I didn’t realise 2008 was a leap year until the day arrived.  Friends of mine have had a baby at 2 minutes past midnight which makes him a “leapling” and the choice of ageing at a quarter of the rate allowed us normal mortals as well as sharing his birthday with Superman.  Superman’s birthday was chosen to be the 29th because it made it easier to justify his youthfulness over time and the disparity between Earth years and Kryptonite ones.

For me, leap years meant that women could propose and the history behind it is a fascinating insight into the workings of the male and female mind.  The guys sought to restirct the ability of a woman to propose by firstly, claiming getting married in a leap year was bad luck and then when this failed as a deterrent, restricting the tradition to the leap day i.e. the 29th February.  A few other adjustments also were introduced, not least that a woman intent on proposing had to wear a red petticoat to give the poor chap fair warning of what was to come. 

Personally, I follow Dr Samuel Johnson’s advice to a young man contemplating marriage - “Don’t!” - I think the framers of this tradition perhaps came to the same conclusion over time thus leading to the phrase “Ruhn, Forrest, ruhn!”

The poor chaps could always refuse the proposal but that would lead to a fine or compensation ranging from a simple kiss, a pound of twelve pairs of gloves depending on whether you were in England, Norway or Greece.  Either way, the proposing strumpets couldn’t lose.  Nice to see that the same principles continue to apply

The reason for a leap year is to straighten out some of the irregularity with the man made, Julian calendar that does not exactly match the solar year.  This leads to a drift of the months from the seasons and is especially significant in religious celebrations no matter what the religion.  The only exception is with Islam which forbids the addition or removal of time from the calendar given to the Muslim world by Mohammed while the Hebrew and Chinese calendars don’t add a day - they add an entire month.

What has this to do with writing - absolutely nothing, it’s just for fun

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Copyright exists in anything you create, as soon as you write something down or record it in some manner, you have copyright.  The work must be your own, so plagiarised material is excluded.  If you are employed or have a contract which stipulates that copyright passes to whoever has commissioned your work, then copyright vests with your employer.

In the UK and European Union, copyright lasts for 70 years after the death of the writer, or if the work is published after death of the writer, for 70 years after publication.

A general rule is not to surrender copyright unless you have negotiated suitable compensation.  Retaining copyright gives you the right to be rewarded for your work and if successful, may continue to benefit your family for decades after your death.  Look at the estate of JRR Tolkien, the author of “Lord of the Rings” and consider the royalties paid the owners of the copyright from the movies that have been made.

You don’t have to actually assert copyright on your work but adopting a “belt and braces” approach does no harm and will help to deter those who may seek to infringe your rights.  I tend to follow this myself whenever copyright is not passed on with my work, and the usual form is (c) My Name 200X which is the year it is published or created if not published.

There are exceptions to what is subject to copyright.  For instance, there is no copyright in a title so you are free to use someone else’s title for your own work.  You need to take care as you may fall foul of what is known as “the tort of passing off”; in other words, you can be sued if you are attempting to benefit from naming your own work after someone else’s popular title in an attempt to make money by trading off the title. 

There is also no copyright in ideas unless you have documented in fine detail what that idea is and the idea is 100% genuinely original.

If you use photographs in your work, then copyright will vest in whoever took them, even if you have commissioned them yourself.  If you want copyright to vest in you, you must ensurethat the commissioning agreement stipulates this.

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Libel is where you write something that is damaging to another person. If your writing is professionally damaging to that person, the scope for redress is even greater.

Libel is a publisher’s nightmare as it can lead to bankruptcy and the end of a career for you as a writer.  Caution is the watchword when handling contentious issues which may put you at loggerheads if you have something you passionately believe in.

The main defence to libel is in writing the truth.  What constitutes the “truth” may be a very difficult thing to prove once you are in a court of law and you are required to back up your claims.  From bitter personal experience of courts in the UK and the US, though fortunately not for libel, I have learned to appreciate that there is a huge difference between what I know and what I can prove.

