Createspace and Amazon together with Penguin USA are holding another literary competition, this time not for a short story but a novel and, once again, Greece is omitted from the list of eligible countries. Why? What on earth has everybody got against Greece? It is part of the European Union for goodness sake, as much as any of the other countries mentioned as eligible. In actual fact there is no reason why the competition shouldn’t be open world-wide as it is anyhow limited to the first 5000 entries within a certain time. How does Amazon and Penguin USA know they are not losing an absolute gem? I am fully aware that writers are in fact two a penny but there have been excellent ones from countries not mentioned in the eligible list. Strikes me as being most short-sighted.
Still very cold, still wet. At least the windows aren’t running with condensation this morning but the dehumidifier in my study is having a hard time of it. We have it on every night because, in the beginning, we lost three or four beautiful books to damp and mould. It is set at 30 and usually when switched on it reads about sixty but these last few nights it has read more than 70 and in the morning I find it has reduced that figure to about 55.
Normally the fire in the breakfast room isn’t lit until well into the afternoon but these last few days it has been going all day and the central heating has a morning as well as an evening spell. Will have to check and see how the oil is holding out. We might as well be back in England.
I had thought this morning I would be writing all about Sweeney, fully expecting when I got up to find she had gone. She has been refusing food the last three days and she gave us no end of false alarms yesterdays. It really did look like the end but, no, this morning she was sitting up in her snuggle rather than lying comatose as she did all yesterday. It is now fifteen months since we dug her grave because we thought the end was about to come and she is sixteen years old. I have no doubt my next Blog will be all about Sweeney.