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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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On the other hand, algorithms miss the most obvious juxtapositions. As you might imagine I have personalised bots scouring the earth for mentions of the name 'Michael Harper' and there are lots of them from plumbers in Walsall to charismatic Anglican preachers. It doesn't matter who they are, they all get a solicitor's letter telling them to cease and desist. Imagine then my surprise to discover that last year Michael Harper brought out
Overthinking: How to Eliminate Negative Thinking Forever, Declutter Your Mind to Build Success
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Overthinking-Eliminate-Declutter-Self-Esteem-Self-Help/dp/1801203598 |
and it's picked up more reviews and general action than I have recently. So now I've got to send myself a solicitor's letter and think up a new name. I want something homophobic. Rick Harper. Mick Hooper. Rock Hopper. Something along those lines.
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Chad
In: Ramsbottom
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Dick Harder?
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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There's always somebody who has to spoil it.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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What about Mick Harder? It has an oppositional ring to it. Yes, I'm surprised nobody thought of that.
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Chad
In: Ramsbottom
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My last offering... Mick Sharper.
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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Prim Hacker.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Thanks for these -- and the ones that arrived via email -- but I've decided to go with my original thought, Dick Harder. It's got thrust but it also sits snugly in the hand emblazoned across a standard British B5 limp cover. Now for the book itself. Is it too early for my memoirs? Overthinking for Britain by Dick Harder. We can work on the details later. Can people send in their more amusing adventures just in case I run out of mine early doors. Though my coffee machine adventures should be good for half a chapter. Not that it's a pot-boiler! Oh dear, it practically writes itself.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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This Week's Housekeeping Tips
A lot of people have their sisters coming over from America at this time of year so I thought I'd pass along one very important principle. You think this is a fine opportunity to do that spring clean you always promised yourself but it isn't. Yes, at first it is, but gradually you divide tasks into what she'll notice and what she won't. That way you can do the spring clean at its usual scheduled time.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Did I get reviewed in the Guardian this week? No, they must be holding it over because somebody had bunged them a lot more than I was able to
Page 5 The book I give as a gift
I try to give books that I think the person will like. I gave Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club as a Christmas present to my husband because he loves detective stories and he loves Richard Osman. But, as my husband knows, the same is also true of me. So on Christmas Day we solemnly exchanged copies of The Thursday Murder Club. Susannah Clarke |
| Page Six The Pointless presenter’s debut crime caper sold millions, with movie rights snapped up by Steven Spielberg. Richard Osman talks to Alex Clarke |
| Page Seven But his own commercial antennae must be twitching delightedly; as a TV producer, first for Hat Trick Productions and for two decades until the end of last year Endemol, he has been responsible for crowdpleasers such as Deal or No Deal, Total Wipeout, 8 Out of 10 Cats and Pointless – the BBC teatime quiz show he came up with and, alongside his university friend Alexander Armstrong, still presents. He is also behind and in front of the camera for Richard Osman’s House of Games, in which celebrities compete in ever more ridiculous challenges. |
Page Eight I didn't get that far. My bucket was overflowing. Cry me a river...
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Master Wordsmith Test: Part II
Upon request by many commenters, here are ten more words to challenge you David Mokotoff |
I mocked the dude last time so I thought I'd have some fun with him again. He's upped his game, the bastard. A couple that are too technical
Borborygmus: some medical condition or other (Mokotoff is an MD)
Bight: as in a loop of a rope rather than a curve in the coastline (he's a weekend sailor)
but otherwise quite good. Three are un-American but not un-British
Codswallop
Schadenfreude
Diktat
one that is standard British intelligentsia but tricky
Bromide
and four this member of the British intelligentsia would check before using
Cupidity
Numinous
Liminal
Regnant
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Battling Microsoft
Today's epic: I need to make sure an initial is not cast adrift on a different line from the surname. I consult Word Help and am told various ways of preventing it including the shortcut conntrol+shift-space bar. Nothing works. I go on the internet to find lots of learned articles and lots of people discussing the problem. After a few hours and dozens of places, someone mentions that you mustn't include a space between the initial and the surname. It works instantly. You would think someone would have thought to mention this, it isn't exactly intuitive.
Tomorrow: how to stop my computer switching from UK English to US English without telling me.
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Nick Weech
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| Ishmael wrote: | The answer is to build a following. They will purchase your book as a means of supporting your work.
YouTube and other video platforms will yield better results. Once the Deserts book is complete, I will be moving forward immediately with that plan. |
I'm a follower, of sorts. I didn't buy it as I was (conditionally?) promised a copy to review. I did buy all his others of course
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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I did post up a general apology, Nick, but you're right I should have emailed everyone I promised, personally with a mild grovel. This is yours belatedly. The truth is my normal policy of being extremely free with my favours -- not because I'm warm-hearted but because it's good business -- ran into the fact that printing, packing and mailing biggish hardbacks is now prohibitively expensive so I had to decide on all, none or favouritism and I took the middle ground.
By the time it got to the second mailout (which would have included you) the response to the first (media, selected bigwigs) was so disappointing that we resolved on a re-write and a re-launch with a new title and a new target audience. Also it will be in paperback and probably not printed on demand. There goes a grand I'll never get back.
Although we haven't withdrawn the current version we are not encouraging take-up -- and the world seems to agree. It's still worth fifteen pounds of anybody's money so I leave it to you whether to buy it on Amazon or wait for the all-singing, all-dancing new one. But don't hold your breath, it's proving a bitch. Which is a good thing.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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