Early Days...

Early Days

"In the beginning was the word..."
Hi there fans, and thanks for all your clicks. Encouraging to see my little counter now showing a healthy 64 I think it is. And no - they're not all mine! Thanks too to those of you who took the time and trouble to email me. Just to let you know that I appreciated all your comments, and will reply just as soon as my punishing schedules allow. Incidentally, all letters are read and answered personally - no stereotyped forms.

Much has happened since last we chatted - and the web doesn't seem nearly so threatening now. I bought a really good book to help me, called, strangely enough, Official Netscape Composer Book. Very helpful, and instructive. Tony also sent me a lot more information (very kindly) about getting my counter and email link onto the page.

However, I've solved those problems by the simple expedient of ceasing to want them. And now I understand that at the very least, Composer does allow me to do what I in fact do best, which is writing.

Apropos of that, I've now started my first Net Novel. It's called Tales of Another City, and it will (hopefully) be as interesting, not to say successful, as Mr Maupin's work with a similar title. Of Course, I've got the Web, whereas he just had the San Francisco Examiner, or some such rag.

At first it was just gonna be a straightforward novel, but then I realised that it would be really easy to give the reader a choice of which character to read next at the end of each section. Might as well use the capabilities of the web if we've got them, eh?

Seriously, if the project does look like it's beginning to be successful, I'll have to use a hypertext editor and write it locally on my own comp, just to protect my copyright. I saw on the Net prog on beeb2 a guy who'd published a book on an ordinary floppy. I'm sure there'll be a hypertext editor somewhere. I read somewhere that it's all based on the original Windows Help System.

But, fanlets, before you all rush into print to do the same, I do have to tell you that I am a professional writer of some experience ---- it's not as easy as it looks to write readable stuff. Like this. But - feel free to have a shot! Who knows - you could be the next Salman Rushdie. Or magnificat.

22 March, 1997

Hi again dudes! Now that the equinox is safely behind us, I thought I'd branch a little further out into the galaxy and show you a bit of my art. The following I used as a screensaver during the "kitchen period", a reference which some readers will understand perhaps better than others. Here

There are many, many more pics, but as I only have 1MB of home page, and as most of them are frankly a bit shocking for a family readership, we'll just change the above one now and again.

To read a pretty boring account of the earliest efforts, click here. (Not recommended.)