I'm really hoping no-one noticed the paid-for text link to a printing service that I put on the sidebar on Tuesday and took down yesterday. It turns out that it was connected to a scam involving free business cards.

If you ordered anything from the site concerned, go to Hubbers' blogpost for more information on what the scam is all about, and what you need to do.

I dropped the ball on this one, for which I apologise. I feel terrible, particularly because I would normally do a thorough check before agreeing to such a link. A quick Google search would have told me all I needed to know. The company often sends leaflets in Amazon parcels, so I guess I let that familiarity cloud my judgement. Also, with redundancy hanging over my head, I was a bit too eager to snap up the payment they offered.

Once again, I am very sorry, particularly to anyone who has been inconvenienced. I will be more careful about who I choose to work with in future.

1. Wet day. Someone has rubbed the town's pencil lines with their thumb until the background has disappeared and the foreground is more of a suggestion than actual houses, buses and people.

2. Glass green lettuce in a blue-and-white bowl.

3. I have been looking forward to the Ted Chiang story (72 Letters) in Steampunk, a wonderful Vandermeer anthology. I love Chiang's thoughtful, beautiful stories. I find myself turning them over and over long after I've finished reading. He works very slowly and meticulously -- his body of work is tiny -- and it shows in the polished finish and the way the complex concepts have space to work their way into the reader's mind.