Archive for June, 2013

The Dreaded Lurgy

Just about now, we should be headed down the runway of Charles De Gaulle en route for Detroit and later, Orlando. Tomorrow we had planned a morning by the pool before picking up a rental car and heading to Santa Anna Island. Dreams just dreams. Instead, we are sat at home with our 5-year old who is covered in the blisters of Chickenpox but is otherwise fine and, as usual, full of beans. We are all a bit disappointed to say the least but what will be will be. There was moment yesterday when I still believed this wasn’t chickenpox breaking out in front of our eyes. The hospital doctor soon put paid to that forlorn hope. Then there was the momentary temptation to follow the advice of many of

Read More »

Promotion and More Promotion

As I have said before I think, the average book doesn’t sell too many copies. In 2004, 950,000 titles out of the 1.2 million tracked by Nielsen Bookscan sold fewer than 99 copies. Another 200,000 sold fewer than 1,000 copies. Only 25,000 sold more than 5,000 copies. This is pretty old data but I couldn’t find anything more up to date in the 30 seconds that I tried…. It just shows you though. They say – they being my publisher – that you need to promote and promote and promote…. They do some of this work but I do the lion’s share. But, I am feeling guilty. For the next 2 and a bit weeks I will be on vacation and I won’t lift a finger on the book (collective

Read More »

Technology is Killing Us

I was reminiscing to myself last night as you do from time to time. I recall back in the early part of my career how there where no cell phones, no smart phones, no IPads, no PCs, no windows, no Google, no Facebook…… and wasn’t it great! If I went on a trip, I didn’t expect to keep in touch with people, no one called me looking for something. Occasionally, I’d get on a payphone and call home to check in but that was it. Back then, a holiday was a holiday. On Sunday, we leave for two weeks in the USA. Sunday looks like being miserable with three flights and around 14 hours in the air. But I am looking forward to my vacation and going back to the

Read More »

Presidential Myth Making

Those that know me also know that one subject and one subject alone can get me truly very angry. That subject is the idea that man-made CO2 is responsible for ‘global warming’ and today I am very mad because Mr. Obama, presumably to detract attention away from his complete mismanagement of Government and everything else, has decided to jump on the bandwagon. I’m sorry to my friends and eldest son who love this man, but he is to me the worst President the US ever had simply because he doesn’t appear to actually stand for anything except himself and now – the myth of global warming. People – global temperatures haven’t risen in the last 15-years. I’m not going to get into all the arguments because frankly I have made

Read More »

Shifting Sands

So, let’s get something straight before we begin this. I don’t care if any government is logging my calls, tracking my internet usage or even listening in to those calls. I have nothing to hide but I am sure there are others that do have something to hide and need to be listened to very carefully. I really don’t care too much about this stuff. Maybe I should but I don’t. Nor do I particularly care that some guy is running around telling the world’s media that the US Government does this. I should hope that they do. I don’t either much care for the Chinese government pretending that they are innocent of such things (nor the Russians for that matter). The fact is, if for a minute I stopped

Read More »

Viral Thinking

What if The Last Observer took off? I mean really took off. If it sold, hundreds of thousands of copies. I have been just occasionally letting myself dream such things in the hope that, if I think and believe it, it will happen. Funny though because this thought is always rapidly followed by that other little voice that says ‘You stupid bugger! Who would buy your book?‘ It’s that second little voice that stops us all from dreaming too much but actually, if we listened to it too much, we would never do anything at all. I set myself a goal with The Last Observer. It is this – minimum 3000 copies sold. 3000 isn’t that big of a number is it? Actually, I do think 300,000 would be achievable

Read More »

WitchHazel’s Review of The Last Observer

Merry meet! For some time now I have been thinking about reviewing books, but never quite managed to start doing so. All that has changed following my receiving a review copy of a forthcoming book. “The Last Observer” is an amazingly absorbing story about the nature of reality and it’s manipulation. It focuses on Stan, a man who finds the world he can create in his head is far more satisfying than the mundane world we all live in, and how he gets drawn into a dangerous world where people want to use his imagination to change the reality we all know. While the story itself is very well written, with characters you can relate to from the start, what I found most intriguing was the application of quantum theory

Read More »

Another Review for The Last Observer

My thanks to SC Vincent for this one – and my thanks also to her for encouraging me to write this story by demanding the next chapter each time I sent her an update…. How would you feel if the reality you knew as intimately as your own thoughts was suddenly brought into question? If, in fact, you became aware that the two were inextricably linked, not just within the confines of your imagination, but in actuality? And if you could begin to understand this strange, unsettling concept, what would you do when it was borne upon you that someone wanted to hijack that reality, twisting it for their own ends and putting more at risk than your life? Such is the position in which Stanley finds himself. He is

Read More »

One of Those Days!

I know its not me that sometimes has one of those days but I do wonder if what constitutes one of those days for me is the same as others? For me, such days usually start poorly. I won’t have slept well or I woke up early or I didn’t want to get up. It seems to slide from there…. Today for example, my internet is playing up. Everything is slow as a result and I keep having to go and reset the router. I have a few people I really need to follow up with but none of them are answering the phone, email or Skype…. But most frustrating isn’t whats going on out there but inside of me. You see I can’t seem to do anything. I don’t

Read More »

Matrix

People come in types They all look the same Patterns swirl within larger patterns A glitch is hard to see Unless you watch so carefully Isn’t this like a movie? interactive action Repelling and then so much attraction A video game, but one that stars me? Do you think I paid to take this ride? To do stuff or maybe hide out For a rainy day or two From that otherworld – the dream I dream Which is real. Which not. A real mystery Am I just a distraction for the other me The one that’s more real than real? The Godlike creator, player, actor That struts his stuff on this matrix’d stage Do you think I really have history? Or am I just living for a day Programmed context

Read More »