The brilliant news is I am today’s featured author at Ether Books. See

http://theetherblog.posterous.com/writer-wednesday-geoff-nelder

Also that this week has been uplifting with my granddaughter and step-granddaughter staying with us with son, Rob and his heavily pregnant wife, Tracey.

Not so good is that Waterstones have changed their policy on signings making it much more difficult for lesser-known authors to get past celebrity chefs and Loose Women. Consequently, Liverpool 1 and Chester can’t fit me and ARIA: Left Luggage in until 2013 at the earliest, if ever. Then this morning Book Lovers Inc tell me not to arrange to send them a copy of ARIA for them to review because they are too busy. – not don’t send a book yet, just don’t send one. Now this isn’t just an ordinary SF novel but one with possibly the most original concept for a decade. I think both the Waterstones and Book Lovers Inc are swamped by requests by the huge increase in self-published novels. Not that I am against those who choose to self-publish, it’s just that so many of them have not been edited, or critiqued, not even proofread before being published. Sadly it sours the scene for good self published and small press, who, like LL-Publications who publish my ARIA, go to a lot of trouble with editing and presentation. Ho hum. I should have learnt to cook first, get on the telly and then be a writer.

Never mind, I’m off to a writers’ retreat soon and hopefully get a big chunk of ARIA: volume 3 drafted. Hello what’s sticking in my posterior? Ah, Amy, I’ve found your toy horse!