Story Plot

It is amazing how just reading the daily news can give rise to plots for the next book. I was reading that the Eden Project has withdrawn from sale jewellery made with the rosary pea, sometimes called Crab's Eye peas. It turns out that the toxin contained in the peas is 75 times more toxic than the feared Ricin made from Castor Oil beans. Sometimes these peas have been found in ethnic baby rattles!

Ideal stuff for the bad/good heroine in my next book.  The peas can be purchased openly through the internet, including Ebay!

iStockphoto Photo's

We've occasionally used iStockphoto.com to provide photo's for presentations and advertising work. We've just received notice from them that they are "expiring" our credit because we've not used the account for a while. We regard that as theft. We don't care what their terms and conditions say, it is plain simple corporate theft. No doubt they'd take a dim view of anyone misusing the copyright material, but they have no problem with their own theft tactics.
If they do not want to continue to do business with us, they should just refund the outstanding credit.

They've now been added to our email blacklist and will no longer be recommended.