Take Cover!

And here we have dum-dum-duuuummmm
The final Cover for the Whispering Sand!!!!!!!!
So now you'll know it when you see it :-)

Ian xx

A Word from the Wise

Hello, it's me. Yes I promised teaching resources on my website but no there are none yet. Why is this? I hear you cry, what's happening. The truth is life is rather beating me down at the moment and whilst I'm still writing as much as possible it has become all the more difficult to get anything done. Don't panic though because I am currently seeking an agent and publisher for both Into the Winter Woodland and the highly anticipated sequel to The Whispering Sand (lol, I've not actually published the first one yet).
Anyway I shall keep you posted.

Ian xx

Ps. Sorry for this post but I've not posted in ages and didn't want you (singular reader) to feel left out of the loop.

It's a jungle in there

Yes, yes I've been promising photos of Boris and his vegetable pals for a long, long time. Having broken my camera about a month ago I have found it rather difficult but tum...tum...tum! If you look above you can see just how huge my vegetables are! Well, the vegetables aren't huge but the big stalky things are quite impressive. Better still I haven't managed to kill them yet and neither have they been murdered! Can only be a good thing! Boris is the HUGE one on the far right just next to christine the sweet corn (the one that looks like grass) beside that is... well, I can't remember it's either a cucumber or a butternut squash. I could do with labels! lol
Just fair to say that plants, like animals have their own personalities. Boris for example is fairly quiet and reserved. So is Christine as it happens.

Ian x

Ps. What do you mean they look a bit 'crappy'. I'll have none of it. Most horticultural shows don't have plants like these.

A long time ago in a place not so far away...

Hello, I wasn't exactly walking down memory lane so much as browsing a few children's books that I know I have read but can remember very little about (Charlotte's Web being the main one) anyway it reminded me of learning to read! Wow that was a long, long time ago. Anyway I fondly (pretty much all memories from that long ago are 'fond' because I can't actually remember them very well) remember reading the Roger Red Hat series. The adventures of this (slightly camp -see picture) young fellow must have sparked my interest in reading. It makes me wonder what books children learn to read with now. lol - the stories are probably indispersed with sex education -I have friends with 6 year old children who have just studied 'it' and delight in shouting 'penis' at passersby (the children not my friends- although I wouldn't put it past them).
And the reason behind this post? I wondered if you (yes you singular reader) remember them. There must be a whole generation of us who know Roger Red Hat and Co. (except those who failed at this first hurdle, and it's okay for me to mock them because they won't be reading this).
Imagine if your books had taught so many people to read! Sheila McCullogh has just become one of my heroes!

Ian x

Ps. Interestingly enough at primary school we had a higher level of slightly books known as 'The Gay Way' presumably they don't use them anymore for fear of disturbing the children :-)

Winter warmies

It's happening! Winter is coming, which is a little unfair because I feel a little like we've missed out on summer again. Why the preoccupation with the weather? Well apart from the fact I'm British and have an inbuilt obsession, and that I'm a qualified geographer, and the fact that it's damned interesting anyway, I feel particularly gloomy. Even the weekend's shock sunny spells haven't lifted my spirits but hey-ho I've managed to bash out a few thousand words which I can rejig when the smiles come out, so it's not all a loss (although it feels like one).

I have been meaning to post a picture of the jungle growing on my windowsill but I'm holding off until the cucumber starts to grow. The potatoes I planted in the flowerbeds a while ago have breached the surface too so soon I'll have a huge salad! It'll just have to be quick before the frost gets it!

Ian xx

PS. Sorry for the whingy vibe, but this is the only motivation to do anything I've found all day so there.
PPS. Except work of course but I'd hardly call that very motivational, except the money of course. Not starving to death is a pretty good motivator.
PPPS. Actually with my blooming garden of vegetables starving to death isn't really a problem. So in fact I'm motivated to work so that I can...erm... buy soap, so I don't smell.
Oh and of course so that I can write lovely stories, more on that soon!
PPPPS: (I should have just signed off a bit later on shouldn't I?) Check my website, new baking recipes up!

On the cheap

Hello, just a very quick update to tell you that the price of the Whispering Sand on amazon.co.uk has fallen to a bargain preorder price of £8.44! There we go, you've no excuse not to preorder a copy now!

Things continue to happen as the world continues to spin. Progress is slow but I'm working hard.
Oh and my windowsill vegetable garden is starting to look like a forest!! Pics soon :-)

Ian xx

Caught in the act!

HA! By chance I looked out of the window this morning and finally saw the little s*d who has been digging up my garden. Above are some photos of him A) in the act B) Looking Very Guilty C) and running for it.

No lovely little bunnies were harmed in the taking of these photos but if I catch him digging in the begonias again then we shall have stern words.

Ian x

Ps. I read somewhere that animals mark their terratory by urinating around its boundaries to keep others out. If the rabbit goes for my vegetables again I my be forced to take more serious measures.

Здравствуйте!

Здравствуйте!
Which I am led to believe is 'hello' in Russian. I have a bit of a thing about the Russian language. I'm not sure why, perhaps it's all those Bond Villains with a Russian accent or the cold war films but I find it not only interesting but also strangely sexy. Could it be that Russian sounds 'hard' or it could be those strange rolling sounds but I get the impression that people speaking Russian are supremely intellingent - that could well be the fact that so many Bond villians speak it.
Anyway a good friend of mine has recently been living in Russian and doesn't recommend it but perhaps she can teach me a bit. She might even help me decipher what all those exciting shaped letters are.

