David L. Atkinson's Blog, page 127

Blogging Authors All In A Chain

I'm writing this post because I was tagged by Bert Carson in what is an ever growing chain of authors hell bent on promoting their literary efforts by supporting each other. A more noble enterprise I can not imagine. One of the elements of this blog is to answer questions about yourself and I've asked these other authors to join in and answer the same four questions.

[image error]When Bert asked me to be involved (he's the one wearing the headphones!) I must admit to a degree of panic as the detail worried me, however, Bert has been such a support to me since I began blogging about my efforts at writing I trusted him.




 I have also read 'Another Place Another Time' and find his style entertaining and captivating. Bert has given me a point of reference across the other side of the pond and besides he likes Marmite!

Okay here goes
1. What am I currently working on? I've not yet come across a writer who is only ever working on one project but apart from blogging, writing poetry and short stories I am about half way through a Patrick Steele novel provisionally entitled 'Most Wanted Artefact'. This is the sixth novel in the Steele series and I am hoping to have it published by completelynovel.com by the end of May


2. How does my work differ from others in the same genre? I suppose the devil is in the detail. Some may say that Steele is a version of James Bond and if they do I would take that as a compliment but there are differences. Steele isn't working for the government and doesn't come from a privileged background. For more information on his upbringing read Inceptus but suffice it to say that he has a strong sense of injustice which he tries to exorcise by righting wrongs that the justice system doesn't deal with effectively, in his view. There are similarities in that he enjoys gadgets, is not phased by the use of violence but has a charitable side.
3. Why do I write what I write? I've published seven books including a slim collection of poetry, 5 Steele novels and a dystopian story. I have had the drive to write for many years and began by writing poetry but it wasn't possible for me to apply the level of concentration and effort that I felt I needed to until retirement. The subject matter of the Steele novels just seemed natural to me. I have always tried to follow the advice of writing from where I am at and having been fortunate enough to have travelled quite widely it was plain that I would have a lead character who moved around the world. He was also similar to me in that there was a degree of the OCD but on the page Steele allowed me to order society the way I can't in the real world. I am also a bit of a conspiracy theorist so broke away from Steele to write Cessation set in 2027 when the crisis concerning energy supplies. I would like to continue writing Steele novels but if other burning issues arise I'm sure that they will inspire me to explore other genres.
4. How does my writing process work? My writing process is intensely personal and is similar to Ian Rankin's, he is the guy who writes the Rebus novels about a Scottish police detective operating in and around Edinburgh. He writes from scratch, just sits down and does it. I'm not that good I usually get an idea, and it can come from anywhere, rough out the first five chapters, no more than a couple of sentences per chapter, list my characters, location and skills or equipment then I start. Quite often where I'm going is decided by the characters and their personalities. I think that is why I've not suffered the dreaded writer's block. No matter where you are in your writing if things seem to be slowing or taking a different direction don't be afraid to deviate from your plan. Sticking slavishly to a plan is where blocks can be generated if the plan has weaknesses!
And now the authors who agreed to take part.
Carolyn Arnold


[image error]











CAROLYN ARNOLD’s love for writing dates back to her teen years, but her passion was reignited in 2006 when a fellow employee said "tell me a story." Since then Carolyn has never looked back.
Carolyn Arnold published her first book, TIES THAT BIND, the first in her Madison Knight Series, in 2011 and it became a Kindle Best Seller, reaching the top 100 in Police Procedurals in the US and in the UK. Her writing has been compared to New York Times Bestsellers such as JD Robb, Mary Higgins Clark, Sue Grafton, Michael Connelly, Tess Gerritsen, and more. 
Carolyn was born in 1976 in a rural town of Ontario, Canada. She is a member of Crime Writers of Canada and lives with her husband, and two beagles in a city near Toronto.
Carolyn has also been a consistently loyal supporter of my work which is greatly appreciated. I have also read her book 'Eleven' which I would highly recommend. It is an FBI crime thriller which has great tension and a tantalising twist and displays the great skill of Carolyn the writer.
 Her latest release SILENT GRAVES, an FBI Procedural and second in a series, just came out!
Where to find Carolyn Arnold online:• Website• Blog• Twitter• Facebook  • Linkedin• Google
Where you can buy Carolyn Arnold's books:
• Amazon • Barnes & Noble  • Apple • Kobo   
Claude Nougat

