Guys and Gals

Getting older is a pain because little things start to irritate. One of the things that is currently driving me loco is when people refer to females as guy.
Until recently, a girl was a gal and a boy was a guy, but not anymore. Some how, some where and by whom I haven't a clue the rules were changed and every body became a guy. Every time I see somebody on the telly refer to a group of mixed sex individuals as guys, it makes me cringe.

It is bad enough having this thrust on us whilst watching the box, but last week it came closer to home. My wife and I went into a village cafe that we hadn't used before and we were greeted by a pleasant young lady with a charming smile.

 However, she spoil the introduction by her choice of words, "Hi guys table for two is it?"

Were were shown to a table and after asking what us guys wanted to drink she left us with the menus.

After five minutes she returned with the drinks. "Okay guys have you decided what you want to eat?"

"Yes, we'll both have oat cakes with cheese and bacon," I replied.

She took out her pad and whilst leaning on the table she said, "How do you spell oat?" I guess that says it all.

Hobbies

Hi all,
Having just finished writing and publishing The Reluctant Pom, I'm going to take a break from writing. Only physically mind you because, being a writer my brain is always working on the next book. Even when I'm immersed in one of my hobbies I'm still thinking about plots and names for characters. The main character in my next book is going to be called Gozzer, but I've only got as far has his first name. So while I'm fishing, doing a bit of pyrography or wood work, I'll be trying hard to think up a suitable surname.

I am a great believer in hobbies and think that most people would benefit from doing something creative instead of searching for entertainment. I guess I'm lucky that fishing has been a passion with me for for over fifty years and while other hobbies have come and gone fishing has always been a part of my life.

Other hobbies I've had a go at over the years include. Keeping white mice, which I had to give up when my father decided we are emigrating to Australia. Pardon the plug.

I have had a go at building a flying model aircraft. This was one of my constructive hobbies, the building was great, but I got put off by the number of crashes I endured. Seeing all that hard work crash to the ground isn't very pleasant and it happened to me on a regular basis.

One of my main hobbies during the summer is gardening, even weeding can be therapeutic in a mad sort of way. The trouble is that gardening isn't one of my favourite hobbies for the winter.

I have always been interested in art and I've had a go at many different mediums, watercolours, oils, acrylics, and pen and ink. I have produced some nice pieces that have found there way onto our walls but I've also produced some crap. I painted a lion once that was a bit bow legged and if my wife is ever down in the dumps she gets the painting of my lion out and has a blood good laugh. I might dig it out soon and put it on here for a laugh.

More recently my hobbies have taken on a woody theme, I have done  some pyrography and some scroll saw work and have even started to do a bit of inlaying with both wood and polymer clay.

Here is a wooden vase that I finished last week, which shows a bit of inlay work with some  pyrography thrown in for good measure.

Now you may be thinking that a wooden vase would be about as much use as  a rubber nail because it will leak more then the Titanic, but it doesn't matter because it is only for my wife's clay flowers.

My wife also has more hobbies than she has time for and is always moaning about having to stop to do some cooking etc. There are several other hobbies I'd like to have a go at like etching and wood engraving but time is a real issue.

I guess it is a shame that hobbies on on the decrease because nowadays it is so easy to get on the computer and do some social net working or play some electronic game on a tablet. I fear that making the effort to try an hobby is fast becoming a thing of the past and I'm just glad that I have some great hobbies because they have seen me through some rough times.

Don't get me wrong about computers and tablets by the way because I love them both and spend many happy hours on my kindle fire. However, I try to divide my time between entertainment and creation to get a balance. Entertainment is fair enough but it doesn't even come near to providing the pleasure that comes from creating something with your own hands.
If you would like to see some more of my pyrography please click Here to go to my website.

The Reluctant Pom Update

Hi all,
I going to have to apologise for the way I ended my last post. I gave many of you the impression that The Reluctant Pom was going to be my last book. Well I can tell you now that it won't be, in fact, I have at least two more books in the pipe line. I won't give any details away yet because they are both in their infancy but they will feature fishing, which is my favourite topic.

