I've been spammed! What a cheek.

Dashed clever piece of spamming,  I'm impressed by the effort that went into it.  The thing scans my posts, picking out select words, and forms a coherent message.  This is what I have assumed, as the emails I received all point to it being spam.


If it isn't an example of spam then I owe willow an apology.


Serves me right, actually.  The comment dialog that is shown when a reader elects to add a comment, does not have word verification.  This is rather odd, as I had the default settings on, which includes word verification.  It was only when I switched to comments window in a pop-up did word verification appear.  How strange.

On a more positive note, I do believe that I have completed the synopsis part of my query.  Now I've got to write the introductory sentance to the agent, and another sentance detailing my publishing history.

Off to climb a hill, this afternoon, in the bitterly cold weather.

Hell is composing a synopsis for a query

Have you ever felt that your fate is watching over you, sitting at your shoulder directing your destiny?

I think mine wanders off on walk about every now and again, and has only recently come back to be on the job, as it were.  Bloody lazy thing.

It has come to pass that events only partially in my control, and have conspired to practically force me to concentrate on my writing.  Funny that.

I have been a very good boy, and put nose to grind stone (why on earth would anyone want to do that?) and finger to keyboard, and buckled down to write a synopsis worthy of a query letter.

My god, what a hard task it has been.  I knew it would be, but was unprepared for the reality of it all.  Writing and editing the novel was a breeze, a walk in the park, nay a push over, compared to composing the synopsis.

I believe that before embarking on the actual writing of a novel, it would be worthwhile to compose the synopsis first.

Nah, that might put you off writing the novel.

We are in business!

OK, I am reasonably happy with this page.  Not entirely happy, just reasonably happy.  There are quite a few elements I would like to change, but so far the means to do this with the designer options eludes me.


I shall talk dirty now. So those of a nervous disposition, who are afraid of technical speak, should avert their eyes.

I edited the HTML a bit.

There, I said it.  Those nervous people may now carry on reading.

Problem now is, this blog lacks focus.  I shall have to give this question of focus some thought.

I say, this is looking rather good.

No doubts, not to everyone's taste, but the customisation proceeds apace.

One problem, of course, is that these blog posts are not supported by the interim stages of blog page customisation.  Any casual reader of these blogs will be wondering what class 'A' substance I am inhaling to produce such weird drivel.

Just in case there are any hardy souls in GCHQ monitoring this entry (I believe the UK government has sanctioned that all emails, web page accesses, and the like are squirrelled away in some vast repository for the minions of the security services to pour over) the bit about class 'A' substance in a joke. Get it? Off the cuff remark.

Hmmm, there are sirens and blue lights outside my house, and black garbed heavies approach the door.  Oh dear.

Time to build

So here we go!!! Finally have some free time from the hurly burly of work to actually start customising my blog, and profile, and whatever.

You know what, first impressions of this blog thingy and profile thingy are that it isn't as intuitive as it could be.  And here's me, someone who has been designing and building GUI (that's Graphical User Interface, for those who do not know) for rather more years than my greying hair suggests.

Oh well, into kid's mode, and experiment with the layout and things, pressing buttons at random to see what happens.

I really do not like the way this preview button works, even though I have figured out what the little blighter does.

Hello, world.

One of the joys of being a child is that you are not afraid to try new things.

So here I am, with my first post, being a child. Give it a whirl, and see what it does, and don't be embarrassed.

Except, of course, if you get your spellings wrong.  But that, dear reader, is what spell checker is for.

What a confusing, at first, operation the preview button is.  Press it, and it shows you the page, as per what it says on the tin, but there is no apparent way of posting or re-editing the post.  Only then do you notice that (for Firefox users) the preview is in a new tab.  Ahh, the joys of GUI designers.