Engine Punk

For a long time, the lamb looked too cute I haven't posted a picture on here for a while so here's a preview of the recently completed drawing for the rear cover for The Wormton Lamb. This will become part of the final cover design, which will be similar to that for The Horsepower Whisperer, except that a grassy green go faster stripe will replace the red one. It gives an idea of what Wormton looks like from inside and depicts a scene just after the Giant Lamb has de-railed the Wormton Tram out on the moors. That's the tram on the left, hiding from the monster. Later the lamb grows much bigger, acquires its own weather system and a red eye from an abortive attempt to kill it by Mr Heckmondwike, its shepherd. By then the Giant Lamb is being blamed for all manner of misfortunes. It's entirely innocent but soon lives up to its monstrous reputation. Although The Wormton Lamb won't be released until Easter 2008, now is the time to establish this book's web p...

The Imp Club like it. All I have to do is repeat this reaction with Wolseley owners and the 2CVGB. My books have received a shameless plug in the latest edition of Impressions, the award winning magazine of the Hillman Imp Club, headed Stop Press. Over the years, I've contributed a few articles to Impressions and Grahame Pearson the editor said "Members familiar with Bob's style of writing will know it will be a good read. His next book, The Wormton Lamb, will be out around Easter and will feature Hillman Imps, which Bob insists are not gratuitous classic car placements but actually germane to the plot." The Imp Club magazine may not sound like the Times Literary Supplement but it's aimed at just the kind of people I want to connect with - pistonhead hedonists and hedonistas. Hmm. Could be a new word that - pistonhedonist! You saw it here first, folks, if Wikipedia comes looking. Imp club members come from many walks of life, sections of society and diff...

The cover design has moved on a bit since this photo was taken. Consequently, these early versions are collector's items Things are really taking off here at Anarchadia Publishing. And I don’t mean because of the windy weather, either. The first batch of books has just about gone already. Thanks to everyone who bought one. I sincerely hope the luck pennies work for you all. There was a quite a buzz at work on Friday. Thanks to Allie Dawe in particular for enlightening me what happens at proper book signings. It’s remiss of me I know but I’ve never been to one until now and that one was my own! Apparently, the way to do it is to sign and date the book but write any personal message on a separate piece of paper. This makes the signed more desirable by collectors. I was even asked to sign off copies of the banned e-mail! (see earlier blog). Anyway, I hope this of you have supported me from the start can sell these numbered and signed copies for a fortune when I’m famous ...

I had an e-mail today from Lightning Source to tell me The Horsepower Whisperer is available in the US. This was 24 hours after it not being there, so I was dubious this was correct. So I checked and it's there! Updating the listings a few days ago seems to have worked.

The Wormton Lamb has appeared on Amazon a couple of days after setting the title up. It has its full subtitle listed on the UK site and is number two in a list of books Bob Blackman in the US. Number one is by one of the other Bob Blackmans but, yes, I've crossed the Atlantic without knowing it. Amazing. But there's no sign of The Horsepower Whisperer in the good old US of stateside. Both are listed in Canada, however. These anomalies may change once updates to Nielsen bookdata flow through their system apparently.

The proof is here and it looks fantastic! Lightning Source have done a great job and addressed the minor quibbles I had. My rendering for the front cover is sharper than ever and the red go-faster strip is redder than I thought possible. Inside, the paper is really white and the text looks blacker than other books. It looks so vivid. Most of them seem to use a down market yellowy paper that might be made out of straw. And I think the publishers should have a quiet word with their printers for, by comparison with Lightning Source's results, I think their printers might be watering the ink. The cover for The Horsepower Whisperer looks like it's powered by batteries! Either that or I'm feeling euphoric. I haven't seen Bex yet to receive her graphic design analysis. She's probably practising for the London marathon. We're working on the cover for The Wormton Lamb and I got the first version two days with a very excited e-mail about getting excepted fo...

Drooper from The Banana Splits looks nothing like me Tap The Horsepower Whisperer, The Wormton Lamb or Anarchadia Publishing into any search engine and they all show up fairly well in the resulting, er, results. But a number of publishing types have said market yourself as well as your books so I checked out my own branding and looked up “Bob Blackman” on the internet.  This was very interesting. I found a whole list of Bob Blackmans on the net and none of them was me. Actually, that’s not true. The last one was me. Top of the heap was an American football trainer called Bob Blackman who was listed on Wikipedia. Apparently, he suffered from polio but this didn’t seem to stop him and he died in 2000 aged 82. It sounds to me as if his top ranking is entirely justified. Next up was Councillor Bob Blackman who is a Conservative politician. Oh dear. I despise most politicians but especially those who represent the Fascist Repressive Party. In third place was R...

