Removing the weeds...

So it's been a while.
And guess what?

Nothings happened!!

The book still lies idle on my p.c with no print date on the horizon, the website remains dormant and the proposed mini games I had in mind last year remain undeveloped.

That's not to say I have been standing still doing nothing, it's just that my attentions have been directed elsewhere. Mainly work - and shift work at that!  For the last three years I have literally chained myself to the 'wheels of fortune' as a croupier in a provincial casino just south of Manchester and whilst it's far from being classed as your normal run of the mill 9-5 job, it is all consuming both physically and mentally, (which was fine when I had nothing better to do back in the day) but trying to combine it with a family and then trying to pursue a separate career as a writer/publisher has proved impossible.  Something has to give,,,

And it's not going to be the writing that's for sure.

For the last  8 months or so I have slowly but surely got my 'Mo-Jo' back for gardening, so much so that I have been working on my days off maintaining a few gardens here and there and rebuilding my knowledge of all things plantlike.

At the end of March (and barring unforeseen mishaps) I am once again reinventing myself as a gardener/garden designer,  I am hoping that being my own boss should free up a raft of time in the evenings to concentrate on writing and publishing.  To be honest, even if it doesn't at least I will be doing something productive and worthwhile with my time rather than just filling it with a job that just about ensures that I can make it from one wage slip to another.

Wall Flowers

I am not completely turning my back on the Casino industry however, as I still have an original casino game to bring to market across digital, live and slot formats but not having the funds to cover the patents has left this one on the sidelines.  I really wish I could tell people but as the game could be easily copied it's better to keep my own council.

 (However if anybody fancies a blind investment that isn't 100% guaranteed then get in touch. you know where to find me)

So what will gardening do for my writing?  No idea, but having the access to open space and fresh air is going to do the creative juices a world of good.


p.s. I almost forgot to mention that if anyone needs a gardener and you are within travelling distance of South Manchester then again, you know where to find me.

Fancy one of the first copies of the 1st editions of The Pot-Belly Cook? 2 chances to win!!!

As you know the next book is almost, almost, almost ready to roll - (but not quite).

So in the meantime why not enter our competition to win one of the very first copies of the 1st edition  print run of  The Pot-Belly Cook and the Three-Legged Dog.

All you have to do is look at the pictures below and identify which iconic record covers they are based on and email your answers back to info@hpmmedialtd.com 

or

Just retweet this link on Twitter or Like and Share on Facebook.

competition closes on 01/11/14

                 

1,

2.

3.

4.

5. 

Good luck.

It's time to rebuild our website....

www.hpmmedialtd.com  old site

Having made the obligatory amendments to the PBC, It was time to sit back and relax while the book goes off to the printers.

It would have been a nice plan, but life is never that easy.

All it took was a visit to our website www.hpmmedialtd.com  to realise that there is so much work still left to do.

In short, our website sucks!! It's disengaging, uninteresting and doesn't do us justice. It is one of those flat-pack almost-free-websites that you can get with a range of templates that somehow look all seem to look the same.  Drag something here, drop something there and ' hey presto' a website.

It's true that we don't have a massive back catalogue, but one day who knows.  (I am expecting the next 12 months to be very exciting with several other projects coming into fruition.)

Recently I concentrated  all my efforts towards the website and have messed about here and there with basic flash animations; before coming to the conclusion that if we are going to have a good website - I may as well build it myself.  I mean, if there already almost 1 billion websites, - how hard can it be?

With this in mind, I have decided to abandon updating our current website in favour of a brand spanking new one.

Thankfully I do have access to all the tools to make it one of those all singing, all dancing websites - what I don't have is the technical knowledge or the faintest idea where to start.

I dabbled initially with Flash, then with Fireworks and then Edge Animate, before having a look at Dreamweaver as a canvas to display to the world.... then I got a little bit down.

It's going to take ages to get my head around just one of these programs, let alone all of them - it's not just the software, it's the on-line tutorials and forums that use an almost alien vocabulary.

Seeing as I don't know any language I may as well try and slowly develop a knowledge of HTML5.  From what I can gather it's the one to know.

I have about 4 weeks to make it happen.

The book's ready to go... now for the hard part

It's taken a long time but I am pleased to say that The Pot-Belly Cook and The Three-Legged Dog is finally ready to go to print and it's left me a little bit lost for what to do next?

My writing skills have become very rusty after spending the best part of a year bringing the book to life, navigating my way around new software and sorting out major hardware difficulties and this has resulted in virtually no new material to start work on and dithering over each sentence I write.  Which is why it has taken over a month to update the blog.

Admittedly I have been distracted by the World Cup, the long bouts of sunshine (very rare for Manchester U.K.), summer walks and have even given up meat and smoking in the process.  My dad gave me a bike and on the rare occasion I have even cycled to work.

I suppose I am getting myself in shape for the inevitable fame that will come with the book.  (lol)

At the moment I feel pretty good about everything,  have a relaxed positive outlook on the future and have even lost a few kg in the process.  

Naturally being this calm, just wont do - and since finishing the book I have thrown myself into Flash Professional CC6 just to remind me how insignificant in the world of writing I really am.  It's early days in the animation and game design stakes and I have absolutely no idea how long Flash is going to take to get my head round,  but be on the lookout for a upmarket makeover for our woeful website in the near future.

I am working towards a September publishing date and between now and then need to get as much exposure for the book as possible.  

In a perfect world my campaign would go a bit like this

 "Buy my book - it's brilliant!, and while you're  it buy my other one as well", and then people would buy one and then go and tell everyone they know to do the same and the process would continue infinitely. 

In reality though it's writing blogs like this one and sending them out into the world.