It’s been over a year and a lot of things have
happened. Not all good and not all bad
but a lot of things have happened.
There are some stuff I’m not sure exactly how much I would be allowed to
talk about and other things I am not sure I want peeps to actually know. Actually, knowing me I tend to spin things
to the negative so don’t be surprised that most of this blog is that. I also have some twitter peeps to shout out
to, so if you want to see some reviews of people I feel you need to give a
better look, scroll through the B.S. So
first, lets travel.
In 2015 I planned to go to the San Diego ComicCon this past
July but as I started with that plan I noticed some very discouraging facts with
this particular convention. Now I knew
that there’d be zounds of people there roaming around causing a lot of foot
traffic problems and getting in the dealers hall on day one would be next to
impossible. I understood that. I was forewarned so I was forearmed. Nope, the initial letdown to getting into
this convention was the preregistration.
There were only so many to be bought and when they ran out I was stuck
buying registration at the doors. No
thanks. I’m sorry but I feel I don’t
have to hurry up and spend just to obtain that glimmer of hope to be just ahead
of everyone else and an even smaller glimmer of hope in getting a hotel room
downtown so I didn’t have to walk great distances or deal with strange
California traffic with a rental car and strain to find parking close enough to
the convention hall. The fact that I
may not even get a prereg on day one when they are available was bad enough to
make the decision to not go…EVER! (Now
I could be wrong about that and misread the information provided on their
website, but that’s how it read to me.
Still I’m soured by this con and I never even started to make
preparations to go.)
So instead
I decided to take my big trip to England during that time. I was working on my ancestry of my family,
mainly through ancestry.com, but later on there became questions about certain
ancestors in the tree and certain far removed cousins so I made some
correspondence with the right departments in the U.K. to make confirmations on
these findings. (Still waiting on Clan
Ferguson but I think that’s no longer a possibility) Ultimately I was given more questions after some answers were
made. But I also decided to make a real
trip out of because the last time I was in England I was only visiting certain
places. Mainly in London and north of
Liverpool is where I frequented with a day taking a touristy jaunt around
Salisbury, Bath and Stonehenge with other Americans who wanted to see these
places. I remember talking mostly with
a family from Cleveland and after a good fifteen minutes the accent I acquired
while being in England for a week completely vanished.
Back then I
attended the Concert for Life in Wembly, attended the Queen fan convention in
Southport (North of Liverpool) and got to watch an Arsenal match. This time the only things of London I saw
was Heathrow Airport and the Underground to the train station I was going to
that was transporting me to England’s midlands area. I wanted to see other things besides London, including going to
Wales and Scotland.
3 July 2015
After a long travel from the Airport all the way to my first
destination &much anticipated long journey I arrived in Leicester where I
had enough time to just drop my luggage and head to my first appointment to
look at parts of my family tree. Fortunately for me the people in charge were very helpful and
already had a sheet printed out for me about what I had questions. Still it gave me more questions and already
had me thinking I probably will never know all the answers with my family
tree. Not surprised because the further
you went back the less likely records were kept on births and deaths.
After I was
done there I headed back to my room where I had a good three hours nap before I
had to get up and head to my first show of the trip. Got to see Derren Brown’s Miracle and at the same time finally
had some jelly babies. I thoroughly
enjoyed it and the medium he emulated that night, and I use the word “medium”
very lightly, he did a spot on job. So
finally, one off my list of who to see live.
Now, back
to Leicester and pretty much most of England that is not London. I didn’t have one bite to eat besides some
candy since I landed at Heathrow and one thing I learned very quickly was
unless it’s a 24 hour fast food joint you’re going to have a hard time getting
food past nine to eleven o’clock. I was
finally able to score a calzone kitty corner from my motel room but even then
it was obvious they were getting ready to close. I was made to wait a good half hour then they wanted a tip. Fortunately I already had the food I ordered
in my hands and since I was in Europe… no tip for jou! I’m sorry, I know it’s obvious I’m an
American that doesn’t me I’m ignorant on what goes on socially. I know y’all don’t expect tips. First restaurant I walk in and they expect a
tip. ::Shakes head::
4 July 2015
Got up early and headed down to Coventry, which was my next
stop. The hotel I was staying at was
nice enough to allow me to keep my luggage there before getting a room because
I was heading down to the Godiva festival, where I was all day enjoying music
and atmosphere, though a lot of people, which I still have a hard time dealing
with, but I let the music drown that out.
I treated the place like being at an outside bar; sitting back and being
unassuming while observing others and their habits. I’m a writer, I tend to do that.
