The Secret Service
I love it when people accomplish their dreams, even more so when it’s somebody I know.
So when one of my friends announced she was setting up her own business I was so happy for her, especially since she had found a fantastic little hole in the market (as far as I know).
Here is what her website says:
So… Imagine your calendar… Now imagine your calendar does everything for you. You will have your very own Secret Service Agent who will remind you of your events, organises your occasion, finds your gifts, present wrapping, delivery, table booking, arranges tickets and much more including our very own secrets.
From being a guest at a wedding, date night, arranging your loved ones birthday, valentine, Christmas, you name it we are at your service. Each event is tailor made to your specific requirements no matter how big or how small. So that’s no stress, no parking, no wrapping, no searching, no delivery, no organising and the secret all at a low cost!!
What’s the secret?
It’s date night, and you’re going for a meal… How about inviting your loved one in a different way? Have drinks ready for your arrival? A special song playing? A message in a fortune cookie? A favourite flower delivered? oh the list is endless to make your event as special as possible and…It’s a secret. None of our products have our own branding, we leave no trace, so you can take all the credit!
All you need to do is email us your event or your calendar and we do the rest!
To see what the Secret Service can offer, go to http://www.secretservice.me
(at present only Blackpool area of England is being served but they are hoping to expand soon)
Final Cover
The printers in China have sent the cover. I was huming and harring about the barcode but at least it doesn’t cover the illustration.
The boy who lived, and the audience that doesn’t.
Last night I went to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 2, and I think it’s my favourite of the lot. Long gone are the kiddy charms that slowly vanished after the first and second films, and even throws a couple of shots from the first movies just to violently hammer home that the fairytale has grown up.
During that movie though, something hit me that stuck long after the credits rolled up. Usually during these film my imagination runs rampant, with me wondering what it would be like to be in these situations we see on screen but once it’s over, I forget all about it. But last night, I realised that the only escapism that people like me get close to experiencing is sitting in a comfy chair, in a darkened room with a box of popcorn, watching somebody else live out an incredible adventure.
My girfriend Wendy often says she wants an adventure, and I normally agree, but most of the time our day-to-day duties keep us rooted to the same mundane days we live day in, day out. Now I’m not saying that I want to go enroll into Hogwarts or that my life is incredibly boring; far from it, I’m grateful for my life and the relative freedom it allows me. I’m simply getting at that most people are quite happy to watch life go by on a cinema screen, after all, why get involved in all the risks and dangers when we can quite happily watch an actor or actress do it for us. We are more comfortable getting from birth to death in the safest way possible. Ok, I stole this quote from the great late Earl Nightingale, but he definitely knew what he was talking about.
Long ago, during a particularly nasty break-up, my ex complained that all I did was sit in a corner of my living room on the computer. Well, ok, that maybe true, but at the time I convinced myself that giving away a large proportion of my life to follow a dream would assure my future would be a completely amazing one, allowing me to be my own boss and grant me the opportunity to do whatever I wanted to do. Whilst my peers and people my own age would be calmly working themselves through retirement into a comfortable grave, I would be enjoying life to the max. I bear no grudges against my ex for the hurtful things she said, moreover I wish her all the best in life (being bitter is one of life’s greatest tradgedies) and actually thank her for opening my eyes with what she said. I realised afterwards that I should be out enjoying life much more than I was doing.
Nowadays I find myself saying ‘yes’ more, and making more plans. A ten day road trip to Hungary later this year is an example. I don’t even concern myself with the money – make plans and the money will find you. I don’t let circumstances determine my life, and I gladly welcome whatever comes my way.
The craziest thing is as well, since this awakening, my own work seems to have accelerated forward even more. That’s not to say I’m working any less, I just find better ways to balance out my life.
So for any fellow workaholics, don’t let life pass you by like a 90min movie. Nobody knows when our own final credits will roll. Adventure awaits all of us, we just need to fathom out where to find it. Don’t let your name, your job, your ego, or your bank account determine who you are. We all came into this world the exact same way, and we’ll exit it the same as well.
It’s what we experience in between that truly defines who we are.
Life itself should be the adventure, so let’s leave this world with some fantastic memories.
Wolcanoes and Cocoons
No I haven’t spelt that wrong. It’s how my and Wendy’s friend Krisztian pronounces Volcano. 🙂
I guess I should put a post about our holiday Tenerife. I can honestly say it’s one of the most chilled holidays I’ve been on. Our villa, was stunning and spacious, reminding me how much I prefer them to hotels. Despite me and Wendy being in a sort of children’s room.
