Postcards from the Planet of the Apes

Having a wonderful time, wish you were here. So much to do: crash-landing, dodging gorillas, eating bananas, getting bashed by crazed chimpanzees --

At least, that's what it feels like. Two days of house cleaning, and I've "done" my back. I mean, I've ***DONE*** my back. Can't stand up straight ... am walking like Galen. (You remember Galen. The cute chimp from the tv show, not the homicidal maniac from the Mark Wahlberg movie.)

So, anyway, that's my principal means of locomotion at this point it time, and it gives one a whole new respect for Roddy McDowall and Tim Roth (in fact, particularly Tim Roth, who utterly submerged himself in the insane chimp. High wow factor).

And -- you know me by now -- I'm trying to figure some way to spin-doctor this to my advantage:



Hmmm. Now, that has possibilities.

Fortunately, the house cleaning is finished now, and since you usually write while sitting down, it won't (or shouldn't) put the mockers on work. The fantasy novel, THE LORDS OF HARBENDANE, progresses smoothly, and we're steadily thrashing out a cover -- which you'll see here on the blow, some time before it appears on the book. Work on the website continues, with the Adbrite code having been removed completely as of this moment. Rats. Adsense will replace it in the next few days, and ... we'll see how we go as per sales. Already, I can tell you this much: the offending competitor's code was halfway erased yesterday, and a portion of our traffic (with associated sales) automatically came right back overnight. Makes you cynical, doesn't it?

Or, to put it another way, Google ain't there for our benefit!

Speaking of the Goog, I read a fairly fascinting bit of search engine and internet related trivia. Of all the traffic -- page views, research, schmoozin' and cruisin' -- that goes on, online ... 90% of it happens on the search engines. The rest of us (the actual websites, pages, features, phots, art, content) are squeezed into the last 10%.

And this is no mean feat, when you consider that (another mildly appalling fact) there are now more webpages than there are people in the world -- not counting blogs. God knows what happens when you count in blogs. I think we melt down.

So, Wednesday evening finds me respecting Tim Roth and Roddy McDowall (who was one of the best British gay actors you could name ... and a long-time personal favorite of mine) a whole lot, and getting a great deal more acquainted with the floor than I cared for, and wondering where I left the Tiger Balm.

Having a wonderful time, wish you were here. The weather in Ape City is grand, and they have terrific bananas.