Around
fiveish I had to head back to the hotel, claim my room, get cleaned and changed
to head over to Birmingham so I can see Jimmy Carr live. Another live act I get to knock off the list
and it was definitely ROTFLMAO! And
it’s a thing for him to allow the audience to meet and greet him after the
show. The one thing about him that
caught me off guard is Jimmy guessed my accent in one. Figured out exactly which state of the union
I was from. He was pretty cool. Kinda surreal because there he was even
though all I’ve had is YouTube videos and then there he was.
Something
else about Birmingham that day when I was there; there was a small blues
festival going on with a lot of pubs with booths around it. So I sampled someone’s “hot dog” ::Giggle:: and got to critique it. They weren’t sure that it was a good idea
for an American to be doing that but if you want to call it a Chicago dawg you
better right well f’ing make it proper.
I asked them if they had anything in England called horseradish or
relish because the dog was lacking in both.
All I got were shrugs where I added that the hot dog tasted really good
but it was not a true Chicago dawg since these ingredients were missing. Good try though.
Also, while
drinking pints of cider I noticed that only the ladies drank cider and the men
drank beer, which bugged me. Yes, I
would love to drink the beer, but since I had gout, which was kind of flaring
up at the moment, I had no choice but to ignore beer. Besides, that cider was God-awful.
Back to
Coventry, didn’t want to mess with the children trying to hail cabs or waiting
on the bus so I tried to head to the hotel via shanks mare, snuck into a pub
before they were done serving drinks and had a pint and given some off hand
information I wish forever I never acted upon it cuz –
5 July 2015
One of the worst days of my life. Top ten, sure, top five, yeah that two, top three, quite a
possibility. This passage is tricky,
but I’m going to say something about it because it’ll always be eating me away.
At the time
I thought I was okay, I though I wasn’t in the wrong. Afterwards I have decided even second chances cannot happen, even
with people who have preconceived notions of you, which are most definitely not
you. I decided not to argue but you
cannot argue with those who have already made their mind up. I could also try to take a more visceral approach,
like I normally would but that would make more harm than good in the long
run. Was the way I did things the best
way? Looking back now, no. I wish I wasn’t given any information the
night before so I could just go on with my trip in blissful ignorance. Besides, not everyone in this world are nice
people. And it also bears that their
response truly displayed the content of their character. Nobody was right this day.
Still,
because of said events, everyday I wake up, look in the mirror and now notice a
monster I cannot shake. Regardless of
how wrong the impression was or how incorrect the preconceived notions were, I
know I’m not that kind of person, but that’s not how I’m viewed and I doubt
that’ll ever go away. (Yeah, tmi, but
that’s about as PC as I can put it. No,
I’m not naming names)
After this
I felt I couldn’t leave the hotel at all.
The name “Custer” means enough to me.
I knew no one in town and there were plenty of friends on the
opposition. I even had one more night
to stay at this hotel, whom’s service has already waned to incompetence.
So, because
of this transgression –
6 July 2015
I loose fifty quid because I was not sticking around. I doubt a taxi could never show up fast
enough to save my ass from a lynch mob, so I decided to get a room in Leicester
for that night because I had a show to see in that town. But first… I had my
tour at Jaguar and got to see my very favorite vehicle being built in its
varying stages, the F-type. Even had
one in the lobby where you can get your photograph taken while behind the wheel. First time ever I got to sit in a car with
the wheel on the right side. I don’t
know if I will ever get used to that feeling, clutch on the right, stick on the
left. I have a bit of ambidexterity,
but I would still have to learn to get used to it.
The tour
guide also informed us they do make the F-type custom and if you were rich
enough could come down to the factory for a more all inclusive tour that ended
with you introduced to your new car where you can test drive it then and there
and let them know what needed changing, if anything, before it was sent off to
the nearest dealer to you. If only I
could win the lottery. That and the
Edinburgh Fringe would be epic IMO.
After
Jaguar I went further into the city to get my family tree stuff from
Birmingham. Unfortunately it had to be
a lot faster than Leicester but they did have a printout for me too… for a
tener. ::Shakes head:: I grabbed my stuff so I could look at it
later because I needed to be at the airport.
I was
meeting up with a friend. A friend who
agreed to meet me there from Northern Ireland, well, at least it seemed to me
it was agreed. I noticed the flight
that they were supposed to be on and that I beat it to it’s landing by just 5
minutes so I waited in the main entry area at Birmingham International. And I waited…and waited…and waited. People who showed up at the baggage claim
came and went and they didn’t show up.
