Someone else's book inside mine

As you can see in the photos above, and in this video, a copy of Midsummer Night's Dream, which I was about to sell at the Lakes Festival this weekend, contained a surprise.

Inside, instead of 130 pages of prime graphic novel by me, was a book called In Depth Acting by Dee Cannon. It has a foreword by Pierce Brosnan, no less. I wonder if, technically, that means I'm now allowed to quote him in my books? Probably won't.

I have written to Draft2Digital, the printers-on-demand, who I should imagine have received a few bits of correspondence along this line. My guess is that everyone who order books that morning got something like this, one copy in the batch having the next book along's content inside by accident. Because they are able to do such short print runs (in this case I ordered just 10 copies) they'll do it in a conveyor belt like process, and a small glitch in the system could easily mean the covers and interiors going out of synch and not being spotted.

It was entertaining on the day, and I can live with the one sale it might have lost me. (Coming as it did at the end of my second biggest month of book sales this year, and just after my biggest single day of book sales this year. Not complaining.)

My Books And Where To Find Them...

Richard The Third (Colour) Paperback • signed	Doctors Who? Colouring Paperback • signed	Socks Do Shakespeare Paperback	Kids Comics Annual 2026 Paperback
Richard  The Third (bw) Paperback • signed	Findlay  Macbeth Paperback • signed	Prince of  Denmark Street Paperback • signed	Midsummer Night's  Dream Team Paperback • signed
Shakespeare Omnibus Paperback • signed	Comic Tales From The Bible Paperback • signed	Joseph, Ruth & Other Stories Paperback • signed	Space Elain Paperback • signed
Book Of Esther	Who Notes	Sweet Smell Of Sockcess	Attack Of The Sausages
My 1975 Diary Calendar	Colouring Books Paperback • signed	Scottish Falsetto Socks Annual	Tales Of Nambygate

Colouring Books: Doctors Who, Hollywood Legends, Punk, Cult TV, Eurovision Vol 1, Eurovision Vol 2, Eurovision Best Of British & Irish, 1960s Pop, 1970s Pop, 1980s Pop,  1990s Pop, 2020s Pop, Bowie, Scottish Pop, Royalty, Rom Coms

Penguins In A Volcano - comics by kids

I'm glad I have a lot of Romeo and Juliet pages to show for September, cos it's not been a busy month for Comic Art Masterclasses. Just three days of classes, but by golly what good ones.

 Talk about September being quiet, these two comics made by kids at two sellout classes in Shoreham were actually from August. It was one of those days where anything that could go wrong did go wrong. First we'd got the timings wrong. The classes were advertised as one hour long, but of course they're two hours long. Luckily I spotted this and all punters were given a day's notice. The fault had come when, it being a return booking, I'd told Ropetackle Arts Centre to just repeat last year's detail. The trouble with that? We'd got it wrong last year too. Oops. Then the photocopier didn't work so the morning group didn't get a comic. Finally I'd quoted them the wrong amount so short changed myself despite both classes selling out. Well done me.

Another return booking, and a very prestigious one, I got invited back to Chiswick Book Festival. Two excellent classes, after which the parents bought lots of books. Smashing.

Winding up September's brief pair of classes, I did two libraries in one day in Rotherham. Nice.

The celebrities these 6 groups chose to star in my demonstration strips were Paul McCartney, Michael Jackson, Jack Black, Taylor Swift, Ronaldo and Beyonce.

My Books And Where To Find Them...

Richard The Third (Colour) Paperback • signed	Doctors Who? Colouring Paperback • signed	Socks Do Shakespeare Paperback	Kids Comics Annual 2026 Paperback
Richard  The Third (bw) Paperback • signed	Findlay  Macbeth Paperback • signed	Prince of  Denmark Street Paperback • signed	Midsummer Night's  Dream Team Paperback • signed
Shakespeare Omnibus Paperback • signed	Comic Tales From The Bible Paperback • signed	Joseph, Ruth & Other Stories Paperback • signed	Space Elain Paperback • signed
Book Of Esther	Who Notes	Sweet Smell Of Sockcess	Attack Of The Sausages
My 1975 Diary Calendar	Colouring Books Paperback • signed	Scottish Falsetto Socks Annual	Tales Of Nambygate

Colouring Books: Doctors Who, Hollywood Legends, Punk, Cult TV, Eurovision Vol 1, Eurovision Vol 2, Eurovision Best Of British & Irish, 1960s Pop, 1970s Pop, 1980s Pop,  1990s Pop, 2020s Pop, Bowie, Scottish Pop, Royalty, Rom Coms

Why nothing online is actually safe. Or yours.

Look at that graph. That's what happened when my blog, the thing you're reading now, which I've been posting on Blogger since 2008, disappeared overnight.

It came back to life when I was able to reopen my Google account. When I woke up this morning, my email and my calendar had both disappeared and I was told my Google account had been disabled. That is a very worrying thing. 

I think I know why this was done. I'd been emailing schools. And, as is my wont, to try and drum up business, I email every school I can find in the address book. That means I'm emailing about 500 schools at a time. I realise this is probably something you're not supposed to do It's spam, or as we used to call it cold-calling. It is, however, the way that schools get to hear of me, and frankly I can't think of a better way. But it is, I think, the Google policy that they say I've violated. I can't be sure cos I haven't asked them. This time. When I've asked in the past, the answer I've got has been vague (probably because it's a machine answering the questions, and indeed doing the disabling of my account), but I've come away with the notion that it's the mass emailings that leads to the disabling.

So, all I'm saying is, if you're one of the schools who got my emails, do please get back in touch and book me. And any schools who've not heard from me, I'm available for bookings.

I'm also saying that if you've got a blog on Blogger, or videos on Youtube, or a Google calendar that you rely on for everything, and Gmail that you need likewise, don't rely on them so heavily, and maybe find some alternative. And back everything up. Cos they're all owned by the same person, and if they don't like what you're doing, they can close you down and you lose everything.

Talking of changing the subject, Jimmy Kimmel's show just got cancelled for criticising Trump, and Trump just declared Anti-Fascism a terrorist organisation. I'm sure the bosses of Google are nothing like him though. Are they?

My Books And Where To Find Them...

Richard The Third (Colour) Paperback • signed	Doctors Who? Colouring Paperback • signed	Socks Do Shakespeare Paperback	Kids Comics Annual 2026 Paperback
Richard  The Third (bw) Paperback • signed	Findlay  Macbeth Paperback • signed	Prince of  Denmark Street Paperback • signed	Midsummer Night's  Dream Team Paperback • signed
Shakespeare Omnibus Paperback • signed	Comic Tales From The Bible Paperback • signed	Joseph, Ruth & Other Stories Paperback • signed	Space Elain Paperback • signed
Book Of Esther	Who Notes	Sweet Smell Of Sockcess	Attack Of The Sausages
My 1975 Diary Calendar	Colouring Books Paperback • signed	Scottish Falsetto Socks Annual	Tales Of Nambygate

Colouring Books: Doctors Who, Hollywood Legends, Punk, Cult TV, Eurovision Vol 1, Eurovision Vol 2, Eurovision Best Of British & Irish, 1960s Pop, 1970s Pop, 1980s Pop,  1990s Pop, 2020s Pop, Bowie, Scottish Pop, Royalty, Rom Coms