Keep plugging away! (Can't someone edit this book for me?)

       I am presently working about thirty hours a week for a school in Bradford and have just started another job as well. In between this I am running my own magazine, editing my book and completing my Level 3 Teaching Assistant course. As well as doing youth work each week. Now it is really important when you are going through something this intense that you take regular breaks. This is because you don't want to burn out. It is so easily done in this life. Also and I am talking to myself here as much as I am to anyone else. Life is busy, so so busy, but please respect that there are times when your body will not feel like completing mammoth tasks like editing your book, respect that. You have one life, it is better that you enjoy it than ruining it by overworking. I assure you few end their lives wishing they had spent more hours at work. As long as there is no deadline, don't worry too much. Obviously again there is a balance here, so if you feel you may go the other way then set yourself a weekly editing target. For me I am now over 75% of the way through my writing project and the book is really taking form. My suggestion is to read it out loud slowly. You will be amazed how many mistakes you pick up on as you do it. Above all else don't give up, many of life's failures were people who did not know how close they were to success when they quit-Thomas A. Edison US inventor. Then again how do we rate success? One thousand people have now read my article on the Mechanics of Short Story writing on Hubpages, is that success?     

Reviews of various moth killling products

We have been at war with the dreaded moths in our flat for a number of months now, there have been casualties on both sides, I have killed close to one hundred moths and they ate two of my beloved sweaters. I don't believe you can fully eradicate them either not without pest control. However that being said there are a number of products I have been using over the past few months, with varying degrees of effectiveness. We we start with the best product I have used to kill close to seventy of the cloth munching little monsters.

The Flea and Fly Bomb (can it kill moths?)

This is by the far the most lethal product in any moth killers arsenal, I have actually managed to clear my room of moths using this product. There is no other product I can say that for. At first I was skeptical, but it says on the canister that it decimates flying creatures, I think that is a fair representation. We only brought three cans, I reckon had we have brought six we would not have any moths left at all now. They were fleeing from the rooms where we set the canisters off. I personally toppled my bed (I knew that under the bed was their favourite breeding spot). I have had a few rogue moths sneak back under the door into my room I killed them promptly so despite the rest of the house still having moths in, my room presently has none! You have to use more than one canister for bigger rooms though (we didn't otherwise there would be no moths left at all now). The biggest thing is the eggs if you get the eggs then you stop them breeding. I actually hoovered my entire room thoroughly before using this product, targeting places where I suspected they were breeding. They like warm spots, next to radiators and dark spots- under the bed so make sure you hoover there. You will need some cheap face masks as well, because this product is hazardous to humans. Put the canister in the centre of the room, close all windows, twist it, till it starts spraying, then get the heck out of there shutting the door behind you. You have to stay out of the room for about four hours (upon returning follow the instructions on the bottle). My room was moth free for two days, I found one baby at that point which I promptly killed, since then there have been no moths breeding in my room at all. This product works! 4.4/5

The Zeroin Demi-Diamond clothes moth killer

It is the safest, easiest to use and in my opinion most effective moth killer on the market (unless you want to pay rent-o-kill hundreds of pounds to super heat your home to high temperatures to destroy the little blighters and their eggs). Essentially it is a prism shaped object. Inside is a sticky piece of card sprayed in a sexy lady moth pheromones. The male moths fly onto it attracted by the pheromones and then get stuck to it, if you are wondering whether they can escape, I caught the edge of my foot on it and ended up with the pad stuck to my sock, I had to use physical force to get it off. With no men left the women cannot breed, so you end up with severely reduced numbers of moths. However there are a lot of cheap knock offs and you struggle to buy a good batch in large quantities. 3.7/5

Zeroin clothes moth Killer Spray

So this Zeroin clothes moth killer is another from the Zeroin range. It is not nearly as effective as the Demi-diamond clothes moth killer. I have sprayed a number of surfaces with it and found that it makes very little difference, in comparison to the aforementioned product. It did make me cough though, a lot actually, so make sure if you buy it, keep your windows open and don't breathe it in. I used so much of it my room became hazardous to my health, I am not sure how the moths survived. I was having coughing fits in the night as a result of using this product. It is not recommended as a spray you can put in the air as it is bad for us and not just the moths. It is for spraying on various surfaces. So it is best not to chase moths around the room with it. However it is only marginally effective. 2.9/5

