So this might be my first blog post. Written on my Lexmark/ IBM series 2 typewriter, the whole idea is to get words on the page in a kind of journal format. There will be no advice here on how to publish, write, or anything else for that matter. There are too many people offering potted opinions on everything from how to write a best selling novel to how to harvest horse manure for fuel (which incidentally, I do know something about).
Enough of that. It’s a cold, wet Thursday in April and as the trucks glide past my window and the wood pigeons have sex on top of the lamp post in front of me, I’m in the mood to write.
For a while I’ve been in a creative winter, of sorts. It’s a normal lull that comes after finishing the final pre-edit draft of a new novel. The book is due to go off to the editor next month. We we’ll see how that goes. The novel has been a year in the making, so far, and like many authors at this stage, I’m in a blind funk with a lingering sense of doom shadowing my every move.
I’ve spend four hours of the day putting together marketing materials for the launch, which will be in August, God willing. I hope for a better reception this time out. I’m going it alone as a self-publisher with this one, so wish me luck.
I’ll tell you about my new book in due time. It’s four months till the launch, so it seems way too early to wind up the hype train right now. It’s better to save it for late on in the process and come in hot and heavy in ball of anger, images and promo blurb, frothing at the mouth and desperate for attention. Maybe not. But it can wait, for now.
So this is just a hello, of perhaps a good day, but before I go, I should probably explain why I have two newly refurbished Kef loudspeaker sat on my desk. They were built in 1970, and Dave, who’s an authority on such matters, told me they’re the best speakers on earth, so of course I bought some, two to be exact, and now they are fully fixed-up and beautiful – but utterly useless. Dave was supposed to sell me an amplifier to drive these buggers, but he’s gone to Poland. Before that he had a bad tooth which needed surgery, before that he had covid, and now three months on, I feel I may be without my Quad 405 a little while longer. Thats’s what happens when you get ahead of yourself.
The lesson I’ve taken from this situation is that you really should do things in order, rather than get your ducks out of line and end up with speakers you can’t use. That might be feeble logic, but there’s truth in it. So no pre-edit hype from me regards the new book, but it’ll come, don’t worry, it’ll come. . .
PF 3:55pm. Thursday April 7th.
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