Acts of God and Earthquakes

Another earthquake, this time hitting Kashmir, and vast loss of life. This always brings me back to the oldest question in the book, namely, is this anything to do with a God, and, if so, what?

If you don't believe, then there's no problem, because things just happen. If you do, then how does it work?

If God is both omniscient and omnipotent, then he knew that the earthquake was going to happen, and didn't stop it.

In a worse scenario, he decided to cause the earthquake in the first place.

Is there perhaps a Devil, and did he decide to cause it, and, if so, why didn't God stop it? (see above)

Maybe God is omniscient but not omnipotent?

The Church, as far as I understand, argues that God does know all about what's going to happen, and at the very least allows the earthquake because he's not in the same moral frame as humans, and because there is a grander purpose that will lead to better things after this shorter-term misery.

There are even arguments that what happens in this material world is less relevant than what will happen later in Heaven.

I draw no conclusions myself, and welcome comments, and pointers to philosophy books where this has all been thought of already and discussed hundreds, if not thousands of year ago.

(Yes, I know about the book of Job, but does it answer any of the above questions satisfactorily?)

Yours in deep thought, Hedgehog.

Novel Problems

Well, as mentioned in previous blogs, the novel is getting further. In fact, it's now about four/five thousand words from completion, which might be three good writing sessions.

This, of course, doesn't mean that it will take three days: there's a lot of procrastinating, which means that it might take a lot longer in real time. Also, there are problems. It doesn't sound much, but it's set in 1995, and since one protagonist had to do something about 28 years before, in 1967, and then take an overseas course with the OU, this is awkward. They didn't start taking students until 1971, and I understand that overseas students weren't taught until the 1980s, which blows a nice hole in the plot. Something's got to give, and if it's not my mind, it has to be a strand of the story.

When it's finished, it has to be revised and checked very carefully, and then sent to somebody somewhere. This would probably be an agent, to whom you send an enquiry first as to whether they will look at it, and then send perhaps three chapters printed off in double spacing, which is some archaic custom in the printing world. You enclose return postage, and they then send it back, saying sorry, whereupon you send it to the next one, and so on.

Does anyone know of any good agents, or, failing that, ones who are daft enough to take me on?

Autumn Leaves

This may be going back a long way, but I seem to remember a singer called Mel Torme who looked as though he'd been moulded in a plastics factory, and who sang "Autumn Leaves". He also trotted out all sorts of opinions about how anyone with long hair was despicable, and how we should all go around in jackets and short hair. This, people, was in the Sixties, when Hedgehog was but a slip of a lad, and thought that such ideas were spot on.

Now, when I look out this Autumn, there's something strange going on: It's the 10th of October, the leaves are still on the trees, and not many of them have changed colour yet. This is weird for Leeds at this time of year, and makes me wonder whether global warming is really showing its true colours now. What do Hedgehog's millions of readers out there think? Have they noticed anything similar? Would they like to tell us about it?

The Finishing Post

Not a suicide blog, but an indication that one project, at least, is nearing completion. The Novel's penultimate chapter was finished last week, and, of course, I thought "Only one chapter to go, so that should take me one more week".

It isn't finished yet. It's strange how we sometimes slow down in sight of the winning post. Also, the plot needs looking at again. Did Andy have access to the room, or was it locked before he had a chance to be there? Lots of loose ends to check. After that, it needs to be stuck in a drawer while I start number 2, and then I need to find a nice agent who will look at it.

I've tried a couple of agents with the first three chapters, but they declined. However, I must say that they were the kindest, most thoughtfully drafted rejection letters that I've ever had. I know they're probably sent to everybody, but these people had taken thought and care in what to say to an unsuccesful author. Good on you, Mr Geller and Mr Trewin.

What else has been happening? Once again, I've sent in three poems to the National Poetry Competition (the British one run by the Poetry Society). It's closed for this year, and winners will be notified by February. The entries are all anonymous, so there's a good chance that we're being judged on merit. Maybe that's why I haven't won it yet.

Enough babble for the now. More on novel when Hedgehog has written it. Now where's my pile of leaves? Yawn.