Odds, ends, the new Doctor, and where's Jack?!

Life is a process of waiting, before you rush maniacally through some vital chore so that you can get back to waiting again. And then waiting some more.

You guessed: I'm watching the mailbox for the proof copy of THE LORDS OF HARBENDANE. Our postman has recently discovered that he can actually shove a book parcel from CreatSpace into the mailbox, if he pushes hard enough, so the proofs aren't up on the porch anymore; they're sticking up out of the mailbox, down on the road.

Except HARBENDANE isn't -- not yet. And yes, I knooooow the Christmas mails are slow. I know I have to be patient. I know I won't see the proof for a week yet, and even when I do have it in my hand, it'll take another 10 days or so before it shows up in the engine at Amazon. But still ... one is keenly aware of all the WAITING.

The browser page for the book is done and also (!) waiting to upload, but there's little point putting it out there till the Amazon engine actually knows what the blithering hell everyone is talking about. Harbendane? Where's that, somewere in Denmark?

Otherwise, work continues slowly, as usual. The good news is that Amazon sales are very promising indeed. How about two per day in the period since the New Year break, without a shred of advertising being done yet?! Keep this up, and the numbers soon turn very, very "friendly" indeed. I'm guardedly optimistic, especially since soon -- I swear by any deity you care to nominate, including Marduk, the Babylonian god of war, if you like! -- I'm going to start some bloody advertising. You're supposed to market your books: I know, I know. The real world, however, is about TIME, or the lack of it. (In other words, I can blog, or I can write a new story, or I can edit/polish an existing story, or I can do marketing work ... or I can go to work and pay some bills, buy some groceries. Right now I'm juggling all these things, which is why work progresses slooooowly.)

A couple of things of interest: the latest version of my favorite imaging program, Irfanview, has been released. Get the free download here: http://www.irfanview.net/. Wouldn't know what to do without this program -- best on the market, except it isn't on the market, it's free. You can help development of further versions with a $12 donation (or set your own amount). Best program of its kind.

Cheers to Aricia on the new blog, which is the featured blog right now at The Book Bloggers. AG put me onto this site back at Christmas -- it's a great innovation which should help a great many writers both old and new. Go here: http://breenibooks.today.com/. Also, thanks to AG for the excellent reviews of my vampyre novels, which were just uploaded. Much appreciated.

Peripheral to Torchwood, the, uh, part of the Doctor has at last been recast. We've known for some time that David Tennant is departing after some impending movies; but which face would he be regenerating into? Here it is, plastered on the Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/celebritynews/4124591/Doctor-Who-Introducing-Matt-Smith-the-26-year-old-Time-Lord.html

This will be the youngest Doctor yet ... and one has to speculate about a Doctor in his tender mid-twenties, and, uh, Jack. Nudge, wink, and so forth. I guess they know where they're going with this!

It's certainly going to make the next season or two of DW interesting. Personally, I'll miss David Tennant, who is responsible in large part for making the Doctor "the role in UK television."

Not bad for a show that started about 45 years ago and had the cheesiest scripts, effects and sets ever seen on the tube. David T. was certainly the best doctor, though I must admit, there was a flirty sense of fun between John Barrowman and Christopher Eccleston's delightfully goofy/angsty Doctor ... there, you felt that "something could happen."

And on that note, I'll leave you and head back to work!

Cheers,
MK