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The good morning, good night thread

Started by Ed, October 22, 2007, 03:49:05 AM

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Ed

I like that. Things are too often about the money alone, penny pinching, austerity, and I think quite often it's just plain meanness. It's refreshing to get a bit of old fashioned kindness and camaraderie now and then, and it's most often found in the small places that can least afford it.

I've had another hectic week, made more challenging by a slip with a wafer thin cutting disk that cut my middle finger to the bone, right across the pad at the end. I was lucky not to lose it. Tiredness and power tools are not a good mix. In the finest tradition of Monty Pythonesque bloodymindedness, I cleaned it with a sterilising cloth, slapped a couple of plasters on it and carried on working. After all, the last couple of times I have needed stitches I've got to the hospital in good time, only to wait three hours or more in A&E before being dealt with. I was at least a half hour drive away from the nearest hospital, the job was on a very short schedule, so I couldn't afford the time. It's usually pointless anyway -- you only have four hours from the time of injury to stitch a cut before it's too late, apparently. The wound looks all right. I keep changing the steristrips and the plasters daily, and it looks to be healing well. Time will tell if after ten days I take the dressings off and my finger falls apart. I think it will be fine, though. It was a nasty cut. One of those ones you are afraid to look at initially, for fear of seeing a gushing stump. Though the blade was wafer thin -- 0.7 of a millimetre, it removed skin and muscle to at least that thickness, leaving a gaping wound, and abraded the neighbouring fingertip, leaving a semi-circular dent and burn mark on the tip  ::)

Another weekend of paperwork ahead, followed by another hectic week. I look forward to Christmas, when I fully intend to go somewhere hot for at least two weeks.
Planning is an unnatural process - it is much more fun to do something.  The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression. [Sir John Harvey-Jones]

elay2433

Ouch!  :o Considering your handicap, I think you did a fine job hammering out that last post.  :smiley: Hope it heals okay.

Geoff_N

Do you think that's the reason we have so many fingers, and fingertips?

Ed

Quote from: elay2433 on October 13, 2012, 01:20:32 PM
Ouch!  :o Considering your handicap, I think you did a fine job hammering out that last post.  :smiley: Hope it heals okay.

Thanks :afro: Yeah, I have to use the backspace key quite a lot, because the bunch of plasters often hits three keys at a time ::) It's not particularly painful, though, thankfully. It feels much like a big splinter does.
Planning is an unnatural process - it is much more fun to do something.  The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression. [Sir John Harvey-Jones]

Geoff_N

I am journeying (virtually) on a blog tour this month and while there have been hiccups with one blogger being rushed to hospital when he should have been posting my piece on his blog (I forgive him, honest, and told him to get better quick but punctured lungs take time to heal).
Today a Bridport Prize short lister and Cafe Doomer, Jonathan Pinnock has posted my piece on his wonderful blog at
http://jonathanpinnock.com/?p=2603
I'd forgotten it was about the lure of bridges and their role in fiction - using William Gibson's Virtual Light as an example. Last night a man was talked out of committing suicide on Chester's Grosvenor Bridge and I'd asked friends on facebook if they knew about it. That post appears on my status just beneath a link to Jonathan's blog link and it includes a cartoon of that same Grosvenor Bridge - pure chance!
Yes, a cartoon by me that graced the back page of Chester's Climate book many years ago. It's not up to Delph's standards as you'll see when you click on JP's link above, but I was never much good at colouring in. 

Geoff_N

The most ethical publisher I have ever encountered is BeWrite Books. Many members of this forum such as LashSlash, Delph, Ed, DW, Les Floyd, QBall (I think) and I originally met on the BeWrrite Community Forum. Sadly, Bewrite is closing down. A combination of competition from self-publishing means and other factors has made it too difficult for the business to continue. A shame. I worked at Bewrite as an administrator for a summer season and it taught me a huge amount about the business and about the integrity and humanity of Neil Marr.

Every one I know who has been published by BeWrite are sad but grateful.


delboy

 :'(  The world is changing fast, isn't it? How can any publisher compete with self-publishing? Old fashioned style publisher doesn't think my work is good enough? No worries, I'll publish it myself...
"If you want to write, write it. That's the first rule. And send it in, and send it in to someone who can publish it or get it published. Don't send it to me. Don't show it to your spouse, or your significant other, or your parents, or somebody. They're not going to publish it."

Robert B. Parker

Geoff_N

You are right, Del. At BristolCon on saturday nearly half of the booksellers in the dealers' room were self publishing authors. Some are good, mind, but you have to read through a lot of iffy novels to find the good self-published ones.

delboy

And there aren't that many 'readers' left - I consider myself one, of course, but at the rate I get through books 'a lot of iffy novels' would probably be my intake for the year. Hence I tend to stick to the tried and tested. I'm a terrible consumer, me!
"If you want to write, write it. That's the first rule. And send it in, and send it in to someone who can publish it or get it published. Don't send it to me. Don't show it to your spouse, or your significant other, or your parents, or somebody. They're not going to publish it."

Robert B. Parker

desertwomble

That's really sad news on BeWrite, Geoff.

And re your last cooment Del, I'm currently re-reading '1984'.

DW :cheesy:
http://chaucers-uncle.weebly.com/

www.paulfreeman.weebly.com
 
Read my most recent winning Global Short Story Competition entry:
http://www.inscribemedia.co.uk/assets/october-ebook.pdf

starktheground

Aww, that does stink, Geoff. It's sad to think so many publishers are/will be shutting down. I don't know if I'll ever publish the self-publishing route myself. For one, I'm not business-minded and that seems like more of a financial venture than a literary one (to me). I want a label on my first published novel anyway; I want something to be proud of--even if it's a small publisher. :)

Ed

Same here. At least the work has made it through some sort of editorial process like that, although there are a few shabby outfits around that aren't a lot different from self publishers.

It's a shame about BeWrite, though. They were one of the good ones. Isn't that always the way it goes.
Planning is an unnatural process - it is much more fun to do something.  The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression. [Sir John Harvey-Jones]

Rev. Austin

Thanks for the bike info Del/Geoff!

Have any of you heard of/had any experience with Trafford Publishing? A young lass I know has had her debut novel published with them, and I'm a little wary because she's what you'd call a 'vulnerable' teen and I'm worried someone could take advantage of her (in terms of ripping her off and she wouldn't realise it was happening until it was too late).

In other, potentially happier and cool, news: got roped into a meeting at work today with some chap from the local library - he's going for fudning to do events on 'cult fiction'. My work colleague told him I'm a writer, so we got chatting - he would really like to encourage creative writing in Scunthorpe, and make people of varying ages) aware of different genres. Not sure of the 'brief' he's operating too, if there is one, but the upshot would be creating, in effect, a mini literature festival here, involving guest talks etc. I hope it happens, because it would be BRILLIANT.
facebook.com/waynegoodchildishaunted
Stay in touch! I don't mean that in a pervy way.

marc_chagall

Trafford? Straight forward vanity press. She's being ripped off.

The point of vanity presses is not that you're vain to use them: it's that you're publishing in vain. You can't get your money back.

Geoff_N

Rev, I agree with Delph - both the American (based in Canada) and the UK version of Trafford Publishing are at best aides to self-publishing and at worst are vanity press. See the Absolute Write debate on them. http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=60925
They date from 2008 but as far as I know it remains the same.

if you and your colleague want help and advice on making Scunthorpe more literate you could do worse than chat to Alex Davis who was the Literary Development Officer for Derby and still does some work for them after the cuts. He's one of my facebook pals so you can find him that way and send him a message.