[image error]

I have been very fortunate since starting writing to have 'collected' some amazing people who I consider friends online. Claude Nougat is one of those friends and a brilliant person who is patient, supportive and whose opinion is valued. She has often read my short stories and offered advice which I have been only to pleased to act upon. I have also read a couple of her works 'Hook in the Sky' and 'Forever Young' both of which I found stimulating. Claude has a very engaging style and uses her knowledge of relationships to enhance the emotional temperature of her writing.

[image error]
[image error] Claude has revised and republished 'Hook in the Sky' as Crimson Clouds and her Sicilian Saga Lunar Rising










 This is what Claude says about herself.

I'm a lot of things rolled into one:  a writer, economist, painter, poet and... a cook! I graduated from Columbia University (a long time ago, ahem), and since then,  I've  dabbled in a wide variety of jobs before starting a 25 year career at the United Nations (Food and Agriculture), where I grandly ended, much to my surprise, as Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia.

I've written all my life, even when I was working full time, and two of my books, written in Italian, were published by  traditional publishers in the 1990s. Again to my surprise and delight, those books won several awards in Italy, including the Premio Mediterraneo. Since I've retired, I've written  seven books in English, all fiction except one essay on development aid; in 2012, I founded a group in Goodreads to discuss Boomer Lit (now 500 members) and I suppose you could say I'm considered a prime exponent of the genre.  I also happen to be convinced that Boomer Lit is headed to great success as more and more baby boomers pass the 50 mark and want to read stories featuring people like themselves, entering their "second adulthood".

 I was very pleased when British poet Oscar Sparrow asked me to participate with some poems in the poetry anthology he was curating,  Freeze Frame , published by Gallo Romano Media in 2012.

------------------------------------------
So thank you to these two fine authors for agreeing to be part of this chain and I hope the readers of this blog chain find stories that entertain and intrigue them.
Thanks once again to Bert Carson for including me in his team.

God Bless

Writing - Marketing strategies including blog chains.

We are all in this business to express ourselves in the written word but we would also like people out there to read what we are writing. As I've said before not selling my work won't stop me from writing. So here are a few strategies and events that I use or have used in the past.

[image error]
Last weekend my good friend across the pond, Marmite eating, hard running ex Vietnam vet Bert Carson, invited me to take part in an 'author's blog chain'! Now like many others the concept of chain letters is not popular, however, when the process was described I decided to opt in.

 Bert CarsonIf you want to sample the chain click on the title Blogging Authors All In A Chain and read more. The group who agreed to have a go apart from me included Gae-Lynn Woods, Stephen Woodfin and Caleb Pirtle III. 
I am preparing to publish this coming Saturday/Sunday and will include good friends and supporters Claude Nougat and Carolyn Arnold.
As a strategy it is unlike chain letters in that there is no compulsion to publish and no money changes hands so what are the benefits? Well we are giving each other a wider scope of exposure and hopefully that will lead to sales but if it doesn't then we have tried a different strategy and if nothing else we are expanding circles of trusted and revered friends.
[image error]
Venture Galleries My third Steele novel 'The Biter Bit' is currently being serialised on Venture Galleries. This is another way in which our work is put out there for readers to sample. Use the link below to read the extracts.http://venturegalleries.com/serial/maybe-it-was-time-to-meditate-and-clear-his-mind/

[image error]
Smashwords This website enables writers to publish and be seen more widely in ebook form, particularly the USA.
[image error]
Completely Novel This is a link to my portfolio with the company who first published my novels in paperback. They have recently announced a link with Literary Agency Greene and Heaton who will consider books that are selling well through the parent website.
Whichever methods you use to sell your wares it is unlikely that one sole direction will suffice. Even authors with contracts through agents and traditional publishers are advised to run blogs, have Facebook IDs and to tweet. I wish you all who read this the greatest success if you write and if you're a reader consider relaxing with a book.
Don't forget to take a look at my author friends on the blog this weekend.
God Bless

