Am I Becoming a Corporate Whore?

I'm having another creative night tonight as I'm currently making a present for someone. As it's a present, I can't say what it is - but it's looking cool as... I want it!

Part of the process has involved spraying things in the garden with plastikote... but I am feeling guilty as more should be done in the garden than just spraying things. Things got riotous during May here, and the lawn is only partially strimmed. I don't have a garden - I have a wasteland. And the shed window has fallen out. Ah well, at least I know what I'm doimg this weekend. Thanks for the DIY vouchers, wedding guest. They came in bloody useful very quickly.

I don't want to get too personal with this blog. Things could be easy and aren't. Harmony could rule... but I'm proud that I am in control, a plan is in place and my A-Z ticker now has a 2% dent in it. Woo!

I have to say, my usual favourite frugal/saving blogs and their commenters are making me feel a bit sad at the moment... changes in fortune... fallings out maybe? To me it seems some people have begun a journey with a certain set of goals, and maybe now they've achieved them and moved on to other goals,  they've adapted their principles slightly. Or haven't... Perhaps the experiences or ideas they are writing about no longer chime with the same set of people that their blog once did... but does it really matter? I don't think so.

If you want to talk about how people can change their principles, just look at me. I was a lifelong veggie until ths time last year. I just had bacon for my tea! All those Christmases my mom tried to find me something I could have instead of turkey and despaired at my fussy ethics, were they for nothing? I don't actually think so. Veggie me is still in there, somewhere...

And now I'm not only a meat-eating traitor, I'm also a corporate whore. This week I signed up to a Nectar card, even though Mark Thomas told us all to cut up our loyalty cards and I had jolly well done so. I even downloaded the toolbar to get points for searches, so the evil machine is gathering info on me as I type. It knows I was just researching glue! It doesn't know why, only that I did. But I get POINTS!

Double evil - I have subtly monetized this blog through Amazon Associates, which will probably earn me nothing at all. Caveat Clicky Browser Emptor. That is, if you go browsing Amazon after clicking a link from here and then buy something I get POINTS! (That's only the links going through to Amazon. Everything else is just a link. Hover your mouse over anything blue and underlined to see. It's up to you if you click and buy soething the other side... certainly I will not link any small press books to Amazon as I would rather encourage you to by direct so the publishers and writers can actually make some money themselves.Others I will. Message ends.)

Hopefully I've redeemed myself slightly by using a more ethical cashback site. That's ICE who work with ethical companies who try to limit their environmental impact. I use it to buy my usual bus card, and any train tickets that aren't heading in the direction of London or the South East from here. It's stuff I need to use, I get it cheap and with added POINTS!!! get money off the same in the future. It's a no-brainer.

I've just finished another book. London Falling by Paul Cornell. Loads of people seem to be reading this at the same time as me - great to see the book doing so well. I saw Paul last week at the British Science Fiction Association AGM and told him how I'd met people in the US reading this too.

I have to say, I absolutely loved this book, but... how can I put it? It's difficult when you know Paul - who is lovely, and kind, and nicely spoken - to imagine  him writing this.  I shall explain...

London Falling is a gritty police procedural, with a gritty supernatural edge to it. You've got Quill, with a bad temper and a drinking habit, in charge of a seemingly mundane undercover operation. He is looking after his UCs: Costain, who is half-in-love with a criminal lifestyle himself, poised to be the bad apple and go native, constantly coked up to the eyeballs; and Sefton, also UC, but hated by Costain and bullied by him for being gay. 

The team are trying to bring down Rob Toshack, a notorious gang lord, and Costain is on the verge of ruining the operation when he gets a sudden admission that means an arrest can take place. Toshack is taken into custody, but before evidence can be gathered by interview, Toshack suddenly dies in mysterious and violent circumstances.

Lisa Ross is added to the team; not a copper but a police analyst. On a trip to one of Toshack's houses to gather evidence, the four undergo a supernatural accident and are left vulnerable to the evil souls who think they rule London, but are now also empowered to do something about them. With wicked witches, football fixes, and child murder all thrown into the pot, a highly entertaining and well-written story is brewed. And with strong language throughout, you may raise an eyebrow like you would if you learned Hary Potter had grown up to be Danny Dyer. Very intelligent horror, and the first of a series. Good oh!