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Showing posts from June, 2010

Invasion of Plastic Lids

It's true. Plastic lids - those that tightly enclose your leftover beans and other such delicacies in a pot - are multiplying. I appreciate that this must sound like the most inane comment I have come out with recently but I can back up this statement with clear evidence.I used to think that it was only my kitchen cupboards that had endless supplies of lids which fit nothing at all but other members of my family have the same thing happening.I assume from this that it's happening in kitchens all over the country and probably in other countries too. This is not a local problem. The signs of this happening start first with you only being able to find the pot and no lid to fit it. If you are lucky you may have a few empty chinese takeaway dishes but it is unlikely that the selection of lids will fit the one with your portion of decaying chilli in it. The problem then escalates to finding lids which you can not remember ever having a pot to go with it - sometimes in colours that

A Book Too Far

"Massacre in Cumbria" by Clare Leigh will be published in paperback on 30th July, priced £7.99, published by John Blake. He says that some of the profits will be donated to the charity Victim Support as “We feel it’s a very raw subject so we don’t want to seem like we’re exploiting the dreadful murders." He reckons they have a moral obligation to do this. Yeah Right. Some of the profits ? Why not all, if this has to be done at all and by an outsider ? But does it ? And so soon after the awful events ? The author is apparently an experienced journalist.Hmm - not experienced enough to know about insensitivity it seems. Or perhaps I am being too sensitive.

21 day marketing plan

Just received this email from createspace.com and find it interesting especially after me going on about information overload etc in my last 2 blogs. I might pledge a couple of the suggestions (not saying which though- someone might try and hold me to it ! ) "They say that it takes 21 days to form a habit. Marketing your book shouldn’t be a task you dread. It should be a habit that comes to you easily. Pledge to do the following 7 steps everyday for the next 21 days, and form a habit that is going to strengthen your online presence and create a community around yourself and your book that will continue to grow over time and ultimately help you get in the habit of selling books. 21 Day Book Marketing Pledge 1.) I pledge to give one book away to a charity, friend, or organization. The book I give away will be signed by me with all my online contact information and a handwritten invitation to review the book on Amazon. 2.) I pledge to write an entry for my blog. 3.) I pledge

Re wiring the mind

An article in today’s Daily Mail suggests that the internet is making us less able to concentrate. We read fewer books of the paper variety as anything we want is available at a click and there is a mind blowing supply of information constantly at hand. All knowledge that there ever was can be in anyone’s mind. But not only is the information permanently available, it seems that the internet is actually “blowing our minds” as the process of using the net is “subverting the very process of intellectual inquiry”. Doing research in a library involves us in deciding which step to take next to further the enquiry – the internet does that for us by providing a hyperlink. We all know that the internet has been blamed for all ills in society and done by mankind, but I have to agree that in this instance the suggestions ring true with me. I say this as I write this while half watching the Matthew Wright show on television and half reading the newspapers on the internet (on second thoughts,