Writing - Jacques-Louis David (non-fiction)

Jacques-Louis David
Jacques-Louis David was the official portraitist of Napoleon I. He was born in France in 1748 and died 1825 and was considered a neo-classicist. Until 1986 I’d heard of him but was unfamiliar with his work and then I went alone on holiday to Paris. During that week I spent a day in the Louvre which was when I first saw the artist’s work first hand. Most people attending the Louvre want to see Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo, and yes I have seen those amazingly famous pieces, but the painting that struck me as truly amazing was the Consecration of the Emperor Napoleon I and Coronation of the Empress Josephine. It was painted in the early years of the 19th century and in his ‘Empire style’.Now I’m not an art critic, historian or expert, those who consider themselves to be such would undoubtedly find me a philistine, but, to use a rather hackneyed phrase, I know what I like. The style of painting was very much in the style of a photograph – a snapshot of a real occurrence. It was an extremely detailed record of an actual event.The reason that I single out this artist and more particularly this particular painting is its lasting impression. The first and most obvious is its size, now don’t get me wrong I’m not easily impressed by things that are huge, but this work is almost ten metres wide and just over six metres high. In the gallery, if memory serves accurately, it was somewhere on the second floor and took up a wall. The whole of the wall! While people were climbing over each other to see the Mona Lisa, clutching their hired translation recorders to an ear, which made them look like electronically controlled beings, I was sitting in a quiet hall gazing at Napoleon I’s Coronation.The sheer effort in producing this piece must have been colossal. It took a couple of years to complete, 1805 -07, and David would have to maintain colour integrity, proportion and concentration. The details of people who were attending are beautifully crafted, from Pope Pius VII to Ottoman Ambassador Halet Efendi wearing his turban, the latter who was an onlooker rather than a principal in the action. There are few who work on such a scale these days apart from graffiti artists such as Banksy and they also have my admiration if for no other reason than scale.The painting David produced was probably very much in the mould of ‘another day at the office’ but he did produce almost two hundred other works of the ‘photographic’ type but also renditions of myths and legends. He seems to have been equally comfortable painting people as animals. His rendition of Napoleon crossing the Alps has a marvellous painting of the ruler riding a big grey, yet he paints the Death of Marat and has great feel for human anatomy.David was a character of strong views. He often stood up to authority and was a great supporter of the Revolution even though he’d been born into a wealthy family. As a young man he had a tumour on his face which impeded his speech and so spent much of his time sketching when he should have been studying. At various times in his life he attacked the establishment including the Royal Academy of Sculpture and Painting and eventually became friends with Robespierre one of the driving forces and cruellest men behind the execution of many Royalists. As a result of the association David ended up in prison and Robespierre went to the guillotine.In spite of being a revolutionary he was granted amnesty by the Bourbon king Louis XVIII and even offered the job of court painter. However, he turned down the offer and went to Brussels as a form of self-imposed exile where he painted his final masterpiece ‘Mars Disarmed by Venus and the Three Graces’ finishing it in the year before his death.Jacques-Louis David was leaving a theatre in December 1825 and eventually died on the 29th of that month. Disallowed return to France for burial, for having been a regicide of King Louis XVI, the body of the painter Jacques-Louis David was buried at Evere Cemetery, Brussels, while his heart was buried at Pere Lachaise, Paris.David was a really significant painter and led what could be euphemistically referred to as a busy life. He had between forty and fifty students and influenced painting in France and Belgium yet this same man could focus down to produce work of amazing detail and accuracy.
[image error]
Look him up!
God Bless

Poetry Thursday 98 - Relationships

This week I have become even more fully immersed in my daughter's upcoming marriage. This has produced a couple of sources of inspiration one which is to be expected I think and the second the opposite although Valentine's Day is partly responsible.

