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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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You were on my "they were going to get an honorary copy because of previous help but now I'm too depressed" list. Those others among you, please accept my apologies whether formal promises were entered into or not. Look at it this way: you're free to make your own arrangements.
That book came out two weeks after we announced our publication date, Chad. What are the chances? Of the Ministry for the Protection of the Status Quo being up to their black propaganda tricks once more, quite high.
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Chad
In: Ramsbottom
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Something strange going on.
I checked about half an hour after placing my order and it had gone down to "Only 1 left in stock". Just checked again and it's back up to "Only 2 left in stock".
Somebody must have returned one
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Thanks, Chad, that's exactly what I wanted to hear.
No, what happens is their stock gets automatically renewed from the printers-on-demand after a sale. At least I think that's what happens, everybody is very cagy about the actual process. It's quite amusing really because "Only two in stock" actually means "Only an infinite supply in stock" but I suppose that wouldn't engender quite the required degree of haste with the Great British Public.
By the way, to all: keep a record of arrivals (or if Chad is correct, departures) but don't post it up in real time, including "I'm quite enjoying it so far". It engenders a degree of nervousness on the creative side that they could do without. This is what is required
1. After finishing it, write up a review here (or email me or put it on Amazon). Truth trumps tact at this time. No, I'm not just saying this. Five minutes in floods of tears is worth the overall gain. Doesn't apply to Amazon reviews. If it's bad, keep it buttoned.
2. If you can't finish it -- and don't strain yourselves to do so, you're our focus group, remember -- it is nearly as useful knowing when and why you couldn't.
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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It's now dropped to £15.74. That is a Tarka Dhal with chapati, I am down, by ordering early.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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| Only 7 left in stock (more on the way) |
You bastards. Not only have you all returned your copies but one of you is making new ones. Can the rest of you amend the index
pillar cross 254 271 275 288 296-7
Pinkhurst, Adam 234-5
pirate editions 48-50 52
pirating, savage retribution 320 et seq
place names 242-3 244 251 252 265 268 283
Plantagenets 219
Plantin, Christophe 179
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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I'm with Mark Twain on this one
Just about.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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The Hoodoo Has Landed
So the Big A told me I was getting my test ordering today. [I wanted to check delivery time scales not bump up the sales figures.]
| Hello, We thought you'd like to know that we've dispatched your item(s). Your order is on the way, and can no longer be changed. Arriving: Sunday, August 8 |
Not that I'm neurotic or anything but come midday I thought I had better see how it was getting along and pressed the Track Your Parcel Button. Yodel tell you where the van is and he'll be along in half an hour, it would have been sooner only Mrs Arbuthnot in the next street's cat has got stuck up a tree and the Yodel driver's had to rescue it. But Amazon are more sparing with their information
| Unfortunately, a problem occurred during shipping and we had to cancel your delivery. The package is being returned, and we will issue a refund within 5 - 7 business days after the return is processed. We’re very sorry for the inconvenience. |
Good thing I checked really. No email or anything. I could have been pacing up and down for hours for all they cared. If I'd been neurotic. But I was puzzled. Why are they cancelling the order and giving me my money back? They've got another seven copies sitting in their warehouse raring to go. It says so on their Amazon page. It was one to two months when I ordered it so we're not talking Pony Express time schedules. I started pressing buttons like there was no tomorrow. Which for my order there didn't seem to be. Finally I found this
Delivery By Amazon Tracking ID: QA3839113 Sunday, 8 August 10:16 AM
Parcel was damaged and will be returned. GB 12:38 AM
Package departed an Amazon facility Rochester, Kent
GB Saturday, 7 August 9:26 PM
Package arrived at an Amazon facility Rochester, Medway GB
Package has shipped. Times are shown in the local time zone. |
Damaged? A hardback book in a cardboard container that requires an oxy-acetylene torch to get the book out of? But I am worried about all this talk of GB and time zones. Is Spaceman Bezos moving his operations off-planet? I was fully anticipating being put into Special Measures because of cancelling my Prime membership but this seems unduly harsh. Will they send me an email, is the next big Trial of Strength. After all as far as they know I don't know it's not coming. They don't know I'm not neurotic and can wait them out with aplomb.
Even so I think I'll pop round Mrs Arbuthnot's to see if she's all right now I know I've got the rest of the day free. One doesn't like to be alone when the The Man They Call Bezos knows where you live. 
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Chad
In: Ramsbottom
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This prompted me to check on the whereabouts of my copy.
Delivered today
Your package was left near the front door or porch. |
Sure nuff, there it was, along with my b12 supplements.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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So it's just me.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Bezos vs Harper
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Billion Dollar Man vs Billion Dollar Brain
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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I wouldn't go on his crappy spaceship even if he asked me. Which is looking increasingly unlikely.
Actually, I really wouldn't. This is the one thing I do not get about him and Branson. The other stuff I might not personally find to my taste but I understand it. In another life I might even have had aspirations to be a cut-down version of them. It is after all an interesting enough life. But the space thing? Me, Bezos and Branson are all of an age, all cut from the same socio-cultural broadcloth, all brought up on sci-fi and the space race. But even if you retained your passion for it all -- I didn't -- why would you want to spend a few minutes in near-space (let's not kid ourselves, guys) doing not very much, seeing not very much and at a substantial risk to life and limb?
Look, it's not a show-off thing. Again, we're a trio in that regard. Sure, you spend your life trying to be The Big One cos that's your thing but being the seventy-seventh and seventy-eighth man in near space definitely isn't part of it.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Damn. Interpol have put out an All Ports. I thought I would have more time.
24 Jul 2021
CPD Michael Harper, 62 | Chicago Police Department https://home.chicagopolice.org › ... › Missing Persons
Last Name Harper First Name Michael Age 62. Gender Male Height 603. |
At least they're using the age I put down on my Guardian Soulmates form. It may be the head start I need.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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I just got up from my work station (as we call them here at the AEL) to get something but I had not gone very far when I realised I had forgotten what I was going for. After an interval of intense thought (that's me not the name of our computer) I reluctantly returned to my own computer. Only then was it obvious that I had gone to get my glasses cleaned. Which I proceeded to do without further alarms and is, if you don't mind my saying so, the sign of a Man Under Pressure. But Coping.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Ooh, So Close
The London Review of Books naturally got a review copy of Missing Persons so when my Google Alert told me this month's LRB featured Missing Persons, my hopes rose a smidgeon above the horizontal. However, it turned out to be Absentees - On Variously Missing Persons by Daniel Heller-Roazen.
But think how Daniel would have felt if the positions had been reversed. Yes, all in all, it's better someone used to these things bore the blow. I'd have only got savaged anyway.
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