I am delighted and surprised to see that my second collection of short stories, The First Time, by Kevin Morris is (on one site at least) apparently a best seller, http://www.feedbooks.com/store/top?contributor=Kevin+Morris&lang=en
My second collection of short stories, The First Time by Kevin Morris, is currently on sale with a 20 percent reduction at ebookmall.com (please see http://www.ebookmall.com/ebook/the-first-time/kevin-morris/9780755250349). The first story in this collection, The First Time, explores the effects of prostitution on Becky a young graduate who enters the world of escorting as a professional escort in order to pay off her debts. Other stories deal with what happens when the worlds of technology and sex collide. For an extract from my book, The First Time please see https://newauthoronline.wordpress.com/2012/12/02/extract-from-my-forthcoming-book-the-first-time/.
For my online novel, Samantha please visit https://newauthoronline.wordpress.com/2012/12/09/samantha-part-1/.
I am pleased to announce that my second collection of short stories, “The First Time” is now available for purchase.
In this collection of short stories I explore why young women enter the world of prostitution while other stories look at what happens when the
worlds of sex and technology collide. In “The First Time,” the first story in this collection, we meet Becky a young graduate who enters the world of prostitution
in order to clear her debts. The story looks at the effects of prostitution on Becky and her fellow escort and friend Julie. In “The Pain Behind the Smile”
Issie presents her friend, Peter with a birthday cake, however things are not what they seem. In “Lucy” the acquaintances of a crusty old bachelor speculate
how he could attract and retain the affections of a beautiful young woman. As with “The Pain Behind the Smile” things are far from what they seem. “Hemlock”
explores what happens when machines attain the capacity to appreciate high culture. The story is both humorous and deeply serious.
To purchase a copy of “The First Time”, by Kevin Morris please visit https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Kevin_Morris_The_First_Time?id=s-4pGnExbscC&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImJvb2stcy00cEduRXhic2NDIl0 or http://www.diesel-ebooks.com/item/9780755250349/Morris-Kevin-The-First-Time/1.html. For my online novel, Samantha please visit https://newauthoronline.wordpress.com/2012/12/09/samantha-part-1/.
I am registered blind which in my case means that I’m not able to read print. I can, however see outlines of objects and I turn the lights on when it is dark otherwise I tend to bang into things! I’m often asked by people who are unfamiliar with visual impairment how I access technology, consequently I thought that the below post might be of interest to people who have had no (or very limited contact) with blind and partially sighted people.
My Sony Vio laptop is equipped with software called Jaws which interprets what is on my PC’s screen and reads it back to me in speech and braille. I don’t use a mouse but rely on keyboard shortcuts some of which are unique to users of the Jaws software. For example in order to bring up a list of links on a webpage I press insert f7. This key combination produces a list of links which I can cursor through. When Jaws reads a link which I wish to activate I press the return/enter key to select it and Jaws reads the webpage. Again in order to bring up a list of headings the Jaws user activates insert F7. He/she is then able to cursor through the list of headings displayed on the webpage. As a child I was taught to touch type using a quirty keyboard which has stood me in good stead when using computers.
The world of technology can be a frustrating one for users of screenreading software such as Jaws. For instance many captchas (the visual puzzles which the PC user must solve in order to send contact forms etc) are inaccessible to Jaws and similar software. Jaws sees an image which it is unable to interpret. Ah there are audible captchas I hear you say. Indeed there are, however many of these are virtually impossible to solve due to the background noise which distorts the words being read. Again some sites do not even employ audio alternatives to visual captchas meaning that visually impaired computer users either give up in frustration or are forced to rely on the assistance of family and friends.
There is a very useful Firefox plug-in known as Webvisum which is designed to make the lives of visually impaired Firefox users much easier. One particularly useful feature of Webvisum is the ability to send a captcha electronically and have it solved. This isn’t 100 percent effective, however it does, in my experience work in the majority of instances. I’ve no idea how the Webvisum plug-in performs this magic trick but it is certainly a godsend for me and other visually impaired people.
