As I plunged the sponge into the soapy bucket to clean my wife’s car I noticed a large area of white and blue on what should have been a red offside bumper area. I naturally assumed I or my wife had scraped a post or another car but we would have noticed it. A gentle rub showed that the white was powder paint and the blue was a water-based paint. There are no deep scratches but a few areas where spots of red paint are missing. Wife is furious, more so when I tell her it is only a metal box conveyance. Admittedly, I would have been annoyed if my bicycle was marked. So we discuss where the car was parked that day. Chester university car park, and students had been taking home their art work, some of which were reinforced by chicken wire. Our car was the victim of a hit and run art project!
It will cost £300 for respraying, money that could go on a weekend away.
I was disappointed by a rejection today. M-Brane sent me a form rejection email after a three-month wait since I’d sent them a 7,500 word short story, The Future and Up One. I am pleased with the story – it starts with the 17th centure witchfinder general chasing victims, who finds themselves in the future. A fun write and I’d hoped a fun and stimulating read. It was well received in the critique groups it travelled through but perhaps though the right sort of length for some magazines it is too long for others. I’ve now sent it to another magazine.
A surprise package arrived in the post – two books by Ira Nayman – Alternate Reality Ain’t What It Used To Be, and What Were Once Miracles Are Now Children’s Toys. Both are written in a zany Monty Pythonesque style and of course I will devour them shortly. I am supposing the publishers, iUniverse, and Eloquent Books, have encountered my reviews here and there, like my style and posted them. Expensive too, to mail from the States. I am concerned though because one of the publishers is part of Strategic Publishing, one of the publishers on the alert and beware lists for being scams, vanity publishing and the like. I appreciate that in spite of being published through small press and vanity press, some excellent works are on their shelves so I will read open-minded. Certainly the random sampling of Ira’s pages have tweaked my science fiction and fantasy pulse. The website for Ira is here. Good luck, Ira.
How come I clean my wife’s car but she doesn’t clean my bike?
