What a busy weekend! Our antique preserves cupboard is now crammed with various kinds of marmalade and jam, all home-made and wondrously free of synthetic colours and chemicals which mass-produced products are saturated with. The cherry, apple and apricot jam is heaven on a spoon!

We did rather a lot of work on the front garden, as this had ceased to be a wildlife garden and had instead become merely a garden gone wild. Buttercups had choked almost everything, and so we simply ripped these out by the armful in preparation for treating the soil with a weed-killer. I don’t really like using these but here, surrounded by acres of farmland, where every breeze carries a fresh dusting of seeds, there is little choice unless a person wishes to devote half their life to weeding. Frankly, we’ve neither the time nor the inclination!

A viciously sharp bramble had rooted itself tightly round the stem of a half-dead broom. The only way to get at the bramble was to cut down the broom, and the only way to get at the broom was to cut down a towering buddleia. The buddleia may possibly grow again as they’re tough plants. There are two more elsewhere in the gardens, anyway. Consequently, we’ve now got a huge pile of sawn-down shrubbery to dispose of, and there’s more work to be done in the front garden yet.

We also took a stray goal post down to the local recycling depot. Some of the local kids had ‘found’ it somewhere and set it up on the communal green where every evening more and more little darlings were assembling to play football. This in itself we wouldn’t object to, but how many times can a football ‘accidentally’ be kicked into the same garden? The noise level seemed to increase very evening, too. And then my beloved just stopped them from deliberately trying to kick their football at our front windows.

I said this is easily solved. Rather than spend each evening of the forthcoming school summer holidays knocking on various indifferent parents’ house doors to complain about their offspring, let’s just remove the goal post. And so this is what we’ve done. Last night, peace reigned. Here’s hoping it stays that way.

Having had Swap accepted by Magpie Magazine, the editor emailed me yesterday to say she can’t fit it in the forthcoming issue but would like to use it in the next one, whenever that might appear. Ok, but meanwhile I may have found a paying placement for that same story, so actually her inability to make use Swap happens to suit me rather well. In fact, it’s exactly what I’d hoped for.

I’m still waiting to hear from Prediction Magazine whether or not they’re going to use my article on flower lore. They accepted the article in November last year but then didn’t use it after all. The recently replaced editor said, at the end of March this year, that I’d be paid a kill fee if they don’t use it. It’s now July and I’ve not heard a word…

Remember Blood Bytes publication in Power Cord Magazine, which its editors hailed as the first in an intended series of regular on-line issues? On June 23rd, as described here:- http://adele-cb.livejournal.com/39072.html I’d emailed the editor to ask what was happening. I have received no reply. Ah well, I’ll just chalk it up to experience. The story’s Copyright is still my property. In future, I’ll just not expend any time on e-magazines which don't have a proven track record.

One last thing: I’ve placed a legal disclaimer on my profile page here and on my My Space site. It applies to everyone currently on my Friends List and so I invite each of you to take a look. To many this might seem a little excessive, but we live in a treacherous world. And, to quote my old Dad, “If people weren’t stupid, lawyers wouldn’t be rich.”

You may perhaps recall that Blood Bytes was published in Power Cord Magazine in May of this year. The link for this now opens at a general page whose headline announces that the domain has either been deleted or is awaiting renewal. The magazine’s site on My Space has also vanished. This is rather annoying, especially after so short a time and after so much insistence that this was to be a long-term project. Technically, my story is now classed as having been published – even though I retain all rights – and yet no-one can now read it! This renders the whole excersise as rather pointless. I emailed the editor yesterday to enquire into the issue, and have yet to receive any response. I’ll keep you posted.

The first issue of Power Cord Magazine is now out, and contains Blood Bytes, a short tongue-in-cheek story by yours truly.

Read it here:- http://www.greendragonradio.com/powercord/pc%20issue1.pdf

Or take a peek at their My Space site:- http://www.myspace.com/powercordmag


Edit: As of June 22nd, neither of these links work. See:- http://adele-cb.livejournal.com/39072.html

I’ve just mailed Blood Bytes to a new e-zine called Power Cord, whose first edition ought to be published on May 1st. One of the editors approached me and asked if I’d be interested in contributing something to this mostly-music magazine. I’ll let you know any further news as, and if, it develops.

Way back in November of last year, I’d sold a folklore article to Prediction Magazine, a publication which is easily available in most newsagents here. Having heard nothing from them since, I emailed a polite query. Two weeks later, I’ve received their response. Apparently they’re expecting the arrival of a new editor, and it will be her decision whether or not to publish any unused articles (including mine). If mine is turned down I’ll receive a 50% kill fee, but it could be a few months until any decision is made.

C’est la vive!

Meanwhile, I’m busy writing the final chapters of Tamsin, and the short story I've earmarked for the Dark Moon Press anthology still needs a tweek or two. This means I’ve not had time for much on-line interaction. There’re only so many hours in a day, no? (Word of the month: prioritise.)