February 2007 - Posts
I'm having trouble with John Smith. He is a delightful chap, kind to small children and fluffy animals, a devoted husband and respected leader of men and sometimes women. Or he would be if he existed.
This is how it happened. Some years ago I had a small business and, along with the usual junk mail I received a letter addressed to, 'John Smith, Director.' I tore it up, along with the rest of the mail telling me I'd won a million dollers and just send my bank details to The Democratic Bank of Nigeria at a box number. What I didn't realise at the time was the power of Viral Marketing. The computer programme containing John Smith spoke to another computer and that spoke to the world's computers.
John Smith has been invited to join the Board of Directors and to take a business studies course at a minor American University. He has been asked for jobs, he regularly gets telephone calls. There are occasions when he receives more post than I do.
I picture him sitting on QANGOS. No doubt he will get a peerage when he can raise the money. As far as I can see the man is unstoppable and I'm going to have to learn to live with him.
I realise that I am reading four books at once. This is a formula for madness, but so far things are under control. I am reading two books on building a web site. Something wildly ambitious for someone who has just had two days of stress installing Broadband and lost email in the process. The other books are 'The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood, an author much loved by Creative Writing tutors for her elegant prose, and 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.' The hidden agenda is that I would really like to write elegant prose and I want to check out the descriptive passages in 'Huckleberry Finn.' Maybe it won't improve my own efforts, but it's worth a try.
At present Margaret Atwood is steadily pulling away from Mark Twain in the pages per day race. Each paragraph of the computer books has to be read at least twice, so they are not progressing as well.
A year ago I started 'Horse Painters', a children's novel. Having written a few chapters, a synopsis and chapter outlines I stopped writing and spent time editing and sending out another book. 'It's all there, I can pick it up again anytime,' I said.
Oh no I couldn't. I tried a few weeks ago and found I had totally lost the plot. It may have been written down but to get into the world of the book in my mind was another matter. It took a long time and it was a pain going back to old notes. Now things are ticking along quite nicely again, but a lot of time was lost.
So now we know, keep going until the end. Or there is trouble ahead.