“World Book Day” in beautiful Ironbridge
Fish and Chips beside the river.
Fish and Chips beside the river.
According to my Canadian friend in the electrical time Matrix it was “National Book Lover’s Day” on Thursday and to celebrate, I went for a stroll around a toytown and fussed over a pug dog by the name of “Bear” in the town’s very own “Old Fashioned Sweet Shop”. I’ll take any excuse to visit Ironbridge, especially so on a swelteringly hot August Summer’s day and anyway, I’d re-named Thursday 10th August as “World Book Day” as what does my Canadian friend know anyway? He lives in the past! He’s HOURS behind me, just as I am many more hours behind those pesky Australians and New Zealanders who live in the FUTURE! It’s all rather discombobulating when you consider the time Matrix we all live within, what with time not being real, so day’s of the week can’t be real either, well, they’re as real as that piece of plastic you’re currently holding (which according to quantum physics is impossible) as you pretend to read this article before skipping merrily onto the next one.
So it’s not exactly “World Book Day” today, yesterday certainly wasn’t, Thursday was your best bet apparently, and if you’re reading this in the future, there will be another day of celebration for books arriving on the river of life shortly and remember, we all live in the past and the future of the present all the time.
Here’s beautiful Ironbridge from a very definite moment in time, and the afternoon of Thursday 10th August 2023:
My four self-published beauties, all available in hardback and paperback via www.amazon.com with “The Spirit of Cricket” hot off the publishing press this week:
"The Spirit of Cricket": An upside-down journal from the 2023 Ashes
Buy "The Spirit of Cricket": An upside-down journal from the 2023 Ashes by Blackford, Mr Stephen Patrick (ISBN…www.amazon.co.uk
“Chasing the Impossible and a Sword of Damocles” — Out Now!
The un-holy trinity is complete!medium.com
“Ashes to Ashes”
Out Now! Hot off the Press!medium.com
“Diary from the 2022 FIFA World Cup”
Out Now! Hot off the Press!medium.com
So a “Happy World Book Day” to all that celebrate! As an interloper into the world of writing books, here’s a brief tale in conclusion of this article that may resonate with some and will hopefully baffle many more. In brief: I had a loose “in” at a publishers and duly supplied my contact with comprehensive details (page count, word count, title, sub-title, and a hefty paragraph on the content of my book) for two books I was hoping to publish. Result? Late response by which time I’d self published the books anyway. Then I receive an email completely out of the blue and coincidentally, right on the cusp of me self-publishing my fourth book and as luck would have it, another book on cricket. The email requested a copy of my manuscript for my first cricket book to which I responded that I’d already self-published but, as lady luck would have it, I had another cricket book locked and loaded and ready to go.
The response I received rather perplexed and vexed me in equal measure.
I was congratulated on publishing my first book but they didn’t want to look at my manuscript for the ready to go, locked and loaded new book as writers Mr X and Mr Y will “dominate the market” for my type of cricket book. So without reading a single word my book was completely dismissed. What happens if Mr Z (me) “dominates the market” in the coming weeks? I won’t, obviously, because Mr X and Mr Y will no doubt have the enormous backing of their publishers, producers, suppliers and the huge social media influence that comes with such backing.
So does this mean we all give up and put our writing pencils away?
According to the wise sages of Twitter, to supply a manuscript to an agent or publisher is to “query”, or at least that’s the message I decode whenever I see someone moaning about “querying”. Ironically, I have been dismissed without even supplying my bundle of written words!
So I self published again and a fourth book I’m immensely proud of.
Alas, the game is rigged, everybody knows the dice are loaded and everybody rolls with their fingers crossed.
We all live in the past and the future of the present all the time.
Selah.
Thanks for reading. Linked below is my “UK Travel” library together with 3 of my more recently published articles within this category:
UK travel
Compendium of articles from my travels within the UKmedium.com
The 15 Locks of Audlem Mill
Thursday 13th July 2023.medium.com
A stroll on the banks of the River Severn
Wednesday 5th July, 2023.medium.com
A return to the Shropshire Union Canal
27th June 2023.medium.com