We did the usual tourist thing, going up mount Teide (for a mini snowball fight), trips out looking for dolphins, and basically lounging around the pool and beach with ice cold San Miguels. Went to a fantastic waterpark called Siam Park which looks like something resembling an ancient Thai city and boasts the world’s biggest man made waves.
Would’ve liked to stay an extra few days, but I’m not complaining. One bizarre thing to mention is that I bought a beach towel with the image of a 200 euro note on it, and I came home with 200 euros. Law of Attraction maybe?
My sister Kel, Tiny, my cousin Lee, Krisztian, Sarah, me and Wendy at our villa.
Also a week later we headed to Cocoon, a techno type day festival in Leeds. Within 5minutes I saw a guard chase down a lad who had scaled the fences to get in – made me laugh. It sounded like the same track to me being played all day but everyone else seemed to notice the shift in song every few minutes. 🙂
Although it’s not really my thing, I love seeing my cousins and their friends, whilst mixing with my own mates there.
Me and Wendy
Me and my big cousins Wayne and Lee.
College Reunion
Many people count school as the best days of their life. I’m afraid I disagree, mine were my college years – namely 1999-2000.
I managed to meet a fantastic group of people who I’m glad to say I’ve (mostly) kept in contact with. Over the years our paths have divulged away from each other, but we still stay in touch.
Last week a few of us (Me, Ella, Danny, Gemma, Emily) met for a ‘Come Dine With Me’ style dinner, with each of us bringing a course. Mine was the cheese board, overloaded with probably more cheese than there should have been. I did throw a few babybels on there too 😀
It was a fantastic evening and many pictures were taken. Hopefully I’ll see some soon to upload with the picture below. This was taken during our college course to Amsterdam – Jan or Feb 2000.
From left to right Ben, Liz, Lyndsey (my then gf), me looking all cool!, Caroline, Gemma, Emily, Danny, Ella, unknown lad.
Heroes of Life
Throughout my life I’ve been blessed with a really close family. Childhood memories of family days to Bridlington, Temple Newsam, and Lotherton Hall still stick in my mind.
Back in those days it seemed that time would stay still forever, and indeed sometimes I wished they would.
Now those memories have been running through my mind a lot recently as I’m sorry to report my great Uncle Mark sadly passed away early Monday morning after a long courageous fight with cancer.
He fought to the end, even still updating his facebook just a day before he died.
Rest in peace Unc. You will be sadly missed. xx
Hurdles
As a big believer in personal development, law of attraction, reapng what you sow etc, I’ve heard countless stories of successful people facing all manner of obstacles before they attained their ‘glory’.
Now I’ve encountered numerous obstacles along the way in getting this novel sorted. Some are learning curves like getting to grips with software like InDesign. Others are downright ridiculous like arguing with printers in China about shipping to Liverpool instead of Felixstowe.
Now because I’ve heard all these hurdle stories, does this mean I’ve attracted the same situations into my life? After all, if all these successful folk needed bumps in the road, then surely I do!
Either way, I’m grateful for my determination to soldier on through and put the dedication in where it is needed. I rarely blow my own trumpet but for someone who was once told ‘you can’t draw, you can’t paint, and you have no imagination.’ I’m mega proud of myself being able to fully write, illustrate and typeset an entire 280 page novel!
Big cheesy smiles all round! 😀
Right, back to the battlefield!
Progression 4
Entire novel fully typeset, preflighted, packaged, tied up with a nice bow and sent away!! WOOHOO!!!!
Progression 3
Chapter 10 out of 14 fully typeset. 😀
Progression 2
Chapter 9 out of 14 fully typeset. 😀
Progression 1
Chapter 8 out of 14 fully typeset 😀
The Big 30
Well today is my birthday! I’m pretty sure I remember telling myself when I turned 30 I would have done something spectacular with my life. I suppose I could have done worse. 😀 I know I’m supposed to spend this day getting drunk (which will be done later), but for now I’m finishing typetting this novel.
I guess getting this finished would be pretty spectacular! 🙂
Website A Go Go!
Finally my website http://www.tapestryoffates.com is up and running.
Mind you it’s only a simple page at the moment. It’s time to build the site now 🙂
Ever Closer
I guess I’ve neglected my blog for far too long. And it’s probably best I give it an update for I go on holiday.
Ok first off the bat is the typesetting issues I’ve been having. Last year I created the typeset pdf for Spirit’s Destiny in InDesign. It has been left until the chapters were all proof read, which of course they are now. The actual chapters were typed in Word and then copied and pasted into InDesign. Now InDesign keeps the formatting of the Word file, which is my biggest problem! While typing I’ve gotten into the habit of ‘not’ pressing the indent button when an indent was required. I’ve basically just given it three spaces. This has meant InDesign has simply recognised my indents as spaces, and thus just squished everything together.
