More Tonto Short Stories contributor Daniela Norris will be reading from the book at English language bookshop Off The Shelf in Geneva tonight, Friday September 14, from 6 to 7.30pm. Swiss newspaper 24Heures has written a feature about Daniela (Short-story writer gives reading), which reports, ‘Daniela Norris has a fascinatingly diverse background. Born in Bucharest, Romania in 1971, she has lived and worked in Canada, Israel, Kenya, Angola, Peru and France. The ex-diplomat and former editor currently works as a writer and an adviser to one of the permanent missions to the United Nations in Geneva. In her spare time she writes fiction.’ You can find more details and directions at the Off The Shelf website.

Paul

Around 50 people squeezed into our makeshift cinema here at Brick Works on Thursday for the launch of The Rocketbelt Caper. It was a very warm night, and ice buckets full of premium Czech lager were much appreciated.

Once everyone had been suitably refreshed we screened a short film about the caper, with interviews and footage of the main protagonists – proof that the story in the book is 100 percent true! Over the remainder of the night the screens played a selection of real rocketbelt footage that had everyone captivated (you can watch a clip below), backed by music including, of course, Elton John’s Rocketman (and William Shatner’s Rocketman!).

Watch some of the real rocketbelt footage!
Thanks to everyone who came along to show support or buy a book, and further thanks to Jamie and Jo for their help on the night. The Rocketbelt Caper by Paul Brown is available now from all good bookshops, and some rubbish ones.

Paul

A week or so ago Stu posted some advice on how to approach publishers. Now here’s how NOT to do it. We don’t make a habit of posting submission emails here on the blog, but after our very polite and quite generous (even if I do say so myself) responses, this emailer’s nasty reaction was astonishing… The spelling mistakes are the emailer’s own, we’ve ‘bleeped out’ the swearing, and we’ve changed the emailer’s name. Let’s call him “Gary Blair”…

Dear Publisher,

Gary Blair

[There follows an entire collection of poetry, not in 'word format' but pasted into the body of the email, so long that our email program is forced to cut it short]

[We reply]

Hi Gary

Apologies for this “immediate rejection”, but it has nothing to do with snobbery, rather the fact that we do not publish poetry at all. Without wishing to patronise, it might be useful to check publishers’ websites etc to ascertain the type of material they publish before contacting them. This will save you time and reduce the chances of rejection. Unfortunately your current approach is unlikely to yield
any positive results.

Best of luck

Paul
Tonto Press
www.tontopress.com

[A couple of weeks later... Gary sends exactly the same email again]

Dear Publisher,

I know there is a snobbery surrounding poetry…

[We reply]

Hi Gary

We have already responded to this query. We do not publish poetry, therefore please remove us from your mailing list.

Best regards

Paul
Tonto Press

[Just weeks later...]

In A Bar At The Edge Of The World

Gary Blair

[Cue another very long pasting of poetry that again exceeds our email program's capabilities]

[We reply again]

Dear Gary

We told you last time you sent us poetry that we aren’t interested in it. Try finding out this kind of info before just sending to anyone. Our website would have told you this.

There are publishers who are interested in poetry – try the INP website for poetry publisher in the region.

Best of luck.

Stu
Tonto Press

[Gary replies...]

Sorry for being a t*sser, it won’t happen again! Gary

[But it does...]

Please find pasted below a collection of new poetry works entitled “Empty Sky”.

Gary Blair

[Yes, another huge pasting of poems...]

[We reply again]

Gary

We’ve told you several times to stop bombarding us with your work. We are not interested in it and never will be. Remove us from your list.

Stu
Tonto Press

[Gary replies...]

The reason you end up on my mailing list is when I type UK Poetry
Publishers in a
search engine your company crops up. (By the looks of things you do actually
publish poetry)
Trust me I want nothing to do with you set of smug Geordie tw*ts
either, so let’s
agree to mutually despise each other and be done.

GFB

[We reply]

If you want nothing to do with us – stop emailing us.

We don’t publish poetry and have no plans to. It’s quite simple. If you despise us for that, then that’s your own problem. We tried being civilised to you though you clearly have issues.

Best of luck getting published!

Stu
Tonto Press

[Gary replies]

Like I said you end up coming up on poetry publishers in search
engines but I shall
remember in future

[Then Gary sends a postscript]

Oh f*ck off!

[Now what had we done to deserve that?!]

There are lots of things to be learnt from that electronic exchange, all of them blindingly obvious. We fully expect to hear from ‘Gary Blair’ again, but we hope not to.

Paul

[UPDATE: We DID hear from 'Gary Blair' again]

Please reemove me from your blog site

Gary Blair

Friday’s North East Tonight on Tyne Tees TV featured Jonny Kennedy author Roger Stutter talking about his friend Jonny and the book. You can watch the piece on the new ITV Local website here.

Paul

Thanks to everyone who came along to the launch event for The Rocketbelt Caper. A good turn-out bought books and watched a film about the rocketbelt murder, and, on a very warm night, drank a lot of cold beer. Photos and reports will appear here next week. Special thanks to Jamie for lending his audio visual (and carpentry) skills, and to Jo for manning the book store.

P.S. We are assured that Jonny Kennedy author Roger Stutter’s delayed appearance on Tyne Tees Television’s North East Tonight will air tonight!

Paul

It’s the turn of The Rocketbelt Caper to go under the media microscope today, which means I’m readying myself to be grilled by the Evening Chronicle and BBC Radio Newcastle. The Chronicle article will be published on Thursday, and the Radio interview broadcast live today at 1.15. Here’s a photo from the book of one of the rocketbelt builders, Larry Stanley, after being attacked with a hammer…

Paul

Although it won’t be released until 24 September, Jonny Kennedy: The Story of the Boy Whose Skin Fell Off is already attracting a lot of media attention. (A big problem for publishers is trying to keep a lid on publicity until the release date nears to avoid jumping the gun!) There was an article in last night’s Evening Chronicle (Brave fight to help fellow sufferers) about Jonny and EB, which mentioned the book. And ITV North East (Tyne Tees telly in old money) are today filming author Roger Stutter as he watches the book being printed(!) for a piece about the Jonny Kennedy North East charity on North East Tonight. So tune in on Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday at 6pm to see what Roger has to say. If you miss it you can catch the show online for 24 hours here.

Paul

‘We finished the rocketbelt, and from then on there was murder, kidnapping, and all kinds of other stuff’

When three friends set out on a quest to build a real-life Buck Rogers-style flying machine, their obsession with the Rocketbelt 2000 shattered their friendship and set in motion an astonishing chain of events involving theft, deception, assault, a bizarre kidnapping, a ten million dollar lawsuit and a horrifically brutal murder. From sci-fi to reality, this is the incredible true story of the amazing rocketbelt.

‘In this book, Paul Brown brings the topic alive. It has to be one of the most readable science/technology focussed books of the year. Brown has an excellent journalistic style, and pulls the reader on relentlessly through the tales of technical inspiration and human weakness that litter the history of the rocketbelt. The book overall is a delight to read, and the story is genuinely one where reality is stranger than fiction. Recommended.’ – Brian Clegg, Popular Science .co.uk

As featured in yesterday’s Sunday Sun (Murder Movie’s Rocket Science).

Read more here and here.

Paul