Banana Waffles.

If you would like to win a free copy - then please Retweet the following message on your Twitter stream.

Free copies of @banana_the_poet's new fun paperback #AlternativePoetryBooks http://bit.ly/DC3WY RT this msg to be eligible to win

Next Thursday I will choose a random Twitterer who has Retweeted the message and they will win the first week's free copy.

I will repeat the process for four weeks - with a new person winning a free copy each week.

The next stage of my Banana Blog Tour - an interview on Dan Holloway's Blog - The Man Who Painted Agnieszka's Shoes

I wrote a new very short poem for this one, have revealed some things that I never revealed before and threw caution to the wind and said things I wondered afterwards if maybe I shouldn't have.

So all in all - we had fun, and that's the main thing.

OH.. Wait a minute, no, I'm supposed to be pushing the book.

Well it got mentioned - that'll do.

Back to what I said - but the really important thing is that visitors to Dan's blog have fun reading it.

So off you go and see what you think and please, please, pretty please leave a comment under the interview on Dan's blog.

It'll be like meeting an old friend at a new coffee shop

I'll keep an eye out for you and reply to you if you do comment there so don't be shy

http://agnieszkasshoes.blogspot.com/2009/10/going-bananas.html

It is these days the 'done thing' to have a blog tour when a book is released on sale.

I have no idea if I'm doing the done thing the way it should be done as I am just winging it like so much else

My first guest spot as part of the Blog Tour to Promote "Alternative Poetry Books - Yellow edition" is at Janet Colley's Blog - A Place of My Own.

Banana The Poet (aka Michele Brenton) and I originally met each other on Harper Collins’ peer-review writer’s site authonomy.com and have been in touch ever since. The first in her series of poetry The Yellow Book is available for pre-order.

I hope you get a chance to read some of her work — you might discover you like poetry after all!

In the meantime, read my interview with Michele and learn a little bit about the poet named Banana: READ MORE

Hope you enjoy it, and please make comments etc on Janet's blog to let her know you popped along for a visit.

Have a weird sort of jumpy feeling lately.
As my Yellow book has been released early I'm doing a lot of 'by the seat of my pants flying' with it. Add that to the fact this is the first time I've done anything like this - it is a very surreal experience. Nice, but surreal.

The box of books to be signed and embossed is on its way to us on Kefalonia still and I'm waiting for them on pins.
The first sales via the Paypal system on the blog have started trickling through to add to the sales made person to person by friends and family and acquaintances.

My book is now available on Amazon in Japan, Canada, France, America, Germany and the UK plus probably more I haven't found yet!

Here it is on Amazon.com : http://tinyurl.com/ylprjqd $7.99

Here it is on the Japanese site : http://tinyurl.com/yl6xjh4

Amazon.de are charging more for my book in Germany than I am for selling it signed, embossed and certified as one of only 50 of the limited copies!

We've started making the certificates and they look lovely

Hubby has been working hard over the last few days to wrestle the Kindle system into submission so that poems will appear in correct format. Looks like he has managed it at last - so next stage working out how to get the book onto the Kindle listings.

Now I just need to calm down and get on with the Pink book.

banana_the_poet is proud to support

Free-e-day,

the online festival of independent music, literature, and art.

Click the images to read the online brochure at Freado.com

Okay here was the plan:

1. 50 copies printed to be signed, embossed certified as limited editions and sent out to pre-orderers ahead of the rest.

2. Book released for general purchase in first week of November.

3. Blog tour to coincide with general release and to start in the first week in November.

Here is the reality.

1. 50 copies being printed to be signed, embossed certified as limited editions and sent out to pre-orderer.

2. Book being released NOW, right this minute as you read this post.

3. Blog tour to begin maybe next week - depending on if I can get things sorted.

This is why:

When we get a book published we have to have a proof copy to see if everything is OK.
We can't have our 50 copies printed unless we OK the proof copy.
As soon as we OK the proof copy - the system 'releases' the book as far as the distribution network is concerned.

We had to say yes to get our copies. So the book is released - 3 weeks ahead of schedule!

Oh well at least we're ahead of things instead of behind.

Can't wait to see a box of my books - but I suppose I'll have to

The book with the small case at the top is the first proof and we decided the yellow was too mustardy and looked a bit maths text book. I also decided that the uppercase title with my real name would look better at the top.

So we made the yellow brighter and more lemony and the red more scarlet and put the upper case on top.

The contents underwent a font shrink and standardising process as in the first proof I realised that a font size that looks fine on screen is not necessarily the best one to use in the book itself on paper.

I am now very pleased with my book

It is done

Now to order the 50 limited copies.

I'm doing jumping up and down now

Just had a phone call from hubby!

He's been to the couriers and the second proof is here

He is driving it home for me, but he opened the package and first glances are promising

I will take a some pictures of the first proof and the second for the blog when it gets here.

If anyone has been having any problems with the ordering system on the blog - please message me or if you can't use the message system leave a comment on the blog with a note that you don't want it posted up and I'll read and delete it - comments are all pre-moderated so you can send me a 'confidential' message that way - just be clear you don't want it posted as a comment.

