Coming to the end of the blog tour

And I'm over at UK Gay Romance discussing Pinterest and how I discovered its uses--and downfalls--while writing Theory Unproven.

Pop on over there and let me know about any online tools you use for your writing, reading, or other hobbies.

Sometimes little things seriously naff * me off

Now I know that much of what you put on the internet is there for all the world to see and that certain sites are just a collecting place for ideas and images meant to be readily shared. One such site is Pinterest, which I use--among other things--to  collect images for various stories that I am writing. To give me an idea of the plane a certain character flies, the clothes another one might wear, or the animals that can be found in certain parts of a particular country.

And therein lies the reason for my displeasure. I collected details of the types of antelopes living in South Africa and popped those animals' pictures and range maps into a Pinterest board to refer back to them later. Job done. One made it into the story and though I might not need to look at those pictures again, I kept them up for completion sake.

Animal conservation is high on my list of priorities. (Avoid palm oil in products if you can, people--although it is damn near impossible. Palm oil production is destroying the habitat of the Orangutan leaving the animal on the endangered list.)

So imagine my annoyance when this email from Pinterest turned up in my inbox.




I tried not to jump to conclusions but one click onto the board confirmed my fears. 

Happy pinning! I'll pin something somewhere, but knowing Pinterests rules on what can and can't be pinned I doubt if anyone would ever see the photo should I manage it.

Okay, rant over. If anyone fancies having a glance at my pins they are here. There's no order over there so you'll have to take me as you find me and not all boards are story related.



*And for the curious, the Urban Dictionary has this to say about the word naff:

British slang, today meaning uncool, tacky, unfashionable, worthless... or as a softer expletive, in places where one might use "fuck" as in "naff off", "naff all", "naffing about". 

Origins of the word are disputed, but it appears to have come from Polari (gay slang), used to dismissively refer to heterosexual people. It was introduced as a less offensive expletive verb ("naff off") in the '70s UK television show, Porridge. "Naff off!" was famously used by Princess Anne in 1982.

(Most of which is backed up by Oxforddictionaries.com )