The Ivory Tower

Dear Diary,

I was in that... place again, with those... people, my 'learned' colleagues. Such things do not bear thinking about.

Pretty much the whole time I am there I think about what my mother calls 'The Ivory Tower'. In our village (which is a most quaint and picturesque, idyllic charming little country village, snuggled and nestled within the most spectacular countryside imaginable) there lived a famous writer. (Indeed in nearby places, such as Bridport or Lyme Regis a great many historic writers live or have lived there). Mother would say, "Oh, [so and so] in his ivory tower" as though he lived apart, in another world, a world of fiction. In a way, he does live there, in Rainbowland, a world apart. He does not have to mop floors or clean the gunk out of pots and pans for a living, or slave over a hot stove for people. The only time he has to do such chores is in his own home, which is no trouble compared to running a business.

So, I dream of the Ivory Tower my mother described to us children when I was a young boy.

Back in those days (and even as recent as say 20 years ago) the publishing industry was gate guarded by white middle class people, and only around 5% of authors would get published, and even those would get shafted royally earning between 5-10% royalties, some two or three years after having written a book. There was no Amazon dot com or avenues for publishing elsewhere (with a phat 70% mark up, I might add). That is a 1980's business model: old hat, gone, like yesterday's newspaper. Times have come on a little bit in recent years (that's British understatement, in case you didn't catch it).

Now, I am not for downgrading the quality of my work just to get more cash. I will only ever translate or compose the very best literature and poetry possible. However, there are many books which do not have their copyright renewed, which are up for grabs. I have even bought some of these, and the formatting is bloody awful in many of them, done by people that don't even speak English as a first language (such as Dodo Press). Moreover, the covers are not done by professional artists. I fully intend to change that. With several years experience editing under my belt, knowing what is required, not only in terms of the language, but also the technical side (to a lesser extent, but sufficient), I intend to put a shed load of books up there, and indeed narrate them. It doesn't help that I live right next to a goddamn firing range, but I will just wait for a lull in the thunderous roar of cannon, then record it. I especially like Christopher Marlowe, and, as far as I know, there is no one edition of all his works (I have had to trawl many bookshops and order many editions online to get most of them). So that's a great idea for starters: a complete works of Christopher Marlowe. Yet it is not enough to simply copy-paste the Muse's darling's poetry. One must also be extremely well acquainted with not only the classical world of literature (which I am, fortunately) but also contemporary writers at the time, not least of which Shakespeare. Thus this will add (literal) value to the work. It's not my own work, but the notes and commentary will be.

Top priority, get my own work out there (which is essentially vanity - my favourite sin), then capitalise on whatever I can (me being me, it will be classical texts, undercutting the competition considerably) to get myself out of the goddamn kitchen, and in to the Ivory Tower, Rainbowland Road.

Next step? Help my daughter get there too.

Max.