Jim Webster's Blog, page 40

On the road

  The weather these last few days been so good, especially for October. So I decided that I was going to get out for a decent walk. I always find that a long walk gives you time to think, and without people constantly bothering me it’s great for getting rid of stress. I even left …

Casually discarded Calvin Klein Underwear and the risks every white witch must face.

  All right, they may not have been casually discarded. But discarded they obviously were. I suppose at this point we may need a context. I was walking down the road heading for town. There are various parts of my route which are scenic, and there are other bits where the nicest thing you can …

Fine for October

Here October has been fine, and there have been some nice days. Given that my Saturdays seem to revolve around sheep feet and worming, I’ve not felt at all guilty taking a couple of other days off. On Sunday afternoon I walked out to Foulney Island. From our back door, it’s an hour to the …

So I went to Fantasycon

  It seemed a good idea at the time, so I signed up for a table at Fantasycon, it’d give me a chance to sell my books etc. Finally the great day came, I loaded the car and drove the four hours it takes me to get to Scarborough, arriving in time to grab one …

Sorting the monkeys at your circus, all for a Werther’s Original.

  You know what it’s like, I’d just go for a walk, nothing special, just round and about. But it meant that I somehow misplaced so much time chatting to people that I had to change my route which in turn led me into chatting to another couple of people. And one of the interesting …

The advertisers are now the ones in charge?

Rule one, “He (she or it) who pays the piper calls the tune.’ There are other rules which you might want to keep in mind. Rule two, “There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.” Rule three, “Pay peanuts, hire monkeys.”   These are all simple, while tried, maxims which have stood the test …

Getting the most from Twitter with an underwear model

  One constant problem for authors trying to promote their books is to work out what is effective. You have only so much time in which to write, promote your work, and to live whatever passes as your normal life. This time has to be managed properly to get the most out of it. So …

The Essential Thai Holiday Guide

Obviously I frequent strange and exotic places. It comes with the territory. Not everybody has dangled their feet in the foaming waters of the Clogger Beck, or watched the tide scour the bank away at Plumpton. But there you are. Some of us have it and some of us don’t. Still, I was walking home …

The fate of the small publisher.

The problem with the revolution in publishing is that many more people can become publishers, but should they?   The question that we have to ask is what can small publishers offer? We now have the technology that allows any author to produce an e-book and sell it through Amazon. With a little more technical …

A short trip to Strasbourg

Must be well over twenty years ago now, might be twenty-five. I was sitting in a meeting (well actually I was probably chairing it, which is how I stayed awake) when one committee member suggested we have a trip to Strasbourg to the European Parliament. There wasn’t a lot of interest until he explained it …