Just a brief blog this afternoon on the progress along the road to getting my first novel, The Second Coming, published. 

By using Pentian's unique crowd-funding platform at www.pentain.com/book/fund/652 to source funding for my book, I have opened up the opportunity for anyone to invest in the launch of a new novelist and hopefully a new best-seller. 

The thing I particularly like about Pentian, over other crowd-funding sources is that this company actually allows the donors (READ INVESTORS) to share in the success of the published book. Every single person that fronts up to assist this book to be published will get a share of every single sale for the first three years. This is a marvelous opportunity to share in my success and I hope many people will take advantage of this.

The great news is my first investors have pledged their support and my fund-raising for the novel to be published is now 10% towards it final goal. I am so excited to have received this support and with 50 days still to go on the road to publishing, I'm hopeful for more investment, soon. The sooner the amount raised reaches 100%, the sooner the book will be published, sales made and returns made to investors. 

Please, don't hold back investing until the last minute. Get in early and let's get this book out in the marketplace as quickly as possible, so we can all reap the rewards. 

To all my investors I can only say...maraming, maraming, salamat po! I am humbled by your support. Thank you, thank you, thank you!    

Not so long ago I swore to my darling wife that I wouldn't write any more blogs about politics - it's just too negative she said - and she was right, but sorry honey, sometimes circumstances dictate what you must write about. I am prompted to write this blog because of some comments made by a Facebook "friend", who chooses to operate on Facebook under a nom-de-plume, which I guess makes him/her an UnFacebook "friend". His/her beef appeared to be with the continuing Senate inquiry into the allegedly over-priced Makati City Hall II Building. 

Let me start by noting that for years Filipino's have been demanding more accountability from their elected officials. They have complained bitterly about endemic corruption and the environment that promotes and encourages self-serving leaders, politicians and political dynasties. As an outsider I have been thrilled and excited to witness the beginning of the change in this attitude of acceptance of corruption. In 2010 the people of the Philippines finally elected a rare beast as their President - an honest man! Now that this attitude of non-acceptance of corruption and self-service is becoming part of our everyday life - it beggars belief that people are now complaining about "selective justice" and "demolition jobs" on public figures. Corruption is Corruption - wherever it exists. If someone is demonstrably corrupt, why would you rush to their defense and claim bias or self-interest on the part of the inquisitors. Whatever their motives for exposing particular instances of corruption - it doesn't change the basic fact that corruption allegations need to be answered - they cannot just be brushed off as political chicanery. 

NOBODY is above the law - PNoy has been adamant about that - and that includes everyone. The Supreme Court this week dismissed Sandiganbayan Senior Justice Gregory Ong for conduct unbecoming a Justice. What a fantastic move on the part of the Supreme Court. SC Chief Justice Sereno has always maintained there must be integrity in the Justice System and has acted swiftly to prove this is the case - Kudos to the Supreme Court and long may you continue to lead the way. It is marvelous that the Chief Justice is determined to operate at a higher level of integrity than the rest of society, because she firmly believes that is what is necessary to maintain the public trust in the Judiciary. This country is very fortunate to have a young Chief Justice at the helm who will be able to imprint her own personal integrity on the judicial system for many years to come.  

If we look at the particular issue that seems to have riled my Facebook "friend" - the Senate Inquiry into the over-priced Makati Parking Building (For despite claims to the contrary that is essentially what it really is - just a parking building, with a few floors of offices on top), we can evaluate what the inquiry has determined to date. First and foremost - NO clear, right thinking person can possibly argue that this building was not over-priced. Numerous experts have testified that this 2.8B peso building should have cost no more than 1.2B pesos. The building is not "green" (as claimed) - it is not "world-class (as claimed) and it is certainly nothing more than an average building, finished to an average standard. This has been independently verified by several quantity surveyors and valuers. So, what happened to the extra 1.6B pesos?  

The question therefore has to be this: Is the management of Makati City corrupt or is the management of Makati City incompetent? Either way - it is unacceptable to the people of Makati City and indeed the people of The Philippines. We have heard other testimony at the inquiry that suggests that there was an systemic environment of corruption within Makati under the Binay family. Much of that evidence has yet to be tested, so although compelling I will ignore it at this point. Remember though that we heard sworn testimony from a building contractor who stated unequivocally that his company had NEVER bid on any Makati City Government project ever and yet we discover his company listed as a losing bidder in a number of projects (Food for thought certainly). 

My Facebook "friend" even had the temerity to call Alan Peter Cayetano "a mestizo talking bird who tweets every-time someone is planning for the Presidency". I have no idea if Cayetano's motivation is driven by personal desire, but what I do know is it DOES NOT MATTER. The charges and allegations of corruption and / or incompetence are real and need to be addressed by the people they are laid against  - i.e. the Binay Clan. As for using the race card - "mestizo" - I find that reprehensible and ignorant in the extreme. I would suggest that most Filipinos are mestizo to some extent. Most families have Chinese, European, American, or other blood in their line - why should their heritage make any difference to their performance of their public duty. My impressions of Alan Peter Cayetano (mainly gained from the impeachment trial and this inquiry) are of an intelligent, erudite and passionate individual who believes in what he is doing and does it with style and insight. He is a duly elected Senator of the Philippines and it seems to me he performs his duties admirably. But then, what do I know - I'm not even a "mestizo", I'm just a foreigner. 