Libel is something that can affect both the non-fiction and fiction writer.  Writing a denigrating piece that places a product in a bad light can be considered libellous, so product or service comparisons must be made with care.  Using a fictional name for a character in a novel that you are basing upon a real life individual will not protect you from a libel suit if that person is identifiable from your writing.

It is necessary to demonstrate that you have been malicious or reckless when demonstrating libel.  This is why you see disclaimers along the lines of “All characters are fictional and any relation to persons living or dead is unintentional.” but you still must take reasonable steps to ensure that you are not using someone’s name who actually exists.  If you were to write about a politician or business person who is corrupt, you should Google that name and ensure no politician exists out there that has the name of your fictional character.

You cannot libel the dead so essentially you can write what you want about them.  It would lead you open to criticism about making allegations against someone wh is unable to defend themselves or indeed, you may indirectly libel living relatives of the deceased.  Best not to get involved in either case.

If you inadvertently libel someone, the best course of action is to consult a lawyer and your publisher.  Issuing an apology and a retraction tend to do the trick but libel in the UK is serious and it can be horribly expensive so take care.

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One trick to use when checking your grammar is to remove part of your sentence and see if it still makes sense.

I find this useful when considering if “I” should be used instead of “me”.

Think about the sentence I have just written and substitute “Me” for the initial “I” - “Me find this useful…” just does not make any real sense in that context and “I” is correctly used.

Now think about this sentence:

“They gave my father and I drinks at the pub.”

That sounds natural and correct to me but it is not correct - remove “my father” and you would have “They gave I drinks at the pub.” which sounds wrong and indeed it is - using “me” is better, so:

“My father and me were bought drinks at the pub.”

Now look at this example:

“My son and I went to the park.”

Removing “My son” leaves us with “I went to the park.” and that is correct - in this instance “I” is correctly used rather than me.

I see “myself” used to get around this grammatical conundrum but that just seems clumsy.

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Writing is my preferred medium - I have a face for radio and a voice for writing so I’m playing the hand that God has dealt me.

Dennis Gray is a friend of mine in California who works as an IT professional but his real passion is in communicating his experiences as a father.  He was confronted, as many of us are, with the actual fecal reality of a newborn - a bubbling, gurgle of joy that requires a full scale, chemical emergency team in HazMat gear to deal with on occasion.  When my firstborn arrived, my feelings flew to how it would be cheaper to slap £20 notes to his bum instead of disposable nappies - I mistakenly trooped off to Costco and bought a giant size, warehouse box of nappies only to be told by mum that he was going to outgrow them before we got a quarter of the way through the box.

Dennis, being a less economically minded sort of chap, focused on how useful babywipes are and his blog, which turned into a global podcast, was born - 101 Uses for Babywipes

What struck me about Dennis and how he got his “break”, is that he started off from humble blogging.  Writing about his experiences as a new father with his son, Evan.  Note that - writing - on a blog. 

Now Dennis has a podcast as his expertise has evolved with using the media technology that is available to all of us with an internet connection.  More than that, Dennis’ show regularly attracts a worldwide audience of in excess 80,000.  That’s right - more than 80,000 people tune in to his podcasts and blog to hear about his latest experiences and what other uses he has found for babywipes.  The show and blog have altered direction to take into account other parenting issues from international child abduction to premature birth. 

80,000 is more than the circulation of most UK provincial and town newspapers.

No staff, no budget, no training - and an 80,000 following across the US, Europe, Asia and elsewhere. 

So with this following, Dennis has found a new career calling that funds a neat lifestyle?  Actually, no - as he put it in a recent newspaper interview, the podcast and blog attract enough sponsors to keep the car on the drive but not make the house payments.  Needless to say, Dennis is one of many people I have come across who have found a niche and a means to express themselves to the benefit of all of us.

It just takes a modicum of courage to put pen to paper and you never know what the ride will be that results.

Way to go Dennis!

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