Saturday 20 September 2008

In the Swim

Big sorry to Arlee - I left a Fiona link on the site by mistake - all my fault. More haste less speed. Have enabled it now and the other links were fine. Couldn't start a class without you, Arlee!



Thanks for all your support with the book. I'm sure there will be others to follow it, Olga. I think it might have been you who started the whole thing off, with your encouragement of the Embellish and Stitch idea. It is on track for the Knitting and Stitching show and we are testing on the secure site.



I had it ready really early but it is amazing how long it takes to add captions and do all the final proofing. We have found storage for the books and will be able to borrow the WWSIL's van for book collection. I am just longing to hold it in my hands. I know there have been a lot of books (too many, do I hear you say?) but the ones that have been slaved over by Michael, Clive and me, at all stages, are special somehow.



Arlee talks about Amazon. I rather hope that the book won't be listed by them as this company is not good for authors. It's not that good for publishers either, as they use their huge buying power to pay very low wholesale prices (and we receive very low royalties). At the moment they are putting the squeeze on the publishing group that includes Random House and, because they won't go any lower, have removed the 'BUY NOW' buttons from all their books.There is a huge row going on about it. If I am honest, I am a hypocrite, because I do buy books from them sometimes too, but I enjoyed the rant.





vintagerockchick (aka old bill) http://vintagerockchick-gill.blogspot.com/ I am so excited that you are blogging. Also that you are C&G - ing with Gina. Will follow your exploits closely. Love the studio.



Isn't it funny about the weather and the catalogues. What a pity we didn't do it earlier. We might have had a summer. Mine is very dry so I shall water it. My friend Pat has just told me that she fell in her pond while dunking her catalogue (so sorry Pat).



This brings me to Smudge's latest CATastrophe. I was putting a casserole in the oven yesterday when I heard a sad sort of mewing. There he was - a drowned rat, covered in pond weed and shaking all over. We rushed upstairs and hosed him down with warm water in the bath. It was hell getting all the pond weed out of his coat. Here he is after a good cuddle in a warm towel.





He spent all evening washing himself and soon recovered.





I don't know what happened but Stevens had a seat in the circle and I'll swear she was laughing!




Even worse - I forgot to turn the casserole down and it boiled over in my clean oven.

13 comments:

Gina said...

Poor Smudge looks very bedraggled!

Heather said...

Poor Smudge, in trouble again but no doubt he'll grow up one day. Love the look of the 3D piece from your new book (there can never be too many books Maggie)and like you, I can't wait to get my hands on it either. I may need a team of outworkers to help me with the soggy catalogue project as I now have six, thanks to my obliging daughter! Never mind, I can afford to muck up the first five attempts and still have one to make into a masterpiece.

Dorothy Gibbs said...

Hi Maggie,
I have three catalogues in the garden now.... just in the nick of time stopped the gardener from removing them.
I will have to go and water mine again too. I heard about Pat nearly falling in the pond with hers!
What HAVE you started? grin
Dorothy

jac said...

My catalogue has been in need of watering here in Norfolk as well , hubby thinks I have lossed the plot ! after slashing and tearing a few days ago ! VBG:)

JP said...

poor Smudge - another life lost!!!- so looking forward to the new book - have just started a C&G course on creative sketchbooks on line with the Kemshalls so am sure it will help me with that

Unknown said...

Hi Maggie - my catalogue is now in two parts and I noticed yesterday that all the pages have come loose - so when we are ready for the next step my first challenge will be to join the pages together!! See you at K&S

chrissythreads said...

Hi Maggie,
really looking forward to getting my sticky fingers onthe new book. Can I just say one good thing for amazon. I appreciate that it can cause problems for the authors but it is a godsave for us distance learning students esp. the second hand books. We need so many for the degree courses and often they are really difficult to get ( my local library just laugh at me sometimes when I ask for a particular book)and really expensive. Without amazon I think I would have had to give up on some of my studies. Any help with other ideas where we can get hold of books would be really appreciated.

Maggie Grey said...

I do agree about the 'second-hand book' aspect, Chrissy and don't have a beef with that - the book has served both publisher and author when it was first purchased. I'm about to have a book clear out and will probably be selling some books there myself - told you I was a hypocrite.
I've got a Dwell catalogue soaking in the pond today - just about to take a photo of it.

Sharne Gregory said...

Just to let you know I have now got my Tesco catalogue and I am about to distress it in readiness for your new book. As it doesn't look like it's going to rain tonight, I am going to cheat and start soaking it in a bucket before putting it outside for nature to take its course. My husband thinks I have must have joined a new cult, as he thought of us all putting our books in the garden until we are instructed what to do next!

Writer in Residence said...

Hi Maggie, Give Smudge a big cuddle for me, poor thing.

I thought you might like to know about the class action antitrust lawsuit against Amazon launched by Angela Hoy at BookLocker (check out her wonderful e-zine for writers at writersweekly.com). The suit is now supported by the Small Publishers Association of North America.

You can read about the whole situation here: http://antitrust.booklocker.com/.

As an author myself, I wholeheartedly support this action. And while I know that your blog is not a place for politics, I do urge everyone to take a stand against Amazon's unconscionable behaviour.

Back to the saga of the soggy catalogues -- would love to see some photos of what's happening out in the garden!

Cheers from Toronto,
Marjorie

Wabbit said...

Soggy kitties are pretty funny. Poor little Smudge must be on life -127 by now! Or maybe the sympathy should all go to poor hungry Clive!

artisbliss said...

Poor baby!

Can't wait to buy your new book!

Leanne said...

I've just read the comments on the "soggy catalogues" and would like to join the frey. Not sure what this is all about, but sounds like fun. I soaked a large telephone book, it expanded to twice its size, and a small catalogue and placed them in a spot the dogs can't get to. I realize now I didn't slash them, so will haul them out tomorrow and do that. Do I slash all pages or just the covers? Oh, and we haven't had rain in a couple of weeks either! Never thought I would be watering books!