Zensect Moth Proofer

When I first brought this product I was impressed by the number of moth balls you actually get. There are twenty in a pack. They smell of lavender which is never a bad thing, but I am not particularly confident in this product I have to say. I have put the twenty balls around my bedroom near clothes, under the bed, the moths seem to like it under there and in the cupboards, however I moved a moth to within close proximity to the product hoping it would drop over dead and instead it chose to fly off. It deters the moths but is it a moth killer? Definitely not. 2.1/5

Don't judge your journey by its beginning

Life does change at quite a pace. I left my second job a little over three weeks ago, God told me it was time. It seems at that point the magazine started taking off. Traffic has jumped up to almost seven hundred and fifty visits a month. Finishing the books is still on the priority list, the second book is closer to finished than the first. I now have the equipment and the time to be able to get them both finished. I remember when I started Nowhere To Be Found roughly three years ago now. I had no idea how long this project would take or that it would spawn a sequel. Now looking back I can see a journey, where I have come from being a child writer to a prolific editor, a new writer to a more season one. I look at my writing and see an heir of maturity. I respect the journey I have been on. Others now turn to me for advice and input. There is no quick fix for this journey, no magic course, it could never happen any other way. I think the mantra of the day is definitely Mark Twain "it's not the dog in the fight, it's the fight in the dog." With every fight we gain experience, with every wound we are left licking we grow stronger and ultimately we get better at spotting the errors in our own writing. I remember handing over a shocking manuscript to a friend Charlie Southwell, I asked him a few weeks ago what happened to that manuscript, he said he got three chapters in and his red pen ran out. It is fortunate we don't judge all journeys by their beginning. The second novel was better, and by the third I was happy I had developed a craft that could potentially give me a second income in the long term. Unspent Convictions and Nowhere to be Found have both been read by three people each. Reviews so far have been promising. Whilst neither book is finished I feel I can now finish them quickly and with a much higher level of efficiency and accuracy than I had previously. Largely because of a new piece of software I started using. In the mean time I spend my spare hours reviewing and picking stories for the next issue of Dark Places magazine. Then in my day job battle to get children to read and write simple sentences and walk in single file up corridors. This is a strange life... but not a bad one.

Grabbing the bull by the horns

It’s been over a year now since I took the bull by the horns and started taking full control of my life. The results have been exceptional. The lists have been a powerful component in me achieving my goals. As I can visualise where I am, and where I want to go and achieve it one tick at a time. The biggest change has been Dark Places magazine; my pride and joy and chief accomplishment of the last year. When I first conceived the idea on the sixth of August I was frustrated, and feeling I could achieve more. The thing I wanted more than anything else was my own business. Using my limited experience, and with the help of a good friend I set up the website. It was reckless, stupid and scary. For the first time in my life my performance mattered. However, I concluded something very important, if the website fails to be successful, then what have I lost? The downside on losses was limited, the upside however was unlimited. It has been the source of frustration, one minor panic attack and a lot of time spent, but I tell you it was all worth it as I looked at the first issue online. The risk was definitely worth it. It was like a dream had come true. I have learned a lot from the experience and I am sure I still have a lot more to learn yet. The next big thing will be doing invoices. What an exciting season to be entering! I remember getting the first twenty likes, the first fifty and we now have over one hundred. Starting your own magazine is probably one of the most daunting things you will ever do, but it is definitely worth it.

