Locked in a battle with technology

Apologies to anyone who might have been trying to browse the ‘Books’ page in the last hour or so. While attempting to type in a review of SEMPER FIDELIS I realised that parts of the page seemed to have gone for a wander since I last aligned them.

Unfortunately sorting out this kind of thing seems to be like trying to stuff an octopus into a string bag. You get one part straight and something else goes unexpectedly awry. The only way to find out which of the octopus’s legs is currently hanging out seems to be to update the page and look at what’s happened to it now. Which means that, were anyone to have nothing better to do than peruse “The Books” for half an hour (unlikely, I know) they would have seen various images and chunks of text dancing in and out as if they were performing the Hokey Cokey.

Fortunately they would not have heard the dark mutterings that accompanied this performance here at Downie Towers. Hopefully, it’s all OK now. I need to put up a separate page for “Book V” but I think I’m going to go and lie down in a darkened room instead.

7 thoughts on “Locked in a battle with technology

  1. Sounds like a nightmarish dance! On the upside, you did manage to go forward in time. Your post is dated 23rd jan and that’s tomorrow!

    I was looking on your site to see about book v, can’t wait to get my hands on it!

    Debbie x

  2. Just ordered Semper Fidelis from bookdepository.co.uk

    Don’t know if you’re aware but there’s a raging debate here in Australia about the cost of books and whether there’s a justification for them (and many other things) costing a lot more to buy locally.
    Book sellers are saying the local market needs to be supported and protected. Much of the public thinks that the margins here are unsupportable in a global village.
    I guess I just voted with my credit card.

    1. It’s a tricky one, Ray (tho’ I’m grateful for the purchase with which you’ve cast your vote!). We’re having the same issues here, basically spurred on by online discounted bookselling and the very low price of ebooks. Competition here has driven a few ebooks down to 20p a copy. (That’s on top of myriad freebies.) I’ve no idea how that is sustainable, and how many you’d have to sell for the author – or anyone – to get anything approaching an income. Meanwhile many of the local bookshops, who support writers by hosting events, etc. are either gone or struggling, pressured online by the big boys, and in the High Street by ‘charity bookshops’ which, while being in a good cause, pay nothing for their stock or staff and I believe pay reduced taxes, too. It’s not a great time to be a bookseller. Altho’ I have to say that as a reader, the choice has never been wider. I just wonder what will happen in a few years’ time if the big boys get to take over the whole playground…

  3. I just found out that the Hokey Cokey is what we Americans call the Hokey Pokey. An Australian friend tells me it’s Hokey Pokey there, too, but Hokey Tokey in nearby New Zealand (I do wonder what they’re smoking there; something to do with sheep, I suspect). Having greatly enjoyed the earlier books, I’m looking forward to reading SEMPER FIDELIS (at list price, I might add, and on paper). I don’t think a lot of this e-book pricing makes much sense as a business model, at least as it pertains to compensating a professional writer. As a professional actor for close to 50 years, I have a great antipathy for those people who want us to work for free or close to it.

    1. Music to my ears, Robert (the pricing business, I mean. There are some fairly decent ebooks out there for 20p at the moment. How does that work?). I hope you enjoy SEMPER FIDELIS now, otherwise I shall feel guilty!

      Thanks for the kind words and the translation of the Hokey Cokey/Pokey/Tokey, a difference I had never suspected. In the same vein, you might be interested to know that the cow pies mentioned in SEMPER FIDELIS left these shores as cow-pats.

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