I guess I was feeling a bit down after finishing The Reluctant Pom, so I had a temporary downer on writing. When one is writing a book it is on ones mind for months on end, so it shouldn't come as a surprise if ones brain has a dicky fit when it is all over.

 Anyway, I'm pleased to report  that sales of The Reluctant Pom are steady. I don't think it will ever hit the best seller charts, but that was never my intention when writing it. I knew nothing about my parents lives because they never talked about such things. So at least my kids will have a record about my life and others might find my adventures in Australia interesting and too.

The Reluctant Pom

Hi all
At last I have finally published The Reluctant Pom which you will find exclusively on Amazon. I am surprised by the length of time it took to complete the project, but these things always seem to take longer than expected.

I suppose 1 year isn't that bad in the scheme of things, especially when I take into consideration that I moved house when I was half way through the process.

I am very pleased with the way the cover looks on Amazon and I hope that it helps to sell some books. They say people often judge a book by the cover and I must admit that I too go for covers that catch my eye.

Writing The Reluctant Pom was a strange experience for me. On the good side it was really nice to recall some great memories from my time in Australia, but the writing process also had a down side.

When thinking about those two great years in Australia it brought on a feeling of depression which at times was hard to shift. When my father dragged me off to Australia to became The Reluctant Pom, I had my whole life set out before me. I was sixteen years old when I went and it was a very impressionable time in my life.

I met my first wife in Melbourne and we married in Wigan when I returned from Australia nine months after her. Sadly, she passed away eight years ago and my parents have also gone. There is a lot of humour in the book, but I feel sad that that time in my life is over, because I'd love to go back and do it all again.

Who knows, perhaps if I had another chance and did it all again I might have stopped down under. and lived happily ever after with an Aussie Sheila.

 I'm sad to say but at the moment it looks like The Reluctant Pom could well be my last book. If you read it I sincerely hope that you enjoy it.

The Reluctant Pom Cover

Hi,
While I have been waiting for my book to come back from the proofreaders I have been working on the cover. I have just finish the first version so I thought I'd show it to you now. Any comments would be appreciated.

I have tried to keep it simple because when the cover are displayed on Amazon they are very small, so any detail gets lost. I think the cover is self explanatory and depicts a journey to Australia and back. I took the red line on a loop to emphasis my reluctance in taking part.

Anyway, I'm pleased with it, but I'd love to know what you think.

Reluctant Pom Progress Report

Hi All,
Just a quick post to let you know that 'The Reluctant Pom' is finished. It is now in the proofreading arena and with a fair wind should be published by the end of this month. It's been a long time coming but hopefully it will be worth it.

During the next few day I will be working on the artwork for the cover and will post the results on here for comments

No Pride

Hi all,
I have begun the process of proofreading my new book 'The Reluctant Pom' during breaks from renovating our kitchen. I can only wish that the work on the kitchen was going as well as the book.

I spent most of last week removing wallpaper, a task which was made much harder by the fact that the previous occupier had decided to take the easy way out and paper over paper. In total, I had to scrap off 5 layers to get down to the plaster. The stuff was stuck like a tic to a terrier, which made me consider using a steamer. However, I quickly recalled the incident that happened last time I tried one and knocked the idea on the head. Memories of a shed load of plaster falling off the wall and into my bath will never leave me.

I know that some people have no pride in their work, but even I was astounded by what I found when I removed some of the wall paper. Take a look and see what you think.

I couldn't believe it when I pulled the paper back, but there it was, a piece of tin that could have come from an old biscuit tin. It had been stuck into a hole with some horrible rubber cement. It was half covered the kitchen cupboard which must have been put up after the hole was blocked.

On closer examination, I discovered that they must have decommissioned a gas boiler and used the tin to block up the hole.

What sort of person would do that? whoever it was they certainly didn't have any pride. I had to take down the end cupboard before I could even start to sort out the mess.

Ah well, it will give me something to do when my eyes get tired of proofreading.

The Reluctant Pom

Hi all,
Just thought I'd give you an update on my latest book, The Reluctant Pom. I started writing it last year and almost finished it around Christmas time but then we moved house and it has been on the back burner ever since. Anyway, the balance of power between much needed renovation work and writing is shifting towards doing a few hours on my book ever week.