[image error]Wedding spoons!
Marriage
It would be easier to stay as we arenot upsetting the applecart of lifeto refrain from future gazing too farand avoid the risk of trouble and strife.But there is a promise of permanence,a security blanket of deep trust.We go forward with hope and confidencerelying on each other as we must.As we travel along this unique pathwe must enjoy all opportunities,avoiding stresses that may induce wrathembracing resulting prosperities.
An institution in which to savourlives joined, manufacturing new flavour.©David L Atkinson February 2014




The Bad Penny
Like a dull copper cointhe figure head feint but therefor no explicable reasononce more lodged in life’s pocket
The colour of spring’s shadowdull but outstandingamong silver and goldas a bolt of darkness
Why has it come again now?Because of others' happiness?The glare of mutual shiny changeconjures up opposing blackness
It will be spent eventuallyhanded over a bar or counterbut as on previous spendsthe promise of inevitable return.©David L Atkinson February 2014
God Bless

Writing - All smoke and mirrors

When you are writing a story with well developed characters they often take the story and run with it, this I have written about on previous occasions. At around 05:30 this morning I had one of those moments when Patrick A Steele spoke to me! No I haven't lost my marbles, well no more than usual, I suppose it could be categorised as a moment of inspiration. The story I'm writing tentatively entitled as 'Most Wanted Artefact' is progressing quite well, I am in the middle of the tenth chapter (28k words). The inspiration came from the lead character and he suggested a move which hadn't crossed my mind but which will assist him in the fullness of time. It is not within the bounds of possibility that the suggestion will put him at considerable risk but nevertheless I will take his suggestion on board.
Back to reality
The government announced with some pride that the inflation rate has dropped below 2% this month. That sparked my interest as I have noticed no significant change in the prices I pay for things on a regular basis. I decided to look into how the government works out rates of inflation. The results are worthy of a Booker-Man prize they are so indecipherable.
I began with CPI - Consumer Price Index - because this is the official measure of inflation and as if that wasn't confusing enough it is also known as the HCPI (H = harmonised). The CPI calculates the average price increase as a percentage for a basket of 600 different goods and services. I wanted to know what type of things were on the list to examine how relevant it was to ordinary people. All I could find was the following:-

The basket of goods and services chosen reflects changes in society's buying habits. For example, on 23 March 2009, rosé wine and takeaway chicken were added to the basket, whereas volume bottled cider and boxes of wine were removed.

Personally I haven't bought either for at least 20 years and you can count on the fingers of one hand the frequency with which I've bought rose wine! Eventually I found the list of the 600 items and it is pretty exhaustive including things like hiking boots to gardeners fees and private school fees; as well as everyday foodstuffs! 
However, the next question was how is the information surveyed. Remembering that the government produce monthly inflation figures there must be a method of conducting surveys. Apparently, they interview 6000 households to obtain their data. So, like the can of worms, I found the strand households and decided that I wanted to know how many there are in the UK. There were 26.4 million households in 2012. 
It is now maths time!

26 400 000 divided by 6000 = 4,400 divided by 12 = 367ish. 

That is the number of households divided by the number of surveys and then divided by the number of surveys each year. I was trying to find out the chances of being asked to be involved in the survey each year. If I've performed the maths correctly then each month you have a 1:367 chance of being interviewed each month. Now that seems a little odd in that in all the years I've been aware I have never known anyone in the north east or Yorkshire that has been surveyed! It just makes me wonder whether they ask the same folk every time!!


[image error]
So why spend a blog on this topic? Well, apart for my tendency towards conspiracy theory which I like to explore, it goes back to Steele and options he gives me when I am writing him. It's all smoke and mirrors because although I created him I can't always read his mind and it follows that planning a mystery from front to back wouldn't work for me - it has to flow according to his personality. If you are a budding writer don't be sucked into the security blanket of THE PLAN that some writing coaches will encourage you towards. Don't get me wrong, I need to have an outline of where a story is going. In the case of Cessation I knew the type of ending there was going to be even before I had put the metaphorical pen to paper. BUT don't be a slave to a detailed writing map it will stifle the creativity you are trying to develop.
God Bless

Tuesday Recipe - Fish Pie with souffle crouton topping.

A variation on a theme followed by food warnings. The warnings you can follow more thoroughly through the link which you may have to copy and paste into your browser.

