Anti- fracking protesting in the South Downs looks tame in comparison to the way they do things in Romania.
Here’s the Channel 4 News story on it where villagers from poor communities, the Orthodox church and urban eco-warriors are united in taking a stand against the global corporations who want to exploit their land and extract shale gas….
http://www.channel4.com/news/fracking-romania-protests-pungesti-chevron-victor-ponta
Fractured (a long short story) and available shortly is the prequel to Revolution Earth. All proceeds will go to making the short film version, Fractured Earth, currently in development.
Sometimes it takes more than courage to stand up for what you believe in
Courier rider Cara decides to help anti-fracking protestor Jonie, who is passionate about causes but finds herself caught up in a much bigger operation than she can tackle alone. Cara, resentful, self-absorbed and indifferent to almost anyone but herself, is at first, reluctant. As they sabotage fracking equipment, wrestle a former cop and are chased through the countryside, Cara learns to put someone else’s needs first. And Jonie finds out that sometimes even the strongest individuals need to ask for help.
In a damp field in Hampshire just before dawn, JONIE, 23 blonde hair tucked loosely under her cap, crawls commando style to spy on a secret fracking site.
In Bethnal Green, stroppy cycle courier CARA, 19 is pissed off that she’s been called in to work on her day off to go and haul Jonie back in to the office. A package has gone missing, the client is threatening to sue and their boss TARIQ, 39, who just manages to make a living at his courier firm, is livid.
While Jonie is on the phone to Tariq, giving her side of the story, he tracks her phone expertly on his computer screen. Jonie hangs up abruptly. The frackers are on to her. Cara, always up for a bit of aggro, is suddenly interested and eagerly sets off on her bike to bring Jonie back. Cara pedals furiously through city streets and country lanes with Tariq directing her from his computer. As the road runs out, he sends her along a rutted bridleway.
Meanwhile, back at fracking central, with the workers on a cigarette break, Jonie steals the keys to a digger. But when former cop PHIL, late 40s, who hates his job as a lowly security guard, starts his shift, he finds the keys missing and a hair scrunchie with tell-tale blonde hair attached. A glimmer of reflected sunlight gives away Jonie’s hideaway. Phil ambushes Jonie. Then threatens her. The other workers surround her. There’s nowhere to run. She throws the keys in the air. Splat. They land in a cowpat. The guys snigger. Phil, angry at being humiliated, goes to get the keys but at the last minute grabs Jonie. He frogmarches her across the field and throws her off the land.
Cara is so bushed, she has to walk her bike across the field. Relief, as she spots a dejected Jonie slumped in the hedge. But Jonie is furious with her. She tells Cara where to go. Tariq’s not just a boss but a friend and Cara doesn’t like it when an ungrateful rider tries to dick him around. Jonie stops Cara in full rant and hands over her iPad to show Cara that Tariq’s client, the PR company, have lured protestors to the wrong sites. The real dirt is going on right here.
Jonie admits that even though she thought she could tackle this by herself she really could do with Cara’s help. Cara tells Jonie’s she’s mad but that, yeah, she’s in.
As it gets dark and the other workers knock off and only Phil is left, Jonie and Cara make a run for it to sabotage a digger. But the fuel cap is locked. Jonie finds a screwdriver in her bag and improvises with a stone to hammer it off. But Phil has spotted the both of them. He runs out of the nearby portakabin carrying a crow scarer attached to a gas cylinder. Boom! At night, in the countryside, to Jonie it sounds like a bomb. She drops her tools and shivers with fright. But Cara isn’t so easily scared.
She drills the lid off the fuel cap. Just as she’s pouring sugar into the fuel tank, Phil roars up the field in a huge, menacing tractor, headlights on full. Both Jonie and Cara are momentarily blinded by the light. Phil leaves the powerful engine running and leaps from the tractor. Jonie is ready for him. She fends off Phil with karate kicks so precise and rapid that even muscly Phil is no match for her.
Cara and Jonie run for their lives. Phil floors it in the powerful tractor, gaining on them until he is on their tail. They leap the gate, struggle to find the bikes and set off down the lane. Phil, at full throttle is determined to catch them but at the last moment the two fugitives escape down the bridlepath.
As Jonie and Cara head off to face Tariq, Cara stands on her pedals in a dance of victory. She reaches out to high five Jonie.
Back in the office, Tariq hunches over his computer screen. He watches two blinking dots moving side by side on his computer map; his face lit by a hint of a smile.
On Joel Friedlander’s blog Ed Ditto has written: How to Publish Your eBook from Word to Kindle in under Ten Minutes
Of all the vexing and annoying job’s I hate the most – formatting has got to be it…. It’s particularly vexing because you don’t just format once and that’s it – if there are revisions, edits and corrections (and there will be – no matter how many times your work has been proofread) then you have to spend ages tweaking the layout and formatting. Then you upload to Kindle preview and that will tell you that you have made mistakes that need fixing. And that process can be repeated until finally Kindle is happy. So I was thrilled to come across Ed Ditto on Joel Friedlander’s, (book design guy) blog. His advice is the best I’ve seen on the web. And I don’t care if it takes me ten hours….. just as long as the darn thing gets done and I can go and pour myself a glass of wine and bask in the smug glory that I’ve been able to achieve something a bit techy….
http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2013/01/ed-ditto-scrivener/
Thanks to Ed Ditto (@BooksbyEd)
lambert nagle 