One of my passions in life is reading. As a child I devoured braille books and spent hours listening to talking books provided by the RNIB’s Talking Book Library. The problem with braille books is that they are very bulky (The New Oxford Book of English Verse is comprised of 10 braille volumes and takes up quite a bit of space on my bookshelves). In addition only a tiny percentage of books produced in print are available to readers of braille. Talking Books are wonderful but, again only a comparatively small amount of the books available to readers of print make it onto this format.
The introduction of Amazon’s keyboard Kindle has greatly enhanced the ability of the visually impaired to access the same books as their non visually impaired family and friends. By activating the Kindle’s text to speech facility it is possible to have the latest crime thriller read aloud to you.
While things are by no means perfect from the point of view of blind technology users the advent of access software and it’s incorporation into mainstream products such as Apple’s I-Pad (Voiceover) continues to enhance the lives of the visually impaired.
(For my online novel, Samantha please visit https://newauthoronline.wordpress.com/2012/12/09/samantha-part-1/. For my book, The Girl At The Bus Stop And Other Erotic Short Stories, available on Amazon in the Kindle Store please see https://newauthoronline.wordpress.com/my-books/.
I have blogged previously about my early new year’s resolution to start leaving reviews, on Amazon of the books which I purchase from the Kindle Store (please see https://newauthoronline.wordpress.com/2012/11/29/book-reviews/). I have got off to a flying start by leaving a review of a book which I recently purchased from Amazon. I was, therefore rraring to go, my fingers poised above keyboard, on receiving an e-mail from Amazon asking me to rate one of my recent purchases – that is until I read the title of the book which they wished me to review – “The Girl At The Bus Stop”, by K Morris. To explain, as the author of said book I don’t feel best placed to provide an unbiased rating/review of my writing (can’t think why)! It would have been fun to attempt to rate my own work just to see how robust Amazon’s systems are at weeding out author generated reviews/ratings, however I would have died of shame had my rating actually appeared on the site!
Why you may ask did I purchase a copy of my own book? Simple, I wished to check that “The Girl At The Bus Stop” could be read without difficulty using a Kindle.
Well the above certainly made me smile!
I am in the process of publishing my second book of short stories, “The First Time” which will be available to purchase from late December. The primary story in my collection is entitled “The First Time” and looks at why Becky, a young graduate with a first-class degree in English literature enters the world of prostitution as a professional escort. In the story Becky sees no way of clearing her credit card debt other than selling her body. She fears losing her flat and becoming homeless and, in desperation requests her friend, Julie to introduce her to Mike one of Julie’s customers.
In an article entitled “The motivation behind the rise in student prostitution” “The Angle”, a student newspaper, suggests that the increasing numbers of students entering the sex industry can not simply be laid at the door of financial hardship. The author argues that people taking out mortgages rarely turn to prostitution as an easy way of paying off the loan, so why therefore do significant numbers of students perceive escorting/prostitution as a way of making easy money? The author largely discounts financial hardship as a factor in the rise of student prostitution, rather he sees the growth in student prostitutes as stemming from the naievity of the students themselves. By the time they realise what they have let themselves in for (the provision of sexual services rather than merely providing company for lonely professionals) it is to late for them to back out of the contract.
In contrast to the above Becky understands at an intellectual level at least what escorting entails. Her friend, Julie is an escort and Becky knows that men who use the services of escort girls want a full “personal service”. However at an emotional level Becky is wholly unprepared for what awaits her when she enters her first customer’s flat.
For the article please visit http://www.theanglenews.co.uk/comment/article-c5139118fa1/the-motivation-behind-student-prostitution.html. For an extract from my forthcoming book, “The first Time” please see https://newauthoronline.wordpress.com/2012/12/02/extract-from-my-forthcoming-book-the-first-time/.