Broken Sony Xperia Play

I have had my Sony Xperia Play for coming up to two years now, I love it. It is a very good phone with great features. The internet is reliable and the phone, despite being soaked through still works. However, there are certain things I am learning about my phone. The first of which, she doesn't like to get wet, do you best to keep her dry at all times. The majority of problems I have had with the phone can be traced back to an incident where the phone got wet. The first water damage issue. I used it to get directions in the rain. There was also another separate incident where I downloaded a free game, when I was in Serbia that caused it as well, easily rectified I deleted the game and the problem resolved itself. The second happened when I was using it with wet hands. It had two completely different reactions to each. The first time it broke, after repeated exposure to rain water, my sony Xperia play kept shutting off by itself, then turning itself back on. I followed the usual instructions, but it was a waste of time really, the problem was with the battery. The rain had wrecked it, and there was nothing to do, but replace the battery. That solved the issue immediately. The second time was different. Now it depends who you believe on this one the guy in the shop said the flip element had worn out, which meant that the screen on my xperia play was going fuzzy randomly. My friends said that I got water in the screen and that was causing the problem. I tried to dry it out, but that failed epicly. For a few moments I thought I was watching The Ring, it wouldn't work and when I took the battery out it was worse. I turned it back on and the screen was permanently fuzzy, it has been repaired, took it to the shop. The issue was related to the mechanism that detects when the phone has been flipped out, basically it was badly made and wears out. It is called the flex cable, Whilst I have had these problems I don't intend on changing phones anytime soon, because despite these issues the Sony Xperia Play is one of the best phones on the market, it is robust, reliable and fast. Unless they bring us out a Vita version, I will sticking with it for a few more years, so I am relieved to have her back from the brink once again. Had a new issue arise more recently, the screen on my Sony Xperia play is not responding all the time, this is an interesting issue, I think it arose from it being dropped a bit too much. Strangely though, I will check over the next couple of days, but the solution appears to have been giving the phone a squeeze. I am not joking check out this post Basically as near as I can tell dropping it has forced the screen to come away from the base it is mounted on. So applying a certain amount of pressure to the screen to press it back down appears to work. Now you have to be cautious, but what I did was put one hand on the back of it, and apply pressure to the screen using the palm of my hand, whilst also applying pressure to the back of it. You have to do it vigorously, but it appears to restore full functionality to the phone. I would love to know who figured this one out! Unfortunately it failed to work for me, I took it to the Carphone Warehouse and they basically said it was water damaged so needed a new digitizer, but said they would not provide me with one and the warranty was voided due to the water damage. So I took it back to a repair shop and they quoted me Sixty Quid for the repair. I went back and they told me it could not be repaired, which is sad. Since then I have made the switch to an Iphone 4, significantly better in terms of reliability, durability and longevity. I have never had to reset it, since I got it. Great phone and no more heart break for me!
  

Horror and Sci-Fi Writing Competitions

There are a number of writing competitions, however looking for ones specifically in the genre of horror is a lot harder. There are several though,  Dark Places Magazine, we accept submissions in the genres of Sci-fi and Fantasy. There is a quarterly prize of £50 for the best story; all other winners get published in the magazine. There is also Dark Tales, they have a prize of £500, but charge for submissions. Dark Moon Digest is another option, they offer a prize of ten dollars to every successful applicant, plus publication in their magazine. Spinetinglers are a horror writing competition based in the UK, they pay £100 for the top story, and the competition runs on a monthly basis.

Roald Dahl Week

We had Roald Dahl week this week at school, I have had a lot of reminders of my dad as it has gone on. I remember him reading Fantastic Mr Fox to me and my older brother when we were little boys. Well Jak was a little boy, I was more of a little monster. He has been on my mind since one of the boys I work with asked about him, He said, "do you have a dad?"
"I used too," I responded, not wanting to lie.
"He died," he said in a matter of factly way, that only a boy with special needs could. This week I have been plagued with reminders of him as I go about my job. I felt all warm inside when I heard one of the teachers reading Fantastic Mr Fox to the children, the hours my dad spent reading it to us by our bedside. His other favourite was the Minpins, another Roald Dahl story. Although most may not have heard of it, I absolutely love it. I learnt to read using Roald Dahl, the books are such fun. What I remember most is that my dad created voices, each character had their assigned voice, I think as I read to the kids in my class, I am reminded of how he used to read to me. The children comment on how I use specific voices for each character, just like my dad used too (although I have to say he was better at it).  Being a kid was awesome, no responsibility, no chores, laying on quilts and then hurling yourself down flights of stairs (maybe that was just me). Part of growing up is appreciating how fun being a kid actually is. It has been a good week, draining, but good and I can't wait to get back into that classroom on Monday morning, I am hoping things will have returned to normal. Then again when working in a school, I don't think there is such a thing as a normal day. So what I have I taken from this week? Don't underestimate the importance of reading to your children, my dad did very little with us in truth, but he did that and the impact has echoed across decades, I too hope to one day read Roald Dahl's fantastic books to my little ones. For now I'll have to settle for reading to other people's kids; the advantage being I can send them home at the end of the day!