Available now on Amazon While my book lurches towards the market place, like Frankenstein's monster, here's one that a long standing friend of mine, Pete Cross, has recently had published. Shadows in the sky is about Cornish choughs and is a children's book that will also appeal to adults interested in the natural world. It's created a great deal of interest in Cornwall since choughs are the national symbol of Cornwall. However, until recently the chough was extinct in Cornwall but now they have returned and their numbers are growing. This is their story engagingly told by someone who has been watching over the original pioneering settlers for many years. It's attracting comments from some quite notable authors, too. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shadows-Sky-Pete-Cross/dp/1904239072/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195396053&sr=8-1

Initial euphoria later gave way to a more critical appraisal of the end product Here I am with my galley proof. It arrived yesterday and Becky of Redsnapper captured the moment in pixels. Overall it looks fantastic. We'll have to re-submit because some minor things aren't quite right. I've already re-jigged the text matter. Word had re-formatted a paragraph with double spacing. It's clear that I can't trust it at all. I'll have to review every page of the pdf file before I re-submit. Thanks to Beck the outside looks really good. In fact the back cover looks even better than the front, although you can't see it so you'll just have to take my word for it (but not my Microsoft Word!) However, we have a cunning plan and a revised version is already in preparation. It's just amazing to think that after months, years even, when my book wasn't even a collection of disparate files, I can now flick through its pages, sniff the glue (what ...

I was not pleased the other day to discover that my blog was no longer writing in German. I’ve had a lot of IT incompatibilities recently. Biblical madmen spoke in tongues but I was writing in outlandish words or auslandishes worten or something. I was attempting to create an archive because you can’t see all the entries on my blog. On other parts of the blogosphere more advanced bloggers have indexes and archives. You click on the heading and there it is. I had a go and miraculously my blog stopped being a German one.  Not that I’ve anything against German readers. It’s just that I couldn’t understand what I’d written. And me with a German GCSE. I could only hope that the jokes didn’t lose anything in the unwarranted translation so putting an end to this behaviour was a bonus. I still didn’t create the archive despite following the instructions but I already know better than to expect IT to do what it’s supposed to. So I should have been up on the day. But I was...

Now that's what i call a voluptous tea pot Is this the most erotic teapot in the world? My sister thought so and, I have to admit, I think she may be on to something. I was partaking in an expedition to Trengwainton gardens near Penzance in Cornwall with my immediate family - Instant family? Just add tea! We asked for a pot of tea for three and got a very cheeky sauce pot, with this eye catching triple buttocked bottom to the pot. Marion couldn’t resist stroking it and out popped this genie.  Actually he’s another diner but he looks like one doesn’t he?

The self–publishing seminar at Falmouth Maritime Museum on went very well. It was organised by Paul Sullivan, Business Fellow Professional Writing at University college Falmouth , and Andy Thatcher of The Writing Centre, an online Cornish writing community. We met up beforehand at the café tables outside The Shed on the plaza opposite the museum I was introduced to my fellow self–publishers Michael Moore and Paul Newman and two representatives from Lulu, Lucie Pereira and Sophie Bond. In the pre–event discussion it was clear how extensive the self–publishing revolution is becoming. Lucie had even organised a get together in Falmouth for the following night where self–publishing writers could meet up, share best practice and network. The numbers of self–publishing writers in Cornwall are well into double figures and that is just with Lulu. Add those who have already self–published and the fifty or so people in the audience that night and it all points to a huge grass roots mo...

On Friday night during my regular guitar lesson with Ellis of LSG, a musician to his fingertips, reckoned I was ready to have a go at recording. I’ll always be a bit rough and ready (“Musics for zeros, noise is for heroes” – The Damned) but I thought why not? During the session (!) I made lots of mistakes but Ellis made it sound brilliant. I need to practise my lead. And the timing of the intro was rubbish. It wasn't "1,2,3,4" but more "1,2,3,4,5". I know there's a fifth count when The Ramones go "1,2,3,4" but this was more Corporal Jones than Dee Dee Ramone. Anyway , by overlaying different tracks and letting me loose on his bass guitar and then working his magic Ellis turned me into a rock god! That’s the way it feels anyway. Thanks mate! Then on Saturday morning I finally got the illustration for the back of The Horsepower Whisperer right. I’ve been wrestling with this for months. During June I worked up a picture of an Allosaurus riding a st...

