Share Full And Fair Ones; Come And Buy

May 30th, 2009 |

You can get it at corner shops in Greece, Spain, Italy, France and the gods know where else. Can you get it at major supermarkets in the UK? Naah… no call for it; have you tried the (grin) strawberry - I am told (blech!).

What do I speak of? Cherry juice. Marvelous first thing in the morning as a wake up and somehow it invigorates more than the usual slug of orange.

Things may be about to change thanks to scientists findings, presented at the American College of Sports Medicine Conference in Seattle, of the red stuff.

It may become the new ‘sports drink’.

I don’t do sports… I just like the taste and wait with anticipation to find it in my local shop.

Share Who Dunnit And Other Mysteries

May 29th, 2009 |

Where can you buy ROSKO?

What exactly is an interrobang?

Share Progress - Hurrah!

May 28th, 2009 |

Here we are near the end of the week and I am 5,000 words further on for the next novel - “playas” - than I was on Monday. At this rate - with another 25,000 words to go - I should hit my deadline of August for the edit, rewrites and addendum. Hurrah!

ROSKO - published by us as Alberts Press - is doing okay at Amazon and I note that the author, Phil P Mitchell, not only has a blurb in one of today’s free press newspapers but that his first book “Beyond The Volcanoes” was sitting at number 42 in their “Soul & Gospel” chart earlier this week. Hurrah!

People ask me about the theatre series of books that I write and some of the jargon used. I point them here for all things theatre techie and occasionally use it myself as the old grey cells are, I believe, starting to fail. Not Hurrah.

Well… onward and upward and now I need to get one of my characters out of a Spanish oubliette with the help of “fantasmas del mar” and a rather large truck.

Share Vote?

May 22nd, 2009 |

I live in a part of the country where we have a mayoral election. The money for this area is a total general net revenue budget of £168.8million and the mayor has a hand in how this is spent.

The usual Election Address Book popped through my letterbox the other day and was preceded by the usual spam of electioneering leaflets. These go straight to the bin after a quick scan of the “Lies, damned lies and statistics”.

But hold! I note the Tory says car owners hand over £42 million in car tax and why is it that the Labour mayor can’t spend some of this on road improvements? Doh! How up to date are these people? Out of the £42m that goes into the general tax pot only six percent comes back to fund roads.

The Labour bloke - the one who seems to use the local rag as his personal diary - same old party line… The Lib Dems are putting up their councilor of 22 years… The National Front bloke is banging the same old drum… yawn… as are the BNP … yawn.

We have a Green candidate standing this year; says some nice stuff; decent enough policies … trouble is he’s nailed - yes, nailed - one of his election boards to a tree. Says it all really.

returns to apathy

Share 122AD And Onwards

May 20th, 2009 |

Newcastle upon Tyne is well known as a party city but this time last year it was described here as the “gloomiest city in Britain” after a survey by cake manufacturer Mr Kipling.

A year on and yes we know there’s not a lot to be happy about in this time of recession and “snouts in troughs” but one thing on the horizon sheds a glimmer of light into the gloom. A new Library - the old one being demolished a couple of years ago - local blogger Les Bessant has a timeline of pix on his site.

It was 122AD when the Romans established Pons Aelius (a fort and bridge) on the banks of the Tyne and things have moved on a bit since then with Newcastle council spending £40.2m as part of a private finance initiative (PFI) project to build what will be the third such library in the city not only with the usual rows of books but also with ‘The Newcastle Collection’ which is a varied range of books, illustrations and artifacts which the Library has acquired over the years, providing us with a continuous link between the past and the future.

The new Library opens next month and I, for one, shall be paying a visit.

Share Dear Chas,

May 18th, 2009 |

You may not remember but some 20 years ago you bought me a pint and we had a brief chat.

From there the world has gone a bit loopy. You may have been admonished over talking to plants and for carbuncles but please take no notice.

What I would urge you to do is have a word with your mum.

How about this? She dissolves parliament and takes over running the country… then has second thoughts and steps down leaving you in charge? Of course you then have second thoughts and put Harry in charge but with you in the background. This would take up about two years during which time people would forget all about the snouts in the trough and be fully prepared to go out and vote for a newly constituted government.

Just a thought… y’know y’ want to… y’will; y’will; y’will… or Harry.

Slim.

Share ROSKO

May 10th, 2009 |

The latest offering from Alberts Press, ROSKO by Phil P Mitchell is now up and running at Amazon.

Described as a “quirky crime novel” which is set in and around the north east environs of Newcastle the synopsis is thus: When the terrified wife of his ex-boss Clive Thompson comes to Harry Rosko for help, he’s got a dilemma. His private investigation business might not ever put him on the Top Ten Rich List, but it paid the bills. Well, most of the time.

So, what to do, carry on with the ‘maritals’, hanging around in car parks taking sordid photos? Or take a stand against Thompson and his cronies? Make that Chief Inspector Thompson.

See, Harry was once a young copper working his way up the ladder, but when he came into conflict with Thompson, he found himself sliding down one long snake and straight out of the Force.

Now, Rosko has a chance to redress the balance, to restore Justice and protect those in need. And to get his own back in the process, of course.

But can he succeed with the odds so stacked against him? Well, he does have the lovely Lisa, his smart and loyal assistant. Then there’s Jeff, his man on the inside. And there’s always Dave and Eugene, but they weren’t exactly human.

Can’t fail really then, eh..?

240pp :: RRP: £7.99 :: ISBN 978-0956048431

Share Bonking @ 100

May 9th, 2009 |

At 19:30 today I got to page 100 of the next book - hurrah for me!

This morning, however, there was more research. I wanted various things Spanish and so took myself off to various websites. One surprise was on Flikr.

What was it?

A sleeve of sugar.

Okay, I hear you ask, what’s so clever about a sleeve of sugar. Nothing really except it was branded: “Bonka Ars”. If I can’t get a gag out of that…

Share 2009 - Time For Book Change?

May 7th, 2009 |

An interesting view of the book biz in today’s Times by Nicholas Clee:

The decline and fall of books. Traditional bookshops are closing; vending machines are churning out novels; and e-books are the new paperbacks - so is this the final chapter for the book industry?

And another view in the Independent by Andrew Keen

Share Next One Difference

May 6th, 2009 |

I like to do research. Probably from my days as a journo whereby you had to not only cover the story but you had to back up your facts from a couple of sources, if possible.

So it is that I head out to Spain via Google Maps and Virtual Earth - after installing the do-dads - to look at a place I visited some seventeen years ago. Don’t things change… but then again parts of Spain have always been a building site.

Whilst the main infrastructure is still there for the place I want to set the next novel it has drastically changed from what I remember and I can’t even find the venue we used to hang out - shouldn’t have been difficult as it had a huge swimming pool and was not that far from the sea front.

Mind you the anomalies between Google and Virtual in the photos they use is somewhat different. I’d guess probably a year apart.

Never mind. Like the editor said about the news in one of the redtops: “Make it good; make it on time; if all else fails make it up.”