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Book now published

I have now become a published author, having self-published a book of short stories titled Heavy and Light Tales, available as of yesterday from Lulu.com.

More Bob, as a kid and this week, grown.

Bob and Eric

As you see eating is pretty high on the list of priorities.

Bob the Goat

Bob rules. He started out as a cute lil bottle-sucking kid. Now around 2 years later he is a Big Billy-goat. He definitely has some boer-goat in him, because he is way bigger than any goats Ive seen around here. Those are mostly about half his size. He is very friendly, but also very headstrong, determined to get whatever he is currently going for. Goal-oriented go-for-it goat. Fences? Climbs em. Walls? Puts his head down and bashes through. Low roofs the same, also chicken nest boxes, perches,everything he can get at that will break given enough attention.
Started tethering him on a chain, which slides along a strong wire strung between trees.In the last month he has broken the main wire once, got the snap fastener loose six or seven times, til I changed it for a really heavy security type,and broken two dog collars (the kind you would put on a big dog, like a German Shepherd).
When tethered he runs at the extreme reach of his tether, reaching for weeds and grass far to the sides, and leaving the easy stuff right under the running wire untouched.
He likes banana peels, will leave the insides for later, orange peels, cedar tree bark and twigs, deadly nightshade and apple trees. The apple trees and the nightshade are especially desirable because he knows i dont want him eating them, for different reasons. After a few mouthfuls of nightshade i have seen him get a little strange, even by his normal standards. I shall see if I can post some pics of Bob.

short stories

So yesterday I went ahead, signed up with Lulu online self-publishing service. Uploaded my 108 pages, all in proper format and so on. Soon, several weeks I expect, the book will be available, either as an e-book or in hard-copy. Short stories written over the past two years. Some are altered chapters, cut out for different reasons, from the novel I have sent to several mainstream publishers.
I dont expect to make waves with this, but its way better than having them (stories) sit on my computer, with sporadic submissions to swamped magazine editors.
There are a couple of them which have been submitted recently, so I will wait a bit to hear from those magazines before opening up for distribution.
Also there is work needed on the cover art, what I sent wasnt right, so the first copy will use Lulus stock covers. When I work something better up, the revised version will go out. Right now the title is Heavy & Light Tales. Perhaps something better is needed, after all, as a complete unknown, the title and cover are what might entice potential readers to actually look inside, and perhaps read.

Arcadia

Got my copy of my brothers book today. Wrote a quick review of it-- only 61 pages in all --

In this Clifton Power expresses his views on the meanings to be found in the work of Poussin, in the Shepherds Monument itself, and it’s enigmatic inscription. He gives a brief exposition on the possible roots of the inherent beliefs of the builders, their philosophical outlook, and his own discoveries.
As an artist, the author brings an understanding of visual symbology and aesthetics to bear on understanding the minds and philosophy of others through their physical works.
The reader may be able to find the Templar Treasure for themselves, after reading this.

Arcadia

I shall soon write a review, or perhaps just a synopsis, of my brothers new book. Arcadia,The Templar Code. I have ordered a copy from Amazon, but wont get it for at least a month. Luckily he sent me his text by e-mail, so I can use that.Watch this space.

circus

Went to the circus yesterday, with my 4 year old grandson. His expectations were opposed to the ideas of the animal rights activists demonstrating outside, posters declaring animal performers are "slaves". Sorry, to me that energy could be better deployed dealing with somewhat more extreme instances of actual human slavery, as well as outright cruelty to, and neglect of, animals and other people. Since the animals at a circus are, in simplest terms, the livelihood of their trainers, it seems to me unlikely that they would be suffering any degree of neglect or mistreatment. Animals. like people, live longer and stay healthier when their living conditions are better. That is a very simple correlation.
Regardless of why, in any case, this circus had very few animals, 8 horses, 3 elephants and a dog are all I saw. Quite a change from those of fifty years ago, when you could expect many more horses, lions, tigers, sea-lions, elephants, several different dog performers, perhaps a goat or a bear. Predators like lions and tigers are never actually domesticated,and probably the same applies to sea mammals, and to bears, so there is a strong case for taking them out of cicuses, I agree. Why so few domestic animals though? Regulations regarding the movement of farm animals, perhaps?
In any case, at 4 years old, he wanted to see live animals, rather than acrobats. To my mind a very reasonable desire.

