This could be my last
blog entry for a while. This time next week we will be travelling up to Bilbao
to catch the boat back to England. Technically we’ll be homeless until we have
handed over the money for our Park Home at Pagham (West Sussex). It means no
Wi-Fi for a while, but like a lot of people of our age (me and Pat), we have
travelled thousands of miles over the years without Wi-Fi, mobile phones,
tablets, laptops and all that modern paraphernalia. We will still have our mobile
phones with us of course, so we won’t be completely isolated. Something we
noticed when we travelled to Australia a couple of years ago was the fast
disappearance of public call boxes. No doubt they will become a thing of the
past. As technology moves forward and leaves the past behind, a lot of us mourn
the passing of the old days but would probably not welcome them back. I would
not like to go back to writing novels on a typewriter, even with a correction
ribbon in place. And as for carbons: God forbid! But thinking back to the
tapping rhythm of the typewriter keys and the zip of the carriage return, I
harbour a kind of masochistic desire for those days. I think it’s because it
made the acceptance of a novel by the publisher a rewarding triumph after the
drudge of bashing away in a lonely corner somewhere. Modern indie writers
cannot possibly know that feeling: they can never live the sheer joy of
receiving the acceptance letter from the publisher. Publishing a novel now is a
fact of life that turns us all into writers. Anybody can pen a story, good or
bad, and publish it in Amazon. They become instant writers. Just add water and
stir. There’s a kind of metronomic output with some of the writers I’ve come
across on various forums. They promote their next series of first time novels
that they have yet to complete and invite readers to log on to their blog and
sign up for the newsletter, behaving like established writers. And it’s all
down to modern technology. So what’s the next step? Who knows? But the fun, the
joy and, (dare I say it?) the creativity needed to produce quality will be
missing, and this can only be to the detriment of the published word. One day
youngsters will seek instant gratification through apps on their mobiles and
tablets, apps that will be produced by wizard technology that probably doesn’t
exist yet, and books will confined to the dusty shelves of old houses and
bookshops. So when me and Pat are finally settled in our new home at Pagham, I
will get on with writing and publishing on Amazon because that’s the only way
to go for so many writers today. Unless I manage to get my novel finished and
accepted by my publisher! Wish me luck.
blog entry for a while. This time next week we will be travelling up to Bilbao
to catch the boat back to England. Technically we’ll be homeless until we have
handed over the money for our Park Home at Pagham (West Sussex). It means no
Wi-Fi for a while, but like a lot of people of our age (me and Pat), we have
travelled thousands of miles over the years without Wi-Fi, mobile phones,
tablets, laptops and all that modern paraphernalia. We will still have our mobile
phones with us of course, so we won’t be completely isolated. Something we
noticed when we travelled to Australia a couple of years ago was the fast
disappearance of public call boxes. No doubt they will become a thing of the
past. As technology moves forward and leaves the past behind, a lot of us mourn
the passing of the old days but would probably not welcome them back. I would
not like to go back to writing novels on a typewriter, even with a correction
ribbon in place. And as for carbons: God forbid! But thinking back to the
tapping rhythm of the typewriter keys and the zip of the carriage return, I
harbour a kind of masochistic desire for those days. I think it’s because it
made the acceptance of a novel by the publisher a rewarding triumph after the
drudge of bashing away in a lonely corner somewhere. Modern indie writers
cannot possibly know that feeling: they can never live the sheer joy of
receiving the acceptance letter from the publisher. Publishing a novel now is a
fact of life that turns us all into writers. Anybody can pen a story, good or
bad, and publish it in Amazon. They become instant writers. Just add water and
stir. There’s a kind of metronomic output with some of the writers I’ve come
across on various forums. They promote their next series of first time novels
that they have yet to complete and invite readers to log on to their blog and
sign up for the newsletter, behaving like established writers. And it’s all
down to modern technology. So what’s the next step? Who knows? But the fun, the
joy and, (dare I say it?) the creativity needed to produce quality will be
missing, and this can only be to the detriment of the published word. One day
youngsters will seek instant gratification through apps on their mobiles and
tablets, apps that will be produced by wizard technology that probably doesn’t
exist yet, and books will confined to the dusty shelves of old houses and
bookshops. So when me and Pat are finally settled in our new home at Pagham, I
will get on with writing and publishing on Amazon because that’s the only way
to go for so many writers today. Unless I manage to get my novel finished and
accepted by my publisher! Wish me luck.
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