Audible me

You learn the strangest things, googling your own stuff. For once, this isn't actually ego-googling: I was trying to find online reviews of my long-ago novel PARADISE, to help out the cover artist by giving her at least some hint of what it's about.

Failed totally in that laudable endeavour, but hey, what's this? An audio edition - on cassette, yet! - that I knew nothing about!

Not an occasion to bring down the might of the law upon miscreants, because it's always been the case that publishers can sublicence audio and braille editions for the blind, free of royalty or any recompense - but I do think they ought at least to tell the author. And send 'em a copy.

(In other news, a whole slew of my early novels are coming up on Audible, in commercially available audio form for anyone who wants 'em. I will put a post together, with a list and everything. I will. I promise...)

Sale!

We forge fresh manners on the internet: a modern untried necessary custom-and-practice emerging like the iceberg of consensus, ten percent stated and ninety percent assumed.

So, in keeping with these modern manners, I will say that I have sold a story; but I will not tell you what or where until the contract comes and everything is settled. Because that is what we do when we do this. *shrugs*

Peppertooth

So every time a Chalet School girl gets toothache, Matron applies "chillie paste" to their swollen cheeks. Externally only, I believe, from context: but even so I was in some doubt, because everybody (else) is always hot on "don't handle hot chillies except with rubber gloves" and so on, so.

So I googled, and yup: people really do recommend pepper therapies for bad teeth. I haven't yet found one that applies externally, though. Mostly they are of the "yes, this will hurt at the time, but you'll feel better after" school of slathering it on the errant tooth itself. Presumably this is just banking on the endorphin rush, to which as we all know I am already addicted. One or two do add a caveat, "This is not for kids! They canna take it, cap'n!" - which clearly Matron was all too happy to ignore.

But my favourite calls for dissolving cayenne pepper in whisky, and applying that. Now if only our lovely dentist hadn't finally fixed all my toothy problems...