Brothers book

My brother has done it, become a Published Author. His book "Arcadia : The Solution to the Templar Code" has just been listed on Amazon. I am inspired with competitive spirit and envy. In fact last night I started assembling all the short stories i have written, some of which aint so great, to get enough material for a self-published book. I intend to try Lulu, publish through them and learn all the ins and outs, what to do and how, with a book that doesnt matter that much. Then if no publisher buys that novel, it will be relatively easy to self-publish.

novel publishing

Finally sent my stuff to some publishers, just the first two chapters to two of them and the whole thing to another. Now theres gonna be a three to six month wait, before they decide yes or no. In the meantime Lulu self-publishing is beginning to look quite attractive.

Here is the Official Synopsis if anyone is interested.


Our Unicorn Doesn't Eat Geraniums




Peter Fitt is in his final year of school in England, in the late Sixties. His stepfather gets him a job organising a fish transplant into a border lake in Zambia. His landlady, an active Communist, gives him a Russian contact, who offers help with this development project. Pete dreams of being a one horned eland, a unicorn, fighting a lion. Soon dream and reality merge when he rescues his girlfriend from a lion attack, a zoo escapee. They are riding with a Hunt, and Peter follows the lion with some of the foxhounds.
Pete is taken hostage in a plane hijack enroute to Africa. He extricates himself with help from some mercenaries, in the Congo. His abductor, improbably, survives because of Pete’s actions, and later becomes a dictator.
In Lusaka, Zambia, he recalls a childhood adventure, when he had rescued a baby eland from a mountain fire. The baby eland was hidden by his mother in a clump of wild geraniums, and both Peters, man and beast, react similarly to the scent of geraniums. Early memories are roused in both, in the man usually when he dreams. He identifies himself as a Unicorn, opposed to the Lions, the predators of the world.
Pete takes up the offer of a Russian plane to transport the fish, and thereby is involved in an arms deal. The Russians are supplying both sides in a brewing civil war, stirring up trouble. Pete is involved in skirmishes between the Rhodesians and the Freedom Fighters as he tries to keep the war from spilling across the border into Zambia. He shoots a man in self defence, who turns out to be the brother of his girlfriend, Marjorie.
Marjorie is on her parents’ farm in Rhodesia/ Zimbabwe, recovering from the lion attack. Pete receives no letters from her, until his English landlady writes to tell him that his buddy, her son Bill, has been hiding them out of jealousy. Bill has attempted suicide, is brain-damaged. Pete is racked by guilt. Not only has he killed a man directly, he now feels responsible for Bill’s action also. He has helped a brutal dictator survive to seize power, and he has helped escalate the war, by involving the Russians in the fish project. All differing degrees of responsibility for deaths. He has also has been unfaithful to his love, Marjorie, when he had thought she no longer felt as he did.
Pete meets her mother and tells her what happened, how he shot her son, tries to apologise.
He is forced to face the realities of war, of death and love, as he tries to follow his own convictions in a dangerous and sometimes chaotic enviroment.
After he begins University in Capetown he takes an opportunity to repatriate a valuable heritage artefact to Zimbabwe, to the Freedom Fighters. During this journey he encounters a mercenary he had previously met in the Congo. This man is now working to organise an amnesty/armistice with some of the Fighters
In Zambia Pete tells of the Russians’ duplicity, and finds a receptive audience among the Freedom Fighters. He is told to go to a farm in Rhodesia and meet some interested parties there. This is Marjorie's family farm, where her father has now become less of a hawk since his son’s death. Unknown to the protagonist, his ‘alter ego’, the one-horned eland, lives on this farm, brought there by Marjorie’s grandfather as a baby.
A hard line guerrilla leader attempts to stop the amnesty/surrender, and is defeated by both Peters together. Marjorie and he are reunited. The amnesty is a success, the destiny of the country is changed to a less polarised, destructive path.
I feel this will appeal to a general audience, though the age of the protagonist may also strike a chord with young adults.

