Larry Jeram-Croft's Blog, page 9

Look what arrived in the post today.

My advance copy of the Lynx Operational History arrived today and I have to say the publishers have done an outstanding job.  Not on general sale until the end of March unfortunately as the printers are a long way away (India to be precise).  However advance copies can be ordered from the Navy Wings web site here:  Navy Wings

  As an incentive I will be signing all these ones, it would be rather nice to get writer's cramp!!

Inspiration for Formidable

So, with Formidable now out in internet land for sale, I thought I would post some photos of some elements that gave me inspiration for the plot.  As I say in the author's notes at the end of the book, my father flew from Formidable in 888 Squadron during the war.  The aircraft they flew was the Martlet although the Yanks called it the Wildcat and the RN changed the name back later in the war.  It originally went up against the Brewster Buffalo in a procurement competition before the war.  It lost, apparently because of cooling issues with its radial engine.  The Buffalo went on to be a complete disater when it came up against the Japanese Zero for the first time.  The Wildcat would have fared much better. I believe there may have been some skullduggery between the competing manufacturers during the competition - hard to believe of course!  However, the French had ordered some which by the time they were ready - they no longer had any need for and the FAA got their sticky fingers on them instead.  Not a bad thing at the time as complete neglect of maritime aviation by the RAF in the interwar years meant that the only other fighter available to the FAA was the Blackburn ROC and it only had guns that could fire backwards!!  888 was also unusual as it was commanded by a Royal Marine.  So here are a few photos from my father's album:



888 Squadron.  Lieutenant D M Jeram third left


888 in the air



The Gruman Martlet (Wildcat) painted in US Navy markings but operating from Formidable for operation Torch - the first joint US/UK operation of the war - the North African landings.





The first verse of the first song from the Fleet Air Arm song book:
They say in the Air Force a landings OK,
If the pilot gets out and can still walk away,
But in the Fleet Air Arm the prospects are grim,
If the landing's piss poor and the bastard can't swim.
  
 

Its out - Formidable

Eagle eyed readers will notice that I've changed my Blog photo - that's because the new book is out!!! (or will be in 12 hours)  So get buying, reading and leaving lots of good reviews on Amazon.  Not sure where Mr Hunt is going next - I'm running out of time for him.  Might do a prequel instead happy to take suggestions.  Either way I'm taking some time off for a few weeks as we are in the process of aquiring a new narrow boat.  

Thank You for a milestone

To all my readers - many thanks, I've just reached a milestone of over 25,000 hits on this blog.

LJC

Coming to an Amazon near you.

Should be out within a fortnight:

A succesful hunt

So there we were looking at spending several months looking for the perfect narrow boat.  We had a list of about twenty as a starter but one stood out head and shoulders above the rest.  So knowing that the market is moving quite fast we girded our loins and headed up the M5/M42/A42/M1 to just south of Leeds yesterday.
So much for taking our time - we had a drive and a good look round, made an offer and are now sorting out the dosh and legalities.  A fairly new boat with excellent heating, low hours engine, solar panels, lovely internal layour, full size washing machine and best of all another silly name to go with our previous Jeanneau.

Meet 'Lost Grockle'

Phew! the end is in sight.

Sweaty old day  but 5000 words today and a total of 1500 since Saturday means that 'FORMIDABLE' is almost there.  I've been stuck on plot generation for several weeks but I've learned not to force things. I sat down today with an end game in mind and although 'what I've wrote' is far from what I originally had in mind, its looking good.  As I've probably said too many times before, writing is done in the bath, walking the dog, even on the Golf Course (which is one of my many excuses for hitting the bloody ball into the trees - again) not in front of the computer.  However, today my fingers got carried away and before Bob became my Uncle there was the whole end game sorted out.  Should be out in less than a month now which frees me up to go boat hunting.


Sort of how I felt when I finished today! 

New project

Actually several - firstly Fi and I are now on the look out for a new narrow boat.  Having lived on one on and off for several years we know what we want.  All we have to do is find one.  It will be regular updates from Narnia (the waterways) after that, with a resumption of Sunday Lunch assessments from pubs around the country.
However, being a glutton for punishment I am in discussions now about a follow on from the book about the Lynx helicopter.  If the publishers are up for it, it will be a little different in that it will probably be co-authored with another writer/aviation enthusiast.  I don't want to say too much just yet as there are a few hurdles to jump over but the picture gives a small clue as to the subject matter.



With this particular aircraft one had to get up to over 10,000 feet to check the engine was allowing full fuel flow.  We were meant to stop at 12,000 due to the air getting a tad thin but my record was 15,000 feet on one particlar day - bloody long way up in a single engine helicopter - hence the cartoon.

New Year statistics and new books

Being that quiet week between Christmas and New Year - what better to do than get out an Excel spreadsheet??  Actually there was a reason for it.  Amazon are very good at providing reports and statistics on book sales.  However, one thing they don't do for some reason is provide the total number of sales of a book since publication.  They do provide monthly spreasheets with the sales figures so I spent a few happy hours going back through them all.  The results were very interesting.  I have always assumed that 'Sea Skimmer' would be the best seller but taken over the period they have all been for sale it is actually 'Boghammer' my novel about the Gulf and the Tanker war that has sold the most per month.
In November I actually paid a marketing firm to do what I hate doing - marketing!  Its till too early to tell but book sales are on the up again.  I even sold twenty on Christmas day.  So the New Year should be interesting.  The new Jon Hunt book is in its 'exciting phase' ie the last third and once again I'm keen to find out how it all ends. 
Also, the Lynx book is in print and should be ready for its launch on 30 March at Yeovilton.  On that note, although it is available for preorder on Amazon already, it will soon also be available to preorder from the 'Navy Wings' web site and this will be at a discount as well as having been signed by the illustrious author! Have a look at  Navy Wings web site  in a couple of weeks.
 Anyone going to the Lynx farewell party at Yeovilton will be able collect their copy then.  Otherwise they will be posted.  Buying them this way will raise more revenue for the charity than through Amazon.

Happy New Year.

So where next???

Was it Confucious who said 'May you live in interesting times?'  (actually no one knows - its lost in the mists of time) but its known as the 'Chinese Curse'  and I guess that's exactly what we've got now.
Mr Trump is now going to try to rule the largest economy on the planet.  Personally, I don't think he ever thought he had a chance when he started out and so felt free to say anything he wanted.  Unfortunately for us and probably him, he struck a chord in the US and look where it got him.  However, despite saying loads of things about what he intended to do - he never actually said how he was going to do it  Its interesting that the comments agains Islamists have already been taken down from his web site.  The American constitution is written specifically to ensure the President can't exercise too much power but with both houses in his party's hands goodness knows what will happen.
I was also delighted to see my heroine Nichola Sturgeon say after the American election:
'While this is not the outcome I hoped for, it is the verdict of the American people and we must respect it'  I really liked the chap who posted that on FB with the comment - 'Anyone spot any irony here'!
So, we're going to have riots in the streets when they try to reverse Brexit.  We may or may not do well out of the EU (I think we will but what do I know??).  Scotland will bugger off and become independent and then find they can't join the EU because they are bankrupt.  America will join up with Russia and nuc the middle east.  And then if Trump can do it we might just get the ultimate British nightmare in four years time:


Yesterday I started looking for another narrow boat so Fi and can dissapear in the countryside and hide.