PC or not PC, that is the question

Wow! We went to Sainsbury's yesterday. Just to do the week's shopping, I assure you. This was not panic buying on our part, but our twentieth step into the supermarket showed it to be far from super. We had never before seen so many empty shelves. Fortunately for us, everything we wanted was available in relative plenty, though I do confess to having taken the very last two-pack of tissues, which was hiding behind all of the empty boxes.

The interesting and useful thing is that out local Co-op rather small supermarket is very much more super. The only shortages they suffer from are toilet rolls and paracetamol, though these are both restocked daily along with everything else. In truth, the only reason we did our shopping at Sainsbury's is that we had three large bin-bags of recycling we were pretty desperate to get rid of, and Sainsbury's, though it's a twenty-five minute drive away, has our nearest recycling facility. We thought we might as well get the food in while we were there.

Back on the boat, we continue to pass our time reading, writing, knitting, doing jigsaws, fixing a few things the fixing of which is a bit/a lot overdue, and trying to find a break in the rubbish weather when we might go for a decent walk.

"Out of the Sunrise" is now published, the failure of the Kindle publishing machine having been overcome by my persistence - fifth time lucky - and has had a few sales already. With my tongue close to the inside of my cheek, I'm wondering if the story might be too non-PC.

• The lead male character in this book is not politically correct
• The lead dog is male
• Some of the characters are sexist
• All of the characters are White Caucasian.
• The only religion depicted is Christianity
• The only Christian denomination is Church of England
• Male and female characters do not play an equal part in the story
• The vicar is a man
• The dentist is a woman
• So is her receptionist
• Injury is caused to some of the animals in the story
• All of the human characters are apparently omnivores. Those who may not be don’t advertise the fact
• None of the characters are apparently LBGTQ (but they can be if you want them to be. I won’t mind)
• None of the characters speaks out against human slavery
• Christmas is called Christmas
• A spade is called a spade

I hope this won't put you off buying it. My beta-readers gave it an enthusiastic thumbs-up, so they weren't offended. One of those readers was Valerie Poore, herself an author rather more prolific than me, and well versed in the art of writing. I'm very grateful to her for her thorough reading of it, and the several useful criticisms she made.

Maybe this book of mine might help you pass your self-isolation time enjoyably!

Out of the Sunrise

a boating adventure with Billy the Dog