Old-Fashioned Fruitcake
On the 11th of October 2020, I started playing around with a new idea for a book. One thousand, two hundred, and twenty-nine days later, that book is on the cusp of taking physical form. Mere minutes ago, I ordered the proof copy – the first of what will hopefully be many copies to be printed.
And what, I hear you ask, will it look like? Behold!!
Continue & CommentDespite what the US Embassy in London may say, microwaving is not the right way to heat water for tea. For one thing, an explosion of superheated water as you take your mug from the microwave creates the very opposite of the soothing and restorative effect a good cuppa should have. The proper way to make tea is with water boiled in a kettle, and these days that’s usually a super-convenient electric kettle.
Except.
As Consumer NZ wrote in 2019, “We’d expect even the cheapest kettle to last at least five years of household use” – but their survey showed that 85% of kettles are defunct before they reach that age.
This does not surprise me in the least. Over the course of our marriage, the Caped Gooseberry and I have seen no fewer than five electric kettles bite the dust – including the one that memorably died the day after we moved house.
Continue & CommentThis week I got some very surprising news.
Some of you may be aware that since early 2019, I’ve been selling my ebooks through Smashwords. Some of you may even be aware that since early 2022, Smashwords has been gradually merging with Draft2Digital. You might even know that Draft2Digital doesn’t accept Creative Commons-licensed works (which is why I went with Smashwords).
But how many of you knew that not only would Draft2Digital’s policy be the prevailing one in the merger, but Smashwords itself decided four or five years ago (i.e. just after I published my first CC-licensed work with them) that they didn’t accept CC-licensed works either?
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