“It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.”
The above quote, by Mark Twain is a favourite of mine.
Quotation Time
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Author Archives: K Morris Poet
Anyone who has done a Charity Anthology – Please urgently advise Kevin…
Thank you to Chris The Story Reading Ape for the below post. Kevin
Recollection
A girl on a crowded train. Her scent, jasmine oil fills my senses, carrying me back to yesteryear.
Your long dark hair scented with jasmine. Your perfume lingering on, engrained in pillows long after you where gone.
Sun And Rain
A sad sun contending with the rain,
The rain overpowers,
All is dull again.
It Helps If You Are Completely Bonkers
As a writer I deny, absolutely any suggestion that I am, in any sense bonkers. Now can someone pass me that ladder so I can descend, in safety from the top of Nelson’s Column!
When reading scathing reviews of an author’s work I sometimes ask myself whether the reviewer has ever expended blood, sweat and tears when writing a book. Reviewers must, of course be honest but as a poet once wrote “tread softly on my dreams”. Kevin
Vain, selfish and lazy? Speak for yourself Eric Blair aka George Orwell. Most writers I know are none of those things. These days the only people you will come across like that are certain editors and literary agents as well as some professional critics. The latter category, especially the odd one or two who write for newspapers and literary magazines here in the UK, can definitely be said to be vain and selfish. To those two unsavoury qualities I would add a few others – condescending, snobbish, scathing and vicious, particularly when it comes to one leading newspaper’s literary critic and his deep loathing of Indies. Compared to him, internet trolls are rank amateurs.
As for the rest of what Eric is quoted as saying – writing is a long exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness, he’s perfectly correct. It is. With a few…
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Disquiet By A P Bullard: Book Review
“Disquiet”, an anthology by A P Bullard and other writers was well worth the £0.99 I paid for the book in the Amazon Kindle store. While not all of the stories produced in me a feeling of disquiet, the majority of the tales had me on the edge of my seat (or bed as I finished the book in my bedroom), wondering about the fate of the characters.
The story which especially horrified me concerned a man who chooses to gouge out his eyes. The author describes with clinical precision, down to the instruments employed, how the unnamed man goes about accomplishing this gruesome task. As someone who lost the majority of my sight as a very small child due to a blood clot I find it hard to grasp why anyone would, voluntarily gouge out their own eyes. However there are psychologically disturbed people out there and the story held me spellbound (that probably is a bad choice of words but I can not, at this juncture think of a better one) with a sense of horrified fascination.
The other tale which particularly intrigued me concerns a group of 3 disreputable characters in an inn. It is the well established story of those perpetually doomed by a demonic presence to repeat an action (in this case the opening of a box) with no possibility of redemption.
For anyone who enjoys uncomfortable reads I recommend “Disquiet” which can be downloaded here (http://www.amazon.com/Disquiet-anthology-A-P-Bullard-ebook/dp/B00OQJGU0K) or here (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Disquiet-anthology-P-Bullard-ebook/dp/B00OQJGU0K/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1423812600&sr=1-2&keywords=Disquiet%3A+an+anthology).
Stop Thief!
Today, as on every working day, I went into my office in central London with my trusty guide dog, Trigger. On opening my emails I was pleased to see, in among the various pieces of work requiring my attention that a colleague had emailed around saying that, in honour of his birthday he had made a lemon drizzle cake and we (lucky people) should help ourselves.
The cake was, I am pleased to report most delicious. Having partaken of the delights of cake I emailed my colleague thanking him for it and saying that, fortunately Trigger haden’t managed to get anywhere near my tasty snack, (Trigger has been known, on occasions to relieve unwary colleagues of their lunches. He is, obviously working for Wait Watchers and performing an invaluable function by preventing my office from over eating, noble beast that he is)!
Scarcely had I pressed send on my e-mail when I heard a commotion – Trigger had helped himself to the remains of a colleague’s slice of cake and, irony of ironies the person in question was none other than the birthday boy. Oops and double oops! Fortunately my colleague was more concerned whether the cake would upset Trigger’s stomach and not at all about the loss of his tasty snack. Oh the joys of taking one’s guide dog into the office. Anyone for cake? I’m sure I had a chocolate one somewhere. Now where could it have gone …
On Short Stories, Reading and Other Ramblings
A great post about short story reading and writing.
He Who Puts His Head Into The Lion’s Mouth …
(Warning – The Review linked to below contains strong language which some may find offensive.).
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I came across Glenn Hates Books, (https://ghbooks.wordpress.com/) as a consequence of him having clicked the “like” button on several of my posts. Glenn’s site is not for the faint hearted. As the tagline makes clear it contains “brutally honest book reviews”. Anyone who visits Glenn Hates Books will find a book reviewer who pulls no punches. If Glenn believes that “a book sucks donkey balls” he will make that crystal clear in his review. It would be a brave or foolhardy author who would risk entrusting their pride and joy to the tender mercies of such a reviewer. Well I will leave it up to you to decide whether I am brave or downright foolish but, dear reader know that I screwed my courage to the sticking point and emailed a copy of my story, Samantha to Glenn with a request that he consider writing a review. Having clicked on “send” I felt rather like a man playing Russian Roulette. Would the gun go off blowing me to kingdom come or would I escape unscathed?
Why, you may well ask did I put myself through the ringer by approaching a reviewer known for his colourful language and, on occasions excoriating book reviews? The fact of the matter is that I was intrigued by Glenn’s approach to book reviewing. Like a moth to the flame I was drawn in.
I submitted my request for a review on Friday 6 February and on the evening of Monday 9 February received a helpful email from Glenn informing me that he had reviewed Samantha and providing links to the review, (https://ghbooks.wordpress.com/2015/02/09/samantha-is-a-dirty-whore/).
I am grateful to Glenn for taking the time to read and review Samantha. He is, as his site makes clear, brutally honest in his reviews, however, on a personal level I find Glenn charming and engaging. His reviews focus on books not on the author, which is as it should be.
Will I put my head into the lion’s mouth again by requesting that Glenn reviews another of my books? The jury is still out on that one!
(For a fellow author’s view on Glenn Hates Books please see http://petedeakon.com/2015/01/07/glenn-hates-my-book-and-i-love-him-for-it/. For my book, Samantha please visit http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samantha-K-Morris-ebook/dp/B00BL3CNHI
).
Update to my About page
I have updated my About page to include my most recent guest post on Chris the Story Reading Apes blog which deals with my collection of poetry and prose, Dalliance.
For my About page please go to http://newauthoronline.com/about/
For Dalliance; a collection of poetry and prose please visit: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dalliance-collection-poetry-prose-Morris-ebook/dp/B00QQVJC7E for the UK and http://www.amazon.com/Dalliance-collection-poetry-prose-Morris-ebook/dp/B00QQVJC7E for the US
