Skip to main content

Frustration

Around 21 September when Lost Lady was published, I ordered FIVE author's copies.

While waiting for them, friends had bought copies and were writing with comments and questions and talking about the cover, and I hadn't seen it yet!

Yesterday, when my copies were finally due to be delivered, I had a message from Amazon saying that the box (printed in Germany) had been damaged and they were refunding my money. It obviously never occurred to the wizards at Amazon that I might actually want the copies, but no option was given.

In desperation to see the book, I ordered one copy at retail rates today (12 October) and was notified that it would be delivered Monday (14 October). Presumably, that will be printed in the UK - so why weren't my author's copies?

Maybe they will be after Brexit - if there is an after Brexit.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

First Lines

First lines are first impressions Teachers of creative writing are always bleating about the importance of first lines. They're not wrong, but a first line isn't make-or-break. Many excellent novels have indifferent first lines, but their significance is often created by the fact that they are the opening lines of great books; they are not great books because they have killer opening lines. Consider the first line of Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities . it rambles on for 119 words, and demonstrates that Dickens had no understanding of the semi-colon. Most people can only remember the first dozen words; show-offs know the first two dozen. Dickens was being paid by the word, and was a master at turning one good idea into a whole chapter. (Don't misunderstand me: A Tale of Two Cities is one of my favourite books.) First lines are like book titles. They can take a while for the writer to feel satisfied with them, but often, they don't really matter. When asked what he

Was Scrooge Conned?

It would be interesting to trace the tradition of the Christmas ghost story beyond the superficial (see below). I am sure it is related to the darkness and cold of the year and people huddled around a fire for comfort and warmth, but the association with Christmas and ghosts is incongruous - or is it? Yes, there were pagan mid-winter feasts, but it's hard to see why they would emerge in the 18th and 19th centuries when ghost stories rose in popularity. Dickens is, of course, associated with the genre and wrote the quintessential Christmas ghost story. Ironically, given its Christmas theme, God barely gets a look in in A Christmas Carol . There are only a dozen mentions of God - mostly in passing "God bless you"s or the singing of God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen. There is no mention of Christ, Jesus, or Saviour, and no one is seen going to church. So, what we have is a ghost story trading on a secular commercial Christmas so that Dickens and his publisher can sell a few

Jonathan Creek Revisted

  Having watched the last episode of The Capture,  I was looking for something equally intriguing but not as frightening. I decided to re-watch the old episodes of Jonathan Creek . Like everyone else, I have my favourite episodes and they are enhanced by the actors and settings. The series had the ability to draw one in and make everything seem possible, if unlikely. However, the re-watching exercise only reinforced my view that Maddy Magellan was possibly the most irritating character who has been on television in more than a generation. I can throw the usual abuse at her, but her most egregious sins are that she is irredeemably selfish and, throughout the series, she never learns anything . She appears in 18 episodes and is as stupid in the last as she was in the first. Her selfishness not infrequently crosses the line from being mildly amusing to downright mean. For all of her emancipated liberalism, she is an objectionable human being (I leave it others to decide whether that is ca