On the plate
I served this with green vegetables. I think what attracted me to this version of an often made dish was the lighter topping. More often than not potato in some variety is slathered over the top of fish but this makes a very pleasant change. 
The full recipe is on the relevant TAB.

In the casserole
9 foods you should never eat again!
With so much misinformation out there about food and how it affects human health, making healthy food choices for you and your family can be difficult and confusing. There are a number of specific foods; however, that you will want to avoid in almost every circumstance because they provide virtually no health benefits while posing plenty of health risks. Here are nine foods you should never eat again if you care about preserving your long-term health.
See more at: http://beyondblindfold.com/nine-foods...
1) White bread, refined flours. By definition, white bread and refined flours in general are toxic for your body because they have been stripped of virtually all vitamins, minerals, fiber, and other important nutrients.
2) Conventional frozen meals. Most conventionally-prepared frozen meals are loaded with preservatives, processed salt, hydrogenated oils and other artificial ingredients, not to mention the fact that most frozen meals have been heavily pre-cooked, rendering their nutrient content minimal at best.  
3) White rice. Like white bread, white rice has been stripped of most of its nutrients, and separated from the bran and germ, two natural components that make up rice in its brown form. 
4) Microwaveable popcorn. This processed food is a favorite among moviegoers and regular snackers alike, but it is one of the unhealthiest foods you can eat.
5) Cured meat products with nitrates, nitrites. Deli meats, summer sausage, hot dogs, bacon, and many other meats sold at the grocery store are often loaded with sodium nitrite and other chemical preservatives that have been linked to causing heart disease and cancer. 
6) Most conventional protein, energy bars. By the way they are often marketed, it might seem as though protein and energy bars are a strong addition to a healthy diet. But more often than not, these meal replacements contain processed soy protein, refined sugar, hydrogenated fat, and other harmful additives that contribute to chronic illness.
7) Margarine. Hidden in all sorts of processed foods, margarine, a hydrogenated trans-fat oil, is something you will want to avoid at all costs for your health.
8) Soy milk and soy-based meat substitutes. One of the biggest health frauds of modern times, the soy craze is a fad that you will want to skip. Besides the fact that nearly all non-organic soy ingredients are of GM origin, most soy additives are processed using a toxic chemical known as hexane, which is linked to causing birth defects, reproductive problems, and cancer. 
9) “Diet” anything. Many so-called “diet” products on the market today contains artificial sweeteners like aspartame (Equal) and sucralose (Splenda), both of which are linked to causing neurological damage, gastrointestinal problems, and endocrine disruption.(As a warning I knew someone who drank diet orange rather than alcohol and ended up with bad headaches and even migraines. It was the aspartame causing the problem)

God Bless

Writing - Maria Brett-Cooper (pseudonyms)

Comedian Les Dawson wrote a secret romantic novel about the American Civil War called An Echo of Shadows[image error]
Les Dawson was known for his comic writing – Hitler Was My Mother-in-Law was one of his many books – but it turns out he was also a romantic novelist.A 110-page manuscript called An Echo of Shadows, which was written under the name Maria Brett-Cooper, has turned up more than a decade after the comedian's death.Charlotte Dawson, 21, whose father died aged 62 in June 1993 when she was just eight months old, discovered An Echo of Shadows when she was clearing out the attic of her Lancashire home. Charlotte told BBC Inside Out (North West), who are broadcasting a feature about the novel: “This is extremely special. This is a novel – a romantic novel – that I found when I was moving from the house that I lived in with my dad in Lytham. The novel was never ever published. He was about to publish it before he died. And obviously I’ve read it all and what I’m going to do – because it needs a bit of tweaking and adding bits on – is finish writing it and then hopefully publish it.”Dawson was known for his stand-up comedy and television sketches but he was an avid reader and fan of English literature, in particular the 19th-century essayist Charles Lamb. Dawson wrote a novel, Come Back With the Wind, about an English civil war following a dispute over whisky.