While at Adrian Booth’s workshop the other day, I spotted this interesting old trails special. I’d gone over to nearby Doublebois (pronounced Double Boys) to discuss the shortening of a Volvo torque tube so that the vital organs of said Volvo could be insinuated into Morris Minor. Adrian can do strange and wonderful things with steel and aluminium and is another of life’s great enthusiasts. The Hobsy or Hobbsie Special  “What’s this old thing on the trailer?” I asked him.  “It was called a Hobsy but it hasn’t done much work. The chassis rotten and it’s a bit of a lash up, really. I’m having a clear out and this is going.” “I wish I’d brought my digital camera,” I said. “Then I could record its final moments.” “Oh you can borrow mine,” Adrian replied.  So despite my lack of foresight, the Hobsy Special did not go unrecorded.  Very little is known about it. It had a 1600 Ford Kent engine, that was reputed to have been ...

A background sketch from the Anarchadia website is this working drawing for the Cadillac Platinumide I’ll have a go at most things and this website is largely my own effort but after years of doing–it–myself and practising self–reliance, I have discovered that sometimes – sometimes – it’s better to get an expert to do it for you.  It depends whether you want to learn how to do it or not. You may never need to do it ever again. It also depends how long it takes to reach a reasonable standard. Do you have the time or do you want a quick result? And, most importantly in my opinion, it depends if you enjoy it. If you don’t I believe it shows. With the website, I was lucky – beginner’s luck, I suppose. I had a brilliant book to refer to. I wouldn’t have got anywhere without Build your website the right way using HTML & CSS by Ian Lloyd. Not only was I able to get the something together that worked but I began to understand how it worked. If I had any problems I used the S...

Horsepower whispering with a Ginetta G21S Six foot of two by two timber isn’t in everyone’s toolkit. The day I helped my mate Pete Low re–assemble the engine in his Ginetta, neither of us had such a thing. Pete’s day job is vicar of St Budeaux in Plymouth . This means the days off he gets are Mondays. Fortunately, last week I had a clear Monday so our packed diaries coincided for once and we were able to start work in earnest on his car. When I arrived at the vicarage, it was immediately apparent that he’d bought all the gaskets and assembled a fine array of hand and power tools. He’d even arranged for good weather. Pete’s Ginetta is a G21S. He’d bought it with a reconditioned engine that needed re–assembling. The ordinary G21 has a 1725cc engine made by the now–defunct Rootes group for the Hillman Hunter range. The G21S has a special head developed by Holbay, which was used in the sportier Hunters and Rapiers. All we had to do was fit the cylinder head, carburettors and exhau...

David Hockney made a fortune out of doing photos like this Hidden away in the steep sided combes of south–western Britain, concealed behind unremarkable facades in market towns and sleepy hamlets, tucked deep down into wooded valleys or crouched against the elements on wind blasted heaths and moors, something is stirring. This is Britain ’s crumple zone against the Atlantic and, against very long odds, Cornwall is still home to an ongoing automotive tradition that has been quietly surviving for over two hundred years. If someone announced that they had written a book on Cornwall ’s motor industry, a very slim volume would probably be the result – not so much a book as a pamphlet. Being able to produce over 150 well illustrated A4 pages initially seems nothing short of remarkable. Having read Cornwall ’s Motor Industry by Peter Tutthill, it’s clear that he has unearthed a wealth of material and some fascinating insights into a surprisingly varied cottage industry. I am also...

Any resemblance to St Piran's Cross is purely intentional. The noteworthy thing about this cross, which stands in dunes above Perranporth, is that the arms of the Celtic wheeled cross have rotated. The arms have become spokes and the cross is more than a wheel than ever. Anarchadia Publishing is an independent small publisher that’s publishing the first part of the Soul Trader trilogy, entitled The Horsepower Whisperer. Between each part of the Soul Trader trilogy, stand alone stories featuring some of the characters from The Horsepower Whisperer will also be published. The first of these, The Wormton Lamb, is currently in the editorial process and will follow soon after the launch of The Horsepower Whisperer. All these stories are set in and around Anarchadia, an anarchic arcadia and temperate archipelago somewhere off the north west cost of Yerp.    There's an element of self parody to some of my work but the books are real enough Books from Anarchadia wil...