Valerie Cowan Surfs the Net

A FEW years ago Martin Millar was THE author of the moment.

His novels, including Milk, Sulphate and Alby Starvation and Lux the Poet, earned his the kind of respect Irvine Welsh enjoys today. But then something changed.

Every major British publishing company turned down the manuscript of his latest book, Love and Peace with Melody Paradise.

But instead of taking the advice in one of the rejection letters and putting his manuscript in a drawer and forgetting about it, he turned to the Internet.

He has published the first chapter of that novel on his own website, along with six short stories, interviews and reviews of his previous work.

And in a display of courage which few would handle with ease, he has posted the many rejection letters he received for all to see.

He has now found a (smaller) publisher for Love and Peace and it should hit the shops later this year. But you can read the first chapter here and decide whether literary fashion was just being fickle or whether it really is "plain, under-imagined and effortful at times", as one publisher claimed.

Website: http://dspace.dial.

pipex.com/town/street/kbh38/outline.html

All you need to know about the new Euro

EVERYONE'S talking about it. But what is it, what will it look like and when can we start using it?

The official European Commission website tells you everything you need to know about the Euro, the currency which has just been launched.

It explains exactly what will happen and when up to the circulation of the Euro banknotes and coins on January 1, 2002.

There are pictures of what the new coins and notes will look like, and speeches on the subject by Yves-Thibault de Silguy, European Commissioner for the Euro.

And in true Euro style, everything in the site is available in all 11 official languages of the European Union.

Website: http://europa.eu.

int/euro/

Call up a load of Rubbish

PENDLE band The Rubbish have launched their own website. There are profiles of each band member and a page where gig details will be posted - although at the moment the lads are concentrating on recording.

There is a message board for fans to post comments and details of how to buy their CD.

Best of all, you can listen to four of their songs in a variety of formats.

It is a well-designed site which is hardly surprising, given that singer Bruce Thomas is sales director of a new media company.

Website: http://www.subnet.co.uk/tr

A face in the crwth!

DID you know that the shortest British monarch was Charles I, at a dainty four feet nine inches?

Or that the longest English word consisting entirely of consonants - not including y - is crwth, a 14th century word meaning crowd? They are just two of the pointless pieces of information contained in Deb and Jen's Land O' Useless Facts, an excellent source of data for trivia fans.

Website: http://www-leland.stanford.

edu/jenkg/useless.html

Visit the rich and famous

THERE are no terraced houses in Hollywood.

And the stars who live there need a bit more than a pair of net curtains to protect their privacy.

Driveways of the Rich and Famous is a website which lets you up to the gates of celebrities' homes but no further.

It includes not very enlightening interviews with the people who sometimes make it a bit closer to the houses - poolmen, gardeners and neighbours. It won't tell you anything the residents of some of America's poshest homes wouldn't want you to know but you can admire the green gates at Harrison Ford's Beverly Hills home, peer through the bars of Julio Iglesias's gates at his imposing house in Miami Beach and chuckle at the tasteful stone lions which guard the entrance to Sylvester Stallone's South Miami hideaway.

Website: http://www.

driveways.com/

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.