Previous Achilles tendon post

At the end of eight weeks I had to attend the Hospital for a check up. I was hoping I could finally do without the Aircast boot. I had been increasing the amount of weight I was putting on my foot after the sixth week.

I was concerned that when I took the boot off in the evenings my foot and ankle were still very swollen. The doctor checked the scar and the area around ankle and I asked about the swelling. He told me the swelling was normal and not to worry about it. I then had to kneel on a chair so he could squeeze my calf muscle, this should cause my foot to twitch. This is apparently the way to test for tendon rupture. If the tendon has snapped then the foot will not twitch.

Unfortunately my foot did not twitch. The Doctor was concerned that it had not knitted together properly so the boot had to go back on until an ultra sound scan could be booked.

Just over a week later I finally got my scan. It showed that due to the tendon rupturing for the second time it was healing abnormally. It was this that was causing the swelling at the back of my ankle.  I had to take things easy for a further two weeks then start gentle physiotherapy. The Doctors decided the lack of foot twitching was due to the tendon being stiff.

The physio was difficult at first and made my tendon and calf ache. I supplemented the exercises with ever-longer walks. Slowly things returned to normal.

I was finally given the all clear by the hospital Doctors last week so I don’t have to attend any further clinics. (Hooray!)

I do still have to continue with physiotherapy until there is sufficient strength in my tendon for me to stand on one foot and raise myself up onto my toes (I cannot do that yet).

I find that after eight months I am nearly back to normal (How often do you stand on one leg and raise up on your toes?) The only adverse effect is I have a limp for the first few hundred yards or so when I walk. Once the tendon warms up I can walk without a limp. I am also paranoid about it going again so I am very careful.

One moral from my sorry tale? If you feel as though you have been kicked in the ankle, it is very painful and  comes up in a bruise. Don’t assume you were kicked and leave it to get better on it’s own. Go to the Doctor immediately. The sooner treatment starts the easier it will be.

One thing most first time authors know or will quickly discover is however good your book is it will never be a best seller if no one knows about it.

There are two sure fire ways to get publicity and sell a book.

1)   If you are a celebrity and write your memoirs. In this age of celeb culture even if the book is rubbish they fly off the shelves. They are displayed by bookshops in prominent positions, pushed in the papers, magazines and on TV. You cannot fail to succeed.

2)   You have already written a best seller or two. Again your book is displayed in most bookshops, pushed in papers, TV etc., etc.,

So what about the rest of us? All that can be done is produce a website (more detail on that here). Post blogs, set up a profile on Facebook,  Myspace  and Twitter.  In short try and get yourself known by plugging away hoping that some day someone will notice.

Many book publishing coaches, marketing gurus and publicists still advise local book signings and readings. I do not think they work in our modern society unless of course you have written a book with a specific local flavour. Most small signings sell four or five books and will get your book on the shelf of a few local independent shops. But without recognition and serious publicity the book will stay on the shelf gathering dust (at least until it comes time for it to be returned).

So what can really be done? Not a lot! Just keep chipping away and hope for that rare lucky break.

That is unless of course you can come up with a killer idea. Even then it might not have the effect you are hoping for. Whatever you decide to do you need to be sure that it is relevant to your book.  If the people your killer idea attracts are not the type of person who will purchase and enjoy reading what you have written then you have simply wasted your time.

A case in point is the Naked Blonde Writer. Her killer idea is to read her first chapter in the nude. Great idea you might think especially if you have the looks and figure to pull it off. From her website there is media interest in her stunt and her Facebook fan club is increasing in numbers at an envious rate. However I suspect that a very few are interested in her book or what she will be reading.

I would lay odds that most people watching will not even register what she is saying.  So will she sell more books? Probably, more than if she had done nothing but a significant number? I would have to say no. Let’s face it the vast amount of visitors to her website will not be interested in the fact she has written a book.  There may even be a danger of putting serious buyers off. I can imagine the thought process now. If she has to do that to sell her books they can’t be very good can they?

Time will tell. If her sales rank on Amazon increases substantially and stays there then she is right and I am wrong

What do you think?

I have to admit it did give me an idea. Why not do a spoof version? If she gets loads of extra traffic then perhaps I could get some of it too. So what the hell (I hang my head in shame. What a hypocrite!).

So here is my answer to the Naked Blonde Writer; NOT the Naked Blonde Writer

Help wanted! I have got stuck with my family trees. I have gone as far back as possible and have now hit a wall (perhaps more a mist of time?) I would really appreciate it if you could look at my trees and see if they relate to your family. Even if you link to the tree way back perhaps you can verify what I have done and push them back a generation or two?

