Just a short note to say I have just added a forum address to the useful resources list in the sidebar that some of you may be interested in: SCHOOL CORPORAL PUNISHMENT on network54. As always just click to visit or check out the right hand sidebar. It is listed prefaced with the word FORUM and shortly I shall group all forums together in the list in such a manner. Oh... and here's a little photo to whet your appetite (not sure where from, though - someone sent it to me via email. Thanks whoever you were). And by the way... While still finishing off the new book I have begun a little preliminary research for a prospective book on baldness and hair loss - male pattern baldness, that kind of thing and from a 'self-help' perspective. Opinions anyone? I am thinking about something following the 'Idiots Guides" model, with expert sections (the science stuff) and simplified 'straight to the point chunks.' Anyone out there know of a pre-existing publication around these lines? Go on: give me a hand with a little market research! See you later.
Garth, I suggest you stick to the new book and finish it off before launching on a survey about baldness!
ReplyDeleteNot that I want to clip your wings but we have all been impatiently waiting for book 3.
I'm quite surprised at your interest in baldness and hair loss as apparently you don't seem to be directly involved!;-))
Hi Orage!
ReplyDeleteYou say: "I'm quite surprised at your interest in baldness and hair loss as apparently you don't seem to be directly involved". But I am 'involved' you see.
I almost certainly would have been polishing my pate in the mirror long ago if not for nutritional - and not a little pharmacological - intervention over the years (mostly the latter in more recent times). There is not a whole lot I don't know about the causes of hair loss - and what can be done to combat it.
What the 'survey' was all about was to do a little market research to test the waters and to see what else was already out there in terms of an informative book or guide. Yes the information is all out there scattered across the internet and in various scientific journals, but the same could be said for all those teach-your-self ''Idiot's Guides' you can find on the shelves of any high street book store. It takes time and trouble to gather it all together and filter fact from myth, and also not everyone is lucky enough to have access to peer reviewed research journals.
As to any clashing with the work ongoing on the new book - it has little bearing. You see I can usually only work on the book in the daytime. Once the kids get in from school I can't risk it - too many prying eyes and noses poking over the shoulder. The exception is if I pitch up in a bar, coffee house or pub somewhere. But even then there is a limit on the type of theme I can work on - too many prying and judgmental eyes again. A medical, self help book on some innocuous subject such as hair loss is a different matter entirely and is something I can work on with impunity whatever the time and place. It would also be likely to appeal to a far, far wider audience than my present output and I need to generate some sort of income to fund the type of work I most enjoy. So I see the hair loss project as something purely financial but supporting the hobby side of my life, which these days revolves around all this fetish stuff (that earns bugger-all!).
Incidentally the new book is currently up to 277 pages with perhaps another 75 to 100 pages to be trawled through, rearranged, edited and pasted in. Some of that 277 pages thus far compiled will probably end up being edited out - perhaps 10 - 15 pages as it stands(mostly non-essential unfinished parts that I wont have time to complete if the thing is to be published in a sensible timescale). As there are two distinct threads to the storyline I am still considering splitting the thing in two. See Ya later!
"Once the kids get in from school I can't risk it - too many prying eyes and noses poking over the shoulder."
ReplyDeleteSorry, Garth! I had forgotten what it was like, my own children having left the nest long ago.
LOL, yeah Garth plays a dangerous game. Maybe he can dust off the old gag where you read a scandalous book inside of a less questionable one. He just needs to replace the books with browser windows.
ReplyDelete"Maybe he can dust off the old gag where you read a scandalous book inside of a less questionable one. He just needs to replace the books with browser windows."
ReplyDeleteI sort of already do, when I'm out and about, Madmonkey. I have several tabs open at once in my browser - one an innocuous one such as a Google search page - and click on that tab if anyone gets too close or seems to be paying a little too much attention.
In pubs it's OK as what I write means bugger all to the average pub-goer and I'd think nothing about discussing my blog or books or imagery or whatever with all and sundry. Other places can be a problem, particularly coffee bars - it's the religious types one has to be aware of nowadays in Britain. Tiny coffee cups that somehow last all day, beards and shaved heads go together to spell potential trouble. I have even seen women tearing advertisement posters from bus shelters and pealing them off walls, presumably because they feature a bikini-clad young woman!
When I go on holiday I don't go around tearing down religious texts from walls or even bullfighting posters (when in Spain) because they offend me or 'disrespect' some aspect of my culture.
I mean: I'm a 'heavy metal' man with long hair, but I don't lay into the first reggae-loving skinhead football supporter (do they still exist?) I see because our cultures clash (mostly because I'd get my head kicked in!).