I have not posted here lately because I have been busy writing a short ebook about natural beekeeping for beginners using horizontal top bar hives.

The new ebook covers

• Getting Started in Beekeeping
• A Suitable Location
• The Design Of Bee Hive
• Clothing And Equipment Needed
• Acquiring Bees
• How to Handle Bees
• Beekeeping Year
• Swarm Control
• Queen Management Techniques
• Feeding Bees
• bee Stings
• Processing Your Honey
• Bee Pests & Diseases

This is a 50 page ebook that you can download to your computer packed with useful information especially if you are considering natural beekeeping and you are not sure where to start.

If you would like more information on my new ebook please visit the website www.topbarbeekeeping.com..

As well as the book you can subscribe to a series of free articles I have written about bees:

• The Exploitation Of The Honey Bee. Where I detail my personal take on modern beekeeping as the exploitation of a wild creature.
• The Different Bee Casts The Queen, Drones and Worker Bees
• Honey Bee Species including the Italian Bee – Apis Mellifera Ligustica, Carniolan Bee – Apis Mellifera Carnica. etc.
• The Hive Year detailing the changes to the bee colony over a year.
• The History of Beekeeping.
• The Decline Of The Honey Bee my personal take on the possible causes of why the bee is under pressure and their numbers declining.

At least take a look at the new site here,  subscribe to the FREE articles and let me know what you think.

As well as writing the beekeeping book I have been busy on a new novel. I have put the Science Fiction series to one side at the moment and I am concentration on a historical romance that links a person in the present day with an ancestor in Roman Pompeii.

More information on that soon.

A Happy and Prosperous New Year To Everyone

Clive

About Clive

The strong hive is still taking syrup over 2liters so far and I took nothing from them so they obviously had problems building up their own supplies. It is rather strange as there are plenty of fields, woods and gardens around them.

The weak hive is however a problem, they are not taking the syrup or very little anyway. They were flying a couple of weeks ago when we had a mild spell and were ejecting the drones (Lots of fighting around the entrance. I first thought there might be robbing taking place but on closer inspection the drones were being forcefully ejected.)

The bees are there but when I carefully looked either end by just moving the follower boards to one side. All I could see was uncapped empty comb. I wanted to investigate further but it was cold even though it was a sunny day so I thought better of it.

I am concerned they are not taking the syrup but ‘you can lead a horse to water, you cannot make it drink!’ I have to assume they know what they are doing and have enough supplies. I will keep them topped up with syrup just in case and move over to fondant later on in the year/early next.

I will be surprised if the weak hive lasts the winter but only time will tell.

Check out my new ebook  Natural Beekeeping Using Top Bar Hives

About Clive

First an important announcement, as well as being available on Kindle both books are  now available as PDF ebook versions on my Guardianscifi website for instant download at a special Christmas price of $3.00 (£2 GBP).  The normal price will be $6.00 (£4.00 GBP).

Recently a friend of mine suggested I should add an interactive page to my website to make it more interesting. She suggested a game or competition based on my books with some sort of prize at the end.

I thought about her suggestion for a while and decided to give it a go. I quickly dismissed the idea of a game as it was far beyond my limited programming skills. A competition of some sort, if it was fairly simple but still interactive might however be within my capabilities. I searched the net for ideas and as luck would have it found a website where it was possible to create a quiz and then embed it into a web page.

I made a list of questions and answers based on my first book Guardian. I organised them in order so as to reflect the order in which the story in the book unfolds. I also made sure the answers were available on the web if you know where to look  (or you can of course buy the book!).

The site that hosts the quiz allows a player to register and record their score. I have used that facility so I can offer the incentive of a prize to those who  reach 100%

To ensure there is no cheating I can see how many times a person has completed the quiz. Genuine contestants who manage 100% will be entered into a draw to win one of three free, signed copies of Guardian Generations.

So what are you waiting for? Give my quiz a go!

About Clive

Just a short entry today to inform everyone that my books are now available on Kindle.

The book files have been optimised for all the Kindle enabled devices:
Kindle
Kindle DX
Kindle 1st Generation
Kindle 2nd Generation
Kindle for PC
Kindle for Mac
iPad Kindle
iPhone Kindle
Android Kindle
Kindle for Blackberry

The text to speech function is also enabled.

The Amazon product numbers are
ASIN B004BLK5PY for Guardian
ASIN B004BLK66W for Guardian Generations

They are must have additions to your Kindle library and hours of reading pleasure for less than a round of drinks!

As a reminder of what they are about the back cover blurb is copied below:

Guardian
Having retired for a quiet life in an isolated part of the country following an unsuccessful and debilitating experiment by the Navy, Tristan Taylor’s life is turned upside down by the arrival of Aurelia- an alien warrior whose fighter has crash-landed behind his cottage!

With the realisation that he can ‘feel’ the alien’s thoughts and with the knowledge that the previously failed brain implant can now interface with the alien’s computers. Tristan begins his quest to end the rule of the dominant Dacian people and bring peace and equality to all races.

Guardian Generations

RAF fighter pilot James Taylor is abducted by an alien craft as he flies his Typhoon over Scotland. He’s unaware that his uncle, Tristan who disappeared without trace many years ago, had been targeted by aliens and is now one of the ‘Guardians’ of space, a specially selected and highly trained race with telepathic powers.

As Tristan’s daughter hurtles towards Earth to find more people capable of becoming Guardians, on another planet and evil scheme to ‘cleanse the galaxy’ of all synthetic life forms is gathering pace. James unwittingly becomes part of the plan, and is tasked with countering the threat of Guardian Artificial Intelligences.

Stardrive technology is in overdrive, space pirates are amassing, and a secret passed down through generations is revealed. But a time-bomb is ticking – is there still time to bring peace to the galaxy.

About Clive

There seems to be a growing trend towards advertising books using a short movie trailer. Most of the large publishing houses produce one for new books they release; either that or the authors have deep pockets!

Not wishing to be left out I decided I had to have a trailer for my books. My publisher being small and my pockets being empty I had to produce one myself.

So armed with little knowledge, Photoshop, Poser and iMovie I set to work.  I did have a vague idea as to what I wanted so I started with the characters in Poser. Once the characters were produced I added some simple animation.  I made up a couple of backgrounds with text in Photoshop then imported the lot into iMovie.

I used iMovie to add transitions and flying text over the characters. I moved things around and adjusted the timings until I had what I considered to be a passable book trailer.

The one missing element was a sound track. I searched the web for royalty free sound tracks. I needed something dramatic like an action movie theme. I eventually found one I really liked but unfortunately it cost $99 L

So back to the drawing board, further searching turned up a site that sold short royalty free sound tracks that were designed to be looped. I obtained 7.5 seconds for $9, rather more realistic! The only draw back being the resultant looped track was a bit repetitive but hey, beggars can’t be choosers.

So here is Version 1 of my Book Trailer please let me know what you think.

I learnt a lot producing this version so now I have decided to produce something a bit more sophisticated. I might even save up for the $99 sound track. Watch this space!

About Clive