I've had a couple of messages that there have been some problems and I think I know what it is and will be investigating it + hopefully fixing it soon - but any more feedback to help me pin point the problem would be useful. Don't tell me any personal details or bank details or anything like that - just the sort of issue you may have had trying to use the system.

Thanks.

XX

If you are thinking of Christmas presents and gifts yet, may I suggest considering

Alternative Poetry Books - Yellow edition

it contains the following poems:

A Plea to Poetry Readers
Cut Glass Floor
Why I"m not a dentist
Sincere apologies to my teacher
The Great Wall of China
Sharper than a serpents tooth...
The Salvation of Disorganisation
A Taste of France? Non Mon Sewer!
Dust
Where there's dirt there's life
For Neda
What the music teacher really thinks
Thought Balloon
Little Jimmy and the Sweet Corn of Doom
In every breath as always potential for disaster
A Question of Pants!
The Hero Party
Grown Ups
Papa's Poem
Entente Cordiale
Land of my Mothers
Mother and the Monkey
Mad Dog and Englishman
Tea-Pot of Trouble
I Quit
Dog Day Afternoon
Loss
The Person who said 'Yes' to Spam
Lessons have been Learned
A Prickly Problem
Poising I be
Halfway round the Bend
Torreilles
The World on its Head
A Couple of Haiku
Nu Labour Christmas carol
De Problem with DEFOOING
Call me Home
Happy Anniversary Darling - 20 years and never a cross word spoken, but many snarled shouted and screamed.
Here Today, Gone Tomorrow
Father's Day
Summer anticipated
Summer in the UK
Love or 'In Love'?
Nonsense Poem
Suffer Little Children
Warn Parenting
Carnaval
Cauliflower Soup c'est delicieux
Ode to a Greek Taxi Driver
Finding Home
Snooze and you lose
I took my love
Mr BadShock
Love all
My Funny Valentine
Now I've Grown
What's in a Name?
The games you play
Money can't buy you love
Yellow
NEVER DO THE THINGS YOU SHOULD NEVER DO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It can be pre-ordered from Amazon.co.uk for £4.99 + P&P

or if you would like a signed and embossed certified limited edition paperback (1 of only 50)
also for £4.99 + £2.00 P&P or your currency equivalent you can pre-order by clicking the button below and filling in your details and I will send them to you as soon as I am able.
I'm hoping the UK postage strike won't affect the UK mailings too much.
As I'll be sending from Greece, anyone outside the UK won't be affected by the Royal Mail strike at all.

Good news is that my book is on Amazon.

Bad news is that somehow they have mucked up the book image so that it looks very cheap and shoddy

I have no idea how they managed to get such a low quality image up there.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Alternative-Poetry-Books-Michele-Brenton/dp/1907375007/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255058772&sr=1-1

Look at that! Blech! It looks like it was coloured in by a three year old

It looks even worse on the small image in the general search.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=alternative+poetry+books&x=0&y=0

I know we sent them a high quality, high resolution image as part of a .pdf file including pages for readers to scan the contents.

But it looks as though they printed the image out on a low quality printer and then took a photo with a digital camera and then slapped that online

As a result there is a blurry, wishy washy quality to the image which is awful

Not at all attractive and given the cover is such an important part of the marketing process and the efforts we took to make it bright, clear, and attractive I am miffed in the extreme

Will be throwing my toys out of the pram once I can discuss it with my other half and I expect he will be rather angry too.

Hope it can be resolved soon.

Oh well a good day yesterday a bad one today - that's the Yin Yang going on I suppose

Thank goodness it is Friday and not Saturday - so hopefully something can be sorted out.

Ho hum - onwards and upwards

Mostly armless!

This hilarious shot of a bride apparently armless whilst magically levitating a bouquet, oblivious to her groom who appears to be preparing to have a wee behind her in the shrubbery is the masterful work of wedding photographer Gareth Bowers from Fresh Images who charged them £1,450 for this amongst others taken that day. :DD
Read more in the Daily Mail

The couple were awarded damages when they sued the photographer - problems included miss spelling the bride's name on special 'thankyou' cards to be sent to guests. Instead of Sylvia they were inscribed Slyvia !!

I will have to dig out some of the wedding photos from my first wedding one day - there were a couple in that collection that would have fitted right in with these beauties ;)

I wonder if they were using my special secret recipe from the South of France? Cauliflower Soup - C'est Delicieux - a poem

Alternative Poetry Books: Yellow edition is now to be found listed on Amazon!!!

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.com

Amazon.ca

No image yet - but we will soon be adding the search inside feature - which is a start.

The co.uk Amazon site has a pre-order facility on there - but if you want to get one of the very first 50 signed, certified and authenticated copies I will be selling them directly from my blog once I get a Paypal system organised properly. We've had an embosser made for Endaxi Press and silver thingies that you can squish onto certificates to make them look snazzy to go with each of the first 50 which will also be signed and embossed on an inside page.

