Fiction, tall tales and short nails

I hear from my e-publishers, Virtual Tales, www.virtualtales.com, that A Bottle of Plonk is now available on www.fictionwise.com. Virtual Tales are spreading their net wider and, apart from promoting their authors are also looking for additional ones to join the site. They don’t publish non-fiction, but there are quite a few fantasy novels and also fiction for young adults available from them. A Bottle of Plonk doesn’t fit into this genre, and is in the romance section, together with Irene’s novel, The Moon’s Complexion. It’s also worth looking at their blog, which is (http://virtualtales.blogspot.com/).

The ants are back. In spite of M removing a giant nest and putting it in a corner of the garden, where they could wander off and do their own thing, some of the eggs must have been left behind, because suddenly the flying variety are appearing on the window in the bathroom, and crawling up the corner of the room where the shower was. They are not going to take the hint, are they? Even when we replace the shower (work in very slow progress), they are going to come back to torment us every year. We even bought a couple of electric things which are supposed to send out sound waves and frighten off spiders and other creatures. Well, I can tell you. It ain’t happened. We still get spiders – smaller and untidier, but with us, just the same. But I didn’t buy the devices to get rid of spiders. I hoped that they might have an effect upon the ants, and alas, after a year’s trial, I can see it makes no difference.

I’ve started typing the changes to chapters of my novel, Tainted Tree, that I worked on, on my holiday. I see immediately the disadvantage of using pen instead of computer. Inserts marked with hashes, asterisks and the like run down the margins of the page or are falling off the bottom. Sometimes there’s a bit on the back of the typescript. I will persevere, though, because in view of Tainted Tree’s second prize, I ought to follow this up. Alternatively, it may turn up on Goldenford’s list next year.

M is waiting to hear when he is to have two ingrowing toenails removed. It has to tie in with other treatment, so a bit complicated. We will probably hear tomorrow.