Did I mention ...?

I've been house hunting recently and I've learnt it is a mine field: one wrong step and boom!

There is a lot of legislation out there that make it very difficult for genuine buyers to buy.

One of the worst situations I've come across is falling in love with a house that was repossessed. (Which in itself left me in a quandary - because I'm aware it means someone else couldn't afford to keep it and lost it!)

Like any buyer I put in a bid to buy and the bid was accepted. Then the estate agents decided to tell me that because the house was repossessed it meant that anyone could come and bid more, effectively gazump you, right up to the day you exchange contracts. Obviously this means that you could lose money on solicitors fees, surveys and searches. But that is completely within the law because the house is repossessed. All the time this is going on, the previous owner, as well as the banks, are out of pocket. The property sits empty, and the estate agents can keep traipsing people through your potential home.

The honesty of the agent is also an issue. They seem to play one person against the other - or did in my case. This is because they are not working for the buyer, but the vendor, and the bigger the sale price the better their percentage.

Naturally, I was gazumped and invited several times to keep upping my bid, but it was all some game that I didn't want to play.

I walked away from it. I can't be bothered with nonsense like that.

To be fair, there are a million houses on the market, and I have my pick as the buyer, so what it the point of stressing over one house?

Anyway - the next one I saw was going to auction and that is an equal nightmare! YOU not the VENDOR get CHARGED to buy a house. So if you buy for £150,000 then the auction house will ADD £15,000 for their trouble.

Does that seem fair? Clearly I'm having NONE of that either.

So, that option is out. Now I'm looking at houses in a popular seaside resort; and there's plenty, but most of them need a considerable amount of work.

Like I said, it's a mine field.

Jade Goody.

I just thought I'd copy and paste this blog written by my teenage daughter. It says it all about the recently grotesque media coverage of the death of Jade Goody.

While I agree that her death has raised awareness for Cervical Cancer, I can't help thinking that this is an extremely horrific situation for her children. I believe there are better ways than this to bring the issue to the public eye that would not be exploiting someone in a vulnerable position.

So - Here's Linzi's blog.

Jade Goody and why I'm pissed off. Today at 17:13

I'm probably gonna get so much shit for writing this.

Right, I got an invite to an R.I.P Jade Goody face book group which had the message: 'PLEASE IF YOU HAVE A HEART INVITE EVERYONE YOU KNOW TO THIS GROUP. THE MORE PEOPLE THERE ARE THE MORE PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT CERVICAL CANCER.' I rejected the invite.

Why? Multiple reasons. Jade Goody was a loudmouth nobody who got famous for being a loudmouth nobody. I have to hand it to her, she knew how to keep herself in the spotlight and milk it for all it was worth. The past few weeks, however, have been vile. I did NOT want to see Jade Goody's slow death documented by countless magazines and newspapers. I know I have a schaudenfreud sense of humour but fuck, I don't want to see someone die. The fact that her publicist Max Clifford and Jade Goody herself were shoving it down my throat didn't help her gain a sympathy vote off me. She claimed she wanted a quiet last few days until she died but it seemed to me that she was still everywhere which honestly pissed me off.

Don't get me wrong. She died and it's sad. On the plus side she's helped women become more aware of cervical cancer and how to prevent it. More women are going for smear tests. However I don't agree with her shoving countless stories of herself and her poor kids (who must have been traumatized enough by their mother dying without people shoving fucking cameras in their faces) into the media.

Why does Jade Goody get the front page on newspapers? What about all the other people who are dying or have died of cancer? I understand she helped with cancer awareness but what about Iraq? Global Warming? People starving to death or dying of diseases in Africa?

Why is the death of Jade Goody so much more important then the deaths of countless other people?

Again it's sad and I don't hate her or anything. I just can't get my head around the fact that she gets so much attention when there are other people suffering.

Rant over.

Enough said. I'm a very proud parent tonight.(swear words aside ...)

Your opinion as always is very welcome.

Pre-Order Futile Flame

You can now pre-order Futile Flame from www.murkydepths.com.

Log onto the site - look in the Murky shop. Choose paperbacks.

Good luck!

Futile Flame Update

Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, Futile Flame has been delayed and will not be available at EasterCon as planned. Those of you in the publishing industry will undoubtedly understand that these things happen.

I am, naturally, very disappointed but have to accept the situation.

However, here is the preview of the cover of the book.

Pre-ordering should be available very soon on www.murkydepths.com and Amazon as the novel does already have an ISBN number.

ISBN: 978-1-906584-08-5

Also, I will be attending EasterCon on Friday 10th and Saturday 11th April. Signed copies of Killing Kiss will be available and I'm sure you will also be able to pre-order Futile Flame at the same time.

Hope you aren't too disappointed at this delay, but the book will most certainly be available by June.

Sam x