IDC goes to the printers

Over the last couple of weeks I have been putting together my first Brook House Booklet. It's called Ingleton's Dickensian Characters (IDC for short).

It has been a distinct learning curve. When I first went to see Andrew, the printer in Bentham, I didn't even know how to put an A5 (half A4) size booklet onto Publisher. He showed me and I got started.

Now the Master Copy is ready. This is a day earlier than I originally put into my business plan.

YES! I have a business plan! It's just a sheet of paper with deadlines to work to, but it is a great help.

The unit cost is £1.00 per copy from the printer and I am selling them at £2.00 each. I have ordered 100 copies so I hope they will sell well in a week's time at the Late Night Shopping Evening in Ingleton.

Now I'll have to get marketing.

I got Pix

I took delivery of a camera yesterday.

It is this one:

It's about as big as its picture which was a surprise.

Nevertheless I have taken some pix with it of the inner sanctum of Brook House.

Now I am off to get pictures for my first Brook House Publishing publication Ingleton's Dickensian Characters.

O Pete did you forget?

I have just got back from leading the Monday AM Prayer Meeting at IMC. I have done it for six months now but today I forgot.

I was so intensely concentrating on a little Bible Study I was doing on work that I forgot to go and lead the prayer meeting.

The old enemy of our souls has fooled us into thinking that these two vital ingredients of Christian life (prayer and Bible Study) are the most boring and tedious pastimes on God's earth. So we think they should be avoided at all costs. And that is just what he wants. Because if disciples aren't reading and studying the Bible or joining in prayer together then they are like a car which is not firing on all cylinders. It works but it doesn't work well.

So what have I learned from this morning's mistake? Set an alarm for the Monday AM Prayer meeting and don't neglect it. I do so at my peril.

WELCOME to the new look site

Well, I warned you.

Here is a new look site for you.

I hope you enjoy it as much as the old version.

The idea's the same. It's just the look that's different.

Like preaching the Gospel in a 21 st century context really.

Warning: Things are going to change round here

I have decided that I am going to change the look of this blog.

It needs a makeover. But I wanted to warn you before I did it.

One of the things I hate about the internet world is unplanned changes. So I am warning you:

Next time things will be different.

And another doctor said..

I had to go and see a doctor about my Incapacity Benefit this morning.

He asked some strange questions which didn't seem to have anything to do with depression.

For instance, he enquired if I made the tea and helped around the house. What's that got to do with anything?

Another seemingly unrelated question was what I like to watch on TV. Why did he ask these things?

Well, I'll see if I gave the right answers in a few weeks time.

More now

Well here I am back at home after my race round Britain.

It was fun and I learned a lot.

The highlights:

Sitting in a small group setting in the Chapel at Harpenden Oval listening to people from all over England and many different denominations. They said they were all seeing the same thing: Growth through small groups. God is on the move.

Martin Robinson from Together in Mission was in the group and said something along these lines: When the church was in decline, you knew what was going on. Now so much is happening you can't keep up with it.

That got me thinking. There should be some means by which the Christian people of this country become aware of what God is doing.

The second highlight was sitting amongst 2500 men in Bradford listening to Paul Scanlon talk about his relationship with his dad. It was very moving. The theme of the conference was I am not my father.

Fascinating insights on both occasions.

What is God saying to me?

Just popped in

Hi there.

I just popped in to say that I'm still around although I haven't blogged for a while.

That's because I have been around the country:

1. Tuesday Liverpool to see Aunty Mary
2. Wednesday London to see new St Pancras Station and Surrey to visit my sister Sheila
3. Thursday Harpenden Hertfordshire to attend a discussion on Cell Groups in Villages
4. Yesterday Central London to sign up as a British Library reader
5. Yesterday as well Bradford to study the history of its architecture
6. Yesterday Bradford again for the XCEL Men's Conference at Abundant Life Church

Now I'm off to Bradford again for the second part of XCEL.

More later.

The Frost has melted away

The Christian world got a shock yesterday. Well-loved UK Methodist evangelist Rob Frost had passed into glory.

He was in late 50s and had done more in his life than three ordinary people do in theirs. As well as preaching, writing and travelling (he seemed to be everywhere at once) Rob's greatest contribution to Methodism was Easter People. This was a Christian holiday break for Methodist Evangelical Christians.

The last one took place in Blackpool just after Easter. I attended it for a day in what soon turned out to be the tail-end of my work for the Methodist Church.

We will surely miss him. But for him to live was Christ and to die is gain.

Remember his family, especially his Dad, Ronald. How must it feel to see your son follow you into the ministry, take off like a rocket, achieve so much and then pass into the presence of Jesus before you do? God bless him.

Staying on-line

Sorry I haven't been around for a while but I'm having trouble with the phone line and it's difficult to stay on-line. Even the electricity went off a couple of nights ago. All the Brook House infrastructure was breaking down. Anyway, I'm back now.


The trip to Chesterfield for the football was a success. Morecambe scored in the first and the last minute while the Spireites (named after this edifice) scored twice in the middle. Very exciting.

