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WE KNOW YOU'RE BUSY UPDATING, BUT COULD WE JUST ASK YOU...? ( THE ARCHIVE WOULD LIKE TO ACKNOWLEDGE...)
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Over the years, a number of people have written with questions, insight, or helpful suggestions. This is the point where they will wish that they hadn't, once I find their names. WHY?... 1) Why are you doing this? Who are you? Where are my socks? My name is William Nedblake. Originally, many years ago, I started writing about authors that I liked for the web, because I was bored with my job and it gave me a way to kill time. Now it has become a multi-thousand pence industry, the fruits of which you now see before you. If you're interested in me, well, then there are other bits about me here and there - try beginning at the beginning. And I regret to say that I have no earthly idea where your socks may be - have you tried looking in your neighbour's cellar? Never know what you might find there... 2) Why the links to Amazon? Are you just a crass materialist, trying to do us out of our brass with your slick gimicks? Thank you, Adolph from Hammersmith. I've provided the links on the off chance that you would wish to support my efforts with your hard earned readies. If you do, then lovely, and thank you, it's much appreciated. Currently, my sites are small enough that I don't have to pay extra for them to reside on my provider's server, and I'm working to keep them that way (judicious pruning, etc.). However, the odd ten or twenty of your Earth poundlingtons every few months might allow me to procure another title for my library, which means that I can eventually add it to the site. I provide links to Amazon, as opposed to other sites, because I've used them myself for years, and been consistently pleased with their service. I was also a great fan of Bookpages, the UK precursor to Amazon, who later swallowed poor little BP whole. However, all of this doesn't mean that you shouldn't, if you don't mind getting your books second hand (and most of us, myself included, do not), take a quick jaunt, or even a gentle stroll, to your local second hand bookshop, charity shop, dark alley, or car boot sale. Persistence pays: over time, you can find nearly anything. For those things that you can't, there are sites like ABEBooks (and I don't get a brass farthing for mentioning them, so there). For those of you who actually read the last paragraph, I, of course, in no way recommend attempting to find books of detective fiction in dark alleys. Why tempt capricious fate? MAY I... ...write to you with questions? Certainly. I will even try to answer them, time permitting. Please write to thyrsis@excite.com (I'm trying to keep the spam on my home account from battering down the door with its tinny blueness - I'm sure that you'll understand). ...link to your site(s)? Please do, although a note to the effect that you are doing so is appreciated. I like to know my neighbours, after all (and the contents of their cellars, if possible). ...extend a comfortably large salary to you? I would have no objection. Anything for a quiet life. ACTIVITY? I'm hoping to finish revisions to this site, so that the only other changes which would be necessary would be in the event that I pick up one of the anthologies, or if a Crispin biography ever appears. My work can be summed up as bursts of fervent activity followed by months of langour. So please enjoy what you find, and let me know that you enjoy it: that will provide all the more impetus for more work. One thrives on praise, don't you know... |