So I decided to look at my fb to see what was up only to view that I was
unfriended. I should have done that
earlier so I didn’t waste my time.
Again people being shitty with me second day in a row. Took the train back to Coventry, grabbed my
already packed luggage, handed the front desk my key and took the taxi outta
there to the station and to Leicester.
I didn’t want anything to do with that town anymore. GTFO.
They only way I would ever be back there are because the train/bus/car I
was in gone through the town. I even
cancelled my appointment in Coventry for my family tree stuff there because I
was so distraught.
Now,
Leicester, I had hoped things would get better. Drop everything and chill.
I had three extra hours after spending more cash than I had
planned. Then I got to go to the Globe
pub and see Aisling Bea (@WeeMissBea) do some work in progress comedy. They gave me a front seat so I already knew
I was in for it because like many comedians she likes to play off the
audience. Poor girl had to ask me how
my time in England was thus far. My
answer was for yesterday, “I had a right shit day.” The look of horror on her face was classic. I knew she was going to make my day better
because she’s that damn good of a comedian but I was sad panda and not enough
cider was going to make me feel any better but I didn’t mean to make a
statement that felt like I was telling her “Go ahead funny girl, make me
laugh!” I’ll have to admit, she was
funnier than Jimmy until she decided to sing.
::Sigh:: I needed another pint. You can’t fault the kid for trying but…
no. I have a good ear for sound, for
better or worse, and even the choice of song, which was funny, just…no. If anyone who’s seen Aisling Bea at the
Edinburgh Fringe this year please tell me if she sang as her “big finish” or
not.
Another
performer on the list I can scratch off.
7 July 2015
It would be nice to find a T.A.R.D.I.S. right? Well, I didn’t want to look that weird to
walk into any ol’ police box, if they still existed, and act like it was one so
I waiting to get my Doctor Who stuff satisfied when I got to Cardiff at the
Doctor Who experience.
Now up to
this point it’s been pretty hot in England, mid 80’s for us yanks, but Cardiff
was a wake up call weather speaking.
Couldn’t muster past 59 even though it was sunny, the wind off the
harbor was unbearable. When I was
walking back from the Doctor Who experience to the hotel the wind was whipping
water up from the harbor onto my face.
This wasn’t mist. The droplets
were huge and annoying. One peculiar
thing was seeing an ice cream truck parked against the fence that divided the
sidewalk to the steady drop into the water and the Welsh overjoyed, running to
said truck to get their ice cream. No,
just no way. I was better when I was
more back into the city where there were buildings so there were windbreakers.
The Doctor
Who Experience itself was nice but it was pretty much what I expected, geared
to the kids. Pretty much be there,
remember when you were that age, just have fun with it that way and move
on. I spent a lot of money in the gift
shop. A LOT of money.
Then
finding a place to eat, which wasn’t hard, I just decided not to go into the
main city. The hotel steered my into
another direction which I found was the best thing for me because I met an
opera singer, Lorna Jean Hehir (@lornajean_h).
Didn’t know she was until she sang a few bars in the restaurant. It was low enough so no one else notced but
pitch perfect enough that one would go “daaaaamn!” Really nice conversation with her that I think lasted an hour,
hour and a half.
I think it
was the U.K.’s way of trying to make things a little better.
8 July 2015
A train ride about 9 hours long, from Cardiff to Glasgow
with changing trains in Birmingham.
Yeah, changing trains, more like running for my life to the train to
Glasgow and if I missed it I would have to wait until 8pm. Not….happening. I think I had 3 minutes to spare when I got onto the train.
Then I
finally got into Glasgow grabbed me a cab and got to my motel. Outside greeted me a double rainbow, which
made me nervous because when I looked outside from my room on 5 July there was
a rainbow set over the downtown and you saw how that day went.
I got a
hold of my friend Ashley at met her at the train station found out I’ll get a
better look at Glasgow the next day with her and a friend. I ended up wandering the streets a little,
found a place that served haggis…not sure if it was traditional, and found a
very peculiar intersection. A
McDonalds, a Burger King, and Wendy’s, and a KFC took the corners and all were
open. ::Facepalm:: With that I headed back to the room to sleep
but before I did ran across some obvious football supporters, figured out from
all of their drunkenness that I was American and asked if I supported any
team. I had to play dumb and did it
successfully because they were Celtic fans and I didn’t want to get into a
fight.
9 July 2015
I had lots to do.
First thing was go straight to IBROX.