It makes the whole thing a bit more of an occasion - I always like to jazz things up a bit where I can

If Franklin Mint & The Cabbage Patch Dolls can get away with it then so can I

If you are interested in one of the signed certified limited edition 50 copies please DM me.

The cost will be £4.99 or the equivalent in your currency PLUS P&P - which we will be charging at £2.00/equivalent

So to clarify if you want a signed limited edition you need to order that directly from me- if you just want a copy from Amazon (which won't be signed and won't have a certificate and won't be limited edition) - you can pre-order from them and then bundle it with other purchases to get P&P free on it.

I think the limited edition ones might make good Christmas presents if you know anyone into that kind of thing

You could buy one of the limited editions for keeping - in case I ever get famous and it gains value AND buy a copy from Amazon for everyday use.

OR you could buy a copy for every room in your house just in case you are the sort of person who might suffer withdrawal symptoms if too far away from my wonderful poetry for too long Ooops I'm getting silly now - shall go and lie down until my brain returns to what passes for 'normal'

Michele Brenton

Wrong is like infinity. You can take a bit from it, add a bit to it and it is still just wrong.

Some wrongs can NEVER be undone.

But there are rituals to try and help those who suffered from a wrong to move forward with their lives.
Other rituals to try and make it clear to potential wrong doers that it would be more beneficial to them not to make that decision to carry out a wrong action.

Those rituals are lumped together and form the basis of the judicial and social systems and are also a large part of what underpins religion.

They start at something small - like an apology and finish up with something massive like an execution.

But there is no getting away from the fact that without these rituals the suffering from wrong doing increases.

The latest public discussion about Roman Polanski has made me think about these issues. To be honest it has made me quite angry.
I have been seriously disturbed by the number of actors and other media figures who have felt it is acceptable to stand up and defend the guy, to the extent they have even tried to pretend that the crime he committed wasn't even anything to be upset about.

It was bad enough that he did what he did, to a child, not 'technically a child' - but most definitely a child who was only 13 at the time - a child who asked to be taken home and who said no. But he ran away from the court trial that was designed to put a closure to the process at a time when it could have been dealt with and allowed his victim an opportunity to see some sort of action taken against the person who wronged her. By now it would have been very old news and she would have had many many years to move on - having had the necessary ritual completed.

The wrong would never have been righted - but she would have had a life with it having been dealt with.

Instead Polanski ran and stayed on the run. He is rich, he has powerful influential friends and probably because he had himself suffered a shocking and horrible crime in the loss of his lovely wife and unborn child to the evil Manson gang, there was a certain amount of sympathy toward him. They probably also tried to disbelieve that he actually committed the crime at all. Nobody wants to believe someone they like or even love has done anything so vile. We see it all the time when murderers, rapists etc come to court and even when the evidence is overwhelmingly against them- there are always relatives & friends who turn a blind eye and a deaf ear in order to keep their own world view as rosy tinted as it ever was.

But all this has done has prolonged the situation for the victim AND for the perpetrator.

There is no excuse for what Polanski did then. Nor is there an excuse for the way he has evaded the right course of behaviour ever since. The child is now a woman who has been quoted as blaming the media for ruining her life even more than Polanski. She even unsuccessfully tried to represent Polanski in an attempt to have the crime 'struck out'. She didn't want any more hoo hah about the situation - and it is easy to see why she would feel that way.

The problem is, that until Polanski faces up to what he should face up to - there will never be an end to this.

The air headed celebrities who massed in his support have only made the situation even more urgently in need to be resolved.
In effect they have put their starry eyed influence behind the following concepts:

If someone has suffered tragedy it is OK for them to rape a child.

If someone is a genius - it is ok for them to rape a child.

If enough time elapses it was ok for someone to rape a child.

If someone is famous and makes friends with enough other famous people - it is ok to rape a child.

Oh and if enough famous people get together to say it - then it is ok to rape a child.

Not forgetting the 'piece de resistence' from Whoopi Goldberg - if a famous actress who wasn't there decides - then it wasn't even really rape in the first place - despite it being carried out against a 13 year old, who cried and said no and wanted to go home.

The only conclusion I can draw is that children are at constant and terrifying risk in these strange circles - because these people all seem to think that Roman Polanski's behaviour is acceptable and that it is perfectly acceptable to be seen as supporting him.

Maybe I'm over reacting but that all makes me very angry. How much more angry must it make those people charged with coping with the aftermath of these sorts of crimes day in day out? They also need to get closure on this, or what they do each day is made a very public mockery of. The suffering of children day in day out is being made mockery of.

Which only leads to one result

wrong + wrong = wrong

Someone needs to be seen to be doing something right. The rituals must be fulfilled - or we all suffer - every single one of us - the consequences.

Pictured: The baby pygmy hippo who's barely bigger than a lettuce leaf
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1217348/Pictured-The-baby-pygmy-hippo-whos-barely-bigger-lettuce-leaf.html#ixzz0Sg44fGhm

How cute is this?

Aaaaah!