MY BETTER HALF...

This woman is cleverer, funnier and stronger than I am. So she can certainly kick YOUR ass...

LEAST ACTION HERO...

So many deadlines and dinosaur incursions, so little time...

JOURNEYMAN...

Lay back and think of the air-miles I'm earning...

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Y awn! It always takes a few days to shake off the jet-lag and my sleep patterns are still buggered up. From deep sleep to wide-awake at the drop of a Zzzz. But hopefully by mid-week, I should be all realigned!

As those of you who frequent Facebook (and let's face it, ALL the cool kids are doing it!) will know, there'll be a new Impact on the UK shelves in just over a week. #210. This is the cover we sorted out yesterday. Covers are always a bit interesting as the publisher, designer and myself usually disagree on the initial plan and then work towards a common goal. Sometimes that works out for the best, sometimes not, but interestingly this is probably the cover I would like to have gone with anyway, while at the same time suspecting I'd be out-voted. Originally it would have been a more Eastern look and a female variant on the 'Tough Guys' cover from last month, but the publisher wanted a strong public awareness (something I frequently point out brings in new readers) and this Terminator cover IS noticeable. As we enter the summer sales period, that's always important - as these issues often point us towards the style and coverage we'll seek out in the Autumn. Thus, please spread the word as every sale will count towards future decisions made. Contents include Terminator, the recent Highlander convention, Blood: The Last Vampire, a review of Michael Connelly's new novel The Scarecrow and a sneak preview of The Expendables...

In the next few days I'll also be updating the Verbatim page here as I've repackaged the earlier print editions onto CD/DVD discs as PDF pages and they'll be for sale at a very respectable price (all monies will help towards my next US trip which I'd like to be sometime around September if everything goes well!)

I'll also be updating and bringing into the 'There Goes The Day' pages, some photography pages. I intend to spend a bit of serious time on design and photography during the later half of the year and see if I can bring in some more cash for those efforts. Journalism is fine, but in the current climate it's more competetive than ever and I need to diversify.

In the immediate future is probable Transformers press and also Cinema Days where I'll sit and watch 15 films or so over four days . I tell you, my work is never done...

Back in the UK. It's raining. Peh. As always I'm suffering from jet-lag, being both so tired I could drop and yet so awake I could spit. Which I won't because that would be rude.

Iowa went pretty well. It was really nice to slow down the pace after LA and it's becoming a comfortably familiar place. During the last week of the trip I ventured down to that river/railway bridge several times and also decided to walk through the woods that line the Sioux River. It instantly felt like a place I can only define as one of magic and power (sounds utterly corny, but there's a real atmosphere down there, a real sense of both anticpation and calm).  There's a smaller lake behind the obvious one and it looks like a combination of both wild undergrowth and dumping ground for cars. Ancient vehicles and branches poke out from both the riverbank and it's a meeting of worlds. Photographic paradise as well. Hope to take more there next time.

Jill had to work a lot of the last week I was there, but the plan was always to stay local and there was time to take the car out exploring some of the nearby counties (and hey I managed to put put my lottery win - $14, count it $14!!!! - towards petrol  gas) and for me to win her a soft plush toy in one of those grabby-craney amusement-arcade style things that I always swore were a total fix and a waste of money. She utterly failed to win me one. Peh.

Due to leaving some DVDs/CDs in LA and claiming a clothing drawer at Jill's, I had less to bring back, so there wasn't the weight problems with luggage there could have been - I'd actually managed to consolidate two cases down to one! Jill and her sister took me across to Sioux Falls airport on Friday afternoon and due to incoming weather conditions, the check-in guy took my case and then suggested he put me on an earlier flight. It worked well as due to rolling delays I didn't get into Chicago long before I would have done anyway (and my actual flight would have been way too late to make the Heathrow connection).  Sat next to a Republican on the plane and ended up politely debating the merits of Bill O'Reilly politics, but as I managed to wangle extra leg-room on an exit row and also managed to watch the week's Bones and Numb3rs it all evens out ;)

Into Heathrow by about 8:20am, King's Cross by about 9:45am and in Leeds around 12:30pm ish. Asleep by 3:00pm-ish for a couple of hours and then a decent 8hrs through the night.

I'll just take it easy through today and plan to get an early night. Then I should really start planning my next visit. Or rather financing it. On that note, details on the new issue of Verbatim following shortly...