So begins the long arduous task of putting line breaks in where required.
I’m up to Chapter 6 out of 14 so I should have this finished this week.
The book is weighing in at around 280 pages – a lot more than I thought it would be. It’s so exhilarating seeing the whole project come together.
On another note, I’ll have my domain name and beginnings of my website sorted this week. After much deliberation, and opinions of my friends, I’ve decided not to do the site in Flash but create it in Dreamweaver. So now I have to learn how to use this package all over again! 😀
I’m also currently in debate with my business partner on how the book should be marketed. Should we concentrate on the local market, and then gradually expand the customer base outwards? Or should we hammer the online market with every feasible social networking tool available? I’m likely to agree with the latter 😀
On a final note my Bob Doyle ‘Wealth Beyond Reason’ course is going well. I’m enjoying seeing my ducks build up as I listen and read great words of wisdom from some of the masters in personal development.
Ok hopefully I’ll post again before the week is out with a fully typeset novel! It only took 7 years haha!
Back On Track
Yay!
My amended Chapter has come back from the proof reader with a ‘thumbs-up’!
Now all I need to do is sort out the book spine, inside covers and then typset it all in InDesign. Thankfully I’ve done most of the InDesign work. All that I really need to do is drop all the amended stuff.
Finally, the end is in sight! I just have to make sure I don’t drop the ball now! 😀
Right in time for my holiday! 😀
Chapter 2 of the first novel.
Meetings with the Proofreader
So on Saturday I had my first meeting with my proofreader – a lovely women called Christine who also teaches English to adults.
During the days leading up to our meeting she was saying how impressed she was with the tale, and was very surprised she was enjoying it (not being a sci-fi fan in the slightest). All that needed correcting were a few minor grammatical errors. Obviously this sent my spirits soaring!
However on Saturday she told me that one of my Chapters – Chapter 13 disappointed her greatly, to the point where she said it would put her buying the second and third books! Yikes!
Now it should be said that Chapter 13 is my ‘backstory’ chapter, where the majority of the history is explained. And of course, being a story that involved a few time-travel ingredients, a little complication is to be expected. I thought at the time of writing that all should be done to introduce these elements gradually and clearly.
My clear writing, was not that clear it would seem.
Christine said it was far too complicated, confusing, and frankly very hard to follow. She did say however she had a hard time following the film ‘Sliding Doors’ so this could just be down to her. But I feel if I’ve any chance of making this a success I will have to write it in a way that anyone can understand it, not just sci-fi fans.
So here I am, back to the drawing board, slaving over my ‘unlucky’ Chapter 13. Maybe I will write out two versions of it and give it to a few people to garner their opinion.
Also she said illustrating might be a bad idea as she wanted to see the things in her head, not in a picture. I’m still not sure I agree. Japanese comics have a massive following. If I can seep myself into that market, then surely that’s a good thing.
Tenerife Decapitation
This is horrific.
My thoughts go out to that poor woman’s family.
I haven’t told my girlfriend yet as we go out there on holiday at the end of June. Quite close by too. 😦
Typing Like a Pro
I love my bookmarks bar at the top of my Firefox Browser. It’s packed full of all the little icons representing the websites I love and use the most, tastefully overlaying a theme of a draping model (Keeley Hazell).
There is however, one icon that niggles at me yet I seem to ignore it on a daily basis. It’s for a free online typing tutorial www.typing-lessons.org – designed to help you type ‘correctly’.
Now I’ve become close to having my first novel published I’ve felt my index finger typing is a little bit amateurish in the writing world. I want my hand to remain still whils my fingers gracefully dance over the keys, blasting out words like a super fast techno track 😀
But is this really neccesary? Does a writer really need to type properly? Or should we be able to do it as we feel best? I’m quite a fast typer, which makes me think I perhaps shouldn’t hinder myself learning a new method. My writing doesn’t follow the ‘correct’ method. I’m left handed, don’t join my letters, and basically scrawl my words across the page.
Oh sod it, I’m gonna have a go! I’ll start the first exercise today and keep updated on how things progress 😀
3 FREE Chapters
To garner some interest in my novel I’ve decided to post the first 3 chapters of my novel Tapestry of Fates: Spirit’s Destiny which can be seen at the top.
Please excuse the formatting issues I had. The final product is of a much higher quality 🙂
Enjoy. 😀
Back Cover
The Old Rule – Sex Sells!
We’ve all heard the saying sex sells, but today I saw first hand that the rule is true.
