It’s All About Marketing
As I cycled on the bike that doesn’t go anywhere this morning like a rat in a cage trying to keep down the middle age spread (can I say that at my age?), it struck me that almost everything I do these days requires marketing. It’s not longer good enough just to do something but now you have to find a way to tell people about it too. Ok, probably, it’s always been that way to some degree but now with social media and the way the world is, it seems that the louder and more effectively you sing your own praises, the more success you enjoy. But is it really that simple? On the one hand, it is. You must confidently and unflinchingly go forth and use every opportunity
Read More »Painting with Words
Before me A blank piece of paper I paint with words Swirling deep vowel hues Pictures emerge With every word I choose It’s a thrill To slap those words around Messy fun with letters Alliterations Descriptive nouns Verbal variations Masterpiece Letters joined together Similar sounding sounds Discordant vibes A mixed vocal pallet used by Artistic scribes
Read More »A Childlike Reality
Children often bring a smile to our lips. Their worldview unfettered by outside influence and devoid of any political pressure often provides us with laughter and sometimes remarkably powerful but simple insights into our complex world. I have played more than my part in terms of aiding this phenomenom having fathered four children to date and each and everyone of them has taught me something valuable or brought a smile to my face in terms of what they did or said. All kids are different too right from the very beginning. Having watched my twin boys grow up I can say that… different from the very first second of life outside the womb. Obviously, it is my youngest child that now alone has this childlike ability to point out glitches
Read More »Try Looking Up!
If reality is so massive that our brain has to continually decide what parts of that reality to present to our consciousness (and it does!), then what are we missing? A lot it would seem. For a start, we look for what we recognize and have an interest in and we ignore what we do not recognize nor have an interest in. We walk our way through life barely seeing a thing apparently. We sleep. Most of us commute to work each day and we settle into our routines. Perhaps we catch the train and armed with our favorite newspaper we seek out our usual seat and then relax reading the paper. Perhaps we walk to work staring at the pavement ahead of us while all of the time thinking
Read More »Reality Really is Weird
I am reading a book about the nature of reality. It has an interesting way of working its theme as it has you conduct experiments. This last two days, I was doing one of the experiments where you simply look everywhere and expect to see something. In my instance, I decided on a pink car. Don’t ask me why. It just seemed like something fairly rare…. I actually finished reading the instructions on my Kindle riding a bus to pick up my car from service on Friday. I decided, pink car and looked up. As my eyes refocused on the view through the back window of the bus I noticed another bus. It was white but…. it had huge pink stripes on it. I thought to myself “OK, thats not
Read More »Dear parents, you are being lied to.
I am reblogging this because; 1. It’s critically important 2. It’s written by someone who ACTUALLY knows what they are talking about, and 3. It’s really important….
Read More »Review City
I just popped over to the official The Last Observer page at Roundfire Books and it struck me that it has been reviewed by a hell of lot of people. Fortunately, the vast majority of those reviews have been very good. I will say that the book has been a success on many levels and was well accepted. I am still pushing sales and readers of course…… Read the reviews here. Thanks to everyone that has purchased it or reviewed it – it is much appreciated but please do tell others to give it a spin too please! Meanwhile, I have another book out – Moon Whispers – a new collection of 30 poems. I really think these are my strongest and most vibrant poems and I wrote them listening
Read More »Long Leggety Beasties by Alienora Taylor
A super review of a really funny and excellent book…
Read More »My Short Acting Career
Many many years ago, when I was about 13 I think, I was persuaded to appear in the school play. The play, and I will never forget it, was The Snow Queen. I managed to land the part of the Story Teller which, looking back, was a bit contrived but I guess was meant to be a parody of Hans Christian Anderson or similar. I played no role in the action but introduced the story and then popped in and out to explain what was going on, help the characters make key decisions and harass the audience. I can still recall part of the introduction where I was engaged in dancing a little dance while reciting a poem…. Snip, snap, snooper Pooper bazalooper Snip snap snooper It went. Did I
Read More »The Last Observer’s First Chapter
If you haven’t read my novel I am presenting the short first chapter again to see if I can whet your appetite and convince you to go ahead and buy it…. Murder, mayhem, love, magic, quantum physics, car chases, and a whole lot more in this fast moving adventure about reality.
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