Who for the gangplank?

I realise I'd omitted the speedboat from  the last post.  It's the pointy one in the picture above. 

Here's a movie of the gangplank. Cue Duran Duran.

Music videos were different in those days. Pink, with much custard and a saxaphone solo.

Out of it

We've been out of it for the last couple of weeks. Missing the 'section lies and that football thing. The configuration is room, balcony, pool, bar, beach, sea. 

And repeat. Although 36 Celsius makes it too tempting to simply stop at 'pool'.

unused secret cover

This was the one that got away. Spot the difference.

Layers, eh?

Click to view in Amazon!

Covered It

Now I'm also creating a few collections from my novels. I've always done this, but it;s never as simple as just binding three books together. The main issue is that the 'gutter' in the middle of the book needs to be larger when there are more pages. 

The thing I usually forget? To ensure that the page size I'm using is the same in Word, Photoshop and In Design. Otherwise it's almost impossible to get things to align.

Mysteriously this doesn't seem to happen on smaller novels of say 250-300 pages.

The other factor is the choice of cover art. If I open it to mr ARC-readers, they will inevitably pick two different covers. It happened with Artificial, one of the Christina Nott books and now with Secrets. I've rationalised it by having an International cover and a U.S. specific one. 

As if.

I've decided to re-vamp some of my novels. New cover art and so-on. It will be good to see whether it has any effect on sales. I've decided to do this process piecemeal and so the first few that I've completed are the latest of my novels. Occasionally I stumble into an older one, like the above political thriller, which seems to feature an incompetent government. As if.

Gamester

 Caravaggio's gambler still has cards to play, unaware that Holbein has another scenario in which a gamester is comprehensively seized.

Yet, sadly, playing blind against an unprincipled mobster can lead to any outcome.

pew-pew-pew

An advert (below) today, inserted into my information stream. I guess it's been generated by Artificial Intelligence. I usually use a VPN and other ad filtering measures, but this time I was in a hotel. I can remember that the same 'intelligent; advert systems also placed me in impossible locations.

Oh Well.

Dark : Approaching completion

Volume Three of my latest novel in the series is now almost complete. The sequence goes Cosy, Church, Dark. Early feedback on this part is well, that it is dark.

I've still to get it ISBN'd and published, but at least I have the cover art. It will be about 270 pages when it's ready.

blue submarine splash down

I've been off t'internet for the last few days but return to find a distinct waterline as the latest punditry from the UK seeps in. Newsfeeds to plumbing firms are sending advertorials awash with their splash coverage. It's difficult to avoid that sinking feeling, but also to slightly marvel at the depths of a man in shrunken Henry Herbert trousers wallowing in tradition as he disappears down a party plug-hole.

Emperor's clothing

 

Oh dear. 

{Fade to red}.

It's all too much

I knew it. A hat tip to the Prisoner in that 1960's episode of Doctor Who. Jukebox {Check} Austin Powers moment {Check} Beatles royalties {nope} 

As Dangerous Bacon says:  A silent admiration for the boys in the Beatle boots Had turned me on to C,F & G 

Strawberries and Abbeys

Some might ask, "Are we nearly there yet?' Here's The Strawberry, outside of St James Park. Convention says no apostrophes. Now Saudi-owned, they plan to make the lop-sided, road-blocking stadium even bigger by rotating the pitch through 90 degrees. 

They are not allowed to spend their piles of Saudi cash on the players, so instead make the high-capacity ground even bigger. All good clean fun? It's a long road to 2034.

 After a few beers, it's time to hit the trail. back to sleep among the flight cases. I'll be considering how to transition back to blog-posts, which have been the rashbre central tradition since 2005 

https://rashbre2.blogspot.com/2005

It's a scary thought, that I originally produced these posts as a social experiment, before most of the networked systems were even available. My original rules were: ten minutes per post. A photo and some text. Stay positive. Any topics except 'work'. 

It's kinda worked.

And so, if Newcastle was my road-trip destination, then these emails should also finally stop. Maybe on the way back. Here at tonight's summer-time stop. 

Enjoy. Fun going forward.