Gardening, prose, then Dave and Rose

April 10^th. 2015

This week began with a slight change in activity for me: gardening! The sun came out, so out came the gardening equipment. My wife, Pat, loves it. I can’t say I’m a fan, but I do try to do my bit. I help wherever I can by digging, lifting the heavy stuff and wading into thorny bushes without protective clothing. More fool me, eh? But we are getting there and I know the garden will look splendid by the time summer arrives. The gardening has been interspersed with trips down to the council rubbish tip, the garden centre and the good old, reliable D-I-Y store. We’re all experts now, eh?

I achieved a couple of significant steps in my literary work. Scrivener is now under control and I am copying my part finished WIP on to the programme. I do this like a seasoned pro. No doubt there will be a gremlin in the works soon. There often is. The other significant step is that I finally have a paperback safely uploaded to Ingram Spark. I’m waiting for the review copy to arrive before I start clapping my hands. The significance of this one is that it has a Nielsen registered ISBN number. This means that it can be made available through the high street bookshops. I intend having all of my seven titles available in this way. At the moment they are published by CreateSpace.

I received an e-mail from a lady in America (through my website contact page) saying she couldn’t download my free book because she only had snail mail and limited access to the school computer. I sent her an apology and explained that my free offers were for electronic download only. I posted this on a private Facebook forum. The replies were enlightening; suggesting this could be a scam to get more than something for nothing. One writer said she had responded to a similar request from a schoolgirl in the Czech Republic and sent a print copy. She was subsequently flooded with requests from loads of schoolgirls over there.

I added a domain e-mail address to my ‘collection’, which was something suggested by Nick Stephenson with whom I am learning a great deal about promotion and marketing. Trouble is: I have no idea how to access my inbox. When I ask a question on the Wix website, I am faced with instructions, or explanations that would challenge Professor Stephen Dawkins. Or is it me?

This weekend I will be Wi-Fi free as me and Pat are going over to the Isle of Wight for a weekend. We’ll be seeing two friends of ours from Spain. Next week sees a lot of medical appointments on the calendar for me and Pat, but I should make some progress with my book. No doubt the sun will continue to shine and that means more gardening for yours truly. Wish me luck!