During the last week I have finished the actual writing process and have begun the tedious proofreading process. Once I've been through it a few times, to get it into a what I think is a perfect copy, I will let my wife loose on it and she can find her usual thousand errors that I missed.

Because this book deals with my enforced trip to Van Demon's land I think it would be nice to add a few photos of interest. The picture below is one of me standing outside our house in West Footscray, I was 16 at the time and can't believe how thin I look.

This will be a first for me because up until now my books have been text only. That is with the exception of my first fishing book, which included a few line drawings.

No doubt choosing a few photos will be a fun process and will bring back lots of pleasant memories. Target for publication is the end of August so I'm going to be pretty busy.

Garden and Snails

Hi all,
Due to moving house I haven't had much time for writing, but I'm hopefully going to get back to it soon.The bungalow we moved into needed every room doing and the gardens so it has been a busy few weeks. I have finished the bathroom, dining room and the front garden and I'm now giving the back garden a bit of stick so that my wife can get her plants in.

Here is part of the back garden when we moved in.

Here it is again with a little improvement. I will post a picture of my finished effort soon.

Snails are strange creatures, but there again, perhaps not so strange as those who can eat them? Anyway, I always thought snails hated anything prickly because we are told by the gardening experts to surround our hoster pots and delicate seedlings with sand and crushed sea shells for protection from these hungry molluscs. Perhaps then, one of these experts can explain why my berbris bush, one of the prickliest bushes known to man, is festooned with them?

By the way, I've decided to give a away a few copies of my collection of short stories, "No Fishing in Here." If you would like a copy, just pop along to my website for details of how to get it for free. Here is the Link and I hope you enjoy it.

Free Book

Hi all,
 Sorry it's been a long time between posts, but having moved to a house that was badly in need of some tender loving care and a hell of a lot of decorating, time is a commodity I'm short of.

I'm on the last chapter of The Reluctant Pom and hope to get the writing part finished soon. Then the hard work really begins in the form of proofreading.

I can report that sales of my books have been steady over the last few months with a surprising number of people buying A Staffordshire Boy. At the moment it is outselling my fishing books.

Anyway, I've decided to give away a few more free copies of 'BOSSYBOOTS' my humorous novel based on one man's mid-life crisis. If you would like a free copy please click here

I hope you enjoy it and I hope to be increasing the frequency of my posts soon.

Here We Go Again

Hi all,
May I wish you all a very happy and healthy new year. I will be glad to be going into a new year because 2013 was anus horrible. We should be in our new house by now but because of some nameless and hopeless solicitors we are were are stuck where we are.

In the past it used to take about eight weeks to buy and sell a house but we've almost doubled that and we are still counting. Hopefully, it will be resolved soon.

The good news is that we have turned the corner and we can all look forward to the new year. The nights are drawing out and spring is just around the corner. Before we know it, we will be knee deep in daffodils again.

One good thing has come out of this period of limbo that I find myself in. I have decided to take the opportunity that comes with having no distractions, no proper access to the Internet etc, to get on with my latest book. By the way, I am doing this blog from hotspot that would be better described as luke warm.

I mentioned the book before and it is called The Reluctant Pom. It follows my enforced emigration to Australia when I was an impressionable sixteen years old. The good thing about writing is that it blocks everything else out of my mind, which, when you have all the stress that comes with moving, is a good thing.

So far, I have managed 11,000 words and I have a minimum target of 1,000 words per day. I think the book will run to about 50,000 words, so even with the odd day when I'm forced into doing non writing tasks, I hope to have it finished sometime in February and published for my birthday in April.

If you ever decide to write a book, please set yourself a target for completion. If you don't, it will just drift, and you will not only lose the momentum but you will find it hard to keep picking up the thread. Every book  has a tone to it, so if you are doing a bit one week and a bit more the next you will loose the whole feel of the book and that will be noticed by you reader.

Books are like songs, the best ones are written quickly. Once you've got the story down you can take you time with the editing and polish it till your heart is content.