Charles Lamb (10 February 1775 – 27 December 1834) was an English writer and essayist, best known for his Essays of Elia and for the children's book Tales from Shakespeare, which he produced with his sister, Mary Lamb (1764–1847).He also wrote a number of poems, and was part of a literary circle in England, along with Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth, whom he befriended. He has been referred to by E. V. Lucas, his principal biographer, as "the most lovable figure in English literature"
PreudonymsAn alias used to mask the real (orthonym) name of a person or group. I pondered the use of a pseudonym when I first began writing but came to the conclusion that it was for other more pretentious people (possibly). The idea came to me again when I departed from the Steele novels and wrote Cessation. It was the ideal opportunity but the opportunity for what? I suppose if I wasn't so busy blogging all of the time and was more wary of the internet, I would use a pen name - its never too late. Perhaps if I was picked up by a traditional publisher and my books were reprinted I would make the change then. What is good enough for J K Rowling (Robert Galbraith) is good enough for me!
[image error]

God Bless

Writing - 10 things we didn't know

This week's collection include everything from crocodiles to road signs but I was surprised at the information about the late comedian, Les Dawson, and his sojourn into writing. Watch this space!
[image error]
1. Crocodiles can climb trees.
I just didn't need to know that!
----------------------------------------------
2. Cate Blanchett and her husband share an email account.

---------------------------------------------

3. The brain reacts to :-) in the same way as a human face but (-: does not give the same response.

--------------------------------------------


4. The first reference to the tooth fairy appeared in print in 1927.

I remember that this mystical being used to yield 6d (3p) for each tooth. I believe that inflation has taken hold since the 1950s

--------------------------------------------
5. Mathematical formulae can evoke the same sense of beauty in human brains as artistic masterpieces.

Lies - all lies!!!!
-------------------------------------------
6. One in three British households owns Queen's Greatest Hits.

---------------------------------------------------
7. South Australia has a higher rate of hypothermia deaths than Sweden.

------------------------------------------
[image error]
8. Comedian Les Dawson wrote a secret romantic thriller under the nom de plume Maria Brett-Cooper.

----------------------------------------
9. The only McDonald's franchise in Vietnam is run by the Harvard-educated son-in-law of the country's Communist prime minister.

----------------------------------------

[image error]
10. The Land's End sign gets taken down every night.

God Bless

Writing - The Enigma that is Love

On this St Valentine's Day it seems appropriate to write a blog concerning the nature of relationships and how they pertain to writing stories.


Throughout the Steele novels Patrick has had relationships in among the action and travelling. The handling and development of the relationships adds richness to the body of the story and draws in those readers who are of a romantic bent. In this series of stories I have maintained the relationship between Patrick and Naomi Kobayashi and allowed it to develop slowly but because of his life style and what happened to his first girlfriend there is always the question 'will she disappear or be killed?'

Cessation is not a Steele story. It is a dystopian story with a whole new set of characters but because of the nature of the story it is much more concerned with relationships even to the point of the perpetuation of the human race. So there is an exploration of how people relate particularly under stressful situations even to the threat of the human race. This story is set at a time when normal human existence has ceased and the human race is being urged forward into a more simplistic way of life.
The way you relate love in your stories doesn't require any boundaries and as an illustration I found these real examples below. Some of them are weird to say the least.

Life hadn't been kind to Jack McKenna. His wife ran off with his best friend and left for America. His daughter was dying of influenza. He, too, was struck down with the flu. Only a few shillings stood between him and starvation.
Even when fate finally smiled on him, it was more of a mischievous grin.
In January 1892, a well-dressed woman breezed up to the workhouse in Deptford, London and asked for Jack by name. When shown to his room, the Leeds Mercury reported, she fell to her knees and begged his forgiveness. It was his estranged wife, back from California, where his ex-best friend had made a fortune in the gold-fields. He was now dead, and his wife wanted to pick up where they'd left off.
But in a plot twist worthy of Thomas Hardy, she, herself, caught influenza while nursing her husband back to health. She died of pneumonia, leaving him £62,000 in her will.