I continue to make the point that these allegations, baseless or not, have to be answered by the Binay Clan, whether they like it or not. The Filipino people deserve better than to have their elected representatives ignored by truculent children who have a known history of considering themselves above the law. I saw Jun-Jun Binay on television last night trying to justify his direct challenge of a Senate subpeona. He came across as what I've always suspected he was - just another political dynasty's child thrust into a job well beyond his capabilities, experience and age. Regardless - you are not above the law Mr Binay and you very much need to front up and explain to the people of Makati and the Philippines where the extra 1.6B pesos that was overspent on the Makati Parking Building went. It is even possible that there may be other examples of overpriced capital works in Makati that you may have to explain also, but regardless you do need to front and account for your actions / or in-actions to the people of this country. 

Might I humbly suggest that if you think you are going to be ambushed by the likes of Senators Cayetano (and he is pretty sharp) or Trillanes, you bring your Father along for support. To date the committee has shown the greatest of respect for the position of Vice-President and refused to subpoena him. In fact, I should commend the committee chairman Senator Pimintel for his control and restraint during a difficult inquiry. You and your Father would make a fantastic statement to the people (that you both serve), by fronting up together next Thursday (Give it some thought).               

Finally, to my Facebook "friend" (whoever you may really be) - You can't have it both ways! If you want an end to corruption, to self-serving leaders and to the attitude that there is no way of changing the political environment, then you must accept that anyone, whoever they may be, must answer to allegations and must front up. If they are not capable of explaining themselves to the people, then perhaps they were never capable in the first place of being our leaders. Being a relative of a leader does not automatically give you the ability to lead. Leadership is not an inherited trait - Leadership is learned and earned. Too often this appears to be forgotten in politics. 

But, then what do I know - I'm just a foreigner :-) and darling, I promise this is my last political blog...............................................................................................until next time (hehehe).     

Today is a monumental day in the long and winding road to getting my first novel published. As a new novelist I had no real idea of how to go about getting a work published. All my life, I've always read heaps of books and so of course I knew the names of all the great publishers: Penguin, Random House, Harper-Collins, Bantam etc, etc, etc, but I had absolutely no idea where to start on the process. 

It soon became apparent that the big publishers don't even accept copies of new works from unknown authors, they rely wholly and solely on literary agents to recommend new works to them for consideration - so then, that was the obvious answer - find a literary agent prepared to consider my work. Easier said than done! 

When I first start looking around at literary agents most seemed uninterested in new works. I read horror stories about authors submitting their works to numerous agents and never even once getting a response. In fact the most common phrase I read at this point of my research was: "I am not currently considering any new authors for publication - submissions are currently closed. What to do! What to do! What to!  

It was around this time that I discovered "Indie Publishing" or independent publishing. Now that seemed like a real option - if only I could afford it! The whole idea of independent publishing appealed to me - I guess its the sort of underground, back-door way of getting into the publishing game, that appealed to me. There seemed no end of people prepared to assist me to make my dream come true - from copy editors, to proofreaders, to cover designers, right through to actual independent publishing houses and publicists. The problem was and is - they all wanted a slice of the cake along the way. Nobody it seemed was prepared to front up to get the book published and take their cut from the sales - too risky I suppose. They all wanted their payments up-front and although I have no doubt there are some great and wonderfully gifted people out there, doing this type of work, up-front money was just beyond my current circumstances. So what was left? 

I discovered crowd-funding through Twitter actually, but I had my doubts about it. There is a crowd-funding platform specifically designed for authors called Pubslush and I was seriously considering that option, when I discovered, quite by chance, (Gotta love Google) a much more, to me anyway, logical style of crowd-funding...I discovered Pentian! http://pentian.com 

Pentian is different. My biggest problem (in my head anyway) with crowd-funding was that you were asking people to fund YOUR book, with the only tangible rewards being things like signed copies of the book or a character named after a donor etc. What Pentian does is turn the whole idea on its head, by offering a DIRECT investment in the sale of the book. For three years, investor's (not donor's) will receive a share of the book's sales, plus the other benefits mentioned before, like a signed copy. This, to me, seemed a better and fairer system than just asking for assistance on a purely altruistic basis. 

Hopefully and with much trepidation I submitted my novel to them. I am pleased to say that Pentian liked what they saw and The Second Coming is now up for funding on their website. Please visit it - check it out - and if you want to invest in a new, exciting  author, please, please do. A small investment gets you and me into the publishing game - That is what is so awesome about Pentian!  

http://pentian.com/book/fund/652