Archive for December, 2014

New Year Celebration?

Please forgive me for being a party pooper but I dislike New Year. I think I detest it because I simply don’t understand it. What are we celebrating? I suppose we are pleased to be getting rid of one year and welcoming a new one with all its potential. But don’t we do exactly that every single day? What is so special about this particular day? And if I am to celebrate the potential of a new year then why does it begin with a hangover? what a great start – a late night and too much alcohol – the new year is already ruined before it even began! No, if it were down to me, I’d be going to bed at a normal hour and treating it like any other

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Poetry Featured in Ljagun Poetry Journal

Two of my poems are published in the December edition of Ljagun Poetry Journal. The poems are ‘Big Man’ and ‘Summer is Here’ and they can be found on pages 37 and 38 of the issue. The Journal can be downloaded in PDF format here. My thanks to the editors for accepting my work.

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A Yorkshire Christmas

Christmas Eve was spent collecting Ammonites on a cold, blustery but magnificently beautiful day on the Yorkshire coast. We found lots of these whirly fossils in the lower Jurassic of Ravenscar and the walk down and then back up the cliffs was refreshing and invigorating. This experience was topped off with a delicious cream tea at Raven Hall Hotel. It couldn’t have been any better. As the three of us trooped down the muddy path, I reflected on the many trips around Yorkshire fossil hunting I had done with my late Father. Not only did we hunt fossils but we explored the area in depth. Roman roads, ancient burial sites, viking villages. You name it, we did it. We even found a whole bunch of iron age pottery that we

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Happy Holidays!

Well, I am going to take a break this week and won’t be back until next Monday. For the first time, we will celebrate Xmas elsewhere and leave tonight. Thanks to everyone for stopping by periodically and humoring my madness with your eyes and sometimes your hearts (and even wallets?). It’s been a good year really and I hope 2015 will be good too! If you are still searching desperately for presents – how about a book? One of MY books? The Last Observer perhaps or My Haunted Life? Otherwise, Happy Holidays! See you all in a week.

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Mailing List

Keep up with my book news via my mailing list. I will inform you of; – new books – cover previews – promotions (free kindle issues etc.) – other news Just sign up here and you can unsubscribe at any time….

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The Cross

Have to admit I am deeply flawed And no matter how hard I try These things so deeply lie Burn Scorched Earth Wash Scrubbed Air Balancing elements Losing irrelevants In places No soap has ever been In places No physical eyes have seen Still, it’s not enough Some habits hang tough The flaws magnified Obsessing over scratches While missing the gaping wound Bleeding Pleading Seeing life ooze away Nothing left except to pray Elements stirred Returned to the point At which we started When these four were parted Burn Scorched Earth Wash Scrubbed Air Four-lorn, I am The fifth gets Short shrift The Lamb I am A Cross Free of Dross I am Yes, I truly am

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Christmas is Just Silly!

Christmas has many facets. One of them is the never ending commercialization of what really should be a simple family Christian religious celebration. Of course, christmas has in its central theme, much for non-Christians to peruse and consider in terms of its greater spiritual meaning and in terms of other non-Christian celebrations at this time of the year. However, the endless commercialization has really spoiled for me what used to be a happy and beautiful time of the year. In the Czech Republic, christmas decorations generally still go up around the 1st December. Some of the chain stores with HQ’s overseas start earlier though. In other places like the US and the UK, christmas basically now starts in October or even earlier. It is no longer a religious holiday unless

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Medium – From My Haunted Life Too

There was a time growing up when I became quite fascinated by spiritualism. The idea that a person could communicate with the dead—actually see and hear ghosts—was of great interest to me. This was an interest that my mother was actually willing to share with me, and so we ended up taking a couple of trips to a spiritualist church in Hull, England. These sessions were always characterized as demonstrations of clairvoyance, rather than speaking with the dead; but that is exactly what these people did. On our second trip, my dad decided to stay at home, muttering something about it ‘only encouraging weird activity,’ but he was always interested in what had happened at the meetings, of course. He was, I believe, quite right. It did encourage the strange, ghostly

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Book Sales Dynamics

It’s been an interesting couple of months as sales of my books have moved up a notch. However, what I find interesting is how on any day,my books do well in the US or the UK but not both. There really is a pattern to this. One day, like yesterday, I sold 8 kindle books – all but one from the uk site of Amazon. The day before it was 5 Kindle books and all in the US .com site. Is this a function of how Amazon reports sales or is this real? If it’s real, why? The My Haunted Life book has been doing well selling 2-4 copies a day for about 6-weeks now and I have given away around about 120 free copies too. My Haunted Life Too

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My Haunted Life Too is OUT

I know that by now, you have all rushed over to your respective Amazon sites and procured your Kindle copy of My Haunted Life Too right? No? Why not? Out today!! Scare yourself to sleep for just 99 cents with My Haunted Life Too on Kindle! Get it here. While you are there, don’t forget to download my poetry collection – Moon Whispers – for free and grab your copy of My Haunted Life – the original in the series….

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