Astral Messages
My next book is already ready to hit the presses. It’s called Astral Messages and it is a collection of poetry interspersed with blog articles from Asteroth’s Domain. The collection of poems is deliberately matched with blog articles in the same theme so what you get is a good look at what was going on in my mind at the time the material was written. Topics covered range from esoteric and philosophical discussions regarding reality and magic to a discourse about my old socks! Astral Messages uses poems and blog articles from my long standing blog – Asteroth’s Domain – in a discussion of reality and magic. We are all magicians willfully creating our realities and this selection demonstrates how this touches all aspects of our lives – yes, even
Read More »Looking for a Break is Tough Work
Writing – it’s a tough business. For small time authors such as myself, we rely on the ‘friends and family’ concept since we lack what is called a ‘platform’. Let me translate what I just said….Small time writers rely on their friends and family to purchase their books as they don’t have a brand name like say JK Rowling that will guarantee thousands of anonymous buyers for their writing product. Hopefully, friends and family will not just BUY the book but also support it by writing short reviews on Amazon or Goodreads and mentioning it to their friends. The hope is that either, one of these friends of friends and family is extremely influential and can influence the broader public to buy the book (a stroke of good luck) or,
Read More »The Countdown to D-Day(s)
Well, the book is printed and the eBook ready and on August 17th and 30th it will be D-Day (USA and Europe dates respectively). Why we have two different dates is beyond me but we do. Six years ago, I was visiting with my son Paul who was taking a semester at King’s College in London and we were sat in a pub drinking some real good English beer. The conversation turned to the nature of reality and magic (as it does if you know me!) and I began to outline a basic idea for a story. The basic idea was that certain people with magical training observe better than others and really do have some ability to create reality. These people were being killed off until all that remained
Read More »Obsession with a Symbol
The hexagram. It’s a beautiful symbol of balance used extensively around the world and in everyday life. The hexagram might be said to represent the ALL THAT IS and because of its internal symmetry, it represents the ALL THAT IS in perfect harmonious balance – pure perfection. It is a symbol of perfection but it suggests too that perfection or harmony is something very delicate, immensely fragile, and it is easily lost. It is something that must be purposely sought for. It is the symbol of the Sun and, it is the symbol of the Son holding Tiphareth at its very center. It has a golden heart. The hexagram signifies the Great Work of Alchemy. It signifies the emanated and the source. It is the ALL and its creation or
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 »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 »First Independent Review by Alienora Taylor
‘The Last Observer’ by Dr G. Michael Vasey Review by Alienora Taylor Read at a gallop, this slim racehorse of a novel impressed me enormously with its speed and performance. I was unable to halt the literary ‘ride’ – and nor, in all honesty, did I wish to! Dr Vasey plays with the conventional understanding of the word ‘observer’ to create a very different ‘tune’, one which contains within it the ability – inherent within most esoteric training – to affect reality through the medium of the imagination, of thought. And, in Vasey’s intense fictional world, it is precisely this ability which is under attack by what could be defined as the Dark Side. I do not wish to give the plot away because I think there is something to
Read More »The Last Observer’s First Chapter
It is short but it sets the scene….. Chapter 1 A Dead Psychic There was something remarkable about Michael Kent. His crystal-clear and deep-set blue eyes, sunken into a pale and haggard face, seemed to penetrate into the depths of your very soul. He appeared to be capable of reaching inside of you so that he could search through your entire contents without first having had the courtesy to ask. Michael was a well-known psychic in those parts. Locally famed, and at the same time loathed, for his apparent ability to help the local constabulary solve unsolvable crimes. Yet now he was an unsolvable crime himself. Kent had been found dead just outside of his favorite pub, the Rose and Crown. The back of his head caved in like a
Read More »My Best Selling Book
I think people outside of the book publishing and writing business have little clue as to how it really works. I am going to tell you all what my best selling book is…. (drum roll)….. Here it is…. Yes – it’s one of my business books. It has sold to date some 905 copies. Patrick and I are very pleased with its sales and the fact that it continues to sell every month. My second best selling book is it’s companion – Trends in ETRM Software: A Primer with 670 sales and still selling. Not far behind is Inner Journeys: Explorations of the Soul from Thoth. I have a target for my new book – The Last Observer. It’s a real stretch. I’d like it to sell 3000 copies. The
Read More »Weird Tales
Many moons ago I published my second book – Weird Tales: Otherworld Poetry. I self-published via the Amazon publisher Booksurge. Its a small book and it has barely sold more than 30 copies I reckon but then it is a poetry book! You see, everyone writes poetry and many of us also think our poems are the bees knees – me included! I have learned since 2006, when it was published, that poetry doesn’t sell very well. I think its because the poems that we write are personal. They have real meaning to us but perhaps not to others. Poems are our way to resolve pain, say what we truly feel and get our emotions on paper. There are words I could use to tell you Exactly how I feel
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