First approach to agents!

          Today I started looking for an agent for "Are There Any Buddhists in Ecuador?". Googled buddhist literary agents and the first likely one I surfed to was the Linda Chester agency. It's a New York agency, so they probably don't even take folk who aren't from the USA, but that's okay. It's a start. The agent I contacted is called Linda Fox and she's based on the West Coast.

           I got an agent for TheBlissBook within a week of finishing it, but he didn't look at The Buddha and the Big Bad Wolf. I'm wanting any agent I might get for the Ecuador book to at least be aware that it's one of a possible three.

          The photie is one of me up the allotment a couple of weeks ago.

New Bog

          I was hoping to show some photies of my new bathroom. It got finished (apart from a wee bit of painting!) a wee while ago, but to get the photies onto this blog, I have to go right through every previous photie on my phone .... I love the machines!! I love them! Anyway, the photies are of a sleeping dog in Darjeeling and my meditation spot in the lobby.

          Since I have been kept out of my flat for the last week, I have not progressed any with the finding of an agent. But I did stick Buddhist literary agents into Google and a few folk came up, so I should be getting on with that next week.

          Unfortunately, I haven't yet got a settled view of the book, which I would really like to have before sending it out, but this was not helped by all the word processing screw ups over black lines and whatnot. Perhaps I could just quietly read through it over the next couple of days. Maybe not. Maybe it would be better just to sit on this one and stay retired!!!

Got a book!

          Brian Wilson, that fine figure of a man, seems to have sorted out my debilitating problem with the black lines on typescript of Are There Any Buddhists in Ecuador? This means that I can start looking for an agent next week.

          I'm going to look for an agent for the three books I've written with Buddhisty stuff in them: The Buddha and the |Big Bad Wolf, TheBlissBook, and now this one, Are There Any Buddhists In Ecuador? Of course, I do not expect to get these books published, but if I could get the three published in one volume, I'd call it, "Stumblebumming Towards Enlightenment".

           I sent a copy to my wee French nun so she can check that I haven't libelled her.

           My bathroom is getting renovated this weekend. Oh me miserum!

Doen

            I took some photies up the Botanics today, but the machines won't let me post them here. I did try for a good half hour, which I should have spent writing, but that's what the war against the machines is all about. Wasting your time.

           I'm up to chapter nine in the editing of the Ecuador book. This is where the problem with the thick black lines starts. Two other folk have told me they have had the same problem and only got out of it by cutting and pasting. Cutting and pasting because of stupid word processing is not writing.

          Everything else is going brilliantly! My "channels" continue to open. This is both wonderful and inexplicable. I'm happy with the way my book is going and my life seems to have settled down so that I can have the great summer I've been looking forward to.

         

               

End of the diggings!!

          Thanks for the advice on how to download photies from the mobile phone, but that would take me another hour, which I do not get paid for, to sort something which I didn't break, so these are photies I took in Sikkim, or India, or Nepal.

          But everything else is going great. I have today finished digging the allotment and it is largely planted out. This means that for the rest of the summer, I can keep the weeds down, cut the grass and largely forget about any aggravation.

            I've edited the Ecuador book up till chapter nine. This is the chapter where the thick black bands started to appear. Trying to get rid of this crap should take me a day or two of editing time. At least. Anyway, I was feeling rather unenthusiastic about this book for a while there, but I think I'm feeling a wee bit better about it now.

In the war against the machines part 234

          I was hoping to post photies of the allotment and such like. I| was going to blog photies of the plants I put in today. I built a cage of green netting. There was also a photie of a seed that flies through the air for a day or two every year at this time, and I saw the clouds of them today and I wanted to know what it was. This seemed appropriate since a friend noticed a great hatching of insects on the Inverleith Pond at the weekend, but couldn't find out what kind.

          My friend pressed the wrong button on this computery thing and I now have windows 10. After hating windows 8, but getting used to it, I did not want windows 10. I want the machines to stay the same since every change costs me time. The war against the machines is about resenting the amount of time these machines take out of my life.

           So the windows 10 seems not to be as good as windows 8 when it comes to uploading photies from the mobile phone. I think you have to download some kind of app. It seems to want me to do something about backing up the photies using Google or something. Anyway, today I spent about an hour or so on trying to sort this, and, of course, I have failed.

           The Yahoo Mail thing came on with big, big letters, like for the semi blind, and it took me a while to sort that too.

            I hate the machines. I needed a good electric typewriter with some memory. Had I had such a thing today, I would have spent all the time spent in the war against the machines in writing my Ecuador book.