I’ve written previously regarding the difficulties I have encountered when attempting to open the epub file containing the proof of my book, “The First Time”, (see https://newauthoronline.wordpress.com/2012/12/05/doing-battle/). I was beginning to think that the fault lay with me (impossible because I am faultless and, of course modest to boot)! However I’ve since received several e-mails from recipients of my book, “The First Time” stating that they have found it impossible to open the epub file.
Fortunately my friend Jeff knows more about technology than I have had hot dinners and pointed me to the following Firefox add-on which enables the user to open and read epub files using the Firefox browser https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/epubreader/. Thanks to Jeff I’m now able to read my book and other epub files. I’d certainly recommend this free add-on!
The wordpress.com spam filter is, in my experience highly effective capturing approximately 99 percent of solicitations for fake viagra, cheap imitation watches etc. However, very occasionally it allows through a comment which should have been consigned to my spam folder. I was amused today to receive the following comment forwarded to my e-mail address by WordPress for my approval
“Do you have a spam issue on this website; I also am a blogger, and I was wanting to know your situation; we have created some nice
practices and we are looking to exchange solutions with other folks, be sure to shoot me an email if interested.”
I was tempted to respond as follows
“Thank you for your e-mail which WordPress somehow failed to consign to it’s rightful place in my spam folder never to see the light of day again! I do, on the whole find WordPress’s spam filters highly effective, however it does, on occasions allow through rubbish such as your comment which I have experienced great pleasure in consigning to my spam folder. May I respectfully suggest that you find something productive to do with your life rather than bombarding bloggers such as myself with your inane and time-wasting comments.
If I can be of further assistance please do hesitate to contact me.”
However I refrained from responding partly because I have better things to do with my life and, also because it would only encourage the company in question and other spammers to bombard me with further spam!
Rant over, K
On 3 December I wrote about the feeling of wellbeing which floods my being whenever I do battle with the great god of technology, (see https://newauthoronline.wordpress.com/2012/12/03/the-joys-of-technology/). In that post I waxed lyrical on the joys of playing that old favourite of a game, guess the password and of how the great god of technology won and prevented me from accessing the proof of my book, “The First Time” due to my inability to guess the password required to view the epub file. Well I have a confession to make, while doing battle with the epub file of “The First Time” my addled brain failed to register the fact that the document was in zip format and therefore required unzipping prior to me being able to view it’s contents. To be fair to myself I half registered this fact, however I vaguely supposed that opening the document with Adobe’s epub software would somehow magically lead to it’s unzipping. I know, I know K should be consigned to the back of the class to stand in the corner with a dunce’s cap on his head!
I’ve now installed 7-zip (a tool for unzipping files), however I’m still unable to unzip the darned thing! I’ve called in the assistance of my old friend Jeff who’s experience in computers far exceeds my own. It is a wise man who knows when the great god of technology has beaten him and so I retire blooded and beaten from the field of battle. I’m off now to lie down in a darkened room with a wet towel over my head.
As I sit at my desk, typing away on my laptop I give thanks to the great god of technology. I love the way in which one’s brain is stretched by the necessity of remembering countless passwords without which one can not access e-mails, bank accounts etc. Forgetting passwords is such fun and helps to enhance one’s physical atributes. For example the way in which I shake my fist menacingly at my poor defenseless laptop provides me with much needed exercise and has helped to strengthen my arm muscles no end!
This evening the joy of guessing passwords was brought home to me with a vengence. I have now received the proof of the manuscript for my collection of short stories, “The First Time” in epub format. In order to access the document I downloaded software from Adobe’s website which installed like a dream. Great I thought as I clicked on the epub file containing the proof of “The First Time”, soon I will be able to read over the proof of my manuscript. Alas woe is me, the great god of technology requested that I enter a password in order to open the file – oops my publisher has neglected to inform me of the password so no book have I read! Oh well tomorrow is, as they say another day and with a bit of luck I’ll be able to give the proof the once over then after I receive the elusive password!
K Morris - Poet 