Great Days and Grumbles

It's a lovely day and we're taking off for a National Trust outing. Going to Uppark, near Petersfield to celebrate Clive's birthday, followed by dinner this evening with Fiona, Phil and Sophie. The other gang, daughter Claire and the four kids are all laid low with various lurgy so Claire is going to push Clive's pressie through the letter box in case we catch it. I had a panic call from Claire yesterday, 'My car's broken down and I can't get to the school to pick Leo up - he's poorly'. Then there was a pause and she added, 'Take a bucket!'



Thanks for the comments:



Yes, Nancy - the classes are free for anyone who buys the book, wherever they get it. I've got carried away again and my three sessions are already turning to four. I've moved from beads to books and danglies. Exciting. Here's a pic.

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Viv - welcome to the blogging world. As you know, I have always loved your work so following your blog will be a rare treat. I tried to leave a comment but it wouldn't let me so I'll try again later.http://vivinstitches.blogspot.com/



So glad you liked the Jae's book, Gilby -it's so great. Very flattering to be chosen as the publisher of such a high-calibre artist. I'm getting lots of excited emails about it. I like this publishing lark.



Thanks, Aussie Jo for getting cross on my behalf over Beryl's Metal, Paper, Stitch book. I am surprised that it got through the ISBN checks. I can't imagine that they did it on purpose though, as it's quite likely that people will think they have already got it. It is very difficult naming books and I always run prospective titles through Amazon, although that doesn't count the ones that are just about to launch. We must also take account of co-incidence when two similar books arrive. Books from mainsteam publishers take up to a year from the date they are handed in, so if it's a topical subject, a self-published book can leap in first, even if written later.



Coincidence can also happen in stitch. When I was doing my C&G I invented a new technique involving smocking and gold kid (well, it was innovative then). I based it on fungal studies and worked really hard on it. Blow me if an almost identical piece didn't appear in a new book just before the assessment.



So I always believe the best of folk when things like this happen. However there are some things that really do annoy me:

• I try to be a generous tutor and never hold back information. I'm also very laid back about people teaching techniques I've written about or shown them. Once they're out there that's common knowledge. But sometimes tutors take an entire workshop, even copy handouts word for word and teach it themselves. I once had an entire summer school copied! Annoying.

• The other rant I have is the number of people who give their friends the password for Workshop on the Web. We know from the logs that this happens and one day we will follow it up. It only costs a small amount to register but it costs us a lot of money to get really good tutors, solid web hosting and admin. For me it's not just about making money, but I would like to earn a little bit for all that work. We even had someone once who emailed her friend to say 'Thanks for sending this issue's password'. She hit the wrong button and sent it to us! Whoops!

Rant over - but I'd be interested to hear your stories of conincidence and rip offs.

Off for the outing.