Earthquake. She’s now, what, about three months old? It’s been fascinating watching her body develop from shapeless ball of fluff to a streamlined pouncing machine. Her face has become more feline, less rounded. She hasn’t lost her cheeky grin though.

Bootsie. Sarcasm is her thing.

Of course they’re not daily photographs. Hush now.

Here’s Bootsie…

Firstly, I apologise for the radio silence. There are no excuses. To save my family’s honour I shall commit seppuku in just a moment.

Next up, another photo:

She’s called Earthquake, because she’s a natural disaster

I suspect now that you can see why there’s been a great deal of radio silence. Acclimatising Bootsie to Earthquake has been a long, slow process. I’m not convinced that Bootsie will ever quite be happy with her, but they have been witnessed playing together when they think nobody’s looking.

We have Kai from Heavenly Sword to thank for the twing-twang.

I’ve been given a considerable amount of anti-inflammatories, muscle relaxants and painkillers, but my back’s still not with me just yet.

That’s what my back did recently. I’ll be up and back to blogging the world in a few more days.

Issue One of The Thinking Man’s Crumpet is now available from all good retailers (well, directly from the publisher, anyway), including my heartwarming tale of demonic cults, taxi drivers, and apocalypse.

Visit http://www.myspace.com/womenwriters to bag your own copy. If you’re without MySpace, drop me an email and I’ll pass you the contact details.

Responses so far for Stiff include:

A story which opens with the protagonist being assaulted by an inflatable Shagging Sandie sex doll would leave some writers wondering how to follow that. You needn’t worry when Troo Topham’s on the case, in Stiff.

- Rog Pile.

Trudi Topham – Stiff: A sinister black magic cult bent on destroying the world. Their leader, Lloyd, sics an animated blow up dolly on our narrator, Dave the taxi driver, a crusader against evil who’s had that Madonna in the back of his cab and has saved the earth at least three times. But can he best the sadistic Shagging Sandie doll? Let’s hope not! Something tells me Michel Parry would love this one.

- Dem, Vault of Horror.

So there you have it! Buy it now!

The genius Lore Sjöberg has a piece on Wired about why exactly Cookery and Roleplaying books are so similar, and yet the cultures are so different.

Pop over and give it a read.

Those crazy Buddhists! They know!

Ginkakuji gardens, Kyoto, May 2008.

Yes, this Colin Baker:

There was some kerfuffle a couple of weeks ago regarding a podcast which shall remain nameless spreading bogus claims that “THE Colin Baker” was endorsing their shoddy product. You can find a potted history of the furore here.

Well, it was only polite to let Mr. Baker know that his name was being used in vain, and here is his response (name of offending podcast is blotted out to protect your brains):

Dear Trudi

My agent forwarded to me your email in connection with the nasty little ‘**************’ website

First of all thank you for alerting me to it.

I don’t want to contact them directly to tell them to stop it because, frankly I don’t know how to do so without giving them my contact details and as I have already been taken for a mug by them once (when I recorded the message about the “Twin Dilemma” for a fan at a Convention having been told it was for a couple of Dr Who fans who were twins!) -  I don’t want to give them more fodder.

The sad things is that from now on I will have to refuse to record things for fans in case they are dregs like these two.

Anyway I am not sure whether you have the opportunity to convey to the world at large that I have never been asked by these two idiots to approve their website and I would never have any connection with something so unpleasant, vulgar and offensive.

I have put a statement on my website http://www.freewebs.com/colinbaker/latestnews.htm making it clear that I have nothing to do with it and will ask the Drwhoonline guys to do the same.

Please feel free to do so on your website if you would like to.

Again thank you for your consideration in informing me.  Otherwise I may never have known about them.

Best wishes

Colin Baker