Oh lord! WHAT a lot of comments the last posting produced – the most feedback I have received in such a short time since I don't know when! And all for the donate button bar two – the comment received from 'Ben J. Amen' (yes, I do know who you are. But I cant find your email address, so please email me.) and one which arrived via email. Several others which arrived through email were also largely positive, with one or two minor reservations. The consensus seems to be, then, in favour of the inclusion of a donation button and a willingness to make a small donation from time to time. So unless I hear otherwise in the next few hours or so I will go ahead with the idea – at least on a trial period. Saying all that, though, I'm not even sure it can be done on this kind of blog, nor have I looked into it thoroughly. At this moment in time I have no idea how to go about it!
Alan B (yes I know who you are, too), Ben J. Amen (see comments) and two others via email have suggested I put out some of the unfinished fragmentary stuff I have written over the years which might not otherwise see the light of day at some small nominal charge, perhaps with some words of explanation fore and aft to “set the scene”, place it in context and describe where I had intended it to have gone next, had I finished it. And as an email correspondent pointed out, it is true I tend to write the action and event-laden stuff first, as the ideas occur to me (although I already know the premise and context) and then later add in the basic scaffolding which surrounds those events – the story leading up to them, the character development and descriptive stuff / scene setting and so on.
So there is probably much there some of you would find interesting or exciting. However some of it would need editing, even as fragments and action scenes, spell checking and so on. And of course there are those “few paragraphs of explanation” it has been suggested such an undertaking would require. The idea would be to pay some sort of fee via Paypal and I would then email the PDF (as a correspondent points out – LULU, through whom I publish in addition to via my publisher, Andrews UK LTD, charge a minimum fee which would preclude my charging the suggested 50p - £1 a shot (about 1$ or a bit less I think – I'm not sure).
But at the moment I'm not certain I'd like to go down that latter route, if nothing else than for the reason that I don't know I would have the time to do the editing, spelling correction and the introductory text, without which the reader might wonder, not so much what is going on, as the events would largely be self-explanatory I would imagine, but how it all came about in the first place and perhaps who the protagonists are and their relationship and so on. Remember, this is stuff I have not looked at in a long while – one piece I wrote while down in Eastbourne two years ago I have not even looked at since, and I wont have spell-corrected it as I went along either (and my spelling can be SO atrocious, without correction you would have no idea what I was talking about.
But on the other hand, if enough folk feel strongly enough about it – and there is enough interest out there - I might give it a go in my spare time or when the ideas for the new book dry up from time to time.
So for now it's the donation button, if I can make it work / find out how to do it. I don't know how long I'll need it for, nor whether it will bring in enough to make a difference, but if it will just pay for my internet connection it would help. The work I'm doing with Roger Benson will undoubtedly prove lucrative and my new book, should I get it finished MAY prove lucrative (a bit – it's mainly a labour of love! And the work on the website wont be lucrative at all) but the problem is: they are not being lucrative right now! Oh well! And the banners you see round you don't work: the links will lead you to the relevant sites but in the most part those sites have changed their revenue collection companies and so I don't get a penny (my fault – I haven't kept up to date!).
If and when the button appears it will, I imagine, be found at the top of the right hand side bar.
Bye for now. And thanks for your feedback and to all those who have shown their support. Sometimes words are all it takes to gladden the heart! (The fact that it is a sunny day helps too!)