cost to each council has to be huge; all because
the government won’t sort out just one clear system.
I’ve just read an item on MSN page about speeding and braking to avoid speed
cameras. It claims that harsh breaking is causing a danger to other drivers. Oh
dear, how sad, what a pity, never mind. This info came from thousands of
black-box type bits installed in cars to test driving standards and methods,
For me though, it’s not the harsh braking that’s the problem, it’s the speeding
that’s the problem. Using the excuse that everyone does it, is not an excuse,
it’s an attempt to pass the blame. At least we don’t hear many claims of persecution
over speed cameras that went on years ago.
Today’s photo …
Another part to the Christmas Market in Brum.
Today’s funny …
What did one highland cow say to
the other?
Och, aye the moo!
25 November
Jean-Paul Sartre once said, ‘Three o’clock is always to late or too early
for anything you want to do.’ Well, I’m finding that 10.45 is too. That’s two
mornings on the trot we’ve been that late getting up. It makes me angry and frustrated
even on the odd occasion it happens, but two day’s on the trot? Oh do come on …
… …
Jan was called to collect Kile from school yesterday because he’d managed
to bang his head playing football. I always knew that silly game was dangerous.
Anyway, he had to go up to A&E to be checked out and they gave him the all clear.
At least he’s stopped feeling sick now but his headache is still there and he’s
still giddy. We’re due to have him here until Sunday, but with his carer group
on Monday again, I’m not sure what is happening. It tends to change as we go
through the day.
I’m not sure about Kile but I’m not feeling all that bright right now, so
I’m cutting this one short again. Today’s photo …
Maxi in close up. He’s not
out of focus either, that is how his wing feathers look.