For the moment.... Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

It's Monday, which leaves me less than a week in Iowa for this trip (though I hope to be back again soon). I leave Friday, though not at the ridiculously early hours I ahd to be up in London and LA to catch flights! Home via Chicago and Heathrow

Again, there is still much of a taking-it-easy pace, spent between finishing some bits and peices for Impact (now largely done), helping around the house (and outside, doing some mowing today! Whoohoo!), eating of the delicious cosmic brownies (not as illegal as they sound)and some more opportunistic photography when and where I can.

A fan of old houses, Jill knew of some long, long abandoned properites on the edge of town, so we went to take some photos. Just inside the used-to-be-a doorway of one such derelict abode was this old piano, half the keys falling away and the ones that left only capable of a valiantly-attempted single note before giving up the ghost. A more colourful opportunity shot came with Ambrose, one of Jilly's cats, patrolling the garden. Most of Jill's pets are compelte hams for the camera and I'll probably post more pix later.

Mixed weather for the rest of the week, but should be warm, dry and sunny enough for those of us with only English rain to otherwise look forward to... oh, sweet Horsfordian rain how I've missed thee. NOT.

So, I've been ensconsed here in Iowa for about a week now and once again enjoying the slower pace and the lack of urgency that was the order of the day in LA during the great but tiring convention. The weather's been good here and despite a brief shower this morning, it's generallly been sunny and/or warm.

Jilly is once again juggling her considerable workload (two jobs and a menagerie of animals to support) and I'm mucking in with the housework and indulging my inner domestic godness (and doing surprisingly well). I've fixed her televsion, fixed my own video camera (which let me down royally at HLWW), planted some flowers, helped clean the house and hope to help her get a virus off her computer in the next few days. For the moment Jilly's done a dog-swap with friends and so Big Gay Winston has been replaced by the smaller and more manageable 'Tater'. He's just as giddy, but less of a handful and apart from a few small 'accidents', he's a lot easier to clean up after. Katie, Jilly's other dog, is a bit jealous of the little one's attention, but seems to be pal-ing up fine. Right now, Katie, Tater and Jilly are all sparked out. They've all earned it.

Once again, I'm getting the chance to do some more photography and with the train track that runs by the side of Jill's house being empty and used much less than normal, I've been able to take some nice track shots across the Sioux bridge a hundred yards or so away. All I need now is a nice lightning storm to roll through and the shots would be truly amazing!

Being careful about not banging my head, but managed to have a door close on it and a shelf get in the way already. Thankfully both were the most lightweight of bumpsand not liable to cause any harm. The more careful I am, the more I have to watch out, it seems!

No big plans for the next few days as Jilly has early starts, but that will allow me to get some Impact articles sorted and maybe catch up with a few TV shows.
May treat myself to having another Zen Hotdog at some point. They make me one with everything...

While I suppose I should have spent some time post-con doing the interviews I didn't have time for, it proved heard to nail people down (gotta buy a nail gun), so I decided to set more up for later and just chill out after the con.  Apart from writing some stuff for Impact and helping Kerry photograph some items she'll be ebaying (some nice geek stuff - I'll alert the masses when they're up), the rest was mainly 'me' time.

We went to Gillian's on the Monday night where GH had a lovely table of Thai food to entice. Kerry warned me not to eat too quickly otherwise she's have to use the Alzheimer's manoevre on me. I asked her to repeat what she'd said.  She looked quizzically at me and said "I said I'd have to administer the Alzheimer's manoevre".. You mean Heimlich?  Pause. Rolling of eyes. "Yes, I absolutely do..."  (This comes as sweet revenge for me searching my hotel room for half an hour for my passport, only to have her walk in and point to it!)

Walked up to the Golden Apple store on Thursday and then we had some good takeaway in the evening after Kerry had spent the whol week Leverage-ing scripts.  Thanks again to her for letting me stay.

Fri-am was an early start (up at 5:00am to get ready for shuttle to the airport) and was on my flight by 8:30am. Despite nearly leaving my Visa card in the check-in machine, all went well and I wa sin Iowa by 3:45pm local time where I was introduced to the Olympic Rummage Dash.  Now it's Saturday morning, the sun is shining and I must go hunting for chocolate...