Since I last wrote in this slot, quite a number of you have been in touch again regarding my interpretation of the I Ching, asking for advice on certain hexagrams. Naturally, I'm very happy to do this if I can, though the last thing I want is for anyone to think of me as some sort of expert on the subject. My insight is no more acute than anyone else's - or I wouldn't have needed the I Ching in the first place.

This might sound contradictory - how can the author of a book on a particular subject claim not to be an expert upon it? Ordinarily, with any other subject, the statement wouldn't make sense at all but the I Ching is different. It changes as we change, it reflects our preoccupations at any given time, and the nature of any individual's relationship with it is always going to be personal, unique and changing, so I would suggest that anyone offering advice to other students needs to tread very carefully. The book possesses infinite depth, and what is written on the page in front of you is just a tiny fraction of the subject matter - the rest comes from inside of you.

Without understanding the nature of a relationship, you can easily set people off down the wrong road, and perhaps the best thing someone like me can do is help others to grasp the nature of their own relationship with the I Ching.

I wrote the basic underlying draft of the interpretation during a particularly challenging time of my life. My relationship with the book, during the early years of this century, was intense, and as this first decade comes to a close now I can look back and see how it guided me through to a more philosophical and balanced outlook on life. Nowadays, I'm navigating less tempestuous seas and consequently do not consult the book as often as I used to do. My outlook has changed, and the book has changed with me. It's the same book, the same text, interpretation, or whatever, but it still rings true, even in somewhat changed circumstances.

This is the enigma of the Book of Changes, also its unique attraction.

A number of you have also written regarding your experience of tinnitus, following the posting of my "Tao of Tinnitus article" bit here and over on my blog (of which more later). If you are a tinnitus sufferer you have my sympathy and I wish you well. If you're at your wits end with it, and haven't tried Traditional Chinese Medicine yet - acupuncture, herbs, Qigong, and such like, it's an avenue worth exploring. It won't help in all cases, I'm told, but it certainly helped me. I now look back on my tinnitus as an episode that opened up a whole new avenue of enquiry, as well as a change of attitude and life-style.

The Rivendale Review recently clocked up 20,000 hits, which is something of a milestone, though is more reflective of my stubbornness than the outright success of my work of course - it having taken ten years to achieve. In that time of course the Internet has continued to develop in all manner of unexpected ways, granting fresh opportunities for otherwise unknown writers to present their work. For example, the Rivendale Review has recently branched out into the blogosphere - even though I said I never would - and I've also become involved with the ebook supplier Feedbooks as a means of distributing some of my short stories, directly to your iPod Touch or Kindle.

The blog began as just another outlet for my work, and to this end I simply copied over various articles and short stories from The Rivendale Review. More recently however it's evolved into a semi-personal journal - a view of the world from my desk so to speak. To this end I have enjoyed writing a number of original and more contemporaneous pieces for it - the occasional whinge, the occasional wry take on the news headlines etc. However, to date the blog remains an obscure backwater, into which only two or three visitors a week manage to blunder, while the Rivendale Review itself approaches nearer 8 per day. I'm wondering if I'm missing a trick, but so far, the blog is looking like a bit of a dead duck and may not survive to see its first birthday.

On the other hand Feedbooks has proved to be a delightful outlet, very easy to get stories copied over, with the added interest of seeing them battling with other stories for positions in the listings. This is a very dynamic environment, and it's natural that over time, as fresh material is added by people like me, existing stories will sink from view, but as of writing, you'll find "The man who could not forget" in the top 20 of the all time favourites - which is very satisfying indeed for a story I wrote getting on for ten years ago. Other stories  however - like Carla Sinclair - have done nowhere near as well, and basically sank without trace after a few months - though you'll still find her if you search.

If you are a writer, like me, somewhat cynical about the chances of actually making any money from your work, but still keen to find fresh and effective outlets for it, then I  can recommend Feedbooks.

There is a big change coming.

Early E-Book readers were rather clumsy things, consuming vast quantities of batteries, and possessed of all manner of inconvenience - as well as being as ugly as sin. On the upside you could store a thousand books on them, but that wasn't of sufficient advantage when every time you wanted to sit down and relax with your a book, you got the battery warning light and had to start plugging things in. E-Book readers are getting better though.

E-Ink technology has dramtically cut the power needed to drive these things, as well as making their pages much easier on the eye. Making them capable of picking up your home internet connection via WiFi, as in the case of the iPod Touch, has also made them a fun-thing to use, and has also made them very powerful indeed, opening up free sources for books such as Project Gutenberg and Feedbooks, so you can browse a vast collection of works from the comfort of your armchair, while sitting in the garden, or while lazing in bed.

As an example, on a whim one Sunday afternoon, I decided I quite fancied reading Beowulf. At one time it would have taken me weeks to track a copy down and it would have been expensive to purchase - only to find it was a difficult book - one I would never actually get around to finishing. As it was though, I picked up my iPod Touch, found several versions of the book within a matter of seconds, discovered within ten minutes that it was a difficult book, one I'd never finish, and so deleted it. It was the same with Proust's Remembrance novels - this is one of those pieces of literature you hear a lot about and decide you should read it, but there are so many books in the collection it would cost a fortune to get at them all and plough your way through - but thirty seconds on your wifi enabled reader and you've got the lot.

There are still problems with e-book readers. The formatting isn't attractive on the one's I've seen, and there is as yet limited support for pictures. Aesthetically, they also leave much to be desired and there's always the feeling with anything "techie", you're going to be out of date in no time. There are books in  my collection I've had for forty years. I can slide them off my shelf and they still work exactly as they did when I was a boy. But I can say for certain that in another forty years, none of the current crop of E-Book readers will be around, and no matter how attractive they are made to look on the outside, the guts of them will be embarrassingly obsolete and unsupportable within a decade. But I think they are at the stage now where they should be taken seriously both by writer and readers.

If you're one those writers with a publisher at the back of them, that's fine - you can let others worry about presenting your work to the public. If you're not, don't worry, there are many ways now of launching your work. I guarantee it will be seen and read - the only downside is you'll have to give it away. But better that though than wasting years trying to interest an editor, before tearing it up in despair.

Welcome to the real world.

Michael Graeme

May 2009