I have added lots of new titles. It includes short stories and desktop backgrounds.
Now, some are even FREE! Surely you must be tempted - www.lulu.com/jackiecoupe
Knock yourself out.
In other news, it is exactly 6 weeks before I go to Lanzarote for sun and fun.
I am looking for work outside of BT because the pays shit and I keep getting told off for being on the net, I am still dealing with calls but the work is so mundane I can still have 6 browsers open at the same time while I monkey about.
So there.
Book updates - Gooooooooooooooooood, haven't done updates in a while but I am awaiting the edited version of ‘The Girls Club’ back and am in the process of getting a legitimate publisher to take on my Witness novels after last years problems with Diggory Press, (may they rot in hell).
Um. That's it really.
See you later.
Jackermackdadsmackertron .
Daibhidh MacAdhaimh - of AD fame and local disrepute will be meeting me in Manchester tomorrow with his self-confessed mentally disturbed daughter. I got chatting to the big guy when I realised he comes from Blackburn Midlothian whereas I come from Blackburn in the North West. My intimates will tell you I am a big circle karma queen and if something links I follow it.
I further found out the dude liked digital photography, painting, poetry and being witty. A nice guy. His daughter Sharon used to be a morticians assistant. I am going to ask as many inappropriate stomach churning questions as I can think of whilst we have our meal.
;)
The book front: Witness: The White Volume may realistically see bookshelves by Halloween. It’s been a long drawn out saga and there have been many times when I have almost thought, f*ck it, why has it got to be so hard. Why has it got to be that you meet people who just want to take the piss out of you? Why has it got to be that as an independent people just want to f*ck you over for whatever small amount of cash you might make as a blue collar Joe.
But I suppose I always knew it wasn't going to be easy. I know a lot more than I used to, I know that 90% of the people in and around this business are mealy mouthed dicks looking to extort a little more misery by capitalising on someone’s ambitions.
I say FUCK them!
On a much lighter note now - I am seeing someone. It’s been a long time since I had that kind of attention. I think it’s made me a little bolder and ready to tackle these bottom feeders I have come into contact with. It’s a really nice feeling.
The new website www.jackiecoupe.com is up and running. Designed and hosted by Chad Savage. I am not doing too well in keeping my blogs updated and I haven't really had time for many photos but I will make up for this in three weeks time when I travel to Castle Rock Colorado. Yep. I'm going to Stephen King country and I am blown away. It'll be a mix of pilgrimage and writing. A little fresh air, some cowgirls and a touch of melancholy for my girl back home. I'm going to empty my head. A project I've had ticking over for many moons may just get its chance out there.
They get 300 days of sun in Denver, its rustic, there are trees and bears. My nearest and dearest are worried about the fact that I can get lost in the local cornershop. I look at it this way, some of the most interesting things happen when you get lost. That wrong turn or missed signal could be the start of anything and if it’s the final thing I will be ready.
Before I forget, I went to Manchester Pride, briefly, whoda thought The Evil Lord would be like a fish out of water...hahahahah
Nevermind - later gang
x
As far as natural sprawls go it’s by far one of the biggest and well kept pieces of land in the North West. Supported and financed by the National Trust it is the place where many track and field events are held. Not to mention car shows and gymkhanas.
Anyway, it is also home to Pleasington Cemetery. It sits like a jaded jewel on the highest hill and this is often were I find myself skulking about with my camera.
I go by bike. I take my camera, bottled water and mobile phone in case of problems.
Now, Saturday evening past the sun was blazing in Blackburn when I got home from work. It’s been absolutely dull and rainy for eons now and my blood was up for a shoot. I wolfed my meal down and got into my dandiest cycling shorts.
The woods are 8 minutes by bike. 6 if I ‘shag arse’ as the Americans say. I was down by the sports track at about 6 and the trees were aflame with light and sun. I flew down the main path and into the heart of the woods. As crazy as I am I won’t go into the woods in bad light. I don’t know what it is but bad light speaks of evil to me and I don’t go where I don’t feel comfortable.
I wasn’t thinking much about the exact spot. Halfway up the big wooded rut there’s a mini stream of water running down the middle so I walk my bike. Its way too slippery to keep peddling and I had more than my share of ‘crotch crashes’ for one lifetime.
Well...
I realise where I am and that it’s been a really long time sce I was last here when I enter a clearing at the top and see a bench. This was were we headed when we hooked out of school on lunch break. After 15 years all the markers are still there, a line in the grass from the far side where we came across the field, a tree that looks obscenely like it’s tried to get back under the ground to protect its seed, (that or hide from me), and a mud track behind the trees leading up and away.
I took the mud track and ended up carrying my bike. It’s at that point I’m not sure 14 years of cigarettes was a good idea but I persevere. Halfway there and I am reminded what the last slipped disc I had felt like. I still persevere. I reach the top and drop the bike in a heap. My heads whizzing and I’m going to fall back down the track so I dipsy doodle and put my butt down.
This is the place!
I check my mobile, no messages. That’s fine. I drink some water, I’m knackered. I pick up my bike and wander over to the stones in the ground. What a magical place this is! I’m wearing a light blue tie and muddy shoes. I can all but see Michael and Amanda trying to get a rope to go over the biggest branch on a nearby tree to make a swing.
The stones you ask? Well, here is where I put my historian hat on, I say!
To look upon you wouldn’t immediately think you were standing in what used to be the foundations of someone’s home. Not just any house either. but a grand estate that owned all the land upon which the natural park now stands in perpetuity.
Well – Witton Park, Originally called Etherly and Witton, opened with a railwy line in 1843. It was very close to a large coal pit, The Phoenix mine, and it had been transporting coal through there since 1825. The idea to formalise it as a transport station made thoroughfare in the North West to all points south an incredibly easier process.
The stones and steps were part of the station masters house!
But wait, there’s more. It was closed as a mine transportation network in 1965. Most of the platforms and bays were hastily demolished for development of the vast acerage of land suddenly available for perspective home builders.
Had it not been for one particularily special visit when HRH the Queen Mother spent a night at the remaining lodgings in Witton on an auspicious evening which led to eht birth of ‘Witton Park Community Association’. She slept in what used to be a railway siding.
Of the original houses that stood around the previously thriving rail depot, 88 of 650 were left standing. Granada, (one of the main tv channels), called it ‘The Village that would not die’ in a report transmitted in 1978, I would have been a year old, (yeah right).
It limped along in trusts and meetings but it was made clear by royal decree and sanction that the site would remain undeveloped. The public footpaths would be maintained. The natural tracks and walkways would be mapped and the land would in all essences become the property of Joe Public.
So there I am. Sat on an obscure couple of stone steps under a tree lined canopy, barely able to see the blazing sun because of the foliage and the 'Photo Gods' smile at me.
Click!
Shot on a 6mp camera with night time frame settings and half light at 1.7 with monochrome finish. It’s a Kodak which although relatively cheap, has taken some amazing photos.
Of the few I took that evening, this was the one I was most pleased with.
I think you can easily imagine a platform, next to it a puffing steam train. The whooping cry of a whistle…
Of course this wasn’t all stuff I knew at school! Ha, I think I’ve done most of my learning since leaving to be honest but it was well loved and attended when we needed it back then.
Happy snapping!
