Scott Pixello's Blog

Decided to pause blogging on Goodreads for a while. Better to use that energy for writing that people actually read. Have a look back from October 2013 onwards and feel free to comment if you want to see more- I can always start up again. You'll find me on Facebook or, as ever, in the books themselves.

The third in my six-part trilogy about the hopeless teen rebel Keith Ramsbottom (the Return of the Pork Pie)is finally out and I must say, as much as I like writing stand-alone fiction, there is much to be said in favour of serial stories. In my kind of writing especially, it allows you to plant ideas or references which can surface much later and make the whole writing process more of a challenge but at times, also more rewarding. Anyway, dip into the Ramsbottom saga where you wish & let me know what you think.

Due to a few 'technical issues,' I've been off Facebook for a few days and learned a number of things. One, it is a cleansing experience to be 'doing' rather than updating that you are too busy to do anything. Two, it makes you appreciate how FB is messing about with the format, the layout, the reach- in short, everything about it- on a daily basis. And three, what a phenomenal waste of time much of the time on FB is- not genuine communication but wading through things are not meant for you- it feels like the equivalent of personal SPAM.
Wondering if I'll bother to go back to it. Only kidding, 'course I will.

Seems to be that a number of important writers have passed away recently- Doris Lessing, Sue Townsend & now Gabriel Garcia Marquez. All three were very different but all three leave a legacy of works that reflect a distinct place and culture (rural South Africa, suburban Britain and mythic South America respectively).
Makes me wonder what the legacy of the ebook generation will be. Exact ownership of texts is much more fluid (both copies and originals) and critical judgements themselves will appear in electronic rather than paper form.I can imagine reputations dissolving almost overnight and other writers gradually being forgotten only to be discovered in a random search years later. As Philip Larkin says in An Arundel Tomb, 'What will survive of us, is love.'

Sad to hear about the death of Sue Townsend. She brought intelligent, humorous writing to a much wider public & made it a respectable thing to read.
Without Adrian Mole there would be no Celine Smith in Memoir of a Gothic Girl & certainly no Keith Ramsbottom in my current series. She may have suffered under the weight of expectation to keep milking the same cash cow but The Queen & I and several notable plays showed the extent of her range as a serious writer. A sad loss.

This is a good indication of how my mind works.
For weeks now, there has been an ongoing search for any sign of the apparently-vanished Malaysian Airways Flight 370. Over the last few days, various signals, termed 'pings', have been picked up which may or may not provide clues as to what happened. All sombre stuff.
The problem is what strikes me is not only the human tragedy of it all but two further things. One, the pathetic limitations of language- the thing making the pinging noise is called a 'pinger', the machine looking for it is called 'a ping locator' and the British warship arrived on the scene to help with the search is, guess what, HMS Echo.
Two- the excitement of the Chinese on possibly locating the pings. But then this was because they thought it was the Ping family from Beijing. You see, crap gag reflex. It's not admirable but it's there. Symptom of a sick, sick mind, no doubt. Ping.

Tim Waterstone (founder of a certain chain of bookshops) said yesterday that he expected the sales of ebooks to plateau or decline. Now, apart from the teensy vested interest in the said Mr W's words and accepting that paper books will be around for a while at least, is there any truth in this?
There is probably a limit to how many American households buy into the ownership of Kindles but since you don't need an e-reader to read e-books (just an App, which is mostly free), this doesn't mean that fewer people will be reading the books.
I think that once people have tried ebooks, like most technological advances, you don't go back. Once you've lived with a dishwasher, you don't go back to washing up by hand.

There were protests at the weekend against the UK's government's rules brought in last November, banning the sending of small parcels to prisoners in jails, effectively preventing books being sent through the post.
The government say that library facilities will still be available to inmates but the measure smacks of an infringement of civil liberties. It also seems to do little for morale and impedes any likelihood of rehabilitation. What message does this send about books (or prisoners) that they can be treated in this way? Effectively banning books, or at the every least making the provision of books a privilege that can be withdrawn, is a sign of an oppressive regime. I would encourage you to add your voice to this protest.

A Belgian Maths teacher was finding it hard to get a class to concentrate and had a novel way to get his students to focus. He knew most of them watched Game of Thrones and so declared that as he had read all the books, if they didn't start working, he would write on the board the next character to die. Reading rules. Spoiler-power.

Just spent a pleasant evening in the company of Hollie McNish. If you don't know who she is, check out her stuff on YouTube. She's a very able poet, slam poetry champ and all-round cool person who is doing a project here in Germany with some kids from a variety of European countries.
Her writing is mostly socially-engaged but witty and with a real edge.'Embarrassed' about breastfeeding has over 1.5 million hits on YouTube already & I would urge you all to seek her out. She has one published book, Papers, at the moment and another due out soon as well as a couple of audio collections available to download. My personal favourite is 'Ocean Floor' which begins with mermaids but then takes you in a direction you wouldn't expect.