DeviantArt.com is a wonderful website for showcasing all kinds of artwork and photography, and artists get the opportunity to gain critique on their work in hope of bettering and strengthening their craft. Yet on this site, some images – classed as ‘Artistic Nude’ can border on absolute pornography. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m no prude. Those who know me know my vocal appreciation of the female form. 😀 But sometimes a full on quick poloroid of female (or sometimes male) genetalia can receive more attention and praise than a beautiful painted landscape that’s taken many hours to create.
A friend on DeviantArt who noticed this decided to do an experiment. Noticing certain camera phone tit snaps were getting more views than her own carefully composed photographs, she wanted to test the theory, indeed taking a picture of herself topless (not a crude image but a genuine artistic portrait.) . True to her theory, the views began pouring in. Now does this mean the site is stacked full of young teenage lads, hopeful in seeing naked flesh? Or does it prove on a whole, the human race has a deep seated primalistic lust to see riskier pictures rather than tamer ones?
If this is the case, then why is pornography still viewed as taboo? Why isn’t the world more open towards it.
I’ll admit, the women in my illustrations have a fuller bust and shorter clothing, but I am appealing to a certain audience who appear to prefer cartoon and manga women looking as such.
In the past also, I’ve done a few posters for friend who was hosting a charity football match. For the first year it consisted mainly of a picture of a football pitch, but in the following years I put a woman on, wearing a referee’s uniform and stood in a suggestive pose. And look what happened – a hell of a lot more people turned up to that one! Men will instinctively look towards a picture of a woman sticking her chest out, than a patch of grass.
Maybe one day the world will loosen up, take note of this, and advertise everything sexually!
The Catholic church should really start to change their policies 😀
My Rock
This post is just a little dedication to my wonderful girlfriend Wendy whom makes me smile every second of every day. After two years of being together, we’ve yet to fall out over anything, and even though people say that arguing is healthy in a relationship we have nothing to argue about.
She’s unconditionally supportive in my work and in return I support her in her endeavours to become World Champion in her her hairstyling competitions.
When we first got together she had just walked away with Silver in the European Championships, seeing off dozens of other countries (see pics below) and I was amazed how much drive and passion this modest and down-to-earth girl had. She’s inspired me to work harder in my own goals and accomplish my dreams.
Thanks for being in my life babe! Love you! 🙂 x
Wendy's winning style. I think it's Ladies Technical - Hair by Night
Stepping on to second place, with her little Union Jack.
Sword of Damocles
A few years ago i was told that on the my mother’s side, around a hundred years or so ago our family was a joint owner of a well established, high-class jewellers in London. It would have been called ‘Something and Dunthorne’. And because of this the family was quite rich. Unfortunately one family member decided to play a risky poker game and lost the entire share of the business and in effect removing the family name from the title.
I’ve thought about this often and wonder what my life would have been like if he hadn’t have played that foolish game. Would i be writing a completely different blog? Or would I have always been fated to be in the situation where i am now?
This brings me to a great quote from the movie ‘American History X’ in which Edward Norton – a neo-nazi filled with racial hatred and anger, ends up going to prison for the murder of two black men. He instantly mingles in with the group of like minded ‘white-power’ extremists, but is soon turned upon by them, shattering his beliefs and is forced to turn to his old teacher for help, who ironically is a stoic and strong black man. He asks Norton ‘Has anything you’ve ever done made your life better?’ This in turn causes Norton to break down in despair and plead for the teacher’s help. It’s a truly powerful scene, and one that has lasted with me since I saw it.
Now, that card game obviously did nothing to help my family member’s life. In fact, it made it much much worse. This probably explains my lack of fondness for gambling.
I now try to make sure every second of my life counts towards making it better, whether that be in relationships, social circles, career or money. I imagine a sword, always hovering way above my head. A bit like the Sword of Damocles, only not hanging a horse hair, but just hovering. If I catch myself wasting time, dawdling, or just being lazy, I imagine that the sword begins to raise slowly, climbing to a height as if it was a guillotine, ultimately dropping if too much time was wasted.
Since using this thought I’ve noticed I seem to get more done than I ever did before. I just hope I can carry these thought on, especially if I ever get offered to play a game of poker.
Chapter 11 image:
Spirit's Destiny - Chapter 11
For anyone interested in Personal Development
As a massive follower of personal development, positive thinking, and the law of attraction make sure you check out Simona Rich’s website
http://www.personal-development-coach.net/
She may only be young but she certainly knows her stuff. Her website is packed full of articles and posts with tips and affirmations to improve your life. 🙂
Also check out Bob Proctor, Dr. Wayne Dyer, and Deepak Chopra for some fantastic life coaching 🙂
kennydreadful 