That crooked spire at Chesterfield freaks me out. I've been there twice this year. Each time I think the thing's going to fall on me. It looks just ready to plunge to earth. But since it hasn't done so yet and has been there since the middle ages, I may be a bit too concerned. I'm like Chicken Little who thought the sky was falling.

Mind you, I've been to quite a few churches in this and other countries which have fallen down in bad weather. So what makes the crooked spire seem so delicate and yet remain so strong?

Answers welcome.

How's the writing business going? Well, I'm preparing some booklets called Ingleton's Dickensian Characters to sell at the Late Night Shopping in Ingleton on 7 December. I had put it in my diary to do this and I am actually doing it. When I'm working on them and saving them on the PC I call them IDC for short. This saves time.

The writing comes from articles I wrote for the Craven Herald five years ago. I need to edit these, add more information if I can and then put them into a publishing format.

I then need to get into marketing gear and sell as many as I can on the night.

Pricing them is a bit of headache. The price has to be just right. Too little and the customer will scorn the product, too much and he will think it overpriced. What to do, eh?

Travelholic?

Can you become a travelholic? I may be becoming one.

On Wednesday I went to Skipton on the train to study the Ingleton censi there. On Thursday it was York, again by train, for business start-up training (ha ha!). Yesterday I went to Liverpool to visit my aunty in Broad Green Hospital. She is there long-term and her affairs are in a mess. It was the travel I enjoyed the most. It makes me feel good.

I especially enjoyed travelling from Broad Green to Liverpool City Centre on a No. 11 Bus. Looking outside at the European City of Culture for 2008 made me realise how much it needs improving. Listening inside to the conversations my fellow passengers were having with the driver and each other was fascinating. One three-generation family complained bitterly about their treatment by another driver, and then a lad got on and was talking to his mum on his mobile phone and talking to the driver and relaying things to his mum. What fun it was observing all this.

As I got off the bus I told the driver how much I had enjoyed it. She said that everyday is different in her job. I'll bet it is. She still took some persuading about the Plusbus ticket when I got on though. But it was worth it.

Today I'm off to Chesterfield with my son Nathan to see Morecambe play there. This time I'm going by car.

Time Management

One of the reasons I had to quit my job with the Methodist Church was because of my problems with time management. I just wanted to wander about and see where the Lord led me, which is not very professional but it is spiritual. And it works.

Yesterday I was in York for a Businesslink workshop on setting up in business. The course was OK but it was the rest of the day I enjoyed more.

I visited the Rock church which is right next door to where we met. It is an unconventional Pentecostal Church based at the old Central Methodist. What a place! Hundreds of pews, a huge balcony, lots of side rooms all based in a square building that looks like a fortress.

I visited an exhibition about the monks who built the Priory which was again very close to where we met. Reading about medieval York was fascinating.

As I walked along a very narrow alleyway, or ginnel as the Yorkshire folk call them, between back-to-back houses I gave thanks for where I live. My dwelling is a three storey six-bedroom house with lots of ground right out in the country. And we were given it. Is God generous or what? That's one of the reasons I named my new business after it.

Another thing happened. I wandered into an independent bookshop hard by the Minster. Would you believe it, the assistant was unpacking books about Ruskin. She hadn't even taken the wrapper off the one I bought. Amazing.

When I got home Biddles the printers had sent me a booklet for self-publishers explaining how to get your books into the market. What a day.

Learning the trade

Another thing happened yesterday.

My good friend Mike Bossingham suggested using Biddles printing firm for producing my books. I sent them an email and by the end of the day I had an email from one of their people asking for detailed information about the sort of printing I wanted. I'd better get learning.

This is what they wanted to know:

What size are the booklets?
How many pages are in them?
What sort of binding are you looking for i.e. saddle stitched (stapled)or slotted?
What quantities are you looking to produce?
Do they just have black text throughout?

The thought struck me: I'd better learn this trade quickly.

GP Taylor "autobiography" review

I was in Skipton yesterday studying the 1841/51/61 census returns for Ingleton. They made fascinating reading. To see the characters I am writing about in the George Hope novel right there on the page is stimulating. Well, it's not the page but the microfiche screen. But the feelings the same.

During the journey there and at lunchtime I finished off the GP Taylor "autobiography" I picked up on Wednesday last week. I wrote this review and sent it to Zondervan publishers:

I bought this hardback book called GP Taylor Sin, Salvation and Shadowmancer in
the Wesley Owen bookshop in Liverpool City Centre, England. It was marked at £8
off the cover price of £12.99. The amount I paid for the book - £4.99 - was a
price at which it would be much more likely to sell.
At first I was puzzled by the fact that a best selling English author had to tell his story through freelance American writer Bob Smietana. But as the pages turned I realised that this was written for the American market. Explanations were given which were needless for the English reader and some of the expressions were very American.
It also became clear that GP Taylor is a storyteller rather than a writer, but
what a story he tells!
You couldn't have made it up. Growing up in a working class neighbourhood in the North of England, plugging records for Virgin, a social worker, a policeman, a vicar and now a writer. All the time the man's voice was speaking and his personality was shining through. It was as gripping as his books are supposed to be, although I've never read one. Although after this I suppose I shall have to.
Verdict: A great read but not worth £12.99.