Art is Long and Time is Fleeting!

Kindle Countdown - starts today! It has been rather a frustrating and disjointed week - I guess we all get ’em sometimes. My head and chest are still blocked-up with the remnants of the flu-like bug Judith and I fell prey to a few weeks back. We’d hoped this week to finally wave goodbye to the monumental scaffold that clings about our house, but there’s a problem with the flashing on a chimney, so the scaffold has to stay until the end of the month when our roofing guys can get on to it. Last night we went to the cinema and watched what was billed as a tour of the art treasures of the Vatican Museum in Rome. It turned out a big disappointment with lots of pointless tracking shots entering and exiting grand doors, or cameras pulling away to reveal the great sweep of a curving staircase, every meaningful moment meaningfully backed with meaningful music (geddit!), and then there were long lingering moments when we were transported to some darkly-lit space where a brooding bare-chested actor painfully emoted while the narration prattled on, ramming it home how artists suffer for their art - I don’t know about that, but I was certainly suffering about ten minutes into this ludicrously ponderous production with its fatuous commentary. For goodness sake, just show us more of the flippin’ art, the wonderful sculpture and fine painting, the Michelangelo and Raphael! What a wasted opportunity! 

Okay, that’s the ranting over and done with - good things happened too. My book Roadrage acquired a very nice review from Aditi Saha, an avid reader and book blogger who lives in West Bengal, India. Aditi posted her comments on Goodreads, Amazon.com and provided a first review for either of my books on Amazon India. Over the past two weeks I’ve been highlighting opportunities for Kindle readers in the US to buy copies of my books at greatly discounted prices. And from today there’s going to start a similar offer for UK readers. The countdown deal begins with Niedermayer & Hart from 20 November, immediately followed by Roadrage from the 27 November. As with the Amazon.com countdown offer, the very best price for each of the books will be at the start. I sincerely hope a large number of people take up this offer and I look forward to hearing whatever feedback they care to send my way over the coming weeks and months. Enjoy. Here’s the link to Niedermayer & Hart .