Hold the front page!!!

Celebrity at last!! - Well, that's not quite true.

Yesterday, after much emailing and telephoning (and begging), The Hartlepool Mail finally picked up on the book and have decided to run a piece on our fundraising activities for Red Nose Day '09, which was nice of them. The story evolves in Hartlepool because of the obvious link with their own legend, but there are not-so-subtle differences - our monkey is German, the legend version was French and a spy. Our monkey talks, theirs didn't - that's why they hung it, but our monkey talks himself into being hung because of his poor grasp of the English language!

So, at lunchtime yesterday I had to explain myself and answer their reporter Mark Thompson's questions about why we'd written the book and what it was all about. I think I did okay, now I just have to buy The Hartlepool Mail for the next few weeks and hope nothing too major happens in the world to wipe our story off the front page (lol.)

The Hartlepool Monkey

A quick post today to apologise for not commenting on your blogs lately - I have been visiting some. I've got a major push on at the moment promoting the book in order to raise as much cash as possible for Red Nose Day 09.

It's surprising how many people (even up here in the North East) haven't heard the legend of the Hartlepool Monkey, how, during the Napoleonic War, the Crofters of Hartlepool recovered a monkey from a shipwreck and tried and convicted it of being a French spy - having never seen a monkey or a Frenchman before, and having been unable to fathom its 'language'. They sentenced it to death by hanging.  Our book takes a glance at this legend and turns it into fictional truth - our monkey is a German speaking, seafaring, baboon trying to escape persecution of his kind in his homeland. It's a bit of nonsense for Red Nose Day and I want everyone to download a copy NOW!! (Nothing like being upfront and honest, is there?!!lol)

Have a look at the website and read the first two chapters for free - click here

Cheers
Gary

Red Nose Day 2009 - how The Baboon's hoping to help.

This Red Nose Day - 13th March 2009 I/we (being myself and my co-writer Andrew Baker) have decided to donate the proceeds from every one of our books downloaded from today until 13th March.

Although available as a paperback the royalties from a physical copy of the book are much lower than that of an electronic download - something like £1.20 per paperback sold as opposed to £3.00 for every downloaded copy, so we've stuck to the most revenue producing element for our charitable activity.

So, a download of "The Baboon's Left Testicle (Part One of Two)" will cost you £4.00 of which £3.00 will go directly to The Red Nose Day Appeal. We've signed a Fundraising Agreement with the charity so we don't want to lose face by sending them a cheque for £6 - the proceeds of our own downloads - so apologies for the blatant appeal!!

If you've not yet decided how to support this great event which does so much for worthwhile causes across the world then this could be one way to relieve you of the burden of having to make a choice. Even if you don't like the book - just think of where your money's going.

If you prefer a physical copy of the book (and don't want to support the Red Nose Day Appeal) then you can now buy it from Amazon!

Book Finally Published!!

In a roundabout way we have finally managed to get our book published.

Total Fiction - the publishing firm we were signed up to has folded as a result of the credit crunch so we were forced to take drastic measures and self publish via Lulu.com, but what the heck! PLUS by doing so, we have drastically reduced our overheads.

So, we're finally in print and up for sale. If you like a juvenile, raucous cat and mouse chase, thrilling comedy adventure with undertones of Jacobs' The Monkey's Paw, if you've ever visited Hartlepool, Mold or London, encountered a Pearly Queen or been accosted by a Welsh Zombie then our book is for you - Mills & Boon it is not.

The Baboon's Left Testicle (Part One of Two) is now available in paperback and download from lulu.com

Follow the link below to buy, read and review.




You can read a bit more about The Baboon's Left Testicle at our website - http://www.mcarthurbaker.co.uk/


I have been a busy bee of late - so apologies for not getting round too many people - that will hopefully change from now on!

Book Update

Those who remember the original incarnation of Bodge's Bulletin may recall that I had co-written a book. An outlandish tale with comparisons to Jacobs' The Monkey's Paw - though far more lewd and perverse, and with historical inferences to the Hartlepool Crofters and their French spy, monkey hanging antics.

As a quick post tonight I thought I'd update you on the current state of play with this joint venture.

After many months of searching and self-agenting we finally managed to find someone daft enough to take it on, er, did I say daft enough? What I meant to say was "brave enough" to take it on and we've signed our publishing agreement for "The Baboon's Left Testicle (Part One of Two)"

I'm currently proof reading the first edit prior to resubmission (with amendments) to the publisher - hopefully this process will be completed within the next month or so and then we can full steam ahead with the marketing and promotion stuff.

That's my task for tonight - continue to go through the first edit and proof-read - I started last night but after page 23 my red marker pen ran out of ink - it doesn't bode well!!

Watch this space....