            The photies are of Sikkim.

In the summertime!

   
          I now how no appointments, dates, arrangements or anything else I have to do, have planned to do, or are going to do. I have no holidays booked. I am looking forward to unrehearsed and unexpected events!! This is the part of the year I've been waiting for. So far this year, I've been nine weeks on a meditation retreat and just over two weeks in India/Nepal/Sikkim, and all during this I've been waiting for it all to end so I can get on with just enjoying my allotment and the summertime.

          The editing of the Ecuador book is going well. There's always nervousness at the start, but I did start last week and I'm  going to do just enough to keep me enjoying doing it. I think I might have a version I can start to try to interest an agent in probably quite soon.

          The photies are of the trek to Sikkim and the Singalila Ridge, or whatever it was called!

The editing begins

          I'll put random snaps from India/Nepal/Sikkim trip on the blog because it takes to long to sort them out. They all might be from Kalimpong and Gangtok. The last one is of a hand made paper factory.

          Things have settled down now since I got back from India a week and a half ago. I'm really looking forward to this summer. All I have to do is see as few people as I can manage and everything will be alright.

          After a dodgy start .... this is because I haven't really been working on the book since I got home from the Holy Isle a couple of months ago ... I'm now into re-writing the Ecuador book. I want to meditate in the morning and write in the afternoon. That's the way to do it!!

Apple blossom time

          I had a lovely day today! What a lovely day! The allotment this afternoon was bathed in sunshine. Did some digging and read the paper. Great.

          It always takes a while for things to settle down after these long flights, but I feel almost human again today. Some things make me feel better and I put them all into this perfect morning: dog poses, back bends, headstand, tai chi set and about three hours of meditating. That makes me feel good.

           Next week I'll try to start work on my book again.

More photies

          Putting photies on this blog is proving to be a pain in the neck. Because I had a half decent camera with me, I took a lot of photies, but I know only how to upload them to the blog one at at time, so I'm abandoning this photie business now. Maybe you can load them en masse, but I have yet to get a victory there in the war against the machines. C'est la vie.

          I was not looking forward to going to Sikkim, but I had a really, really good time. This was largely because I was able to meditate a lot. The best bit of the trip was walking along the Singalina Ridge. I could practise walking meditation and when we stopped, I could practise sitting meditation. In the evening, everyone went to their tents at about half seven or eight and since I had a tent to myself,(best £100 I ever spent) I could sit and meditate for about three hours at the end of the day. There really wasn't much else to do, especially when the wind was just about blowing folk over outside.

          At the moment, I'm feeling a bit crap. Jet lag, I guess and drinking too much last night. Anyway, I am starting a diet (which means I'm  not a vegetarian anymore) to try to kill of harmful yeasts. I'm not one for fancy diets usually, but my lips are getting scabbier and scabbier, so I want to do something proactive. One of my fellow trekkers advised me to do this diet and she treats folk for this kind of thing as a means of making a living. It won't do me any harm. I'm also going to have to give up alcohol and any boost in that direction is a good thing. Also, I am thinking seriously about starting a three day fast next Monday, thinking of starting that by drinking six pints of slightly salty water. The internety thing says that the nasty yeasts live in your colon. Well, drinking the six pints with give that a kick up the backside.

          I am really looking forward to this summer!! I'll have a read at my Ecuador book and decide on the editing and re-writes. I'll probably be looking for an agent in a month or so, but if it's not up to scratch, I'll just start something else, probably a drama or some fiction.

           I'm going to the allotment this afternoon and will probably take a look at the Botanics. The channels keep opening. If I can stop drinking for a few months, I will become a happier guy!!

Sikkim trip photies

          Got back near midnight last night after travelling for about twenty four hours. Three flights. Hoping to stay put over the next six months. I'll upload these to the blog (which is a pain in the arse!) because I said I would. I'm having to upload them one at a time. I do not think this is a very efficient use of my time!

          It's been a great couple of days for the diggings!

          It's been five weeks since I got back from the Holy Isle and a lot of not too good stuff has been going down. Basically, it's been very difficult to settle down since I am due to go away again very soon. I haven't done anything with my book since I got back home and I am looking forward to several months of doing very little but writing and sitting in the allotment when I get back from India.

Allotment

       
                    It's allotment time again! This year I will have onions again. Last year was the first one in twenty years when I had none.

                     Yesterday \I| went shopping for my holiday in Sikkim with Brian Wilson and this time he didn't manage to steal anything. Hurrah!