Hemingway-esq

I may not be blogging much but I am writing. The Refol snuck this pic of me, just after dawn, in my mountain writing garret.

I think I look very Hemingway-esq. The bottle of bourbon and the shotgun are just out of frame.

John L

Purple Ham

it was party-time here at the lake. My big brother Tim cooked ham marinated in wild blueberry sauce.  The photo below is actual colour.

It was delicious.

John L

Buzz Off

What a fine selection of socks on offer here in the US of A.  Below is the Men’s Athletic Sock by the G. H. Bass & Company.  A lovely piece of hosiery in brown – unusual for a sports sock.  I decided to give the photo a nice backdrop of a roaring fake log fire.

Now, below is a unique offering – Buzz Off Socks.  They claim to have an insecticide in them that repels insects.

I wore them on a hike to Dead Lake.  There Nadene and I had a close encounter with a very scary bullfrog.

My ankles were never once bitten so I guess they work.  Whether or not they will work after 25 washes, I’ll never know – cause I’m only wearing them once.

JL

Cheating Refol

My family has always had a little house on a lake in the Appalachian Mountains – that’s where I am now.  Since forever I have been photographing the lake at sunset but i have never gotten a pic like this one the Refol got.

That’s because the she got up at dawn.  Personally I think that’s cheating.

Look what they’re doin to me

The Refol and I are on holiday.  On our first trip in the rented car we heard this song and pulled into the next record store to buy it.  Now you can listen and have it stick in your brain like it’ s stuck in ours.

Keepin’ u posted

Got word from my publisher today – Shadowmagic is delayed again.  The new publishing date is Aug. 28th.  As a veteran of postponed media events, (my ITV pilot was scheduled 10 times in a 12 moth period and pulled 9 times – half of them within a week of broadcast and two of them on the day!) I am an expert in taking things like this in my stride.  Even though I am confident that this book will come out, I won’t lie to you and say it doesn’t make me nervous.

Back in the days when I was working in television, Anthony Owen (my magic adviser and now Daren Brown’s TV producer) and I used to say:

“It’s not real until the contract is signed.”  Then we changed it to:

“It’s not real until we have a video-plus code.”  Then we changed it to:

“It’s not real until it’s actually on the air.”  Now that I am in publishing I have revised the saying again to –

“It’s not real until it’s history.”

I’ll keep you posted.

After me – you guys will be the first to know.

Sorry I haven’t been bloging for a while but for you Shadowmagic fans I hope you will be comforted to know that on my last cruise ship gig I wrote almost 10,000 words of Shadowmagic 2.  Some of them I even spelled right.

I spoke today with the British tax office to sort out my child benefits.  It seems that since Finbar is now 18 I no longer am entitled to them.  I pointed out to the lady on the phone that just because he is 18 doesn’t mean he isn’t going to be sponging off me for the next decade.  As usual with British civil servants she didn’t know how to react to that.

As far as the hardback edition of Shadowmagic, I spoke today with my publisher and he assures me that as I type it is either actually being printed or on the way to the warehouse.  After me – you guys will be the first to know.

John L

No book yet

My publishing date has come and gone with no actual book in my hand but I am assured that it’ll be with us soon.  Rest assured when I have one in my grimy little mitts there will be a picture of a grinning me on the blog.

John L