Ian x

Ps. If you're confused about the strange 'wondering' style of my recent posts then don't worry, it's just a phase. I'll get back to whinging about stuff or something later :-)
Pps. My corn tree is Massive!
PPs. Since my sister's recent relocation to Hong Kong I am now the proud 'father' of Rodney the rabbit. Sadly I'm so allergic to him I have to wear gloves to hold him and he has to live in a lovely hutch in the garage but, well, you know how love is...

Alien Autopsy

Hmm I was feeling a little nostalgic this morning. Turns out it is 11 years since Half Life (a computer game for you non-geeks) was released which makes it almost exactly ten years since I first played it. I doubt there has ever been a feeling like walking down those twisty Black Mesa Corridors pursued by aliens only to be set upon by a clean up squad of soldiers. Sadly modern computers won't play my little orange Cd-rom so it remains a fond memory. Why have I mentioned this? Because I wonder if that grey concrete architecture has the same nostaligic feel as wandering around my old school haunts? Or will it (like the real world) seem not as good as I remember.

Anyway all this alien talk got me thinking about the Roswell incident...again. What with falling in love with the X-files a few years ago (almost 4 eeek!) I have looked into it a few times and find it absolutely fascinating. By covering up what was probably nothing but an embarassing mess-up the American Governemnt et al. seem to have created a superb mine of inspiration. Persoanlly I think it would be great if they finally admitted there was an alien and showed a picture or something, however there have been so many hoaxes actually getting a picture or similar that people beileve would be very hard indeed. So I had a search on google for a picture I discovered a video of an alien autopsy which I watched. It was fascinating and made my legs go weak, even though I know it was fake. It really did look good (not so much believable but...old sci-fi if you know what I mean) so I watched a few others and there is one thing that damns every one of these videos. If they were real vidoes the quailty would be good. I know they were filmed in the 1940s but I mean; if you're going to cut up the only alien people have ever found you would make sure the camera was in focus!!! Or at least not wobbling around as if held by a drunkard!
Ian xx

Ps. I have planted two more plants, a cucumber and a sweetcorn. I bought the seeds from B&Q in packets labelled 'Fun for Kids!' says it all really.

A well deserved break...ish

Hello blogfans!
Having been a huge Muse fan since I first heard New Born waaayy back in 2001 I was priveldged to see them perform live in their home town of Teignmouth. A family very good family friends live in Teignmouth and so I stayed with them for the weekend. Having been there every year until I was 16 it was quite a step back in time to go there again, although funnily enough it seemed as though I had never left, I suppose that says a lot about sleepy Teignmouth. After saying that though it was not all that sleepy after Muse tore through a superb set (both nights) including a 'jazz version' of Cave (one of my favourites :-)
It was a badly needed break which luckily enough resulted in the start of quite a promising story... I'm glad I took my laptop anyway. No news yet about the book but I'll keep you posted!

Ian xxx

Ps. Upon arriving home I found that my sweetcorn tree (or whatever you call it) is now enormous! Boris the Butternut squash too has taken on epic proportions. Keep your fingers crossed and hopefully they will start sprouting scrummy vegetables!

Two quick notes

Hello! Just two things to mention;

1) I've just finished the epic fantasy : Confessions of Georgia Nicholson. I enjoyed them very much and you might if you're into the fictional diarys of teenage girls (Oh dear that sounds very wrong)

2) I've just packed an overnight bag. I had no idea I had so many toiletries! A toothbrush, toothpaste, deororant, shower gel, shampoo, razor, beard trimmers, aftershave, hair gel... Now either I'm in touch with my feminine side or I smell. I suspect a bit of both. Although on the strength of point one I'm pretty sure that is the most prominent of the two!

Ian xx

Children of the corn

Huurrragh! My sweetcorn tree (or whatever you call them) has finally sprouted! It is immensely exciting! (you know me and how exciting I find growing vegetables- except the ones in my vegetable patch which are very very dull). With any luck it'll grow to be a similar size to Boris (the butternut squash) and will start springing huge ears of corn any time soon! (not that I'm getting my hopes up or anything).

Ian xxx

Where have you been?

Hello again readers. It seems like ages since I posted you an update, so what have I been up to? Well things have been going remarkably slowly. It's like a jigsaw where you started off with all the sky pieces and now I've got the grass to put together...with everything I'm doing.
1) I am still waiting for word from my publishers.
2) I have updated a few bits and pieces for my website
3) I have been rewriting Into the Winter Woodland (which will require another good tweaking...) and I am just one chapter away from the end. It's quite difficult because whilst the story is excellent (I would say that wouldn't I? :-) the writing style is a little strange. Changing the strange bits into good bits is time consuming and quite a challenge because in doing so it changes what the paragraphs mean...anyway I'm sure you don't care.
4) I've got another two really good ideas that are becoming stories extremely slowly (see the pooing blogs from a few weeks ago)
5)I've printed some Whispering Sand posters to stick up - they're looking great :-)
6) I'm now itching to write a new Annabeth Wish story!!!
7) And what with all the news at the moment I feel extremely compelled to write one of the two epic fantasy thingies I've had on the boil for ages - one is about a corrupt world and...so is the other. But they'll be good honest and in my trademark stylee! Anyway enough of my 'one day..' ramblings.
Oh and I'm off to visit some family friends in Teignmouth Devon tomorrow. It'll be my first visit to this seaside utopia (hmm) for a good 8 years and I am looking forward to it immensely. Especailly as I have managed to wangle (ie purchase) a ticket to the Muse gig. Hopefully I'll come back refreshed and with a huge Chunk of Annabeth Wish to go on about.
Hope you're well!
Ian xx

Ps. Don't I witter on about some rubbish? Honestly... sigh