May

That book Ive been busy with is getting close to finished; there are now 52000 words, about 180 to 200 pages, after many revisions and bits taken out, others put in. Now checking out publishers, firstly in Canada. Thats because Canadian written stuff gets to the front of the line, so a better percentage chance of being read by editors. Thats the first hurdle, they get thousands of submissions and queries for every one they actually put in print.
Dont really know just how good or bad it is, cant get objective enough, after all Ive read it so many times now. Have some people from my creative writing class looking at it, they have given some suggestions and so on.
Tried doing what They say is best, putting a chapter with lots of action at the beginning, but the one guy who read that version said it seemed to be just a collection of short stories to him, and individually and collectively lacking plot. So put everything in chronological sequence, but otherwise unchanged, and seemingly the invisible plot became obvious. Dont get that,the same elements, same words, just with a different order of presentation, and one single flashback, and the whole plot disappears.
Perhaps its a case of an individual fixating on a minor flaw and not seeing anything else. Like one person who downloaded several chapters into a word processor (microsoft) which had single spacing as its default setting, and proceeded to criticise the work based on the illegibility of her own printed version, not the actual words, but how they came out of her printer, in a tiny close spaced font.
Will definitely bear that in mind, better to send a hard copy to publishers than risk losing their attention by reason of their faulty word processor, or whatever.

Hello again

Hi avid readers , time I got back into pôsting those highly readable updates about Moi.
So the Great Work progresses, have written and rewritten that damn book several times, and have it to the point where I can look for a publisher. Not so simple, cause there are fewer publishers than you think, and a lot of aspirant Authors.
Just a Hello. Im back for today, but watch this space for more fun and information filled postings (promise)

oops

just found out that by having posted stuff on swazz , my other blog , I was effectively publishing it , and giving up rights any publisher willing to pay , would want .So since I would like to get paid for my writing , I have deleted the entire blog , Had about 50,000 words ,but to make a novel it will need lots of rewriting , perhaps double or more the word -count , etc etc , so hope it'll be ok .

nanowrimo didit

Haha Ha did it , got to 50000 words during November , some of which is posted on swazz my writing blog , but some wont go up , just umm words , along the same time lines and people and so on , but needs to be rewritten . The whole thing needs some serious sorting too , lots to chop and drop and lots more to put in , so it might make an interesting read eventually .Will have more time now for a while as there isn't that compulsion to meet a daily word count and an ultimate date to get it all down . Helped my typing speed thats for sure .

busy

Hey if anyone is interested, I've been quite busy, writing a fair bit - see swazz.blogspot.com - joined up nano-wri-mo, where you attempt to write a novel of 50 000 words during the month of November ( author name there p.power ).Posting a novel on blogspot is difficult , as I write from beginning to end, and postings appear with newest first at the top and earlier bits below, making it hard to read in proper sequence.So far, cheating by including stuff i wrote before November, I have 22 000 words, almost half - may get to 50 000 by month end,in fact may get over that count, tho slowed by trying to write readable stuff and follow a sort of plot etc.

