Whatever happened to John Bull?

You can tell it's election time. The usual assortment of recycling bin fillers have been dropping onto the mat. There's nothing new in that, except that when the Labour leaflet came, I assumed it was from the BNP. Why? Because it was emblazened with the Union flag. Now this worries me. When did the Union flag get hijacked by right wing groups? Whatever happened to the Union flag meaning proud to be British, and nothing to do with racism? I think the Union flag needs reclaiming fast. How many other countries would stand for their flag to effectively be stolen by extreme groups?

Car surgery and a glimpse of the Queen.

Yesterday my car got hit from behind whilst waiting at a roundabout. It was a fair old jolt, but visually the only clue is that the towbar looks wonky. I've had it checked over today though, and the news is terminal for the towbar. It has twisted at the mountings, and has come within a few microns of distorting the boot floor of the car. Luckily it hasn't quite caused any further serious damage as far as the guy at the towbar place reckoned. For a somewhat minor looking bend, the bill will be £254.15. Ouch! I'm glad that I won't be the one paying for that!

On the way out of the towbar centre, we were stopped behind a Police roadblock at another roundabout. It turns out that the Queen and Prince Phillip were visiting the Warburtons bakery in Bolton. It's the first time that I've seen them in the flesh, so to speak. Quite close up too - their cavalade passed by within a couple of feet of us. Now there's a front row seat!

That brown elixir of the day.

I'm a little bear until I've had the first cup of tea in the morning, then I'm nice as pie!

New stories and media section online.

Finally! An update after what seems to have been an age. There's two new pieces uploaded to the Portfoilio section. One is part five of the ongoing serialised story, 'The long Summer of war'. The other is a piece that was recently published in 'Foilio' called 'Spending a Penny' which is just a short stream-of-consciousness type thing that I wrote as a short project in taking any idea and making a short story of it.

Also online is the newly included Media section of the Jenny Emily Web. This contains some videos of my work on radio, and will most likely get sporadically expanded to include extra clips as and when the sinister Ninjas (aka the webmaster) get around to uploading them.

My Sunday waiting for Monaco

Today has been boring. Sundays often are this way, because the shops rarely open in a convenient way thanks to outdated religious-based trading laws. Actually, I liked working Sundays in preference to a weekday, because I got paid twice as much for the same amount of work, traffic was better on the roads, and I could have a day off in the week instead when the shops actually were open.

Since work dried up I've had to find imaginative ways to utilise Sundays. At the moment it is Formula 1 season so at least every other Sunday is covered with Something Interesting™ to do. Today however there was not much, so I've been spending it reading and revuing other people's books on Harper Collins' Authonomy website. The way this works is that people are much more likely to read and revue your work if you do the same for theirs. Simple really. I'm quite active in this way, and seem to be building up momentum as a respected revuer. I did revues for four of the five books that went forward at the end of the last month to the Editor's desk, so I must have an eye for something. I have also thoroughly enjoyed some of the books I've read and revued - there really is some great talent out there.

I've also been taking some of the comments that people have been making my book and editing my own magnum opus, 'Bringing home the stars'. I find being on the site invaluable in polishing my work, as otherwise it is very diffilcult to iron out all the typoes and wrinkles when reading my own work (I keep staring blankly at the screen otherwise with a "Looks okay to me" expression). I think this polishing has helped, as the book has climbed the charts and now is in the top five (actually #4 when I checked) in this week's horror charts. It also regularly charts in the top ten of the sci-fi charts (it is a sci-fi/horror crossover). Being in the top five for any genre means a much increased exposure to scouting publishers and agents.

Some of the comments are interesting, as they suggest comparisons with films and books that I hadn't even realised. It's interesting to realise what probably influenced my writing. 'Event Horizon', 'Firefly', 'Ghost Ship', 'Alien' and '2010' all got mentioned. I've also been commended for suspense building and never quite revealing the monster - all aspects of what horror should be in my opinion. After all, 'Jaws' sucked the moment you saw the shark.



Here's to peer revue and climbing ever higher in the book charts.

Editing and colds in the Summer heat.

For the last couple of weeks I've been doing a lot of editing. Now, those who know me know that I really hate editing with a vengence. However, it is a necessary evil in order to get 'Bringing home the stars' up to total hardcore perfection. So I've been doing that at the expense of anything else. I have to say, it is mind numblingly boring, but it has to be done. The only redeeming feature is that I'm also putting a lot of time reading and reviewing other people's books on the Authonomy website, which is making me appreciate what a wealth of talent there is out there across all genres just waiting for the big breakthrough.

I've come down with some kind of flu-like cold. It isn't swine flu, don't worry. It also isn't full-blown flu either. I must be about the only person though who can manage to go all Winter without getting a bad cold, only to finally get one at the first signs of Summer heatwaves. D'oh!

Does paper really biodegrade well?

I always thought that paper decomposed in the ground. I never had qualms about putting paper in the bin, because it would quickly decompose, right?

Well, maybe not. this newspaper was excavated from Imberhorne tip in Sussex. It had been in the ground for maybe forty years, and was still perfectly readable. It is also interesting that when other parts of the tip (a former railway curtting used by the local council as a domestic refuse tip) were excavated, the plastic content was very visable even long after most organic matter had become a black clay-like substance.

Of course, the acid in the paper might have stopped it decomposing, as might an airless water saturated environment. It was still a surprise to see.

Climbing the greasy pole

Last night 'Bringing home the stars' reached #17 in HarperCollins' Authonomy sci-fi list. That's a pretty good climb in less than a month! Log in and vote now!