The Rapley family tree goes back to George Rapley 1678 the Osborne one to Thomas Osborne 1705.

If you would like a copy of my family trees to include in what you have already produced you are very welcome. If you have a tree which links into mine please send it to me so I can build it in and get a better family picture.

My trees are here

Rapley

Osborne

I was putting the word count for Guardian Generations on each posting so it is with great pleasure I can now inform you ITS FINISHED and with the publisher for review.

Wow two posts in one day. I need to lie down!

As a follow on from my previous Avatar post I have been paying attention to how science fiction writers and script writers refer to aliens.

It would seem that the majority refer to alien races. Check out Startrek for instance the term ‘human or alien race’ is common and widely used.

So… are they wrong? I think so. Race to me means an infinitesimal genetic difference. No more than the difference between blue or brown eyes, black or blonde hair. The convention seems to be us as humans consist of different races where the only difference is skin colour or facial features. We are all genetically compatible the same family or species.

Aliens would not be genetically compatible with us. They would have evolved on a different planet and environment therefore an alien would surly be a different species?

If we follow what seems to be the generally held SciFi writers convention then Whales or Goldfinches are a race when they are in fact a separate species. Therefore there is no such thing as an Alien race the two terms are mutually exclusive.

The majority of  Science Fiction writers are therefore wrong!

As a member of the Human species what do you think?

To ensure a website maintains or improves its position with the search engines such as google it is good practice to add or change content reasonably regularly.

For my personal website it is this blog. My book website www.guardianscifi.com gets updated occasionally as does www.partnership-publishing.com.

The latest update for the book website is a new page consisting of part of the synopsis. It gives more of the plot than the first chapter but is not as long (better for reading online).

The full synopsis will be used as an example on www.partnership-publishing.com as part of a page showing how a synopsis is written. There will of course be a spoiler warning just in case someone wants to read the book first

GUARDIAN

Short Synopsis

Tristan is a Naval officer who volunteers for a brain implant as part of an experimental weapons program. The experiment goes wrong and leaves him with minor brain damage. He is discharged from the Navy, and becomes a recluse in an isolated cottage on the edge of Exmoor.

Aurelia is a fighter pilot from the planet Dacia who is running for her life from a superior enemy force. In her desperation, she finds an inhabited planet in an uncharted solar system. She crashes on Earth, just behind Tristan’s cottage.

Tristan pulls her unconscious body from her damaged craft and discovers she is not quite human. He has a further surprise when he finds that he can control her ship’s systems with his thoughts.

Aurelia awakens to find she has been rescued by one of Earth’s primitive beings. Aurelia’s people, the Dacians, believe that they are superior to all other races. They make it their mission to search throughout space for new races to conquer and enslave. She attempts to trick Tristan into becoming her slave.

A small enemy scout ship of rebel slaves lands on Earth to find and kill Aurelia. Tristan rescues her and they take off into space to avoid capture and find her people.

During the flight, she teaches Tristan her language and explains that her enemies are a slave race that rebelled against their Dacian masters. Their spacecraft suffers from engine and partial system failure, so Tristan and Aurelia make an emergency landing on an uninhabited planet that has a Dacian navigation beacon.

They crash land several hundred miles from the beacon and have no option but to walk to it to change its broadcast to a distress signal. During the long walk facing many dangers together, Aurelia and Tristan develop a relationship, which overpowers Aurelia’s belief that Tristan is of a lesser, potential slave race.

They reach the beacon after many days of struggle and Aurelia reconfigures it to send a distress signal. A passing Dacian fleet rescues them, but unfortunately for Aurelia, it is quickly discovered that she has consorted with an inferior being. She is dishonourably discharged from the Dacian military and sent home in disgrace. Tristan is taken to a cell and scheduled for interrogation and termination.

Tristan finds he is sharing his cell with several Mylians, rebels who have been fighting a losing battle with the Dacians. Tristan is shocked to learn the brutal and tyrannical nature of the Dacians; their advanced interfacing abilities and technology have given them an edge over the races they enslave.  Tristan uses his ability to interface with the Dacian computers on the ship to escape and free the slaves.

Tristan and the rebels steal a small ship and travel to a Mylian colony. When they arrive, they find a small Dacian force about to destroy the colony……..

Read the first chapter on www.guardianscifi.com