November

Leaves all over the place, just got back from Europe, left here in summer and so the season change is striking. In both England and Spain, the countries I visited, seasonal transition is much less emphatic. Flowers bloom all over, jasmine bouganvillea and citrus trees in gardens and orchards and wild thyme, rosemary and heather on the mountains in Spain. Wild plants flower at this time to take advantage of the expected rain during October and November after the long dry summer. In Somerset in England roses and other garden plants just keep going, though wild flowers are a litle more conservative. Spain seems to have very few birds, at least in the area south of Valencia where I was. There is a strong tradition of hunting and trapping birds of all sizes for food, snares and bird lime were demonstrated on local television as Part of Our Local Culture, so small birds are few and wary. Insecticide use on the crops probably plays a part in this, and of course the need to protect the local speciality, rice, which is very vulnerable to birds.
Somerset in England swarms with wildlife by comparison, though much more heavily populated. Rain comes year round there, snow never lies more than overnight, a much more hospitable enviroment.
Both lack the excitement of seasonal change, the special importance of warm days during a time of fading and the sight of the geese passing over.

drop some water off

I really don't understand what is so complicated and difficult about getting water and other simple supplies into New Orleans, not tomorrow, but maybe the day before yesterday. As I understand it , they send helicopters in to airlift out selected people and get surprised when others who have no water or other simple supplies get upset at the basic stupidity of that approach.
Step 1; load a large airplane with lots of bottled water, diapers and perhaps Army MREs
Step 2 fly low over the city
Step 3 Drop supplies wherever you see a gathering of people, using a parachute so every pallet of supplies lands reasonably gently.
It is done in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, etc. so should be feasible in the Continental USA surely. After you have ensured people have basic necessities, then do all your Organising and Paperwork and Law Enforcement.

unicorns

One of the probable origins of the myth of the Unicorn, it seems to me, might be the fact that eland in the extreme South of Africa sometimes are born with a single horn. These animals were and are believed to have very strong spiritual connections, especially among the San ( Bushmen ). The word for Eland and the word for Dance are the same in several languages, which is significant since Dance is what is used to connect with the spirit world, shamans will dance into a trance to find medicines, to banish evil, or draw strength. In rock art eland are often depicted ,far more often than other animals, and quite often these images show one horn. Eland fat was the preferred type of animal fat used to mix with pigments when making paints for this art, and when making medicinal potions and ointments.
Early sea-going visitors to the Cape very probably picked up on the spiritual connections made by the San, and possibly saw one horned specimens too. When Telling the Tale back home of course, fact became a little inflated and over time changed to myth. Early Dutch records refer to the yearly migration of eland herds, and to the occasional presence of single-horned individuals among them. In the McLeod Clan chief's castle in Scotland, there is a Unicorn Horn which has been identified by biologists as an eland horn.
Mature eland are large, and defend themselves and others in their herd against lions, unlike most other African antelope, which prefer flight over fight when facing lions. Since lions were extremely difficult to defend against with small poisoned arrows, an animal which could beat lions would have been worthy of special notice. A single- horned eland, an old hand-reared camp-ground frequenter in a Swaziland Game Reserve, killed a lion a few years ago. He was then shot by the young Swazi King, (who considered this an insult to his namesake beast,the lion ) thus epitomising the ancient conflict.

lions on the prairies

Just read a news story about a conference on Ted Turner's ranch in New Mexico. Somebody proposed putting large African animals in preserves on the prairies, which would replace large animals in the Great Plains ecosystem such as the sabre-tooth, mastodon and dire-wolf, and others which haven't been there for some time now, with lions, elephant and so on. Sounds like too much of a good thing to me, why not start by allowing ordinary prairie species, such as bison, wolves and bears, to repopulate deserted farmland? There would be enough problems in human/animal interaction without going further than that. At some point these proposed free-range zoos would abut on farmland or towns, and present problems with bears and wolves would multiply. So why not keep it at that level, after all wolves, bison and bears roamed the plains in the recent past? If you have space for exotic large animals, why not for indigenous species first ? The argument that people would pay to see them is a little weak, and would directly counteract efforts in Africa to preserve these species in their native habitats, and to earn tourism income by people in the third world.
If the objective is partly to maintain the plains as grassland by introducing elephants to destroy trees, there are two answers; first off , bison grazing do a pretty good job of preserving grassland as such and secondly people do a fine job when it comes to getting rid of trees. Allowing bison and antelope to multiply on deserted farmland would soon show economic benefits , as they can use the available fodder far more efficiently than cattle, with less care and cost.