Sometimes, it just doesn't work out. The spark goes, the flame flickers, the fire dies - whichever combustible cliche you favour, love has a regrettable habit of fizzling out.
But for everyone bar the wealthiest men in Victorian Britain, divorce was out of the question. That may explain, if not excuse, why a navvy in Stacksteads, Lancashire who'd grown tired of married life, reverted to an old English custom.
He offered up his wife for auction to the highest bidder, staging the sale - as an additional insult - at the home they'd shared together.
"Despite Solomon's testimony as to a woman being more precious than rubies, and notwithstanding that the spectators were numerous, the highest offer was only 4d. [2p]," said the Sheffield and Rotherham Independent in 1879.
"The seller wanted to 'throw in' three children, but the buyer objected, and the bairns were left on hand. The wife, however, went joyfully to the home of her new owner, and seemed to be quite glad to get away from her late liege lord as he was to part with her."
And the buyer? His next-door neighbour.

As they say in Yorkshire,

There's nowt so queer as folk!'
God Bless 

Writing - Car of the Week - short story

This the model of car involved in the story below. It is a Ford Cortina Mark 1

Car of the Week!
“Car of the week! They saw me coming,” I was mentally screaming in frustration.            It was a beautiful car when it was cruising on the motorway and would travel at 100mph comfortably. I’d fallen in love with it as soon as I spotted the car raised above the rest of its competition on the garage forecourt with the ‘Car of the Week’ legend above its coffee coloured roof. It wasn’t particularly old, the lower half was cream contrasting nicely with the coffee coloured top and it was a model that I’d often admired. There was no question of me not buying it. That was the first mistake. I would even go as far as to say if you ever see something as a special of the week avoid it like the plague.            It still was a beautiful drive when it was going. The problem with it was getting it started. I would drive to work in it one day and the following morning, wanting to repeat the experience, the bloody thing wouldn’t kick over. When I’d bought it there was a three month warranty so I would ring the garage and they would come out get the beast to go and it’d be ok for another couple of days. Eventually the garage agreed to take it in and give it a good going over in an effort to rid me of the problem.            Need you ask what happened next? Sunday morning, after the car had been serviced, I went to the vehicle to make a short journey, placed the key into the ignition and turned it. Click! Nothing! I was furious. The feelings generated by having spent a significant amount of money and the stark realisation that you’ve made a huge mistake, creates a swathe of feelings ranging from utter despair to incandescent anger. It was matched in the ire displayed by the garage owner, when I insisted that he come out and fix the car there then. He was not a happy man, which was understandable, but I felt that his business was not doing anything to solve the problem. He looked very smart in his Sunday suit wielding spanner and pliers and the car did start eventually.            Problem solved? I was beginning to think so. The travel to work and back had been uneventful and I was beginning to believe that my beautiful car was going to re-establish itself in that special place in my heart. I was so happy with the vehicle I travelled to see my parents in it the following weekend. The 200 mile return journey was trouble free and not a worry crossed my mind.            Monday morning the car started, I picked a colleague up and we headed off to work. The traffic lights were on red and I stopped as you have to then the unthinkable happened. The engine stalled. I tried the key and nothing, just the old, too familiar dry click. It was just as well that there was the two of us. It was a big car and I couldn’t have pushed it to the side of the road without help. We got to work eventually, the car was restarted by the garage once more but the mechanics had come with a message saying that they wouldn’t come out to the vehicle anymore. I took the opportunity later that day to go to the garage with the troublesome transport, the bill of sale, the warranty, and the log book. I took the paperwork and the keys into the office of the boss and slammed them down on the desk. I demanded another car. I didn’t want my car to go. It sat on the forecourt looking deceptively smart yet forlorn in that it was being left behind. How many times had this happened before? The garage owner was as exasperated as I was but did a straight swap with another older vehicle and cheerfully watched me leave his establishment undoubtedly hoping never to see me again.The story doesn’t quite end there however. The second mistake I made was accepting a lesser vehicle as it represented a financial loss. Indeed that loss was compounded a couple of years later when the engine of the second vehicle blew up and, as I was financially strapped, I couldn’t afford to repair the car. It was sold at an auction for £20 which was barely scrap value. In the end buying the ‘car of the week’ had been a very expensive mistake!
My advice - don’t be dazzled by someone else’s hype. It could cost you serious money.
God Bless