{"id":1191,"date":"2009-12-31T11:55:00","date_gmt":"2009-12-31T11:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marcnobbs.co.uk\/2009\/12\/31\/i-aint-dead\/"},"modified":"2023-09-24T22:37:06","modified_gmt":"2023-09-24T22:37:06","slug":"i-aint-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marcnobbs.co.uk\/wp\/i-aint-dead\/","title":{"rendered":"I ain\u2019t dead"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s true, I\u2019m not. I\u2019ve just been enjoying the festive period with my family for the past few days. I hope you\u2019ve had a happy festive period and that you\u2019ll enjoy the New Year celebrations later tonight. I\u2019d say I wish you a better 2010 than 2009 but for a lot of people it\u2019d be hard for 2010 to be any worse than 2009. After all, any year when only<\/em> having had a worldwide recession is seen as better than the alternative (that being a complete meltdown and collapse of the global financial system) has got to have been a pretty bad year.<\/p>\n

In the UK, the start of the year saw the end of high street firm Woolworths just before their 100th anniversary of trading. The end of the year saw us wave goodbye to Borders, who used to be a bookshop but sort of forgot what they were by the end. And in-between there have been too many companies hit the wall to count and too many jobs lost.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure it\u2019s been the same everywhere else.<\/p>\n

The US, of course, has at least had the \u2018shining light\u2019 of a new leader in the shape of Barak Obama. So, America finally elected their first black president \u2013 and there was I thinking the first black president would be Will Smith. Just two hurdles left to cross now. A woman and an immigrant. Of course, before that Austrian bloke currently running California can be President they will have to change their constitution (or so I\u2019m told \u2013 correct me if I\u2019m long). And I think we\u2019ll have to wait a while before we see a woman elected, after all, Chelsea isn\u2019t old enough yet, is she?<\/p>\n

But while America has at least had a sense of hope following their election (or part of the country does \u2013 I\u2019m told not everyone likes him), we on this side of the pond have not had so much a guiding light as a flashlight with fading batteries in the shape of Gordon Brown.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t remember a time when this country was so in need of an election. I don\u2019t even think it was this bad in 1997. At least back then the country was on the mend and heading in the right direction. But now, the whole country seems in a terminally depressed state. We need an election not necessarily for a change of government but just to shake things up and get everyone interested in politics again. Like it or not, these people make choices that affect us all and right now there are too many people who don\u2019t seem to care who\u2019s in charge.<\/p>\n

Yes, things have gotten that bad.<\/p>\n

Having said all that, 2009 hasn\u2019t been a bad year overall for me. Yes, I didn\u2019t get a pay rise at all this year, but the plummeting interest rates saw my mortgage payments fall and that more than made up for now pay rise. On a writing front, Charlotte\u2019s Secret<\/a><\/em> and Lost & Found<\/a><\/em> both continued to sell steadily if not spectacularly, Kissed by a Rose<\/a><\/em> was released and voted Erotic Romance Novel of the Year<\/em> by the members of the Erotica Romance Connection. Phaze also confirmed that they\u2019d be taking the book to print in March of 2010 \u2013 which can\u2019t be bad. 2009 also saw me complete Eternally & Evermore<\/a>, <\/em>which has been accepted by Phaze for publication next summer and I\u2019m well on the way with the next book.<\/p>\n

So, no, 2009 wasn\u2019t a bad year for Marc Nobbs.<\/p>\n

But, that\u2019s it from me for this year. Here\u2019s hoping I\u2019ll continue to hold you attention in 2010. Thanks for spending this year with me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s true, I\u2019m not. I\u2019ve just been enjoying the festive period with my family for the past few days. I hope you\u2019ve had a happy festive period and that you\u2019ll enjoy the New Year celebrations later tonight. I\u2019d say I wish you a better 2010 than 2009 but for a lot of people it\u2019d be hard for 2010 to be any worse than 2009. After all, any year when only having had a worldwide recession is seen as better than the alternative (that being a complete meltdown and collapse of the global financial system) has got to have been a pretty bad year. In the UK, the start of the year saw the end of high street firm Woolworths just before their 100th anniversary of trading. The end of the year saw us wave goodbye to Borders, who used to be a bookshop but sort of forgot what they were by the end. And in-between there have been too many companies hit the wall to count and too many jobs lost. I\u2019m sure it\u2019s been the same everywhere else. The US, of course, has at least had the \u2018shining light\u2019 of a new leader in the shape of Barak Obama. So, America finally elected their first black president \u2013 and there was I thinking the first black president would be Will Smith. Just two hurdles left to cross now. A woman and an immigrant. Of course, before that Austrian bloke currently running California can be President they will have to change their constitution (or so I\u2019m told \u2013 correct me if I\u2019m long). And I think we\u2019ll have to wait a while before we see a woman elected, after all, Chelsea isn\u2019t old enough yet, is she? But while America has at least had a sense of hope following their election (or part of the country does \u2013 I\u2019m told not everyone likes him), we on this side of the pond have not had so much a guiding light as a flashlight with fading batteries in the shape of Gordon Brown. I can\u2019t remember a time when this country was so in need of an election. I don\u2019t even think it was this bad in 1997. At least back then the country was on the mend and heading in the right direction. But now, the whole country seems in a terminally depressed state. We need an election not necessarily for a change of government but just to shake things up and get everyone interested in politics again. Like it or not, these people make choices that affect us all and right now there are too many people who don\u2019t seem to care who\u2019s in charge. Yes, things have gotten that bad. Having said all that, 2009 hasn\u2019t been a bad year overall for me. Yes, I didn\u2019t get a pay rise at all this year, but the plummeting interest rates saw my mortgage payments fall and that more than made up for now pay rise. On a writing front, Charlotte\u2019s Secret and Lost & Found both continued to sell steadily if not spectacularly, Kissed by a Rose was released and voted Erotic Romance Novel of the Year by the members of the Erotica Romance Connection. Phaze also confirmed that they\u2019d be taking the book to print in March of 2010 \u2013 which can\u2019t be bad. 2009 also saw me complete Eternally & Evermore, which has been accepted by Phaze for publication next summer and I\u2019m well on the way with the next book. So, no, 2009 wasn\u2019t a bad year for Marc Nobbs. But, that\u2019s it from me for this year. Here\u2019s hoping I\u2019ll continue to hold you attention in 2010. Thanks for spending this year with me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":225744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"templates\/template-full-width.php","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcnobbs.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcnobbs.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcnobbs.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcnobbs.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcnobbs.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marcnobbs.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcnobbs.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcnobbs.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcnobbs.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcnobbs.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}