De-blog

Image by Darkmoon Art There is a theory (I can’t recall whose) that our decisions are already made at the beginning of a deliberation process, and the weighing up of pros and cons is merely a form of delaying while we find the courage to take the leap. After three months of prevaricating, I’ve taken that leap. Well, more of a step-over, as what I’ve done is congruent with who I am and my values, but I’m wary of the kickback it might have and how others could feel under duress to follow my example or plead their case, neither of which are necessary. To be clear: this decision has no bearing on anyone else, nor is it a judgement of how other creative people do their thing. Cutting to the chase (finally)… I’ve re-priced all of my ebooks to 99c/99p (depending on where you are in the world). That includes all novels, novellas and short stories written by Debbie McGowan or J.S. Morley. The only exceptions are my box sets/multiple-volume books, which are 2.99 USD, and my free ebooks, which wi...

Nige - my other half – is a singer/songwriter. He'd likely tell you otherwise, but I heard his songs (and learnt all the lyrics – it's an affliction) before I even set eyes on him, so whatever else he claims he is, he is also a singer/songwriter. I mention this to qualify something he said to me not long after we became friends: there are only so many ways to combine the musical elements; inevitably, people will write melodies that have been written before. Or something like that. I'm paraphrasing to fit the theme of this blog post, which will be short. I'm trying to get back into the habit of posting more often than once a year. That point about songs came back to me a couple of weeks ago when I was watching artists on YouTube demonstrate how to draw faces, and one of them said something about all art being derivative, stolen from others. The key is to learn to 'steal like an artist'. So I don't sidetrack, I'll just add a link to a TED talk by Austin K...