I was only ten blocks away so this was the only time I took a bus on my
trip. Got to the stadium, ironically it
was on the day game day tickets were being sold and got my stuff from the team
store, a kit and a scarf to be honest.
Got into talking with the clerk with my story about the Celtic fans the
night before when I was interrupted by a codger.
“Did ya
punch them in tha throat?” He’d ask me
with a very heavy Glaswegian accent.
I thought about
it as to why I would do that then just told him “No. No I didn’t.”
“That’s
what ya do with those types. Ya punch
them in tha throat!”
I look back
at the clerk where he could only shrug, “Welcome to Glasgow?”
Next, I ate
at Nando’s…and that happened.
Finally I
got back down to the center of Glasgow where my friend Ashley commented that I
was late. Here’s what she made sure I
experienced. Drinking an Iron Bru,
which was so-so, eating some tablet, which was phenomenal, and going to a
Scotch bar where I found my favorite Scotch, Whyte and MacKay 13 year old. Oh yeah, and it’s not sold in the
states. Randy again a sad panda. I forgot what restaurant we ate at but it
wasn’t traditional Scottish so it didn’t strike a cord. Then after saying good-bye to both Ashley
and her friend I decided to go to the city’s local comedy club. Most of the comedy was okay but I had plenty
of cider to drink so I really didn’t care.
Then I just crashed in my room.
10 July 2015
IBROX tour! The
security guard in the main entrance said that bringing my luggage was okay so I
could head straight to the train station after the tour was over so hell yes I
bought a tour ticket. It was the
closest I would ever be to a match. Got
to see everything but the boardroom.
Got some pics taken of me looking like the new boss, which of course I’m
not but it’s nice to dream. Took all of
two hours, plenty of time to get on a train and zip down to my final
destination, Milton Keynes, where Tiffany and Matt were waiting for me. Tiffany is an expatriate so her lack of an
accent was needed to get rid of the rotten broken Glaswegian accent I acquired
when being in Scotland. I think it took
all of two to three hours to accomplish that.
11-12 July 2015
My trip was winding down with a couple of good friends who I
hope wasn’t too much of a trouble guest for them. Their birds are something else and Matt made great tea. (I make it too watery for some reason. It needs practice.) Got to see the church they got married. Tried to imagine the place with Cthulu hymns
being belted out. I even had someone
comment on how remarkable my accent was to where I replied “What accent?” Got to see Minions 2 but not in 4D. Oh well.
Also went to the Pubs the Cock and the Bull, decided to eat at the Cock
pub. (J) and on the 12th
with little problem Matthew was able to get me back to Heathrow with plenty of
time to mess around and get lost if we had to.
Some things I learned while I was there: Taxis are fairly cheap and cabbies don’t
take anything higher than one quid in tips.
Believe me I tried and they turned it down. The most I spent on a taxi ride one way was 7 pounds.
I’m pretty good at Cricket. Good enough that the opposing team was so
insulted by my skills that I was told to leave the pitch. No I didn’t do anything wrong socially, I
just hit one over the fence the first time up as a batsman and bowled out too
many batsmen myself. I told them I
never played the game and I never did, but I’ve observed parts of test matches
and reviewed the rules of the game.
After that playing it made more sense.
Consignment shops are a way of life
over there and there isn’t shame in buying at those stores, unlike over here
and you’d find a lot more interesting things in those consignment shops. (I got me an Office UK dvd collection for
only 5 quid!)
Twinkies are 7 pounds 50. You don’t eat the American stuff over there
unless it’s fast food, if you really want to eat fast food.
During the summertime all you have
to work with are fans. There’s no such
thing as air conditioning. In the
hotels they leave you a not explaining that you have to close the drapes of the
windows so the sun doesn’t shine in, keeping your room naturally cooler and at
night opening the windows so you don’t trap the heat. Yes, we know this, but most people obviously needs to be coach
through it. To me I read it as, “Please
deal with the fact you will not have AC.”
After making it to Cardiff, not only did I not need AC, but I needed to
wear a jacket a lot. It wasn’t that
warm at all.
So that was England.
Now my writing.
I’ve turned all my books into these paperbacks because I
believe they are cheaper that the larger books yet are still nice enough a hard
copy to carry around. Plus I have also
found having a hard copy I’m easier to edit my work now then fixing them on the
computer so for right now my books will be available only on paperback until I
get off my lazy butt and work on the trade sizes and the eBooks.
