Saturday 25 October 2008

FAR AFTER GOLD arc

I have my book in my hands! FAR AFTER GOLD! by Jen Black!
Half a dozen ARCs arrived in the post today. It felt strangely unreal to think that I'd written it, because it looks like a normal paperback book. Stylish, even. One for me and the others to go out for reviews. I love the cover and I wish I had the approved cover art to put here for you. Soon, soon... so come Monday you know what I shall be doing - I'll be making those all important calls to secure reviewers. Wish me luck!


The picture is of Durham Cathedral. For both of us it was a case of going back "home." So many of the old places are gone, replaced by cafes and restaurants and it is difficult to walk twenty yards without the smell of food and coffee drifting out on the air. No wonder the nation is rapidly gaining weight!
The cathedral is about the only place safe from change. Difficult to remember cowering by the walls as the old red buses lumbered up the middle of Silver Street. Now it is a pedestrian thoroughfare, and probably rightly so given the size of modern buses. They'd be scraping people off the walls these days. Traffic has increased so much that only those who pay or have special passes are allowed to drive up to the cathedral.
Sometimes I'm surprised the weight of motor vehicles doesn't tilt the world off its axis.
On the other hand, we've all adapted so well to having cars that our lifestyles are now built around them. We live in places inaccessible by bus or train or so far away that to get to work in the morning we'd need to leave home by six to get there by nine - and this in a country as small as the UK. The old corner shop has all but disappeared because we all drive out of town to shop at the superstores like Tesco and Waitrose. Our lives are so busy that we don't have time to spend travelling anywhere by bus when we can get there in a third of time by car. Governments are going to have a dickens of a job persuading people out of their cars. I'm off to Bowes Museum tomorrow. How will I go? By car, of course. I have no idea if I could get there by bus. To go to Durham, much nearer than BM, I would have to use a minimum of two buses (a maximum of three) and the journey would take me two hours and four minutes at best, two hours and twenty five minutes at worst. And that is with connections within minutes of each other. Imagine what would happen if one bus was late...
No contest, is it?

2 comments:

Linda Banche said...

Congratulations on receiving copies of your book. You sound happy and you should be. It's quite an achievement. I'm sure you'll find lots of reviewers.

As for cars, I hate cars. I have one because I have to. But I would be very happy if I never had to drive ever again.

Jen Black said...

I like driving, for all sorts of reasons, and I like to think I do it well. We've had sports cars for fifteen years and I loved them. Now we're a bit more dignified with a 3-door 4 seater that has a bit of go about it but at least packing for France won't be such a torment!

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