Patrick C. Notchtree's Blog: Patrick C Notchtree, page 6

The Superbowl lived up to its reputation. At first a walkover for the Ravens but after the power outage that disrupted the rhythm of the game, the 49ers came back with vengeance. I thought that foolish call for a fake field goal - he was way too far from the endzone for that to have a hope - might cost the Ravens the game, but it came down to wire, the Ravens even having concede a safety in the dying seconds but even then there was the chance the 49ers Buckeye returner would come back all the way. He didn't, and the Ravens held on for their win as the clock ran out.
I wish all games were of high quality.
Oh, and Michael Oher has a Superbowl ring. Not bad for the kids once given up on.

It's come round again, well for the 47th time. The Redskins aren't in it so my affiliation is open. What with all the stuff lately about homophobic comments in the 49ers' locker room I reckon I'm going with the Ravens. And then there's Michael Oher. I've read The Blind Side (I guess I shoudl review it really) The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game and seen the film.
So yes, tonight, it's Go Ravens!

In the UK, Parliament will soon vote on the issue of gay marriage. This would enable same sex couples to get married, and call themselves married, in a church or other religious setting. Considering the hard time that most religious have given to LGBT people in the past, and to varying degrees still do, I wonder why a gay couple would want to do this. But, that’s their choice and the fight is about equality.
But is it? Gay couple have been able to solemnise their union in the UK for some years now in civil partnerships which give them almost exactly the same status as married couples. But in the little word ‘almost’ lies the rub, and where I believe in the interest of equality, the battle should be fought.
On significant area of inequality is in pensions, and the rights of a surviving spouse. This affects mostly older people who have a long history pension contributions. Younger couples are less affected which is why maybe this issue is not a battleground.
Take the example of Jack, now in his sixties. He’s paid pension contributions since 1968. He marries Jill but dies shortly afterwards. As his wife, Jill inherits those contributions back to 1968 and receives a widow’s pension based on them. But let’s say Jack is gay, and enters a civil partnership with John, but then dies shortly afterwards. John inherits Jack’s pension record not back to 1968 but only as far as 1988, or in some cases 2005. At least a twenty difference which means John gets a much smaller pension that Jill.
Equality? Ha!

Red socks and blue denim jeans
To the tune of "Capped teeth and Caesar Salad", Andrew Lloyd Weber


Red socks and blue denim jeans,
Dark hair and loving blue eyes.
Why did we have to go?
I miss you so!
I want you here
I want you near
Every day of my life.

Those hands on black and white keys
Turning the pages for you
Rachmaninoff
Could get me off
I want you here
I want you near
Every day of my life

It’s more than fifty long years
Since you made love to me
I still think of you
Each time I do
I want you here
I want you near
Every day of my life

The question was posed in another forum, Is it worth giving away books to gain readers? Is giving away a paper book different than an eBook?
I think this is a tricky one. An author spends months, maybe years, producing a book and of course wants to see some return on it. There is also the school of thought that says if something is free, it can't be much good. Generally I would say no.
Giving away a paperback is a bit different. I've given one or two copies of my trilogy away, because of course it can't be duplicated and spread around the way a digital file can.
The first book of my trilogy The Clouds Still Hang was published earlier under the title The Secret Catamite 1, The Book of Daniel and got five star reviews. I am thinking of pricing that at a minimum or even as a give-away hoping that people will then buy the complete trilogy.
I can't use Amazon's KDP to give it away because it's on sale elsewhere and they want exclusivity, but I could sell at the minimum there and make it freely downloadable on my the book's website. http://www.thecloudsstillhang.com/.
Thoughts anyone?

Not a character in the book, but in the manuscript. When submitted to Smashwords, one chapter heading kept vanishing from the contents list, the NCX file, when converted to epub format by them. (Although Lulu had managed perfectly well.) After several efforts at correcting the error and uploading again, I ended up deleting the last sentence of the preceding chapter, the chapter title and the first sentence of that chapter and retyping them.
At last, this time it passed the test and The Clouds Still Hang now has premium status on Smashwords.

There seems to be a lot of ‘pressure’ for an author, especially a self publishing author, to have a blog. So I might as well. But what with Facebook, Twitter etc etc I have no idea how often I’ll be able to update this.
After a very difficult period of my life in which I was forced to confront my gay sexuality after a lifetime of suppression and denial and I feared I might go to prison, my counsellor suggested a I write as a form of therapy. So it started. It wasn’t meant to be a book at first, indeed I started in the first person, but that turned out to be very restrictive for my purposes, as I felt unable to say things that need to be said – too close to the bone, perhaps. Also I was unable to take the view of other characters, to write how they viewed the protagonist, Simon.
Parts were very hard to write, bringing many memories, both happy ones but also reviving a huge sense of loss, and some one would rather forget, errors and misjudgements which caused pain to others but which are key to Simon’s story. As it says in the foreword, "Let us have the honesty to see things as they are, since to see things as they ought to be is to miss them entirely."

The first part was ready a couple of years ago and published as the first book of a trilogy because I could already see it was going to be that long. It was well received but there was negative comment about the title, “The Secret Catamite: 1 The Book of Daniel” and the cover image which is a detail from the Warren Cup, a silver Roman vessel now in the British Museum in London, England, which shows homosexual sex acts.
Readers will find how Simon starts to identify with Hamlet, so a line was chosen from that play for the new title, “The Clouds Still Hang” and the complete trilogy, including “The Book of Daniel” is now published under that title.

A new cover was designed which was not explicit and so people could perhaps leave the book lying around or read in public without attracting attention. The cover is described, “A man stands by the side of a road. Is it the road to his future or is he looking back at his past? He is looking at the rainbow, a symbol of his innate optimism – or is he looking at the clouds, symbols of the troubles that have hung over him all his life?”
The book was touted round literary agents but all rejected it – too explicit, delicate subject matter etc etc. So I decided to publish it myself – and here we are.
The Clouds Still Hang