It was a dark and stormy night... and other tuesday morning randomness.

New Releases

'Miniscule blue flowers cascaded down the bleached ancient stones of the wall. By its foot, a fluorescence of apricots and a worn runnel of clear flowing water, lent an air of delight and abundance to the garden...

She shifted petulantly under the parasol and sipped her glass of rough red paraffino. "I know zay dumped ze veppons overboard before ze vorship clohsed, but viz all ze rardars and sattaleets today, it is too easy to votch sheeps."'

Intrigued? The Suppliant by Peter Morris, Saxum Books, 0955304105, £11. Available now at C&P

New Blog

Scott Pack has a new blog to go with his shiny new job. I'll get Marie to add it the roll of honour when she comes back.

Professionalism, Maturity and blogging

There are so many angle that blogs take. Ranting, professional, political, sentimental, angry, stoopid, widely read, hardly read. Some have agendas, some don't. I particularly liked this response from Mil Millington in an interview on this blog

As a former professional IT guy who has harnessed the beastly power of the web to get his writing known, do you have plans to employ other technologies to air your writing, such as a podcast?

Well, as I say, I didn't mean to. I was simply amusing myself - I didn't think anyone else would take any notice. And then, when they did, I still didn't regard it as a career opportunity or anything so... so... so American. As an aside, I get lots of email offering to increase the traffic to my site, in various ways. I have no interest in increasing the traffic to my site - why would I? I have a bicycle. I got it from Halfords for about £100, in a sale. I've put a reasonable amount of care and effort into making sure it's a good bicycle - I've changed the saddle, done things to the tyres and so on - and that it works well. If people see my bicycle as I go by, and take a look at it, and like it, that's fine. If they actually call out, 'Hey - like your bike! I'm pleased I saw it,' then that's nice, I suppose. However, why on earth would I feel the desire to have my bicycle seen by every person it was possible to gather round? It's my bicycle. I have it because I like riding it (and I don't have a car); I don't have it because I want people to know I have it, and gaze at it longingly.

Which is sort of the attitude I have to our blog. After a comment on a post of mine yesterday I was wondering what this blog should be about but then I remembered that C&P is an enterprise owned and run by two thirty-something, middle class layabouts who didn't like being told what to do and either couldn't be arsed or were incapable of getting a real job. (I haven't forgotten Marie. She has her own special place here and in our hearts!) Of course we take our business seriously as it's our livelihood but our inner teenagers have to escape somewhere and voila! Blogland! So in the spirit of our own C&P approach to cyberspace if you've got any pissy, condescending comments - just keep them to yourselves. Thank you.

However

The marvelous Susan Hill has added us to her blog roll. I suddenly feel an urge to grow up and take things a bit more seriously... Maybe tomorrow.