Daemon’s
final pass is over, now I’m working on Shifter as this blog is written. I also fancy doing vendor stuff next year
but looking at the price of said books bought in bulk it looks daunting. Not to mention how much to be a vendor at
these conventions. I will get these
books done, seemingly very quickly, but after these I doubt I’ll be able to get
anything else done going forward unless, somehow I can make a living at this,
which I really cannot. I’m not good at
marketing, I never will be nor am I or ever will be a good salesman. Plus the damaging my ego knowing I’ve only
sold one book in the past ten years.
The other
problem, apparently, is my narrative.
My voice in third person I’ve always thought has had problems and it’s
true. Many have confirmed it sounds too
much like a newspaper or magazine article and therefore I believe doesn’t allow
the reader to enjoy the story. The
problem with all of this is I have no more time to fix any of this.
My real
life job is that of a truck driver.
This job gives me absolutely no time for anything else anymore. What little time to myself I get is spent to
either watching shows or sleeping. This
is all I get anymore so there’s no time to get any stories stuck in my head
onto paper in any way, shape or form.
This doesn’t bug me as much as it should as I point out; again, I’ve
only sold one book. If I knew what to
do I’d do it. I don’t and I have no
energy left to work that hard to get there.
Third, my
name. Apparently H.R. Green is an
engineering firm that started at the turn of the 20th Century. They don’t own the trademark on the name but
if I started to make some real money on it I’m sure they’d want their cut,
trademark or no trademark. So I’ve been
mulling over using my real name again which I find out isn’t being used anywhere
but this means actually getting my lazy self to do the legal groundwork to find
the stuff out and file the papers to get my name trademarked.
So now that I’m done with me whining for now and I know
nobody wants to read that…
Things to read.
Recently I read three books by author Laura Del. Graveyard
Shifts and Dueling Moons are her
Pat Wyatt novels. Now, they are under
the romance genre but they are also supernatural novels. For those of us who don’t really like mushy
romance it is fairly easy to skip all that text and get back to the vampire and
werewolf goodness inside these books. I
personally believe she does a splendid job in combining both types of books and
are both really good reads. She’s
closing in on finishing her third Pat Wyatt novel, Danville Horror, so I suggest you all out there play catch up and
get the first two.
She also
has a novella out, “Ghosts Among Men,” that I think reads like those television
mystery shows from the seventies and eighties, only with an obvious R rated
feel. Think Ghost Whisperer with
attitude and you have her protagonist, Samantha Davidson.
Links to
the author’s books from Amazon is down below, along with the link to her weekly
vlogging site on YouTube.
Things to listen.
A while back I had the fortuitous luck in have a country
artist, Julie Gibb, follow me on Twitter.
Now I don’t normally listen to country music, so I had to click on her
website to find out what this girl is about and all I had to hear was just over
a minute of her song, “Woe is Me” to decide to follow back and start getting more
of her songs so I can get a good listen.
Eventually
I’ve purchased two of her albums, All My
Yesterdays and Rewriting History. Now I bought the actually CDs instead of
downloading the MP3 versions of the songs because with RW, the digital
downloads sounded different than the tracks on the CD. Now they still sound great, just on the CD I
can hear the base play a much more prominent role in the songs, especially on
“Thank God for You.”
Tracks I
recommend from both albums. First, All My Yesterdays: “Cleveland,” “All My
Yesterdays,” “Well I Do,” “Call Me Baby ( J ),” & “Too Soon to
Tell.” Second, Rewriting History: “Get
the Show on the Road,” “Consolation Prize,” “A Single Yesterday,” “Thank God
for You,” “I Might Be Wrong,” and “Hold on Tight.”
She too has
a YouTube channel with a lot of lyric videos.
She also has a Christmas song and being this close to the holidays I
invite you to check that out. There are
also listener requests that she does every once in a while if someone would
like to ask her to do a cover song, she just might. Check out “Move With You Slowly” on her YouTube channel as an
example. No real reason, just thought
it was a good choice to start.
Julie
also has her first album, which I’ll admit I do not own yet entitled Persistence in Folly, where “Woe is Me”
is at, and another song, “The Wrong Address.”
Go get eet!Laura Del's website: http://www.thefictionwriters.net/, her Amazon author page: http://www.amazon.com/Laura-Del/e/B00GR6QGEA, her YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJtlt0JsRewUBlo2gb1Gqbg
Julie Gibb's website: http://www.juliegibb.com/ where you'll also find her store where you can purchase CD's and music books as well as, a cookbook I believe. Her YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX3dXrvWt55IkgmDqE9zfFA
