Hi Guys,
Just a quick post to let you know that the sequel to Barton Villa Welcomes You is now out - as of yesterday. As you can see it has the catchy title of Barton Villa Welcomes You 2! (I wonder what the title for the third one will be?!!!)
I hope you're all doing well with your various home detentions and social distancing. And while I'm here I thought I'd just give two quick thoughts on it.
First, I'm not at all sure about taking Chloroquine despite what seems to be being said in some quarters. Because when someone says what's the harm - the harm is obvious. For the taker personally, Chloroquine can cause fits and seizures, heart rhythm problems and death. Yes it can kill you. And it's also been the culprit of a couple of murder mystery books, because one of the other effects it can cause is schizophrenic type symptoms such as hearing voices. It should only be taken under medical supervision.
The next problem of course is that it's a drug needed to treat malaria and lupus, so while someone's taking it to potentially treat corona virus, someone else may not be getting the dose they need to actually protect them from another serious illness.
Last of course, whatever its effectiveness may be found to be, it doesn't mean you can forego the social distancing and rigorous personal hygiene measures. It's not a substitute.
However two substances have been found to have some benefit against colds - and roughly fifteen percent of common colds are caused by various members of the coronavirus family. Vitamin C and Zinc. They won't prevent a cold but they have been found to be beneficial in reducing the duration of one by about a day. It may not be much and it may not be anything at all in the case of this particular illness, but when someone says "what harm can it do?" the answer is in almost all cases, none. So now may be the time to get out the multivitamins. And if you have a condition (they're very rare) in which zinc or Vitamin C in large quantities can be dangerous to you, naturally consult your doctor first.)
The second piece of information I have for you, is about diabetes, which studies have now shown is a co-morbidity in over forty percent of coronavirus deaths. However the studies were done in some poorer necks of the woods where medical care is known to be less than perfect. And thus far I haven't yet been able to find any studies that show whether it's diabetes itself that's the problem or poorly managed / un-managed diabetes. Until we know this my advice is simple - if you have diabetes, now is the time to get it completely under control. Do your tests, check with the doctors and make sure you're taking all your meds as and when you should.
I hope that that's perhaps of some interest / value to you
Good luck to all of us.
Cheers, Greg.
Just thought I would check in, let you know that I bought the new book, read it, and left a review. 5 STARS
ReplyDeleteI really liked how you used Sam's perspective this time while also developing Monte's relationship and love for his wife. It brought a new dimension to his character and explained why he is who he is. Over all a very good book.
Since this is the first sequal that you have written in your recent novels. (I didn't want to say only because I think you haven't but I may be mistaken) do you think you could go back and follow up on some of your other works? Fineas and Tusk, Roar, A Bitter Brew. Each of these have main characters, protagonist, which lead me to ask the question, but What Happens next.
Anyway, just a thought
Hi,
ReplyDeleteGlad you liked it, and there's a third and final one coming out shortly. You can guess what the title will be! Usually I don't do sequels simply because I have a story in my head and once it's out it's done. This was different, don't know why.
Cheers, Greg.
I look forward to it
ReplyDeleteHave you ever thought about doing a collection of short stories to tie up what happened to some of your characters? EG Maverick, Of Dark Elves and Dragons, Dragon? I want to know what happend to Christian Aaron Moody.
ReplyDeleteLoved the book BTW
Hi,
ReplyDeleteIt's an interesting idea. Maverick's actually got half a sequel that died a long time ago, and with Dragon the whole point about the ending is that CAMIII made the ultimate sacrifice. Damn near broke my heart when I realised that as I was writing the book. But it wouldn't have worked so well if he'd survived, had the whole hero parade etc after he's spent so many years sacrificing his life to find his family. That's why I left the ending as I did. I couldn't kill him after all that time together, he was too noble, but I couldn't let him live either.
Cheers, Greg.