But I do know outcome of something that happened when I was editor of Torrance Press, a weekly newspaper in Los Angeles area. The advertising department was jubilant when it landed a two-page double truck (two-page) ad from Sealy mattress company. The ad carried company's slogan in big, bold, black letters: "Sleeping on a Sealy, Is Like Sleeping on a Cloud." But something happened in translation from copy to print. That Thursday morning, thousands of readers were introduced to a new slogan: "Sleeping on a Sealy, Is Like Slipping on a Cloud." The paper, of course, offered to make good. The following week, readers discovered a revised message: "Sleeping on a Sealy, Is Like Sleeping on a Clod." That was end of what we had hoped would be a long-term heavenly relationship.

I was glad, that week, to be in editorial and not in advertising. Still, I have committed my fair share of typos over years. In a book chapter on writing I wrote:

Good Public Relations writing, like good journalistic writing, should be clear, simple, economical. Short words, short sentences, short paragraphs. Simple rather than complex words. One word rather than two words. The precise word instead of a fuselage of words.

Fuselage of words? Ooops! The precise word should have been: fusillade of words! That booboo finally got corrected in a new printing.

Years ago, I learned of an intriguing Chinese cultural custom. I don't know if it still exists. When a Chinese person wrote a letter, writer always made one deliberate spelling mistake. This was meant as a sign of humility, to acknowledge that writer did not consider himself a perfect human being. Other cultures have similar customs, leaving works flawed to show that only God is perfect.

Frankly, I don't have to go out of my way to prove that I am a flawed and imperfect human being. I have left plenty of unintended typos in my wake, that prove point. My most embarrassing one? It occurred in author biography at end of my biblical novel, "Abraham, The Dreamer/An Erotic and Sacred Love Story." In first line of biography I left out "t" in Gompertz. I misspelled my own name! It also slipped by me in proofreading!

The first film I ever saw, when I was seven years old, was 'Red River' with John Wayne and Montgomery Clift. I was taken by my dear foster parents and I have never forgotten it. The following week I was taken to see 'Winchester 73', starring already mentioned James Stewart. Cinemas in those days were wondrous places with, it seemed to me, impossibly high ceilings and extravagant baroque decorations everywhere. This one had an amazing colour and light-filled organ, which came up out of floor. The whole thing, electric organ like a rainbow in dark, and ten-foot high cowboys clanking across screen (we always sat near front), made an indelible impression on me.

It was only later, when I started to read likes of Dee Wells' 'Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee' that I began to realize that Western myth, powerful as it was, had another side. When you grow up, you realize that everything has another side.

As for books, I suppose I read mainly English writers, from Kipling to John Galsworthy and G.K.Chesterton. Chesterton could be poignant, as in; 'With monstrous head and sickening cry, And ears like errant wings, The devil's walking parody On all four-footed things.

Fools! For I also had my hour; One far fierce hour and sweet: There was a shout about my ears, And palms before my feet.' The Donkey

and he could be funny in an odd sort of way;

'The souls most fed with Shakespeare's flame Still sat unconquered in a ring, Remembering him like anything'.

Chesterton once dedicated a story to his readers - 'So many of which belong to human race'.

One of my favourite writers at time was Henry Williamson, a contemporary and friend of T.E.Lawrence, 'Lawrence of Arabia'. His best-known book was 'Tarka Otter', a gritty, realistic story about life of an otter in North Devon. Much later I was disillusioned to find out that he was a Nazi sympathiser, and I think he once actually met Hitler. I can only think he was attracted by idea of 'purity'. Well, we all know where that leads.

I read a lot of science fiction in those days, starting with H.G.Wells, Arthur C.Clarke, C.S.Lewis, and going on to American writers, Ray Bradbury etc. Thats probably how I discovered American writers in general; Hemingway, John Steinbeck, who wrote East of Eden, from which film starring James Dean was made, and wonderful James Thurber, whose elegant and witty prose deserves to be better remembered than it is. Perhaps he really belongs to that black and white era in which Spenser Tracy always wore a suit and Katherine Hepburn would glide through a marble hall bigger than most people's houses today.

I must also mention William Faulkner who wrote about Deep South and mythical Yuknapatawpha County. In all his novels he explored sometimes convoluted relationship between races. He also wrote one humorous story, 'The Reivers', which was made into a film starring Steve McQueen. For me, he was one of best mid-century writers, although apparently he was not much liked by local farmers, who referred to him as 'that writing fella'. Perhaps he got too close for comfort in his stories. Or maybe it was his habit of retiring to bed for a couple of weeks every once in a while with a bottle of whisky and a copy of Shakespeare. You can never tell what these writing fellas are going to do next!

Finally in this tale of influences, it was as far as I remember, a book I'd been given for Christmas that first kindled my interest in art. It had pictures of boats and water - mostly oil paintings - and I was fascinated by way reflections in water had been portrayed. They looked so real, and at same time you could tell they had been painted. I still try to keep that feeling in my work today. Later on, at art college, I think one of tutors described painting as a dialog between reality and illusion, but I think what he meant was - it's magic.

James Collins http://www.pet-portraits-scotland.com email: collinsdallasart@tiscali.co.uk