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.